USA

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Africa came under the spotlight at a special high-level dialogue held Wednesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, which was aimed at mobilizing greater support for advancing the continent's sustainable development.

The one-day event was jointly convened by the presidents of the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with the theme "The Africa We Want: Reconfirming the Development of Africa as a Priority of the United Nations System."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week rose to the highest level in more than eight months in what may be a sign that the labor market is weakening.

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 16 rose by 7,000 to 251,000, up from the previous week’s 244,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most since Nov. 13, 2021 when 265,000 Americans applied for benefits.

Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet expected the number to come in at 242,000.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The right to use contraceptives would be enshrined in law under a measure that Democrats pushed through the House on Thursday, their latest campaign-season response to concerns a conservative Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights could go further.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — On a few occasions, Sitaniel Wimbley’s mother grew manic in her front yard. When neighbors were met with screaming and cursing on their street in Natchez, Mississippi, they would dial 911.

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges Chicago police misused “unreliable” gunshot detection technology and failed to pursue other leads in investigating a grandfather from the city’s South Side and charging him with killing a neighbor.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon’s lawyer opened his defense Thursday, asking the judge for a direct acquittal, arguing that prosecutors had not proven their contempt-of-Congress case against the former adviser to then-President Donald Trump. Then the defense rested without bringing any witnesses.

Bannon lawyer Evan Corcoran said the prosecution’s case concerning Bannon’s resistance to the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena rested on the testimony of Kristin Amerling, the panel’s chief counsel and it was “clear from her testimony that the dates were in flux.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee is headed back to prime time for its eighth hearing — potentially the final time this summer that lawmakers will lay out evidence about the U.S. Capitol insurrection and President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Thursday’s hearing is expected to focus on what Trump was doing in the White House as the violence unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who is one of two members leading the hearing, said he expects it will “open people’s eyes in a big way.”

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison on a federal civil rights charge for his role in the killing of George Floyd.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Lane for his February conviction of depriving Floyd of medical care as he lay dying under Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee in May 2020.

“Mr. Lane this is a very serious offense, in which a life was lost,” Magnuson said. “The fact that you did not get up and remove Mr. Chauvin when Mr. Floyd became unconscious is a violation of the law.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is experiencing “very mild symptoms,” the White House said, as new variants of the highly contagious virus are challenging the nation’s efforts to resume normalcy after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden has begun taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 20 (APP): Billions of people are facing the greatest cost of living crisis in a generation due to rising food and energy prices amid rapid inflation and increasing debt, leaving the most vulnerable consumers in a dire situation, according to the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD.

UNCTAD’s analysis shows that a 10 per cent increase in food prices will trigger a five per cent decrease in the incomes of the poorest families, roughly equivalent to the amount those families would normally spend on healthcare.