USA

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Humanitarians' top priorities are allowing civilians to leave areas under fire in Ukraine and getting desperately needed aid to these areas, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Monday.

Together with Catherine Russell, head of the UN Children's Fund, Griffiths briefed the council on how the UN and partners are responding to rising needs since the Russian military operation began.

Griffiths, also the UN humanitarian coordinator, outlined three immediate humanitarian priorities.

Washington, Mar 8 (PTI) As part of its efforts to address the global supply chain crisis, the Joe Biden administration plans to collaborate with India on building resilient supply chains and promote a transparent rules-based trading system for market economies and democracies, the US Trade Representative has told Congress.

Washington, Mar 8 (PTI) Religious discrimination and hate crime against the Sikh community in the United States has increased in recent years, an eminent human rights expert has told the lawmakers urging the administration and the US Congress to take steps to end this.

Congress must take action, Amrith Kaur Aakre told members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties during a recent Congressional hearing on Discrimination and Civil Right.

Aakre is legal director of the Sikh Coalition.

United Nations, Mar 8 (AP) The United States and 10 other countries on Monday condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch and urged the UN Security Council to respond, saying its inaction erodes the credibility of the UN's most powerful body and undermines global efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will permanently shut down the Navy’s massive fuel tank facility in Hawaii that leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbor’s tap water, and will remove all the fuel, the Pentagon said Monday.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the decision by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is based on a new Pentagon assessment, but also is in line with an order from Hawaii’s Department of Health to drain fuel from the tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — One teenager was killed and two others were critically wounded after gunfire that appeared to come from a passing vehicle struck them outside an Iowa school, authorities said.

Des Moines police said in a news release Monday that potential suspects have been detained in the shooting on the grounds of East High School, near Des Moines’ downtown, about a half mile, from the Capitol. No charges were immediately filed.

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. judge was set Tuesday to question one of the jurors who convicted the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of helping the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

Maxwell’s lawyers say the verdict should be thrown out over the juror’s apparent failure to disclose before the trial began that he’d been a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

U.S. Judge Alison J. Nathan intends to ask the juror why he failed to note his personal history on a questionnaire during the jury selection process.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a victory for Democrats, the Supreme Court has turned away efforts from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to block state court-ordered congressional districting plans.

In separate orders late Monday, the justices are allowing maps selected by each state’s Supreme Court to be in effect for the 2022 elections. Those maps are more favorable to Democrats than the ones drawn by the states’ legislatures.

In North Carolina, the map most likely will give Democrats an additional House seat in 2023.

NEW YORK, March 6. /TASS/: Netflix, an American subscription streaming service and production company, suspends its service in Russia over the developments in Ukraine, the Variety magazine said on Sunday, citing a company representative.

"Given the circumstances on the ground, we have decided to suspend our service in Russia," a spokesperson for Netflix was quoted as saying.

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Unable to assure global peace, the UN Security Council is consigned to a watchdog role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with little else to do but set more urgent sessions this week on the crisis.

  After five meetings since Russia’s invasion of its eastern European neighbor on Feb 24, the 15-member council will gather again on Monday for two sessions on humanitarian aid — one public and one behind closed doors.