USA

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The United States reached its latest heartbreaking pandemic milestone Friday, eclipsing 700,000 deaths from COVID-19 just as the surge from the delta variant is starting to slow down and give overwhelmed hospitals some relief.

It took 3 ½ months for the U.S. to go from 600,000 to 700,000 deaths, driven by the variant’s rampant spread through unvaccinated Americans. The death toll is larger than the population of Boston.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 01 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed “shock” after the Ethiopian government announced Thursday the expulsion of seven senior UN humanitarian officials working in the strife-torn country.

“In Ethiopia, the UN is delivering lifesaving aid, including food, medicine, water, and sanitation supplies, to people in desperate need,” the UN chief said in a statement. “I have full confidence in the UN staff who are in Ethiopia doing this work.”

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 01 (APP): Marking the 74th anniversary of Pakistan’s membership of the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram has said that Pakistan remains committed to the UN Charter, and would work towards enabling the world body achieve its full potential and promise.”

Pakistan joined the United Nations on 30 September 1947, just over a month after its independence.

NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council will privately discuss on Friday a decision by Ethiopia to expel seven senior U.N. officials, diplomats said, as malnutrition rates rise and famine looms in the country's war-torn northern region of Tigray.

The United States, Britain, Ireland, Estonia, France and Norway, plan to raise the issue during a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body, but diplomats say any strong action is unlikely as Russia and China have long made clear they believe the conflict is an internal affair for Ethiopia.

WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Something unexpected is happening at U.S. military bases hosting Afghan evacuees: Many hundreds of them are simply leaving before receiving U.S. resettlement services, two sources familiar with the data told Reuters.

The number of "independent departures," which top 700 and could be higher, has not been previously reported. But the phenomenon is raising alarms among immigration advocates concerned about the risks to Afghans who give up on what is now an open-ended, complex and completely voluntary resettlement process.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. solar developers complained that greater tariffs could derail the Biden administration's green-energy goals and lead to large layoffs among U.S. panel installers, according to an article published by the Washington Post Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Drugmaker Merck said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use.

If cleared, the drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.

30 Sep 2021; MEMO: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said today that he "was shocked" at the expulsion of seven senior UN officials by Ethiopia for "meddling in internal affairs", Anadolu Agency reports.

The UN chief said all UN humanitarian operations are guided by the core principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence.

30 Sep 2021; MEMO: The United States has no plans to "normalise or upgrade" diplomatic relations with the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and also does not encourage others to do so, a State Department spokesperson said yesterday.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 22-year-old white supremacist was denied a chance to address a courtroom before a judge sentenced him Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for bursting into a Southern California synagogue on the last day of Passover in 2019 with a semiautomatic rifle, killing one worshipper and wounding three others.