USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Calling Donald H. Rumsfeld energetic was like calling the Pacific wide. When others would rest, he would run. While others sat, he stood. But try as he might, at the pinnacle of his career as defense secretary he could not outmaneuver the ruinous politics of the Iraq war.

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday met with advisers and experts on voting rights after he vowed to further address the issue in wake of Democratic defeat in the Senate on a major bid for related reforms, according to a White House readout released Tuesday.

The group "discussed anti-voter legislation that has been proposed or recently passed by state legislatures, legislation pending before Congress, and recent actions taken by the Department of Justice to protect the right to vote," the White House said in the statement.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At the invitation of Donald Trump, Indiana Rep. Jim Banks recently led a small group of House Republicans to the former president’s New Jersey golf club, where they dined on beef tenderloin, posed for photos and briefed him on strategy for the 2022 midterm elections.

Banks tweeted a picture of himself and Trump grinning widely while flashing a thumbs-up after the session in June. “It was entirely focused on the future of the Republican Party,” he said.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas inmate faces execution on Wednesday after killing his pregnant wife, 5-year-old daughter and father-in-law more than a decade ago in what prosecutors called a brutal and senseless attack.

Authorities say John Hummel stabbed his wife, Joy Hummel, more than thirty times in December 2009. He then used a baseball bat to beat to death his daughter, Jodi Hummel, and his 57-year-old father-in-law, Clyde Bedford, who used a wheelchair. He then set their home on fire in Kennedale, a Fort Worth suburb.

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — President Joe Biden declared America urgently needs a “generational investment” in its infrastructure, as he looks to sell voters on the economic benefits of the $973 billion bipartisan package that still faces an uncertain future in Congress.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — About a dozen deaths in Washington and Oregon may be tied to an intense heat wave that brought scorching temperatures to the Northwest and caused one power utility to impose rolling blackouts amid heavy demand.

The dangerous weather that gave Seattle and Portland consecutive days of record high temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius) eased in those cities on Tuesday. But inland Spokane, towns in eastern Oregon and cities in Idaho saw temperatures spike.

(AP) --- Weeks before a Florida condo building collapsed, the president of its board wrote that structural problems identified in a 2018 inspection had “gotten significantly worse” and owners needed to pay a hefty price to get them fixed.

The April 9 “Dear Neighbors” letter from Champlain Towers South Condominium President Jean Wodnicki hinted at an ongoing debate over the repairs and a reluctance by some condo owners to pay for major work that would cost at least $15.5 million.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 29 (APP): Migrants smuggled across borders are often subjected to extreme violence, torture, rape and kidnapping, whether in transit or in captivity, but authorities take little action to address these offences, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report published on Monday.

The study focusses on transit routes in West and North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and Central America. It also examines the differing types of violence inflicted on men and women, and presents factors and motivations behind abuse committed during smuggling operations.

WASHINGTON, June 29 (NNN-PTI) — The US has announced an additional USD 41 million assistance to help India respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen the country’s preparedness for the future health emergencies, taking the total aid to more than USD 200 million.  

   In April and May, India struggled with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 300,000 daily new cases. Hospitals were reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's latest strikes against Iran-backed militia in Syria and Iraq were not the first nor likely the last of his young presidency.

For some of Biden's fellow Democrats, the crucial question is: does the pattern of attacks and counter-attacks amount to an undeclared conflict?

If it does, they say, there is a risk that the United States could stumble into a direct war with Iran without the involvement of Congress, an issue that is becoming more politically fraught after two decades of "forever wars."