USA

NEW YORK, Jun 25 (APP): Pakistan will do everything to promote a political settlement of the long-running conflict in Afghanistan, except the use military action against the Taliban, Prime Minister Imran Khan said in an interview with an influential American newspaper.

“I mean, we will do everything up to that. All sections of our society have decided that Pakistan will take no military action,” he said in a conversation with two New York Times journalists in a video call with the Pakistani leader.

24 June 2021; MEMO: Major United States Republican Senator James Risch is continuing to block $50 million in economic aid to Palestinians, despite promises of help by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

25 June 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) yesterday condemned the US Justice Department's seizure of 33 media websites, describing it as "piracy" against Palestinian and Arab media outlets.

25 June 2021; MEMO: A translator working for the US Department of Defence in the Pentagon has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for exposing US informants in Iraq. Mariam Thompson, an American citizen born in Lebanon, passed their names to a person affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia.

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden meets Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his former political foe, Abdullah Abdullah, on Friday to discuss Washington's support for Afghanistan as the last U.S. troops pack up after 20 years of war and government forces struggle to repel Taliban advances.

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, warned Thursday that the cessation of hostilities reached last month between Israel and Hamas remains very fragile.

In this regard, the United Nations is working closely with all concerned parties and partners, including Egypt, to solidify the cease-fire, allow the entry of urgent humanitarian assistance and stabilize the situation in Gaza, he told the Security Council in a briefing.

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Xinhua) -- As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy for the U.S. population dropped by almost two years between 2018 and 2020, with more evident declines seen in minority groups, including Black and Hispanic people, according to U.S. non-profit media organization National Public Radio (NPR).

Average life expectancy in the United States declined from about 79 years in 2018 to around 77 years by the end of 2020, NPR quoted a study published in the British Medical Journal.

Washington, Jun 24 (AP-PTI) The Biden administration is stepping up preparation for relocating tens of thousands of Afghan interpreters and others who worked with US forces during the war to other countries as their applications for US entry are processed, a senior administration official said Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in New York on Thursday because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential race.

An attorney disciplinary committee had asked the court to suspend Giuliani’s license on the grounds that he’d violated professional conduct rules as he promoted theories that the election was stolen through fraud.

Minneapolis, Jun 25 (AP-PTI) Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin learns his sentence Friday for murder in George Floyd' s death, closing a chapter in a case that sparked global outrage and a reckoning on racial disparities in America.

Chauvin, 45, faces decades in prison, with several legal experts predicting a sentence of 20 to 25 years. Though Chauvin is widely expected to appeal, he also still faces trial on federal civil rights charges, along with three other fired officers who have yet to have their state trials.