USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — When New York Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones was at the White House for the signing of the proclamation making Juneteenth a national holiday last week, he told President Joe Biden their party needed him more involved in passing voting legislation on the Hill.

In response? Biden “just sort of stared at me,” Jones said, describing an “awkward silence” that passed between the two.

WASHINGTON, Jun 22 (APP): Pakistan is ready to be a partner for peace in Afghanistan with the United States, but will not allow US military bases on its soil, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said in an opinion piece published in a leading American newspaper on Tuesday.

“We simply cannot afford this. We have already paid too heavy a price,” the Pakistani leader wrote in The Washington Post ahead of US President Joe Biden meeting with the top Afghan leaders at the White House later this week.

UNITED NATIONS, June 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Violence against children in war-torn countries soared in 2020, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an annual United Nations report.
 
Child abductions increased 90 percent while rape and sexual abuse of children rose 70 percent compared to the previous year, said the report, signed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
 
“The overall number of grave violations remained alarmingly high at 26,425,” the report said.
 

22 June 2021; MEMO: Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is calling on members of Congress to interrogate Egypt's intelligence chief about reports that Cairo was involved in the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Washington, Jun 22 (PTI) A federal US court is all set to hold on Thursday an in-person extradition hearing of Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, who is sought for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

A team of officials from India is believed to have arrived in the US for the proceedings that will take place in a federal court in Los Angeles.

WASHINGTON, June 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose risks to the U.S. economic outlook as the pace of vaccinations has slowed.

"Progress on vaccinations has limited the spread of COVID-19 and will likely continue to reduce the effects of the public health crisis on the economy," Powell said in written testimony released Monday afternoon on the Fed's website, which was prepared for a Tuesday hearing before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

UNITED NATIONS, June 21 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on all stakeholders to ramp up action toward Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) -- affordable and clean energy.

"We are running far behind in the race against time to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 by 2030, and net-zero emissions by mid-century. Achieving universal energy access is crucial for delivering on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," he said in a video message to the opening of the Ministerial Thematic Forums of the High-level Dialogue on Energy.

WASHINGTON, June 21 (Xinhua) -- While the White House claimed milestone of administering over 300 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in the first 150 days since U.S. President Joe Biden took office, the highly contagious Delta variant continues threatening the country, especially in states with the lowest vaccination numbers.

About 45.1 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 53.3 percent of the population has received at least one shot as of Sunday, according to latest data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

NEW YORK, June 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. ban on Chinese makers of surveillance cameras and other hardware is diverting focus from the future and diminishing America's ability to remain a global technology leader, said an opinion piece published on Bloomberg's website.

Chinese companies "are not standing still," Anjani Trivedi, a columnist with Bloomberg, written in the article published by Bloomberg on Saturday.

"They are developing even more futuristic technologies that will leave American competitors scrambling," it added.

ARVADA, Colo. (AP) — A gunman is believed to have shot and killed an officer and another person in a shopping district in a Denver suburb Monday before being fatally shot by police, authorities said.