USA: Trump valet charged in classified documents case set again for arraignment after earlier delays

MIAMI (AP) — A valet for Donald Trump accused of helping the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities is due back in a Florida court on Thursday after an earlier appearance was postponed because of a canceled flight.

Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents, is set to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Miami. That was to have happened twice before already, but he has struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida to represent him.

Pence says Trump and DeSantis do not understand broader importance of US military aid to Ukraine

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis do not grasp the broader implications of their call for limited military assistance to Ukraine, former Vice President Mike Pence told The Associated Press in Iowa Wednesday.

Study says drinking water from nearly half of US faucets contains potentially harmful chemicals

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Drinking water from nearly half of U.S. faucets likely contains “forever chemicals” that may cause cancer and other health problems, according to a government study released Wednesday.

The synthetic compounds known collectively as PFAS are contaminating drinking water to varying extents in large cities and small towns — and in private wells and public systems, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

USA: Meta takes aim at Twitter with the launch of rival app Threads

(AP) --- Meta has unveiled an app called Threads to rival Twitter, targeting users looking for an alternative to the social media platform owned — and frequently changed — by Elon Musk.

Threads is billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”

USA: Biden is heading to South Carolina to show his economic agenda is keeping even red states humming

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading to South Carolina on Thursday to make the case that economic measures he pushed through Congress despite stiff Republican opposition are helping to keep the deep red state — and others that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 — humming.

Ahead of Biden’s visit to a state that he lost by nearly 12 percentage points in 2020, White House officials argued that if Republicans had their way, South Carolina, like many other Republican-controlled states, would have lost out on billions of dollars in investments and thousands of jobs.

NATO, led by the US, plans, manages Ukraine’s military action against Russia — official

KRASNODAR, July 6. /TASS/: NATO, led by the US, coordinates Kiev’s military operations against the Russian Army, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said Thursday.

"Neo-Nazis grabbed power in Ukraine after the bloody coup, organized by the US and its satellites. Pursuing their selfish goals, the US carries out an undeclared war against Russia, using territory and population of Ukraine," he said during a meeting on national security in the Southern Federal District Thursday.

Top officials from Turkey and Sweden in fresh attempt to overcome NATO membership concerns

BRUSSELS (AP) — Senior officials from Sweden and Turkey arrived at NATO headquarters Thursday to examine Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s objections to the Nordic country joining the military alliance and to see what more, if anything, could be done to break the deadlock.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is leading the talks, which will involve the countries’ foreign ministers, intelligence chiefs and national security advisers. Top officials from Finland, which joined NATO in April after addressing Turkey’s concerns, planned to take part.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits China as part of efforts to soothe strained relations

BEIJING (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to tell Chinese officials Washington wants healthy economic competition but will defend U.S. trade curbs imposed on security grounds and express concern about Beijing’s export controls on metals used in semiconductors and solar panels, a senior Treasury official said Thursday.

USA: Mayor Suarez launches an artificial intelligence chatbot for his presidential campaign

NEW YORK (AP) — A super PAC supporting Miami Mayor Francis Suarez ‘s run for the Republican presidential nomination has launched an artificial intelligence chatbot to answer questions about him, marking yet another example of how generative AI tools are being used in 2024 presidential campaigns.

The bot unveiled Wednesday by SOS America PAC listens to a user’s questions and matches them to video answers, created with an AI-powered avatar made to look and sound like Suarez.

U.S. commits worst attacks against Venezuela in 200 years, says top lawmaker

CARACAS, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The recent U.S. administrations have launched the worst attacks against Venezuela in the past two centuries, a top Venezuelan lawmaker said Wednesday.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the 212th anniversary of Venezuela's Declaration of Independence, Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela's National Assembly, denounced the U.S. sanctions against the South American country as "crimes against humanity."

Washington has "subjected Venezuela to the worst aggression it has experienced in the last 212 years," Rodriguez said.

UAE: Iran says it had court order to seize Chevron tanker

DUBAI, July 6 (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday it had a court order to seize a tanker in Gulf waters a day earlier after it collided with an Iranian vessel, one of two tankers the U.S. Navy said it prevented Iran from commandeering.

The Richmond Voyager, a Bahamas-flagged oil tanker, had collided with an Iranian vessel and the Iranian navy had a court order to seize it, the Maritime Search and Rescue Center of Iran's Hormozgan Province told the official IRINN news agency.

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