North America

NEW YORK, Aug 9 (APP): Pakistan will stand by the Kashmiri people with it’s active diplomatic and political support as they resist India’s “illegal annexation” of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, ambassador Maleeha Lodhi has said.

“The Kashmiris are not alone and we, and I, here at the UN, am going to be the voice of the Kashmiris,” the Pakistani envoy said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.

09 August 2019; DW: The US says it might pull out some troops from Germany amid rifts over a naval mission in the Persian Gulf and defense spending. The remarks from the US ambassador come ahead of two presidential trips to Europe.

The United States is considering withdrawing some of the US troops stationed in Germany, with Poland mooted as a possible new deployment, the US ambassador to Germany has said.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Thursday warned the Trump administration that mistakes in trade policy could turn U.S. economic slowdown into recession.

"Economic expansions don't end on their own. They almost always end due to policy mistakes. Mr. Trump's willy-nilly trade offensive could be the mistake that turns a slowdown into the Navarro recession," The WSJ wrote in an editorial titled "A Navarro Recession," referring to White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday once again called on India and Pakistan to exercise "maximum restraint" amid tensions over Kashmir.

"The secretary-general has been following the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with concern and makes an appeal for maximum restraint," according to a statement issued by the UN chief's spokesman.

"The position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the Charter of the United Nations and applicable Security Council resolutions," it said.

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The US holds off the decision about licenses for US companies to restart business with Huawei Technologies Co after Beijing said it was halting purchases of US farming goods, according to people familiar with the matter.

9 Aug 2019; MEMO: US President Donald Trump on Thursday said no one is authorized to speak to Iran on behalf of the United States, and he accused French President Emmanuel Macron of sending “mixed signals” to Tehran over possible talks, Reuters reports.

“I know Emmanuel means well, as do all others, but nobody speaks for the United States but the United States itself,” Trump said in a series of tweets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday named Joseph Maguire, the nation’s top counterterrorism official, as acting national intelligence director, part of a leadership shake-up at the agency that oversees 17 U.S. spy agencies.

Maguire will become acting director on Aug. 15, the same day that National Intelligence Director Dan Coats’ resignation takes effect. It’s also the same day that deputy national intelligence director Sue Gordon will be walking out the door. Democrats accused Trump of pushing out two dedicated intelligence professionals.

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — The Cameroonian men who share 10 mattresses on the floor of a third-floor apartment above a barber shop walk every morning to the busiest U.S. border crossing with Mexico, hoping against all odds that it will be their lucky day to claim asylum in the United States. Their unlikely bet is that a sympathetic Mexican official will somehow find a spot for them.

NEW YORK (AP) — Now is the summer (vacation) of the president’s discontent.

As Donald Trump prepares to leave Friday for his annual August holiday at his lush New Jersey golf club, he’s confronting a storm of crises, at home and abroad, that could set the course for his upcoming re-election bid.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock opened the Iowa State Fair’s 2020 presidential blitz on Thursday by blistering President Donald Trump and promising to push new gun restrictions.

“I believe everything the president’s said and done encourages white supremacists,” Biden said as Trump continued to take criticism for his handling of back-to-back mass shootings. One of the shooters is believed to have written a racist screed echoing some of Trump’s incendiary language about immigrants.