North America

19 July 2019; DW: A US scientific agency has reported record-breaking temperatures in several regions across the globe, including Europe. Scientists have warned of the destabilizing effect of carbon emissions on Earth's climate.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said June 2019 was the hottest June in nearly 140 years.

The data confirms earlier reports from the EU's satellite agency that Europe's average temperature this year was 2 degrees Celsius hotter than normal.

19 July 2019; DW: US aircraft giant Boeing has warned that it faces spiraling costs and plummeting revenue after the global grounding of its 737 Max passenger jets. The airline is keen to return the aircraft to service in the autumn.

19 July 2019; DW: Washington, which usually refrains from criticizing human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, has called for the release of blogger Raif Badawi. The writer was whipped and sentenced to prison for "insulting Islam."

UNITED NATIONS, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The leadership of the UN on Thursday called for actions on hate speech on the occasion of the Nelson Mandela International Day.

To honor his legacy, the UN held a meeting on the observance of the annual Nelson Mandela International Day.

In her opening remarks, UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces called on the international community to increase efforts to combat racism and hate speech.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some are moving factories out of China. Others are strategically redesigning products. Some are seeking loopholes in trade law or even mislabeling where their goods originate — all with the goal of evading President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on goods from China.

But most of the companies that stand to be hurt by Trump’s tariffs are hunkering down and waiting — waiting because they don’t know when, whether or how his yearlong trade war with China will end or which other countries the president might target next.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump once saw a country that had lost its greatness — its cities wracked with crime, its borders a pathetic sieve, its leadership corrupt, its standing in the world a joke. “The American dream,” he said, “is dead.”

In contrast he praised the fruits of communist leadership. “China, you go there now, roads, bridges, schools, you never saw anything like it,” he marveled. “I love China,” he went on. The U.S.A.? “We’re dying. We’re dying. ... We’ve got nothing.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats approved legislation Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, to $15 an hour, transforming an issue that once splintered the party into a benchmark for the 2020 election.

Even though the bill has little chance of passing the Republican-led Senate, or being signed into law by President Donald Trump, the outcome pushes the phased-in rate to the forefront as the new standard, one already in place at some leading U.S. corporations.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A former University of Illinois doctoral student was spared the death penalty Thursday and sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and killing a 26-year-old scholar from China. Her parents, disappointed he was not sentenced to death, publicly begged for the killer to reveal where her remains are so they can be returned home.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will nominate lawyer Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to be his new labor secretary.

Trump tweeted the news Thursday evening, less than a week after his previous secretary, Alexander Acosta, resigned amid renewed criticism of his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted earlier this month for sexually abusing underage girls.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Joe Biden was at a soul food restaurant in Los Angeles on Thursday when he blasted President Donald Trump’s “racist” taunts at a rally the night before.

“This is about dividing the country,” the early Democratic front-runner, who has been criticized for his own handling of race , told reporters. “This is about dividing and raising the issue of racism across the country because that’s his base, that’s what he’s pushing.”

But Michael Fisher, an African American pastor from Compton who attended the event, warned Democrats to ignore Trump.