USA

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The General Debate of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 75) on Tuesday lowered its curtain at the UN headquarters in New York on a positive note with the vast majority of world leaders and national representatives voicing strong support for multilateralism and the United Nations.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday halted major fee increases for citizenship and other immigration benefits three days before they were to take effect, saying the last two chiefs of the Homeland Security Department were likely appointed illegally.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White found Kevin McAleenan improperly leapfrogged to acting secretary when Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019. The judge said McAleenan, as Customs and Border Protection commissioner, was seventh in line to assume the acting role under rules of succession at the time.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — This year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting began with calls for multilateralism and cooperation — a declaration that the urgency for countries to unite “has rarely been greater.” It concluded with a parade of divisive grievances that echoed when the final gavel fell.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last week, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina noted a milestone: the 25th anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference that produced a global roadmap for gender equality and a ringing rallying cry that became part of the event’s official declaration: “Women’s rights are human rights.”

The international community has “come a long way to ensure gender equality” since then, Hasina said, but “we need to strengthen our resolve and mutual cooperation.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn told a judge Tuesday that she recently updated President Donald Trump on the case and asked him not to issue a pardon for her client.

NAPA, Calif. (AP) — Will Abrams and his family packed their pickup truck with laptops, clothes, sleeping bags and a tent and quickly left their rental home in California’s wine country after seeing flames on a hill about a quarter-mile away Monday morning. It was their third hurried fire evacuation in as many years.

(AP) --- After preying heavily on the elderly in the spring, the coronavirus is increasingly infecting American children and teens in a trend authorities say appears fueled by school reopenings and the resumption of sports, playdates and other activities.

Children of all ages now make up 10% of all U.S cases, up from 2% in April, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported Tuesday. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the incidence of COVID-19 in school-age children began rising in early September as many youngsters returned to their classrooms.

(AP) --- President Donald Trump on Tuesday didn’t clearly condemn white supremacist groups and their role in violence in some American cities this summer, branding it solely a “left-wing” problem and telling one far-right extremist group to “stand back and stand by.”

“Almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing,” said Trump, whose exchange with Democrat Joe Biden left the extremist group Proud Boys celebrating what some of its members saw as tacit approval.

CLEVELAND (AP) — The first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos Tuesday night as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry — and personal — jabs that sometimes overshadowed the sharply different visions each man has for a nation facing historic crises.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 29 (APP): With over one million lives having succumbed to coronavirus globally, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that while the “agonizing milestone” is a “mind-numbing figure”, the world must never lose sight of each and every individual life.

“They were fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues,” he said in a statement on Monday night.