USA

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Global COVID-19 deaths surpassed 990,000 on Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The global death toll rose to 990,738, while there were more than 32.6 million cases worldwide as of 3:23 p.m. (1923 GMT), the CSSE data showed.

The United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with 7,065,019 cases and 204,249 deaths, making up more than 20 percent of the global death toll.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday that a nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought.

"The use of nuclear weapons would affect all states, meaning that all states have a responsibility to ensure that such deadly armaments are never used again and are eliminated completely from national arsenals," the secretary-general said in his message on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican National Committee is putting Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation fight front and center with voters just weeks before Election Day.

The confirmation battle will be featured in a new $10 million RNC digital ad campaign to encourage battleground state voters to return vote-by-mail ballots or go to the polls. The national party, in concert with President Donald Trump’s campaign, is planning local events and protests across the country to support Barrett’s confirmation as well.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Colleges across the country are struggling to salvage the fall semester amid skyrocketing coronavirus cases, entire dorm complexes and frat houses under quarantine, and flaring tensions with local community leaders over the spread of the disease.

NEW YORK (AP) — At a University of Maryland lab, people infected with the new coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone. They recite the alphabet and sing or just sit quietly for a half hour. Sometimes they cough.

The cone sucks up everything that comes out of their mouths and noses. It’s part of a device called “Gesundheit II” that is helping scientists study a big question: Just how does the virus that causes COVID-19 spread from one person to another?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort.

Barrett, a former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, said Saturday that she was “truly humbled” by the nomination and quickly aligned herself with Scalia’s conservative approach to the law, saying his “judicial philosophy is mine, too.”

NEW YORK, Sep 26 (APP): Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Friday he was confident that President Donald Trump will step down if he loses his reelection bid in November, dismissing concerns that the president may seek to hold on to power even if he’s voted out of office.

In an interview with MSNBC television network, the former vice president said that Trump’s efforts to sow doubt in the democratic process by raising concerns about voter fraud, particularly through mail balloting, amounted to a “typical Trump distraction.”

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Latin American leaders have appealed at the United Nations for free access to a future Covid-19 vaccine, urging major powers to share their know-how for the sake of global well-being.

Latin America has taken a heavy blow from COVID-19 with nearly nine million cases and more than 330,000 deaths, one third of the global total, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Trump administration said it would not back down from a plan to ban new US downloads of the popular video-sharing app TikTok, setting up a court showdown ahead of a Sunday deadline.

A Justice Department court filing said it opposes TikTok’s petition for an injunction to block the order from President Donald Trump, who has called the Chinese-owned social platform a national security risk.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged at the United Nations on Saturday that his country’s vaccine production capacity would be made available globally to fight the COVID-19 crisis.

“As the largest vaccine-producing country of the world, I want to give one more assurance to the global community today,” Modi said in a pre-recorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly. “India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis.”