USA

WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has been widely denounced by domestic media for his egregious performance in office, with The New York Times calling him “the worst secretary of state in American history, without a single diplomatic achievement.”

WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Former U.S. President, Barack Obama, delivered an eulogy for the late U.S. congressman, John Lewis’ funeral on Thursday, warning that the voting rights, the late civil rights icon championed, are threatened, heading into the 2020 election.

Washington, Aug 1 (AP/PTI) The Trump administration took new aim at China on Friday by imposing sanctions on a major paramilitary organization in the country's western Xinjiang region and its commander for alleged human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minorities.

The State and Treasury departments announced the penalties as the White House denounced authorities in Hong Kong for postponing local government elections ostensibly because of the coronavirus pandemic.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 31 (APP): Pakistan, in an obvious reference to India, told a UN panel Thursday that a deliberate campaign of hatred in the region was targeting adherents of a particular religious group that led to state-sponsored violence against them and stepped up attacks on their places of worship.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 31 (APP): Young people “are not invincible”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has stressed, warning of growing evidence that patients with mild coronavirus disease can have long-term health issues. “Evidence suggests that spikes in cases in some countries are being driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the northern hemisphere summer,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing in Geneva on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans and Democrats clashed about whether the Trump administration had a national strategy to respond to the coronavirus pandemic at the start of a hearing featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious disease expert.

Fauci’s testimony comes at the end of a month when U.S. coronavirus deaths rose by almost 25,000 and cases doubled in at least 18 states during the month, according to a Reuters tally, dealing a crushing blow to hopes of quickly reopening the economy.

Washington, Jul 30 (AP/PTI) President Donald Trump is for the first time floating a delay to November's presidential election, as he makes unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.

The dates of federal elections the Tuesday after the first Monday in November are enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the Jan. 20, 2021 presidential inauguration.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese government-linked hackers targeted biotech company Moderna Inc, a U.S.-based coronavirus vaccine research developer, this year in a bid to steal data, according to a U.S. security official tracking Chinese hacking.

China on Friday rejected the accusation that hackers linked to it had targeted Moderna.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department made public an indictment of two Chinese nationals accused of spying on the United States, including three unnamed U.S.-based targets involved in medical research to fight the novel coronavirus.

(Reuters) - Oil prices are set for a slow crawl upwards this year as the gradual easing of coronavirus-led restrictions buoy demand, although a second COVID-19 wave could slow the pace of recovery, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

The survey of 43 analysts and economists forecast benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 to average $41.50 a barrel in 2020, up slightly from the $40.41 consensus in last month’s survey and compared with around $42 average for the benchmark thus far this year. It is expected to average $49.85 in 2021.

WASHINGTON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- NASA launched its Mars rover Perseverance Thursday morning in a bid to search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

The rover lifted off at 7:50 a.m. EDT (1150 GMT) on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the U.S. state of Florida.

NASA confirmed the separation of the rover from the rocket about one hour following the launch.