USA

WASHINGTON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Bipartisan lawmakers pushed back at U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday after he raised the possibility of delaying the election in November.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell threw cold water on the idea directly.

"Never in the history of the country, through wars, depressions and the Civil War, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time," McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told a local TV station in response.

WASHINGTON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is expected to climb to 230,822 by November, said the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) of the University of Washington.

On July 22, the institute forecasted a total of 219,864 deaths from COVID-19 by November in the United States, reported CNN on Thursday.

The updated projection is based on the current scenario in the United States where infection cases rise and some people refuse to wear masks and practice social distancing, or other measures, said the IHME in its projection model.

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 (Xinhua) -- In response to U.S. President Donald Trump's intention to attend this year's General Assembly General Debate in person, a German diplomat said on Thursday that it makes no sense for world leaders to be physically present given the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have been looking at developments in the United States on COVID. We have been looking at the situation in New York. And we know what the high-level week means when you have 190 delegations coming into the city," said Christoph Heusgen, Germany's permanent representative to the United Nations.

CHICAGO (AP) — A carjacking suspect being led into a Chicago police station on Thursday shot three officers, who returned fire and shot him, authorities said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations is going virtual this year for the first time in its 75-year history because of the COVID-19 pandemic — except for the likely personal appearance by President Donald Trump.

“We’re hoping that President Trump will actually be speaking in person in the General Assembly,” Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday, adding that he will be “the only” leader to speak in the assembly chamber.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci returns to Capitol Hill on Friday to testify before a special House panel investigating the coronavirus pandemic. His testimony comes at a time when early progress on combating the virus seems to have been lost and uncertainty clouds the nation’s path forward.

The government’s top infectious disease expert is testifying alongside Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Admiral Brett Giroir, a Health and Human Services official and physician serving as the “testing czar.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — In shutting each other’s consulates, the United States and China have done more than strike symbolic blows in their escalating feud. They’ve also dimmed each other’s ability to observe — and to spy on — critical regions of their countries.

For the United States, the loss of the Chengdu mission in southwestern China will, among other things, cloud its view of Tibet, a region where Buddhist residents say Beijing is eroding its culture and its traditional independent streak. China says Tibet has been its territory for centuries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The entire Washington-based federal appeals court is stepping into the legal dispute over former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn as it weighs whether a judge can be forced to dismiss a case that the Justice Department no longer wants to pursue.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — New Hurricane Isaias kept on a path early Friday expected to take it to the U.S. East Coast by the weekend as it approached the Bahamas, parts of which are still recovering from the devastation of last year’s Hurricane Dorian.

Isaias had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) late Thursday and was centered about 70 miles (110 kilometers) east-southeast of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It was moving northwest at 18 mph (30 kph).

WASHINGTON (AP) — With aid expiring, the White House offered a short-term extension Thursday of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that has helped keep families and the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Democrats rejected it, saying President Donald Trump’s team failed to grasp the severity of the crisis.