USA

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The tense standoff between demonstrators and federal police dispatched to Portland, Oregon, dragged on Thursday after the city’s mayor was tear-gassed by U.S. government agents as he made an appearance outside a federal courthouse during raucous protests.

Mayor Ted Wheeler and hundreds of others Wednesday night were objecting to the presence of federal police sent by President Donald Trump, who labeled the demonstrators as “agitators & anarchists” after Wheeler was gassed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bowing to the coronavirus threat, President Donald Trump on Thursday scrapped plans for a four-night Republican National Convention celebration in Florida that had been set to draw more than 10,000 people to a pandemic hot spot to mark his renomination.

Washington, Jul 23 (PTI) Five top trade bodies, including the US Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, have filed a lawsuit challenging the presidential proclamation suspending for the rest of the year new non-immigrant visas that include the H-1B, the most sought-after among Indian IT professionals.

United Nations, Jul 23 (PTI) World leaders will submit pre-recorded video statements for the United Nations General Assembly session in September, the 193-member organisation has decided, as heads of state and government will not be physically attending the annual gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic and the high-level session goes virtual for the first time in the UN's 75-year history.

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives, led by Democrats, passed legislation on Wednesday aimed at repealing the Trump administration's travel bans.

The National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act was passed with a 233-183 vote, largely along party lines.

However, it is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate, where Republicans have a majority.

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Senior UN officials, Nobel laureates and eminent academic experts gathered virtually on Wednesday for the launching of a new UN report and reached a consensus that new approaches must be taken while the world is grappling with the worst recession in decades due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to solve their border dispute through peaceful means.

(AP)--- Rep. Rashida Tlaib had been in Congress for a matter of hours when she was seen on video telling supporters that she and other Democrats were going to impeach President Donald Trump, using an expletive rather than Trump’s name. The room full of activists cheered, but some people back home — and in Democratic leadership — were not pleased.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will pay Pfizer nearly $2 billion for a December delivery of 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine the pharmaceutical company is developing, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Wednesday.

The U.S. could buy another 500 million doses under the agreement, Azar said.

“Now those would, of course, have to be safe and effective” and approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Azar said during an appearance on Fox News.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was the country’s “first” racist president.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s comments came during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union. When a questioner complained of racism surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and mentioned the president referring to it as the “China virus,” Biden responded by blasting Trump and “his spread of racism.”