USA

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Long delays in getting COVID-19 test results across the United States is undercutting their usefulness, said Director of the U.S. National Institutes for Health Francis Collins on Sunday.

"The average test delay is too long," Collins said in an interview with NBC. "And that really undercuts the value of the testing, because you do the testing to find out who's carrying the virus and then quickly get them isolated so they don't spread it around."

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed and eight others were injured in a shooting incident Sunday in Washington, D.C., police said.

The shooting occurred at 14th Street and Spring Road in the northeast part of the district, D.C. Police Chief Chief Peter Newsham said at a press briefing, adding that three men -- two with "long guns" and one with a pistol -- opened fire on a group of people in what appeared to be a targeted attack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is promising new executive action on immigration as he returns to the defining issue of his administration. But Trump has offered contradictory and confusing statements about his plans in recent days. His comments come after the Supreme Court rejected his efforts to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which protects young immigrants brought to the country as children. Trump said last month that he would quickly be filing paperwork to address the court’s concerns, but has yet to make a move.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Twitter says the hack that compromised the accounts of some of its most high-profile users targeted 130 people. The hackers were able to reset the passwords of 45 of those accounts.

The San Francisco=based company said in a blog post Saturday that for up to eight of these accounts the attackers also downloaded the account’s information through the “Your Twitter Data” tool. None of the eight were verified accounts, Twitter said, adding that it is contacting the owners of the affected accounts

(AP) --- Black children were more likely than whites to die after common surgeries, a U.S. study found, echoing evidence seen in adults.

The researchers examined national data on nearly 173,000 operations from 2012 through 2017. Appendix removal and orthopedic operations were among the most common surgeries. And while there were few deaths, the disparities were striking: 23 black youngsters died within 30 days of surgery compared with 13 whites.

The study was published Monday in Pediatrics.

(AP) --- Roger Stone, a political operative whose 40-month prison sentence was commuted this month by President Donald Trump, his longtime friend, called a Los Angeles-based Black radio host a “Negro” on the air during a contentious interview.

The exchange occurred on Saturday’s Mo’Kelly Show, whose host — Morris O’Kelly — grilled Stone on his conviction for lying to Congress, tampering with witnesses and obstructing the House investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

(AP) --- In the four months since Joe Biden effectively won the Democratic presidential nomination, he has focused on consolidating the party’s divergent and often warring factions. As the closing stretch of the campaign nears, that effort will expand to include Republicans disaffected with President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is refusing to publicly commit to accepting the results of the upcoming White House election, recalling a similar threat he made weeks before the 2016 vote, as he scoffs at polls showing him lagging behind Democrat Joe Biden. Trump says it’s too early to make such an ironclad guarantee.

“I have to see. Look ... I have to see,” Trump told moderator Chris Wallace during a wide-ranging interview on ”Fox News Sunday.” “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either.”

NEW YORK, July 19. /TASS/: A team of US academic researchers from the Mississippi State University tracked signals of mobile phones in Russia last year under the US Army-funded project, including in the area of the Russian Navy’s test range in Nyonoksa, Wall Street Journal reported in its electronic version on Saturday.

WASHINGTON, July 19. /TASS/: Charles Briggs, the Chief Petty Officer of the US Navy, is charged with transmitting an email containing classified information to an unidentified Russian national, according to the charge sheet furnished to TASS by the US Navy.