USA

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on Saturday, called for a New Social Contract and a New Global Deal to address inequality across the world.

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Quest Diagnostics that allows pool samples from up to four individuals to test for COVID-19.

The Quest test is the first COVID-19 diagnostic test to be authorized for use with pooled samples.

Sample pooling is an important public health tool because it allows for more people to be tested quickly using fewer testing resources, said FDA.

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- This week marked five years since the signing of the Iran nuclear deal. Now, in the lead-up to November's U.S. presidential elections, Washington's Iran policy is at a crossroads.

If U.S. President Donald Trump is re-elected, U.S. policy is likely to continue in the same direction. But if contender Joe Biden clinches the White House, Washington is likely to take a softer approach, including the possibility of rejoining the nuclear deal from which Trump has withdrawn, experts said.

TRUMP'S IRAN POLICY

NEW YORK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Global COVID-19 deaths surpassed 600,000 on Saturday, reaching 600,435 as of 7:34 p.m. local time (2334 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, the total COVID-19 cases around the world rose to 14,210,040, according to the CSSE.

The global death toll briefly topped 600,000 Friday night local time on the CSSE tally, but was then fixed to below the mark earlier Saturday. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — It stands as the biggest economic rescue in U.S. history, the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill swiftly approved by Congress in the spring. And it’s painfully clear now, as the pandemic worsens, it was only the start.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s attorney general is seeking an order to stop federal agents from arresting people in Portland as the city continues to be convulsed by nightly protests that have gone on for seven weeks and have now pitted local officials against the Trump administration.

Federal agents, some wearing camouflage and some wearing dark Homeland Security uniforms, used tear gas at least twice to break up crowds late Friday night, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

NEW YORK (AP) — A “Black Lives Matter” mural painted on the street in front of President Donald Trump’s namesake New York City tower has quickly become a target for vandalism, defaced with bucketfuls of paint three times in less than a week.

In the latest incident, two women were arrested around 3 p.m. Saturday after police said they poured black paint on the block-long mural outside Trump Tower on Manhattan’s chic Fifth Avenue.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Even if it weren’t for her disability and fear of catching COVID-19, Delinda Bryant said getting the necessary postage to cast a ballot this year will be a struggle.

Bryant, 63, doesn’t have $10 for a book of stamps, a printer to make them at home or a working car.

“My car needs its transmission fixed, but my utilities are so high I can’t afford it,” the south Georgia woman said in testimony for a federal voting rights lawsuit. “Ten dollars for a book of stamps is a hardship.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have tried to make it clear: Given the chance, they would push through a Supreme Court nominee should a vacancy occur before Election Day.

The issue has taken on new immediacy with the disclosure Friday that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is receiving chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer after four earlier bouts with the disease. The 87-year-old liberal, who apologized in 2016 for her pointed public criticism of Trump during his first campaign, says she has no plans to retire.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the hours after the death of American civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to retweet old missives about Democratic rival Joe Biden and lash out at his former national security adviser and his niece for writing tell-all books about him.

Trump then headed to his golf course in northern Virginia with a political confidant, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, for a nearly four-hour outing.