USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress Friday to quickly enact a new pandemic relief package targeting hardest-hit swaths of the economy, as lawmakers race to stand up federal aid in the face of the latest spike in coronavirus cases across much of the Sun Belt and persistent severe unemployment.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayor of Portland demanded Friday that President Donald Trump remove militarized federal agents he deployed to the city after some detained people on streets far from federal property they were sent to protect.

“Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said at a news conference.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of wrangling, the Pentagon is banning displays of the Confederate flag on military installations, in a carefully worded policy that doesn’t mention the word ban or that specific flag. The policy, laid out in a memo released Friday, was described by officials as a creative way to bar the flag’s display without openly contradicting or angering President Donald Trump, who has defended people’s rights to display it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major source of income for roughly 30 million unemployed people is set to end, threatening their ability to meet rent and pay bills and potentially undercutting the fragile economic recovery.

In March, Congress approved an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits as part of its $2 trillion relief package aimed at offsetting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. That additional payment expires next week unless it gets renewed.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Millions more children in the U.S. learned Friday that they’re unlikely to return to classrooms full time in the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic as death tolls reached new highs.

It came as many states — particularly in the Sunbelt — struggled to cope with the surge and governments worldwide tried to control fresh outbreaks. In a sign of how the virus is galloping around the globe, the World Health Organization reported nearly a quarter-million new infections in a single day.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Here are some snapshots from what President Donald Trump describes as the nation with the “best testing in the world” for the coronavirus:

In Sun Belt states where the virus is surging, lines of cars with people seeking tests snake for hours in the beating sun, often yielding results so far after the fact that they’re useless.

In Pittsburgh, adults who are afraid they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus are being asked to skip testing if they can quarantine at home for 14 days to help reduce delays and backlogs.

Washington, Jul 17 (PTI) China has been acting in contradiction to its agreements with India to change the status quo and challenge Indian troops at the border, an influential bipartisan Congressional Caucus has said and hoped that Beijing will scale back on their excessive weaponry and infrastructure at the Line of Actual Control.

The Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans on Thursday also expressed their condolences for the lives lost in the Galwan Valley.

Washington, Jul 17 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has said that he wants to do everything possible to keep peace for the people of India and China, according to his spokesperson.

Over the past several weeks, the Trump administration has come out in support of India against China.

Washington, Jul 17 (PTI) The time has come for the world to push back against the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said as he contended that the US "slept on this threat for too long."

Pompeo also said the Chinese government was aware of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus before they shared this information with the world.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 (APP): The United Nations Friday called on wealthy countries to “step up now or pay the price later”, warning that the coronavirus crisis will “wreak havoc” in developing countries.

Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, made that call, as he released an updated $10.3 billion appeal to fight pandemic that has hit 63 low-income countries.

“The pandemic and associated global recession are about to wreak havoc in fragile and low-income countries”, he said during press briefing.