USA

WASHINGTON, July 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Europe can do more in Libya by designating Russian military contractor Wagner Group and calling out Moscow and other countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Egypt that are violating a UN arms embargo, a senior US diplomat said.

Europeans are “proud” about their naval mission in the Mediterranean Sea, carried out to help enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya, but their maritime interdictions have been limited to Turkey, David Schenker, assistant secretary for Near East Affairs at the State Department, told a virtual think-tank event.

WASHINGTON, July 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep alive the prospect of a Palestinian state as he considers West Bank annexation, a senior official said.

Netanyahu’s government had set July 1 as the date when it could begin formally taking over Palestinian areas seized in 1967 in line with a plan outlined in January by US President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is considering banning travel to the United States by all members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday, an idea that China dismissed as absurd.

Senior officials discussing the matter had begun circulating a draft of a possible presidential order, but deliberations were at an early stage and the issue had not yet been brought to President Donald Trump, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is facing pressure from contending groups inside his party as he prepares to interview a shortlist of women for the most important hire of his political career: his running mate.

Biden, who committed to choosing a woman for the job he held for eight years under President Barack Obama, said this week he expected the background vetting process to conclude around July 24. He would then interview each finalist before making a decision, expected by early August.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress returns to Washington on Monday with Democratic and Republican leaders agreeing that they need to pass something to salve the heavy toll of the coronavirus pandemic but $2 trillion apart on what that something should be.

NEW YORK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that the federal government's "incompetence" in managing the COVID-19 crisis failed New York, which became the first epicenter of the outbreak in the United States in March.

The governor made the remarks while commenting on a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which pointed out that by the time the travel restrictions on Europe were implemented by the federal government, importation and community transmission of COVID-19 had already occurred in New York.

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Over 60 percent of U.S. voters said they trust top U.S. infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci but not U.S. President Donald Trump when it comes to information on COVID-19, a new poll has found.

According to the Quinnipiac University poll, 67 percent of voters do not trust information by Trump on COVID-19 while 30 percent do. On the contrary, 65 percent say they trust Fauci while 26 percent distrust the information he offers.

NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States reported a record high of more than 77,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 3,560,364, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, the death toll rose by 974, taking the country's total to 138,201.

The state of Florida, which has emerged as the epicenter of the outbreak, reported a record 156 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday with close to 14,000 new cases.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Transported in the backseat of a blacked-out Plymouth sedan was the culmination of years of feverish work — a hefty plutonium core that would soon be used to trigger the world’s first atomic explosion.

Within days of being taken in 1945 from a top secret installation in the mountains of northern New Mexico to a desert outpost more than 200 miles away, the core and other components were assembled for what was code-named the Trinity test.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has become overly reliant on Chinese goods and services, including face masks, medical gowns and other protective equipment designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday as he also cautioned American business leaders against promoting policies favorable to Beijing.