USA

(AP) --- President Donald Trump launched an all-out effort pressing state and local officials to reopen schools this fall, arguing that some are keeping schools closed not because of the risks from the coronavirus pandemic but for political reasons.

“They think it’s going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed,” Trump said Tuesday at a White House discussion on school plans for the fall. “No way. We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.”

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is wielding America’s racial tensions as a reelection weapon, fiercely denouncing the racial justice movement on a near-daily basis with language stoking white resentment and aiming to drive his supporters to the polls.

The incendiary discourse is alarming many in his own party and running contrary to the advice of some in his inner circle, who believe it risks alienating independent and suburban voters. It’s a pattern that harks back to cultural divisions Trump similarly exploited in his victorious 2016 campaign.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 07 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged countries to prevent terror groups from exploiting fragilities caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is too early to fully assess the implications of COVID-19 on the terrorism landscape. But we know that ISIL, al-Qaeda, their regional affiliates – as well as neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups – seek to exploit divisions, local conflicts, governance failures and grievances to advance their objectives,” he said at the opening of the virtual Counter-Terrorism week on Monday.

THE UNITED NATIONS, July 7. /TASS/: China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun deposited the instrument of China’s accession to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the country’s diplomatic mission said in a statement on Monday.

"On July 6, Ambassador Zhang Jun handed over a document on China’s accession to the arms trade treaty to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres," the diplomatic mission said. The treaty will enter into force in China 90 days after this document is sent.

Miami, Jul 7 (AP/PTI) Hospitals rapidly approached capacity in Florida and Texas, and the Miami area closed restaurants again Monday because of the surging coronavirus, as the US emerged from a Fourth of July weekend of picnics, pool parties and beach outings that health officials fear could fuel the rapidly worsening outbreak.

(Reuters) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the United States is “certainly looking at” banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok, suggesting it shared information with the Chinese government, a charge it denied.

“I don’t want to get out in front of the President (Donald Trump), but it’s something we’re looking at,” Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News.

Washington, Jul 7 (AP/PTI) As much as USD 273 million in federal coronavirus aid was awarded to more than 100 companies that are owned or operated by major donors to President Donald Trump's election efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.

Many were among the first to be approved for a loan in early April, when the administration was struggling to launch the lending programme. And only eight businesses had to wait until early May before securing the aid, according to the AP's review of data released Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A high-profile pandemic aid program protected about 51.1 million American jobs, the Trump administration said on Monday, as it revealed how $521.4 billion in taxpayer cash was injected into small businesses but also into the pockets of the rich and famous.

The data on the small business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) seemed to confirm worries among Democrats and watchdog groups that in addition to mom-and-pop shops, the funds went to well-heeled and politically-connected companies, some of which were approved for between $5 million and $10 million.

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious-diseases expert, warned on Monday "the current state is really not good."

"We had been in a situation [where] we were averaging about 20,000 new cases a day," said Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s June began with his Bible-clutching photo op outside a church after authorities used chemicals and batons to scatter peaceful demonstrators. It never got less jarring or divisive.

By the time it ended, he was downplaying a coronavirus pandemic upsurge that was forcing Western and Southern states to throttle back their partial reopening of businesses. And Republican strategists already straining to retain Senate control in November’s elections were conceding that Trump’s performance could make it harder to defend their majority.