USA

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 (APP): The World Health Organization (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said he expected the number of coronavirus cases around the world, now at about 9.1 million, to reach 10 million next week.

Tedros also told a virtual news briefing in Geneva he backed Saudi Arabia’s decision to ban pilgrims from abroad from attending the annual Hajj pilgrimage to help limit the spread of the deadly disease.

LOS ANGELES, June 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. state of California reported 7,149 new cases of COVID-19 over a 24-hour span on Wednesday, shattering the daily record for new infections for a second straight day.

The previous highest single-day jump was reported on Tuesday when the most populous state in the United states saw additional 5,019 cases. California saw a 69 percent increase in new cases in just two days as the state is moving forward with its reopening plans.

Data from the California State Health Department showed the state has 190,222 confirmed cases to date.

WASHINGTON, June 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States sanctioned five Iranian ship captains who delivered oil to Venezuela, as Washington ratcheted up pressure against President Nicolas Maduro, whose government it considers illegitimate.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Iranian-flagged oil tankers, which delivered some 1.5 million barrels of gasoline and oil to Venezuela in recent weeks, had been placed on the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklist.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to seek to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran if the U.N. Security Council does not approve a resolution that would indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Tehran, which is set to expire in October.

Pompeo told a news conference at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday that without extending the arms embargo, “Iran will be able to purchase advanced weapons systems and become an arms dealer of choice for terrorists and rogue regimes all throughout the world. This is unacceptable.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund has sharply lowered its forecast for global growth this year because it envisions far more severe economic damage from the coronavirus than it did just two months ago.

The IMF predicts that the global economy will shrink 4.9% this year, significantly worse than the 3% drop it had estimated in its previous report in April. The IMF said that the global economic damage from the recession will be worse than from any other downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Flicking a dismissive jab at President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a plan Wednesday to expand “Obamacare,” even as Trump’s administration is about to file arguments in a Supreme Court case to strike it down.

Pelosi announced an upcoming floor vote on her measure, setting up a debate that will juxtapose the Democrats’ top policy issue, Trump’s unrelenting efforts to dismantle Obama’s legacy, and the untamed coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that some of the 10,000 American troops he’s pulling out of Germany will be moved to Poland on NATO’s eastern flank against Russian aggression.

“We’re going to be reducing our forces in Germany,” Trump said in the Rose Garden while standing alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda. “Some will be coming home and some will be going to other places, but Poland would be one of those other places in Europe.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s governor activated the National Guard on Wednesday to protect state properties after a night of violence that included the toppling of two statues outside the state Capitol, one of which commemorated an abolitionist Civil War hero.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, turning back efforts by a judge to scrutinize the Justice Department’s extraordinary decision to drop the prosecution.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service’s famous motto — “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers” — is being tested like never before, by challenges that go well beyond the weather.

Its finances have been devastated by the coronavirus. The Trump administration may attach big strings to federal bailouts.