USA

NEW YORK, June 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States could surpass 150,000, President Donald Trump said.

“It could get up to 150,” Trump said in an interview with the cable television channel Spectrum News. “It could go beyond that.

“But we would have lost two million to four million lives (without mitigation),” he said.

WASHINGTON, June 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump says he did not sanction Chinese officials further over the detention of Muslims in Xinjiang as he was in the “middle of a trade deal”.

Trump told the Axios news site that achieving a “great” deal meant he could not impose “additional sanctions”.

China has held about a million Uighurs and other ethnic groups in camps in Xinjiang for indoctrination and punishment but denies mistreating them.

(Reuters) - The United States is planning to re-impose tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada, Bloomberg reported late on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

If Canada declines to impose export restrictions, the United States will announce on Friday the re-imposition of 10% tariffs on aluminum from the country, the report said.

The tariffs would then be implemented by July 1, the report added, which is also when a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement is expected to take effect.

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. COVID-19 deaths surpassed 120,000 on Monday with nearly 2.3 million infections, while new cases continue to increase across the country over three months into the pandemic.

A total of 2,286,457 cases were reported in the country with the fatalities reaching 120,036 as of 12:04 p.m. (1604 GMT) on Monday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day before Geoffrey S. Berman was axed from his job as head of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, he refused to sign onto a letter crafted by senior officials in Washington lambasting New York’s mayor for putting COVID-19 restrictions on religious gatherings.

Berman’s refusal didn’t directly contribute to his ouster. But it was another example of the ways in which he appeared to run afoul of Attorney General William Barr and other high-ranking officials at the Justice Department.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When he first ran for office in 1994, they scrawled the N-word on his lawn signs. By the time he came to Congress, he had to unplug the phone lines because callers brought the staff to tears. Even after he became a U.S. senator, the Capitol quickly became just another place where he would be stopped by the police.

Initially reluctant to focus on race, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is now a leading Republican voice, teaching his party what it’s like to be a Black man in America when the police lights are flashing in the rearview mirror.

(AP) --- An Interior Department watchdog office will investigate law enforcement and security forces’ violent clearing of protesters from a square in front of the White House earlier this month.

The Interior Department’s U.S. Park Police and other forces released chemical agents and at times punched and clubbed a largely peaceful of crowd of demonstrators to drive the public from Lafayette Square on June 1, during nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer suspended from duty after he was recorded Sunday putting a man in what the police commissioner said was a banned chokehold could face criminal charges for the second time in his career.

Queens prosecutors said Monday they’ve opened an investigation into Officer David Afanador’s actions on the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach, adding that “there must be zero tolerance for police misconduct.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday extended a ban on green cards issued outside the United States until the end of the year and added many temporary work visas to the freeze, including those used heavily by technology companies and multinational corporations.

The administration cast the effort as a way to free up jobs in an economy reeling from the coronavirus. A senior official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity predicted it will open up to 525,000 jobs for Americans, a claim that was immediately challenged by critics.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence and a half-dozen other senior advisers to President Donald Trump have repeatedly voted by mail, according to election records obtained by The Associated Press. That undercuts the president’s argument that the practice will lead to widespread fraud this November.

More than three years after leaving the Indiana governor’s residence, Pence still lists that as his official residence and votes absentee accordingly. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has permanent absentee voting status in her home state of Michigan.