USA

WASHINGTON, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the United Nations Human Rights Council of hypocrisy after the organisation condemned racism and police brutality in the US following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

Pompeo said the 47-member forum’s unanimous resolution on Friday on policing and race was a new low for the Council and reaffirmed the US’ decision to withdraw from the organisation in 2018.

SEATTLE (AP) — A pre-dawn shooting in a park in Seattle’s protest zone killed a 19-year-old man and critically injured another person, authorities said Saturday.

The shooting happened about 2:30 a.m. in the area near the city’s downtown that is known as CHOP, which stands for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,” police said.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday he’s asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because robust testing turns up too many cases of COVID-19.

Trump told supporters at his campaign rally that the U.S. has tested 25 million people, far more than any other country. The “bad part,” Trump said, is that widespread testing leads to logging more cases of the virus.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Protesters tore down more statues across the United States, expanding the razing in a San Francisco park to the writer of America’s national anthem and the general who won the country’s Civil War that ended widespread slavery.

In Seattle, pre-dawn violence erupted Saturday in a protest zone largely abandoned by police, where one person was fatally shot and another critically injured.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had a snickering response to news that his successor as top federal prosecutor was “stepping down” from the job.

“Doesn’t sound like ‘stepping down,’” Bharara tweeted soon after the announcement was made Friday night that Geoffrey S. Berman was out.

He would know.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book, a federal judge ruled Saturday, despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — President Donald Trump launched his comeback rally Saturday by defining the upcoming election as a stark choice between national heritage and left-wing radicalism. But his intended show of political force amid a pandemic featured thousands of empty seats and new coronavirus cases on his own campaign staff.

WASHINGTON, June 20. /TASS/: Russia and the Western nations need to conduct serious scientific research and engage in a mutually respectful dialogue on problematic questions of history, the director of the Washington-based Kennan Institute, Matthew Rojansky, has told TASS.

"I can say that many questions of history relating to how the Second World War began are seen very differently by most historians in the West from the way they were presented in the article," Rojansky said when asked to comment on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s article about the history of World War II.

20 June 2020; MEMO: In response to the “misleading” remarks of United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials that it rejects proposals to solve the crisis with its neighbours, Qatar announced on Friday that it: “Has always asserted its openness to unconditional dialogue to solve the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) crisis.”

UNITED NATIONS, June 19 (NNN) — Kenya has been elected a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, defeating Djibouti for a seat designated for African countries, a news release from United Nations said Friday.

UN Member States chose the country in a second round of voting on Thursday in the General Assembly, with 192 ambassadors casting their ballots during pre-determined time slots, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.