USA

13 June 2020; MEMO: The UN human rights office said Friday it regrets a set of sanctions authorised by the administration of US President Donald Trump against International Criminal Court (ICC) officials who prosecute American troops, Anadolu Agency reports.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a video press briefing expressed the regret and impact the US measures may have on the investigations and trials underway in the ICC.

WASHINGTON, June 13. /TASS/: US lawmaker Eliot Engel has presented a legislation calling for tougher sanctions against Russian businessman Evgeni Prigozhin to Congress, press service of the House Foreign Affairs Committee headed by Engel said on Friday.

"We must impose additional sanctions against Prigozhin and the tools he continues to use to undermine American interests, and work with our European Union partners to encourage them to take similar steps," Engel said, cited in the press release.

13 June 2020; AFP: African countries called Friday on the UN Human Rights Council to urgently debate racism and police brutality amid the unrest in the US and beyond over George Floyd's death.

NEW YORK, June 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The state of New York adopted a series of laws designed to put an end to police brutality against the African American community, a sign of the impact that nationwide protests over the George Floyd are having.

Governor Andrew Cuomo officially signed 10 laws that the two houses of the state legislature passed earlier in the week.

13 June 2020; AFP: Confederate monuments are coming down and statues of Christopher Columbus are being toppled as Americans grapple with the ghosts of the country's racial history in the wake of George Floyd's death.

"It seems like maybe we've hit a tipping point in the retelling of the narrative of who we are as an American people," said David Farber, a history professor at the University of Kansas.

(Reuters) - State investigators in both California and Washington are examining Amazon’s business practices, two newspapers reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The inquiries focus at least in part on how Amazon treats sellers in its online marketplace, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported on Friday.

Amazon declined to comment on the report of an investigation by California. It was not immediately available for comment outside regular market hours on the Washington review report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Hawaii, trying to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies over various issues, according to media reports.

Pompeo was planning the trip “quietly” and the arrangements were not yet finalized, Politico said.

Pompeo has been vocal in criticizing China on a range of issues from the origins of the coronavirus pandemic to its Hong Kong policy to the treatment of its ethnic and religious minorities,

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s time to spread the good news. That’s the difficult job Vice President Mike Pence undertook Friday as the Trump administration works to make voters feel better about the direction of the country amid a coronavirus pandemic and racial unrest.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep shock late Friday at the discovery of mass graves in Libyan territory recently recaptured from forces commanded by Khalifa Hifter, and called for a transparent investigation.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) — A man who was turned away from a bar in Texas shot and wounded at least eight people in the parking lot, police said.

Police were searching for the gunman, who fled the scene late Friday night, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a briefing early Saturday.