USA

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Xinhua) -- David Litt, a former speechwriter for then U.S. President Barack Obama, has said the spread of COVID-19 which has so far claimed nearly 100,000 lives in the United States is a failure of democracy at the root.

"It's become commonplace to refer to COVID-19 as 'the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes.' But what has cost the United States so many lives and jobs during the pandemic is not, at root, a failure of public health. It's a failure of democracy," Litt wrote in an article published by Time magazine this week.

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Xinhua) -- A group of 77 U.S. Nobel laureates expressed their "grave concern" for the recent cancellation of a federal grant to a U.S. non-governmental organization which was researching coronaviruses and had collaboration with China.

24 May 2020; MEMO: US President Donald Trump called for a “rapid de-escalation” of the Libyan conflict on a call with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, the White House said, after recent gains by forces backed by Turkey prompted threats of retaliation, Reuters reports.

24 May 2020; MEMO: Turkey’s Ambassador to US, Serdar Kilic, hit back Friday at two American senators for comments regarding Ankara’s treatment of Uyghurs.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Jim Risch, shared a news report on Twitter that claimed Ankara reversed some of its support for Uyghurs and Turkish police are questioning refugees fleeing China’s crackdown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are brandishing the latest weapon in their uphill fight for House control this November: votes by moderate Democrats to pass a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill promising benefits for immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.

They’re also celebrating their recent capture of a Democratic-held House seat north of Los Angeles. They say it shows they can win suburban districts whose centrist voters fled the GOP two years ago, costing it the chamber’s majority.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Inked on skin and hashtagged on social media, the words “El Paso Strong” united city residents after a mass shooting at a Walmart last year.

As COVID-19 took hold in El Paso, government officials have tried to repurpose the slogan, much like “Don’t mess with Texas,” originally an anti-littering slogan, or “Keep Calm and Carry On,” a little-used WWII poster popularized in the internet age. But “El Paso Strong” hasn’t been embraced by the public in the context of the virus, which is challenging community ties in a region that normally transcends borders.

HONOLULU (AP) — Joe Biden won the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s party-run presidential primary on Saturday, which was delayed by more than a month because of the coronavirus.

Biden defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 63% to 37%.

Biden won 16 of Hawaii’s delegates and Sanders will take eight. Biden has a total of 1,566 delegates to the party’s national convention, according to the count by the Associated Press. He needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination, a threshold he is projected to reach in June.

WACO, Texas (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Allen West of Florida was injured in a motorcycle crash Saturday in Texas.

The former congressman was in stable condition after having been airlifted to a hospital, according to a Saturday night post on West’s Facebook page.

The Facebook post said West was on his motorcycle when a car cut him off, causing him to collide with another motorcyclist.

West’s wife, Angela Graham-West, earlier wrote on Facebook that the crash occurred outside Waco.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time is running out on an arms control treaty that, if it’s allowed to expire, will leave the world with no legal restrictions on U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons for the first time in nearly half a century.

If President Donald Trump doesn’t extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — only remaining U.S.-Russia arms control pact — or succeed in negotiating a replacement treaty, it will expire on Feb. 5. That’s just 16 days after Trump begins a second term or his successor is sworn into office.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — With Alabama’s coronavirus caseload worsening while casinos, churches and more reopen, the state’s most recognizable person had some stern words about bringing COVID-19 under control.