USA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday discussed the security of telecommunications networks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the White House said, as Britain nears a decision on Huawei’s role in the country’s future 5G network.

“The two leaders discussed important regional and bilateral issues, including working together to ensure the security of our telecommunications networks,” the White House said in a statement about the phone call.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation increasing tariffs on derivative steel products by an additional 25 percent and boosting duties on derivative aluminum products by an additional 10 percent.

Trump said Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Korea are exempt from the additional tariffs on derivative steel products, and Argentina, Australia, Canada and Mexico are exempt from the added duties on derivative aluminum articles.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed on Friday warned of the "qualitative crisis" in the world's education, pointing out that many students at school are not acquiring the knowledge and skills they need.

Mohammed made the remarks in her speech at the opening session of a high-level interactive dialogue on education, convened by UN General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande to mark the second International Day of Education.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At first, President Donald Trump stated inaccurately that no U.S. troops were injured in the Iranian missile attack against them in Iraq. Then he prematurely minimized those injuries as doctors tried to determine how severe they were.

On Friday, the Pentagon said that in fact, 34 troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in the attack and half remain under medical observation in Germany or back in the U.S. more than two weeks later.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon disclosed on Friday that 34 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iran’s missile strike this month on an Iraqi air base, and although half have returned to work, the casualty total belies President Donald Trump’s initial claim that no Americans were harmed. He later characterized the injuries as “not very serious.”

Eight of the injured arrived in the United States on Friday from Germany, where they and nine others had been flown days after the Jan. 8 missile strike on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base.

USA (AP) --- Delta Air Lines is being fined $50,000 for ordering three Muslim passengers off planes even after the airline’s own security officials cleared them to travel.

Delta denied that it discriminated against the passengers in two separate incidents but agreed it could have handled the situations differently, according to a consent order released Friday by the U.S. Transportation Department.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ukraine next week, making his first trip to the country at the heart of President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans said lead impeachment prosecutor Adam Schiff insulted them during the trial by repeating an anonymously sourced report that the White House had threatened to punish Republicans who voted against President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has always been a man of absolutes.

Something is the best or the worst, a person is a winner or a total loser, an event has never happened before, even when it has.

Absolutism was the unwritten credo of his career in business and is the guiding light of his presidency as he makes an assertion rarely heard from an American president: that he can do as he pleases.

HOUSTON (AP) — A massive explosion Friday leveled a warehouse in Houston, killing two workers, damaging nearby buildings and homes and rousing frightened residents from their sleep miles away, authorities said.

The explosion happened about 4:30 a.m. inside a building at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, which makes valves and provides thermal-spray coatings for equipment in various industries, authorities said. The building was reduced to burning rubble and debris, and some of the surrounding buildings suffered heavy damage to parts of their walls and roofs.