USA

2 October 2019; AFP: Donald Trump on Tuesday denounced the impeachment inquiry threatening his presidency as a "coup," as his administration pushed back hard against the investigation.

Trump's comments came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed to prevent or delay five State Department officials from testifying in the investigation probing accusations that Trump abused his office by seeking dirt from Ukraine on a 2020 election rival.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 2 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — More than 40 countries condemned the United States blockade against Cuban and expressed their solidarity with the Caribbean island during the high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

According to the Cuban Mission to the UN, 43 States from different continents demanded the lifting of blockade, which Washington has imposed for nearly 60 years and which has caused damages of 922.63 billion dollars to the island during that period.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on Tuesday urged member states to strengthen women's political participation, as only eight percent of speakers on behalf of member states had been women at the just-concluded the General Debate of the UNGA.

It was "not a good figure, especially in relation to our commitment to gender equality," he told reporters, adding that he would keep urging member states to allow for the broadest participation and "unlock obstacles to the participation of women in politics."

LAS VEGAS (AP) — After back-to-back mass shootings in Ohio and Texas this summer, gun control burst back on the scene as a major political issue for Democrats. Now it risks taking a back seat as impeachment fever overtakes Washington.

Gun control advocates are determined to prevent that from happening.

NEW YORK (AP) — Erin Brockovich, who has some experience in revealing disturbing secrets, knows what she would say to the government whistleblower at the heart of allegations that President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.

“I would say, ‘You are obviously a person of integrity and you take it seriously when you hear about wrongdoing,‘” Brockovich, the environmental and consumer activist, said in a recent telephone interview. “The name ‘whistleblower’ gets a bad connotation, and I’ve never understood that.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Setting a defiant tone, the Trump administration resisted Congress’ access to impeachment witnesses Tuesday, even as House Democrats warned such efforts themselves could amount to an impeachable offense.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri inmate was executed Tuesday for killing a man in 1996 in a string of violence that included several other crimes, despite concerns that the prisoner’s rare medical condition would cause a gruesome lethal injection.

Russell Bucklew was put to death at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was Missouri’s first execution since January 2017.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders raked in $25.3 million over the past three months, putting him on top of the Democratic presidential fundraising field for now. But in a sign of what he and his rivals are up against, President Donald Trump and his allies raised $125 million.

Other leading Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have yet to reveal their fundraising figures for the third quarter.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Former Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas is expected to run again in 2020, but not in his old Dallas district that Democrats flipped last year.

Prominent Republican megadonor Roy Bailey and two GOP operatives with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press that Sessions will run for the rural central Texas seat of outgoing Rep. Bill Flores.

DALLAS (AP) — The same jury that convicted a white Dallas police officer in the fatal shooting of her black neighbor returns to court Wednesday to consider her sentence — a penalty that could be anywhere from five years to life in prison.

Amber Guyger, who said she mistook the man’s apartment for her own, which was directly below, was convicted of murder in a verdict that drew tears of relief from his family and chants of “black lives matter” from a crowd outside the courtroom.

Guyger sat alone, weeping, at the defense table.