USA

31 July 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied any racist "strategy" behind a string of verbal attacks on African-Americans, but found himself being accused of hate by a heckler at a high-profile speech.

"I have no strategy. I have zero strategy," Trump told reporters at the White House, when asked about his recent tirades against black and other non-white opponents, as well as the majority black city of Baltimore.

"I'm not angry at anybody," he said.

GENEVA, July 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations human rights office said the Trump administration’s decision to reinstate the death penalty at the federal level goes against the domestic and international trend to abolish or halt executions.

The U.S. Justice Department last Thursday reinstated a two-decades-long dormant policy allowing the federal government’s use of capital punishment and immediately scheduled executions for five federal inmates.

LOS ANGELES, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration had forcefully separated more than 900 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past year in defiance of a previous court ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged in a court filing on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A UN report released Tuesday documented that the level of grave violations against children worldwide last year was on the raise.

The 2018 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict said that more than 24,000 grave violations against children were verified by the United Nations in 20 country situations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security issued a security alert Tuesday for small planes, warning that modern flight systems are vulnerable to hacking if someone manages to gain physical access to the aircraft.

An alert from the DHS critical infrastructure computer emergency response team recommends that plane owners ensure they restrict unauthorized physical access to their aircraft until the industry develops safeguards to address the issue, which was discovered by a Boston-based cybersecurity company and reported to the federal government.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is claiming a groundswell of African American support in response to his comments denigrating Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and the congressman’s majority-black Baltimore district, despite polling showing consistently negative numbers.

Speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump claimed the building had been flooded with thousands of letters, emails and phone calls after his criticism of Baltimore thanking him for “getting involved” and exposing corruption.

31 July 2019; MEMO: Half of the American voters think President Donald Trump is a racist, according to a new poll Tuesday reports Anadolu Agency.

Fifty-one percent of Americans said Trump is a racist, while 45% said he is not, the poll by Quinnipiac University revealed.

“While half of the voters think President Donald Trump is racist, religion shows an even bigger divide,” said Mary Snow, polling analyst for the survey.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Davon Jones doesn’t have to look far to see the irony in President Donald Trump’s tweets that Baltimore is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” His apartment owned by the president’s son-in-law has been invaded by mice since he moved in a year ago.

“I don’t know how they come in,” Jones says. “Every time I catch them, they come right back.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A hard-won, warts-and-all budget pact between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump is facing a key vote in the GOP-held Senate, with many conservatives torn between supporting the president and risking their political brand with an unpopular vote to add $2 trillion or more to the government’s credit card.

DETROIT (AP) — The signature domestic proposal by the leading progressive candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination came under withering attack from moderates in a debate that laid bare the struggle between a call for revolutionary policies and a desperate desire to defeat President Donald Trump.