USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is launching an investigation into France’s proposed tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook — a move that could lead to U.S. taxes on French imports.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed concern that the tax, expected to be passed by the French Senate Thursday, “unfairly targets American companies.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration warned of unspecified “active threats” to U.S. elections as top security officials briefed Congress Wednesday on steps the government has taken to improve election security in the wake of Russian interference in 2016.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress might need to extend the government’s crucial ability to borrow money before leaving the Capitol for its August recess, Trump administration officials said Wednesday. The timetable would heap extraordinary pressure on lawmakers to cut a deal on a measure that usually requires lengthy and politically delicate negotiations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pointing to a weaker global economy, rising trade tensions and chronically low inflation, Chairman Jerome Powell signaled Wednesday that the Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates late this month for the first time in a decade.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A tech worker was charged Wednesday with murder and kidnapping in the death of a Utah college student whose body was found in a wooded area with her arms bound behind her.

Prosecutors said Ayoola A. Ajayi, 31, was the last person Mackenzie Lueck communicated with before she disappeared on June 17.

She died of blunt force trauma to the head, and her body was found with her arms bound with zip ties and ropes, District Attorney Sim Gill said while announcing the charges.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some are watching old video of his previous testimony. Others are closely re-reading his 448-page report. And almost all are worrying about how they’ll make the most of the short time they’ll have for questioning.

Robert Mueller, the Democrats know, will be tough to crack.

The stern, reticent former FBI director has said he won’t answer questions beyond what is in the report on Russia’s election meddling and the Trump campaign and possible obstruction of justice when he comes to Congress on July 17.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A storm swamped New Orleans streets and paralyzed traffic Wednesday as concerns grew that even worse weather was on the way: a possible hurricane that could strike the Gulf Coast and raise the Mississippi River to the brim of the city’s protective levees.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to tamp down calls for his resignation, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on Wednesday defended his handling of a sex-trafficking case involving now-jailed financier Jeffrey Epstein, insisting he got the toughest deal he could at the time.

UNITED NATIONS, July 10 (APP): Pakistan has told the UN Security Council that effective border controls are a “prerequisite” to clamping down on the twin threats of transnational organized crime and terrorism.

Speaking in a debate on threats to international peace and security, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said that only through collective regional and international efforts could the world community choke off the various sources that support terrorist outfits through organized crime.

WASHINGTON, July 10. /TASS/: The United States should support Russia’s efforts within the UN framework, directed against glorification of Nazism, Russia’s US ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, said in an article for the National Interest magazine.

The diplomat said that Russia annually submits a draft UN resolution against glorification of Nazism, but the United States and Ukraine keep voting against it.