USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on an environmental rule covering coal-fired power plants (all times local):

6:10 p.m.

The Trump administration has ordered a sweeping about-face on Obama-era efforts to fight climate change, easing restrictions on coal-fired power plants.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler signed a measure Wednesday that scraps one of President Barack Obama’s key initiatives to rein in fossil fuel emissions. The replacement rule gives states more leeway in deciding whether to require plants to make limited efficiency upgrades.

PHOENIX (AP) — The young black man shown in a videotaped encounter that showed Phoenix police pointing guns and yelling obscenities at him and his pregnant fiancee told the City Council on Wednesday that he wants the officers fired.

Dravon Ames, 22, told councilmembers that he and his family “could have lost their lives over something senseless ... over a 4-year-old taking a doll.”

He said it is “sad” the officers are still employed.

Ames added, “I guess our lives are worth less than a 99-cent doll.”

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Mayor Pete Buttigieg stood before newly sworn police officers to welcome them to the city’s ranks, just as he has more than a dozen times since taking office. But this time he was a Democratic candidate for president, speaking just days after a white officer fatally shot a black man the officer said was armed with a knife.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A decorated Navy SEAL suddenly plunged a knife into the neck of a wounded young Islamic State prisoner, killing him, and later scoffed that he was “just an ISIS dirtbag,” former comrades testified at a war crimes trial.

Dylan Dille and Craig Miller took the stand Wednesday at the San Diego court-martial of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, who has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder stemming from his 2017 tour of duty in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When 16-year-old Carlos Hernandez Vasquez fell ill in a holding facility at the U.S.-Mexico border, he was diagnosed with the flu and given medication, then sent back to a cell to recuperate on a concrete bench.

But Carlos didn’t get better. The Guatemalan migrant died May 20 from flu complications — a glaring sign that Border Patrol stations aren’t set up to manage thousands of children.

Washington (AP) — Joe Biden refused calls to apologize Wednesday for saying that the Senate “got things done” with “civility” even when the body included segregationists with whom he disagreed.

His rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, including the two major black candidates in the contest, roundly criticized Biden’s comments. But Biden didn’t back down and was particularly defiant in the face of criticism from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who said the former vice president should apologize for his remarks.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Americans prefer a space program that focuses on potential asteroid impacts, scientific research and using robots to explore the cosmos over sending humans back to the moon or on to Mars, a new poll shows.

19 June 2019; DW: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be investigated over the the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

That is the conclusion of Agnes Callamard, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions, who on Wednesday issued her report on the killing. 

Callamard cited "credible evidence" that high-level Saudi officials were implicated in the "premeditaed" murder.

Washington, Jun 19; PTI/GANASHAKTI: The US has communicated its "strong views" on an IMF bailout package to cash-strapped Pakistan and sought "conditionality", a top State Department official has said, amidst concerns in the Trump administration that the aid could be utilised to pay off the Chinese debts.

Pakistan last month reached an agreement with the Washington-headquartered International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a USD 6 billion bailout package aimed at shoring up its finances and strengthening a slowing economy as tries to overcome a ballooning balance-of-payments crisis.

Washington, Jun 19 (PTI) US President Donald Trump formally launched his 2020 re-election campaign with a jam-packed rally in Florida on Tuesday, urging his supporters to "keep this team in place" for four more years as he vowed to "Keep America Great".

The 73-year-old real estate investor-turned-politician, who became the 45th President of the United States of America in 2017, told a crowd of 20,000 people in Orlando that the economy of the US under him has become "the envy of the world".