USA

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration is facing growing complaints from migrants about severe overcrowding, meager food and other hardships at border holding centers, with some people at an encampment in El Paso being forced to sleep on the bare ground during dust storms.

The Border Network for Human Rights issued a report Friday based on dozens of testimonials of immigrants over the past month and a half, providing a snapshot of cramped conditions and prolonged stays in detention amid a record surge of migrant families coming into the U.S. from Central America.

BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) — Beto O’Rourke took a path somewhat less traveled on Friday, meeting with a small group representing a community of slave descendants in South Carolina as he strives to make connections with the black voters who will play a dominant role in next year’s Southern presidential primaries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — They still cry “death to America” in Iran.

President Donald Trump claimed otherwise in a Fox News interview as he took credit for a taming of Iran that is not apparent in its actions or rhetoric.

TRUMP, speaking about Iranians “screaming death to America” when Barack Obama was U.S. president: “They haven’t screamed ‘death to America’ lately.” — Fox News interview Friday.

THE FACTS: Not true. The death-to-America chant is heard routinely.

WASHINGTON, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed two witnesses of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia inquiry as part of its own investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the panel announced Thursday.

The committee subpoenaed former White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former Donald Trump campaign aide Rick Gates for "documents and testimony," according to a statement.

14 June 2019; DW: US President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that press secretary Sarah Sanders will be leaving his administration at the end of June.

The news came after Sanders had held no press briefings since March, 94 days ago. Trump has been issuing his own statements, often via Twitter, in addition to meeting with individual news organizations for interviews and answering reporters' questions himself rather than through his press secretary.

14 June 2019; DW: The United States has fast grown addicted to the $36.2 billion (€32 billion) in annual tourism receipts from Chinese visitors, a figure that has grown more than 15-fold since the turn of the century.

Last year, however, the number of Chinese tourists to the US fell sharply for the first time since 2003, in part due to a slowdown of the world's second largest economy, but more-so, because of the worsening trade spat between Beijing and Washington.

WASHINGTON, June 13. /TASS/: The United States continues attempts to convince India not to purchase S-400 missile defense systems from Russia, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells said on Thursday.

"There is no blanket waiver, or a country waiver, when it comes to S-400. We have serious concerns about a possible S-400 purchase, and we are continuing our conversations on how the United States or other defense providers could assist India," Wells said at the hearings on US interests in South Asia and the budget for the fiscal year 2020.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday strongly condemned attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman that left one ablaze and both adrift, warning that the world cannot afford “a major confrontation in the Gulf region.”

The ships — one Marshal Islands-flagged and the other Panama-flagged — were on their way to Taiwan and Singapore from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, respectively.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on a death penalty trial for a South Carolina father (all times local):

3:10 p.m.

A jury says a South Carolina father should be executed for killing his five children.

The jury unanimously agreed on the death penalty Thursday for 37-year-old Timothy Jones Jr. in the slayings of his children, ages 1 to 8, in their Lexington home in August 2014.

Jones admitted he exercised 6-year-old Nahtahn until he collapsed and died, then several hours later decided to kill the other four children.

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Deepfake” videos pose a clear and growing threat to America’s national security, lawmakers and experts say. The question is what to do about it, and that’s not easily answered.

A House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday served up a public warning about the deceptive powers of artificial intelligence software and offered a sobering assessment of how fast the technology is outpacing efforts to stop it.