USA

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of White House Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett will step down "shortly," U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday.

"Kevin Hassett, who has done such a great job for me and the Administration, will be leaving shortly," Trump said, adding that he will name Hassett's successor as soon as he returns from a trip to Europe.

The president in the tweet also thanked Hassett "for all he has done" and said he is a "true friend."

WASHINGTON, June 3. /TASS/: US President Donald Trump called on Russia, the Syrian authorities, and Iran to stop bombing the territory of the Syrian province of Idlib.

Since the evening of May 21, militants of the Jabhat al-Nusra (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist grouping outlawed in Russia) have been launching massive attacks in the southern portion of the Idlib de-escalation zone on the government troops’ positions, using the armor, multiple launch rocket systems and suicide bombers’ vehicles.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official said Sunday that President Donald Trump is “deadly serious” about imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico, but acknowledged there are no concrete benchmarks being set to assess whether the U.S. ally is stemming the migrant flow enough to satisfy the administration.

“We intentionally left the declaration sort of ad hoc,” Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making up facts about a veterans’ health care program in his latest dig at late Sen. John McCain.

He says he’s no fan of McCain, a Vietnam War veteran and tortured prisoner of war, faulting him for failing to pass a program that gave veterans the option to see a private doctor at public expense.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top officials from the U.S. and Mexico will begin talks Monday in a scramble to fend off President Donald Trump’s threat of devastating tariffs on imports from the southern ally and meet his demand for fewer migrants at the border.

Trump is heading to London for a long-planned overseas trip, leaving others to stem a potential trade crisis. It’s unclear what more Mexico can do — and what will be enough — to satisfy the president. Trump’s Republican allies warn that tariffs on Mexican imports will hit U.S. consumers and harm the economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump insisted Sunday that he never called Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex and the wife of Britain’s Prince Harry, “nasty.”

The president used the adjective while discussing Meghan in a recent interview with Britain’s The Sun newspaper in the run-up to his state visit to the U.K. on Monday. But debate on social media since then has raged over whether his use of “nasty” referred to the duchess herself or the negative things she said about him in 2016.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — The gunman who attacked his colleagues at a Virginia Beach government office building resigned by email hours before the shooting, a city official said Sunday as authorities sought a motive in the assault that killed 12 people.

Officials gave no indication why 40-year-old DeWayne Craddock had notified a superior of his intention to leave his job as a civil engineer in the utilities department. He was an employee “in good standing” and showed “satisfactory” job performance, City Manager Dave Hansen said.

2 June 2019; DW: A day after he backed Boris Johnson as the next British prime minister, US President Donald Trump said the UK should send Nigel Farage to Brussels to conduct Brexit talks with the EU.

In an interview with the UK's Sunday Times newspaper, Trump said: "I like Nigel a lot. He has a lot to offer — he is a very smart person."  

"They won't bring him in but think how well they would do if they did. They just haven't figured that out yet," Trump added.

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump Saturday announced that White House lawyer Emmet Flood, who helped Trump during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month Russia probe, will leave his position.

"Emmet Flood, who came to the White House to help me with the Mueller Report, will be leaving service on June 14th," Trump wrote in a tweet.

"He has done an outstanding job," Trump said. "Emmet is my friend and I thank him for the GREAT JOB he has done."

WASHINGTON, June 2. /TASS/: The Russian Embassy in the US offered condolences to the families of the people killed in the shooting on Friday evening at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, Virginia. The embassy made the corresponding statement on Twitter.

"Our thoughts and prayers go to victims of Virginia Beach shooting, as well as to everyone affected by it," the statement says.

The embassy also offered condolences to the family of Alexei Gusev, an immigrant from Belarus.