USA

NEW YORK, May 28. /TASS/: The relatives of Paul Whelan, who is detained in Russia on espionage charges, have expressed gratitude to the presidential Human Rights Council which will look into how he is treated at the pre-trial detention center of Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.

"We are grateful that President Putin's Human Rights Council will be looking into Paul's treatment at Lefortovo," Paul Whelan’s brother David said in a letter emailed to TASS on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, May 28 (APP): Militant attacks on schools in Afghanistan increased almost threefold last year, making it increasingly difficult to ensure education for children in many parts of the country, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

According to a report released Tuesday, there were 192 attacks on schools in 2018, up from 68 in 2017.

LYNN, Mass. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Seth Moulton is highlighting his plan to improve mental health care in the United States, particularly for veterans, by revealing his own struggles with post-traumatic stress.

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr., a medical researcher who has led Stony Brook University in New York for nearly a decade, was named Tuesday as the next president of Michigan State University in the wake of the most extensive sexual abuse scandal in sports history.

NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats won’t pick their nominee for another year, but President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are acting like the 2020 presidential contest is already a two-man race.

Almost completely ignoring his 23 Democratic competitors , Biden has been laser-focused on Trump — particularly his embrace of racist rhetoric. But it has been Trump’s recent focus on Biden that has surprised both his allies and critics, who believe the Republican president may be unintentionally elevating someone whose candidacy is barely a month old.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Historic flooding is hitting communities along the Arkansas River despite little rain in the region, thanks to downpours in areas farther north and efforts by officials to control the powerful surge of water.

At least one death was blamed on the flooding.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Wildlife officers said Tuesday that they killed a mountain lion in a San Diego County nature preserve and will try to determine if it was the animal that injured a 4-year-old boy during a group hike a few hours earlier.

The boy was hospitalized following the attack Monday and treated for head injuries that were not life-threatening, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Lt. Scott Bringman said at a press conference.

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (AP) — The U.S. military says it has identified the remains of three more Americans killed during the Korean War, even as efforts to recover additional remains have stalled amid souring relations with North Korea.

One family has been notified and notification of the other two families is pending, Lt. Col. Ken Hoffman, spokesman for the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency, said Tuesday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee jury deliberated less than two hours Tuesday before sentencing the man who shot up a Nashville church in 2017 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On Friday, the jury found Emanuel Kidega Samson guilty of murder in the death of Melanie Crow. Samson also injured seven others during his rampage and will be sentenced on an additional 42 counts in July, although those sentences will be largely symbolic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A second conservative Republican on Tuesday blocked another attempt to pass a long-overdue $19 billion disaster aid bill, delaying again a top priority for some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said that if Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought the measure was so important, they should have kept the House in session in Washington late last week to slate an up-or-down roll call vote.