USA

21 May 2019; DW: The US would "certainly negotiate" with Iran if Tehran made a move, US President Donald Trump said after downplaying the Iran threat. Separately, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the time was not right for talks.

US President Donald Trump pledged to respond with "great force" to any threats from Iran on Monday, but also acknowledged the US had "no indication that anything's happened or will happen."

United Nations, May 21 (PTI) An Indian peacekeeper is among the 119 military, police and civilian personnel who will be honoured on Friday with a prestigious UN medal for courage and sacrifice in the line of duty.

Police Officer Jitender Kumar made the supreme sacrifice while serving in the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

He will be honoured with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal on Friday as the world organisation observes the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers

Washington, May 21 (AFP) US officials have delayed a ban on American technology exports to Chinese tech giant Huawei until mid-August, saying the time was needed to allow for software updates and other contractual obligations.

A Commerce Department filing Monday said the delay does not change the ban imposed by President Donald Trump on national security grounds, an action with major implications for US and Chinese technology firms.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A small group of inmates, disproportionately black, are set to stay in Washington state prisons for life — left out of the latest in a multi-year wave of reforms easing tough-on-crime “three strikes” laws around the U.S.

At least 24 states including Washington passed such laws during the 1990s, embracing tough-on-crime rhetoric. But nearly half have since scaled them back amid concern that habitual but less-violent offenders were being stuck behind bars for life with hardcore felons.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As questions mount over President Donald Trump’s tough talk on Iran, top national security officials are heading to Capitol Hill to brief Congress. But skeptical Democrats have asked for a second opinion.

The airline industry’s U.S. trade group is predicting another record for summer travel.

Airlines for America forecast Tuesday that 257.4 million people will fly on U.S. carriers between June 1 and Aug. 31.

That’s a 3.4% increase over last summer, and it works out to about 2.8 million travelers a day.

The trade group says airlines are adding 111,000 seats per day, more than the predicted 93,000 increase in daily passengers.

DALLAS (AP) — A transgender woman was found slain in a Dallas street over the weekend, authorities said, a month after a cellphone video showed her being brutally beaten in a separate case police said they investigated as a hate crime.

Muhlaysia Booker, 23, was found face-down early Saturday after Dallas police officers were called following reports of shots being fired. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Booker died from “homicidal violence,” police Maj. Vincent Weddington said. He did not elaborate on her death. No suspect has been identified.

VISTA, California (AP) — Kellen Winslow Jr., the son of a pro football star who himself earned over $40 million in an injury plagued NFL career, “took what he wanted,” including raping a 54-year-old hitchhiker and a 59-year-old homeless woman, prosecutors said Monday.

Meanwhile defense lawyers argued the sex was consensual and asked jurors not to judge the married father for his “cheating ways.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump directed his former White House Counsel Donald McGahn to defy a congressional subpoena Monday, citing a Justice Department legal opinion that maintains McGahn would have immunity from testifying about his work as a close Trump adviser. A lawyer for McGahn said he would follow the president’s wishes and skip a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.

CHICAGO (AP) — Lori Lightfoot told aldermen and other city powerbrokers assembled at her inauguration Monday as Chicago’s first black woman mayor that she meant what she said on the campaign trail about top-to-bottom reforms in the nation’s third largest city.

“For years, they’ve said Chicago ain’t ready for reform,” said Lightfoot, speaking minutes after her swearing-in at the Wintrust Arena. “Well, get ready, because reform is here.”