USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief executive of the massive fuel pipeline hit by ransomware last month is expected to detail his company’s response to the cyberattack and to explain his decision to authorize a multimillion-dollar payment when he testifies before Congress this week.

WASHINGTON, June 7. /TASS/: The White House had been considering organizing a meeting of US President Joe Biden with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky before the Russian-US summit in Geneva, yet declined to move ahead with the meeting because of the situation around Naftogaz, the Axios portal reported on Monday citing a source in Biden’s administration.

(AP) --- Jeff Bezos will be aboard for Blue Origin’s first human space flight next month.

In an Instagram post early Monday, Bezos said he, his brother, and the winner of an ongoing auction, will be aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft during its scheduled launch on July 20.

July 20 is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The trip will be a brief hop to space from Texas.

Bezos said in early February that he was stepping down as CEO of Amazon to spend more time, among other things, focused on Blue Origin.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Louis DeJoy is uninterested in the niceties of Washington. The wealthy longtime businessman with an outer borough New York accent prides himself as a problem solver ready to disrupt an unwieldy bureaucracy. And he’s facing potential legal troubles.

In other words, the postmaster general may be the closest thing to former President Donald Trump left in the nation’s capital. But there’s little President Joe Biden can do about it.

“Get used to me,” DeJoy told critics in Congress during a hearing earlier this year.

Joint Base Andrews (US), Jun 7 (AP-PTI) A technical problem that involved no immediate safety issue" forced Vice President Kamala Harris' plane to return to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland about 30 minutes after she had left Sunday on a trip to Guatemala and Mexico.

Air Force Two landed safely and she gave a thumbs-up when she got off.

I'm good, I'm good. We all said a little prayer, but we're good, she said.

The vice president departed in another plane about an hour and a half later.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key Democratic senator says he will not vote for the largest overhaul of U.S. election law in at least a generation, leaving no plausible path forward for legislation that his party and the White House have portrayed as crucial for protecting access to the ballot.

“Voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen,″ Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia wrote in a home-state newspaper, the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

UNITED NATIONS, June 6 (APP): The first-ever United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) special session against corruption has concluded after having adopted a sweeping Political Declaration with blueprints to help countries tackle bribery, money-laundering, abuse of power and a raft of related crimes

The landmark Political Declaration, titled “Our common commitment to effectively addressing challenges and implementing measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation”, was passed unanimously.

UNITED NATIONS, June 5 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday strongly condemned the heinous attack by unidentified assailants on a village in the province of Yagha in the Sahel Region of Burkina Faso, which resulted in the killing of over 100 civilians, including seven children.

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Xinhua) -- A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday morning for resupply mission.

The spacecraft autonomously docked to the space-facing side of the ISS Harmony module at 5:09 a.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time.

NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur were monitoring docking operations for cargo Dragon.

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations have agreed to support new rules that will achieve a global minimum tax rate of at least 15 percent, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Saturday.

Calling it a "significant, unprecedented" commitment, Yellen said in a statement that the global minimum tax would end the race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation, and ensure fairness for the middle class and working people in the United States and around the world.