USA

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge has overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, calling it a “failed experiment” that violates people’s constitutional right to bear arms.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled on Friday that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states and by the U.S. Supreme Court.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Three people were killed in separate shootings in Minneapolis early Saturday, authorities said, though none of the shootings were related to protests in the city over the fatal shooting of a Black man by sheriff’s deputies earlier in the week.

(AP) --- Donald Trump on Saturday pushed Republicans to support candidates who are loyal to him in next year’s midterm elections as the former president launched a new more active phase of his post presidency.

Trump, 74, teased the prospect of another presidential bid of his own in 2024, but vowed first to be an active presence on the campaign trail for those who share his values in next year’s fight for control of Congress.

JEKYLL ISLAND, Georgia (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp drew jeers and boos at his state party’s annual convention Saturday, laying bare the bitterness that remains among Republicans over his role in certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Foreign keyboard criminals with scant fear of repercussions have paralyzed U.S. schools and hospitals, leaked highly sensitive police files, triggered fuel shortages and, most recently, threatened global food supply chains.

The escalating havoc caused by ransomware gangs raises an obvious question: Why has the United States, believed to have the world’s greatest cyber capabilities, looked so powerless to protect its citizens from these kind of criminals operating with near impunity out of Russia and allied countries?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Saturday that it no longer will secretly obtain reporters’ records during leak investigations, a policy shift that abandons a practice decried by news organizations and press freedom groups.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 5 (NNN-IRIN) – The United Nations and humanitarian partners yesterday launched a 617-million U.S. dollar relief plan, to help feed nearly one-third of the population in Chad.

Some 5.5 million people need humanitarian assistance this year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. The 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan seeks to aid four million people among them.

In Chad, 66.2 percent of its population of 15.5 million live in severe poverty, the World Food Programme said.

(Reuters) --- Three U.S. senators will visit Taiwan on Sunday and will meet President Tsai Ing-wen to discuss security and other issues, Taiwan's government and the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said on Saturday, a trip that will likely irritate China.

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with the island that is claimed by China, but is its most important international backer and supplier of arms.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Protesters faced off with officers in Minneapolis early Saturday over the shooting death of a man by members of a U.S. Marshals task force.

Photos from the scene following a vigil for Winston Boogie Smith Jr., 32, showed dumpster fires in the street and a line of officers standing guard. It was the second night of protests in response to the fatal shooting Thursday in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood.

BOSTON (AP) — For Dr. Jeremy Faust, the moment he realized the pandemic no longer dominated his workday came over Memorial Day weekend, when he didn’t see a single coronavirus case over two shifts in the emergency room at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Kerry LaBarbera, an ER nurse a few miles away at Boston Medical Center, had a similar realization that same weekend, when just two patients with COVID-19 came through her unit, one of the busiest in New England.