USA

Washington, Jun 4 (PTI) India will be a "significant recipient" of US vaccines, the country's envoy here has said as President Joe Biden announced details of his administration's decision to send 25 million COVID-19 shots to countries across the globe.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that the US will allocate 75 per cent - nearly 1.9 crore of the first tranche of 2.5 crore doses - of unused COVID-19 vaccines from its stockpile through the UN-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing programme to countries in South and Southeast Asia as well as Africa.

UNITED NATIONS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Security Council on Thursday extended the mandate of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) for one year, until June 3, 2022.

Resolution 2579, adopted unanimously, retains the four strategic objectives for UNITAMS outlined in Resolution 2524, which established the mission on June 3, 2020.

(AP) --- President Joe Biden has nearly doubled the list of Chinese companies whose shares are off-limits to U.S. investors in the latest sign he is not softening Washington’s stance toward Beijing.

An executive order issued late Thursday says it aims to “solidify and strengthen” an order signed last year by his predecessor Donald Trump by strengthening controls on investments in Chinese companies that the U.S. says are linked to defense and surveillance.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence says that he isn’t sure that he and former President Donald Trump will ever see “eye to eye” over what happened on Jan. 6 but that he would “always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”

(AP) --- Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports.

OTIS, Ore. (AP) — Wildfire smoke was thick when Tye and Melynda Small went to bed on Labor Day, but they weren’t too concerned. After all, they live in a part of Oregon where ferns grow from tree trunks and rainfall averages more than six feet (1.8 meters) a year.

But just after midnight, a neighbor awakened them as towering flames, pushed by gusting winds, bore down. The Smalls and their four children fled, leaving behind 26 pet chickens, two goldfish and a duck named Gerard as wind whipped the blaze into a fiery tornado and trees exploded around them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With U.S. businesses scrambling to fill millions of jobs as the economy reopens much faster than many had expected, Friday’s jobs report for May will help show whether their efforts are succeeding.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee is poised to question former White House counsel Don McGahn behind closed doors on Friday, two years after House Democrats originally sought his testimony as part of investigations into former President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is stepping up its enforcement of hate crimes and other bias-related incidents, furthering a promise by Attorney General Merrick Garland to focus on civil rights violations.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, recently sworn in and the first Black woman to hold the position, said the effort has led to indictments in multiple cases over the past six months. But the number of hate crimes has grown: In November, the FBI said they’d reached the highest level in more than a decade.

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Thursday she has moved up the city’s timetable for a full reopening to match the rest of the state.

Lightfoot had planned to allow bars, restaurants, hotels and sports stadiums to open to full capacity on July 4. Now she says the city is ready to join the rest of the state in lifting all capacity restrictions on June 11. However, officials say face masks will still be required in schools, in health care settings, on public transit and in some businesses.