USA

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck area — and was bearing down with most of his weight — the entire 9 1/2 minutes the Black man lay facedown with his hands cuffed behind his back, a use-of-force expert testified at Chauvin’s murder trial.

WASHINGTON, April 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States said it would discuss calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics with its allies after growing pressure to shun the Winter Games on human rights grounds.

“It is something that we certainly wish to discuss,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said when asked if the United States would consider a joint boycott with allies.

UNITED NATIONS, April 7 (NNN-XINHUA) — The COVID-19 crisis “has revealed how unequal our societies are,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his message released for the World Health Day.

Highlighting the inequalities and injustices that have been apparent throughout the pandemic, the UN chief said in his message for the day to be marked on Wednesday that the vast majority of vaccine doses administered so far have been confined to “a few wealthy countries” or those producing the shots cleared for distribution.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration plans to unveil a package of about $150 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinians, restoring part of the assistance that was cut off by former President Donald Trump, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The aid, mostly to be provided through the United Nations relief agency UNWRA, is expected to be announced by the State Department as soon as Wednesday as part of an effort to repair U.S. ties with the Palestinians that all but collapsed during Trump’s tenure.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to swell global public debt in 2021, but spending more money to accelerate vaccinations is the fastest way to start to normalize government finances, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

The IMF said in its 2021 Fiscal Monitor report that if faster global vaccinations bring the virus under control sooner, more than $1 trillion in additional global tax revenue could be collected through 2025 in advanced economies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit widened to a record high in February as economic activity rebounded more quickly than the nation’s global rivals and could remain elevated this year, with massive fiscal stimulus expected to spur the fastest growth in nearly four decades.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that the trade gap increased 4.8% to a record $71.1 billion in February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a $70.5 billion deficit.

06 Apr 2021; MEMO: The United States on Friday lifted sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that drew international criticism after they were imposed by the administration of former President Donald Trump, Reuters reported.

The move, announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, lifts sanctions imposed on Bensouda over her investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos endorsed President Joe Biden’s focus on building up the country’s infrastructure Tuesday and said the company even supports a corporate tax rate hike to help pay for it.

Bezos’ statement, posted on the company’s website, was notable because it came after Biden singled out the company for criticism about how much it pays in federal taxes when he recently unveiled his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California prosecutor filed 33 criminal charges Tuesday accusing troubled Pacific Gas & Electric of inadvertently injuring six firefighters and endangering public health with smoke and ash in a 2019 fire blamed on its equipment.

The nation’s largest utility denied that it committed any crimes even as it accepted that its transmission line sparked the blaze.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook said Tuesday it has removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an Iranian exile group and a troll farm in Albania.

The accounts posted content critical of Iran’s government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident group known as MEK. In many cases, the Facebook and Instagram accounts used fake profile names and photos.