North America

WASHINGTON, November 26. /TASS/: Turkey has crossed ‘another red line’ by starting tests of the radar detection system it purchased from Russia as part of the S-400 missile defense system, US Senator for Maryland Christopher Van Hollen said.

"Two weeks after his WH [White House] visit, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is thumbing his nose at Trump, the U.S. + NATO, and crossing another red line on S-400s," Van Hollen said in a Twitter post, attaching an article on the issue.

MIAMI, Nov 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Chinese woman who stirred fears of espionage when she entered President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort carrying multiple mobile phones and a malware-spiked thumb drive was sentenced to eight months in prison Monday.

Zhang Yujing, 33, was arrested on March 30 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump was on one of his frequent visits. She was found guilty of trespassing and lying in September.

On Monday, a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida sentenced her to eight months in prison, according to the Miami Herald.

26 November 2019; AFP: The world will miss its chance to avert climate disaster without an immediate and all-but-impossible fall in fossil fuel emissions, the UN said Tuesday in its annual assessment on greenhouse gases.

The United Nations Environment Programme said that global emissions need to fall by 7.6 percent each year until 2030 to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave President Donald Trump a boost by extending its hold on a lower court ruling that required his longtime accounting firm to hand over his financial records to a Democratic-led House of Representatives committee.

The unsigned order will remain in effect until after the Supreme Court decides whether to hear Trump’s appeal of the lower court ruling that directed Mazars LLP, Trump’s longtime accounting firm, to comply with the subpoena for the records.

Washington, Nov 25 (AFP/PTI) The US defense secretary Monday defended the decision to sack his navy secretary, saying he went behind his back to make a deal with the White House over a convicted Navy SEAL's future.

Mark Esper told reporters Richard Spencer, the Navy's top civilian, admitted he had gone around Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah here on Monday over Yemen and regional issues.

Pompeo and his Omani counterpart discussed the recent agreement between the government and Southern Transition Council (STC) of Yemen, which was facilitated by Saudi Arabia, U.S. State Department said in a statement.

They agreed that only a political solution would bring an end to the conflict and ensure peace, prosperity and security in Yemen, according to the statement.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Three men incarcerated for 36 years in Maryland were exonerated Monday in the slaying of a Baltimore teenager after a review of their case.

Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were released from custody hours after a judge cleared their convictions and prosecutors dropped the charges. They were teenagers when they were sentenced to life in prison in 1984.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A former San Francisco Bay Area tour operator agreed Monday to plead guilty to serving as an unregistered agent for China in exchange for a possible reduced prison sentence.

Xuehua Edward Peng agreed in court to a four-year prison term and a fine of $30,000 in a plea deal negotiated with prosecutors after they charged him with being an illegal foreign agent who delivered U.S. national security information to officials in China.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a 21-year-old man has pleaded guilty to sending false shooting and bomb threats to schools in the U.S. and Britain.

The Department of Justice says Timothy Vaughn of Winston-Salem, North Carolina was a member of the Apophis Squad, a collective of hackers intent on using the internet to sow chaos.

Prosecutors say Vaughn, who used the online handle “WantedbyFeds,” entered guilty pleas Monday to multiple counts including conspiring to make threats and possession of child pornography.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared Monday that President Donald Trump ordered him to stop a disciplinary review of a Navy SEAL accused of battlefield misconduct, an intervention that raised questions about America’s commitment to international standards for battlefield ethics.

Esper’s comments are the latest twist in the case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, which led to a conflict between Trump and armed services leaders over military discipline. The dispute peaked over the weekend with the firing of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer.