North America

26 Jan 2022; MEMO: Biden has authorised a $2.5 billion arms sale to Egypt as the country's human rights violations spiral out of control.

The announcement comes as a video spread online showing scenes of torture within a police station in Cairo confirming what rights defenders have said for years – that torture of prisoners in Egypt is systematic and widespread.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 25 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday welcomed the elevation of Justice Ayesha Malik to the Supreme Court of Pakistan as the first female judge on the country’s highest court.

“I think this selection is a very welcome development,” the UN chief’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in response to a question from APP correspondent at the regular noon briefing in New York.

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A trade group representing Chevron, General Electric and other big U.S. corporations that do business in Russia is asking the White House to consider giving U.S. companies time to fulfill commitments and exempting some products as it crafts any sanctions over Russian actions in Ukraine.

The Biden administration and Congress need to "get the details right in case they must follow through on the threat of sanctions," Jake Colvin, president of The National Foreign Trade Council told Reuters.

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Western leaders stepped up preparations for any Russian military action in Ukraine on Tuesday, with the United States focusing on how to protect energy supplies and Britain urging other European nations to get economic sanctions ready.

Tensions remained high after NATO said on Monday it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in response to a Russian troop build-up near its border with Ukraine.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Retail crime has been soaring across the United States for the past five years, "with organized criminal rings targeting stores everywhere," the New York Post has reported.

The National Retail Federation was cited by the news outlet as saying that store losses rose from 453,940 U.S. dollars per 1 billion dollars in sales in 2015 to 719,458 dollars in 2020.

NEW YORK (AP) — The conviction of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was upheld Tuesday by a U.S. appeals court that praised the trial judge for his handling of a case that drew international attention.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected claims that Judge Brian Cogan made rulings allowing a jury to hear faulty evidence at Guzman’s 2019 trial.

Cogan “conducted the three-month trial with diligence and fairness, after issuing a series of meticulously crafted pretrial rulings,” the ruling by the panel concluded.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed Tuesday to fight a decision from federal health regulators to block two coronavirus antibody treatments after the drugs were found to be ineffective against the widespread omicron variant.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Tuesday it has taken a stake in agriculture startup Plenty, becoming the first large U.S. retailer to significantly invest in indoor vertical farming as a way to deliver fresher produce to its stores.

Vertical farmers tout their high-quality produce that brings higher yields while using less water and land. The method also doesn’t use pesticide, and the produce can be grown year round near the point of distribution, increasing the reliability of supply.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Witness testimony will get underway in earnest Tuesday at the federal civil rights trial of three former Minneapolis police officers accused of failing to intervene as fellow Officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd by pressing his knee into the Black man’s neck as he lay facedown, handcuffed and gasping for air.

(AP) --- Pfizer has begun a study comparing its original COVID-19 vaccine with doses specially tweaked to match the hugely contagious omicron variant.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced the study on Tuesday.

COVID-19 vaccine makers have been updating their shots to better match omicron in case global health authorities decide the change is needed.

While omicron is more likely than previous variants to cause infection even in people who’ve been vaccinated, it’s not yet clear that a change to the vaccine recipe is needed.