A video of then president Donald Trump recording a statement on Jan 7, 2021 is played, as the House select committee investigating the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington on July 21, 2022. (AL DRAGO / POOL VIA AP) WASHINGTON – Donald Trump sat for hours watching the attack on the US Capitol unfold on live …
Biden says he is ‘doing well,’ working after COVID infection
In this image provided by the White House, President Joe Biden speaks with Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., on the phone from the Treaty Room in the residence of the White House on July 21, 2022, in Washington. Biden says he's "doing great" after testing positive for COVID-19. (ADAM SCHULTZ / THE WHITE HOUSE VIA AP) WASHINGTON – Joe Biden, the oldest person ever to serve …
BA.5 fuels another COVID-19 wave as US cases top 90 million
Masked patrons wait to order at a food stand inside Grand Central Market on July 13, 2022, in Los Angeles. (MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ / AP) LOS ANGELES / BERLIN / WARSAW – The latest and most transmissible COVID-19 variant has been driving another surge of infections in the United States as the country's total caseload topped over 90 million on Thursday. US COVID-19 case count rose …
UK’s top court to hear Scottish independence case in Oct
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon delivers a speech during a press conference to launch a second independence paper, at the Bute House, in Edinburgh, on July 14, 2022. The paper is titled "Renewing Democracy Through Independence" and will set out the Scottish Government's view that people living in Scotland have the right to choose how they will be governed. (ANDREW MILLIGAN / POOL / AFP) …
Italian PM Draghi resigns after coalition falls apart
In this file photo taken on June 16, 2022 Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi holds a press conference with the heads of state of Ukraine, France, Romania and Germany at Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv. (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP) ROME – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi handed in his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday after his unity government fell apart, plunging the country into …
US, Canada demand trade dispute talks over Mexican policies
This file photo shows an aerial view of the Mexican oil company PEMEX oil complex, located adjacent to the Tula power plant belonging to national power company Commission Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, in Tula, Hidalgo state, Mexico, on January 11, 2018. (PEDRO PARDO / AFP) WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY – The United States and Canada on Wednesday demanded dispute settlement talks with Mexico under a North …
Biden takes new actions on climate change without declaring emergency
President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media after exiting Air Force One on July 20, 2022 at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Biden is returning from a trip to Somerset, Massachusetts, where he spoke about climate change. (EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO) SOMERSET, Mass./WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that climate change is an emergency but stopped short of a …
Ciro Gomes kicks off Brazil’s presidential race with first official candidacy
Ciro Gomes, a presidential candidate nominated by the Democratic Labor Party, speaks next to his wife Giselle Bezerra during the party's national convention in Brasilia, on July 20, 2022. (EVARISTO SA / AFP) A Gomes government would "save" state-controlled oil company Petrobras from being privatized, abolish presidential re-election, and do away with a constitutionally-mandated fiscal spending cap which, he said, favored Brazil's financial elite BRASILIA – …
EU asks members to cut gas usage amid new Russian warning
This July 20, 2022 photo shows the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline and the transfer station of the OPAL gas pipeline, the Baltic Sea Pipeline Link, lit by the evening sun in Lubmin, Germany. (MARKUS SCHREIBER / AP) BRUSSELS/LONDON/MADRID – The European Union told member states on Wednesday to cut gas usage by 15 percent until March as an emergency step after President Vladimir …
Wildfires rage across Europe as climate alarm sounded
Residents spray water with a hose as fire burns near houses in the area of Drafi east of Athens on July 20, 2022. (THANASSIS STAVRAKIS / AP) ATHENS/LONDON – Emergency services battled wildfires across swathes of southern Europe amid mass evacuations on Wednesday, as warnings sounded in London after Britain's hottest day that the fight against climate change needed to be stepped up. A brutal …
Italian PM Draghi looks doomed after coalition splinters
Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi reacts during the debate on the government crisis following his resignation the week before, at the Senate in Rome on July 20, 2022. (ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP) ROME – Italy's government crumbled on Wednesday when three of Prime Minister Mario Draghi's main coalition partners snubbed a confidence vote he had called to try to end divisions and renew their fractious …
Europe engulfed by new COVID wave, says ECDC expert
Members of the public queue outside a pharmacy to receive COVID-19 antigen tests in Paris on Jan 6, 2022, as COVID-19 cases soar in Europe. (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP) STOCKHOLM / VALLETTA / PARIS / LOS ANGELES – Europe is engulfed by a new COVID-19 wave as the number of new infections has tripled in six weeks, the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and …
High tolerance of hate worries US homeland security head
US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during a discussion of the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, the United States on July 19, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA) ASPEN, the United States – Calling divisiveness one of the many threats facing the United States, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday blamed the growing divide on the unprecedented high degree of tolerance …
‘Hasta la vista, baby,’ says UK’s Johnson as he exits parliament
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacts as he leaves from 10 Downing Street in central London on July 20, 2022 to head to the Houses of Parliament for his last weekly Prime Minister's Questions session. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson bowed out of his final showpiece parliamentary appearance with a round of applause from his party, jeers from opponents …
More EU countries consider 2nd booster jab amid COVID surge
A nurse administers a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a man in Prague, Czech Republic on July 18, 2022. (DANA KESNEROVA/XINHUA) MEXICO CITY / NICOSIA / LJUBLJANA / HARARE / MOSCOW – Slovenia has authorized the second COVID-19 vaccination booster shot to all adults after the number of new daily infections reached the highest level since spring, the National Institute of Public Health said Tuesday. The …
Russia returns bodies of 45 soldiers to Ukraine
Ukrainian servicemen clean mortar shells during training in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, July 19, 2022. (EVGENIY MALOLETKA / AP) KYIV/ISTANBUL – Forty-five more bodies of dead soldiers have been returned to Ukraine as part of another exchange with Russia, Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories said on Tuesday. The operation to exchange the bodies of the soldiers killed in the Russia-Ukraine conflict was …
Sunak sets pace as 3 left in UK leadership race
The four Conservative Party candidates that went into the latest round of voting on Tuesday are (from left) Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt. Badenoch was eliminated in the race to become the UK's next prime minister. (PHOTO / AFP) The race for the Conservative Party leadership that will also decide the next prime minister of the United Kingdom was whittled down …
WMO: Extreme heat waves ‘here to stay’
A man uses cool morning hours for a run on a small road on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany on July 18, 2022. (MICHAEL PROBST / AP PHOTO) GENEVA – The World Meteorological Organization warned on Tuesday that Europe's heat wave could persist into the middle of next week, whereas the negative impacts of climate change are bound to continue at least until 2060s. At …
EU tops up Ukraine military aid with 500 million euros
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on on July 18, 2022. (VIRGINIA MAYO / AP) BRUSSELS－European Union foreign ministers on Monday agreed to grant Ukraine an additional 500 million euros ($507.7 million) in military aid from the bloc. Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign affairs and security chief, told …
US CDC recommends Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for adults
This file photo taken on Nov 17, 2020 shows vials with COVID-19 Vaccine stickers attached and syringes with the logo of US biotech company Novavax. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) MEXICO CITY / NICOSIA – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended use of Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 18 and above. CDC director Rochelle Walensky said the decision "expanded …