Tag: US

More than 800 die of COVID-19 in US in 24 hours: Johns Hopkins

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States has recorded another 839 coronavirus-related fatalities in the last 24 hours, bringing the country’s death toll to 114,613, according to a tally Friday by Johns Hopkins University. The world’s top economy is the most affected by the pandemic in absolute terms, with both the highest number of deaths and the largest number of infections — 2,044,572 at 8:30 pm Friday (0030 GMT Saturday), a tracker maintained by […]

North Korea denounces US two years after Singapore summit

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea criticized Donald Trump in a stinging denunciation of the United States on Friday, the second anniversary of a landmark summit in Singapore where the US president shook hands with leader Kim Jong Un. It was the latest in a series of vitriolic statements from Pyongyang aimed at both Washington and Seoul, and came a day after the North implicitly threatened to disrupt November’s election if the US […]

Basketball star LeBron James looks to promote African-American voting rights

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Basketball star LeBron James announced Wednesday that he and several other professional athletes plan to found a charitable organization to protect black Americans’ voting rights, five months ahead of the country’s presidential election, The New York Times reported. The move also comes as mammoth protests have swept the United States and the world calling for an end to hundreds of years of racial discrimination against black people. “We feel like […]

US tops two million coronavirus cases: Johns Hopkins

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the United States topped two million on Wednesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 112,900 people in the United States, which leads the world in the number of confirmed infections with 2,000,464, according to the Baltimore-based school’s latest count. © Agence France-Presse

Pelosi seeks removal of Confederate statues from US Capitol

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Wednesday for removal of 11 Confederate statues from the US Capitol, part of a nationwide push to dismantle such memorials after a black man’s killing in police custody sparked mass anti-racism protests. “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals” of American democracy and freedom, the top Democrat in Congress wrote […]

US records more than 800 virus deaths in 24 hours: Johns Hopkins

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The coronavirus pandemic killed 819 people in the United States in the past 24 hours, according to figures released Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University. There have been a total of 111,751 deaths in the country and 1,973,803 cases of infection, the Baltimore-based institution’s real-time tracker reported at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Wednesday). The United States is the country hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of both the number of […]

US Army pressured to rename bases named after pro-slavery generals

WASHINGTON DC, United States (AFP) — A handful of US Army bases named for Civil War generals of the pro-slavery South could be in for name changes as pressure builds to rid the country of monuments associated with repression of blacks. The Pentagon said Tuesday that both Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy are willing to consider the idea, as the country moved into a third week of protests over mistreatment […]

Iran will execute spy who helped US target general

by Amir Havasi TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Tehran said Tuesday it will execute an Iranian for spying for the United States and Israel after his conviction was upheld for helping the US to locate a top Iranian general killed in a drone strike. Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was convicted of spying on Iran’s armed forces, “especially the Quds Force and on the whereabouts and movements of martyr General Qasem Soleimani”, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in […]

UK slave trader’s statue toppled in anti-racism protests

by Dmitry ZAKS Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Protesters tore down the statue of a notorious British slave trader Sunday and dumped it in a harbour on the second day of demonstrations against George Floyd’s death. Footage showed a few dozen people tie a rope around the neck of Edward Colston’s statue and bring it to the ground in the southwestern city of Bristol. They stamped on it for a few minutes before […]

Tropical Storm Cristobal makes landfall in Louisiana

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall in southeast Louisiana on Sunday, bringing strong winds, heavy rains and the threat of damaging storm surges, the US National Hurricane Center said. The storm hit at 2200 GMT along the southeast coast of the state, the NHC said, with maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour). A nearby island off the coast of Mississippi recorded gusts of 64 mph. […]

COVID-19 deaths worldwide surpass 400,000 as global infections near 7 million

  (Eagle News) — Coronavirus deaths worldwide reached almost 402,000 on Monday, June 8, as virus cases also neared 7 million with infections still rising in most countries. The United States still leads countries in number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Based on the virus dashboard of Johns Hopkins University, US COVID-19 cases reached 1,938,842 while virus-related fatalities hit 110,482. Brazil is second to the US in terms of cases with 672,846 confirmed infections, and […]

Global race protests mark George Floyd’s death

  by Dmitry ZAKS with AFP bureaus Taking a knee, chanting and ignoring social distancing measures, outraged protesters from Sydney to London kicked off a weekend of global rallies Saturday against racism and police brutality. The death during the arrest of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in the US state of Minnesota, has brought tens of thousands out onto the streets during a pandemic that is ebbing in Asia and Europe, but spreading in […]