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Devastated North Carolina town still reeling from Florence

TRENTON, N.C. (AP) — Nine months after Hurricane Florence inundated much of eastern North Carolina, the tiny town of Trenton is still struggling to rebuild as a new hurricane season begins.

The Jones County courthouse and jail have yet to reopen. Judges hear cases in county office buildings and inmates are housed in another county. Even the mayor has yet to move back into her house, because construction workers are in short supply.

Greek Orthodox church in US gets 1st new leader in 20 years

NEW YORK (AP) — The Greek Orthodox church of the United States, a far-flung denomination of 1.5-million members, on Saturday installed its first new leader in 20 years — a lifelong European whose top priority is completing construction of a shrine in New York City linked to the Sept. 11 attacks.

USA: Sentencing looms in Charlottesville terror attack; man seeks mercy

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The self-avowed white supremacist who plowed his car into counterdemonstrators opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one person and injuring dozens, has asked a judge for mercy and a sentence shorter than life in prison.

Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr., 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents Friday that the defendant should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.

US struck Iranian military computers this week

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military cyber forces launched a strike against Iranian military computer systems on Thursday as President Donald Trump backed away from plans for a more conventional military strike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone, U.S. officials said Saturday.

Two officials told The Associated Press that the strikes were conducted with approval from Trump. A third official confirmed the broad outlines of the strike. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the operation.

Device to trap plastic waste in Pacific Ocean relaunches

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A floating device designed to catch plastic waste has been redeployed in second attempt to clean up a huge island of trash swirling in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

Boyan Slat, creator of The Ocean Cleanup project, announced on Twitter that a 2,000-foot (600-meter) long floating boom that broke apart late last year was sent back to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this week after four months of repair.

Amid tough talk, Trump says he could be Iran’s ‘best friend’

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that military action against Iran was still an option for its downing of an unmanned U.S. military aircraft, but amid heightened tensions he dangled the prospect of eventually becoming an unlikely “best friend” of America’s longtime Middle Eastern adversary.

Trump also said “we very much appreciate” that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard chose not to target a U.S. spy plane carrying more than 30 people.

US blocks more Chinese tech firms on 'national security' concerns

22 June 2019; AFP: The US Commerce Department blacklisted five Chinese tech entities Friday in a new move against Beijing's supercomputing industry likely to raise tensions ahead of a meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping next week.

The notice targets Sugon -- a prominent Chinese supercomputer manufacturer -- along with three of its microchip subsidiaries and a computing institute owned by the People's Liberation Army.

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