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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and most of the rest of the U.N. Security Council dug in their heels Thursday on diametrically opposed positions over the restoration of international sanctions on Iran.

In increasingly intense rhetorical terms, U.S. officials insisted they had acted legitimately in triggering a so-called “snapback” mechanism that would re-impose all U.N. sanctions Iran next month. They said the re-imposition of sanctions is a done deal and nothing can stop it.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 (NNN-WAFA) – UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, voiced concern over the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

The security situation in Gaza recently deteriorated, a trend which may soon become irreversible, he warned.

This latest escalation once again demonstrated the urgency of implementing long-term solutions for Gaza. There is a moral imperative to end all militant activity in Gaza, restore Palestinian national unity and lift Israeli closures, he said.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department on Wednesday sent letters to the governors of New York and three other Democratic-led states, seeking data on whether they violated federal law by ordering public nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals — actions that have been criticized for potentially fueling the spread of the virus.

Prosecutors said the fact-finding letters also sent to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan were aimed at determining whether the orders “may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.”

NEW YORK, Aug 25 (APP): US President Donald Trump has warned his fellow Republicans their opponents — the Democrats — may “steal” November’s election, as his party anointed him as their presidential candidate.

“The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,’ he told delegates in Charlotte, North Carolina.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Coronavirus lockdowns appear to have reduced the threat of Daesh group attacks in many countries, but the risk is greater in Iraq and Syria, a UN official said.

While Daesh is now a shadow of the organisation that occupied swathes of Iraq and Syria just a few years ago, it still has an estimated 10,000 fighters between those two countries.

However, movement curbs against the virus pandemic have reduced Daesh’s ability to launch raids elsewhere.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese ambassador to Hungary, Duan Jielong, was on Monday elected a member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

Duan was among six to have been elected in the first round of voting by the States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The other five were David J. Attard of Malta, Ida Caracciolo of Italy, Maria Teresa Infante Caffi of Chile, Maurice Kengne Kamga of Cameroon, and Markiyan Kulyk of Ukraine.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 24 (APP): Pakistan Monday called on the UN Security Council to combat all forms of terrorism and act against all terrorist organizations and ideologies, including the Hindutva extremists in India.

“The world’s counter-terrorism endeavours cannot remain restricted to only some ideologies and selected organizations,” Ambassador Munir Akram said in a statement to the 15-member Council, which held a debate on the UN Secretary-General’s report on “Threats to International Peace and Security posed by Terrorism Actions”.

NEW YORK, August 24. /TASS/: The US news portal The Daily Beast claims that US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner is in personal contact with head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev. The portal cites sources in the White House administration.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Sunday ordered a stay in President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign’s lawsuit seeking to ban drop boxes and other changes to Pennsylvania’s mail-balloting procedures.

The Nov. 3 election promises to be the nation’s largest test of voting by mail and the two major parties are locked in numerous lawsuits that will shape how millions of Americans vote this autumn.

NEW YORK, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. multinational companies know that deglobalization of supply chains and de-coupling from China will affect their production capabilities in the United States and their competition with Chinese firms in the long term, according to Harvard Business Review.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered calls for deglobalization, the fundamentals of the U.S. globalized economy -- and China's role within it -- will not change, said a report published on the magazine Thursday.