New York

NEW YORK, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States is "highly likely" to default on government obligations by early June and potentially as early as June 1 if the Congress fails to raise or suspend the debt limit, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in an update letter to congressional leaders on Monday.

Yellen gave a similar estimate in another letter one week ago.

NEW YORK (AP) — A recent $5 million defamation verdict hasn’t kept Donald Trump quiet. Will a stern warning from the judge in his Manhattan criminal case?

That’s the question looming over a hybrid hearing Tuesday where the former president is set be instructed on new rules barring him from using evidence in the hush-money case to attack witnesses who could testify against him.

Trump won’t have to show up to court for the afternoon hearing at a Manhattan courthouse, avoiding the mammoth security and logistical challenges that accompanied his arraignment last month.

22 May 2023; MEMO: Syrian government officials should be investigated for crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch has said against the backdrop of the UAE's invitation to Bashar Al-Assad to attend the UN climate conference COP28.

It would be the Syrian President's first appearance at a global conference since the Syrian uprising and subsequent war began in 2011.

NEW YORK, May 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump are just the latest in a four-decade-long chain of recent presidents who have mishandled classified documents during their tenure, New York Post has reported.

Every U.S. administration since President Ronald Reagan has in some form fumbled federal procedure when managing top-secret records, the report said on Wednesday, citing the testimony of National Archives officials in a closed-door hearing before a congressional committee in March.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. envoy charged with trying to protect children caught in conflicts is in Moscow, where she is reported to be meeting Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, who is charged with war crimes for deporting children from Ukraine.

Human Rights Watch strongly criticized Virginia Gamba’s reported meeting with Maria Lvova-Belova, saying the Russian commissioner should be behind bars and not meeting with senior U.N. representatives.

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (APP): Reaffirming its commitment to reduce disaster risk, Pakistan told the UN General Assembly Thursday of the government’s “outstanding” efforts in responding to last year’s devastating floods across the country, with swift rescue and relief operations to get some 30 million affected people out of immediate risk.

In spite of huge financial challenges, Lt. General Inam Haider Malik, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said the government demonstrated its resolve and commitment for the urgent needs of the affected people.

UNITED NATIONS, May 19. /TASS/: Russia reserves its right to take all necessary measures to neutralize security threats originating from Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said during a Security Council meeting.

"Russia reserves the right to take all necessary measures to neutralize the security threat. The goals of the special military operation will be achieved," he stressed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jordan Neely, whose chokehold death on the New York City subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety, will be mourned by his family Friday at a church in Harlem.

A former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been struggling with mental illness and homelessness in recent years, Neely died May 1 when a fellow subway rider pinned him to the floor of a subway car in a chokehold that lasted several minutes.

19 May 2023; AA: Russia and the US traded barbs at the UN on Thursday over arming Ukraine, with Moscow blaming the West for using the Eastern European country as a ''testing site'' for their weapons. 

Speaking at the UN Security Council, Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said that Ukraine was being dragged into a prolonged conflict by the West.

18 May 2023; MEMO: Legislation has been put forward at New York's state assembly which would prevent registered charities from sending tens of millions of dollars per year to help fund illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian Territories.