President Joe Biden said yesterday he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin that relations between the U.S. and Russia are at a “low point,” days before the two leaders are scheduled to hold a highly anticipated summit in Geneva.

“I think he is right, it’s a low point. And it depends on how he responds to acting consistent with international norms, which, in many cases, he has not,” Biden told reporters at a news conference before departing the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall.

In a clip of an interview with NBC aired on Friday night, Putin told NBC News’ Keir Simmons in Moscow, “We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years.” They echoed a comment from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who told CNN that that Putin wanted to meet with Biden precisely because of the poor state of relations between the two nations.

The European Union (EU) has acted in an “offensive” way by repeatedly refusing to treat Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom (UK), Dominic Raab has claimed.

The UK Foreign Secretary deepened the rift with Brussels over the trading arrangements which apply to Northern Ireland under the Brexit deal, accusing EU figures of showing a lack of respect to the UK.

His comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the UK during his talks with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the margins of the G7 summit.

“What we cannot have is the continuing disruption of trade and effectively try to change the status of Northern Ireland, contrary to the consent and wishes of the people, which is not just contrary to the Northern Ireland Protocol but also to the Belfast Agreement,” Raab told Sky News.

“We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it was some kind of different country to the UK. It is not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation.

“Could you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, one of the lander in Germany, northern Italy, Corsica in France as different countries? We need a bit of respect here.”

Raab told Times Radio: “There was more than one senior European figure talking about this at this summit and I’ve heard it for years now.

“And the truth is Northern Ireland cannot be talked about as a separate country to the UK. It’s offensive. And that kind of approach speaks volumes. That is one of the reasons we have the problems we do with the Northern Ireland Protocol, because there isn’t a proper appreciation and there’s been a lopsided approach.”

Johnson has threatened to unilaterally delay the imposition of checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland in protest at the way in which the deal he agreed is being implemented.

The British Prime Minister met French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel in the margins of the summit on Saturday.

Agency Reporter

A lab-leak hypothesis about the origin of COVID-19 was flawed, said Dominic Dwyer, a professor at the University of Sydney, in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald

The key flaw, he said, is that no evidence shows that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had SARS-CoV-2 before the pandemic.

“The laboratory leak, for that to be the origin meant they must have had the virus to begin with, and we don’t have evidence of that,’’ said Dwyer, who was also a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) team sent to China in January.

READ ALSO: If the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis is true, expect a political earthquake

As a “pretty prominent research institute’’ working on Coronaviruses, the Wuhan Institute of Virology had no reason to hide anything if they did have the virus, said Dwyer.

China appeared open and cooperative with the investigation into COVID-19’s origin, he said.

“All the locations we asked about visiting, they let us visit. I think they were pretty open.’’

The WHO team’s report concluded that a virus jumping from one animal species to another and then to humans was the most likely cause of COVID-19, and deemed a lab leak “extremely unlikely,’’ according to Dwyer. (Xinhua/NAN)

Agency Reporter

Former U.S. President Donald Trump ordered his top White House attorney to issue a false statement at the height of the Mueller investigation even though he knew that lying could carry criminal consequences for both of them, according to newly unearthed congressional testimony.

Donald McGahn, who served as Trump’s first White House counsel, told members of the House Judiciary Committee in a closed-door hearing last week that the ex-president instructed him to issue a statement in February 2018 denying that he had ever tried to fire former FBI director Robert Mueller, who was tasked with investigating obstruction in the 2016 election, according to a 241-page transcript of the testimony released Wednesday.

Trump knew that statement “would not have been accurate” since he had ordered McGahn months earlier to orchestrate Mueller’s firing — a demand McGahn refused, he testified.

Trump also knew at the time that McGahn had already told Mueller’s investigators the truth and that the special counsel would not take kindly to the White House lawyer giving conflicting accounts of a key episode in his probe into whether the former president obstructed justice, according to the testimony.

“[Mueller] had already publicly made clear he was going after various people for that, and that certainly is one that would weigh on anybody’s mind,” McGahn testified, referring to false statement crimes, according to the transcript.

Nonetheless, Trump kept pressuring McGahn, making him feel “trapped,” he testified.

“Frustrated, perturbed, trapped,” he told lawmakers. “Many emotions … Trapped because the president had the same conversation with me repeatedly, and I thought I conveyed my views and offered my advice, and we were still having the same conversation.”

One of the judiciary committee’s investigators asked McGahn during the June 4 hearing if he agreed with the characterization that Trump was asking him to “do crazy s–t” in first demanding Mueller’s firing and then requesting a statement claiming it never happened.

“I think it’s fair,” McGahn replied.

Trump tried to block McGahn from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee for years, but the panel’s chairperson, New York Representative Jerry Nadler, ultimately prevailed in court.

READ ALSO: Trump backs Nigeria on Twitter ban

In a statement on Wednesday, Nadler said McGahn’s testimony provided “first-hand accounts of President Trump’s increasingly out of control behavior” as Mueller dug deeper into his campaign’s ties to Russia and possible obstruction of that inquiry.

“All told, Mr McGahn’s testimony gives us a fresh look at how dangerously close President Trump brought us to, in Mr McGahn’s words, the ‘point of no return,’” the New York Democrat said.

After investigating Trump for nearly two years, Mueller concluded in his special counsel report that he did not uncover enough evidence to recommend that the former president or his campaign aides be charged with directly colluding in Russia’s attack on the 2016 election.

However, Mueller notably never exonerated Trump of obstructing his investigation.

In his report, Mueller listed off 10 individual instances of potential obstruction crimes committed by the former president.

After Mueller’s probe wrapped up, Trump went on to get impeached twice for conduct related to the 2020 election.

The former president maintains to this day that every investigation into his various alleged wrongdoing is part of a nefarious political “witch hunt.” (tca/dpa/NAN)

Agency Reporter

U.S. President Joe Biden embarked on his first overseas trip on Wednesday where he will meet European partners

The president and First Lady Jill Biden are scheduled to meet U.S. soldiers in the English county of Suffolk to kick off their first foreign trip since taking office in January.

On Thursday, Biden was due to meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson near Cornwall, where the G7 summit taking place from Friday to Sunday, on the fringes of which Biden was expected to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among other G7 leaders.

READ ALSO: Biden brings more class warfare to foreign policy

At the end of their visit to Britain, the U.S. president and the first lady would be received by Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle near London on Sunday.

On Monday, Biden planned to attend the NATO summit in Brussels, where a top-level meeting with EU representatives is scheduled for the following day.

On Wednesday of next week, Biden would be expected to hold an eagerly awaited summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva before the U.S. president returned to Washington.

The White House said, “This trip will highlight America’s commitment to rallying the world’s democracies, coming together to shape the rules of the road for the 21st century, defend our values, and tackle the world’s biggest challenges.’’ (dpa/NAN)

Agency Reporter

About 30,000 nurses in New Zealand walked off their jobs on Wednesday in a nationwide eight-hour strike after negotiations with the government for better pay and working conditions failed.

The strike action came after the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) rejected a 1.4 per cent pay hike proposed by the District Health Board earlier this week.

The government said the nurses’ demands amounted to a 17 per cent increase that it can’t afford, but pledged to continue negotiations.

The stand-off comes as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern faces criticism for not doing enough to address rising inequality in spite of the economy bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic more swiftly than expected.

Thousands of nurses marched on the streets holding placards, while others gathered at parks and outside hospitals around the country.

“Nurses are the glue who hold care services together,’’ Dr Julian Vyas, president of Association of Salaried Medical Specialists said, according to the online news portal Newshub.

“If they are on strike, you can be sure there’s a big problem which needs to be fixed,” he added.

Nurses have complained of being underpaid and burnt out, with conditions worsening with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Current pay rates do not attract people into the profession or retain the people, and staffing levels have stretched them to breaking point, putting them and their patients at risk, NZNO had said in a statement.

“We stood during the pandemic. The nurses have put their lives at risk, and that of their families. And this is the thanks that we are given,’’ Diane McCulloch, Clinical Nurse Specialist told Newshub.

All non-urgent surgeries and outpatient clinics were cancelled. (Reuters/NAN)

Agency Reporter

Chinese police have located or rescued 1,737 missing or abducted children since January, including adults who went missing or were abducted as children, said the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday.

Since a nationwide campaign codenamed “Tuanyuan,’’ meaning reunion in Chinese, was launched in January, police have resolved 91 long-pending cases involving child abduction or trafficking, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, a total of 236 suspects have been caught since the campaign began, it said.

READ ALSO: Chinese blogger sentenced to eight months for denigrating martyrs

During the campaign, China’s public security authorities have improved their systems and approaches, including a rapid locating mechanism for missing children and a DNA database to fight child trafficking.

Over 3,000 free blood-sampling sites have also been opened to the public recently, where missing or abducted individuals and their parents are encouraged to provide their blood samples to the police where possible. (Xinhua/NAN)