Pompeo Urges UN Arms Embargo on Iran’s ‘Terrorist Regime’
Calling Iran “the world’s most heinous terrorist regime,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to extend the UN arms embargo against Tehran, which expires in October, and reject “extortion diplomacy.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif countered calling President Donald Trump’s administration “an outlaw bully” that is waging “economic terrorism” on his country to satisfy domestic constituencies and “personal aggrandizement.” He called for the United States to compensate the Iranian people for the damage and vehemently opposed any extension of the arms embargo, warning that Iran’s options “will be firm” if it is maintained and the United States will bear full responsibility. The United States has circulated a draft Security Council resolution to extend the arms embargo indefinitely, and Pompeo said the United…
Australia’s trade surplus rose 2.0 percent to $8.03 billion in May, as imports fell faster than exports.
Exports dropped 4.0 percent to $35.7 billion, while imports dropped 6.0 percent to $27.7 billion, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on July 2.
Imports of consumption goods was steeply lower, down 14 percent to $8.9 billion.
Exports of rural goods fell 10 percent to $3.6 million, driven by a 31 percent drop in cereal grains and cereal preparations.
Coal export earnings dropped by 13.3 percent, or $635 million.
“Australia’s international trade surplus has – on balance – been boosted by the net impacts of the pandemic,” Westpac economist Andrew Hanlan said in a note.
“Imports are trending lower as domestic demand contracts. Goods exports, while not immune from the global recession, have been more resilient.”
Economists had been expecting a $9 billion trade surplus, Hanlan said, but the reason for the surprise was that ABS revised down the April result by $1 billion.
Derek Rose in Sydney
Focus News: Australia’s Trade Surplus Rose 2Pct in May
UK Offers Path to Citizenship to 3 Million Hongkongers After China Imposes National Security Law
LONDON鈥擳he United Kingdom said China’s imposition of a security law on Hong Kong was a “clear and serious” violation of the 1984 Joint Declaration and that London would offer around 3 million residents of the former colony a path to British citizenship. Hong Kong police fired water cannons and tear gas and arrested nearly 200 people as protesters took to the streets in defiance of sweeping security legislation introduced by China that they say is aimed at snuffing out dissent. “The enactment and imposition of this national security law constitute a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament on July 1. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in London, UK, on June 23, 2020. (Toby Melville/ Reuters)Johnson said Britain…
