North America

3 Sep 2019; MEMO: A seventeen-year-old Palestinian student from Lebanon who was denied entry into the United States last month, has been granted access to enter the country in time to begin classes at Harvard University today.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 03 (APP): UN leaders have expressed solidarity with the people and Government of the Bahamas and all those impacted by Hurricane Dorian, the massive storm pummeling the region with high winds and torrential rainfall.

“The Secretary-General is deeply saddened by the terrible devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian, which is still impacting the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” a statement issued by the Spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres, said on Monday night.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — At least 25 people were confirmed dead and nine others still missing after a tragic boat fire early Monday near an island off the Southern California coast.

The dive-boat Conception, far out to sea in the middle of the night, became fully engulfed in flames as 30 passengers on a recreational scuba diving trip slept below deck.

“You couldn’t ask for a worse situation,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a Monday news conference.

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — The gunman in a West Texas rampage “was on a long spiral of going down” and had been fired from his oil services job the morning he killed seven people, calling 911 both before and after the shooting began, authorities said.

Officers killed 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator on Saturday outside a busy Odessa movie theater after a spate of violence that spanned 10 miles (16 kilometers), injuring around two dozen people in addition to the dead.

SEATTLE (AP) — Lawmakers around the country are making a renewed push to ban high-capacity magazines that gunmen have used in many recent massacres, allowing them to inflict mass casualties at a startling rate before police can stop the carnage.

Nine states have passed laws restricting magazine capacity to 10 to 15 bullets, and the Democratic-led U.S. House plans to consider a similar ban at the federal level in the coming weeks.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It’s become a hurricane-season ritual in the Southeast: When a storm threatens, coastal residents board up homes, load up SUVs and fill highways where the traffic lanes are reversed to offer a speedy escape inland.

For some people, Hurricane Dorian is the fourth storm they have had to flee in four years.

Forecasters are not sure if the core of the powerful system will ever strike the U.S. It is predicted to stay offshore as it spins north, paralleling the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, moderates who project themselves as pragmatic collaborators, are taking a no-compromise approach on the overhaul of the nation’s gun laws after the latest mass shooting.

Campaigning separately in eastern Iowa on Monday, the former vice president and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, say the minimum provisions include universal background checks, a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition, and red flag laws to allow officials to confiscate firearms from dangerous people.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A fire raged through a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least eight people dead and hope diminishing that any of the 26 people still missing would be found alive.

Five crew members escaped by jumping off the boat and taking refuge on an inflatable boat.

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Hurricane Dorian unleashed massive flooding across the Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with so much wind and water that authorities urged people to find floatation devices and grab hammers to break out of their attics if necessary. At least five deaths were blamed on the storm.

“We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in announcing the fatalities. He called the devastation “unprecedented and extensive.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As summer ends and the race for the 2020 Democratic U.S. presidential nomination shifts into a higher gear, former Vice President Joe Biden’s perilous position atop the vast field stands to be tested under even more pressure.

Biden, 76, has consistently maintained a comfortable lead over his rivals. But his campaign has been plagued by doubts over his age, fitness for office and whether, as a moderate, he can be a standard-bearer for a party that has grown increasingly liberal.

Those questions are likely to be magnified in the coming weeks.