North America

COATZACOALCOS, Mexico (AP) — Mexico’s drug war appears to be back — and it may be worse this time around than in the bloody years of the government’s 2006-2012 offensive against drug cartels.

Back then, the worst of the violence was confined to a few cities. Now it is spread out throughout the country. Once it was not uncommon for gangs to kill adults but leave children unharmed. Now, the killing of children alongside their parents has become all too frequent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The polarizing politics of climate change have forced companies to choose between supporting the Trump administration’s deregulation policies that could boost profits or opposing them to win over environmentally conscious consumers.

That dynamic played out again Thursday when President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency sought to revoke regulations on methane gas emissions from oil facilities. British Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell voiced opposition to the plan but smaller oil and gas companies welcomed the possibility.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When shots rang out last year at a high school in Parkland, Florida, leaving 17 people dead, President Donald Trump quickly turned his thoughts to creating more mental institutions.

When back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, jolted the nation earlier this month, Trump again spoke of “building new facilities” for the mentally ill as a way to reduce mass shootings.

“We don’t have those institutions anymore and people can’t get proper care,” Trump lamented at a New Hampshire campaign rally not long after the latest shootings.

29 Aug 2019; MEMO: Alabama Republicans approved a resolution calling for expelling Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from Congress, USA Today reported.

Citing controversial statements on the 9/11 attacks, anti-Semitism and strong support for the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli occupation, the Republicans called for the state’s congressional delegation to begin the process of seeking Omar’s expulsion from Congress.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy destroyer sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, a move that Beijing condemned as an illegal attempt by Washington at “maritime hegemony”.

The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-Chinese relationship, which include an escalating trade war, American sanctions on China’s military, and U.S. relations with Taiwan. Reuters reported on Tuesday that China had denied a request for a U.S. Navy warship to visit the Chinese port city of Qingdao.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The family of a Chinese immigrant who was killed by U.S. police during a narcotics-related search operation is taking legal action against the police department of the city of Chino in California, said the attorneys for the family on Wednesday.

Li Xi Wang, 49, was fatally shot by police as he was seen standing behind a door at a home in Chino on July 3, according to the body-worn camera video footage released by Chino police.

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The death toll has reached 26 after a bar was set on fire in eastern Mexico, the state prosecutor general's office said on Wednesday.

Another 11 people were injured in the massacre at the Caballo Blanco Bar in the city of Coatzacoalcos, a coastal city in the eastern state of Veracruz, at around 10:15 p.m. local time Tuesday.

Assailants set fire to the bar, then closed the emergency exit to trap those inside. Most of the fatal victims, including 10 women, died from asphyxiation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Struggling Democratic presidential candidates are facing the bad news that they are not among the 10 who have qualified for the next debate, a predicament that is likely to spell doom for their campaigns.

Hours ahead of a midnight Wednesday deadline to qualify, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced she was dropping out of the race after spending at least $4 million on advertising in recent months to qualify.

SALEM, Oregon (AP) — A white man opens fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, targeting Mexicans and killing 22 people. Another man kills 11 Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The two mass shootings and a presidential tweet put a spotlight on the idea of “domestic terrorism,” adding momentum to a debate about whether such attacks should be classified and tried in the same way as crimes against America by foreign terrorist groups and their supporters.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Dorian caused limited damage in the northern Caribbean as it left the region Wednesday night, setting its sights on the U.S. mainland as it threatened to grow into a dangerous Category 3 storm.

Power outages and flooding were reported across the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra after Dorian hit St. Thomas as a Category 1 storm.