USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is making his first visit to the Pentagon as commander in chief, taking stock of a military as it pivots from the turmoil of the Trump years and focuses to an unusual degree on domestic and internal issues.

Biden planned to meet Wednesday afternoon with senior civilian and military leaders and address the Pentagon workforce.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A hacker’s botched attempt to poison the water supply of a small Florida city is raising alarms about just how vulnerable the nation’s water systems may be to attacks by more sophisticated intruders. Treatment plants are typically cash-strapped, and lack the cybersecurity depth of the power grid and nuclear plants.

BUFFALO, Minn. (AP) — A 67-year-old man unhappy with the health care he’d received opened fire at a clinic Tuesday, killing one person and wounding four others, and bomb technicians were investigating a suspicious device left there and others at a motel where he was staying, authorities said.

All five victims were rushed to the hospital, and a hospital spokeswoman confirmed the one death Tuesday night. Three remained in stable but critical condition and a fourth had been discharged.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats muscled past Republicans on portions of President Joe Biden’s pandemic plan, including a proposed $130 billion in additional relief to help the nation’s schools reopen and a gradual increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

(AP) --- The U.S. has entered a tricky phase of the COVID-19 vaccination effort as providers try to ramp up the number of people getting first shots while also ensuring a growing number of others get second doses just when millions more Americans are becoming eligible to receive vaccines.

The need to give each person two doses a few weeks apart vastly complicates the country’s biggest-ever vaccination campaign. And persistent uncertainty about future vaccine supplies fuels worries that some people will not be able to get their second shots in time.

HOUSTON (AP) — The day after she gave birth in a Texas border hospital, Nailet and her newborn son were taken by federal agents to a holding facility that immigrants often refer to as the “icebox.”

Inside, large cells were packed with women and their young children. Nailet and her son were housed with 15 other women and given a mat to sleep on, with little space to distance despite the coronavirus pandemic, she said. The lights stayed on round the clock. Children constantly sneezed and coughed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Opening arguments will begin in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial after an emotional first day ended with the Senate voting to hear the case for convicting the former president of inciting the riot at the U.S. Capitol even though he is no longer in office.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 09 (APP): Pakistan has called for finding a “long-term and comprehensive” solution of the debt problem for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as part of the efforts to build back better from the wreckage left behind by of the devastating coronavirus pandemic.

“We need to find a permanent, comprehensive, and inclusive solution for this problem,” Aamir Khan, deputy permanent representative to the UN, told a preparatory meeting for the 5th UN Conference on LDCs, which is due to take place in Doha next January.

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (NNN-TELESUR) — The COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 16 million people to fall into poverty in Latin America, the International Monetary Fund reported.

“The crisis has had a disproportionate impact on employment, with losses concentrated mostly on women, youth, and informal and lower-skilled workers, and social indicators are showing this,”  the director of the IMF Western Hemisphere Department Alejandro Werner explained.

The official stressed that employment remains below pre-crisis levels as inequality has remarkably increased.

(Reuters) - As former U.S. President Donald Trump goes to trial this week in the Senate on charges of inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, criminal and civil investigations into his businesses are accelerating in New York.