USA

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Republicans in the U.S. Senate have "severe misgivings" about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's strategy to coordinate with the White House in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial to be held by the chamber, a Democratic senator has said.

USA (AP) --- The first one occurred 19 days into the new year when a man used an ax to kill four family members including his infant daughter. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a workplace shooting in Virginia. Twenty-two more died at a Walmart in El Paso in August.

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there were more mass killings in 2019 than any year dating back to at least the 1970s, punctuated by a chilling succession of deadly rampages during the summer.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Navy is proposing construction cutbacks and accelerated ship retirements that would delay, or sink, the Navy’s goal of a larger fleet — and potentially hurt shipyards, according to an initial proposal.

The proposal would shrink the size of the fleet from today’s level of 293 ships to 287 ships, a far cry from the official goal of 355 ships established in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.

WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The unprecedented increase in tariffs, imposed by the United States against its major trading partners, since early 2018, led to job losses and higher prices for the American manufacturing sector, according to a Federal Reserve study, released earlier this week.

MONTANA (AP) --- A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission.

Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Montana, arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke the record set by former space station commander Peggy Whitson in 2016-2017.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29 (NNN-TASS) – Over the past few months, a number of countries’ UN-bound diplomats, suffered visa delays or denials, by the U.S. government, for which UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, voiced his concern, recently.

Guterres’ spokesperson said, the secretary-general “remains very concerned” about delays in the issuance of U.S. visas, to multiple member states’ officials.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden sought Saturday to clarify his assertion that if the Senate subpoenas him to testify in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, he will defy the order. But he did not clear up what he would do.

A day earlier, the Democratic presidential contender told The Des Moines Register he stood by his position that he would defy the Republican-controlled Senate if it ordered him to be a witness in the proceedings.

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman accused of slapping three people in one of a series of apparently anti-Semitic attacks reported throughout New York during Hanukkah was charged Saturday with attempted assault as a hate crime, court records show.

Tiffany Harris, 30, was released without bail after her arraignment on the attempted assault charge and misdemeanor and lower-level charges , according to the records.

Her lawyer, Iris Ying, declined to comment, and the New York Post reported that Harris rebuffed questions as she left a Brooklyn court.

HONOLULU (AP) — Tour helicopter operations in Hawaii have come under increased scrutiny after the deadly crash this week, one of several recent accidents in the state, with a congressman calling the trips unsafe and lacking proper oversight.

There were no survivors of a Thursday tour helicopter crash that killed three minors and four adults, officials confirmed Saturday.

The helicopter that was set to tour the rugged Na Pali Coast, the picturesque and remote northern shoreline of Kauai that was featured in the film “Jurassic Park,” crashed on a mountaintop Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As freezing water thrashed their rowboat in some of the most treacherous waters in the world, six men fought for 13 days to make history, becoming the first people to traverse the infamous Drake Passage with nothing other than sheer manpower.

They dodged icebergs, held their breaths as giant whales breached near their small boat and rode building-sized waves while rowing 24 hours a day toward Antarctica.