USA

(AP) --- U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is heading to China for talks between the world’s two biggest carbon emitters ahead of President Joe Biden’s climate summit of world leaders.

Kerry will travel to Shanghai and Seoul, from Wednesday to Saturday, the State Department said in a statement Tuesday. The former secretary of state has been expected to talk with China’s top climate negotiator, fellow veteran diplomat Xie Zhenhua.

The trip marks the highest-level travel to China known so far for officials of the Biden administration.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will address a joint session of Congress for the first time on April 28.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi extended the invitation to Biden on Tuesday, “to share your vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment.” The White House said Biden accepted the invitation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Florida’s two Republican senators are steering clear of voicing support for Rep. Matt Gaetz, branding sex trafficking accusations against him serious but calling it premature to say what should happen to their fellow Floridian and GOP lawmaker.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign hit a snag when federal regulators recommended a “pause” in administering Johnson & Johnson shots. But the White House portrayed the action as important validation of his measured approach throughout the rollout.

Biden declared Tuesday that even with a temporary loss of J&J ’s one-shot vaccine, there is a huge supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, enough that “is basically 100% unquestionable, for every single, solitary American.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul Flores was the last person seen with Kristin Smart before she vanished from a college campus on California’s scenic Central Coast nearly 25 years ago and suspicion has followed him ever since.

He went from being a “person of interest” to a “suspect” to “the prime suspect.”

Investigators never had enough evidence to charge him with a crime related to her disappearance until Tuesday when Flores was arrested on suspicion of murder in Smart’s death. His father, Ruben Flores, was arrested as an accessory to the crime.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America that were coordinated from that country, several U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The decision defies a May 1 deadline for full withdrawal under a peace agreement the Trump administration reached with the Taliban last year, but leaves no room for additional extensions. A senior administration official called the September date an absolute deadline that won’t be affected by security conditions in the country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to start debate on legislation confronting the rise of potential hate crimes against Asian Americans, a growing problem during the coronavirus crisis that will also test whether the chamber can push past partisanship on an issue important to many constituents.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The defense for a former police officer charged in George Floyd’s death challenged the heart of the case against the officer, calling a use-of-force expert who testified that Derek Chauvin was justified in pinning Floyd and said it might have gone easier if the Black man had been “resting comfortably” on the pavement.

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — Prosecutors expect to decide Wednesday whether to charge the white former police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb, sparking nights of protests and raising tensions amid the nearby murder trial of the ex-officer charged with killing George Floyd.

Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon resigned Tuesday, two days after Potter shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright. Gannon has said he believed Potter mistakenly grabbed her pistol when she was trying to pull out her Taser.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 13 (APP): President of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram, has called for stepped up efforts to address the world’s drug problem, saying that drug use had increased manifold during the coronavirus pandemic.