USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday expressed concern about what it called escalations of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made calls to his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.

NEW YORK (AP) — A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested on assault and hate crime charges in an attack on an Asian American woman in New York City, police said Wednesday.

Police said Brandon Elliot, 38, is the man seen on surveillance video kicking and stomping the woman near Times Square on Monday. The woman was attacked in front of an apartment building.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion plan to transform America’s infrastructure includes $16 billion to plug old oil and gas wells and clean up abandoned mines, a longtime priority for Western and rural lawmakers from both parties.

Hundreds of thousands of “orphaned” oil and gas wells and abandoned coal and hardrock mines pose serious safety hazards, while causing ongoing environmental damage. The administration sees the longstanding problem as an opportunity to create jobs and remediate pollution, including greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

ATLANTA (AP) — Some of Georgia’s most prominent corporate leaders on Wednesday began to more forcefully criticize the state’s sweeping new election law, acknowledging concerns of civil rights activists and Black business executives who say the measure targets non-white voters and threatens the democratic process.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A child was among four people killed Wednesday in a shooting at a Southern California office building that left a fifth victim and the gunman critically wounded, police said.

The violence in the city of Orange southeast of Los Angeles was the nation’s third mass shooting in just over two weeks.

When police arrived at the two-story structure around 5:30 p.m. shots were being fired, Orange Police Lt. Jennifer Amat said. Officers opened fire and the suspect was taken to a hospital, Amat said.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — George Floyd’s struggle with three police officers trying to arrest him, seen on body-camera video, included Floyd’s panicky cries of “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” and “I’m claustrophobic!” as the officers tried to push Floyd into the back of a police SUV.

MISSION, Texas (AP) — Overwhelmed and underprepared, U.S. authorities are releasing migrant families on the Mexican border without notices to appear in immigration court or sometimes without any paperwork at all — a time-saving move that has left migrants confused.

(AP) --- The company at the center of quality problems that led Johnson & Johnson to discard an unknown amount of its coronavirus vaccine has a string of citations from U.S. health officials for quality control problems.

NEW YORK, Mar 31 (APP): The Taliban are promoting a “bold message” that they have already won the war in Afghanistan, with little apparent interest in making concessions in negotiating a peace deal, The New York Times said in a report from Kabul.

WASHINGTON, March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two Capitol Police officers sued former US president Donald Trump for inciting the Jan 6 insurrection that left dozens of their fellow officers injured and one dead.

Officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby said they suffered “physical and emotional injuries” in the riot they said was fomented by Trump, when he was in his final weeks as president and refusing to accept his election defeat.