USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned ominously of a “scorched earth” landscape if Democrats use their new majority to bring an end to the Senate filibuster in hopes of muscling legislation supporting President Joe Biden’s agenda past GOP opposition.

McConnell unleashed the dire forecast of a Senate that would all but cease to function, implying that Republicans would grind business to a halt by refusing to give consent for routine operations — from the start time for sessions, to the reading of long legislative texts, to quorum call votes.

CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — President Joe Biden turned up at a minority-owned flooring business in suburban Philadelphia to highlight how his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package can help small businesses and to put a face on those who have struggled throughout the pandemic.

The visit Tuesday to Smith Flooring Inc. was Biden’s first stop in a cross-country administration roadshow — also involving his vice president and his wife — designed to publicize, and take credit for, the virus relief package.

ATLANTA (AP) — Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs Tuesday evening left eight people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said. A 21-year-old man suspected in the shootings was taken into custody in southwest Georgia hours later after a manhunt, police said.

The attacks began around 5 p.m., when five people were shot at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor in a strip mall near a rural area in Acworth, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Atlanta, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said.

UNITED NATIONS, March 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called to combat violence against women, at the start of the annual Commission on the Status of Women, which is expected to call for greater action against sexual harassment.

During the pandemic, women have been more exposed than men to harmful consequences, Guterres said, citing loss of jobs, sexual abuse or child marriage.

“Women’s equal participation is the game-changer we need,” he said, calling for gender equality and gender parity in leadership.

15 Mar 2021; MEMO: The brutal conflict that has enveloped Syria has endured longer than both world wars combined, the UN's special envoy for the country noted on Monday on the civil war's 10-year anniversary, Anadolu Agency reported.

Geir Pedersen said there is a "silver lining" of what he called a "relative calm" that now exists in Syria where frontlines have remained largely stable for the past year, stressing the situation should be used to make progress on a political settlement.

(Reuters) - A spate of volatility in money markets has stoked speculation the Federal Reserve may be forced into a technical adjustment to the levers controlling its benchmark interest rate to ensure that it does not fall too low, but few expect the central bank to act on the matter at this week’s meeting.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is due to vote on two immigration bills that would provide a path to citizenship for millions living illegally in the United States, including farmworkers and younger immigrants known as “Dreamers.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia prosecutor said Wednesday that she has opened a criminal investigation into “attempts to influence” last year’s general election, including a call in which President Donald Trump asked a top official to find enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

In a Jan. 2 telephone conversation with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results of the presidential election, an assertion the secretary of state firmly rejected.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid strong bipartisan pushback, security officials say they will soon scale back fencing that has circled the U.S. Capitol and cut off the entire area to pedestrian and vehicular traffic since a mob attacked the building on Jan. 6.

Timothy Blodgett, the acting House sergeant-at-arms, said Monday in a memo to members of Congress that the fencing will be scaled back in two phases in response to guidance from the U.S. Capitol Police that “there does not exist a known, credible threat” that warrants keeping the temporary barrier in place.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom established a political committee Monday to begin raising money to defend his seat in a potential recall election, the strongest acknowledgment to date that he expects to be on the ballot this year.

The Democrat’s new fundraising arm could soon send a powerful message to his possible rivals: Under state rules, Newsom alone is allowed to raise money in unlimited amounts, while other candidates must adhere to contribution limits.