North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Another solid month of hiring in the United States is expected to be reported Friday, an outcome that would suggest no recession is near but could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to succeed in its drive to cool the economy and curb high inflation.

Employers are forecast to have added 205,000 jobs in June, according to economists surveyed by data provider FactSet. Though below recent monthly gains, that would amount to a healthy increase and reflect a historically high number of advertised job openings.

(AP) --- As a warming Earth simmered into worrisome new territory this week, scientists said the unofficial records being set for average planetary temperature were a clear sign of how pollutants released by humans are warming their environment. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us something is gravely wrong, they said.

“Heat sets the pace of our climate in so many ways ... it’s never just the heat,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University.

NEW YORK, July 6. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that he told US and European leaders that Ukraine wanted to launch its counteroffensive earlier but it needed more weapons for that.

OTTAWA, July 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to Twitter to try to convince American pop star Taylor Swift to add some stops on her "Eras Tour" in Canada after she announced 14 new dates in Europe.

"It's me, hi. I know places in Canada would love to have you. So, don't make it another cruel summer. We hope to see you soon," Trudeau said, replying late on Wednesday to an earlier tweet by Swift announcing the new tour dates.

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, July 6 (Reuters) - Two New Jersey firefighters were killed and five injured while battling an intense blaze overnight on a cargo ship packed with hundreds of vehicles docked at Port Newark, officials said on Thursday.

The Italian-flagged Grande Costa d’Avorio was carrying 1,200 new and used vehicles when a fire broke out on its 10th deck at about 10:30 p.m. EST (0330 GMT) on Wednesday, vessel operator Grimaldi Deep Sea said in a statement.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two firefighters were killed battling a blaze that began when cars caught fire deep inside a cargo ship carrying 5,000 cars at a New Jersey port, Newark’s fire chief said Thursday.

Responding firefighters found five to seven vehicles already on fire when they reached the 10th floor of the cargo ship at Port Newark around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night. The blaze quickly extended to the 11th and 12th floors, and as firefighters were pushed back by the intense heat, two of them were lost, Fire Chief Rufus Jackson said at a news conference.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis do not grasp the broader implications of their call for limited military assistance to Ukraine, former Vice President Mike Pence told The Associated Press in Iowa Wednesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A super PAC supporting Miami Mayor Francis Suarez ‘s run for the Republican presidential nomination has launched an artificial intelligence chatbot to answer questions about him, marking yet another example of how generative AI tools are being used in 2024 presidential campaigns.

The bot unveiled Wednesday by SOS America PAC listens to a user’s questions and matches them to video answers, created with an AI-powered avatar made to look and sound like Suarez.

MIAMI (AP) — A valet for Donald Trump accused of helping the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities is due back in a Florida court on Thursday after an earlier appearance was postponed because of a canceled flight.

Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents, is set to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Miami. That was to have happened twice before already, but he has struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida to represent him.

(AP) --- Meta has unveiled an app called Threads to rival Twitter, targeting users looking for an alternative to the social media platform owned — and frequently changed — by Elon Musk.

Threads is billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”