North America

MEXICO CITY, June 13 (Xinhua) — Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday announced his appointment of Alicia Barcena as his new foreign minister, replacing Marcelo Ebrard, who resigned Monday to run for president.

“She has a very extensive career in the diplomatic field,” the president said during his daily press conference.

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI, June 13 (Reuters) - Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to Washington, the Biden administration is pushing New Delhi to cut through its own red tape and advance a deal for dozens of U.S.-made armed drones, two people familiar with the matter said.

India has long expressed interest in buying large armed drones from the United States. But bureaucratic stumbling blocks have hampered a hoped-for deal for SeaGuardian drones that could be worth $2 billion to $3 billion for years.

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday narrowly voted to raise the mandatory commercial pilot retirement age to 67 from 65.

Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted 32 to 31 for the pilot age amendment to a proposed five-year bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety and infrastructure programs for the next five years.

NEW YORK, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Drawing on the experience of the global war on terror, defense hawks in the U.S. Congress have figured out an accounting gimmick to protect increases in military spending, according to an article published by The Hill on Tuesday.

After weeks of partisan debate, the United States avoided a default thanks to a deal that limits some federal spending in exchange for eliminating the debt ceiling for two years. Defense spending emerged largely unscathed, however, and is set to rise to nearly 900 billion U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2025.

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty in an indictment against him, in which he faces 37 federal charges for mishandling classified documents.

The indictment alleges that Trump was involved in unlawfully retaining government secrets as he left the White House in 2021 and conspired to obstruct justice.

NEW YORK, June 14 (Xinhua) -- All of the immense benefits from free trade would be at risk if the United States chose to elevate short-term political considerations, reported Foreign Policy on Monday.

(AP) --- Some 110 million people have had to flee their homes because of conflict, persecution, or human rights violations, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says. The war in Sudan, which has displaced nearly 2 million people since April, is but the latest in a long list of crises that has led to the record-breaking figure.

“It’s quite an indictment on the state of our world,” Filippo Grandi, who leads the U.N. refugee agency, told reporters in Geneva ahead of the publication Wednesday of UNHCR’s Global Trends Report for 2022.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this weekend as part of the Biden administration’s push to repair deteriorating ties between Washington and Beijing and keep lines of communication open, the State Department said Wednesday.

Blinken will be the most senior U.S. official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office. His visit had initially been planned for earlier this year but was postponed indefinitely after the discovery and shootdown of what the U.S. said was a Chinese spy balloon over the United States.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican state lawmakers on Tuesday suspended a vote on funding for University of Wisconsin campuses, just hours after a top GOP leader promised to slash the college system’s budget as part of an ongoing fight over diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the state’s top Republican, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he expected the GOP-controlled Legislature’s budget-writing committee to cut all funding that the university system would use for diversity initiatives. He estimated the cuts would total $32 million.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since taking on the role of White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre has become known for frequently dodging questions by citing the Hatch Act. The law bars civil servants from politicking during their day jobs, and Jean-Pierre uses it to deflect reporters’ questions involving campaigns.

But apparently she wasn’t careful enough. The Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that enforces the Hatch Act, said in a recent letter that Jean-Pierre violated the law before last year’s midterm elections.