North America

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday unveiled a series of new tax breaks aimed at businesses and families while proposing to reverse some of President Joe Biden's legislative victories, including credits to spur the sale of clean-burning electric vehicles.

Three related bills were introduced on Friday with the goal of moving the legislation through the House Ways and Means Committee next week.

June 9 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's main rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination condemned the Justice Department for its move to charge him over his handling of classified documents, underscoring their fear of upsetting his core supporters.

The indictment of a former president on federal charges is unprecedented in U.S. history, a case made more extraordinary by Trump's status as the clear front-runner in the Republican race to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year.

OTTAWA, June 9 (Reuters) - Wildfires spread in the western Canadian province of British Columbia on Friday, while in the east, Quebec said it would start efforts to control blazes that have sent smoke billowing across North American cities.

Canada is enduring its worst start to the wildfire season, with 2,392 fires so far this year and 4.4 million hectares (10.9 million acres) burned, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), roughly 15 times the annual average over the last decade.

June 9 (Reuters) - The White House on Friday said electric-vehicle charging stations using Tesla (TSLA.O) standard plugs would be eligible for billions of dollars in federal subsidies as long as they included the U.S. charging standard connection, CCS, as well.

NEW YORK, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States, and simply being exposed to gun violence at an early age causes significant harm to children's mental health, reported Newsweek on Thursday.

Around 9 million children per year were exposed to gun violence prior to the pandemic and Black children had a 4.44 times higher exposure rate than white children. This disparity has only gotten worse, according to the report.

NEW YORK, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The number of people across the United States exposed to extreme smoke days has grown 27 times in the past decade, as exposure to even-more-extreme smoke events has risen 11,000 fold, said an opinion piece published by The New York Times on Wednesday.

Smoke from raging wildfires in Canada has triggered air quality alerts in a number of U.S. states, with the sky over New York City rapidly darkening Wednesday afternoon and New York State Governor Kathy Hochul calling the worsening air quality "an emergency crisis."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon announced Friday that it will provide an additional $2.1 billion in long-term weapons aid for Ukraine. The new assistance package will include funding for more Patriot missile battery munitions, Hawk air defense systems and missiles, and small Puma drones that can be launched by hand.

The latest infusion of funding, one of the larger packages the U.S. has provided, comes as there are signs that Ukraine is beginning — or about to begin — the much anticipated counteroffensive to try to take back territory that has been seized by Russia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — This week’s Supreme Court decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional districts was seen by many minority lawmakers and voting rights activists as a stunning victory with the potential to become a major stepping stone for undoing political maps that dilute the strength of communities of color.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran is providing Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow as the Kremlin looks to lock in a steady supply of weaponry for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, according to a U.S. intelligence finding released by the White House on Friday.

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — As Ron DeSantis wrapped up a 12-stop campaign tour that began in an Iowa evangelical church and ended here in a South Carolina convention center, dozens of pastors met backstage to pray for the presidential candidate. Later, to the 1,500 people in the auditorium, DeSantis closed out his stump speech with a paraphrased Bible verse: “I will fight the good fight, I will finish the race, and I will keep the faith.”