North America

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- A new coronavirus subvariant JN.1 is spreading fast in the United States, and is now accounting for nearly half of the latest COVID-19 cases in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

JN.1 is currently the fastest growing variant and the dominant one in the country. It is responsible for over 44 percent of new infections across the country, up from the previously reported 21.4 percent, according to the CDC.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Nevada and South Carolina next month, two of the earliest states on the Democratic presidential calendar, where she’ll court voters she and President Joe Biden hope to win over.

Harris will meet with members of the powerful casino workers’ Culinary Union in Las Vegas on Jan. 3, which offers one of the most powerful endorsements in Nevada Democratic politics, the White House said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fadi Sckak has already lost his father to the violence in Gaza. He wants to help his mother escape that fate.

“I just want to see my mother again, that’s the goal,” said Sckak, a university student in Sunnyvale, California. The 25-year-old is one of the Palestinian couple’s three American sons, including an active-duty U.S. soldier serving in South Korea. “Being able to hold her again. I can’t bear to lose her.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was acting within his role as president when he pressed claims about “alleged fraud and irregularity” in the 2020 election, his lawyers told a federal appeals court in arguing that he is immune from prosecution.

The attorneys also asserted in a filing late Saturday night that the “historical fallout is tremendous” from the four-count indictment charging Trump with plotting to overturn the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Senate wrapped up its work for the year, Sen. Michael Bennet took to the floor of the nearly empty chamber and made a late-night plea for Congress to redouble support for Ukraine: “Understand the stakes at this moment.”

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A man was fatally shot and three people were hurt as gunfire rang out at a shopping center in Colorado on Christmas Eve, police said Sunday.

A fight broke out between two groups of people in the afternoon at the Citadel Mall in Colorado Springs and officers received a report of gunshots and responded, the Colorado Springs Police Department said in a series of posts on the social media platform X.

WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he was "heartbroken" by the news that an American named Gadi Haggai is believed to have been killed by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Oct. 7 when it attacked Israel.

Haggai, a 73-year-old Israeli-American man, was previously thought to have been taken hostage in the attack, along with his wife. A group representing hostages' families had said earlier on Friday that Haggai died in captivity.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Mexico on Friday launched operations on a train line that crosses the country's narrowest point from the Gulf coast to the Pacific Ocean, kicking off a flagship government project as the administration enters its last months in office.

The "Inter-Oceanic Train," which will carry both passengers and cargo on a three-hour trip from the coastal hub of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state to the Pacific port of Salina Cruz, is part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's plan to bring investment to the country's poorer south.

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday with scientific research samples and hardware.

According to NASA, Dragon undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 5:05 p.m. Eastern Time (2205 GMT) on Thursday.

After about 20 hours of flight, Dragon made a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of the U.S. state of Florida on Friday.

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A conservative-led Missouri school board has voted to drop elective courses on Black history and literature, five months after the same board rescinded an anti-discrimination policy adopted in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.

The Francis Howell School Board voted 5-2 Thursday night to stop offering Black History and Black Literature, courses that had been offered at the district’s three high schools since 2021. A little over 100 students took the courses this semester in the predominantly white suburban area of St. Louis.