North America

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (APP)::UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed Saturday night’s ceasefire agreement in Israel and Gaza and reiterated that only a negotiated political solution will lead to lasting peace and end the devastating cycles of violence “once and for all.”

In a statement issued by his Spokesperson on Sunday evening, the UN chief welcomed the truce that had been reached between the sides on Saturday and extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the violence.

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have unexpectedly fallen, not risen, since Title 42 curbs expired and reinstating criminal penalties for illegal entry is likely the biggest reason, the Biden administration said on Sunday.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since Thursday, when President Joe Biden's administration shifted to a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings.

MEXICO CITY, May 14 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 people were killed on Sunday when a trailer and what appeared to be a box truck collided and caught fire on a highway in northeast Mexico's Tamaulipas state, the state Secretariat of Public Security said.

The accident occurred in the morning at km 80 of Highway 83, along the Hidalgo-Zaragoza stretch, the agency said in a press release.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has made it a mission for the U.S. to build friendships overseas — and the next few weeks will offer a vivid demonstration of the importance he’s placing on a relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration wants to put conserving vast government-owned lands on equal footing with oil drilling, livestock grazing and other interests, according to a top administration official who defended the idea against criticism that it would interfere with industry.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — For the first time, the United Nations will officially commemorate the flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from what is now Israel on the 75th anniversary of their exodus — an action stemming from the U.N.’s partition of British-ruled Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is headlining Monday’s U.N. commemoration of what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe.”

MEXICO CITY, May 14 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, denounced some U.S. politicians’ statements against Mexican migration as, “crude, smug politicking,” urging the Spanish-speaking population not to vote for “arrogant” U.S. representatives.

“It is crude, smug politicking to try to deceive U.S. citizens, but it is ineffective, it is not going to help them,” he told reporters at the National Palace in Mexico City.

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since the pandemic-era immigration policy known as Title 42 expired at midnight on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday.

"Over the past two days, the United States Border Patrol has experienced a 50% drop in the number of encounters versus what we were experiencing earlier in the week before Title 42 ended at midnight on Thursday," Mayorkas said.

NEW YORK (AP) — The historic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan shuttered three years ago, but it will soon be bustling again — reopening to accommodate an anticipated influx of asylum seekers just as other New York City hotels are being converted to emergency shelters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has an ambitious agenda when he sets off this week on an eight-day trip to the Indo-Pacific.

He’s looking to tighten bonds with longtime allies, make history as the first sitting U.S. president to visit the tiny island state of Papua New Guinea and spotlight his administration’s commitment to the Pacific. The three-country trip also presents the 80-year-old Biden, who recently announced he’s running for reelection, with the opportunity to demonstrate that he still has enough in the tank to handle the grueling pace of the presidency.