North America

LOS ANGELES, May 2 (NNN-XINHUA) – Three people were killed, after a small plane crashed yesterday afternoon, in the area of Big Bear City in southern California, authorities said.

Firefighters were called to an aircraft down in a vacant lot, at around 2:02 p.m. local time (22:02 GMT), according to the Big Bear Fire Department.

Crews arrived on the scene in about three minutes, said the department in a Facebook post.

WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - For months, the U.S. crisis over the debt limit has been a political abstraction. Not anymore.

The U.S. Treasury's new June 1 estimated deadline for Congress to raise the debt ceiling or risk default has ratcheted up the heat on Washington's lawmakers to avert an economic crisis.

If the U.S. government is set to run out of money to pay some of its bills by then, U.S. President Joe Biden and Republicans may have just seven working days to craft a deal.

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday summoned the four top congressional leaders to the White House next week after the Treasury warned the government could run short of cash to pay its bills by June.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to Congress that the agency will be unlikely to meet all U.S. government payment obligations "potentially as early as June 1" without action by Congress.

LOS ANGELES, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Coal trains and terminal operations add a significant amount of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution to U.S. urban areas, according to a new study by the University of California, Davis.

The study, published in the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, quantifies pollution, with health and environmental justice implications for San Francisco bay area.

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday called on the UN Secretariat to strengthen the comprehensive peacekeeping budgetary performance.

"The Secretariat should continue to strengthen the comprehensive budgetary performance and improve internal control, so as to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of peacekeeping operations," Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the second part of the resumed session of the Fifth Committee of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

NEW YORK, May 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. top banking group JPMorgan Chase announced on Monday it has acquired the substantial majority of assets and assumed the deposits and certain other liabilities of First Republic Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

The FDIC was just appointed as the receiver of the San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, which was closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation early Monday.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Joe Biden scrapped expedited asylum screenings during his first month in office as part of a gutting of Trump administration border polices that included building a wall with Mexico. Now he is preparing his own version.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — When developers in the California city of Elk Grove pitched two new housing projects last year, the proposals appeared to have much in common: Both would build new housing in a quaint section of the city affectionately known as “Old Town” for its attractive stretch of historic buildings.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia couldn’t escape its war against Ukraine during its highly contentious presidency of the U.N. Security Council, and the war will still loom over Switzerland as it takes over the monthlong presidency Monday for the first time since becoming a full member of the United Nations in 2002.

NEW YORK (AP) — Television and movie writers declared late Monday that they will launch a strike for the first time in 15 years, as Hollywood girded for a walkout with potentially widespread ramifications in a fight over fair pay in the streaming era.