North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the government at risk of defaulting, President Joe Biden on Thursday will make his opening offer in a high-stakes debate over federal finances as he proposes a federal budget that would cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.

8 Mar 2023; MEMO: A US Senate Committee backed legislation on Wednesday to repeal two authorisations for past wars in Iraq, paving the way for a possible vote in the full Senate before the 20th anniversary of the last invasion by American troops, Reuters reports.

UNITED NATIONS, March 8. /TASS/: The grain deal needs to be extended beyond March 18, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the meeting released by the UN.

"I want to underscore the critical importance of the rollover of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 18 March and of working to create the conditions to enable the greatest possible use of export infrastructures through the Black Sea, in line with the objectives of the initiative," he said.

MEXICO CITY, Mar 8 (NNN-XINHUA) – Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, yesterday accused U.S. media outlets of “hypocrisy” and “yellow journalism,” in their coverage of four American kidnap victims in north Mexico, two of whom were found dead.

“It is very striking that these unfortunate events happen and all the media in the United States handle the news in a sensationalist manner, not like when they murder Mexicans in the United States, (then) they are as quiet as mummies,” the president said during his daily press conference.

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - Top White House officials and the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Wednesday will urge states to expand their efforts to crack down on surprise fees consumers are forced to pay on everything from rental housing to cable bills.

HOUSTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Voices from the Global South are an integral part of the ongoing global energy forum CERAWeek as speakers from the developing economies gather together with other world industry leaders.

Their opinions have added timely importance as the world is facing harsher twin challenges of energy security and transition amid turbulence, observers say.

The five-day event kicked off on Monday under the theme, "Navigating a Turbulent World: Energy, Climate and Security."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The maker of an unproven drug intended to prevent premature births says it will voluntarily remove the product from the U.S., after regulators signaled plans to follow through on a long-delayed effort to force it from the market.

The announcement late Tuesday from Covis Pharma comes roughly four years after the company’s drug, Makena, failed to show a benefit in helping mothers carry pregnancies to term.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s support of a Republican resolution to block new District of Columbia crime laws has split members of his own party amid rising concerns about crime in the nation’s capital and other cities.

The GOP-led disapproval resolution is expected to easily pass the Senate on Wednesday with ample Democratic support. But most House Democrats voted against it last month, arguing as they have for many years that the District of Columbia should be able to govern itself.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is preparing to relax COVID-19 testing restrictions for travelers from China as soon as Friday, according to two people familiar with the decision.

The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration has decided to roll back the testing requirements as cases, hospitalizations and deaths are declining in China and the U.S. has gathered better information about the surge.

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — A road trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery veered violently off course when four Americans were caught in a drug cartel shootout, leaving two dead and two held captive for days in a remote region of the Gulf coast before they were rescued from a wood shack, officials said Tuesday.

Their minivan crashed and was fired on shortly after they crossed into the border city of Matamoros on Friday as drug cartel factions tore through the streets, the region’s governor said. A stray bullet also killed a Mexican woman about a block and a half away.