North America

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he will appoint a special investigator to decide whether there should be a public inquiry into reports of Chinese interference in Canada’s elections.

Trudeau also is having a Parliament national security committee examine classified information on the matter.

The Globe and Mail, citing unidentified intelligence sources, reported last month that China preferred to see Trudeau’s Liberals reelected in the 2021 election and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to position himself on Tuesday as a champion of conservative causes during a State of the State address that will likely be as much about his national ambitions as it is an assessment of Florida’s status in the wake of a pandemic and a series of crippling storms.

The address comes at the outset of a 60-day legislative session that has added significance this year because it will likely be used to launch DeSantis into a highly anticipated presidential campaign.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former spokesperson Hope Hicks met Monday with Manhattan prosecutors who are investigating hush-money payments made to women on the ex-president’s behalf — the latest member of the Republican’s inner circle to be questioned in the renewed probe.

Hicks and her lawyer, Robert Trout, spent several hours inside the Manhattan district attorney’s office and, afterward, were seen walking to a waiting SUV. They didn’t say anything to reporters as they got in the vehicle.

ATLANTA (AP) — More than 20 people from around the country faced domestic terrorism charges Monday after dozens in black masks attacked the site of a police training center under construction in a wooded area outside Atlanta where one protester was killed in January.

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — Four Americans who traveled to Mexico last week to seek health care got caught in a deadly shootout and were kidnapped by heavily armed men who threw them in the back of a pickup truck, officials from both countries said Monday.

The four were traveling Friday in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. They came under fire shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of Texas near the Gulf coast, the FBI said in a statement Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — If measures of the U.S. economy keep coming in hot, as they did in January, the Federal Reserve will likely have to raise interest rates even higher than it has already signaled — and keep them there longer — Chair Jerome Powell will likely warn in testimony to Congress on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — China has long been seen by the U.S. as a prolific source of anti-American propaganda but less aggressive in its influence operations than Russia, which has used cyberattacks and covert operations to disrupt U.S. elections and denigrate rivals.

But many in Washington now think China is increasingly adopting tactics associated with Russia — and there’s growing concern the U.S. isn’t doing enough to respond.

March 6 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) on Monday bundled the technology behind ChatGPT with its Power Platform that allows users to develop applications with little or no coding, the latest integration of artificial intelligence into its products.

Big tech companies from Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) to Baidu Inc (9888.HK) are speeding up the integration of generative AI - technology that has gained popularity for its ability to generate human-like text responses to queries - into their offerings.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Authorities in Ohio say there is no indication of any risk to public health from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern cargo train between Dayton and Columbus, the second derailment of a company train in the state in a month.

Norfolk Southern and Clark County officials say 28 of the southbound train’s 212 cars, including four empty tankers, derailed at about 4:45 p.m. Saturday in Springfield Township near a business park and the county fairgrounds. Springfield is about 46 miles (74 kilometers) west of the state capital of Columbus.

SELMA, Ala. (AP) — President Joe Biden used the searing memories of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” to recommit to a cornerstone of democracy, lionizing a seminal moment from the civil rights movement at a time when he has been unable to push enhanced voting protections through Congress and a conservative Supreme Court has undermined a landmark voting law.