North America

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Nearly two weeks after a train carrying hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, derailed in the eastern Ohio village of East Palestine and sparked a blaze, residents crowded in a high school gym in a Wednesday meeting with officials, demanding answers.

While residents are able to return to their homes after the evacuation order was lifted last week, they have reported burning eyes, ill pets, or dead fish in waterways, thus demanding answers to how the incident was handled and its impact of exposure to those chemicals.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott offered no hints about whether he might run for president in a rare primetime address Thursday night, but used it to make a case that hard-line immigration measures, tougher criminal penalties and a humming economy are a model for the rest of the U.S.

“We will ensure Texas remains the leader of this nation as an unflinching force in this world,” Abbott said during his biennial State of the State, which was broadcast across Texas.

ATLANTA (AP) — A special grand jury investigating efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia says it believes “one or more witnesses” committed perjury and urged local prosecutors to bring charges.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should “seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling,” according to portions of the special grand jury’s final report that were released on Thursday.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got a first-hand look Thursday at the toll left by a freight train derailment in Ohio, where toxic chemicals spilled or were burned off, leaving the stench of fresh paint nearly two weeks later.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who walked along a creek that still reeks of chemicals, sought to reassure skeptical residents that the water is fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe around East Palestine, where just under 5,000 people live near the Pennsylvania state line.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Patrick Kennedy was in Congress, he would sneak in his treatments for substance abuse over the holidays, in between congressional work periods. And he refused mental health treatment recommended by his doctors, worried he would be recognized in that wing of the hospital.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Hosts at Fox News had serious concerns about allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election being made by guests who were allies of former President Donald Trump, according to court filings in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network.

“Sidney Powell is lying,” about having evidence for election fraud, Tucker Carlson told a producer about the attorney on Nov. 16, 2020, according to an excerpt from an exhibit that remains under seal.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- World Bank Group President David Malpass announced on Wednesday his intention to step down a year before the end of his term, said the organization.

The World Bank chief will leave his position by the end of the group's fiscal year on June 30 after serving more than four years, said the World Bank.

Malpass was nominated to the position during the administration under former U.S. President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the war rages on in Ukraine, the United States is doing more than supporting an ally. It’s learning lessons — with an eye toward a possible future clash with China.

No one knows what the next U.S. major military conflict will be or whether the U.S. will send troops — as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq — or provide vast amounts of aid and expertise, as it has done with Ukraine.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — One person was killed and three more were wounded Wednesday in a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, adding to the dozens of people already killed this year in mass shootings across the United States.

El Paso police said hours after the gunfire that two people had been taken into custody, though details of what led the shooting remained unclear.

Interim police chief Peter Pacillas said that Cielo Vista Mall was still considered a crime scene, and that it would remain locked down until authorities had completed their investigation.

15 Feb 2023; MEMO: The administration of US President Joe Biden has withdrawn the nomination of leading law professor James Cavallaro for an international human rights post because he called Israel an "apartheid state". Cavallaro is a law professor at Wesleyan University and the executive director of its Network for Human Rights.