North America

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — One of Tennessee’s most influential Republican lawmakers says the state should stop accepting the nearly $1.8 billion of federal K-12 education dollars that help provide support for low-income students, English learners and students with disabilities.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton told The Associated Press that he has introduced a bill to explore the idea during this year’s legislative session and has begun discussions with Gov. Bill Lee and other key GOP lawmakers.

Police have charged a bus driver with first-degree murder after he drove his vehicle at a high speed into a day care center north of Montreal, killing two children, injuring six and leaving authorities searching for a motive.

Witnesses say that after Wednesday’s crash, the 51-year-old driver, identified as Pierre Ny St-Amand, stepped out of the bus, stripped off his clothes and started screaming.

“He was just yelling; there were no words coming out of his mouth,” Hamdi Benchaabane said.

08 Feb 2023; MEMO: Panamanian authorities are set to let Iranian naval ships sail through the Panama Canal, despite concerns expressed by the United States against it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Twitter executives conceded Wednesday they made a mistake by blocking a story about Hunter Biden, the president’s son, from the social media platform in the run-up to the 2020 election, but adamantly denied Republican assertions they were pressured by Democrats and law enforcement to suppress the story.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Chinese balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years,” the Pentagon said Wednesday.

NEW YORK, Feb 08 (APP):A Pakistan-American officer of New York police, who was shot in the head Saturday while off duty has died, the City’s police commissioner said Tuesday night.

The officer, Adeed Fayaz, 26, a five-year veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD), had been hospitalized in Brooklyn for three days since the shooting on Saturday night. He was married and the father of two young children.

UN, February 8. /TASS/: Roger Waters, a founder of the UK rock legend Pink Floyd, has called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. He took part in the Russia-convened UN Security Council on Ukraine on Wednesday speaking via a videoconference link.

"We do not willingly raise our sons and daughters to provide fodder for your cannons. In our opinion, the only sensible course of actions today is an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. No if’s, not but’s no and’s," he said.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 8 (NNN-XINHUA) – More than 36 million trees died in the western U.S. state of California last year, due to the cumulative impacts of extended drought, overstocked forest conditions, insect outbreaks and disease, said a report by the U.S. Forest Service, yesterday.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The United States held briefings in Washington and Beijing with foreign diplomats from 40 nations about the Chinese spy balloon that Washington shot down on Saturday for spying over U.S. territory, a senior administration official and diplomats said on Tuesday.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday briefed nearly 150 foreign diplomats across 40 embassies, the official said, while in Beijing the U.S. embassy gathered foreign diplomats on Monday and Tuesday to present U.S. findings about the balloon.

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Mitt Romney told embattled fellow Republican Representative George Santos on Tuesday that should not be in Congress and shouldn't have taken a central seat at President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.

Romney, an elder statesman of the party and former Republican presidential candidate, was seen having a brief exchange with Santos, who has made multiple false claims about his past on his way into the House of Representatives chamber before the address.