North America

CHICAGO (AP) — In more than 140 cities across the United States, ShotSpotter’s artificial intelligence algorithm and intricate network of microphones evaluate hundreds of thousands of sounds a year to determine if they are gunfire, generating data now being used in criminal cases nationwide.

WASHINGTON (AP) — One year ago, the annual March for Life protest against legal abortion took place in Washington amid a mood of undisguised triumph. With a fresh conservative majority on the Supreme Court, thousands of marchers braved bitterly cold weather to celebrate the seemingly inevitable fall of Roe v. Wade.

APTOS, Calif. (AP) — A frustrated President Joe Biden said Thursday there is “no there there” when he was persistently questioned about the discovery of classified documents and official records at his home and former office.

“We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” Biden said to reporters who questioned him during a tour of the damage from storms in California. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.”

Biden said he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.”

WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department will "announce a major, international cryptocurrency enforcement action" on Wednesday, it said in a statement, adding the U.S. Treasury Department will also make an announcement.

"The U.S. Department of the Treasury will also announce an action in this space," the statement said.

U.S. officials, including Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, will deliver remarks at 12 p.m. (1700 GMT) in Washington, according to the statement.

CIUDAD JUAREZ/MEXICO CITY, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Migrants on Mexico's northern border on Wednesday began entering the United States using a mobile app designed to facilitate the process of applying for asylum, although several quickly reported difficulties in using the system.

This month, the Biden administration said it would broaden use of the so-called CBP One app to allow asylum seekers to enter their personal information as a pre-screening step for a U.S. appointment to request asylum.

Jan 18 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N) has discriminated against the firearms sector, the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, making a decision that "has the effect" of Texas halting Citi's ability to underwrite most municipal bond offerings in the state.

Republicans have been ramping up pressure on the finance industry over what they say are their increasingly aggressive environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. government was due to hit its $31.4 trillion borrowing limit on Thursday, amid a standoff between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and President Joe Biden's Democrats that could lead to a fiscal crisis in a few months.

Republicans, with a newly won House majority, aim to use the congressionally mandated federal debt ceiling to exact spending cuts from Biden and the Democratic-led Senate.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk was depicted Wednesday as either a liar who callously jeopardized the savings of “regular people” or a well-intentioned visionary as attorneys delivered opening statements at a trial focused on a Tesla buyout that never happened.

Lawyers on opposing sides drew the starkly different portraits of Musk for a nine-person jury that will hear the three-week trial. The case is focused on two August 2018 tweets that the billionaire posted on Twitter, which he now owns.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israel’s U.N. ambassador accused the Palestinians on Wednesday of stabbing a knife into any chance for reconciliation by seeking an advisory opinion from the U.N.’s highest court on Israel’s decades-old occupation — and the Palestinian U.N. envoy accused Israel’s new government of seeking to crush its people.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The countdown toward a possible U.S. government default is in the offing — with frictions between President Joe Biden and House Republicans raising alarms about whether the U.S. can sidestep a potential economic crisis.