North America

NAIROBI/WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has requested a review of U.S. security assistance and cooperation programs in Nigeria following Reuters reporting on an illegal abortion program and killing of children carried out by the Nigerian military.

Risch, in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken seen by Reuters, also called for the State Department to examine the potential use of sanctions in addition to an expeditious review of U.S. security assistance and cooperation.

Dec 20 (Reuters) - Negotiators in the U.S. Congress unveiled a $1.7 trillion government funding bill on Monday, as lawmakers scrambled to pass the measure, which includes record military spending, before temporary funding runs out at the week's end.

The total funding proposed by the bill is up from the approximately $1.5 trillion appropriated the previous year.

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The United States hopes that China can address the current COVID-19 outbreak as the toll of the virus is a global concern due to the size of the Chinese economy, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday.

"The toll of the virus is of concern to the rest of the world given the size of China's GDP, given the size of China's economy," Price told a daily briefing at the State Department.

"It's not only good for China to be in a stronger position vis-a-vis COVID but it's good for the rest of the world as well," Price said.

WASHINGTON/CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said COVID-era restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border that have prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum should be kept in place for now, siding with Republicans who brought a legal challenge.

The restrictions, known as Title 42, were implemented under Republican former President Donald Trump in March 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and gave border officials the ability to rapidly expel migrants to Mexico without a chance to seek U.S. asylum.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House select committee investigating the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, made criminal referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday afternoon.

The committee accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and obstruction of an official proceeding.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for practical solutions to the world's problems despite many reasons for despair.

"Our world faced many trials and tests in 2022 -- some familiar, others we might not have imagined just one year ago. There may be plenty of reasons for despair," he told an end-of-year press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

MONTREAL (AP) — Negotiators reached a historic deal at a U.N. biodiversity conference early Monday that would represent the most significant effort to protect the world’s lands and oceans and provide critical financing to save biodiversity in the developing world.

The global framework comes on the day the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, is set to end in Montreal. China, which holds the presidency at this conference, released a new draft on Sunday that gave the sometimes contentious talks much-needed momentum.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its allies clashed with Iran and its ally Russia over Western claims that Tehran is supplying Moscow with drones that have been attacking Ukraine — and the U.S. accused the U.N. secretary-general of “yielding to Russian threats” and failing to launch an investigation.

DENVER (AP) — When Kevin Erickson fires up his 1972 Plymouth Satellite, a faint hum replaces what is normally the sound of pistons pumping, gas coursing through the carburetor and the low thrum of the exhaust.

Even though it’s nearly silent, the classic American muscle car isn’t broken. It’s electric.

Erickson is among a small but expanding group of tinkerers, racers, engineers and entrepreneurs across the country who are converting vintage cars and trucks into greener, and often much faster, electric vehicles.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is temporarily blocking an order that would lift pandemic-era restrictions on asylum seekers but the brief order leaves open the prospect that the restrictions in place since the coronavirus pandemic began and have been used to turn back hundreds of thousands of prospective asylum seekers could still expire on Wednesday.

The court’s decision comes as officials and aid groups along the border are trying to prepare for whatever changes may or may not come Wednesday.