North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — After scaling 40-year highs, inflation in the United States has been slowly easing since summer. Yet the Federal Reserve seems decidedly unimpressed — and unconvinced that its fight against accelerating prices is anywhere near over.

On Thursday, stock markets buckled on the growing realization that the Fed may be willing to let the economy slide into recession if it decides that’s what’s needed to drive inflation back down to its 2% annual target.

A U.S.-French satellite that will map almost all of the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers rocketed into orbit Friday.

The predawn launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California capped a highly successful year for NASA.

Nicknamed SWOT — short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography — the satellite is needed more than ever as climate change worsens droughts, flooding and coastal erosion, according to scientists.

FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) — Five Louisiana law enforcement officers were charged Thursday with state crimes ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, a death authorities initially blamed on a car crash before long suppressed body-camera video showed white officers beating, stunning and dragging the Black motorist as he wailed, “I’m scared!”

16 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Fifth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday discussed the programme budget implications for the year 2023 for a draft resolution related to Israel's practices in the Palestinian territories.

16 Dec 2022; MEMO: The United Nations is set to provide Syrian identity certificates to shepherds, farmers and hunters living or operating in the demilitarised zone along the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line near the occupied Golan Heights, in an effort to distinguish them from militants.

NEW YORK/HONG KONG/WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board on Thursday said it has determined that it has gotten full access to inspect and investigate firms in China for the first time ever.

The announcement from the U.S. accounting watchdog removes the risk that around 200 Chinese companies, including Alibaba (BABA.N), could be kicked off U.S. stock exchanges.

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry.

YMTC, long in the crosshairs of the U.S. government, was added to the list over fears it could divert U.S. technology to previously blacklisted Chinese tech giants Huawei and Hikvision. The move, laid out in the Federal Register, will bar YMTC's suppliers from shipping U.S. goods to it without a difficult-to-obtain license.

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Puerto Ricans could move a step closer to a referendum on whether the island should become a U.S. state, an independent country or have another type of government when the House of Representatives votes Thursday on a bill outlining the process.

A House committee approved the Puerto Rico Status Act on Wednesday, paving the way for the full House vote.

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - U.S. households can order four free at-home COVID-19 tests from the government website COVIDTests.gov beginning on Thursday as part of the Biden administration's efforts to tackle coronavirus infections over the winter.

The White House said it would use existing funding to pay for the tests since it has been unsuccessful so far in getting Congress to pass a bill to put more money towards the U.S. COVID-19 response.

The administration would start shipping orders of the latest round of free tests during the week of Dec. 19.

HOUSTON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least three people have been killed and dozens more injuried as of Wednesday after a massive winter storm spawned intense tornadoes across the southern U.S. state of Louisiana, authorities confirmed.

One person was killed, and eight others were injured Wednesday when a tornado ripped through Killona, a small neighborhood in St. Charles Parish, the parish's president Matthew Jewell told local media outlet 4WWL.