North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Georgia’s 2022 election season ended dramatically this past week, but that was because of the closely watched Senate runoff that solidified Democratic control of the chamber and not for any large-scale problems with voting.

That led Republicans in the state to say concerns over a 2021 law that imposed several new restrictions on voting were overblown.

NEW YORK (AP) — Drought in California meant Raquel Krach, a rice farmer and graduate student in the Sacramento Valley, planted very little. Using groundwater, she and her husband planted 75 acres this year to maintain their markets. The rest of the 200 acres she typically sows remained empty due to an inadequate water supply.

The 53-year-old Democrat said it’s clear to her that climate change is responsible. But she says that notion is a deeply divisive one in her community.

NEW YORK (AP) — Drought in California meant Raquel Krach, a rice farmer and graduate student in the Sacramento Valley, planted very little. Using groundwater, she and her husband planted 75 acres this year to maintain their markets. The rest of the 200 acres she typically sows remained empty due to an inadequate water supply.

The 53-year-old Democrat said it’s clear to her that climate change is responsible. But she says that notion is a deeply divisive one in her community.

PHOENIX (AP) — Less than three days after Democrats celebrated victory in the final Senate contest of the 2022 midterms, the challenges facing the party heading into the next campaign came into sharp relief.

The decision by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to leave the Democratic Party on Friday raised the prospect of a tumultuous — and expensive — three-way race in one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S. It set off a scramble among potential Democratic and Republican candidates to assess whether they could win their party’s nomination.

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz., Dec 8 (Reuters) - A long, thin line stretches across the dusty Arizona landscape. It is a border barrier - but not the customary wall or fence. This is made up entirely of shipping containers stacked on top of each other.

The improvised wall - topped with concertina wire - was ordered built by Republican Governor Doug Ducey in August in an attempt to fill gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border used by migrants.

Border communities had been overwhelmed, he argued, saying the double-stacked containers would reach 22 feet (6.7 m) high.

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, she said on Friday, just days after Democrats won a Senate race in Georgia and secured 51 seats in the 100-member chamber riven by deep political divisions.

"Like a lot of Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party," Sinema said in an article for the Arizona Republic newspaper.

An aide would not say whether Sinema would continue to caucus with Democrats.

NEW YORK, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Thursday as market participants digested a slew of economic data.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.31 percent to 104.7760.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0561 U.S. dollars from 1.0515 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.2242 U.S. dollars from 1.2215 dollars in the previous session.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Close to 60% of Haiti’s capital is dominated by gangs whose violence and sexual attacks have caused thousands to flee their homes, the U.N. humanitarian chief in the Caribbean nation said Thursday.

Ulrika Richardson said that has left nearly 20,000 people in the capital facing “catastrophic famine-like conditions” as a cholera outbreak spreads throughout Haiti.

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The director of a Guatemalan investigative newspaper will stand trial on charges of money laundering, influence peddling and blackmail, a judge ruled Thursday.

José Rubén Zamora of El Periodico has been held for four months amid criticism that his arrest was politically motivated by an administration interested in silencing critical journalists.

NUIQSUT, Alaska (AP) — Though the weather outside was frightful, schoolchildren in the northern Alaska Inupiac community of Nuiqsut were so delighted for a visit by Santa that they braved wind chills of 25 degrees below zero just to see him land on a snow-covered airstrip.

Once again, it was time for Operation Santa Claus in Alaska. And here in Nuiqsut, a roadless village of about 460 residents on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope, the temperatures may have been plunging but the children were warming quickly.