North America

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs has agreed to pay nearly $440 million to settle a two-year investigation by 33 states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products, which have long been blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced the deal Tuesday on behalf of the states plus Puerto Rico, which joined together in 2020 to probe Juul’s early promotions and claims about the benefits of its technology as a smoking alternative.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Russian Ministry of Defense is in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea for its ongoing fight in Ukraine, according to a newly downgraded U.S. intelligence finding.

Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Tuesday that “the information that we have is that Russia has specifically asked for ammunition.” He said the U.S. has seen indications Russia approached North Korea, but said he had no other details, including whether money has changed hands or any shipments are in progress.

ATLANTA (AP) — Two months after the 2020 presidential election, a team of computer experts traveled to south Georgia to copy software and data from voting equipment in an apparent breach of a county election system. They were greeted outside by the head of the local Republican Party, who was involved in efforts by then-President Donald Trump to overturn his election loss.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is making his third trip to Pennsylvania in less than a week and returning just two days after his predecessor, Donald Trump, staged his own rally there — illustrating the battleground state’s importance to both parties as Labor Day kicks off a nine-week sprint to crucial midterm elections.

YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — As hundreds of migrants line up along an Arizona border wall around 4 a.m., agents try to separate them into groups by nationality.

“Anyone from Russia or Bangladesh? I need somebody else from Russia here,” an agent shouts and then says quietly, almost to himself, “These are Romanian.”

It’s a routine task for the Border Patrol in the wee hours in this flat expanse of desert where the wall ends. Migrants from at least 115 countries have been stopped here in the last year, but that may be less striking than what’s missing: Mexicans are virtually absent.

NEW YORK (AP) — The possibility of a great red wave still looms.

But as the 2022 midterm elections enter their final two-month sprint, leading Republicans concede that their party’s advantage may be slipping even as Democrats confront their president’s weak standing, deep voter pessimism and the weight of history this fall.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a legal victory for former President Donald Trump, a federal judge on Monday granted his request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from his Florida home and also temporarily halted the Justice Department’s own use of the records for investigative purposes.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 04 (APP): A top Pakistani diplomat has urged the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to scale up its emergency response for flood-devastated Pakistan to provide life-saving reproductive health services and commodities, especially to some 650,000 pregnant women among the 33 million displaced people.

WASHINGTON, September 4. /TASS/: The US administration plans to announce the US next ambassador to Russia in the near future to succeed John Sullivan, who has completed his tenure as ambassador, a State Department spokesperson told TASS on Sunday.

"We intend to announce our next Ambassador soon, but don’t have anything to preview at the moment," the spokesperson said, adding that Ambassador Sullivan’s departure from Moscow was "planned and part of a normal diplomatic rotation."

A new ambassador is yet to be approved by US Senate.

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - John Sullivan, a Trump appointee who told Reuters earlier this year it would take "a crowbar" to get him out of Moscow, has left Russia after finishing his tenure as U.S. ambassador there, the U.S. embassy in the country said on Sunday.

"U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation John J. Sullivan has concluded his tenure as U.S. envoy and departed Moscow today," the embassy said on its website. It said Sullivan, who was named to the post in 2019 by former President Donald Trump, had served in the post for almost three years.