North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg cut ties with a contractor that used prisoners to make calls for his presidential campaign, he said in a statement Tuesday.

The former New York mayor said that his campaign was unaware of the arrangement until a reporter sought comment. Earlier Tuesday, online news site The Intercept reported that Bloomberg’s campaign contracted a New Jersey-based call center company that, in at least one instance, used Oklahoma inmates to make calls on behalf of the billionaire’s campaign.

24 December 2019; AFP: Former US national security adviser John Bolton on Monday sharply criticized President Donald Trump's North Korea policy, warning that the Asian country posed an "imminent" threat.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday that monitoring of Mexico’s diplomatic facilities in Bolivia had eased since his government issued a complaint about the issue on Monday.

“I have news that this situation of extreme surveillance on our embassy in Bolivia has eased considerably,” Lopez Obrador told a regular government news briefing.

(Reuters) - Beleaguered Boeing Co (BA.N) is putting its future in the hands of an industrial veteran who has led several companies in crisis, began his career at engine maker General Electric Co (GE.N) and has already spent a decade on the board of the world’s largest planemaker.

Newly appointed Chief Executive David Calhoun, 62, was made Boeing’s chairman two months ago, in the midst of the crisis that has rocked the company since two fatal crashes led to the grounding of its 737 MAX. It was not his first experience of navigating corporate upheaval.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned about the military escalation in northwest Syria and calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, said his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Monday.

Guterres is alarmed by the scale of the military operation and reported attacks on evacuation routes as civilians try to flee north to safety, said Dujarric in a statement.

The secretary-general reminds all parties of their obligations to protect civilians and ensure freedom of movement, said the statement.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) greenlighted a new drug on Monday for the immediate treatment of migraine, a kind of intense and persistent headache, in adults.

Ubrelvy tablets are the first drug in the class of oral calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists. The peptide is a molecule that is involved in migraine attacks.

Unlike Aimovig, a drug approved by the FDA in May 2018, Ubrelvy is not indicated for the preventive treatment of migraine.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's approval rating has inched up to nearly 50 percent before the 2020 election year starts, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released Monday.

Forty-nine percent of Americans surveyed said they approve of Trump's performance in office, up by 3 percent from the previous Dec. 8-9 poll.

In addition, 51 percent of the 1000 voters surveyed across the country expressed disapproval, down from 54 percent in the earlier poll.

GUTHRIE CENTER, Iowa (AP) — Rep. Cindy Axne happily talked about trade, health care and agriculture with about three dozen constituents who gathered in a farm bureau office the weekend before Christmas. Missing from the Iowa Democrat’s talking points: Her recent vote to impeach President Donald Trump.

Over the course of an hour, the issue that most clearly represents Washington’s Trump-era polarization came up just once. And even then, it was from a questioner who thanked Axne for supporting the two articles that cleared the House last week in a party-line vote.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The fate of a Senate impeachment trial for President Donald Trump is at an impasse as Republican and Democratic leaders remained at odds over what form it would take and what witnesses would be called.

CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman who told police she intentionally ran over a teenager because she believed the girl was Mexican has been charged with another hit-and-run crash that hurt a 12-year-old boy.

Nicole Franklin, who also goes by the name Nicole Poole, was charged Monday by Des Moines police with attempted murder in connection with a Dec. 9 crash that occurred less than an hour before another crash in suburban Clive.