North America

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The record-long federal government shutdown cost the U.S. economy approximately 11 billion U.S. dollars, a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Monday.

The five-week partial shutdown reduced real gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2018 by 3 billion dollars, or 0.1 percent, and could lower GDP in the first quarter of 2019 by 8 billion dollars, or 0.2 percent, the report said.

CHICAGO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Studying mice and people, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that sleep deprivation increases levels of the key Alzheimer's protein tau, and sleeplessness accelerates the spread through the brain of toxic clumps of tau, a harbinger of brain damage and a decisive step along the path to dementia.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States space agency NASA announced Monday that its Parker Solar Probe completed its first orbit of the Sun on Jan. 19, reaching the point in its orbit farthest from our star.

Now, the spacecraft, the fastest spacecraft in history, has begun its second orbits on course to the second perihelion or closest approach to the Sun on April 4, according to NASA.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on a state-owned oil firm in Venezuela, the latest move of the Trump administration to mount pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to cede power to the opposition.

The sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, will block 7 billion U.S. dollars in assets and could result in a loss of 11 billion dollars in sales next year, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton told a White House briefing.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He arrived in Washington D.C. on Monday afternoon for the upcoming high-level economic and trade consultations with the U.S. side.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, leads a delegation with members from major economic sectors of the Chinese government.

WASHINGTON; 28 Jan 2019; AA: U.S. administration has "accepted" on Sunday Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido’s designation of Carlos Alfredo Vecchio as the charge d’Affaires to the U.S.

In a written statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "The United States accepted interim President Juan Guaido’s designation of Carlos Alfredo Vecchio as the Charge d’Affaires of the Government of Venezuela to the United States on January 25."

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe derailments of trains carrying explosive fuels.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, standing outside of Oakland’s city hall, formally kicked off her campaign for the White House by presenting herself as the leader who can best unite an America that is at an “inflection point” and facing a critical question.

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Cuba’s president says a tornado in eastern Havana has killed three people and injured 174 others.

The Cuban capital was battered late Sunday and early Monday by powerful winds and heavy rains. A blackout hit many Havana neighborhoods around 9 p.m.

Early Monday, President Miguel Diaz-Canel posted photos of himself on Twitter with rescue workers besides what appeared to be a vehicle overturned by the storm. Little further information about the storm appeared in state media.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said the odds congressional negotiators will craft a deal to end his border wall standoff with Congress are “less than 50-50.”

As hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers prepared to return to work, Trump told The Wall Street Journal that he doesn’t think the negotiators will strike a deal that he’d accept. He pledged to build a wall anyway using his executive powers to declare a national emergency if necessary.