North America

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Based on the barrage of television ads and mailers leading up to Tuesday’s primary election in Arkansas, it’s obvious who the most influential Republicans in the state are.

21 May 2022; MEMO: The White House has not yet set a date for US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, and this likely stems from the political crisis in Israel and the possibility of the government's collapse. This results from Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi's announcement of defection from the coalition, meaning the government is supported by a minority of 59 Knesset members.

LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. (AP) — When a gunman began shooting at a Taiwanese American church luncheon, Shoei Su said he froze.

The retired appraiser uses a walker and said he and many of the elderly congregants didn’t immediately know what was happening. He said the shooter said nothing before firing on churchgoers who were snapping photos after finishing lunch following last Sunday morning’s prayer service.

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump has paid a $110,000 fine for his failure to respond to a subpoena in a civil investigation into his business practices, a spokesperson for the New York attorney general said on Friday.

The payment of the fine was one of three steps Trump needed to take for a judge to lift a contempt of court order issued last month for his lack of cooperation with Letitia James' probe into whether the Trump Organization gave banks and tax authorities misleading financial information.

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - Additional cases of monkeypox are likely to be detected in the United States but the risk to the general public is low at this time, a senior U.S. administration official said on Friday.

The first case of monkeypox this year in the United States was confirmed on Wednesday by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The infected man had recently traveled to Canada.

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - Rudy Giuliani, who served as former U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, met for more than nine hours on Friday with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, CNN reported, citing two sources.

Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, had previously refused to appear before the panel unless his testimony was videotaped, his attorney Robert Costello said earlier this month. The committee said at the time that Giuliani had agreed to a transcribed interview.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer, General Mark Milley, spoke by telephone with Russia's Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the Pentagon said on Thursday, the first conversation between the two since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

"The military leaders discussed several security-related issues of concern and agreed to keep the lines of communication open," said a spokesman for Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The White House is working to put advanced anti-ship missiles in the hands of Ukrainian fighters to help defeat Russia's naval blockade, officials said, amid concerns more powerful weapons that could sink Russian warships would intensify the conflict.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Students at public schools in Berkeley, in the western U.S. state of California, will be required to wear masks in indoor spaces starting Monday through the school year which ends June 3, as COVID-19 cases surge in the community, according to an announcement Friday from Berkeley Unified School District officials.

LOS ANGELES, May 20 (Xinhua) -- From the climbing rope found with the remains of British mountaineer George Mallory, who took part in the first British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s, to one of the first oxygen sets ever employed in high-altitude climbing, an exhibition being held in Bowers Museum in U.S. Southern California takes visitors on an epic journey to Mount Everest.