North America

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg had a bounce in his step as he made his way from house to house in search of voters on a cold spring afternoon. But when people recognized him, it wasn’t for reasons he’d anticipated when he announced his run last year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is turning to a Cold War-era law to boost production of lithium and other minerals used to power electric vehicles, but experts say the move by itself is unlikely to ensure the robust domestic mining Biden seeks as he promotes cleaner energy sources.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Rep. Abigail Spanberger first introduced a bill banning stock trading by members of Congress and their families, the Virginia Democrat managed to get only eight co-sponsors. So far this session, 62 — or about one out of every seven House members — have signed on.

It’s a similar story in the Senate. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., a once lonely voice on the issue, had just one co-sponsor for his proposed stock trading ban in the last two congressional sessions. Now, he has nine.

ATLANTA (AP) — Add one more group of contests to the white-hot races for Congress and governor that will dominate this year’s midterm elections: secretaries of state.

Former President Donald Trump’s attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election and his subsequent endorsements of candidates for state election offices who are sympathetic to his view have elevated those races to top-tier status. At stake, say Democrats and others concerned about fair elections, is nothing less than American democracy.

29 April 2022; MEMO: More than 3,000 people died or went missing while trying to cross into European countries in 2021, an official from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday, and Anadolu News Agency reports.

The people died or went missing while attempting to cross the Central and Western Mediterranean and Atlantic to Europe, UNHCR spokesperson, Shabia Mantoo, said at a press briefing in Geneva.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 29 (APP): Pakistan and China Friday welcomed the UN Security Council’s statement calling for bringing those responsible for the deadly terrorist attack in the Karachi University to justice.

“We expect international community’s full cooperation in identifying the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of this terrorist act, and to hold them accountable,”
Ambassador Munir Akram’s said, while reacting to the 15-member Council’s statement on Tuesday’s attack.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 29 (APP): With extreme heat gripping large parts of India and Pakistan, the two countries are working to roll out life-saving health action plans to combat the heatwave, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a Geneva-based UN agency, said Friday.

The extreme heat is impacting hundreds of millions of people in one of the most densely populated parts of the world, threatening to damage whole ecosystems, WMO said.

HAVANA, April 28 (NNN-ANSA) — Cuban tourism authorities have confirmed 128,159 foreign travellers had visited the country for leisure purposes during March of 2022, which represented 58.7% of the Government’s projections.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Tuesday said there had been growth compared to 2021. He added the current month of April would be “better than March,” which “ratifies a trend of a gradual recovery in this sector.

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly backed legislation on Thursday that will make it easier to export military equipment to Ukraine, reviving the "Lend-Lease Act" that helped defeat Hitler during World War Two.

The House passed the "Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022" by 417 to 10, three weeks after it sailed through the Senate with unanimous support. It next goes to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - The United States does not believe that there is a threat of Russia using nuclear weapons despite a recent escalation in Moscow's rhetoric, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.

"We continue to monitor their nuclear capabilities every day the best we can and we do not assess that there is a threat of the use of nuclear weapons and no threat to NATO territory," the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters.