North America

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A storm packing high winds and heavy rain was sweeping through the Northeast early Wednesday, while wild winter weather elsewhere brought tornadoes and deadly accidents in the Midwest and South, flood threats in Florida and blizzards in the Northwest.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon and New York City officials evacuated nearly 2,000 migrants housed at a sprawling tent complex ahead of predicted wind speeds that could top 70 mph (112 kph) at times.

Washington. (AP) —Former President Donald Trump has long vowed to prosecute President Joe Biden if Trump wins November’s election and the two trade places. He upped the stakes dramatically Tuesday, contending that if criminal charges against him aren’t dropped, any current and future ex-presidents also could be prosecuted.

NEW YORK (AP) — A historic Brooklyn synagogue that serves as the center of an influential Hasidic Jewish movement was trashed this week during an unusual community dispute that began with the discovery of a secret underground tunnel and ended in brawl between worshippers and police.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration pledged from day one to restore truth and transparency to the federal government — but now it’s facing a maelstrom of criticism and credibility questions after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization was kept secret for days, even from the White House.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Climate-altering pollution from greenhouse gases declined by nearly 2% in the United States in 2023, even as the economy expanded at a faster clip, a new report finds.

The decline, while “a step in the right direction,’' is far below the rate needed to meet President Joe Biden’s pledge to cut U.S. emissions in half by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, said a report Wednesday from the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump aims to deliver his own closing argument Thursday in his New York civil business fraud trial in addition to his legal team’s summations, according to two people familiar with the highly unusual plan.

Trump is a defendant in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. She claims his net worth was inflated by billions of dollars on financial statements that helped him secure business loans and insurance.

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - NASA is set to delay its next few missions to the moon under a key program as technical hurdles mount with the various spacecraft it intends to use to get there, according to four people familiar with NASA's plans.

The U.S. space agency is expected to announce the plans on Tuesday after spending months tracking progress with contractors and considering changes to the Artemis program, a multi-billion dollar effort that includes returning the first astronauts to the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander has "no chance" of a soft landing on the moon after springing a propellant leak in the first few hours of its journey in space, the company said on Tuesday about the first such U.S. attempt in five decades.

There was 40 hours of fuel left on the lander that will allow it to operate "as a spacecraft" even as engineers determine what its new mission in orbit will be, the space robotics firm said.

OTTAWA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The first "impactful" winter storm of the year is expected to hit the Canadian capital Ottawa late Tuesday, following a record year of heat, wildfires, and flooding.

Environment Canada, the country's weather agency, said heavy snow associated with a major winter storm is to arrive on Tuesday afternoon and continue into Wednesday.

Snow will likely change to ice pellets or freezing rain on Tuesday night. Several hours of freezing rain are possible, particularly in the Ottawa Valley. Some locations may see 10 to 20 cm of snow, the agency said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Both the White House and Pentagon said Monday they would look into why President Joe Biden and other top officials weren’t informed for days that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized. A Pentagon spokesman pointed to one reason: A key staffer was out sick with the flu.

Even as the Biden administration pledged to look into what rules or procedures weren’t followed, it maintained its silence about why Austin has been hospitalized for a week. Late Monday, the Pentagon issued an update saying Austin “is recovering well.”