USA

13 July 2023; MEMO: Democratic US lawmaker, Ilhan Omar, has announced she will not be attending Israeli President Isaac Herzog's address to a joint session of Congress, condemning the state's 2019 decision banning her and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from entering Israel.

UNITED NATIONS, July 13 (Reuters) - North Korea is set to make a rare statement during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday, which was called over Pyongyang's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

North Korea requested to speak at the meeting of the 15-member body and Great Britain - as council president for July - intends to grant it, said Mungo Woodifield, spokesperson for Britain's U.N. mission in New York.

The council meeting was requested by the United States, Albania, France, Japan, Malta and Britain.

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, July 13 (Reuters) - Russia's leadership is suffering a significant amount of "friction and confusion" since the Wagner mercenary group's mutiny last month, but the impact it is having on front lines in Ukraine is still uncertain, the United States' top general said on Thursday.

July 13 (Reuters) - A threatened U.S. strike at United Parcel Service (UPS.N) could be "one of the costliest in at least a century," a think tank specializing in the economic impact of labor actions said on Thursday.

Potential losses from a 10-day strike at the world's biggest package delivery company could top $7 billion, according to an estimate from Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG). That number includes UPS customer losses of $4 billion and lost direct wages of more than $1 billion.

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - The United States will not pay reparations to developing countries hit by climate-fueled disasters, John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, told a congressional hearing on Thursday.

Kerry, a former U.S. secretary of state, was asked during a hearing before a House of Representatives foreign affairs oversight subcommittee whether the U.S. would contribute to a fund that would pay countries that have been damaged by floods, storms and other climate-driven disasters.

UNITED NATIONS, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Speakers attending the ongoing High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development on Wednesday stressed the need for renewable sources to make up 60 percent of power generation by 2030 to support sustainable development in developing countries.

The ongoing HLPF Wednesday was focusing on deliberating strategies for a smoother transition in the energy sector.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Thursday it had its biggest Prime day event ever this year.

The e-commerce company, as in past years, did not reveal how much money it earned during the two-day sales event, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday and offered a plethora of deals on electronics, home goods and other items.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices in the United States decelerated again last month, the latest sign that inflationary pressures are easing in the face of the Federal Reserve’s streak of interest rate hikes.

The government’s producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose just 0.1% last month from June 2022, the smallest such increase since August 2020. And from May to June, prices rose an identical 0.1% after having fallen 0.4% from April to May.

WASHINGTON (AP) — No fingerprints or DNA turned up on the baggie of cocaine found in a lobby at the White House last week despite a sophisticated FBI crime lab analysis, and surveillance footage of the area didn’t identify a suspect, according to a summary of the Secret Service investigation obtained by The Associated Press. There are no leads on who brought the drugs into the building.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After a historically wet winter and a cloudy spring, California’s summer was in full swing Thursday as a heat wave that’s been scorching much of the U.S. Southwest brings triple digit temperatures and an increased risk of wildfires.

Blistering conditions will build Friday and throughout the weekend in the central and southern parts of California, where many residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year, the National Weather Service warned.