USA

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's chief adviser Ibrahim Kalin in Istanbul on Sunday and discussed "progress on NATO accession for Finland and Sweden", the White House said in a statement.

The two, whose meeting was unannounced to the media beforehand, also discussed Turkey's condemnation of Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territory.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is beginning its new term, welcoming the public back to the courtroom and hearing arguments for the first time since issuing a landmark ruling stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion.

Monday’s session also is the first time new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black female justice, will participate in arguments. And the public is back for the first time since the court closed in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A trial starting this week in Washington, D.C., is the biggest test yet in the Justice Department’s efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a violent assault that challenged the foundations of American democracy.

On trial is extremist leader Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group, and four associates. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will make their opening statements on Monday and the trial will last several weeks. Here is a look at what’s to come:

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The invisible line dividing two of Alabama’s congressional districts slices through Montgomery, near iconic sites from the civil rights movement as well as ones more personal to Evan Milligan.

There’s the house where his grandfather loaded people into his station wagon and drove them to their jobs during the Montgomery Bus Boycott as Black residents spurned city buses to protest segregation. It’s the same home where his mother lived as a child, just yards from a whites-only park and zoo she was not allowed to enter.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — People kayaking down streets that were passable just a day or two earlier. Hundreds of thousands without power. National Guard helicopters flying rescue missions to residents still stranded on Florida’s barrier islands.

Days after Hurricane Ian carved a path of destruction from Florida to the Carolinas, the dangers persisted, and even worsened in some places. It was clear the road to recovery from this monster storm will be long and painful.

NEW YORK, October 2. /TASS/: The US and the UK may be behind the explosions at Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, former advisor to US Defense Secretary in the administration of ex-president of the United States Donald Trump, Douglas Macgregor, said in a conversation with Andrew Napolitano, the presenter of the Judging Freedom podcast.

NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be called as a witness by federal prosecutors in the trial of Tom Barrack, a one-time fundraiser for former President Donald Trump, on charges of illegally acting as a foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates, a court filing showed on Saturday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Sunday he sees no imminent invasion of Taiwan by China but said China was trying to establish a "new normal" with its military activities around the island.

A visit to Taiwan early in August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged China, which subsequently launched military drills near the island. Those have continued, although on a much reduced scale.

"I don't see an imminent invasion," Austin said in an interview broadcast on CNN.

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Ukraine's capture of a city within territory of Russian President Vladimir Putin's declared annexation demonstrates that Ukrainians are making progress and able to push back against Russian forces, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, a self-described “car guy,″ often promises to lead by example on climate change by moving swiftly to convert the sprawling U.S. government fleet to zero-emission electric vehicles. But efforts to eliminate gas-powered vehicles from the fleet have lagged.

Biden last year directed the U.S. government to purchase only American-made, zero-emission passenger cars by 2027 and electric versions of other vehicles by 2035.