North America

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that Israel has decided not to be a partner of Palestine in the peace process and that it will be treated as such.

"It is clear that Israel, which is ignoring the resolutions of international legitimacy, has decided not to be our partner in the peace process," said Abbas in his speech to the General Debate of the UN General Assembly.

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that China-U.S. relations have been severely impacted currently, and the lessons from which should be learned by the U.S. side.

Wang made the remarks during their talks at the site of the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations. The two diplomats were attending the ongoing 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 24 counties as Tropical Storm Ian gathers strength over the Caribbean and is expected to bring heavy rain and hurricane-force winds to the state next week.

DeSantis issued the order Friday encouraging residents and local governments to make preparations as the storm moves toward the state. He has also requested a federal pre-landfall emergency declaration.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is skipping next week’s launch attempt of its new moon rocket because of a tropical storm that’s expected to become a major hurricane.

It’s the third delay in the past month for the lunar-orbiting test flight featuring mannequins but no astronauts, a follow-up to NASA’s Apollo moon-landing program of a half-century ago. Hydrogen fuel leaks and other technical issues caused the previous scrubs.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — Fiona washed houses into the sea, tore the roofs off others and knocked out power to the vast majority of two Canadian provinces Saturday as it made landfall as a big, powerful post-tropical cyclone.

Fiona transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical storm late Friday, but it still had hurricane-strength winds and brought drenching rains and huge waves. There was no immediate confirmation of fatalities or injures.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was returning from an official appearance in Rapid City in 2019 when she faced a decision: Overnight in the capital of Pierre, where another trip would start the next day, or head home and see her son attend his high school prom?

The Republican governor chose the latter, a decision that eventually cost taxpayers some $3,700 when the state airplane dropped her off near her home and then returned the next day to pick her up.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The way President Joe Biden sees it, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade was not just about whether a woman has a right to obtain an abortion.

“It’s about freedom,” Biden said at a private fundraiser in New York this past week.

Vice President Kamala Harris takes an even bolder approach when she talks about abortion. “Extremist, so-called leaders trumpet the rhetoric of freedom while they take away freedoms,” she told voters in Illinois this month.

NEW YORK (AP) — The tears come quickly to Masih Alinejad when she talks about the messages she’s received in recent days from women in Iran protesting against their government after a young woman died in police custody over a violation of the country’s strict religious dress code.

ATLANTA (AP) — The tale of breached voting equipment in one of the country’s most important political battleground states involves a bail bondsman, a prominent attorney tied to former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and a cast of characters from a rural county that rarely draws notice from outsiders.

How they all came together and what it could mean for the security of voting in the upcoming midterm elections are questions tangled up in a lawsuit and state investigations that have prompted calls to ditch the machines altogether.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In speech after speech, world leaders dwelled on the topic consuming this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting: Russia’s war in Ukraine.

A few, like Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, prodded the world not to forget everything else.

He, too, was quick to bring up the biggest military confrontation in Europe since World War II. But he wasn’t there to discuss the conflict itself, nor its disruption of food, fuel and fertilizer markets.