North America

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The royal invitation sent to the White House to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral was for President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden only, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday.

Her statement suggested Biden would not be assembling a U.S. delegation to attend the Sept. 19 funeral in London. He is to depart for London on Saturday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street pointed higher before the opening bell Monday, building on last week’s strong finish ahead of a host of new inflation data from the U.S.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.3% and futures for the S&P 50 climbed 0.5%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to channel John F. Kennedy on the 60th anniversary of JFK’s moonshot speech, highlighting Biden administration efforts aimed at “ending cancer as we know it.”

The president was traveling to Boston on Monday to draw attention to a new federally backed study that seeks to validate using blood tests to screen against multiple cancers — a potential game-changer in diagnostic testing to dramatically improve early detection of cancers. He also planned other announcements meant to better the lives of those suffering from cancer.

TOCCOA, Ga. (AP) — When Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made one of his first general election campaign swings in August, he went straight to the modern heartland of the state’s Republican Party.

It wasn’t Buckhead, the glitzy Atlanta neighborhood where Kemp lives in a governor’s mansion dwarfed by other nearby estates. And it wasn’t suburban Cobb County, once the bastion of Newt Gingrich.

NEW YORK, Sep 11 (APP): The daughter of Pakistan’s UN Ambassador, Munir Akram, raised thousands of dollars for the affectees of the deadly floods in Pakistan at a largely-attended fundraiser she hosted on Saturday.

Ariana Akram, a student activist, said that the donations made at the gathering of ambassadors, UN officials, members of the business community here and prominent New York personalities were being tabulated and the exact amount will be posted soon.

NEW YORK, Sep 11 (APP): Pakistan’s UN Ambassador, Munir Akram, paid high tributes to Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah on his 74th death anniversary, with a pledge to abide by his principles of building Pakistan into a dynamic, progressive, moderate, and democratic Islamic country.

“Today, the nation pays tribute to our founding father #QuaidEAzam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on his 74th death anniversary,” he said in a tweet marking the occasion.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Antigua and Barbuda plans to hold a referendum on becoming a republic within the next three years, the Caribbean nation’s prime minister told British media Saturday, a move that could see King Charles III removed as its head of state.

"This is a matter that has to be taken to a referendum...within the next, probably, three years," Prime Minister Gaston Browne told ITV News shortly after a local ceremony confirmed Charles III as the country's King following Queen Elizabeth II's death.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Chaos reigned in the home where Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz grew up, testimony in his ongoing penalty trial has shown.

He and his half-brother Zachary tormented their adoptive, widowed mother, Lynda. By the time Cruz reached middle school in the early 2010s, the pair took their fists and baseball bats to the walls, leaving gaping holes. They destroyed televisions and carved gashes in furniture, witnesses said.

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (AP) — Derrek McIntosh was left homeless twice within weeks — first by floodwaters that destroyed his eastern Kentucky home, then when a fire burned down the house he stayed in with relatives.

Now that he’s moved into a temporary travel trailer, McIntosh said he no longer worries where he’ll lay his head at night. And the 34-year-old Republican gives the credit for that to a Democrat — Gov. Andy Beshear.

When flooding swept through parts of Appalachia in late July, McIntosh said, the governor moved quickly.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans remembered 9/11 on Sunday with tear-choked tributes and pleas to “never forget,” 21 years after the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.

The loss still feels immediate to Bonita Mentis, who wore a necklace with a photo of her slain sister, Shevonne Mentis.

“It’s been 21 years, but it’s not 21 years for us. It seems like just yesterday,” she said before reading victims’ names at the World Trade Center to a crowd that included Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff. Mentis’