North America

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 09 (APP):The U.N. team in Pakistan is stepping up its response efforts to assist millions of people impacted by the devastating flooding, following the authorities’ recent official request for assistance, a UN Spokesman said Tuesday.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Julien Harneis, who is leading the efforts, visited the flooded areas last week and met with officials and affected people, Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, said in response to a question by APP at the regular noon briefing in New York.

NEW YORK, August 9. /TASS/: The US supports the ‘one-China’ policy, the visit to Taiwan was not an attempt to change it, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with the NBC TV channel on Tuesday.

Pelosi stressed that all she wanted was to show China that the United States supported Taiwan. According to her, the American delegation didn’t go to Taiwan to change the ‘one-China’ policy, to which the US was still committed. Pelosi said she had gone there to recognize the status quo.

She added that there was nothing destabilizing about the trip.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza, with several members raising concerns despite the tenuous truce between Islamic Jihad militants and Israel after three days of deadly conflict.

Speaking via video at the start of the meeting, UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland warned that a resumption of hostilities will have “devastating” consequences.

“The ceasefire is fragile,” he warned.

Aug 8 (Reuters) - An inferno at Cuba's largest oil storage facility has killed at least one firefighter, injured many more, and threatens to further swell the fuel import bill for the impoverished island nation that relies on foreign oil for everything from transportation to its power grid.

Cuban officials may need to scramble to set up expensive floating storage capacity to handle imports aimed at easing an acute fuel scarcity, sources and experts said on Monday.

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed documents endorsing Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO, the most significant expansion of the military alliance since the 1990s as it responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Biden signed the U.S. "instrument of ratification" welcoming the two countries, the final step for their endorsement by the United States.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced Monday that the United States will provide Ukraine with 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of additional security assistance, the largest one-time weapons package since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Jury selection started Tuesday in the second trial of two men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 over their disgust with restrictions early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prosecutors are putting Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. on trial again after a jury in April couldn’t reach a verdict. Two co-defendants were acquitted and two more pleaded guilty earlier.

Dozens of prospective jurors from western and northern Michigan reported to the federal courthouse in Grand Rapids.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas lawmakers began a special session Tuesday to take up tax cuts and a school safety grant program, spurred by the state’s $1.6 billion surplus.

The House and Senate convened for the session called by Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Hutchinson said the tax cuts are needed because of inflation and the state’s record surplus.

The cuts include accelerating reductions in individual and corporate income taxes that the majority-Republican Legislature approved last year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate marked a dramatic and unprecedented escalation of the law enforcement scrutiny of the former president, but the Florida operation is just one part of one investigation related to Trump and his time in office.

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge said Tuesday that Rudy Giuliani must appear in Atlanta in person next week to testify before a special grand jury that’s investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia.

The former New York mayor and Trump attorney had originally been ordered to appear Tuesday. But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, excused him after his lawyers filed a motion seeking to delay his appearance.