North America

WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Two Hellfire missiles fired from a drone killed the leader of al Qaeda, causing surprisingly little damage beyond the target, suggesting they may be a version of the missile shrouded in secrecy and used by the United States to avoid non-combatant casualties.

Officials said the missiles killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri while he stood on a balcony at his home in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, over the weekend in the biggest blow to the militants since Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011. 

KLAMATH RIVER, Calif. (AP) — Two more bodies were found within the burn zone of a huge Northern California wildfire, raising the death toll to four in the state’s largest blaze of the year, authorities said Tuesday.

Search teams discovered the additional bodies Monday at separate residences along State Route 96, one of the only roads in and out of the remote region near the state line with Oregon, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

PHOENIX (AP) — Republican Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers lost his bid for a state Senate seat after refusing then-President Donald Trump’s pleas to help overturn the 2020 election results and testifying before Congress about the efforts.

Bowers tried to move to the state Senate because of term limits. He lost to former state Sen. David Farnsworth, who criticized him for refusing to help Trump or go along with a contentious 2021 “audit” that Republican leaders in the Senate commissioned.

NEW YORK (AP) — Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Meijer was trailing a primary challenger backed by former President Donald Trump as he and two other Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Trump fought to hang onto their seats.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday proposed a bill to regulate cryptocurrencies, the latest attempt by Congress to formulate ideas on how to oversee a multibillion-dollar industry that has been racked by collapsing prices and lenders halting operations.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is moving higher before the opening bell on Wednesday ahead of more corporate earnings and new jobs data.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.4%, as did futures for the S&P 500. Oil prices ticked up ahead of Wednesday’s OPEC+ meeting. Global markets were mixed.

NEW YORK (AP) — To understand the impact of surging inflation on this year’s back-to-school spending, look no further than children’s rain boots with motifs like frogs and ladybugs made by Washington Shoe Co.

03 August 2022; MEMO: The United States said yesterday that it has "no DNA confirmation" of the death of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who was apparently killed in a drone attack in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday.

"We do not have DNA confirmation, and we don't need it," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. He explained that the US government had "visual confirmation" as well as confirmation "through other sources." Kirby added that there was a "small Al-Qaeda presence remaining in Afghanistan."

NEW YORK, August 2. /TASS/: The United States sees no reasons for the escalation of tension with China in light of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, National Security Council Strategic Coordinator for Communications John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN head Antonio Guterres warned that a misunderstanding could spark nuclear destruction as the United States, Britain and France urged Russia to stop “its dangerous nuclear rhetoric and behaviour.”

At the opening of a key nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference in New York, Guterres warned that the world faced “a nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.”