North America

HAVANA, July 20 (NNN-ANSA) — The electricity supply in Cuba’s capital city is showing increasingly recurrent cuts as the aging power plants seem to be reaching their point of technical exhaustion.

Local authorities have said the country’s energy situation was “very complex and tense, but with a solution,” which should feature foreign investment and “projects with friendly countries,” including the arrival of tankers with fuel to assist a population who undergo daily power cuts lasting several hours.

MANAGUA, July 20 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faría reaffirmed his government’s commitment and solidarity with Nicaragua in a meeting held on Tuesday in Managua with his Nicaraguan counterpart, Denis Moncada.

“We appreciate the reception given to us by the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister, Denis Moncada, whom we greeted on behalf of the President (of Venezuela), Nicolás Maduro. We took advantage of the moment and had a pleasant meeting where we expressed solidarity and mutual support between our peoples,” the minister said through his Twitter account.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - Ukraine's eastern Donbas region has not yet been lost to the Russians, a top U.S. general said on Wednesday.

"No, it's not lost yet," U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said in a press briefing when asked by a reporter if the region was lost.

Moscow's military "tasks" in Ukraine now go beyond the eastern Donbas region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - The United States will send four more high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday, in the latest military package to bolster Kyiv as it confronts heavy pounding by Russian forces.

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier this week ordered generals to prioritize destroying Ukraine's long-range missile and artillery weapons after Western-supplied weapons were used to strike Russian supply lines.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The current painful U.S. inflation and its broader economic consequences directly result from bad Democratic policies, The Hill reported on Monday.

The report listed four factors that have led the country deep into the mire of high prices.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — When fugitive 1980s Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested in Mexico last week, it stirred up old, terrible memories for Lannie Walker, the daughter of American writer John Clay Walker.

While Caro Quintero was only ever sentenced in Mexico for the killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar in 1985, his gang apparently killed as many as six U.S. citizens in the western city of Guadalajara around the same time.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Facing massive public pressure, Uvalde’s top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who was central to the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.

The South Texas city’s school board announced Wednesday that it will consider firing Chief Pete Arredondo at a special meeting Saturday. Arredondo has been accused by state officials of making several critical mistakes during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

(AP) --- Trump officials tried to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census in a move experts said would benefit Republicans despite initial doubts among some in the administration that it was legal, according to an investigative report released Wednesday by a congressional oversight committee.

The report offers a smoking gun of sorts — a secret memo the committee obtained after a two-year legal battle showing that a top Trump appointee in the Commerce Department explored apportionment as a reason to include the question.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence is becoming increasingly brazen in his willingness to counter former President Donald Trump.

The two will hold dueling rallies in Arizona on Friday as they stump for rival candidates who offer dramatically different visions of the Republican Party in a critical battleground state. Days later, they will once again cross paths as they deliver major speeches on the same day in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reps. Elaine Luria and Adam Kinzinger, who will lead questioning in the closing summer hearing of the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday night, are from different parties but agree emphatically on one thing: The investigation into the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is worth sacrificing their political careers.