North America

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The White House is working to put advanced anti-ship missiles in the hands of Ukrainian fighters to help defeat Russia's naval blockade, officials said, amid concerns more powerful weapons that could sink Russian warships would intensify the conflict.

(AP) --- President Joe Biden’s approval rating dipped to the lowest point of his presidency in May, a new poll shows, with deepening pessimism emerging among members of his own Democratic Party.

Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s performance as president, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research, dipping from already negative ratings a month earlier.

NEW YORK (AP) — For some survivors, the sounds are a part of what still haunts them: People screaming. Car tires screeching. An engine revving.

It was “like somebody just floored it … It was so loud,” Jyll Elsman told a jury on a recent day in a Manhattan courtroom. “That is the last thing that I remember before everything went black.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nina Jankowicz, like so many millennials, was excited to share a social media post announcing her new job on Twitter late last month when she was named executive director for a new disinformation board established by the Department of Homeland Security.

But instead of well-wishes, Jankowicz’s tweet set off a torrent of sexist profanities across social media and menacing emails filled with rape or death threats that continue to follow her even after she resigned from that new job on Wednesday morning following the disastrous rollout of the program.

CHICAGO (AP) — Two people are dead and another eight wounded following a shooting near a fast food restaurant in Chicago that sent bystanders scattering, authorities said.

The shooting happened about 10:40 p.m. Thursday near a McDonald’s on the city’s Near North Side, a few blocks from the city’s Magnificent Mile shopping district. One person was taken into custody and a weapon was recovered, police said in statement.

NEW YORK, May 19 (APP): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu have expressed commitment to work together to enhance economic cooperation and unleash the full potential of Pakistan-Turkey trade relations.

This was agreed upon on the sidelines of the Ministerial meeting on ‘Global Food Security Call to Action’ held in New York, the Foreign Office said Wednesday.

Both sides agreed to remain in close contact to maintain the upward trajectory and add momentum to the friendly ties between Pakistan and Turkey.

OTTAWA, May 19 (Reuters) - Incumbent Progressive Conservative Doug Ford is leading the race to win a second term as Ontario premier with promises of tax relief at the gas pump amid soaring inflation and fixing clogged highways in Canada's biggest city, Toronto.

Ford, 57, swept to power in 2018, ending 15 years of Liberal rule in Ontario - home to nearly 40% of Canada's 38.2 million people, and the June 2 election could reflect voters' views on his handling of the pandemic, which was often criticized.

WASHINGTON/SEOUL/TOKYO, May 19 (Reuters) - Joe Biden will visit Japan and South Korea on his first Asian trip as U.S. president, carrying a clear message to China, advisers and analysts say - don't try what Russia did in Ukraine anywhere in Asia, and especially not in Taiwan.

Biden departs for the five day trip on Thursday, after spending several months organizing allies to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation."

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The United States reopened its embassy in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, three months after it ceased operation in anticipation that Russia would launch a military operation in the country.

"Today we are officially resuming operations at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv," Blinken said in a statement posted on the State Department's website. Kyiv is the Romanized spelling of Ukraine's capital city based on the Ukrainian language.

18 May 2022; MEMO: A Pentagon investigation into a US air strike that killed dozens of people in Syria in 2019 found that the initial review of the attack by the military was mishandled with reporting delays but stopped short of calling for disciplinary action.

The inquiry found that most people killed in the attack were Daesh fighters and that military officials didn't violate the laws of war or deliberately conceal casualties, reports the New York Times.