North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday confirmed Jerome Powell for a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chair, giving bipartisan backing to Powell’s high-stakes efforts to curb the highest inflation in four decades.

The 80-19 vote reflected broad support in Congress for the Fed’s drive to combat surging prices through a series of sharp interest rate hikes that could extend well into next year. The Fed’s goal is to slow borrowing and spending enough to ease the inflation pressures.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will likely announce another record-breaking budget surplus on Friday, giving him and state lawmakers lots of money to spend in a year the governor is expected to cruise to reelection for a second term.

The surplus in California’s general fund could be as high as $68 billion, up from the initial $29.6 billion surplus Newsom announced in January.

“Our revenues are up significantly above January,” said Keely Martin Bosler, director of the California Department of Finance.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge hears arguments Friday on whether the Biden administration can lift pandemic-related restrictions on immigrants requesting asylum later this month.

Migrants have been expelled more than 1.8 million times since March 2020 under federal Title 42 authority, which has denied migrants a chance to request asylum under U.S. law and international treaty on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel issued subpoenas Thursday to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other GOP lawmakers in its probe into the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, an extraordinary step that has little precedent and is certain to further inflame partisan tensions over the 2021 attack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is looking to nudge southeast Asian leaders to be more outspoken about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the issue continues to be a delicate one for many members of the region’s 10-country alliance with deep ties to Moscow.

Biden welcomed leaders from Association of Southeast Asian Nations to White House on Thursday night for an intimate dinner to kick off the two-day summit, the first meeting of the group to be held in Washington in its 45-year history.

12 May 2022; MEMO: The United States' government under the Administration of President Joe Biden has reportedly asked Congress to approve the sale of advanced weapons and military equipment to Turkey, after years of marginalising Ankara and its defence interests.

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (APP): The United Nations has received $33 million in new pledges towards a $144 million operation to avoid an oil spill from a tanker stranded off the coast of Yemen, which threatens a major environmental disaster.

The FSO Safer, which is holding more than a million barrels of oil, has been described as a “time bomb” because it is at risk of causing a major spill, either from leaking, breaking apart or exploding.

WASHINGTON, May 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden will host Southeast Asian leaders in Washington this week, seeking to show his administration remains focused on the Indo-Pacific and the long-term challenge of China despite the Ukraine crisis.

A two-day summit with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) begins with a White House dinner on Thursday before talks at the State Department on Friday.

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was appalled by the killing of Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank, said his deputy spokesman on Wednesday.

"The secretary-general is appalled by the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter for Al-Jazeera TV, who was shot dead earlier today while covering an operation by Israeli security forces in Jenin in the occupied West Bank," said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman, in a statement.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — For more than two decades, California’s Orange County has debated whether to build a seaside plant to convert the Pacific Ocean’s salt water into drinking water in hopes of buffering against droughts like the one now gripping the nation’s most populous state.

Now, the $1.4 billion proposal by Poseidon Water faces a critical review Thursday by the California Coastal Commission, which is tasked with protecting California’s scenic shores.