North America

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Sen. Mike Lee worked on early efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, helping push legally dubious schemes to keep then-President Donald Trump in power, before he shifted course and quickly backed away.

His efforts, revealed in text messages obtained by the House panel investigating the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, drew quick condemnation Friday from his reelection challengers.

NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (AP) — Before digging into his six-egg omelet at a bustling northeast Ohio diner, Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel stopped to bow his head.

“Bless our food, our time, our conversation, in Jesus’ name,” said Pastor J.C. Church, who joined Mandel after a campaign event at a local church. ”Amen.”

15 April 2022; MEMO: The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at Ohio State University has passed an emergency resolution calling on the University to divest from two companies that contribute to human rights violations against the Palestinian people by providing technology and tools to the Israeli military.

The USG passed the resolution on 7 April, with a majority of 14 votes in favour of the resolution, 8 votes against, and 2 abstentions.

WASHINGTON, Apr 15 (APP): The United States looks forward to working with the new Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his government to promote peace and prosperity in Pakistan and the broader region, State Department spokesperson Ned Price has said.

The spokesperson, who was responding to questions at his daily new briefing on Thursday, also repeated his government’ denial of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s allegations that U.S. played a role in ousting him.

“There is no truth whatsoever to the allegations that have been put forward,” Price said.

NEW YORK, Apr 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The COVID-19 pandemic may have amplified prejudicial attitudes against Asian and Hispanic colleagues in U.S. workplace, a new, U.S.-based survey showed.

The study, conducted by experts from Columbia University and Northwestern University, was released in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday.

During the research, participants who had lost jobs due to COVID-19, as well as, those from counties with higher COVID-19 rates and lower concentrations of East Asians, showed greater prejudice towards East Asians in their responses.

WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - The United States has approved a nearly $1 billion weapons sale to Nigeria after lawmakers had put a hold on the deal over concerns about possible human rights abuses by the Nigerian government.

In July, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee put a hold on the sale of 12 AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopters made by Bell (TXT.N).

On Thursday, the State Department made the determination that it would approve the sale of the attack helicopters worth $997 million.

WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will travel with a delegation to Panama next week for a ministerial conference on migration with the government of Panama, the State Department said on Friday.

In the trip scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Blinken will meet with Panama President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes, multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, international organizations, and NGOs, the State Department said.

LOS ANGELES, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization on Thursday for the country's first COVID-19 diagnostic test that detects chemical compounds in breath samples associated with a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The test can be performed in environments where the patient specimen is both collected and analyzed, such as doctor's offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites, using an instrument about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, according to the FDA.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday he plans to nominate Michael Barr, the dean of the University of Michigan’s public policy school, to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman of supervision.

Washington, Apr 15 (PTI) The United States is looking forward to working with the Shehbaz Sharif government, the Biden administration said Thursday as it refuted the allegations by former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and his supporters of the US' role in regime change.

We've congratulated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on his election by the Pakistani parliament, and we look forward to working with him and his government, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference.