North America

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump endorsed Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s crowded Republican Senate primary, ending months of jockeying for his support.

In a statement Saturday evening, Trump said his decision was “all about winning elections” as he formally backed the celebrity heart surgeon best known as the host of daytime TV’s “The Dr. Oz Show.”

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexicans vote Sunday on whether their popular president should end his six-year term barely midway through or continue to the end.

Strangely, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was the one who pushed for the first-ever referendum of its kind in Mexico.

It was considered a safe bet. The referendum is only binding if at least 40% of the country’s electorate votes — something experts believe unlikely — and López Obrador has maintained approval ratings around 60%.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 09 (APP): World food prices leaped nearly 13% in March and hit a new record, with the war in Ukraine causing turmoil in grain markets essential oils and edible oils, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN agency. The Rome-based agency’s Food Price Index, which tracks the most traded food commodities globally, averaged 159.3 points last month, up from 141.4 points in February.

NEW YORK, April 9. /TASS/: The unwillingness of the Kiev regime to stop the genocide of Russians and implement its obligations under international treaties have led to the special military operation, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said in an interview for Newsweek Friday.

"The special military operation in Ukraine is a result of the Kiev regime’s unwillingness to stop the genocide of Russians through implementation of its obligations under international agreements," he said.

WASHIGNTON, April 9. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden signed bills, passed by the Congress earlier, on suspension of normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, as well as on prohibition of energy import from Russia over the situation in Ukraine, the White House press office said Friday.

According to the press office, Biden signed both papers; previously, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki announced his intent to do so.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 9 (NNN-XINHUA) – Funding and timely action are critical, to prevent a major oil spill from a decaying tanker, anchored near Yemen’s coastline, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly said, in New York yesterday.

Gressly described the FSO Safer, off Yemen’s Red Sea coast, as “a time bomb,” posing a threat.

The 45-year-old floating storage and offloading facility, holds 1.1 million barrels of oil, or four times the amount of the Exxon Valdez – the tanker that caused one of the greatest environmental disasters in U.S. history.

WASHINGTON, April 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States insisted on keeping the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps on its designated list of terror groups, as Washington pushes on with negotiations to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, had told a congressional hearing on Thursday that in his “personal opinion” the Quds Force should not be dropped from the terror list, which has been one of Tehran’s conditions to renew the deal.

LOS ANGELES, April 8 (Xinhua) -- NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX launched a first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station on Friday.

The four-person multinational crew is composed of Commander Michael López-Alegría and Pilot Larry Connor of the United States, Mission Specialist Eytan Stibbe of Israel, and Mission Specialist Mark Pathy of Canada.

The mission, codenamed Ax-1, was launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at 11:17 a.m. Eastern Time from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

NEW YORK, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices rose on Friday, but suffered a fall for the week.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery added 2.23 U.S. dollars, or 2.3 percent, to settle at 98.26 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery increased 2.2 dollars, or 2.2 percent, to close at 102.78 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

For the week, the WTI and Brent drop 1 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, based on the front-month contracts.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — When Ted Budd won a surprise endorsement from former President Donald Trump last year, he was a little-known congressman running for a Senate seat in North Carolina against some of the state’s most recognizable Republicans, including a former governor.

As he enters the final stretch before the state’s May 17 primary, Budd is again hoping for a boost, banking on the power of Trump’s endorsement to put him on top of a field that includes a dozen other Republicans.