North America

(AP) --- America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the highest inflation in 40 years.

The government’s report Friday showed that last month’s job growth helped shrink the unemployment rate to 3.6%. That’s the lowest rate since the pandemic erupted two years ago and just above the half-century low of 3.5% that was reached two years ago.

DETROIT (AP) — New vehicles sold in the U.S. will have to average at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026, up from about 28 mpg, under new federal rules unveiled Friday that undo a rollback of standards enacted under President Donald Trump.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its new fuel economy requirements are the strongest to date and the maximum the industry can achieve over the time period. They will reduce gasoline consumption by more than 220 billion gallons over the life of vehicles, compared with the Trump standards.

ARTEMISA, Cuba (AP) — Francisco Pérez Rodríguez has a car problem — one that’s starting to be all too common for many Cubans.

He’s been rebuilding the engine of his father-in-law’s Moskvich — one of tens of thousands of cars and other vehicles that poured into Cuba from its Cold War allies in the Soviet bloc and later Russia over the past half century.

To run, it needs a new timing belt. But Pérez Rodríguez said that’s something only available these days in Russia. And flights there have been disrupted by Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to unionize on Friday, marking the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant’s history and handing an unexpected win to a nascent group that fueled the union drive.

Warehouse workers cast 2,654 votes in favor of a union, giving the fledgling Amazon Labor Union enough support to pull off a victory. According to the National Labor Relations Board, which is overseeing the process, 2,131 workers rejected the union bid.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate acquitted former President Donald Trump last year of inciting the Capitol insurrection. But neither Trump nor any of his top advisers have faced charges over the attack in a court of law, and it’s uncertain if they ever will.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 31 (APP): The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as MONUSCO, has secured the crash site of the ill-fated UN helicopter in which six Pakistani peacekeepers were martyred, and begun a preliminary investigation into the incident, a UN spokesman said Thursday.

One Russian and one Serbian peacekeepers also died in the crash on Tuesday.

RICHMOND (Virginia, US), March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An ex-British jihadist on federal trial in the US has said he was fighting on behalf of “suffering Muslims”.

El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, stands accused of hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder as part of a group of Daesh militants, known as the “Beatles” for their British accents.

But in court on Wednesday, Elsheikh claimed he was not part of the group.

The group is said to have tortured and beheaded hostages in Syria, including several journalists and aid workers.

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 (NNN-Xinhua) — As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year, 23 countries – home to around 405 million schoolchildren – are yet to fully reopen schools, with many schoolchildren at risk of dropping out, said the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Over the past two years, nearly 147 million children missed more than half of their in-person schooling, amounting to 2 trillion hours of lost learning, UNICEF said in a report called “Are children really learning?”

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over before receiving his second COVID-19 booster shot.

"We're now in a new moment in this pandemic," Biden said in remarks from the White House. "It does not mean that COVID-19 is over."

The veteran Democrat and former U.S. senator representing Delaware went on to urge Congress to "secure more funding for the COVID-19 response."

"There is no wall you can build high enough to keep out a virus," he pleaded. "Congress needs to act now. Please."

31 March 2022; MEMO: The US Treasury Department said yesterday that it has imposed new sanctions on five individuals and several entities alleged by Washington to be involved in Iran's ballistic missile programme.

The treasury said that the sanctions target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unit responsible for research and development of ballistic missiles, as well as Iran's Parchin Chemical Industries. This is the intermediary which procures parts for missile propellant systems.