North America

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 03 (APP): The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a China-sponsored resolution, co-sponsored by Pakistan and 172 other nations, that called for upholding an Olympic Truce for the time of next year’s Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, and foster world peace.

The resolution, “Sport for development and peace: Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic idea”, was approved by consensus in the 193-member Assembly on Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 03 (APP): World food prices rose for a fourth straight month in November to remain at 10-year highs, led by strong demand for wheat and dairy products, according to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a Rome-based UN agency.

The FAO’s Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in the international price of cereal, dairy, meat, vegetable oils and sugar, jumped 1.6 points in November from the previous month to 134.4. That is the highest level in a decade and the fourth consecutive month the index has risen.

NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump’s lawyers try to block the White House from releasing records to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, the former president faces a flurry of other investigations that could come to a head in the coming weeks and the new year.

That includes two major state criminal investigations — one in New York and one in Georgia — and lawsuits concerning sexual assault allegations, a fight over an inheritance and questions of whether he should be held personally liable for inciting the insurrection.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden looked out over an audience of government scientists and framed his latest plan for fighting COVID-19 as an opportunity to at last put an end to divisiveness over the virus, calling the politicization of the issue a “sad, sad commentary.”

And then he tacked on a political dig.

Some people “on the other team,” he said Thursday, were threatening to hold up government spending and endangering the nation’s credit out of pique over vaccination requirements.

“Go figure,” he added.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers slowed the pace of their hiring in November, adding 210,000 jobs, the fewest in nearly a year.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.2% from 4.6%. That is a historically low level though still above the pre-pandemic jobless rate of 3.5%.

Overall, the November jobs figures point to an economic recovery that looks resilient though under threat from a spike in inflation, shortages of workers and supplies and the potential impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s Republican governor and the state attorney general filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday, challenging the Defense Department’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for the Oklahoma National Guard.

In a statement, Gov. Kevin Stitt argued that the Biden administration’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, overstepped his constitutional authority by subjecting the National Guard to the mandate, which applies to active-duty military members.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Nine lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump were ordered Thursday to pay Detroit and Michigan a total of $175,000 in sanctions for abusing the court system with a sham lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results.

The money, which must be paid within 30 days, will cover the legal costs of defending against the suit, which were more than $153,000 for the city and nearly $22,000 for the state.

NEW YORK (AP) — The omicron variant of COVID-19, which had been undetected in the U.S. before the middle of this week, had been discovered in at least five states by the end of Thursday, showing yet again how mutations of the virus can circumnavigate the globe with speed and ease.

Just a day after the first known U.S. case was found in California, tests showed the omicron variant had infected at least five people in the New York City metropolitan area, plus a man from Minnesota who had attended an anime convention in Manhattan in late November.

OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The superintendent of a Michigan school district says no discipline was necessary for a teen who was summoned to the office a few hours before four students were fatally shot.

Tim Thorne also acknowledged that Ethan Crumbley’s parents were at Oxford High School on Tuesday, the day of the shooting. Thorne didn’t disclose the reason, saying he can’t answer those questions now.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Earlier Thursday, congressional leaders announced they had finally reached an agreement to keep the government running for 11 more weeks, generally at current spending levels, while adding $7 billion to aid Afghanistan evacuees.