North America

DENVER (AP) — Making an Olympic team is hard enough. This winter, those who earn their spots on the U.S. squad might find it takes even more work to get to Beijing.

Among the slow trickle of information coming out of China in advance of February’s Olympics was news that, with virtually no flights operating between North America and China, Olympians very well might have to get to Beijing through a still-undetermined set of connecting flights that could more than double their travel time.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like Hercules and his 12 labors, Democrats’ $1.85 trillion package of social and climate initiatives seems afflicted by a maddening parade of hurdles. Looming ahead is the Congressional Budget Office, which could cause problems that would be messy but probably surmountable.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare’s “Part B” outpatient premium will jump by $21.60 a month in 2022, one of the largest increases ever. Officials said Friday a new Alzheimer’s drug is responsible for about half of that.

The increase guarantees that health care will gobble up a big chunk of the recently announced Social Security cost-of-living allowance, a boost that had worked out to $92 a month for the average retired worker, intended to help cover rising prices for gas and food that are pinching seniors.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court declined Friday to lift its stay on the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more workers.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay last Saturday of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney is free. A Los Angeles judge on Friday ended the conservatorship that has controlled Britney Spears’ life and money for nearly 14 years.

The decision capped a stunning five-month odyssey that saw Spears publicly demand the end of the conservatorship, hire her own attorney, have her father removed from power and finally win the freedom to make her own medical, financial and personal decisions for the first time since 2008.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, has been indicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The United States and Qatar signed an accord on Friday for Qatar to represent U.S. diplomatic interests in Afghanistan, an important signal of possible future direct engagement between Washington and the Taliban after two decades of war.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, signed the agreement making Qatar the U.S. "protecting power" in Afghanistan at a State Department ceremony after holding talks.

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- More than half of federal employees recently surveyed disagreed with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in September, according to U.S. media outlet Government Executive.

A total of 53 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat disagreed with the vaccine mandate, while 44 percent strongly or somewhat agreed with it in a survey conducted by the Government Business Council (GBC), the research arm of Government Executive.

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities conducted investigations after New York University (NYU) evacuated multiple buildings due to bomb threats Thursday night.

"NYU has received bomb threats for three locations: the Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science, and Hebrew Union College," the school said in its website Thursday evening.

The locations were soon evacuated, according to the university. Police conducted a search and later issued an all clear.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the Gulf nation of Qatar has agreed to represent American interests in Afghanistan following the closure of the U.S. embassy in Kabul in late August.

Blinken said Qatar will serve as the “protecting power” for the United States in Taliban-run Afghanistan, a move that suggests the Biden administration has little confidence that it will re-open the embassy in the near future.