North America

DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — Haitian migrants waited to learn their fate at a Texas border encampment whose size was dramatically diminished from the almost 15,000 who gathered there just days ago in an effort to seek humanitarian protection in the U.S. but now face expulsion.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to host the first in-person gathering of leaders of an Indo-Pacific alliance known as ” the Quad” on Friday, wrapping up a tough week of diplomacy in which he faced no shortage of criticism from both allies and adversaries.

NEW YORK (AP) — With cascading crises casting a pall over the proceedings at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová had this reminder on the first day of debate: “We cannot save our planet if we leave out the vulnerable — the women, the girls, the minorities.”

But gender parity at the world’s preeminent forum of leaders still seems far out of sight. Eight women are set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday. That’s more than double the number — five — of women that spoke across the first three days of the summit.

(AP) --- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans, opening a major new phase in the U.S vaccination drive against COVID-19. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on a series of recommendations from a panel of advisers late Thursday. The advisers said boosters should be offered to people 65 and older, nursing home residents and those ages 50 to 64 who have risky underlying health problems. The extra dose would be given once they are at least six months past their last Pfizer shot.

NEW YORK, Sep 23 (APP): Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Thursday said the world community must provide support to the large Afghan refugee hosting countries in line with the principle of international responsibility and burden sharing.

The foreign minister, in a meeting with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer, underscored the importance of economic stability for consolidating peace and sustainable development in Afghanistan.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly here.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States and Britain welcomed China’s promise to end funding for coal projects overseas, but voiced hope that the world’s largest emitter would also do more at home on climate change.

President Xi Jinping told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that China will stop backing coal overseas, all but drying up the world’s foreign assistance to the dirty form of energy in developing countries after similar announcements by South Korea and Japan.

WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The United States and European Union plan to take a more unified approach to limit the growing market power of Big Tech companies, according to a draft memo seen by Reuters.

The move will be among announcements on tech, climate, trade and supply chains likely to be made at a U.S.-EU Trade & Technology Council meeting on Sept. 29 in Pittsburgh.

CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico/WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. special envoy to Haiti resigned in protest on Thursday in a letter that blasted the Biden administration for deporting hundreds of migrants back to the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation from a camp on the U.S.-Mexican border in recent days.

Daniel Foote, a career diplomat named to his post in July, said conditions in Haiti were so bad that U.S. officials were confined to secure compounds. He said the "collapsed state" was unable to support the infusion of returning migrants.

WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The window is still open to reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal but Tehran has yet to indicate whether it is willing to resume talks in Vienna or whether it would do so on the basis of where they left off in June, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Initial jobless claims in the United States rose last week for a second straight week to 351,000, indicating a disrupted labor market recovery amid the Delta variant surge, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday.

In the week ending Sept. 18, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased by 16,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 335,000, according to a report released by the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.