USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is again testing the power of his endorsement.

With an early morning social media post on Friday, Trump inserted himself into the chaotic race to replace Kevin McCarthy as House speaker by backing Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan for the post. The move was the latest example of Trump attempting to flex his influence within a Republican Party he has already fundamentally reshaped in the eight years since his first White House bid.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Weather disasters fueled by climate change — from floods to droughts, storms to wildfires — sparked 43.1 million child displacements from 2016 to 2021, the UN Children’s Fund warned Thursday, slamming the lack of attention paid to victims.

In a sweeping report on the issue, the United Nations agency detailed the heart-wrenching stories of some of the children affected, and co-author Laura Healy said the data only revealed the “tip of the iceberg,” with many more likely affected.

WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The White House is making plans for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco next month as the two countries seek to stabilize troubled relations, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Ties between the world's two largest economies have been strained in recent years due to a number of issues including Taiwan, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, allegations of spying, human rights issues and trade tariffs, among others.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and two others were injured Thursday morning in a stabbing at a mobile home park in Union City, U.S. state of California, officials said.

Police officers responded to the crime scene where they found three victims with injuries, one of whom died at the scene.

The other two victims were transported to a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly slammed Republican front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday and defended his own campaign, warning that the former president could deliver the 2024 election to Democrats energized to beat him.

DeSantis, speaking at a campaign event in their shared home state, argued that Trump lost the 2020 election not because more voters supported Democrat Joe Biden but rather to cast him out of office.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump asked a judge Thursday to dismiss the Washington federal election subversion case against him, arguing the Republican is immune from prosecution for actions they say were taken in his official role as president.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday defended his administration’s decision to waive 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow for construction of roughly 20 miles of additional border wall, saying he had no choice but to use the Trump-era funding for the barrier to stop illegal migration from Mexico.

Asked if he thought such walls work, he said flatly, “No.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — In the partisan politics of education funding, the school choice movement has pressed states for decades to send taxpayer money to private and religious schools and long had to concentrate its efforts on states where a Republican governor was an ally.

That suddenly changed over the summer.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — a first-term Democrat seen by his party as a rising star nationally — forcefully put his weight behind a Republican-backed proposal to send $100 million to families for private school tuition and school supplies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is officially backing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the pugnacious House Judiciary Committee chairman and longtime Trump defender, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site shortly after midnight Friday. “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A massive health care strike over wages and staffing shortages headed into its final day on Friday without a deal between industry giant Kaiser Permanente and the unions representing the 75,000 workers who picketed this week.

The three-day strike carried out in multiple states will officially end Saturday at 6 a.m., and workers were expected to return to their jobs in Kaiser’s hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans. The two sides did not have any bargaining sessions scheduled after concluding their talks midday Wednesday.