USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday is announcing new rules meant to push insurance companies to increase their coverage of mental health treatments.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service said Monday it is ending its decades-old policy of making unannounced home and business visits, in an effort to help keep its workers safe and to combat scammers who pose as IRS agents.

Effective immediately, revenue agents will no longer make unplanned visits to taxpayers’ homes and businesses “except in a few unique circumstances,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. The agency will instead mail letters to people to schedule meetings.

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado police officer accused of putting a handcuffed woman in a parked police car that was hit by a freight train did not know the car was parked on the tracks, the officer’s lawyer said in court Monday.

24 July 2023; MEMO: Two former US ambassadors to Israel have called for an end to Washington's aid to the occupation state. Speaking to New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, one of the more influential in liberal circles, former ambassadors Dan Kurtzer and Martin Indyk said that it is time to end the $3.8 billion given every year to Israel because it longer serves US interests.

PHOENIX (AP) — Stephanie Pullman died on a sweltering Arizona day after her electricity was cut off because of a $51 debt.

Five years later, the 72-year-old’s story remains at the heart of efforts to prevent others in Arizona from having their power cut off, leaving them without life-saving air conditioning in temperatures that have topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) on every day this month.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is pushing back hard against Republican efforts to cast him as an advocate of gender reassignment surgery for minors, saying his detractors have misrepresented his position and invoking his Christian faith and support for parental rights to explain why he vetoed a measure that banned gender-affirming care for children.

Washington, Jul 24 (PTI) A prominent Indian-American Dalit activist fighting against the recent caste discrimination bill in California Assembly died of a heart attack as he passionately spoke against it at a city council meeting in Cupertino, sending shock waves amongst the Hindu American community in the country.

Milind Makwana, according to his close friends and family, spoke at the City Council meeting on July 18 against SB403, the anti-caste discrimination bill in California State Assembly.

WASHINGTON, July 23. /TASS/. Washington so far has no plans to provide Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), The Washington Post reported, citing US officials.

According to the officials, "the Biden administration is holding firm, for now at least, on its refusal to send long-range Army missiles to Ukraine despite mounting pressure from US lawmakers and pleas from the government" in Kiev.

NEW YORK, July 23. /TASS/: The cost of a barrel of Russia's Urals oil has exceeded the price cap set at $60 in recent days, which indicates that Russia has won the battle for influence on the world oil markets, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing calculations of commodities-data firm Argus Media.

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Ukraine has recaptured half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faced "a very hard fight" to win back more.

"It's already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

"These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We're still looking I think at several months."