USA

NEW YORK (AP) — The historic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan shuttered three years ago, but it will soon be bustling again — reopening to accommodate an anticipated influx of asylum seekers just as other New York City hotels are being converted to emergency shelters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has an ambitious agenda when he sets off this week on an eight-day trip to the Indo-Pacific.

He’s looking to tighten bonds with longtime allies, make history as the first sitting U.S. president to visit the tiny island state of Papua New Guinea and spotlight his administration’s commitment to the Pacific. The three-country trip also presents the 80-year-old Biden, who recently announced he’s running for reelection, with the opportunity to demonstrate that he still has enough in the tank to handle the grueling pace of the presidency.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A showdown with Congress that has the nation’s creditworthiness at stake; a frenzied scene at the border as pandemic restrictions ease; a pivotal foreign trip meant to sustain support for Ukraine and contain a more assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.

12 May 2023; AA: A group of activists and journalists held a candlelight vigil Thursday outside the White House in Washington, D.C. to honor Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead on May 11 last year while reporting on an Israeli military raid. 

The vigil, organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Museum of the Palestinian People, was attended by many activists and Abu Akleh's friends as well as colleagues from Al Jazeera, who demanded justice and accountability for her.

by Dr Ramzy Baroud

In anticipation of next month's United Nations Security Council talks on reforming the inherently archaic and dysfunctional political body, China's Foreign Policy chief, Yang Yi stated his country's demands.

WASHINGTON, May 13 (APP):A leading American company in import, manufacture and supply of sea salt plans to invest nearly $200 million in curating, processing, distributing and importing Pink Himalayan Salt, which is mined in Pakistan’s Khewra Salt Mine located in Jhelum district of Punjab, a press release of the Pakistani embassy said on Saturday.

The investment, it said, would be made in preparing feasibility, reserve report, upgradation of mining procedures and processes, construction of world-class processing and packaging facility and community development programs.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s budget deficit has soared to nearly $32 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday as he announced a plan that would cover the shortfall this year while potentially leaving the state with multibillion-dollar deficits in the future.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve governor Philip Jefferson said Friday that inflation remains too high and there has been “little progress” made toward bringing it down to the central bank’s 2% target, a pessimistic assessment given signs in a report earlier this week that price increases might be slowing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — One outcome is clear as Washington reaches for a budget deal to end the debt ceiling standoff: The ambitious COVID era of government spending — to cope with the pandemic and rebuild in its aftermath — is giving way to a new fiscal focus on tailored investments and stemming deficits.

13 May 2023; MEMO: The US National Security Council (NSC) announced on Friday that Washington will boost its military presence in the Arabian Gulf to face off Iran's seizures of merchant tankers, news agencies reported.

"Today, the Department of Defense will be making a series of moves to bolster our defensive posture in the Arabian Gulf," NSC spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.