USA

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Army has grounded aviation units for training after 12 soldiers died within the last month in helicopter crashes in Alaska and Kentucky, the military branch announced Friday.

The suspension of air operations was effective immediately, with units grounded until they complete the training, said Lt. Col. Terence Kelley, an Army spokesperson. For active-duty units, the training is to take place between May 1 and 5. Army National Guard and Reserve units will have until May 31 to complete the training.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden thanked some of his top donors Friday night as he launches a reelection campaign that is expected to need to raise well over $1 billion to secure his second term.

“It’s because of you, I’m standing here,” Biden said in the ballroom of a Washington hotel. “And it’s because of you, we’re going to win this time around.”

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter tried like no president ever had to put human rights at the center of American foreign policy. It was a turnabout dictators and dissidents alike found hard to believe as he took office in 1977. The U.S. had such a long history of supporting crackdowns on popular movements — was his insistence on restoring moral principles for real?

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbors, killing an 8-year-old and four others inside the house, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities were still searching for the 39-year-old suspect following the overnight shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Houston. He said the suspect, whom he did not identify, used an AR-style rifle in the shooting.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are touting their debt limit package as a first step toward fiscal restraint, saying it’s past time for Congress to reduce the swelling deficits that they warn are threatening the fiscal health of the country.

But when a group of Midwestern Republicans went marching this week into the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it wasn’t spending cuts they wanted to talk about.

They were on a mission to preserve billions of dollars in federal support for biofuels and ethanol.

BUFORD, Ga. (AP) — A slate of Georgia Republicans led by Gov. Brian Kemp handily won reelection last year over far-right primary opponents endorsed by Donald Trump and backed by the state party chairperson, showing the limits of the former president and his 2020 election lies in the critical swing state.

Despite those stinging primary losses, the state GOP is showing little interest in moving on from Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — “We thought we could die.”

The Russian invasion had just begun when Nancy Pelosi made a surprise visit to Ukraine, the House speaker then the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to lead a congressional delegation to Kyiv.

Pelosi and the lawmakers were ushered under the cloak of secrecy into the capital city, an undisclosed passage that even to this day she will not divulge.

“It was very, it was dangerous,” Pelosi told The Associated Press before Sunday’s one-year anniversary of that trip.

28 Apr 2023; MEMO: New York will return three antiquities worth $725,000 to the people of Yemen, Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, announced on Friday, as part of a criminal investigation into a Manhattan-based private collector, Reuters reports.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 28 (APP):The UN General Assembly Thursday passed a resolution aimed at closing connectivity divides and filling the infrastructure financing gap with the help of public and private funds, technical cooperation, and skills development and capacity-building in developing countries– a text Pakistan welcomed.

WASHINGTON, April 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States called on Pakistan to move ahead on stalled reforms sought by the IMF, promising technical help as the world’s fifth most populous nation weathers an economic crisis.

Pakistan signed a $6.5 billion bailout package with the International Monetary Fund in 2019 but less than half has been released as the country reneges on conditions.