USA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California was hit with more turbulent weather Sunday as thunderstorms, snow and damaging winds swept into the northern part the state, preceding another series of incoming storms and raising the potential for road flooding, rising rivers and mudslides on soils already saturated after days of rain.

The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After an epic 15-ballot election to become House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy faces his next big test in governing a fractious, slim majority: passing a rules package to govern the House.

The drafting and approval of a set of rules is normally a fairly routine legislative affair, but in these times, it’s the next showdown for the embattled McCarthy.

To become speaker and win over skeptics, McCarthy had to make concessions to a small group of hard-liners who refused to support his ascension until he yielded to their demands.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — President Joe Biden walked a muddy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and inspected a busy port of entry Sunday on his first trip to the region after two years in office, a visit shadowed by the fraught politics of immigration as Republicans blame him for record numbers of migrants crossing into the country.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 08 (APP): Pakistan, speaking for the OIC group at the United Nations, has condemned the visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israel’s new far-right security minister, after a UN Security Council meeting at which the 15-member body’s members called for preserving the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites.

Jan 8 (Reuters) - Torrential downpours and damaging winds had left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power in California on Sunday after a deadly week of weather, and the state was still bracing for more heavy rain and snow to fall through Tuesday.

Forecasters warned that northern and Central California was still in the path of a "relentless parade of cyclones" on Sunday, promising little relief for the region.

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden is headed to the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday for the first time since taking office nearly two years ago, tackling one of the most politically charged issues in the country as he prepares for a reelection bid.

Biden on Thursday announced fresh plans to block Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding the nationalities of those who can be expelled back to Mexico, and his visit to El Paso, Texas, is not expected to yield any new policy breakthroughs.

HOUSTON, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. appeals court in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Friday blocked a ban on certain types of bump stocks, which enable semi-automatic rifles to fire sustained and faster rounds that make assaults more lethal.

The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 13:3 that bump stocks were not covered by the federal law that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that had imposed the 2018 ban.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives elected Congressman Kevin McCarthy as speaker early Saturday morning after a historic deadlock that kept the lower chamber from being fully functional days after the new Congress convened.

McCarthy, a California Republican, clinched enough votes to become House speaker in the 15th round of voting -- the longest contest in 164 years -- after a bitter fight with a group of hardline conservatives and 14 failed ballots.

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — When Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked Texas colleges to disavow critical race theory, the University of Texas faculty approved a resolution defending their freedom to decide for themselves how to teach about race.

Patrick said he took it as a message to “go to hell.”

In turn, Patrick, a Republican, said it was time to consider holding the faculty accountable, by targeting one of the top perks of their jobs.

“Maybe we need to look at tenure,” Patrick said at a news conference in November.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — As Republican infighting debilitates Washington, lawmakers at some U.S. statehouses have managed to launch sessions complicated by similar GOP partisan divides or razor-thin margins of party control with a host of creative — if yet untested — solutions.

The approaches differ by state: a delicate working agreement here, a bipartisan truce there. “The commonality is the standing on the edge of the precipice,” said David Niven, an associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.