USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is headed to Washington for the first state visit of Joe Biden’s presidency — a revival of diplomatic pageantry that had been put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden-Macron relationship had a choppy start. Macron briefly recalled France’s ambassador to the United States last year after the White House announced a deal to sell nuclear submarines to Australia, undermining a contract for France to sell diesel-powered submarines.

29 Nov 2022; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates told the UN Security Council yesterday that it is necessary to resume talks about resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"There is an urgent need to de-escalate and prevent tensions from rising to an irreversible point," said the UAE representative to the UN Security Council, Mohamed Issa Aboushahab. He stressed that diplomacy and dialogue are "the only way" to end the conflict.

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US has banned the sale and import of new communications equipment from five Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE, amid concerns over national security.

Other companies listed include Hikvision, Dahua and Hytera, which make video surveillance equipment and two-way radio systems.

It is the first time US regulators have taken such a move on security grounds.

Hikvision said that its products present no security threat to the US.

Huawei and others have previously denied supplying data to the Chinese government.

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - More than 400 groups on Monday called on Congress to intervene in an ongoing railroad labor standoff that threatens to idle shipments of food and fuel and strand rail travelers while inflicting billions of dollars of economic damage.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, National Retail Federation, American Petroleum Institute, National Restaurant Association, American Trucking Associations, American Farm Bureau Federation and other groups warned impacts of a potential strike could be felt as soon as Dec. 5.

Nov 28 - As Arizona counties face a Monday deadline to certify their midterm election results, Republican candidates and activists promoting false theories of voter fraud are refusing to back down.

State Senator-elect Jake Hoffman, head of Arizona’s Freedom Caucus, a group of largely pro-Trump Republican state lawmakers, told Reuters he will lead an investigation into the state’s election when the legislature reconvenes in January.

Nov 28 (Reuters) - An eruption began in the summit caldera of Hawaii's Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, on Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Service's (USGS) volcanic activity service said.

"At this time, lava flows are contained within the summit area and are not threatening downslope communities," the notification said.

However, the notification warned, based on previous events, that the early eruption stages of this volcano can be very dynamic and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly.

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Pentagon is considering a Boeing proposal to supply Ukraine with cheap, small precision bombs fitted onto abundantly available rockets, allowing Kyiv to strike far behind Russian lines as the West struggles to meet demand for more arms.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is strengthening U.S. policy aimed at stemming sexual violence in war conflict zones, elevating the problem — increasingly documented in Ukraine and elsewhere — to the level of a possible serious human rights abuse that triggers sanctions and other actions against foreign perpetrators.

The former warden of an abuse-plagued federal women’s prison known as the “rape club” goes on trial Monday, accused of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells.

Ray J. Garcia, who retired after the FBI found nude photos of inmates on his government-issued phone last year, is among five workers charged with abusing inmates at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, and the first to go to trial.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A white gunman who targeted a Buffalo supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood plans to plead guilty on Monday to killing 10 people and wounding three others, according to lawyers representing victims’ relatives.

Payton Gendron, 19, is scheduled to appear in Erie County Court for a hearing that was postponed for a week by a snowstorm.