USA

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished.

When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford home she and her siblings inherited. It said she owed $83,762 to cover the cost of her 2 1/2 year imprisonment for drug crimes.

Now, she’s afraid she’ll have to sell her home of 51 years, where she lives with two adult children, a grandchild and her disabled brother.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — When Diane Swonk first attended the Federal Reserve’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole in the late 1990s, there was a happy hour for women who attended the event. It barely filled a single table.

Now, the “Women at Jackson Hole” happy hour draws dozens of female economists and high-level decision-makers, from the United States and overseas.

“I’m just glad that now there’s a line for the ladies’ room,” said Swonk, a longtime Fed watcher who is chief economist for the accounting giant KPMG.

ATLANTA (AP) — Four years ago, Georgia Democrats had a contested primary for governor because the party old guard didn’t believe in Stacey Abrams. She blew away the elders’ alternative and, in a close general election loss, established herself as de facto party boss in a newfound battleground.

That previewed 2020, when Joe Biden put Georgia in Democrats’ presidential column for the first time in 28 years, while Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff captured two Senate seats in early 2021 to give Democrats control on Capitol Hill.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A newly released FBI document helps flesh out the contours of an investigation into classified material at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. But plenty of questions remain, especially because half the affidavit, which spelled out the FBI’s rationale for searching the property, was blacked out.

27 August 2022; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani announced on Friday that the US military presence in Syria is illegal.

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that Kanaani expressed: "Condemnation of the recent American aggression against defenders of Syria's independence and territorial integrity."

WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Masood Khan, has made an impassioned appeal to the Pakistani-American community to step forward and help affectees in Pakistan, who have been hit by unprecedented monsoon rains and floods.

The ambassador, in his letter to compatriots residing in the United States, said the unprecedented rainfall, widespread flooding and landslides had affected most parts of the country.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 (NNN-XINHUA) – UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, yesterday called for the revival of a real political process, to address the underlying drivers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The cease-fire independently declared by Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, following three days of military escalation in early Aug remains in effect, and a fragile calm has been restored in Gaza, he told the Security Council in a briefing.

NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - An effort by the United Arab Emirates to convince the United States with the help of a wealthy real estate investor to name former congressman Stephen Stockman as U.S. ambassador to that country during Donald Trump's presidency unraveled with the lawmaker's 2017 arrest on fraud charges, prosecutors said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency moved Friday to designate two “forever chemicals” used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, a step that would clear the way for quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds, which have been linked to cancer and other health problems.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and China have reached a tentative agreement to allow U.S. regulators to inspect the audits of Chinese companies whose stocks are traded on U.S. exchanges. In a long-festering dispute, U.S. regulators have threatened to boot a number of Chinese companies off the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq if China doesn’t permit inspections.

The deal announced Friday by market regulators in the U.S. and China is preliminary. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said, “The proof will be in the pudding.”