USA

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ukraine on Thursday, a U.N. spokesman said, and on Friday visit the Black Sea port of Odesa, where grain exports have resumed under a U.N.-brokered deal.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday that Guterres would meet Zelenskiy in Lviv in western Ukraine and discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, along with finding a political solution to the conflict with Russia.

WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The United States military on Tuesday said it carried out a test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile that had been delayed to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing during China's show of force near Taiwan earlier this month.

China deployed scores of planes and fired live missiles in the Taiwan Strait after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a trip to the self-ruled island. China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has never renounced using force to bring it under its control.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden will sign Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional Democrats are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general hand over information on deleted Secret Service text messages related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, accusing him of using delay tactics to stonewall their investigation.

In a letter released Tuesday, the leaders of the House Oversight and Homeland Security committees signaled they are willing to subpoena Inspector General Joseph Cuffari if he does not comply with their requests.

(AP) --- A former Virginia police officer who testified against a friend and former supervisor he joined at the Capitol in the Jan. 6 insurrection avoided prison time on Tuesday for his role in it.

Former Rocky Mount Police Officer Jacob Fracker pleaded guilty to conspiring with his fellow officer to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump and was sentenced to one year of probation, with 59 days in home confinement.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — First lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing “mild symptoms,” the White House announced Tuesday. President Joe Biden continues to test negative after recently recovering from the virus but will wear a mask indoors for 10 days as a precaution.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday rebuffed efforts to make public the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida, saying the investigation “implicates highly classified material” and the document contains sensitive information about witnesses.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The U.S. government on Tuesday is expected to announce water cuts to states that rely on the Colorado River as drought and climate change leave less water flowing through the river and deplete the reservoirs that store it.

Farmers in central Arizona will largely shoulder the cuts, as they did this year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Americans will be able to buy hearing aids without a prescription later this fall, under a long-awaited rule finalized Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration said the new regulation cuts red tape by creating a new class of hearing aids that don’t require a medical exam, a prescription and other specialty evaluations. The devices will be sold online or over-the-counter at pharmacies and other retail stores.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a leader in the Republican resistance to former President Donald Trump, is fighting to save her seat in the U.S. House on Tuesday as voters weigh in on the direction of the GOP.

Cheney’s team is bracing for a loss against a Trump-backed challenger in the state in which he won by the largest of margins during the 2020 campaign.