USA

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - China's war games around Taiwan have led Biden administration officials to recalibrate their thinking on whether to scrap some tariffs or potentially impose others on Beijing, setting those options aside for now, according to sources familiar with the deliberations.

President Joe Biden's team has been wrestling for months with various ways to ease the costs of duties imposed on Chinese imports during predecessor Donald Trump's tenure, as it tries to tamp down skyrocketing inflation.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Under the Black Sea Initiative, 12 vessels have been authorized to depart the Ukrainian ports, a United Nations official coordinating the grain export deal said on Wednesday.

These ships contain "over 370,000 metric tons of grain and other food stocks," Frederick Kenney, interim coordinator for the UN at the Joint Coordination Center for the Black Sea Initiative, told a regular press briefing held at the UN headquarters in New York via video link from Istanbul, Türkiye.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Confirmed monkeypox cases in the United States have exceeded the mark of 10,000, reaching 10,392 cases Wednesday, according to the newest data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country's national public health agency.

The CDC's dashboard showed that 1,391 confirmed monkeypox cases were reported on Wednesday, the first time that CDC reported over 1,000 monkeypox infections in one day since the first was reported on May 17.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The 4th Congressional District in Washington state is a land of snow-capped volcanic peaks and lush irrigated orchards that produce most of the nation’s apples. It’s also home to one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and then won his next election.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year, and is one of only two to beat back GOP challengers this year.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Authorities worked Thursday to determine the cause of a house explosion in a southern Indiana neighborhood that killed three people and left another person hospitalized.

The explosion Wednesday afternoon in Evansville damaged 39 homes and crews on Thursday morning completed a secondary search of buildings that had been left unstable by the explosion and no more victims were found, Fire Chief Mike Connelly told reporters.

“It’s a huge relief, for everybody,” the chief said of the results of the secondary search.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — An Iraqi man living in Georgia was sentenced Thursday to nearly eight years in federal prison for trying to smuggle guns through the Port of Savannah.

Nihad Al Jaberi,43, was sentenced in U.S. District Court almost six months after a jury convicted him of smuggling and other criminal counts. Judge R. Stan Baker imposed a prison term of seven years and 10 months

DETROIT (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors said they couldn’t reach a verdict in a dispute over whether two engineering firms should bear some responsibility for Flint’s lead-contaminated water.

Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, known as LAN, were accused of not doing enough to get Flint to treat the highly corrosive water or to urge a return to a regional water supplier.

A mistrial was declared in federal court in Ann Arbor, Michigan, court spokesman David Ashenfelter said.

CINCINNATI (AP) — An armed man decked out in body armor tried to breach a security screening area at an FBI field office in Ohio on Thursday, then fled and was injured in an exchange of gunfire in a standoff with law enforcement, authorities said.

The confrontation that began at the FBI’s Cincinnati field office came as officials warned of an increase in threats against federal agents in the days following a search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s pick for governor in the swing state of Wisconsin easily defeated a favorite of the Republican establishment.

In Connecticut, the state that launched the Bush family and its brand of compassionate conservatism, a fiery Senate contender who promoted Trump’s election lies upset the state GOP’s endorsed candidate. Meanwhile in Washington, Republicans ranging from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene defended Trump against an unprecedented FBI search.

And that was just this week.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10 (APP): Dozens of people are said to be missing after a boat of migrants and refugees sank in the Aegean Sea on Wednesday off the Greek island of Karpathos, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

“Very sad news from the Aegean: Dozens of people are missing after a boat sank off the island of Rhodes this morning [Wednesday],” UNHCR’s office in Greece said in a tweet.

News media reported that the vessel sank at dawn after setting sail from southern Türkiye on Tuesday, heading for Italy.