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USA: Former Ohio prisons chief top contender to run US prisons

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former director of the Ohio state prison system has emerged as a leading contender to run the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Gary Mohr, who has also worked in the private prison industry, is at the top of the list of candidates to replace Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal, who submitted his resignation in January but said he would stay on until a successor was named, the people said Friday.

Judge: COVID asylum restrictions must continue on border : USA

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Pandemic-related restrictions on migrants seeking asylum on the southern border must continue, a judge ruled Friday in an order blocking the Biden administration’s plan to lift them early next week.

The ruling was just the latest instance of a court derailing the president’s proposed immigration policies along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Rare northern Michigan tornado kills 1, injures more than 40

GAYLORD, Mich. (AP) — A rare northern Michigan tornado tore through a small community on Friday, killing at least one person and injuring more than 40 others as it flipped vehicles, tore roofs from buildings and downed trees and power lines.

The twister hit Gaylord, a city of about 4,200 people roughly 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, at around 3:45 p.m.

Mike Klepadlo, who owns the car repair shop Alter-Start North, said he and his workers took cover in a bathroom.

Boeing docks crew capsule to space station in test do-over

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — With only a test dummy aboard, Boeing’s astronaut capsule pulled up and parked at the International Space Station for the first time Friday, a huge achievement for the company after years of false starts.

With Starliner’s arrival, NASA finally realizes its longtime effort to have crew capsules from competing U.S. companies flying to the space station.

SpaceX already has a running start. Elon Musk’s company pulled off the same test three years ago and has since launched 18 astronauts to the space station, as well as tourists.

Biden risks troubled Americas summit in Los Angeles

WASHINGTON (AP) — While President Joe Biden travels in Asia, his administration is scrambling to salvage next month’s summit focused on Latin America.

The Summit of the Americas, which the United States is hosting for the first time since the inaugural event in 1994, has risked collapsing over concerns about the guest list. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has threatened to boycott if Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua aren’t included. Unlike Washington, which considers the three autocratic governments as pariahs, Mexico’s leftist leader maintains regular ties with them.

U.S. aims to arm Ukraine with advanced anti-ship missiles to fight Russian blockade

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The White House is working to put advanced anti-ship missiles in the hands of Ukrainian fighters to help defeat Russia's naval blockade, officials said, amid concerns more powerful weapons that could sink Russian warships would intensify the conflict.

USA: Biden’s approval dips to lowest of presidency: AP-NORC poll

(AP) --- President Joe Biden’s approval rating dipped to the lowest point of his presidency in May, a new poll shows, with deepening pessimism emerging among members of his own Democratic Party.

Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s performance as president, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research, dipping from already negative ratings a month earlier.

USA: At Times Square rampage trial, victims recount day’s horrors

NEW YORK (AP) — For some survivors, the sounds are a part of what still haunts them: People screaming. Car tires screeching. An engine revving.

It was “like somebody just floored it … It was so loud,” Jyll Elsman told a jury on a recent day in a Manhattan courtroom. “That is the last thing that I remember before everything went black.”

USA: Disinformation board’s ex-leader faced wave of online abuse

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nina Jankowicz, like so many millennials, was excited to share a social media post announcing her new job on Twitter late last month when she was named executive director for a new disinformation board established by the Department of Homeland Security.

But instead of well-wishes, Jankowicz’s tweet set off a torrent of sexist profanities across social media and menacing emails filled with rape or death threats that continue to follow her even after she resigned from that new job on Wednesday morning following the disastrous rollout of the program.

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