USA

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in the United States on Tuesday rebuked the U.S. State Department's recent false claims that Chinese officials and media "routinely amplify Kremlin's propaganda, conspiracy theories, and disinformation" on the Ukraine issue.

Asked by the press to comment on a statement posted Monday on the U.S. State Department's website, the embassy's spokesperson said "China's position on the Ukraine issue is impartial, objective and beyond reproach."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will hold a conference on hunger, nutrition and health in September to notch progress on the Biden administration’s goals of ending hunger, improving nutrition and physical activity and reducing diet-related diseases.

The gathering will be the first of its kind by the White House since 1969. The White House described that gathering as a “pivotal event” that influenced the U.S. food policy agenda for the next 50 years and said President Joe Biden “sets out to do the same with this year’s conference.”

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The first overseas deployment of the Vermont Air National Guard’s F-35 fighter jets will have the pilots and their aircraft patrolling the skies of Europe during one of the most tense periods in recent history.

More than 200 Vermont air guard personnel, their equipment and eight F-35s are now in Europe, where the pilots will fly what are called enhanced air policing missions along NATO’s eastern flank to monitor the area for intrusions by Russian aircraft.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to highlight deficit reduction in remarks Wednesday at the White House, noting that the government will pay down the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years.

Biden will emphasize how strong job gains have increased total incomes and led to additional tax revenues that have improved the government’s balance sheet, said a White House official who previewed the speech on condition of anonymity.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Martina Gonzales and her grandson watched from their front yard as aircraft disappeared into a giant plume of smoke to fight a growing wildfire that has burned hundreds of square miles, destroyed about 170 homes and threatens more destruction if weekend winds whip, as predicted, through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

“My grandson has actually, um, been a little bit scared, nervous,” Gonzales said Tuesday — the day New Mexico’s governor asked President Joe Biden to declare a disaster so federal aid can come for the largest blaze burning in the U.S.

UNITED NATIONS, May 04: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for respecting the rights and protecting journalists and media workers who he said are facing “increasing politicization” of their work and growing threats to their freedom to simply do their jobs.

Marking World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday, he said that the day shines a spotlight on the essential work they do, bringing those in power to account, with transparency, “often at great person risk”.

WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - The United States believes that the Russian military's Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, visited Ukraine's Donbas region last week but cannot confirm media reports that he was wounded during fighting, a U.S. defense official said on Monday.

"We can confirm he was in the Donbas," the senior U.S. official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) - Two months after warning that Beijing appeared poised to help Russia in its fight against Ukraine, senior U.S. officials say they have not detected overt Chinese military and economic support, a welcome development in the tense U.S.-China relationship.

U.S. officials told Reuters in recent days they remain wary about China's long-standing support for Russia in general, but that the military and economic support that they worried about has not come to pass, at least for now. The relief comes at a pivotal time.

Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine), May 3 (AP) A senior US official warned that Russia plans to annex large portions of eastern Ukraine later this month, and the Mariupol steel mill that has become the city's last stronghold of resistance came under renewed assault a day after the first evacuation of civilians from the plant.

Washington, May 3 (PTI) Around the world, Muslims are being targeted with violence, US President Joe Biden said on Monday asserting that Muslims make America stronger every single day even as they still face real challenges and threats in the society that they live in.

At a White House reception to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, Biden said he has appointed the first Muslim to serve as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.