USA

SANTA FE (New Mexico, US), May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A drought-driven wildfire in northern New Mexico exploded into a “megafire” of 100,000 acres, or 157 square miles, on Saturday and could still more than double in size, a fire official said.

Fueled by ferocious spring winds in parched mountain forests, the Calf Canyon fire is by far the largest and most destructive currently burning in the United States.

NEW YORK, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Gun theft is rising in major cities across the United States, which police and criminologists say is leading to more and more homicide, said an article published by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Thursday.

"The number of stolen guns reported to police rose by 29 percent in 10 major U.S. cities over the past two years," said the article.

SMITHFIELD, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul promised Saturday to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.

Speaking to supporters at a campaign rally, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican denounced what he sees as government overreach in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He applauded a recent judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House press corps’ annual gala returned Saturday night along with the roasting of Washington, the journalists who cover it and the man at the helm: President Joe Biden.

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, sidelined by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, featured Biden as the first president in six years to accept an invitation. Donald Trump shunned the event while in office.

ATLANTA (AP) — Dr. Dare Adewumi was thrilled when he was hired to lead the neurosurgery practice at an Atlanta-area hospital near where he grew up. But he says he quickly faced racial discrimination that ultimately led to his firing and has prevented him from getting permanent work elsewhere.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon and the nascent group that successfully organized the company’s first-ever U.S. union are headed for a rematch Monday, when a federal labor board will tally votes cast by warehouse workers in yet another election on Staten Island.

A second labor win could give workers in other Amazon facilities — and at other companies — the motivation they need to launch similar efforts. It could also cement the power and influence of the Amazon Labor Union, the grassroots group of former and current workers that secured last month’s historic victory.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk has laid out some bold, if still vague, plans for transforming Twitter into a place of “maximum fun” once he buys the social media platform for $44 billion and takes it private.

But enacting what at the moment are little more than a mix of vague principles and technical details could be considerably more complicated than he suggests.

Here’s what might happen if Musk follows through on his ideas about free speech, fighting spam and opening up the “black box” of artificial intelligence tools that amplify social media trends.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rioters who smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, succeeded — at least temporarily — in delaying the certification of Joe Biden’s election to the White House.

Hours before, Rep. Jim Jordan had been trying to achieve the same thing.

01 May 2022; MEMO: Harvard University's student-run daily newspaper has announced its support for and endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the Israeli occupation, making it one of the most significant steps by an American university against the occupation.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 30 (APP): Amid the world focus on the crisis in Ukraine, a senior Pakistani diplomat has urged the UN to promote universal accountability for grave human rights violations, especially in situation of foreign occupation – Kashmir and Palestine – as he stressed that there should be no disparity between such violations in two different circumstances.