USA

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 29 (APP): With extreme heat gripping large parts of India and Pakistan, the two countries are working to roll out life-saving health action plans to combat the heatwave, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a Geneva-based UN agency, said Friday.

The extreme heat is impacting hundreds of millions of people in one of the most densely populated parts of the world, threatening to damage whole ecosystems, WMO said.

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly backed legislation on Thursday that will make it easier to export military equipment to Ukraine, reviving the "Lend-Lease Act" that helped defeat Hitler during World War Two.

The House passed the "Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022" by 417 to 10, three weeks after it sailed through the Senate with unanimous support. It next goes to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - The United States does not believe that there is a threat of Russia using nuclear weapons despite a recent escalation in Moscow's rhetoric, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.

"We continue to monitor their nuclear capabilities every day the best we can and we do not assess that there is a threat of the use of nuclear weapons and no threat to NATO territory," the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in morning trading on Wall Street Friday, putting major indexes back into the red for the week after several sharp moves both up and down over the past few days.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2% as of 10:19 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 267 points, or 0.8%, to 33,651 and the Nasdaq fell 1.2%.

ATLANTA (AP) — When potential grand jurors show up at an Atlanta courthouse Monday, they’ll find a television camera in the room and streets closed outside — nods to the intense public interest in the investigation into whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to pressure Georgia officials to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential election victory in the state.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has taken the unusual step of requesting a special grand jury for the investigation, and the selection of that panel begins Monday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil reported $5.48 billion in profits during the first quarter as oil and gas prices rose steadily, more than doubling its profits compared with the same quarter last year.

But the oil giant took a huge hit as it abandoned its Russian operations due to the war, writing down $3.4 billion.

Including that loss, the oil giant reported profits of $1.28 per share Friday, which was well below expectations of analysts polled by Factset, who were looking for $2.23 per share.

DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk has sold 4.4 million shares of Tesla stock worth roughly $4 billion, most likely to help fund his purchase of Twitter.

Musk reported the sale in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The shares were sold over the past few days, at prices ranging from $872.02 to $999.13.

The world’s richest man, who is the CEO of Tesla, tweeted that he doesn’t plan any further sales of the company’s shares.

Most of the sales took place on Tuesday, when Tesla shares closed down 12%, a huge single-day drop.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday set tentative dates in June to publicly review COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest American children, typically the final step before authorizing the shots.

The meeting announcement follows months of frustration from families impatient for a chance to vaccinate their little children, along with complaints from politicians bemoaning the slow pace of the process.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve surged 6.6% in March compared with a year ago, the highest 12-month jump in four decades and further evidence that spiking prices are pressuring household budgets and the health of the economy.

Yet there were signs in Friday’s report from the Commerce Department that inflation might be slowing from its galloping pace and perhaps nearing a peak, at least for now.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The worst possible moment for bringing Trevor Reed home turned out to be the best.

With U.S.-Russian relations at their lowest point in decades, it seemed an improbable time to hope for the release of Reed, a former Marine detained in Russia for almost three years. Yet this week the Biden administration completed the type of transaction it had earlier seemed resistant to, exchanging Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot and convicted drug trafficker serving a 20-year prison sentence in Connecticut.