USA

WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) — Seven people were killed, including two children, when several tornadoes swept through central Iowa, destroying homes and knocking down trees and power lines in the state’s deadliest storm in more than a decade, authorities said.

Emergency management officials in Madison County said four were injured and six people were killed Saturday when one tornado touched down in the area southwest of Des Moines near the town of Winterset around 4:30 p.m. Among those killed were two children under the age of five and four adults.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the prospect of a red wave grows, a series of Republican missteps including recruiting stumbles, weak fundraising and intense infighting is threatening the GOP’s path to the Senate majority.

Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey dealt his party its latest setback late last week by announcing he would not challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly this fall. His decision, which leaves no obvious front-runner in a crowded Republican primary, disappointed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his allies who had spent months privately encouraging Ducey to run.

Selma (Alabama), Mar 7 (AP) Vice President Kamala Harris has visited Selma, Alabama to commemorate a defining moment in the fight for the right to vote, making her trip as congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act have faltered.

Under a blazing blue sky, Harris on Sunday took the stage at the foot of the bridge where in 1965 white state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers attempting to cross.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 06 (APP): The newly-appointed United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, Amin Awad, has called for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, as UN aid supplies for arrive for suffering pin the country.

NEW YORK, March 6. /TASS/: US financial company Mastercard is suspending its services on the territory of Russia, the company said in a statement, posted on its website on Saturday.

According to the document, the company has "decided to suspend our network services in Russia" amid the current anti-Russian sanctions.

"With this action, cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by the Mastercard network," the document says.

Moreover, any Mastercard issued outside of the country will not work at Russian merchants or ATMs.

NEW YORK, March 6. /TASS/: NATO does not harbor animosity towards Russian people, nor does it question Russia’s status as a world power, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in an op-ed published by The New York Times on Sunday.

"We have no hostility toward the Russian people, and we have no desire to impugn a great nation and a world power," he said, pointing out that "Ukraine had no serious prospect of NATO membership in the near future."

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- At least 600 homes had been evacuated in the Florida Panhandle, the northwest part of the southeasternmost U.S. state of Florida, as wildfires continued to grow in the state, officials said on Saturday.

There are currently 148 wildfires burning more than 7,100 acres (roughly 2,873 hectares) across Florida, the Florida Forest Service tweeted on Saturday afternoon. More than half of the acres are from two wildfires in the Florida Panhandle, according to the agency.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting for his country’s survival, Ukraine’s leader made a “desperate” plea Saturday to American lawmakers for the United States to help get more warplanes to his military and cut off Russian oil imports as Kyiv tries to stave off the Russian invasion.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened the private video call with U.S. lawmakers by telling them this may be the last time they see him alive. He has remained in Kyiv, the capital, which has a vast Russian armored column threatening from the north.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Six people were killed Saturday when a tornado swept through central Iowa, damaging buildings and knocking down trees and power lines, authorities said.

Emergency management officials in Madison County said four were injured in addition to those killed when the tornado touched down in the area southwest of Des Moines at about 4:30 p.m. Among those killed were children and adults.

Madison County Emergency Management Director Diogenes Ayala said 25 to 30 homes were badly damaged by the tornado.

SELMA, Ala. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Alabama on Sunday as the nation marks a defining moment in the fight for the right to vote, a trip that comes as congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act have faltered.