USA

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Iran will face severe consequences if it attacks Americans, the White House said on Sunday, including any of those sanctioned by Tehran for the 2020 killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Iran's sanctions on Saturday came as Tehran's proxy militias continue to attack American troops in the Middle East.

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Representative Jim Jordan, a close confidante of former President Donald Trump, said on Sunday he would not cooperate with a U.S. House committee investigating last year's attack on the Capitol.

The panel had asked Jordan to disclose conversations he had with Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the attack by Trump supporters aiming to stop Congress from formally certifying the presidential election victory of Democrat Joe Biden.

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Police in Los Angeles, California, pulled the pilot from a crash-landed Cessna seconds before the aircraft was hit by a train on Sunday, sending debris flying in all directions.

Dramatic video obtained by Reuters shows several officers freeing the man from the downed plane, which had crashed shortly after takeoff in the Pacoima neighborhood, according to local media. The officers and pilot are just a few feet away from the tracks when the passing train destroys the plane.

NEW YORK, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 60 million on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. COVID-19 case count rose to 60,062,077, with a total of 837,504 deaths, as of 4:21 p.m. local time (2121 GMT), showed the data.

The United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up about 20 percent of the global caseload and more than 15 percent of the global deaths.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are mounting an impassioned bid to overhaul Senate rules that stand in the way of their sweeping voting legislation, arguing dark forces unleashed by Donald Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election demand an extraordinary response.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress, on Sunday rejected a request for an interview by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

In a combative letter to committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Jordan said, “The American people are tired of Democrats’ nonstop investigations and partisan witch hunts.”

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago school leaders canceled class a fourth day in the nation’s third-largest district as negotiations with the teachers’ union over remote learning and other COVID-19 safety protocols failed to produce an agreement over the weekend.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said in a joint statement Sunday evening that there wasn’t “sufficient progress” in talks to resume in-person classes Monday, extending disruptions into a second school week. But they vowed negotiations would continue “through the night.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Heading into a critical midterm election year, the top political concerns of Americans are shifting in ways that suggest Democrats face considerable challenges to maintaining their control of Congress.

NEW YORK (AP) — A malfunctioning space heater sparked a fire that filled a high-rise Bronx apartment building with thick smoke Sunday morning, killing 19 people including nine children in New York City’s deadliest blaze in three decades.

Trapped residents broke windows for air and stuffed wet towels under doors as smoke rose from a lower-floor apartment where the fire started. Survivors told of fleeing in panic down darkened hallways and stairs, barely able to breathe.

WASHINGTON, January 9. /TASS/: The United States is ready to discuss with Russia the non-deployment of American missiles in Ukraine, progress in this area is possible, a high-ranking US administration official announced on Saturday. He said this during a special telephone briefing for reporters ahead of on the upcoming Russian-American security talks.