USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center were optimistic when President Joe Biden took office. And they were relieved this summer after the U.S. released a prisoner for the first time in years. Many are now increasingly impatient.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Saturday issued new, forceful warnings to Russia on penalties it may face if it goes ahead with threats to invade Ukraine.

U.S. officials raised the possibility of incremental shifts in decisions about America’s future strategic posture in Europe. But they also said Russia would be hit with debilitating sanctions should it intervene in Ukraine.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Intelligence reports compiled by the U.S. Capitol Police in the days before last year’s insurrection envisioned only an improbable or remote risk of violence, even as other assessments warned that crowds of potentially thousands of pro-Trump demonstrators could converge in Washington and create a dangerous situation.

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 800,000 noncitizens and so-called “Dreamers” in New York City will have access to the ballot box — and could vote in municipal elections as early as next year — after Mayor Eric Adams allowed legislation approved by the City Council a month ago to automatically become law on Sunday.

Opponents have vowed to challenge the new law. Unless a judge halts its implementation, New York City is now the most populous city in the United States to grant voting rights to noncitizens.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the fate of Ukraine and potentially broader post-Cold War European stability at stake, the United States and Russia are holding critical strategic talks that could shape the future of not only their relationship but the relationship between the U.S. and its NATO allies. Prospects are bleak.

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Bank has approved $90 million in additional financing for Iran, to help fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, a spokesperson said.

   The Washington-based development lender’s board of directors approved the aid on Dec 21, a World Bank spokesperson said, which “will be utilized only for procuring additional lifesaving, essential medical equipment to
strengthen Iran’s pandemic response.”

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Joe Manchin's $1.8 trillion spending offer he proposed to the White House in late 2021 appears to be no longer on the table following a breakdown between the Democratic lawmaker from West Virginia and the White House, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Jan 7 (Reuters) - A Georgia judge sentenced Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for what he called the "chilling" 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man running through their mostly white neighborhood in the southern U.S. state.

Judge Timothy Walmsley also gave a life sentence to their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan but ruled that he could seek parole after 30 years in prison, the minimum sentence allowed for murder under Georgia law.

NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States are poised to hit a new high as early as Friday, according to a Reuters tally, surpassing the record set in January of last year as the highly contagious Omicron variant fuels a surge in infections.

Hospitalizations have increased steadily since late December as Omicron quickly overtook Delta as the dominant coronavirus variant in the United States, although experts say Omicron will likely prove less deadly than prior iterations.

CHICAGO, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- With Omicron cases surging across the United States, recent recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seem quite confusing and risky, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).

In a statement released on Wednesday, Gerald Harmon, president of the association, reckoned that tens of thousands -- potentially hundreds of thousands of people -- could return to work and school infectious if they follow the CDC's new guidance on ending isolation after five days without a negative test.