USA

CHESTER, Vt. (AP) — Brooke Goodwin came home one night last March after being out with friends. She had just turned 23 the day before, had a good job and was planning to go away with friends the following weekend. Her mother, whose bedroom is next door to the kitchen, heard her daughter get some food and go to bed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is awarding more than $241 million in grants to bolster U.S ports, part of the Biden administration’s near-term plan to address America’s clogged supply chain with infrastructure improvements to speed the flow of goods.

The transportation money is being made available immediately to 25 projects in 19 states. Next year, the amount of money for port improvements will nearly double to $450 million in grants annually for five years under President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure law.

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The United Nations is proposing to pay nearly $6 million for protection in Afghanistan to Taliban-run Interior Ministry personnel, whose chief is under U.N. and U.S. sanctions and wanted by the FBI, according to a U.N. document and a source familiar with the matter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.3% rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. But prospects for a solid rebound going forward are being clouded by the rapid spread of the latest variant of the coronavirus.

The third and final look at the performance of the gross domestic product, the nation’s total output of goods and services, is up slightly from last month’s estimate of 2.1% third quarter growth.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden appears determined to return to the negotiating table with Sen. Joe Manchin, the holdout Democrat who effectively tanked the party’s signature $2 trillion domestic policy initiative with his own jarring year-end announcement.

Biden, responding to reporters’ questions Tuesday at the White House, joked that he holds no grudges against the conservative West Virginia senator whose rejection of the social services and climate change bill stunned Washington just days ago.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Following interviews with migrants and refugees in Poland fleeing Belarus after being forced to cross the border, the UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday called on both countries to urgently address the "appalling situation", reports Anadolu Agency.

Belarus has refused to allow officials of the UN Rights Office to visit the border area, office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told a press conference.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Flawed intelligence has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths from US airstrikes in the Middle East, confidential military documents have revealed. Documents obtained by the New York Times from the US Department of Defence reveal over 1,300 reports which show that strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles — drones — caused more civilian casualties than were previously admitted, as a result of "deeply flawed intelligence".

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israel must immediately halt its settlement activities, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the peace process in the Middle East said yesterday.

Tor Wennesland called on Israel "to cease the advancement of all settlement activities immediately," describing the move as a "flagrant violation of UN resolutions."

(AP) --- U.S. population growth dipped to its lowest rate since the nation’s founding during the first year of the pandemic as the coronavirus curtailed immigration, delayed pregnancies and killed hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, according to figures released Tuesday.

The United States grew by only 0.1%, with an additional 392,665 added to the U.S. population from July 2020 to July 2021, bringing the nation’s count to 331.8 million people, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Pentagon stopped short on Monday of creating a list of extremist groups that military members cannot join and declined to say explicitly whether refusing to view President Joe Biden as America's legitimate leader was a violation of policy.