USA

NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government is doubling down on COVID-19 vaccination efforts, including an ongoing plan for booster shots, while more unvaccinated people fell victims to the Delta variant in recent weeks, and the pandemic is believed by health experts to become a routine illness in the United States.

DANGER FOR UNVACCINATED

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang on Monday urged Washington to "make earnest efforts" to improve bilateral ties, stressing the role of economic and trade cooperation as the "ballast and propeller" of China-U.S. relations.

NEW YORK (AP) — Three companies linked to a Chinese businessman who is a prominent critic of his country’s ruling Communist Party have agreed to pay $539 million to settle charges they conducted an illegal securities offering, according to regulators.

The New York- and Arizona-based companies linked to Guo Wengui raised $487 million from 5,000 investors who bought stock in GTV Media Group Inc. and a digital asset called G-Coins or G-Dollars, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Tuesday at a hearing that could also address some pretrial motions.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — While legislators craft the details back in Washington, President Joe Biden is pitching his massive domestic spending package with a visit to a renewable energy lab in Colorado to highlight how the investments in clean energy in his massive spending package would help combat climate change.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ended his campaign to retain his job in a recall election with a final push from President Joe Biden, who warned that the outcome of the contest could shape the country’s direction on the pandemic, reproductive rights and the battle to slow climate change.

The Democrat who defeated Republican President Donald Trump less than a year ago said that the issues that defined the 2020 race had been resurrected in California, with potentially disastrous results if Newsom is removed in the election that ends Tuesday.

HOUSTON (AP) — Hurricane Nicholas made landfall along the Texas coast on Tuesday, bringing the threat of up to 20 inches of rainfall to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana.

Nicholas touched down on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula, about 10 miles (17 kilometers) west southwest of Sargent Beach, Texas, with maximum winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Nicholas was the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.

WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday she was "deeply concerned" about the alleged torture of a Saudi aid worker while in detention in Saudi Arabia.

The aid worker, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, was detained by Saudi authorities in March 2018 and reported to be sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by a 20-year travel ban, according to an April 6 U.S. State Department statement. He was arrested from the Red Crescent Society office in Riyadh, where he worked.

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois House on Thursday approved a wide-ranging plan to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050, with a compromise allowing two coal-fired plants to remain open until 2045 but cut their emissions by nearly half in the next 14 years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — First, some blamed the deadly Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol on left-wing antifa antagonists, a theory quickly debunked. Then came comparisons of the rioters to peaceful protesters or even tourists.

Now, allies of former President Donald Trump are calling those charged in the Capitol riot “political prisoners,” a stunning effort to revise the narrative of that deadly day.