USA

FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday provided the first public look inside a U.S. military base where Afghans airlifted out of Afghanistan are being screened, amid questions about how the government is caring for the refugees and vetting them.

“Every Afghan who is here with us has endured a harrowing journey and they are now faced with the very real challenges of acclimating with life in the United States,” Liz Gracon, a senior State Department official, told reporters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s aggressive push to require millions of U.S. workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus is running into a wall of resistance from Republican leaders threatening everything from lawsuits to civil disobedience, plunging the country deeper into culture wars that have festered since the onset of the pandemic.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 10 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to attacks on schools, as he marked the International Day to Protect Education from Attack.

“The global community needs to speak with one voice: attacks on schools must stop. Schools must be places of learning, safety and peace,” he told a high-level event on Thursday this International Day, which falls on September 9.

Nevertheless, he added, “year after year, this fundamental right comes under attack”.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – President of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Volkan Bozkir, said yesterday that, 83 heads of state are expected to attend the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76), which opens on Sept 14.

“To date, the heads of 83 states have personally announced their intention to attend, 26 have applied for a recorded performance,” Bozkir said, at his final press conference in his capacity as the UNGA president.

LOS ANGELES, Sept 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest school system in the United States, announced yesterday, to require all eligible students aged 12 and older, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

According to an order, approved yesterday afternoon by the school district’s board of education, all students aged 12 and older must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan 10, 2022, unless they have medical or other exemptions.

WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - In a luxury hotel along Doha's coastline last year, Zalmay Khalilzad smiled as he shook hands with the Taliban's co-founder Mullah Baradar in front of journalists and diplomats from around the world.

"We have signed an agreement with the Taliban that achieves U.S. objectives," Khalilzad, the United States' special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, wrote on Twitter later that night.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Department is detailing efforts it says it is making to help airline customers who were wrongfully denied refunds after flights were canceled or changed during the pandemic.

The department says in a new report that it investigated 20 airlines over failures to issue prompt refunds to customers, and 18 of those probes are still going.

The department disclosed that an examination into United Airlines was dropped in January after the airline took steps resulting in “thousands” of customers getting refunds.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — A weather system affecting northwest California was expected to bring dry lightning and blustery winds through early Friday, unleashing a risk of new wildfires as thousands of firefighters have been making headway against existing blazes.

A warning for dangerous fire weather took effect in much of fire-scarred Northern California Thursday afternoon and was expected to last through at least 11 a.m. Friday.

(AP) --- Larger U.S. businesses now won’t have to decide whether to require their employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Doing so is now federal policy.

President Joe Biden announced sweeping new orders Thursday that will require employers with more than 100 workers to mandate immunizations or offer weekly testing. The new rules could affect as many as 100 million Americans, although it’s not clear how many of those people are currently unvaccinated.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden spoke with China’s Xi Jinping on Thursday amid growing frustration on the American side that high-level engagement between the two leaders’ top advisers has been largely unfruitful in the early going of the Biden presidency.