USA

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An off-duty airline pilot riding in an extra cockpit seat on a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not OK” just before trying to cut the engines midflight and later told police he had been struggling with depression, according to charging documents made public Tuesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen returned to the witness stand Wednesday in his ex-boss Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial as the former president’s defense team tried to undermine the credibility and question the motives of his onetime personal attorney turned adversary.

With Trump in court, his lawyer Alina Habba confronted Cohen with comments he had made on social media, in interviews and during congressional testimony praising Trump, before turning on him, when Cohen’s legal problems started in 2018.

UNITED NATIONS, October 24. /TASS/: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the only realistic foundation for peace and stability in the Middle East is coexistence of Israeli and Palestinian states.

"Even in this moment of grave and immediate danger, we cannot lose sight of the only realistic foundation for a true peace and stability: a two-State solution," he said at UN Security Council debate dedicated to the situation in the Middle East.

WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Some of Israel's actions in its war against Hamas, like cutting off food and water for Gaza, could "harden Palestinian attitudes for generations" and weaken international support for Israel, former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, Obama said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war "could ultimately backfire."

WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - (This Oct. 23 story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraph 2)

The White House on Monday said Iran was in some cases "actively facilitating" rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria, and President Biden has directed the Department of Defense to brace for more and respond appropriately.

Washington (AP) — China’s top diplomat will come to the United States on Thursday for a three-day visit, the latest move by Washington and Beijing to keep high-level talks open amid tense bilateral relations.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan over a range of issues, including the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine war and a recent vessel collision in the South China Sea, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the trip.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three weeks now since the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans are meeting privately Tuesday to try nominating a new House speaker to accomplish the seemingly impossible job of uniting a broken, bitter GOP majority and returning to the work of governing in Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has sent military advisers, including a Marine Corps general versed in urban warfare, to Israel to aid in its war planning and is speeding multiple sophisticated air defense systems to the Middle East days ahead of an anticipated ground assault into Gaza.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A local security secretary and 12 police officers were shot dead in Guerrero state Monday, authorities said, the worst episode in a day of violence across southwestern Mexico that killed at least 19 people.

Another person was slain in the Guerrero state capital and five people, including a police officer, were killed in the neighboring state of Michoacan, officials said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Attorney and prominent conservative media figure Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a felony charge over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, tearfully telling the judge she looks back on that time with “deep remorse.”

Ellis, the fourth defendant in the case to enter into a plea deal with prosecutors, was a vocal part of Trump’s reelection campaign in the last presidential cycle and was charged alongside the Republican former president and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law.