WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is proposing a rule that would require thousands more firearms dealers to run background checks, in an effort to combat rising gun violence nationwide.

The proposal comes after a mandate from President Joe Biden to find ways to strengthen background checks following the passage of bipartisan legislation on guns last year.

BENGALURU, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada is expected to hold its key interest rate steady at 5.00% on Sept. 6 and stay at that level through at least the end of March 2024, according to a majority of economists in a Reuters poll, with a small but growing minority expecting one more rate rise.

Inflation, which the Canadian central bank targets at 2%, rose more than expected to 3.3% in July, and further price rises continue to be the upside risk to expectations the BoC has already reached its terminal rate.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk said Thursday that his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform. Musk, who has a history of making proclamations about coming features and policies that have not always come to fruition, did not say when the features would be available to users.

The company also updated its privacy policies that will allow for the collection of biometric data and employment history, among other information.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump defended his real estate empire and his presidency in a face-to-face clash with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, testifying at a closed-door grilling in April that his company is flush with cash — and claiming he saved “millions of lives” by deterring nuclear war when he was president.

DUBAI, Aug 31 (NNN-WAM) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced yesterday, a 14.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase, in the country’s non-oil foreign trade in the first half (H1) of this year.

The country’s non-oil foreign trade reached a record 1.239 trillion UAE dirhams (about 337 billion U.S. dollars) in H1, and is projected to exceed 2.5 trillion dirhams this year, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said, in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted flights by private jet last year and cited security concerns around the court's controversial abortion decision to justify some of the private travel, according to a disclosure form released on Thursday.

Thomas listed 2022 private jet trips provided by Texas businessman Harlan Crow to or from Dallas, Texas, for conferences in February and May, and to a property in upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains in July, the delayed filing showed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (APP): Some of the world’s most iconic natural and cultural sites are also a haven for thousands of endangered species, the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the world body’s Paris-based agency, said Thursday.

Although properties protected under the World Heritage Convention make up less than one per cent of the Earth’s surface, they harbour more than 20 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity, new research by UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has revealed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Thursday that Congress should pass a short-term funding measure to ensure the government keeps operating after the current budget year ends Sept. 30.

An official with the Office of Management and Budget said lawmakers would very likely need to pass a temporary spending measure in September to prevent a potential partial shutdown. The official was not authorized to discuss the administration’s plans and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

(AP) --- As former President Donald Trump dominates the Republican presidential primary, some liberal groups and legal experts contend that a rarely used clause of the Constitution prevents him from being president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

NEW DELHI/BEIJING, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to skip a summit of G20 leaders in India next week, sources familiar with the matter in India and China told Reuters, a development that would dash chances of a meeting there with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Xi's absence also could be a shot at host India, according to some analysts, who see it as a signal China is reluctant to confer influence on its southern neighbour that boasts one of the fastest growing major economies as China's slows.

Aug 31 (Reuters) - The Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam have rejected as baseless a map released by China that denotes its claims to sovereignty including in the South China Sea and which Beijing said on Thursday should be viewed rationally and objectively.

China released the map on Monday of its famous U-shaped line covering about 90% of the South China Sea, a source of many of the disputes in one of the world's most contested waterways, where more than $3 trillion of trade passes each year.