North America

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday welcomed an operation led by Qatar and France to deliver additional and much-needed medicines and medical supplies to the civilian population in Gaza and to deliver vital medicines to hostages currently held in Gaza.

"The entry of these critical supplies and humanitarian aid to Gaza is encouraging, however, much more aid needs to come into the Gaza Strip," said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for Guterres.

The UN chief commended Qatar and France for all their efforts, Dujarric added.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United States and China should shoulder their responsibility for history, the people and the world and usher in a brighter future for their relations, China's top envoy in Washington has said.

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng made the remarks at a reception in the Chinese embassy Tuesday commemorating the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-U.S. diplomatic relations and celebrating the 2024 Chinese New Year.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Turkey’s first astronaut along with a Swede and Italian launched Thursday to the International Space Station on a chartered SpaceX flight.

The Falcon rocket blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in late afternoon, carrying the three men, all with military pilot experience and representing their homelands. Their escort on the trip: A retired NASA astronaut who now works for the company that arranged the private flight.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan’s top diplomat in Washington has a message for both the island’s Chinese adversaries and its American friends: Don’t worry that Taiwan’s new president-elect will worsen relations with Beijing and possibly draw the U.S. into a conflict.

President-elect Lai Ching-te plans to keep the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, Alexander Tah-Ray Yui told The Associated Press on Thursday in his first interview with an international news organization since he arrived in the U.S. in December.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent President Joe Biden a short-term spending bill on Thursday that would avert a looming partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies into March.

The House approved the measure by a vote of 314-108, with opposition coming mostly from the more conservative members of the Republican conference. Shortly before the vote, the House Freedom Caucus announced it “strongly opposes” the measure because it would facilitate more spending than they support.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled $82 million for North Carolina to help connect 16,000 new households and businesses to high-speed internet, delivering an election-year pitch about policies he says are “just getting started” at improving the United States.

Biden, the Democratic incumbent who is campaigning to win a second term, coupled his economic message with a few jabs at his predecessor, Donald Trump, currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and his most likely future challenger.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Families of the children and teachers killed in the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre are renewing demands for criminal charges after a scathing Justice Department report again laid bare numerous failures by police during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history.

“I’m very surprised that no one has ended up in prison,” said Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the two teachers killed in the May 24, 2022, shooting. “It’s sort of a slap in the face that all we get is a review ... we deserve justice.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A small airplane that crashed into the ocean off the California coast on Sunday was constructed piece by piece over nearly a decade, one of tens of thousands of home-built aircraft that are part of a high-flying hobby taking off across the country.

Federal investigators said they believe four people were aboard the single-engine Cozy Mark IV when it went down in the evening just south of San Francisco. No survivors were found and only one body had been recovered from the waters near Half Moon Bay and identified as of Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who served 14 years in prison for a deadly 1990s shooting was exonerated Thursday after prosecutors said they now believe the killer was an acquaintance he has implicated for decades.

“I lost 14 years of my life for a crime that I didn’t commit,” Steven Ruffin told a Brooklyn judge after sighing with emotion.

Although Ruffin was paroled in 2010 and has since built a career in sanitation in Georgia, he said that getting his manslaughter conviction dismissed and his name cleared “will help me move on.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Storms that have turned roads into icy death traps, frozen people to death from Oregon to Tennessee and even sent a plane skidding off a taxiway were expected to sock both coasts with another round of weather chaos on Friday.

New York City — which only on Tuesday saw its first significant snow in more than two years — was in the headlights as the National Weather Service laid out warnings of slightly more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow through Friday in the metropolitan area, with New Jersey and Pennsylvania also getting snow.