Month: October 2022

MEXICO CITY -- Hurricane Julia hit Nicaragua's central Caribbean coast on Sunday and dumped torrential rains across Central America before an expected reemergence over the Pacific. Julia hit as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph), though its winds had dipped to tropical storm force of 50 mph (85 kph), by late afternoon as it pushed across Nicaragua. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Julia was centered about 45 miles (75 kilometers) west-northwest of Managua, the capital, and was moving west at 16 mph (26 kph). It said life-threatening flash floods and mudslides were possible across Central America and southern Mexico through Tuesday, with the storm expected to bring as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain in isolated areas. Colombia's nat...

Mr Biden also urged governors to do likewise on state offences and called for a review on whether cannabis should be listed as a less serious drug. Federal law currently classifies cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse". As one White House official noted, that's "the same schedule as for heroin and LSD, and it's even higher than the classification for fentanyl and methamphetamine - the drugs that are driving [America's] overdose epidemic". "It makes no sense," Mr Biden said on Thursday, as he directed his attorney general and health secretary to oversee a review. "Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It's time tha...

In an interview with the BBC, President Zelensky denied having urged strikes on Russia, claiming that an earlier remark had been mistranslated. "You must use preventive kicks," he said, referring to sanctions, "not attacks". In recent weeks, the Ukrainian army has recaptured large swathes of territory in a successful counter-offensive that has forced Russian troops to abandon long-held positions. In what Kyiv describes as Moscow's response to its defeats, President Vladimir Putin has incorporated four partially occupied regions of Ukraine. The annexations, widely dismissed as illegal, have raised fears of a possible escalation in the seven-month war. President Putin and other senior Russian officials have suggested that nuclear weapons - possibly smalle...

At the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, his team returned a large batch of classified FBI documents and other government records to the Justice Department in such disarray that a year later -- in a letter to lawmakers -- the department said it still couldn’t tell which of the documents were the classified ones. The documents came from the FBI’s controversial probe in 2016 looking at alleged links between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign. Trump tried to make the documents public the night before he left office, issuing a “declassification” memo and secretly meeting with conservative writer John Solomon, who was allowed to review the documents, Solomon told ABC News this past week. But for reasons that are still not clear – and to the great frustration of Trump and his political a...

PRAGUE -- European Union leaders struggled Friday to bridge significant differences over a natural gas price cap as winter approaches and Russia’s war in Ukraine fuels a major energy crisis, driving up prices for consumers and businesses. The price cap is one of several measures the 27-nation bloc is preparing to contain an energy crisis in Europe that some fear could lead to rolling blackouts, factory shutdowns and a deep recession over the winter in economies already weakened by the coronavirus pandemic. Russia has reduced or cut off natural gas supplies to 13 EU member nations as European governments bolster their support for Ukraine in the form of weapons, money, aid and sanctions on Moscow. The potential for shortages has led to surging gas and electricity prices that could climb hi...

BERLIN -- Germany wants the huge economic damage resulting from global warming to be discussed at this year's United Nations climate talks, Germany's foreign minister said Friday. Vulnerable countries have long demanded that big polluters be held accountable for the effects that their greenhouse gas emissions are having around the world, including the destruction caused by extreme weather and sea level rise resulting from rising global temperatures. But rich nations that account for the majority of planet-warming emissions since the start of the industrial era have largely opposed efforts to formally debate the ‘loss and damage’ issue for fear they might have to pay climate reparations. Last year's U.N. climate talks in Glasgow failed to reach agreement on establishing a special fund fo...