North America

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. State Department official will travel to China next week, the department said on Saturday, as Washington seeks to boost communication with Beijing at a time of tense relations between the two countries.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will discuss "key issues in the bilateral relationship" during his visit to China, the State Department said in a statement. He will be joined by White House National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs Sarah Beran.

MEXICO CITY, June 2 (Reuters) - Human remains discovered in 45 bags in western Mexico appear to resemble the features of several missing call center employees, state prosecutors said in a statement late on Thursday.

The Jalisco Prosecutor's Office said the remains found in the municipality of Zapopan were still subject to forensic tests to formally identify the bodies.

"According to preliminary information, the findings...in Zapopan coincided with the physical characteristics of some of the young people being searched for," the statement said.

GILBERT, South Carolina, June 3 (Reuters) - In the first full week of his 2024 presidential campaign, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis worked hard to define himself as a candidate to voters — and just as hard to define the man who stands in his way for the Republican nomination.

As he toured 12 cities in three early-voting states, DeSantis, 44, made his case that he is the more conservative and consistent alternative to Donald Trump, the former president and current front runner in the race.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its allies clashed with Russia and China on Friday over North Korea’s failed launch of a military spy satellite this week in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, which Moscow and Beijing refused to condemn.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) — Citizens of the Cherokee Nation — the largest Native American tribe in the U.S. — are set to decide whether Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. should lead the tribe for another four years as it enters a golden era after courts recognized its sprawling reservation and an operating budget of more than $3 billion.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Despite a dire warning from the U.N. chief that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees “is on the verge of financial collapse,” donors at a pledging conference on Friday provided just $107 million in new funds — significantly less than the $300 million it needs to keep helping millions of people.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the agency known as UNRWA, said he was grateful for the new pledges but they are below the funds needed to keep over 700 schools and 140 clinics open from September through December.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI offered Friday to show top lawmakers next week a bureau document that purports to relate to President Joe Biden and his family following weeks of demands by congressional Republicans and a contempt threat against Director Christopher Wray.

In a statement, the FBI said it would produce the document in a secure location inside the U.S. Capitol for the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer, and the panel’s top Democrat, Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Florida men who stormed the U.S. Capitol with other members of the far-right Oath Keepers group were sentenced Friday to three years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges — the latest in a historic string of sentences in the Jan. 6. 2021 attack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to sign legislation on Saturday to raise the debt ceiling, just two days before the U.S. Treasury warned that the country would struggle to pay its bills.

The bipartisan measure, which was approved this week by the House and Senate, eliminates the potential for an unprecedented government default.

“Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher,” Biden said from the Oval Office on Friday evening. “Nothing would have been more catastrophic,” he said, than defaulting on the country’s debt.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Elected officials met a South Carolina community mourning the death of a 14-year-old boy who authorities say was fatally shot in the back by a gas station owner with calls to channel their righteous anger into collective support and political action.

Over 60 people gathered Friday evening for a prayer vigil across the street from the Xpress Mart Shell station in Columbia less than one week after authorities say owner Rick Chow killed Cyrus Carmack-Belton after chasing down the Black teenager, whom he wrongly suspected of stealing four water bottles.