North America

GEORGETOWN, California, June 1 (Reuters) - The prescribed burn begins on a California hill with a drip torch to light brush, needles and fallen branches, the flames spreading out on the forest floor far below the tree canopy.

Students on this Saturday class learn how to keep the burn under control, while others stand by ready to assist with water pumps, hand tools and first aid.

31 May 2023; MEMO: The Israeli consulate in Los Angeles was forced to scrap a public event with the country's Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis following a protest by American Jews over the planned judicial overhaul by the far-right government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

31 May 2023; MEMO: The UN has proposed that Kyiv, Moscow and Ankara start preparatory work for the transit of Russian ammonia through Ukraine as it tries to salvage a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports, a source close to the talks said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres implicitly criticized Cambodia’s upcoming elections Wednesday for failing to be inclusive, after the top opposition party was not allowed to register.

The Candlelight Party would have been the sole credible challenger to the governing Cambodian People’s Party in the July elections, but the country’s Constitutional Council last week refused to overturn a ban on its registration in a decision that cannot be appealed.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A failed political candidate has been indicted on federal charges including election interference in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque, according to a grand jury indictment that was unsealed Wednesday.

LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump returns to the campaign trail Thursday as his chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is undertaking his first swing through early voting states as an official candidate.

Trump is back in Iowa nearly three weeks after canceling his last event, a large rally near Des Moines, due to a tornado warning, reluctantly ceding the spotlight to DeSantis as the governor crisscrossed the state ahead of his campaign launch.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from after he left office in which he talks about holding onto a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran, according to media reports.

CNN, which first reported on the tape, said Trump suggested on the recording that he wanted to share information from the document with others but that he knew there were limitations about his ability to declassify records after he left office.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births were flat last year, as the nation saw fewer babies born than it did before the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Births to moms 35 and older continued to rise, with the highest rates in that age group since the 1960s. But those gains were offset by record-low birth rates to moms in their teens and early 20s, the CDC found. Its report is based on a review of more than 99% of birth certificates issued last year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veering away from a default crisis, the House overwhelmingly approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, sending the deal that President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated to the Senate for swift passage in a matter of days, before a fast-approaching deadline.

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) - The Qatari prime minister held secret talks with the supreme leader of the Taliban this month on resolving tension with the international community, a source briefed on the meeting said, signaling a new willingness by Afghanistan's rulers to discuss ways to end their isolation.

The May 12 meeting in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar between Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Haibatullah Akhunzada is the first the reclusive Taliban chief is known to have held with a foreign leader.