USA

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday he believes Democrats would agree to cap government spending to avoid a U.S. debt default and he wants to discuss the idea with President Joe Biden.

Republicans now in control of the House have threatened to use the debt ceiling as leverage to demand spending cuts from Biden's Democrats, who control the U.S. Senate.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Representative George Santos, who lied about much of his resume and life story, will be removed from Congress if found to have broken campaign finance laws, fellow Republican and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said on Sunday.

"He's a bad guy," Comer said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "It's not up to me or any other member of Congress to determine whether he can be kicked out for lying. Now, if he broke campaign finance laws, then he will be removed from Congress."

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of protesters from New York City and nearby regions held a rally and a march against U.S. involvement in overseas wars at Times Square on Saturday.

The participants spoke against NATO's expansion and called for peace in Ukraine, criticizing U.S. hefty spending on the Ukraine crisis and the White House's announcement to provide Kiev with another Patriot surface-to-air missile battery.

MARBURY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama engine mechanic took refuge in a shipping container as a tornado from a violent storm decimated his shop and killed two of his neighbors along its destructive path across Alabama and Georgia.

The harrowing stories of David Hollon and other survivors of Thursday’s storm are emerging as residents comb through the wreckage wrought by tornadoes and blistering winds that have led to the deaths of at least nine people.

UNITED NATIONS, January 14. /TASS/: The Kiev government’s draft resolution about a ‘peace plan’ is completely detached from reality, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya told reporters on Friday.

"They come up with all kinds of extravagant ideas, including the 10-point peace plan which has nothing to do with reality," he said.

Jan 14 (Reuters) - California's parade of atmospheric rivers may be nearing an end but not before at least two more of the rainstorms are due to drench the waterlogged state starting on Saturday, forecasters said.

A series of atmospheric rivers rarely seen in such frequent succession has pounded the state since Dec. 26, killing at least 19 people and bringing floods, power outages, mudslides, evacuations and road closures.

The storms have dropped half the average annual rainfall on the agricultural Central Valley and as much as 15 feet (4.5 m) of snow in the mountains.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The members of the UN Security Council on Friday reiterated their full and unanimous support for the peace process in Colombia, and underscored the importance of tackling insecurity in the country.

In a press statement, the 15-member council also stressed the importance of ensuring the comprehensive implementation of the 2016 peace agreement.

The council members said they welcomed further progress on the comprehensive implementation of the peace agreement including through significant developments on comprehensive rural reform.

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices, boosted by improved demand outlook in China, rose on Friday, bringing both the U.S. and the global crude benchmarks to gain more than 8 percent for the week.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery climbed 1.47 U.S. dollars, or 1.9 percent, to settle at 79.86 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery added 1.25 dollars, or 1.5 percent, to settle at 85.28 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address to the divided Congress next month, the White House said on Friday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden had accepted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's invitation to address a joint session of Congress on Feb. 7.

This would be Biden's second State of the Union speech and the first before a divided Congress with Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives and Democrats still running the Senate.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ask people what you might find buried in the muck at the bottom of New York City’s East River and they’d likely say “mob boss” before thinking of mammoth bones.

But several groups of treasure hunters have taken to the waterway in recent weeks after hearing a guest on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast claim a boxcar’s worth of potentially valuable prehistoric mammoth bones was dumped in the river in the 1940s.