USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — When he ran for the White House, Joe Biden told voters his presidency would be a bridge to the next generation. His first two years on the job have revealed it to be a much more ambitious venture.

As he nears the halfway mark on his first term, Biden is pointing to legacy-defining achievements on climate change, domestic manufacturing and progress on the COVID-19 pandemic — all accomplished with razor-thin majorities on Capitol Hill and rather dim views from the public.

Major U.S. airlines were broadsided by the massive weekend winter storm that swept across large swaths of the country but had largely recovered heading into Monday, except for one.

Problems at Southwest Airlines appeared to snowball after the worst of the storm passed. It cancelled more than 70% of its flights Monday, more than 60% on Tuesday, and warned that it would operate just over a third of its usual schedule in the days ahead to allow crews to get back to where they needed to be.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 26 (APP): A staggering 100 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2022 globally, the United Nations refugee agency said Monday, highlighting the continued UN help to those in need in a myriad of ways, and push for more legal, and safe ways for people to migrate.

That figure, which includes those fleeing conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution, was announced by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in May and described by Filippo Grandi, the head of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as a record that should never have been set.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 26 (NNN-Xinhua) — The United Nations intends to continue to engage with the Burkina Faso government after a senior UN official was declared as “persona non grata” by the authorities of the West African country, a UN spokesman said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has “learned with regret” that the transitional government of Burkina Faso declared Barbara Manzi, UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in the country, as “persona non grata,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN chief, said in a statement.

WASHINGTON, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Busloads of migrants were dropped over Christmas weekend near Vice President Kamala Harris' residence in Washington amid freezing temperatures, having traveled from the southwest border in Texas, immigrant aid groups said on Sunday.

Approximately 110-130 of the migrants seeking asylum in the United States, many of them families with children, were placed on buses by Texas officials, said Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington, D.C.

Dec 26 (Reuters) - A powerful blizzard that paralyzed western New York over Christmas weekend has killed at least 25 people, Erie county officials said on Monday, as road and utility crews faced a long day of digging out the snowed-in region around Buffalo.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told reporters at a Monday morning briefing that the county's tally of storm-related deaths had jumped by 12 overnight, and included cases of people who were found in snow banks, in their cars or who had died from cardiac events while plowing or blowing snow.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in the United States from a powerful winter storm climbed to over 30 on Sunday, according to a tally by NBC News.

At least 35 people died in weather-related incidents as of Sunday evening, the report said.

The deaths were reported in more than 10 U.S. states, including New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Four people died in a three-vehicle crash in Ohio on Saturday, a day after a massive pileup on the Ohio Turnpike, causing many more injuries.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Vandalism at three power substations in western Washington early Sunday initially cut power to about 14,000 utility customers, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said.

The attacks come as federal officials are warning that the U.S. power grid needs better security to prevent domestic terrorism and after a large outage in North Carolina earlier this month that took days to repair.

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — As Republican Tyler Kistner’s closing ad aired last month in one of the most competitive congressional districts in the U.S., Vickie Klang felt that something was missing.

The 58-year-old veterinary technician and self-described independent voter watched as the 30-second spot showed grainy black-and-white images of President Joe Biden with two-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig superimposed alongside him. The narrator ominously described life in America as “dangerous and unaffordable” because of an alliance between the two Democrats.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The deep freeze from a deadly winter storm that walloped much of the United States will continue into the week as people in western New York deal with massive snow drifts that snarled emergency vehicles and travelers across the country see cancelled flights and dangerous roads.

The massive storm has killed at least 34 people across the United States and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.