Author: Clarence Pratt

On behalf of the United States of America, I extend our best wishes to the people of Albania as you celebrate your 112th Independence Day. The close relationship between our nations is built on shared democratic values and a mutual desire for peace and security. Albania has exemplified these values through its steadfast support for Ukraine in the face of unprovoked Russian aggression, its leadership on the UN Human Rights Council, and its unwavering commitment to NATO’s collective security. We deeply appreciate Albania’s hospitality and assistance as temporary hosts for our Afghan allies. The United States looks forward to our…

January 1 of this year marked the thirtieth anniversary of North America’s most ambitious integration project, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This trade deal was renegotiated into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which entered into force in July 2020. For Mexico, the past three decades of North American trade have been transformative, and Mexico is now the United States’ largest trade partner. In Mexico, there is no doubt about the importance of maintaining the commercial relationship with the United States and Canada to boost economic growth and create well-paid jobs. At the same time, 2024 will be pivotal in determining…

China has pledged to take “resolute and forceful measures” to protect its sovereignty after Taiwanese Vice President William Lai arrived in the United States on a brief visit. The statement on Sunday came hours after Lai landed in New York for what was officially billed as a transit stop en route to Paraguay. Lai, the frontrunner to be Taiwan’s next president at elections in January, is on his way to Paraguay to attend President-elect Santiago Pena’s inauguration and is scheduled to make a second stop in the US city of San Francisco on his way back to Taipei. China, which…

Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers agree that New York state’s minimum wage should be raised and automatically adjusted to account for inflation. But now the fight centers around what that amount should be. Under Hochul’s proposal, the minimum wage would rise modestly to $16.40 downstate by 2026. The governor’s plan ties the minimum wage to the rate of inflation but caps the increase at 3% in any one year. For the average minimum wage-earning New Yorker working full time, that’s an extra $670 a year starting in 2026, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based…

California is no stranger to big swings between wet and dry weather. The “atmospheric river” storms that have battered the state this winter are part of a system that has long interrupted periods of drought with huge bursts of rain—indeed, they provide somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all precipitation on the West Coast. The parade of storms that has struck California in recent months has dropped more than 30 trillion gallons of water on the state, refilling reservoirs that had sat empty for years and burying mountain towns in snow. But climate change is making these storms much…

Company spokesman Dmitry Sakharuk said that the situation in the Ukrainian energy system has improved due to a number of factors, but it is still unstable. In the near future, repair work will begin at some units of nuclear and thermal generation. Therefore, a shortage of electricity may return and, as a result, stabilization shutdowns. Dmitry Sakharuk, Executive Director of DTEK, announced this on the air of the telethon. According to him, the situation in the Ukrainian energy system has improved due to a number of factors, but it is still unstable. “Some time later, we have planned routine maintenance…

Re-elected Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel holds a gavel while speaking at the committee’s winter meeting in Dana Point, Calif., Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Jae C. Hong DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — Ronna McDaniel has become the longest serving leader of the Republican National Committee since the Civil War. But now, she must confront a modern-day civil war within the GOP. Frustrated Republicans from state capitals to Capitol Hill to the luxury Southern California hotel where RNC members gathered this week are at odds over how to reverse six years of election disappointments. And while there…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. business inventories increased in November as higher interest rates depressed sales, boosting the inventory-to-sales ratio to the highest level in nearly two years. Business inventories rose 0.4% after gaining 0.2% in October, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Inventories are a key component of gross domestic product. November’s increase in inventories was in line with economists’ expectations. Inventories increased 15.1% on a year-on-year basis in November. The pace of inventory accumulation has slowed considerably from the robust pace in late 2021 and early 2022 because of improved supply, and ebbing demand for goods as the Federal…

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — The new Nevada governor’s chief of staff said on Friday that the administration plans an “unprecedented investment” in K-12 education — but did not provide details on what that would entail. In a 15-minute roundtable, Ben Kieckhefer, chief of staff for Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, also vowed that the administration would pursue “school choice in all its forms” — a main campaign theme that Lombardo plans to elaborate on later this month. Kieckhefer also floated the prospect of pay raises for state employees and said Lombardo, elected in November, will still pursue his core campaign…

he United States on Thursday is imposing sanctions on 10 Russian naval entities over Russian operations against Ukrainian ports, the U.S. State Department said, as Washington increases pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The action comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington and delivered a speech to Congress on Wednesday, during which he thanked the United States for its support of Ukraine in the conflict and pleaded for more weapons. (This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source : DevdiScoure