Новости за 12.10.2023

Donald Trump will back in court next week for his New York civil fraud trial. That's according to a person familiar with the former president’s plans who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity before an official announcement. Trump’s return to court will set up a potential face-to-face showdown with fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen, who is expected to testify. Trump is expected to attend the non-jury trial Tuesday through Thursday next week, according to the person who confirmed the plans... Читать дальше...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed two major pieces of legislation to transform the state’s mental health system and to address the state’s worsening homelessness crisis. The signing took place Thursday before cheering state and local officials. The proposals will go before voters in March 2024. Newsom wants to borrow billions of dollars through a bond to pay for 11,150 new treatment beds. The measure also would overhaul how counties pay for mental and behavioral health programs. Supporters... Читать дальше...

Tens of millions of older Americans will see a modest increase in benefits in January when a new cost-of-living adjustment is added to Social Security payments. The 3.2% raise is intended to help meet higher prices for food, fuel, and other goods and services. The average recipient will see an increase of about $54 per month. That's according to government estimates. Its a smaller percentage than last year, because consumer prices have eased, and the adjustment is tied to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyer has struggled through a meandering cross-examination of the FTX founder’s former girlfriend Thursday, keeping both the judge and the public guessing as to his strategy in countering the testimony of the government’s key witness. Caroline Ellison had testified over the two previous days that Bankman-Fried directed her at several times over the years to pull money from FTX customer accounts to fund investments and trading strategies at Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research. Читать дальше...

Kansas' Republican attorney general has asked the state’s highest court to reward the GOP-controlled Legislature for following through on a decade’s worth of court-mandated education funding increases by closing a lawsuit filed by local school districts. The action requested Wednesday by Attorney General Kris Kobach's office would make it harder for local school districts to force higher spending in the future. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly opposes the request. With the case still open, the school... Читать дальше...

The amount of tax money owed but not paid to the IRS is set to keep growing. For tax years 2021 and 2020, the projected gross “tax gap” soared to $688 billion and $601 billion, respectively. That marks a significant jump compared to years past. One of the IRS’s biggest challenges is making sure that people actually pay their taxes. While agency data shows that the vast majority of Americans pay their taxes voluntarily and on time, hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes pile up each year — and tax gap estimates keep getting bigger. Читать дальше...

The suspect was not in custody and the incident was ongoing hours later.

United Nations humanitarian officials have sounded an alarm over a humanitarian crisis in rebel-held northwestern Syria. They warned on Thursday that intense shelling by government forces displaced almost 70,000 people in recent weeks. The Syrian government, backed by Russia, pounded the country’s northwest after a drone attack targeted a military college graduation ceremony in the government-held city of Homs. At least 89 officers and civilians were killed. Humanitarian agencies and human rights... Читать дальше...

Playing video games has long been a challenge for many people with disabilities.

The United Auto Workers union significantly escalated its walkout against Detroit's Three automakers by going on strike Wednesday at the largest and most profitable Ford plant in the world.

An Oklahoma man who was freed after being imprisoned for decades on a murder conviction says there are more cases like his. Ricky Dority used his pandemic relief money to hire a private investigator, who worked to free him along with students from Oklahoma City University’s Innocence Project. They found inconsistencies in the state’s account of a 1997 cold-case killing, and a judge vacated the 65-year-old's conviction in June. A national database says thousands of people have been exonerated nationwide since 1989. Читать дальше...

Britain’s financial regulator has fined the American former chief executive of Barclays, Jes Staley, 1.8 million pounds ($2.2 million) and banned him from holding senior financial roles for misleading it over the nature of his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a statement Thursday, the Financial Conduct Authority said Staley had “recklessly approved” a letter sent by Barclays to the FCA, which contained two misleading statements about the nature of his relationship with Epstein and the point of their last contact. Читать дальше...

Inflation in the United States likely eased again last month, though the decline might have slowed since summer, a reminder that the outsize price pressures of the past two years will take more time to cool. Thursday’s consumer inflation data could bolster — or undercut — the growing belief that the Federal Reserve can tame inflation without causing a recession. Hiring surged unexpectedly in September, the government reported last week, and job gains in July and August were also revised higher. More... Читать дальше...

Within hours of the horrific attack by Hamas, the U.S. began moving warships and aircraft to the region to be ready to provide Israel with whatever it needs to respond. A second U.S. carrier strike group departs from Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday. Scores of aircraft are heading to U.S. military bases around the Middle East. And special operations forces are now assisting Israel’s military in planning and intelligence. The buildup reflects U.S. concern that the deadly fighting between Hamas and Israel... Читать дальше...

The head of Elon Musk’s social media platform X says the company formerly known has Twitter has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts and taken down or labeled thousands of pieces of content since the militant group’s attack on Israel. CEO Linda Yaccarino on Thursday outlined efforts by X to get a handle on illegal content flourishing on the platform. She was responding to a European Union request for information on how X is complying during the Israel-Hamas war with tough new digital rules aimed at cleaning up social media platforms. Читать дальше...

Japan’s government says it will ask a court to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination raised questions about the group’s fundraising and recruitment tactics. Education Minister Masahito Moriyama said the ministry proposed seeking the revocation after interviewing 170 people allegedly harmed by the fundraising tactics and other problems. The church failed to respond to dozens of questions during the hearings, he said. If its legal status is stripped... Читать дальше...

Japan’s top automaker Toyota and Idemitsu, a major oil company, say they will cooperate on technology for mass production of solid-state batteries that promise to be a key component in future electric vehicles. The deal, announced Thursday, is an important step for Toyota, which has promised to speed up its battery EV offerings and catch up after having fallen behind Tesla and China's BYD. The companies said they are aiming for successful commercialization of all-solid-state batteries in 2027 or 2028, followed by full-scale mass production. Читать дальше...

Asian shares are mostly higher as investors await the release of U.S. consumer price data and keep a cautious watch on the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. U.S. futures advanced while oil prices fell. Hong Kong's benchmark jumped more than 2%. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow added 0.2%. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.7%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell again. A report on wholesale inflation came in hotter than expected. Investors are betting that... Читать дальше...

Malaysian budget carrier MyAirline has abruptly suspended operations, citing financial pressures less than 11 months after it took to the skies. The unexpected announcement on social media on Thursday morning caught many by surprise and left angry passengers stranded at the airport. The airline apologized for the “extremely painful decision” but said severe financial pressures left it with no choice but to cease operations to restructure its shareholding and recapitalize the company. The airline... Читать дальше...

New York is dramatically expanding a legal marijuana market plagued by a sluggish rollout of retail stores. State regulators last Wednesday opened a 60-day window to accept general applications to grow, process, distribute and sell pot. They expect to issue more than 1,000 new licenses starting early next year, with a priority on retail. Newly adopted regulations will allow companies licensed to sell medical marijuana to expand into the adult retail market by the end of the year. That move worries farmers and retailers. Читать дальше...

A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments in a case filed by TikTok and five Montana content creators who want the court to block the state's ban on the video sharing app before it takes effect Jan. 1. U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy is not expected to rule immediately after hearing arguments on Thursday. Montana became the first state to pass a complete ban on TikTok earlier this year over concerns the Chinese government could access user data. Content creators say the ban violates... Читать дальше...

Twenty-five years have passed since gay 21-year-old college student Matthew Shepard died after being beaten and tied to a remote fence. His death has been memorialized as an egregious hate crime that helped fuel the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the ensuing years. There was slow but steady progress, notably with the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015. But any perception that the long struggle for equality was complete has been belied by recent events, including the enactment of many anti-LGBTQ+ state laws. Читать дальше...

As the auto workers strike approaches the one-month mark, more Americans sympathize with the striking workers than with the three big car companies that employ them. That's one of the findings in a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll finds that more than half of Americans sympathize with the workers or support the workers and the car companies equally. Only 9% favor the automakers over the workers. Workers went on strike Sept. 15 against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis... Читать дальше...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law to fast-track low-income housing on surplus land owned by nonprofit colleges and religious institutions. The new law rezones lands owned by nonprofit colleges, churches, mosques and synagogues to allow for affordable housing. The movement, dubbed “yes in God’s backyard,” or “YIGBY,” aims at combating the state’s growing homeless crisis. Newsom also signed another high priority housing legislation this year to extend a landmark law to streamline housing... Читать дальше...

Finnish police say they have launched a criminal investigation into possible sabotage of an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia that was shut down over the weekend following a leak. Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, or NBI, says it has started gathering evidence at the location of the leak, which was detected Sunday on the Balticconector pipeline connecting the two NATO allies. A telecommunications cable was also damaged. The purpose of the probe is to establish whether the... Читать дальше...