Here are the top stories for Thursday, Aug. 17: More than a dozen dead in Barcelona terror attack; Top US and Japanese leaders discuss North Korea; Russian cosmonauts conduct spacewalk; Racing boat sets speed record from Key West to Havana.
On Tuesday, the second day of former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, lawyers for the prosecution and the defense began questioning potential jurors.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday announced a partnership with state attorneys general to fast-track investigations into complaints against airlines and ticket agents as part of the Biden administration's efforts to enhance consumer protections. Currently, the authority to enforce passenger protections lies solely with the federal government. Under the partnership, Buttigieg said the states will investigate complaints against airlines and refer them to the U.S. Department of Transportation for priority review and enforcement action.
The Biden administration is enlisting the help of officials in 15 states to enforce consumer-protection laws covering airline travelers, a power that by law is limited to the federal government. The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that the states, which include California, New York and Illinois, will help ensure that government enforcement activities keep up with a current boom in air travel. Under an agreement announced by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, state attorney general offices will be able to investigate complaints about airline service.
A portrait of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work the British leader loathed went on display Tuesday at Churchill’s birthplace ahead of an auction in June. The painting by modernist artist Graham Sutherland was made in preparation for a larger portrait that Churchill hated and which was later destroyed — an episode recounted in the TV series “The Crown.” It is expected to sell for between 500,000 pounds and 800,000 pounds ($622,000 and $995,000) at Sotheby’s in London on June 6.
National cybersecurity experts have shelved a vote on a draft EU cybersecurity label allowing Amazon, Alphabet's Google and Microsoft to bid for highly sensitive EU cloud computing contracts to May, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The European Union wants to introduce a cybersecurity certification scheme (EUCS) to vouch for the cybersecurity of cloud services and help governments and companies pick a secure and trusted vendor for their cloud computing business. However, disagreements on whether strict requirements should be imposed on Big Tech to qualify for the highest level of the EU cybersecurity label has hampered efforts.
Stocks eyed a broader comeback from a steep sell-off as investors digested results from Bank of America and other heavyweights.
Shares of Trump Media have fallen more than 60% since the company's public markets debut at the end of March.
Brussels authorities set off a political firestorm Tuesday by ordering the shutdown of a hard-right political gathering, in a move denounced by several European leaders including Belgium's own prime minister as an assault on free speech.But Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo slammed the move as "unacceptable" and said the Belgian constitution guaranteed freedom of speech.
A piece of metal that crashed through a Florida home was a piece of space junk from the International Space Station, according to NASA.
Strong storms rolling across the Plains on Tuesday are bringing heavy winds and threats of tornadoes and hail.
The ruling Tuesday from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocks a West Virginia law banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams.
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition by MyPillow founder and election denier Mike Lindell to consider his challenge to the legality of the FBI's seizure of his cellphone at a restaurant drive-through. The high court, without comment Monday, declined to reconsider three lower court rulings that went against Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump. FBI agents seized the cellphone from him at a Hardee's fast-food restaurant in the southern Minnesota city of Mankato in 2022 as part of an investigation into an alleged scheme to breach voting system technology in Mesa County, Colorado.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli leadership are solely responsible for the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. "Israel is trying to provoke a regional conflict, and its attack on Iran's embassy in Damascus was the last drop," he told a press conference in Ankara after a cabinet meeting. He added that new regional conflicts were possible as long as the "cruelty and genocide" in Gaza continued, and called on all parties to act with common sense.
The Supreme Court weighs whether Jan. 6 rioters can be charged with obstructing an official proceeding, which could bear on Trump's election interference case.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday he had urged Xi Jinping to press ally Russia to end its "senseless" war in Ukraine and that the Chinese president had agreed to back a peace conference in Switzerland."I have therefore asked President Xi to influence Russia so that Putin finally calls off his senseless campaign, withdraw his troops and ends this terrible war," he said on social media platform X. He said Xi had agreed to back a peace conference in Switzerland, which is due to take place
Two U.S. Republican lawmakers are now pushing to oust House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, who said on Tuesday he would not resign. Johnson, who took over as the narrowly divided chamber's speaker last year after fellow Republicans ousted his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, faces pressure from far-right conservatives, particularly those aligned with former President Donald Trump, over pending aid for Ukraine and a recently passed surveillance bill. Congressman Thomas Massie, in a post on X on Tuesday, said he would join fellow Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's bid to oust Johnson by co-sponsoring her motion to vacate.
Unlike most top economists, Anton Korinek believes policymakers need to take AI’s disruptive potential more seriously.
Prosecutors plan to file charges of financial crimes against the former leader of the Michigan House, his lawyer said Tuesday. Attorney General Dana Nessel said she would speak to reporters in the state capital at 2 p.m. EDT. Lee Chatfield, a Republican who is no longer a state lawmaker, was House speaker in 2019 and 2020 when the GOP controlled the chamber.
Defiant and determined, House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back Tuesday against mounting Republican anger over his proposed U.S. aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other allies, and rejected a call to step aside or risk a vote to oust him from office. Johnson referred to himself as a “wartime speaker” of the House and indicated in his strongest self-defense yet he would press forward with a U.S. national security aid package, a situation that would force him to rely on Democrats to help pass it, over objections from his weakened majority. Tuesday brought a definitive shift in tone from both the House Republicans and the speaker himself at a pivotal moment as the embattled leader tries, against the wishes of his majority, to marshal the votes needed to send the stalled national security aid for Israel, Ukraine and other overseas allies to passage.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday of further sanctions targeting Iran following its unprecedented attack on Israel over the weekend, saying she expects Washington will take added action "in the coming days.""I fully expect that we will take additional sanctions action against Iran in the coming days," she said as this week's spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank began in Washington.
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