Kenya flood toll rises to 179 as homes and roads are destroyed
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Floods and landslides across Kenya have killed 179 people since March, with hundreds of thousands forced to leave their homes, the government said on Wednesday, as dozens more were killed in neighbouring Tanzania and Burundi. To...
4h ago
Heavy rains kill 8 in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul, affect over 100 cities
(Reuters) - Eight people died and 21 are missing due to heavy rains this week in Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, the civil defense service said on Wednesday. Authorities reported over 1,400 displaced individuals in the wake of storms ...
4h ago
Firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene to force vote to oust US House Speaker Johnson
By David Morgan and Moira Warburton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a conservative firebrand long known for disruption, called on Wednesday for a vote to oust Republican Mike Johnson as speaker of the U.S. H...
4h ago
Parts of India record hottest April as heatwave kills nine
By Shivam Patel NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Eastern India experienced its hottest April on record as a heatwave scorched parts of the country amid a general election, killing at least nine people, and the weather office on Wednesday forecast above normal temp...
4h ago
US private payrolls beat expectations in April
WASHINGTON(Reuters) - U.S. private payrolls increased more than expected in April while data for the prior month was revised higher, a report showed on Wednesday. Private payrolls increased by 192,000 jobs last month after rising by an upwardly rev...
4h ago
UnitedHealth CEO testifies on hack before U.S. Senate and House
By Ahmed Aboulenein WASHINGTON (Reuters) -UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty began his first of two scheduled testimonies in front of Congressional panels on Wednesday, answering questions from lawmakers about the recent cyberattack at the company's technol...
4h ago
Police move in to quell clashes at Los Angeles pro-Palestinian campus protest
By David Swanson LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Violent clashes erupted early on Wednesday morning on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles between pro-Palestinian protesters and a group of counter-demonstrators supporting Israel. Poli...
6h ago
Harvey Weinstein expected in New York court after rape conviction overturned
By Brendan Pierson and Jack Queen (Reuters) - Harvey Weinstein is due to appear in state court in Manhattan on Wednesday for the first time since New York's highest court threw out his 2020 rape conviction last week. The hearing before Judge Curtis...
6h ago
Most Americans see TikTok as a Chinese influence tool, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
By Jason Lange and David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - - A majority of Americans believe that China uses TikTok to shape U.S. public opinion, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted as Washington moves closer to potentially banning the Chin...
6h ago
US surgeon in Gaza: nothing prepared me for scale of injuries
By Nidal al-Mughrabi CAIRO(Reuters) - A U.S. vascular surgeon who left Gaza after a stint as a volunteer said on Wednesday nothing had prepared him for the scale of injuries he had faced there. Dozens of patients a day. Most of them young. Most fac...
6h ago
Trump heads to Wisconsin, Michigan after being hit with gag order fine
By Nathan Layne (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, a day after the judge in his New York criminal trial fined him for violating a gag order and warned he could be jai...
7h ago
Biden approves $6.1 billion in student loan debt relief for Art Institute enrollees
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the approval of more than $6.1 billion in student loan debt relief for nearly 317,000 borrowers who were enrolled at any Art Institute campus from January 2004 until October 2017. Th...
7h ago
Arizona Senate expected to vote on 1864 abortion ban repeal
By Brad Brooks (Reuters) - The Arizona Senate is expected to vote on Wednesday on a measure to repeal the state's 1864 ban on abortion, which could go into effect within weeks if not struck down. The Arizona House last week passed the measure after...
7h ago
For Turkish performer, drag is a political act
By Dilara Senkaya and Burcu Karakas ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Ilker Yazici - stage name Miss Putka - was in secondary school when he discovered he was gay. There he met LGBT advocacy groups and joined street protests in Turkey's capital Ankara to defend...
9h ago
Paul Auster, US author of The New York Trilogy, dies aged 77
(Reuters) - U.S. novelist and screenwriter Paul Auster died of complications from lung cancer at his home in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening aged 77, the New York Times reported, citing friend and author Jacki Lyden. The New Jersey-born writer was know...
9h ago
Evacuation continues following Indonesia's Ruang volcano eruption
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Hundreds residents of Indonesia's Tagulandang island were waiting at the island's port to be evacuated on Wednesday, footage from National Search and Rescue Agency showed, while grey smoke continued to erupt from Ruang volcano. ...
9h ago
El Nino, water management issues blamed for snarling Panama Canal
By Jake Spring SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The El Nino climate phenomenon, not climate change, drove lower rainfall last year that reduced the Panama Canal's water levels and contributed to shipping restrictions that disrupted global trade, a study relea...
12h ago
Australia grants feasibility licences for offshore wind farms
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for six projects to study the feasibility of building wind farms in waters off its southern coast as it looks to ramp up renewable energy to meet its net zero emission target by 2050. Six ...
13h ago
Extreme heat is closing schools, widening learning gaps worldwide
By Gloria Dickie and Ruma Paul (Reuters) - Hena Khan, a grade nine student in Dhaka, has struggled to focus on her studies this week as temperatures surpassed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the capital city. "There is no real educat...
17h ago
California's population grew in 2023 for first time since 2020
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The population of California grew last year for the first time since 2020, thanks to a drop in mortality and a rebound in legal foreign immigration, the state's Department of Finance said on Tuesday. The population rose by 6...
18h ago
Instant view: Biden administration plans to reclassify marijuana
(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday moved to make marijuana use a less serious federal crime, taking a step to reclassify the drug out of a category that includes heroin in a shift that, once completed, would shake up cannabis policy...
19h ago
First trial over Zantac cancer claims set to begin in Chicago
By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) - The first trial over claims that blockbuster heartburn drug Zantac, once sold by GSK and other companies, causes cancer is set to begin this week in Chicago. Jury selection began on Tuesday before Judge Daniel Trevino...
19h ago
Biden administration takes step to make marijuana use a less serious crime
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday moved to make marijuana use a less serious crime, a source familiar with the matter said. If finalized, the policy change could potentially be the biggest shift in federal cannabis policy in 40 ...
22h ago
North Carolina police examine whether multiple shooters involved in killing of four officers
By Katharine Jackson (Reuters) - Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, said on Tuesday they were investigating whether more than one shooter opened fire a day earlier in the gun battle that killed four law enforcement officers who were trying to ser...
22h ago
US newspapers sue OpenAI for copyright infringement over AI training
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) - A group of newspapers, including the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune, sued Microsoft and OpenAI in New York federal court on Tuesday, accusing them of misusing reporters' work to train their generative artifici...
23h ago