Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared Thursday that the state won't comply with a federal regulation that seeks to protect the rights of transgender students in the nation’s schools, joining other Republican-led states that are defying the new rules. Sanders signed an executive order stating that Arkansas schools will continue to enforce restrictions on which bathrooms and pronouns transgender students can use, laws that could be invalidated by the new regulations on how to enforce Title IX.
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The majority of Haiti's transition council who had nominated an interim prime minister earlier this week has walked back the decision, exposing the internal turmoil of the group charged with leading the Caribbean nation out of a prolonged crisis. Late on Wednesday, four of the council's seven voting members issued a statement saying they will go back to an original agreement to choose a prime minister from a pool of applicants, after having tapped former official Fritz Belizaire for the job. In recent years, Haiti's political and social order has suffered repeated setbacks, from a presidential assassination to a major earthquake, aggravating a power vacuum increasingly filled by armed gangs vying for power.
The world hasn’t seen anything like the unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza since World War II, and it would take at least until 2040 to restore the homes devastated in Israel’s bombing and ground offensive if the conflict ended today, the United Nations reported Thursday. The U.N. assessment said the social and economic impact of the war launched after Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 has been increasing “in an exponential manner.” It called the level of casualties – 5% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population -- “unprecedented” in such a short time.
Had emergency responders known about widespread cellphone outages during the height of last summer's deadly Maui wildfires, they would have used other methods to warn about the disaster, county officials said in a lawsuit. Maui officials failed to activate sirens that would have warned the entire population of the approaching flames. Major cellular carriers were negligent in failing to properly inform Maui police of widespread service outages, county officials said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court against Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Spectrum Mobile and AT&T.
So far, violent scenes seen at universities across the US have not been repeated in Australia where multiple Gaza solidarity demonstrations have emerged on campus.
The San Diego, California-based company, whose tools and services are used in developing therapies and vaccines, has seen both a slowdown in demand from key markets such as China and cautious spending from its customers. The gene sequencing machine maker continues to expect revenue growth from its core segment to be roughly flat this year compared with 2023, and still sees its adjusted operating margin to be about 20%. U.S. life sciences Illumina's first-quarter revenue was $1.08 billion, above analysts' estimate of $1.05 billion.
Russia has moved some troops onto an airbase in Niger where a small number of U.S. forces remain after most American troops left the base in the nation's capital, Niamey, a U.S. official said Thursday. The arrival of Russian trainers in the West African country about three weeks ago came in the wake of Niger’s decision to order out all U.S. troops. The order dealt a blow to U.S. military operations in the Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara desert where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.
The world's largest stablecoin, Tether, has stepped up monitoring of how its tokens are used in broader crypto markets and payments in a bid to combat illicit finance, Tether said in a statement on Thursday. Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar, and blockchain analytics company Chainalysis have launched new tools to identify transactions associated with sanctioned entities and analyse the activity of major holders of the token, Tether said. Last month, Reuters reported that Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA planned to increase use of Tether in its crude and fuel exports at a time when the U.S. has reimposed oil sanctions.
Journalists who report on environmental issues face increasing violence around the world from both state and private actors, UNESCO said on Thursday, highlighting that 44 of these journalists have been murdered between 2009 and 2023. More than 70% of the 905 journalists the agency surveyed in 129 countries said they had been attacked, threatened or pressured, and that the violence against them had worsened - with 305 attacks reported in the last five years alone. At least 749 journalists, groups of journalists and media outlets have been attacked in 89 countries across all regions, its report said, with state actors being responsible for at least half and private for at least a quarter.
SAN FRANCISCO - Lines used to stretch around the block at Apple’s flagship Union Square retail store and others around the world, with hordes of eager customers camping out for days, just to be among the first to lay hands on its newest products. A decade ago, the Apple hype was seemingly unstoppable as the company unveiled a steady stream of must-have gadgets. Today, however, Apple - long thought of as the world’s most innovative and valuable company - is at a crossroads.Subscribe to The Post M
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Thursday that he is not allowed to testify in his own defense at a criminal trial in Manhattan over his alleged falsification of business records.
President Joe Biden announced Thursday $3 billion toward identifying and replacing the nation’s unsafe lead pipes, a long-sought move to improve public health and clean drinking water that will be paid for by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Alabama lawmakers have passed legislation that would allow President Joe Biden to appear on the state’s November ballot, after the Republican secretary of state warned that Democrats might miss a state deadline to formally name him as their nominee.
New Zealand's foreign minister on Friday described the country's relationship with China as "complex," and called out the hardening rhetoric across the Taiwan Strait, human rights violations in Hong Kong and "increased engagement in Pacific security sectors." Winston Peters said in the speech to the New Zealand China Council in Auckland that China was a vital economic partner to New Zealand, with whom it has many things in common as well as many differences of opinions.
The former leader of the Michigan House and his wife pleaded not guilty Thursday to financial charges arising from an investigation of how they spent money from unregulated political funds. Lee Chatfield and Stephanie Chatfield appeared in a Lansing-area court by video conference from Kentucky, where they plan to attend the Kentucky Derby. Chatfield, a Republican, was speaker of the House in 2019 and 2020.
Turkey on Thursday suspended all imports and exports to Israel citing the country's ongoing military action in Gaza and vowed to continue to impose the measures until the Israeli government allows the flow of humanitarian aid to the region. A Turkish Trade Ministry statement said “export and import transactions in relation to Israel have been stopped, covering all products.” Turkish officials would coordinate with Palestinian authorities to ensure that Palestinians are not affected by the suspension of imports and exports, the ministry said.
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer needed a chain saw to complete one of his latest assignments. Hemmer traveled north for “Battle for the Arctic,” a documentary on the Fox Nation streaming service about the U.S. Navy's preparedness in the region, where he took a brief ride on a nuclear submarine. It took more than an hour for a chain saw to cut through the ice and enable Hemmer to walk down the hatch for his visit.
WASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) -The Biden administration and Saudi Arabia are finalizing an agreement for U.S. security guarantees and civilian nuclear assistance, even as an Israel-Saudi normalization deal envisioned as part of a Middle East “grand bargain” remains elusive, according to seven people familiar with the matter. A working draft lays out principles and proposals aimed at putting back on track a U.S.-led effort to reshape the volatile region that was derailed by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the outbreak of war in Gaza, according to two sources who have seen the document. U.S. and Saudi negotiators have, for now, prioritized a bilateral security accord that would then be part of a wider package presented to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who would have to decide whether to make concessions to secure historic ties with Riyadh, five of the sources said.