By Jasper Ward and Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that at least 11 American citizens were among those killed in Israel following the weekend's attacks by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Washington believes it is likely U.S. citizens are also among those being held hostage by Hamas, Biden said in a statement. White House national security spokesman John Kirby later added it was not yet confirmed if Americans were taken hostage. 'I can't say definitively that we know Americans are being held hostage.

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By Joseph White and David Shepardson DETROIT (Reuters) – The United Auto Workers held off on additional strikes against Detroit Three auto plants on Friday, citing General Motors' unexpected willingness to allow workers at joint-venture battery plants to be covered by union contracts. GM's concession could be critical if rivals Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis follow suit, potentially clearing the way for final agreements that would shore up the union's position as the industry switches to making electric vehicles.

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By Joseph Ax (Reuters) -A New Mexico judge on Friday rejected a Republican challenge to the state's Democratic-drawn congressional lines, improving the odds Democrats will maintain their hold on all three of the state's districts in next year's election. The state is one of several in which crucial legal battles over congressional redistricting are still raging two years after most states enacted new maps following the once-a-decade U.S. Census. With Democrats only five seats short of recapturing a majority in the U.

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By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A 45-day stopgap measure passed by the U.S. Congress to avert a government shutdown has left potential funding shortfalls for strategic Pacific island states, which analysts and former officials say makes the U.S. allies economically vulnerable and possibly more receptive to Chinese approaches. The Biden administration had hoped to see Congress endorse by Sept. 30 new 20-year funding programs for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, which after decades of relative neglect now find themselves at the center of a U.

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By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump's campaign said on Wednesday it raised over $45.5 million in the third quarter from July to September, nearly 30% higher than it raised in the previous quarter while the former U.S. president faces multiple legal charges. The acceleration in fundraising could be a sign that Trump's 2024 campaign coffers are benefiting from his legal problems, which include four indictments. The Trump campaign's statement on Wednesday did not provide details of how it arrived at that tally or its break up from where the funds were raised.

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By Ahmed Aboulenein and Steve Gorman WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Kaiser Permanente and union negotiators for 75,000 striking medical workers suspended a marathon round of contract talks without a settlement on Wednesday, the two sides said, hours after the largest such walkout ever in the U.S. healthcare sector commenced. Kaiser said in a statement released late in the day that tentative agreements had been reached on a number of unspecified issues and that the company would 'coordinate' with union leaders to 'reconvene bargaining as soon as possible.

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By Jose Luis Gonzalez and Brendan O'Boyle MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Trucks attempting to enter the United States from Mexico queued for miles on Wednesday amid delays related to record migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, while an industry group said the value of goods stalled in Mexico had surpassed $1.5 billion. Thousands of trucks have been stranded on the Mexican side of the border after U.S. authorities shut down crossings and imposed extra security checks amid an increase in migration. In Ciudad Juarez, trucks waited to cross a bridge into Santa Teresa, New Mexico, after cargo processing was temporarily suspended at a bridge connecting the city to El Paso, Texas, to allow customs officers to assist in processing migrants arriving outside official crossings.

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(Reuters) -The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) sought bids from power producers on Monday to increase its operating reserves by around 3,000 megawatts in case of any unexpected spikes in demand during the upcoming winter season. The Texas grid has been concerned about extreme weather since a deadly storm in February 2021 left millions without power for days as ERCOT struggled to prevent a grid collapse after the closure of an unusually large amount of generation. The request for proposals seeks capacity from both dispatchable generation and demand response solutions to cover the period of December 2023 through February 2024, the Texas power grid operator said, citing the significant peak load growth since last winter and retirements of dispatchable resources.

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By Steve Gorman and Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Negotiators for striking Hollywood actors resumed contract talks on Monday with representatives of major studios, television networks and streaming services, marking the first time the two sides have returned to the bargaining table since mid-July. Renewed talks between the SAG-AFTRA actors union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) came eight days after the producers clinched a separate contract deal with Hollywood writers, who launched their own strike on May 2, about 10 weeks before the actors.

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(Reuters) – Jailed former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried considered paying former U.S. President Donald Trump to not run for re-election in 2020, according to an excerpt of a forthcoming book published on Sunday. In the excerpt published in the Washington Post, Michael Lewis, the author of 'Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon', said Bankman-Fried at the time was planning to give $15 million to $30 million to Republican Senator Mitch McConnell to defeat the 'Trumpier' candidates in the Senate races.

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By Joseph Ax and Gabriella Borter NEW YORK (Reuters) -Pop megastar Taylor Swift was just a spectator on Sunday at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, where she performed three sold-out concerts in May for more than 217,000 fans, but she was still the star of the show as she watched her rumored beau, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, face the New York Jets. With several celebrity friends joining her – including actors Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Hugh Jackman – the singer saw the defending champion Chiefs eke out a 23-20 victory.

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(Reuters) – California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday vetoed a bill that would have paid unemployment benefits to striking workers, and had drawn strong support from labor unions and from his fellow Democrats in the state legislature. In rejecting the bill, Newsom noted that the state's unemployment trust fund is already nearing $20 billion in debt. 'Now is not the time to increase costs or incur this sizable debt,' he wrote in a message explaining his veto. The Democratic-majority legislature passed the bill in September amid several high-profile strikes.

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By Tim Reid and James Oliphant ANAHEIM, California (Reuters) -Donald Trump campaigned in California on Friday, just two days after skipping the Republican presidential debate there, looking to build support in the state with the biggest prize in his party's 2024 White House nominating race. 'With your help, we're going to win the California primary,' the former president said to a crowd of Republican activists and party members who gave him a raucous standing ovation when he took the stage at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim, 25 miles (40 km) south of Los Angeles.

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By Jarrett Renshaw and Nichola Groom (Reuters) -The Biden administration's five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing will not include any sales in 2024 and will feature just three in the final four years, the lowest number of auctions in the history of the program, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The plan is almost certain to disappoint both environmental groups and oil companies. In recent years, politicians, environmentalists and the oil industry have cast the national leasing program as a symbol of either the need to rein in fossil fuel development to avert the worst impacts of climate change or as a critical tool to shore up domestic energy supplies and keep pump prices low.

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By James Oliphant and Tim Reid SIMI VALLEY, California (Reuters) -The seven Republicans on stage at their party's second 2024 presidential primary debate aimed on Wednesday to convince voters they could be a viable alternative to frontrunner Donald Trump, who skipped the event. Here are takeaways from the sometimes unruly debate in Simi Valley, California: HALEY ON THE MARCH For the second straight debate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis turned in a sober, stable performance that likely did nothing to derail his candidacy.

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By Moira Warburton and David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday rejected a stopgap funding bill advancing in the Senate, bringing Washington closer to its fourth partial shutdown of the U.S. government in a decade with just four days to go. That would lead to the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and the suspension of a wide range of government services, from economic data releases to nutrition benefits, until Congress manages to pass a funding bill that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, would sign into law.

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By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned on Wednesday that a partial government shutdown could disrupt air travel and said the government would need to furlough 1,000 air traffic controllers in training. If Congress does not fund government operations before Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates it would have to furlough more than 17,000 employees and halt the training. 'Especially when it comes to transportation, the consequences would be disruptive and dangerous,' Buttigieg said at a press conference.

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(Reuters) – The U.S. grid-scale energy storage installations hit a new record in the second quarter of 2023, a report by Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association (ACP) said. Grid-scale energy storage is essential in helping balance and regulate energy supply in a grid that is increasingly reliant on intermittent wind and solar power. 'The energy storage market is on pace for a record year, as utilities and larger power users increasingly turn to storage to enhance the grid and improve reliability,' said ACP VP of Research and Analytics, John Hensley.

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(Reuters) – Negotiators for the striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood studios will meet again on Sunday after a fourth day of talks failed to reach a deal. The WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents studios like Walt Disney, Netflix and other media companies, held talks on Saturday as the strike reached its 145th day. Writers walked off the job in early May after negotiations failed to agree on compensation, minimum staffing of writers' rooms, the use of artificial intelligence and residuals that reward writers for popular streaming shows.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday rebuked what he called 'extreme Republicans', saying the party's lawmakers needed to take immediate steps to prevent a government shutdown ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline. The deal reached between congressional Republican leadership and his administration in May would have funded essential domestic and national security priorities and still cut the budget deficit by $1 trillion over the next 10 years, Biden said at a congressional awards dinner on Saturday.

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By Sharon Bernstein (Reuters) -The dramatic increase in migrants crossing the U.S. border from Mexico has pushed the city of El Paso, Texas, to 'a breaking point,' with more than 2,000 people per day seeking asylum, exceeding shelter capacity and straining resources, its mayor said on Saturday. 'The city of El Paso only has so many resources and we have come to … a breaking point right now,' Mayor Oscar Leeser said at a news conference. The arrival of largely Venezuelan asylum seekers is part of a larger swell of immigrants who traveled dangerous routes on buses and cargo trains to Mexican border towns near San Diego, California, and the Texas cities of El Paso and Eagle Pass.

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(Reuters) -A tropical storm off the mid-Atlantic coast began dumping rain on parts of North Carolina on Friday and will likely bring more precipitation along with high winds and storm surges to parts of Virginia and Delaware, the National Weather Service said. In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm, dubbed Ophelia, which was still out at sea as of Friday evening. He said emergency responders would move into place in advance of the storm, which is expected to bring high surf, coastal flooding and tropical storm force winds to areas along the Chesapeake Bay and tidal areas of the Potomac River.

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By Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Striking Hollywood writers and top studio executives met for a third straight day on Friday to try and end a work stoppage that has shut down film and TV production for months. While workers across the entertainment industry waited for word of the outcome, no agreement had been announced as of late Friday, the 144th day of the strike. Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Donna Langley, chairman of Comcast's NBCUniversal Studio Group, took part in the talks with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) for a third straight day.

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By Kane Wu (Reuters) -U.S. venture capital firm GGV Capital said on Thursday it plans to split its business into two, with one focused on Asia and the other on the U.S., as political pressure mounts on American companies to limit investments in Chinese technology. GGV said in a statement on social media X its U.S. partnership will invest primarily in North America, Latin America, Israel, Europe, India, and U.S. cross-border deals from offices in Silicon Valley and New York. Its Asia partnership, headquartered in Singapore, will focus on China, Southeast Asia and South Asia, the firm said.

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By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -A trade group for U.S. authors has sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court on behalf of prominent writers including John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, George Saunders, Jodi Picoult and 'Game of Thrones' novelist George R.R. Martin, accusing the company of unlawfully training its popular artificial-intelligence based chatbot ChatGPT on their work. The proposed class-action lawsuit filed late on Tuesday by the Authors Guild joins several others from writers, source-code owners and visual artists against generative AI providers.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will host a second summit with leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum at the White House on Monday, part of his efforts to step up engagement with a region where the U.S. is in a battle for influence with China. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement the summit with the 18-member forum would take place on Monday and Tuesday. At the summit, Biden would 'reaffirm the U.S. commitment to our shared regional priorities' with the Pacific islanders, and deepen cooperation with them in a range of areas, the statement said.

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(Reuters) – The acting president of Temple University in Philadelphia, JoAnne Epps, fell ill on Tuesday while attending a memorial service on campus and died a short time later, the school said in a statement. She was 72. No cause of death was given. Local news media reported Epps collapsed on stage during the campus event, which university officials described as a memorial tribute to the late Charles Blockson, curator of a prestigious collection of African-American artifacts at Temple. Epps appeared to have 'suffered a sudden episode' and was 'promptly attended to by emergency medical' personnel at the scene, Dr.

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By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy plunged forward on Monday into the biggest challenge of his eight months as the top Republican in Congress, as he tries to avoid a government shutdown in less than two weeks without losing his speakership. The Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate have until Sept. 30 to avoid the fourth partial government shutdown in a decade by passing spending legislation that President Joe Biden can sign into law to keep federal agencies afloat.

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By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday blocked California from enforcing a law meant to protect children when they use the internet, saying the law's commercial speech restrictions likely violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. In granting a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California, said she was 'keenly aware of the myriad harms that may befall children on the internet,' but California's law swept too broadly. The law, known as California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, was passed unanimously last September by the state legislature and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

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By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -With a possible partial government shutdown looming in two weeks, House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday said he would bring a defense spending bill to a vote 'win or lose' this week, despite resistance from hardline fellow Republicans.McCarthy is struggling to bring fiscal 2024 spending legislation to the House floor, with Republicans fractured by conservative demands for spending to be cut to a 2022 level of $1.47 trillion – $120 billion below the spending on which McCarthy agreed with Biden in May.

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