Author: Reporter

The American soldier who sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas more than two months ago was whisked to a Texas Army base on September 28 for medical checks and interviews after his return to the United States. North Korea abruptly announced a day earlier that it would expel Pvt. Travis King. His return was organized with the help of ally Sweden and rival China, according to the White House. While officials have said King, 23, is in good health and the immediate focus will be on caring for him and reintegrating him into...

A government shutdown appeared all but inevitable as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy dug in on September 28, vowing he would not take up Senate legislation designed to keep the federal government fully running despite House Republicans’ struggle to unite around an alternative. Congress is at an impasse just days before a disruptive federal shutdown that would halt paychecks for many of the federal government’s roughly 2 million employees, as well as 2 million active-duty military troops and reservists, furlough many of those workers and curtail government services. But the House and Senate are pursuing different paths to avert those...

About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the United States, the highest number ever, according to new government data posted in August. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which posted the numbers, has not yet calculated a suicide rate for the year, but available data suggests suicides are more common in the U.S. than at any time since the dawn of World War II. “There’s something wrong. The number should not be going up,” said Christina Wilbur, a 45-year-old Florida woman whose son shot himself to death last year. “My son should not have died,”...

President Joe Biden joined United Auto Workers strikers on their picket line on September 26 as their work stoppage against major carmakers hit day 12, a demonstration of support for organized labor unparalleled in presidential history. “You deserve the significant raise you need,” President Biden said through a bullhorn while wearing a union baseball cap after arriving at a General Motors parts distribution warehouse located in a suburb west of Detroit. He walked along the picket line, exchanging fist bumps with grinning workers. He encouraged them to continue fighting for better wages despite concerns that a prolonged strike could...