Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Palestinians from Gaza rebuild in Mexico City through food

Loud noises still cause anxiety for Mohammed Abed, a Palestinian systems engineer from Gaza. The planes that crisscross the skies of Mexico City and the rumble of summer thunder evoke memories of the 2025 Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza, where an air strike killed his 4-year-old daughter. The 36-year-old arrived in Mexico last spring with 17 family members seeking asylum. These days, Tuesday mornings begin not with fear of bombardment but ​with work. Before sunrise, he loads his motorized tricycle with Palestinian food to sell at an open-air market in Condesa, one of the capital's most cosmopolitan neighborhoods.

Supreme Court to weigh Trump's mandatory immigration detention policy

The US Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to hear a dispute over a policy by President Donald Trump's administration that subjects millions of immigrants who ​entered the United States illegally to mandatory detention during their deportation proceedings. In this latest legal battle over Trump's hardline immigration agenda to reach the top US judicial body, the justices face an issue that has divided lower courts as numerous lawsuits ‌by migrants and advocacy groups ​challenging the policy have played out. The policy is one of a number of measures his administration has taken in its pursuit of Trump's goal of mass deportation.

Trump push to end US clock switching hits dead end

Efforts in the US Senate to mandate year-round daylight saving have stalled despite significant pressure from President Donald Trump. Early Friday, Trump again urged the Senate to approve the bill that passed the House in July by a 308-117 vote. The measure would end the twice-yearly practice of changing clocks observed across most of the nation since the 1960s.

US appeals court blocks Minnesota law barring 'nudified' photos in XAI lawsuit

Elon Musk's xAI on Friday persuaded a US federal appeals court to halt Minnesota's first-in-the-nation ban on AI-generated fake nude images as the technology and social media company pursues a lawsuit alleging that the law is unconstitutional. The St. Louis-based 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in its order put the law on hold for now, granting a request for an injunction by xAI. A lower court judge last month had rejected Musk’s bid for an order stopping the law.

Exclusive-Trump visa policies weigh on Columbia journalism program as admissions pause

The Trump administration's changing visa ‌policies caused a sharp drop in international applications to Columbia University and contributed to the university pausing admissions to one of its journalism programs, four people familiar with the matter said. The journalism school announced on Thursday it was pausing admissions to its Master of Arts offering to conduct a "critical evaluation," without giving further details about the reasons.

US judge denies request to find Lindsay Clancy not guilty after mistrial

A Massachusetts judge who oversaw Lindsay Clancy's murder trial rejected a request on Thursday by her lawyers to declare her not guilty of murder, saying prosecutors presented sufficient evidence for a jury to find her responsible for killing her three young children in 2023. Clancy's lawyers had urged Judge William Sullivan in Plymouth to conclude that prosecutors had failed to prove she could be held criminally responsible for her children's deaths despite suffering from what they said was mental illness. Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4 after the jury deadlocked.

Analysis-Vance's fraud crackdown may raise costs for US health insurers, enrollees

A crackdown on Obamacare health insurance could raise prices for US consumers and insurers by removing healthy, low-cost enrollees, adding pressure to a shrinking marketplace. The 2010 Affordable Care Act created income-based government-subsidized health plans for individuals, with 19 million people now enrolled. Millions have dropped out this year as extra COVID-19 pandemic subsidies expired.

Kennedy Center Honors to be held at Capital One Arena amid demolition fight

This year's Kennedy Center Honors will be held at Washington's Capital One Arena as the Trump administration faces legal and congressional challenges over plans to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a center spokesperson said on Friday. This will be the first time ‌the honors are not held at the center's Opera House since the awards' inception in 1978.

Christa Pike getting 'life-saving medical care' after surviving Tennessee execution

Christa Pike was critically ill and receiving "life-saving medical care" in a Nashville hospital on Thursday hours after she survived two attempts by Tennessee to execute her with lethal injections, her lawyers said, renewing scrutiny of capital punishment in the US. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in the 1990s after being convicted of a murder she carried out as a teenager. Her botched execution on Wednesday at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the second this year in Tennessee, highlights the difficulties US states face in carrying out lethal injections and finding suitable alternative methods of capital punishment.

Former US congressman sentenced to 10 years for secretly lobbying ‌for Venezuela

Former US Congressman David Rivera was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for illegally lobbying US officials to ease pressure on ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government. Rivera, a Republican who represented southern Florida in the US House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, was convicted at trial in May of lobbying US officials on Venezuela's behalf in 2017 without registering as a foreign lobbyist as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Amazon to invest $1 billion over five years in US data center communities

Amazon's cloud computing division said on Friday it would invest more than $1 billion over the next five years in US communities where it has data centers and vowed to tackle their impacts on electricity and water usage. Data centers, which provide the computing power to train and run AI models, have drawn opposition in communities nationwide over concerns about electricity demand, utility costs and other local impacts. The backlash poses a political challenge for Republicans heading into the US midterm elections on November 3.

With a mixed scorecard, Trump poised to test his powers again at US Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court begins its new nine-month term on Monday much as it ended its last one, confronted with more cases involving President Donald Trump's far-reaching policies and aggressive uses of power that will keep testing how far the justices will let him expand his authority. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, wrapped up its last term in June, one dominated by legal battles centered on Trump's exertion of presidential powers. The justices gave the Republican president several major wins and a few big losses.

Democratic surge predicted to hit Republican states hardest, scrambling Senate strategy

Kentucky Democrats say they have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to flip a US Senate seat in a Republican stronghold. But a couple of things are missing: their governor and money. Kentucky is one of several states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024 where Republicans are significantly trailing the president's performance, an ⁠indication that Democrats have expanded their pathway to ​a majority in November's midterm elections. It's not clear, however, that the party will invest its limited resources into flipping seats once considered to be out of reach.

US judge finds law criminalizing noncitizen voting unconstitutional

A US judge ⁠dismissed a federal case on Thursday that accused a Jamaican national of illegally voting, finding the law criminalizing noncitizen voting was unconstitutional and delivering a blow to the Trump administration's campaign against alleged election fraud. The ruling by Miami-based US District Judge David Leibowitz applies only to the case of Florida resident Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting in the 2020 election. It is not binding for judges in other cases.

Trump appears at Texas rally with former NBA star Dennis Rodman

US President Donald Trump has talked a lot about wanting to meet Kim Jong Un again but so far his entreaties to the North Korean leader have gone unanswered. Can former NBA star Dennis Rodman help prompt a rebound in their relationship? Rodman was in Trump's entourage on Thursday as the president spoke at a truck factory in Denton, Texas, before heading to a campaign rally in Durant, Oklahoma. No reason was given for Rodman's presence, but he ⁠has a local connection through his days playing college basketball in Durant.

NY governor attacks law enforcement's handling of 2024 Cornell rape investigation

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday faulted police and prosecutors for failing to fully investigate an alleged gang rape in 2024 at Cornell University, saying she was "deeply disturbed" by how the incident was handled. Hochul was speaking at a press conference alongside state Attorney General Letitia James, whom she appointed on Thursday night as a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations.

Fed may skip October but pull rate hike trigger in December

Federal Reserve policymakers were already leaning against delivering a second straight rate hike this month to give them time to sift through more economic data before pulling the trigger again, and a cooler than expected job market report Friday leaves that approach intact. Still-to-come data, particularly the closely-watched consumer price index measure of inflation coming just before the Fed's October ​27-28 policy meeting, could yet shift that calculus.

Factbox-Top cases on the US Supreme Court's docket

The US Supreme Court is hearing a series of important cases during its new term that begins on Monday involving issues such as President Donald Trump's immigration policies, assault-style rifle bans, Big Oil's financial liability for climate change, Republican-backed voting restrictions, LGBT rights and more. Here is a look at some of the cases being argued during the term, which runs to about the end of June.

At Cornell, rape allegations spark outrage, soul-searching over campus culture

Cornell University student Sophia Riley Sim skipped classes this week, consumed by allegations in a lawsuit that several members of a fraternity raped a young woman in ⁠2024 and troubled by how her university handled the case. "Cornell has failed our community through its lack of accountability, transparency, and failure to address the state of the Cornell student body at this time," Sim, a junior, said at a public hearing on sexual assault organized by Cornell's Student Assembly on Thursday.

Tennessee execution survivor Christa Pike on ventilator, attorneys say

Convicted murderer Christa Pike is unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance from a ventilator after Tennessee's failed attempt to execute her, her attorneys said on Friday, providing the first detailed account of the extent of injuries she suffered during the lethal injection. Hospital staff are working to save Pike's life and clear the lethal drug pentobarbital from her system, her attorneys said in an emergency court filing seeking an order requiring Tennessee's Department of Correction to preserve evidence from Wednesday night's botched execution.

New York attorney general named special prosecutor in Cornell rape probe

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she signed an executive order on Thursday appointing state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in ⁠the case of ​the alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell University student. The student filed a civil lawsuit last month saying several members of a campus fraternity drugged and assaulted her in 2024. Hochul said on Thursday that newly released information raised questions about the investigation conducted by the Cornell Police Department and the decision by Tompkins County prosecutors not to prosecute the case.

Trump says he did not 'jump the gun' on South Korea Alaska LNG investment announcement

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he did not "jump the gun" on announcing a South Korean investment in Alaska LNG, a liquefied natural gas project that has been planned for decades but still lacks binding commitments. Trump unveiled plans on Wednesday for South Korea to invest $200 billion in US projects, but Seoul quickly suggested one key element, a $54 billion pipeline for a long-planned LNG project in Alaska, was not yet set in stone.

The Fed's building renovations and Trump's push to oust Powell

President Donald Trump began publicly attacking Jerome Powell -- and privately musing about firing him -- just months after Trump elevated Powell in 2018 to the top job at the US central bank. Trump was unhappy that Powell did not deliver the interest-rate cuts the president felt were called for. But it wasn't until 2025, soon after Trump began his second term in the White House, that the president and key members of his administration zeroed in on cost overruns for renovations of the Fed's Washington headquarters as a focal point for efforts to oust Powell, or at least to pressure him into easier monetary policy.

Bipartisan members of Congress move to block demolition of Kennedy Center

When President ⁠Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to the East Wing of the White House, it took Washington by surprise. Now, there is a move in the US Congress to avoid a second such surprise with legislation to prohibit him from demolishing the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The maneuver comes on the heels of a federal judge ordering the Trump administration to provide at least 30 days' notice before taking steps to demolish the building. Trump himself had told reporters in mid-September that unless his name was on the Kennedy Center, "It's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down."

Pennsylvania measles cases near 1,000 as outbreak spreads

Pennsylvania's health department reported 977 measles cases as of Friday, according to ⁠its website, as the state continues to battle a fast-growing outbreak of the disease. Here are more details:

US looks to expand use of canoe-sized drones to deter migrant crossings

The Pentagon may expand its use of autonomous surveillance boats on the ⁠Rio Grande and in the Gulf of Mexico after the canoe-sized vessels helped authorities detect and deter illegal border crossings and narcotics trafficking during a pilot program that began in January, a US official said. The unmanned surface vessels, built by San Diego-based startup Seasats, patrol the river for long periods without crews and are part of a growing push by the military and law enforcement agencies to use relatively inexpensive, autonomous systems for surveillance and security missions.

Renee Good's family sues Trump administration over fatal Minneapolis shooting

The family of Renee Good, one of two US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January, sued the Trump administration on Thursday, saying there had been "no accountability" for her killing during deportation sweeps. Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7 when she and her wife joined one of the city's daily protests against masked and armed federal agents deployed to Minnesota to arrest migrants for deportation.

Judge restores court-appointed Seattle federal prosecutor fired by Trump

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to reinstate a court-appointed federal prosecutor in Seattle whom President Donald Trump ‌fired less than an hour after his appointment. Chief Judge Stanley Bastian of the federal court in Yakima, Washington, ruled preliminarily for Roger Rogoff in ‌a lawsuit he filed in July after his ouster as the court-appointed US attorney for the Western District of Washington.

Massachusetts governor asks Trump administration to speed natgas pipeline review

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey called on the Trump administration to expedite the review of a natural gas pipeline that a unit of Canadian energy firm Enbridge is developing in New England. After opposing most new fossil fuel projects over the past ​decade or so, several states in the US Northeast region have become more accepting of fossil fuel projects in recent years in an effort to help reduce soaring consumer energy bills.