Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Catholic diocese sues US government seeking clergy access to detainees

The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Monday, alleging that detainees at an immigration detention facility in Missouri are being deprived of their right to speak privately with priests or receive sacraments like communion and confession. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against top officials ​at the Department of Homeland Security and the local sheriff, alleges clergy can only visit detainees at the Saint Genevieve County Jail during a four-hour window on Mondays, and can only speak to them via telephone handset through a glass partition.

Conservation group calls for moratorium on AI data centers on US ​public lands

Conservation group The Wilderness Society on Monday called for a moratorium on artificial intelligence data centers on federal lands, citing concerns over water use, electricity demand, wildlife habitat and public access. The call ‌comes as the Trump administration is ​considering permits for several data center developments on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, according to federal land records. US President Donald Trump has sought to expand a range of industries on public lands, including mining and oil and gas

Judge sets new US trial in Lockerbie bombing case for January 2027

A US judge on Monday set a January 2027 trial for a former Libyan intelligence operative accused of building the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. The trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi in Washington federal court was postponed in August days before it was set to begin after defense lawyers said they needed additional time to review newly disclosed evidence in the case.

Pennsylvania measles cases rise to 1,004 as outbreak spreads

Pennsylvania's health department reported 1,004 measles cases as of Monday, as the state grapples with a fast-growing outbreak. Five Pennsylvania residents have died after contracting the highly contagious disease, as cases in the US reach their highest level ‌in more than three decades.

US Army tests counter-drone tech at Mexican border as cartel drone use rises

The US Army is testing counter-drone technology in the US-Mexico border area, seeking to sharpen its defenses against the growing threat of drone use by cartels and emulate the rapid battlefield innovation happening in Ukraine's war with Russia. At Falcon Peak, a US Northern Command exercise held in September in Arizona, soldiers watched as defense firms demonstrated radars, interceptor drones, autonomous gun systems and other technologies designed to detect, track and destroy small unmanned aircraft.

Japan's Takaichi protests to US after Marine accused of murder in Okinawa

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi registered a protest with the United States on Sunday after a US Marine was arrested on suspicion of robbing and murdering a Japanese woman in Okinawa. Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, is suspected of killing Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel in Naha, the capital of the southernmost prefecture, on Saturday and taking her wallet and backpack, police said. Ballard denied the allegations, police said.

Trump picks John Coale as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that lawyer and current Belarus envoy John Coale, who has been credited with the release of hundreds of prisoners, would be his special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 15 prisoners last month after talks with Coale, who has been talking to Minsk for more than a year.

US services sector cools ‌in September, price pressures building

US services sector activity slowed in September, while strong domestic demand stretched supply chains and pushed a measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs to its highest level in more than four years, suggesting inflation could remain elevated into 2027. Complaints about higher fuel prices dominated responses to the Institute for Supply Management survey published on Monday.

Trump says US will help Russia after Siberia plague institute death

US President Donald Trump on Monday at the White House told reporters that the United States will help Russia after a laboratory worker died at a plague research institute in Siberia. Trump told reporters as he left the White House ‌for a trip to Nebraska that the outbreak is a "big problem for Russia."

Appeals court pauses reinstatement of fired Seattle federal prosecutor

A US appeals court on Sunday put on hold a judge's order reinstating the Seattle area's top federal prosecutor, who had been fired by President Donald Trump. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Trump administration's request for an administrative stay while it considers the merits of the dispute. The order for now will keep Roger Rogoff from resuming his role as US attorney for the Western District of Washington.

In crude Ohio rally speech, Trump says he may not help if Democrats win

US President Donald Trump used an Ohio rally on Saturday to mix profane attacks on Democrats with promises of financial help if Republicans win the midterms and a warning that he would be less willing to work with the state if Democrats prevail. "Just get out and vote," Trump said at a rally for Republican candidates, including US Senator Jon Husted and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. "If you do that, we're going to win, and we're going to win big, and we're going to shove it up their ass."

US appeals court weighs Trump's block on Harvard research funding

US President Donald Trump's administration asked an appeals court on Monday to let it terminate more than $2 billion in grants awarded to Harvard University, a major target in the Republican president’s broader campaign against elite US universities. During an oral argument before the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice Department lawyer Michael Velchik said the federal government had the authority to withhold federal funding from Harvard to ensure it was adequately combating antisemitism on its campus.

Trump heads to Nebraska as Republicans defend red-state Senate seat

US President ⁠Donald Trump will visit Nebraska on Monday ​to rally Republicans and promote his economic record, taking his message of new investment and manufacturing to a state where farmers and truckers face sharply higher diesel prices and voters worry about ⁠inflation. His stop in the city of Grand Island is part of Trump's 32-day sprint to the November 3 midterm elections, a campaign in which he is spending considerable time in Republican strongholds. Trump has urged Republicans to “pretend” he is on the ballot, arguing that voters should view the midterms as a referendum on his administration and economic record.

Cornell president vows 'serious look' at fraternities, sororities in wake of rape allegations

Cornell University will examine the role of fraternities and sororities on campus following an outcry over the school's handling of a student's rape allegations, the Ivy League school's president said on Saturday. A civil lawsuit filed last month by the woman, who alleges she was drugged and raped in 2024 by several members of the Chi Phi fraternity, has sparked outrage and soul-searching at Cornell over its campus culture at the school in ⁠Ithaca, New York.

Trump's deportation push forces dozens of LGBT migrants onto hostile terrain

Two years ago, a mob assaulted Abdou Latifou and threatened to kill him after he was seen kissing the man he loved. He fled his home in the West African nation of Togo and sought refuge in the United States, according to his asylum application.

Exclusive-US to announce $150 million for Alaska power lines as Vance campaigns in Senate battleground

The US Energy Department will announce $150 million in new funding for power lines in Alaska on Monday as Vice President JD Vance visits the state, where Republicans are fighting to hold a critical Senate seat in the November midterm elections. Vance is set to rally voters for Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who is locked in a tight reelection battle with Democrat Mary ​Peltola. Flipping the seat is key to the Democratic Party's strategy to take control of the US Senate, and recent polls have Peltola, a former member of the US House of Representatives, leading Sullivan.

Georgia block party shooting kills two, injures dozens

A shooting early on Sunday at a Georgia block party left two people dead and almost three dozen injured, some critically, local and state officials said. Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy told a news conference that two men, aged 21 and 23, were shot dead in Vienna, Georgia, about 135 miles (216 km) south of Atlanta. Thirty-five people were injured, mostly by ⁠gunshot wounds, officials told reporters.

Democratic lawmakers urge FAA not to drop rule requiring epinephrine on all flights

A group of Democratic lawmakers urged the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday not to relax a requirement that all US airlines keep epinephrine on board flights for medical emergencies, especially severe allergic reactions. "Having multiple doses of epinephrine on every aircraft, in delivery methods that can be easily self-administered by individuals without medical training, is more urgent than ever," said the letter sent by Senators Tammy Duckworth, Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal and Tammy Baldwin, as well as Representative Doris Matsui and more than a dozen other lawmakers.

US Supreme Court wrestles with oil companies' bid to scuttle climate lawsuit

US Supreme Court justices wrestled with complex questions over whether to let local governments try to hold oil companies liable for the harms caused by climate change, as they opened their new nine-month term on Monday. The ⁠justices heard arguments ​in an appeal filed by US-based ExxonMobil and Canada-based Suncor Energy after Colorado's top court allowed a lawsuit by officials in Boulder, Colorado, accusing the companies of violating state law and seeking unspecified monetary damages.

US accuses California woman of spying for China, surveilling Taiwan president's son

US authorities arrested a California woman on Sunday and accused her of spying on a son of Taiwan's president at the behest of Chinese officials, the FBI said. The FBI arrested Wanying Zhang, also known as Heather, at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday before her planned departure to China, the agency said in a statement. Authorities charged Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, with acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

As Iran war drives up gasoline prices in US, Trump blames Ukraine, Democrats

U.S. President Donald Trump, under pressure from rising energy prices fueled by the war in Iran, on Monday tried to shift the blame for high gasoline prices to the Democrats and Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries. "What's driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, "Refineries," where Russia's are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats," Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Trump says will pay for TV ads after pushback over taxpayer funding close to election

President ⁠Donald Trump on Monday said that he would pay for television advertisements himself or with money raised from the MAGA political committee after pushback over the use of taxpayer-funded television ads featuring him shortly before the November congressional elections. Ethics experts and lawmakers from both parties have criticized the three nationally broadcast ads, which celebrate a "golden age of America".

Woman at center of Cornell rape allegations targeted with threats, lawyer says

The woman who has alleged she was drugged and raped by Cornell University students has been the target of threats, her lawyer said on Sunday. Thomas Giuffra, who represents the woman identified as "Jane Doe," told CNN that people have threatened to ⁠silence or harm her if she does not withdraw her civil lawsuit alleging that several members of a Cornell fraternity drugged and raped her in 2024.

Starbucks sued over 'sugar-free' claims for protein beverages

Starbucks has ⁠been sued by consumers who said the coffee chain falsely advertised eight protein beverages as "sugar-free" because they contain lactose, a naturally occurring sugar in milk. According to a proposed class action filed on Friday, reasonable consumers would not expect the beverages to contain 13 to 21 grams of sugar per 20- or 24-ounce "venti" serving.

US goes into midterm elections with a less dynamic form of full employment

US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party will carry a 4.2% unemployment rate into the congressional elections in early November, a low number by historical standards and in line with what most economists would regard as full employment. In other words, a hallmark of a solid US job market.

Dennis Hastert, former US House speaker and admitted child molester, dies at 84

Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican US House of Representatives speaker who later admitted to sexually abusing boys as a high school wrestling coach and pleaded guilty to charges arising from the scandal, has died, CBS News reported on Monday, citing a coroner ‌in Illinois. He was 84. Hastert, sentenced in April 2016 to 15 months in prison for bank fraud for trying to cover ‌up payments to keep his molestation secret, died at his home over the weekend due to natural causes, Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell told CBS News.

New York declares first US measles disaster emergency since 2025 surge

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a statewide disaster emergency on Monday over a measles outbreak, the first such declaration by a U.S. ​state since cases began surging in 2025. The state also expanded the pool of health professionals allowed to administer measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines as cases rise in rural communities.