US Domestic News Roundup: Families of US detainees urge Biden to do more to deter hostage-taking; Trump calls rape claim 'ridiculous' in video testimony at civil trial and more

Trump, front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in the October 2022 deposition that the alleged rape in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City decades ago didn’t happen. White House report: Debt limit default could cost 8.3 million U.S. jobs A protracted default on U.S. payment obligations could result in the loss of 8.3 million jobs and a 6.1% reduction in economic output, according to an analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisers released on Wednesday.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Families of US detainees urge Biden to do more to deter hostage-taking

U.S. citizen Jose Pereira, who was "wrongfully detained" in Venezuela exactly one year ago, stood meters away from the White House on Wednesday and pleaded with U.S. President Joe Biden to step up efforts to bring home Americans detained abroad. Pereira was among the executives who worked for U.S. refiner Citgo in Venezuela who were jailed in 2017 on corruption charges. He was freed as part of a prisoner swap between Washington and Caracas last October.

Trump calls rape claim 'ridiculous' in video testimony at civil trial

Donald Trump denied raping writer E. Jean Carroll in a deposition video played on Wednesday for a Manhattan federal jury, as the former U.S. president sought to defend himself in a civil trial without testifying in person. Trump, front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in the October 2022 deposition that the alleged rape in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City decades ago didn't happen.

Biden administration OKs boost in Chinese airline flights to US

The United States will allow Chinese airlines to increase U.S. passenger services to 12 weekly round-trips, the Transportation Department (USDOT) said on Wednesday, equal to the number of flights Beijing has permitted for American carriers. It is a boost from the eight weekly round-trip flights currently allowed by Chinese carriers and matches what Beijing has permitted for U.S. carriers, but a small fraction of the more than 150 round-trip flights allowed by each side before restrictions were imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Police arrest suspect in fatal mass shooting at Atlanta medical center

Police have arrested a former U.S. Coast Guardsman suspected of killing one person and wounding four, all of them women, in a shooting on Wednesday at a medical building in Atlanta, then carjacking a vehicle to flee the scene, authorities said. The suspected gunman, identified as Deion Patterson, 24, was taken into custody without incident after an undercover officer spotted him north of the city in suburban Cobb County several hours after the 12:30 p.m. shooting at the Northside Medical facility, police said.

North Carolina House passes 12-week abortion ban

North Carolina's Republican-dominated House on Wednesday passed and sent to the state Senate a controversial bill limiting most abortions to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a sharp drop from the state's current limit of 20 weeks' gestation. The bill passed 71-46 along party lines, with one Republican and two Democratic lawmakers not voting.

White House report: Debt limit default could cost 8.3 million U.S. jobs

A protracted default on U.S. payment obligations could result in the loss of 8.3 million jobs and a 6.1% reduction in economic output, according to an analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisers released on Wednesday. Such an unprecedented default "would likely lead to severe damage to the economy, with job growth swinging from its current pace of robust gains to losses numbering in the millions," the council said in the report.

Trump says he will probably attend civil rape trial

Donald Trump said on Thursday he will "probably" attend an ongoing civil trial in New York where he is accused of rape and defamation, repeating his denials of the allegations during a visit to his Irish golf resort. Writer E. Jean Carroll, 79, says Trump, 76, raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and then tarred her reputation and career by lying about it online.

Amid US debt-ceiling standoff, Senate Democrats to dissect Republican plan

A Republican plan to cut federal spending in exchange for lifting the federal government's debt ceiling will come under the microscope Thursday in the U.S. Senate, where President Joe Biden's Democrats are expected to frame it as a damaging to the economy. The Senate Budget Committee hearing is the first of several planned by Democrats, who say legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last week on a party-line vote would undercut child care, education and other government programs.

US Senate repeals solar panel tariff suspension, Biden expected to veto

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal President Joe Biden's suspension of tariffs on solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations, a measure aimed at supporting the small domestic manufacturing industry.

Biden has vowed to veto the legislation, which passed the House of Representatives last week. It is not expected to have enough support to override a presidential veto.

'High wire act': U.S. Congress gears up for immigration reform as Title 42 ends

A fresh push for bipartisan immigration reforms, coupled with enhanced border security, is emerging in the U.S. Congress, as thousands of migrants amass across the border in Mexico with the end of Title 42 controls next week. It has been 37 years since Congress passed significant immigration reform, but a persistently high volume of migrants and an acute labor shortage have galvanized lawmakers. At the same time, many Republicans cite the flow of illegal drugs into the United States through ports of entry as reason to harden border areas.