Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. flu hospitalizations highest in 10 years, officials say

An early fall spike in influenza cases has pushed U.S. hospitalization rates for the illness to the highest in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials said on Friday, noting that vaccination rates are down. The rising flu cases come alongside pressure on hospitals from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID cases, officials said, urging people to get vaccinated and offering to assist states that may need additional support.

North Carolina reports possible voter intimidation, threats ahead of midterm elections

North Carolina officials have registered 14 instances of potential intimidation or interference with voters and election workers in the run-up to Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, according to records provided to Reuters on Friday. The alleged incidents come as grassroots poll observers, many recruited by prominent Republican Party figures and activists, fan out in the lead-up to Tuesday's vote, a trend that has worried experts and officials.

Trump ally Barrack acquitted of acting as UAE foreign agent

Tom Barrack, a onetime private equity executive and fundraiser for former President Donald Trump, was found not guilty by a jury on Friday of unlawfully acting as an agent of the United Arab Emirates. Barrack, who chaired the former president's 2017 inaugural committee and served as an informal adviser to the campaign, was acquitted of all nine counts he faced, including conspiracy to act as a foreign agent, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to the FBI in 2019 during their probe of his interactions with Emirati officials and their representatives.

Biden's ability to reshape U.S. judiciary hangs in balance as election looms

President Joe Biden's judicial nominees appear nowhere on the ballot in Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections but his ability to keep reshaping the federal judiciary hinges on the results of the voting that will determine whether his fellow Democrats keep control of the Senate. The Senate has the authority to confirm a president's nominees to the federal judiciary including the Supreme Court. Biden's Republican predecessor Donald Trump put a major emphasis on getting judicial nominations confirmed as he worked to move the judiciary rightward.

Democrats aim to hold the line against heavy U.S. midterm election losses

If Abigail Spanberger, a moderate congresswoman from a liberal-leaning Virginia district outside Washington loses her re-election bid on Tuesday, it could be the harbinger of a midterm bloodbath for the Democratic Party. That was why Spanberger was at a winery this week imploring volunteers to hit the phones. Her once-comfortable lead had shrunk to nothing.

Trump former adviser Bannon files notice of appeal in contempt of Congress conviction, sentence

Steve Bannon, a one-time adviser to former President Donald Trump, filed formal notice in federal court on Friday that he would appeal his conviction and sentence on two counts of contempt of Congress Bannon was found guilty in

Oath Keepers founder Rhodes takes the stand in U.S. Capitol riot trial

The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group Stewart Rhodes on Friday tried to soften his image as a militant anti-government supporter of former President Donald Trump, as he took the stand in his trial on criminal charges of trying to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power in 2021. Rhodes, a Yale Law-educated former U.S. Army paratrooper, teared up at times as he spoke about his decision to create the Oath Keepers in 2009, saying it is a civic-minded group that welcomes people of all races, volunteers to help hurricane victims and gives veterans returning home from foreign deployments a sense of purpose.

Trump ally Patel confirms talking to grand jury in Trump documents probe

Donald Trump adviser Kash Patel on Friday confirmed that he testified to the grand jury hearing evidence in the federal probe of whether the former president illegally took classified records with him when he left the White House in 2021. The FBI in August seized more than 11,000 documents, including about 100 pages marked as classified, from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, and the U.S. Justice Department is probing whether Trump broke federal law by taking them as well as whether he obstructed the investigation into the missing papers.

U.S. Supreme Court's Barrett again declines to block Biden student debt relief

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Friday again declined to block President Joe Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt, this time in a challenge brought by two Indiana borrowers, even as a lower court considers whether to lift a freeze it imposed on the program in a different case. Barrett denied an emergency request by the Indiana borrowers, represented by a conservative legal group, to bar the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Democratic president's plan to forgive debt held by qualified people who had taken loans to pay for college.

Republican takeover of U.S. Congress would mean tax fights are back

Republicans aiming to win control of Congress on Tuesday say they plan to force President Joe Biden into a difficult choice on taxes: sign Republican legislation to make their 2017 tax cuts permanent or veto it and be branded as the president who put tax hikes on middle class Americans. Congressional Republicans' tax strategies and a Democratic White House could ultimately mean a status quo on rates, deductions and credits for the next two years, tax professionals and analysts say.