Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

US Senate approves three military promotions, despite Republican's blockade

The U.S. Senate approved three high-level military promotions on Thursday, sidestepping one Republican senator's months-long blockade of hundreds of promotions. The Senate approved Admiral Lisa Franchetti as Chief of Naval Operations and General David Allvin to be Chief of Staff of the Air Force by a 95-1 vote. Lieutenant General Christopher Mahoney was confirmed by 86-0 as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Hunter Biden says his addiction used as 'disinformation' against father

Hunter Biden on Thursday said his history of substance abuse has become fodder for a disinformation campaign against President Joe Biden ahead of his father's re-election bid. Hunter Biden made the statement in an op-ed article for USA Today, rare public remarks on a political and legal controversy expected to feature prominently in the 2024 election.

'Make me look sexy,' Donald Trump Jr. asks court artist

During a break in Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony on Thursday in a fraud trial that could handcuff his family's real-estate business, he had a request for the courtroom sketch artist: "Make me look sexy." The oldest son of the former president had spent the past several hours on the witness stand, trying to distance himself from the questionable financial statements that a judge has already ruled fraudulent.

Indiana attorney general reprimanded over abortion doctor remarks

A divided Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday publicly reprimanded Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita for statements he made about a doctor in the state who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio. The court found that Rokita violated professional conduct rules for lawyers when he described Dr. Caitlin Bernard in a July 2022 Fox News interview as an "abortion activist acting as a doctor" who had failed to report past child abuse cases.

Ex-Memphis officer pleads guilty in Tyre Nichols case, to cooperate with prosecutors

Fired Memphis police officer Desmond Mills pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges in the death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols and has agreed to plead guilty to related Tennessee state charges, prosecutors said. Mills was one of five officers to have previously pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights offenses and state charges of second-degree murder.

At NY trial, Eric and Donald Trump Jr say they were not aware of fraud

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. both testified on Thursday that they had no involvement with documents that a judge has ruled were fraudulently manipulated to inflate the value of their father Donald Trump's business. In back-to-back appearances in a New York courtroom, Trump's adult sons both said they were not involved in the questionable valuations that now threaten to hobble the real estate empire that vaulted Trump to prominence. Trump put the two in charge of the business while he served as U.S. president from 2017 to 2021.

Ex-crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of defrauding FTX customers

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of defrauding customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire's fall from grace. A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him on all seven counts he faced after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion from the exchange's customers out of sheer greed. The verdict came just shy of one year after FTX filed for bankruptcy in a swift corporate meltdown that shocked financial markets and erased his estimated $26 billion personal fortune.

US House passes Republicans' Israel-only aid bill, faces dead end in Senate

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a Republican plan to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel and cut funding of the Internal Revenue Service, despite Democrats' insistence it has no future in the Senate and the White House's promise of a veto. The measure passed 226 to 196, largely along party lines, a shift from typical strongly bipartisan congressional support for providing aid to Israel. Twelve Democrats voted with 214 Republicans for the bill, and two Republicans joined 194 Democrats in objecting.

FBI searches home of New York mayor's chief campaign fundraiser

FBI agents searched the home of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' chief election campaign fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, on Thursday, and she was questioned by public corruption investigators, city officials and local media reported. The New York Times, citing a search warrant, reported that the early morning raid was part of a federal investigation into whether Adam's 2021 mayoral campaign conspired with a Brooklyn construction company and the Turkish government to funnel foreign money into the campaign through a straw donor scheme.

Near-miss aviation incidents to be subject of US Senate hearing

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing next week on a series of troubling close-call aviation safety incidents that raised questions about Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control operations. The Nov. 9 aviation subcommittee hearing, which was reported earlier by Reuters, will include FAA Air Traffic Organization head Tim Arel, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Rich Santa, Air Lines Pilots Association President Jason Ambrosi and former FAA administrator Randy Babbitt.