US Domestic News Roundup: Trump's $370 million civil fraud trial set to conclude in NY; Biden's age pushes some New Hampshire voters to Phillips, Williamson and more

The frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Trump was asked by anchors at a live Fox News town hall who was under consideration for vice president on his ticket. Trump's civil fraud trial: four key moments Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York is set to conclude with closing arguments on Thursday, as the state's attorney general seeks nearly $370 million in penalties from the former U.S. president for overstating his net worth to banks.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

DeSantis, Haley assail each other at debate as Trump skips out again

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley repeatedly accused each other of lying in an acrimonious debate that mixed policy with insults as the two candidates battled to emerge as the top alternative to Donald Trump days before the campaign's first votes are cast. But with the former president absent once again from the debate stage, the rivals aimed most of their ammunition at each other, rather than the clear frontrunner in the race.

Hunter Biden set to face tax-fraud charges in California courtroom

U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden is due in a Los Angeles federal court on Thursday, where he is expected to plead not guilty to tax charges stemming from business dealings that have also prompted an impeachment probe of his father. Hunter Biden, 53, stands criminally accused of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, while spending millions of dollars on drugs, escorts, exotic cars and other high-ticket items.

US SEC approves bitcoin ETFs in watershed for crypto market

The U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday approved the first U.S.-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) to track bitcoin, in a watershed for the world's largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it approved 11 applications, including from BlackRock, Ark Investments/21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco and VanEck, despite warnings from some officials and investor advocates that the products carried risks.

Trump says he knows his VP pick, conditions NATO commitment on European treatment

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he knows who he wants for his running mate in the 2024 race for president and that his commitment to the NATO alliance will depend on how Europeans treat the United States. The frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Trump was asked by anchors at a live Fox News town hall who was under consideration for vice president on his ticket.

Trump's civil fraud trial: four key moments

Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York is set to conclude with closing arguments on Thursday, as the state's attorney general seeks nearly $370 million in penalties from the former U.S. president for overstating his net worth to banks. Here are key moments from the trial against the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Many Republicans seek a largely unconstrained president-Reuters poll

About half of Republicans say the U.S. needs a strong president who is not unduly restrained by courts or Congress, a possible sign of support for Donald Trump's pitch that if re-elected he should be able to operate with minimal legal constraints, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The week-long poll, which closed on Tuesday, found Trump's Republican Party appears divided on where to draw the limits on presidential power that help define American democracy.

Biden's age pushes some New Hampshire voters to Phillips, Williamson

Polling shows President Joe Biden is unlikely to suffer a setback in New Hampshire's Democratic primary this month - but if he does, it will be because of voters like Tim Fitzpatrick. A supporter of Biden in 2020, Fitzpatrick, a 24-year old college student, is not energized by Democratic candidate Dean Phillips' centrist politics.

The toll on migrants of a free bus north from the border

Jose Manuel, a Venezuelan asylum seeker, boarded the Chicago-bound charter bus in Brownsville, Texas, a town on the U.S.-Mexico border, at around 7 a.m. on a late October morning, his journey paid for by the state of Texas. Jose Manuel, whose full name is being withheld for security reasons, was among some 100,000 migrants the Republican-led state of Texas has bused to Democratic cities since April 2022.

Trump's $370 million civil fraud trial set to conclude in NY

Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York is set to conclude with closing arguments on Thursday, as the state's attorney general seeks nearly $370 million in penalties from the former U.S. president for overstating his net worth to banks.

The lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges Trump and his associates inflated the value of his assets by billions of dollars to secure better loan terms and other financial benefits for more than a decade.

Iowa farmers want Trump, despite talk of trade wars

Republican farmers in Iowa say they want Donald Trump as their U.S. president, buoyed by the historic sums of money his administration handed out to farms and despite his talk of trade wars that could tank already stifled U.S. agricultural exports. Farmers are a politically powerful voting bloc whom Trump has worked to court in the lead-up to Monday's caucuses in Iowa, a top farm state and site of the party's first nominating contest. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump is the favorite of 49% of Republicans for the party's nomination to run against Democratic President Joe Biden in November.