Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The twice annual meetings resumed in 2022 after being suspended during the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and amid a record surge of around half a million Cubans illegally entering the United States beginning in 2021, according to U.S. authorities. Jury selection under way in historic Trump criminal trial The judge in Donald Trump's trial dismissed dozens of potential New York City jurors on Monday who said they could not fairly decide whether the 2024 Republican presidential candidate illegally covered up a hush money payment to a porn star.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Fallout from Trump's bid to overturn election loss heads to Supreme Court

The actions of Donald Trump and his supporters following his 2020 election loss top the U.S. Supreme Court's agenda in the next two weeks in cases involving his bid to avoid prosecution for trying to undo his defeat and an attempt by a man indicted in the Capitol attack to escape a charge that Trump also faces. The two cases assume even greater prominence as Trump campaigns to return to the White House as the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

Cuba calls on US to ease sanctions on eve of migration talks

Cuba on Monday said it would insist the U.S. ease sanctions and end special treatment of Cubans illegally entering its territory at high level migration talks slated to begin Tuesday in Washington. The twice annual meetings resumed in 2022 after being suspended during the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and amid a record surge of around half a million Cubans illegally entering the United States beginning in 2021, according to U.S. authorities.

Jury selection under way in historic Trump criminal trial

The judge in Donald Trump's trial dismissed dozens of potential New York City jurors on Monday who said they could not fairly decide whether the 2024 Republican presidential candidate illegally covered up a hush money payment to a porn star. On the first day of the historic criminal trial, the first to involve a former U.S. president, Justice Juan Merchan told nearly 100 prospective jurors they must set aside any biases or personal attitudes about the defendant or the case, including "political orientation."

As Trump criminal trial begins, a New York throng descends on courthouse

Minutes before 9 a.m., both Catherine Nestor, a New York City social worker late for a jury duty summons, and Donald Trump, the first former U.S. president to be put on trial, were heading for Manhattan's criminal courthouse. Trump was in the back of a large black Chevrolet Suburban with bullet-proof windows, riding downtown in a motorcade from his penthouse in his Fifth Avenue skyscraper, Trump Tower, for a trial beginning on Monday with jury selection.

Texas man who slammed truck into building, killing one, faces multiple charges

The man who drove an 18-wheel truck with a loaded flatbed into a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) building last week, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others, faces multiple charges and a $2 million bond, jail records showed on Monday. Clenard Parker, 42, is charged with evading arrest, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the inmate roster of the Washington County Jail in Brenham, Texas, where Parker is currently held.

Ukraine, Israel aid to hit US House floor as separate bills soon

The U.S. House of Representatives will consider aid to Israel and Ukraine as separate legislation this week, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday, more than two months after the Senate passed a bill combining the two. Leaving a meeting of House Republicans on Monday evening, Johnson said the narrowly divided chamber would consider four bills altogether that would also include aid to Taiwan, U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific and U.S. national security priorities.

Biden and his wife report $620,000 income in 2023 tax returns

U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife Jill on Monday released tax returns showing that their income rose 7% to $619,976 in 2023 and that the couple paid 23.7% of their income in federal taxes. Biden released the data on the day U.S. taxes for the prior year are due, and as the Democrat seeks re-election in 2024.

US Supreme Court lets Idaho enforce ban on transgender care for minors

The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let a Republican-backed law in Idaho that criminalizes gender-affirming care for transgender minors broadly take effect after a federal judge blocked it as unconstitutional. The court granted Republican Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador's request to narrow a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill, who ruled that the law violated the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law, while the state pursues an appeal.

NASA seeks cheaper ideas for Mars sample return mission amid budget crunch

NASA is seeking a cheaper, simpler approach to one of its top science priorities in the midst of a budget crunch - retrieving precious soil samples collected on Mars and flying them back to Earth, U.S. space agency officials said on Monday. A formal request for proposals will go out Tuesday to various NASA centers and laboratories, as well as to space industry companies, asking how to revamp a program mired in technical complexities, spending constraints and ballooning costs, according to NASA executives.

Justice Clarence Thomas absent from US Supreme Court session

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was not on the bench on Monday as the other eight justices heard arguments, with no reason given for his absence. Thomas, 75, is the oldest and longest-serving member of the court and is part of its 6-3 conservative majority. He was appointed to the top U.S. judicial body in 1991 by Republican President George H.W. Bush.