Nation and world news in brief for September 5

Report: Hunger in US continued multi-year rise in 2023

(Reuters) — Hunger reached its highest point in the United States in nearly a decade last year, with 18 million households, or 13.5%, struggling at some point to secure enough food, a Department of Agriculture report released on Wednesday said.

Hunger has been on the rise in the country since 2021, after years of decline. U.S. Census Bureau data last year showed a rise in food insecurity after the end of programs that expanded food aid during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report did not provide an explanation for the increase.

Anti-hunger group Feeding America found in May that hungry people in the United States were facing a $33.1 billion shortfall in money to meet their food needs, in part due to higher food prices.

Las Vegas police: Woman stole casket with body inside

LAS VEGAS (TNS) — Police have accused a woman of stealing a casket with a body inside from a Las Vegas funeral home.

The Metropolitan Police Department alleged in an arrest report that Patricia Sierra, 47, of Las Vegas, broke into a funeral home at 2127 W. Charleston Blvd. on Aug. 27 and removed the body of Maria Ramirez, a woman who had died on Aug. 13 and for whom a viewing was held the day before the burglary.

Affordable Cremation &Burial Service is located at that address. Prosecutors listed the business in a criminal complaint as Lover of Family Affordable Cremation.

A woman who answered the phone Wednesday at Affordable Cremation declined to comment.

Sierra faces charges of burglary of a business and removing, transferring or disturbing human remains. Police said she told them she was blacked out from drinking six beers and could not remember why she took the casket.

Biden officials weigh tougher asylum ban at Mexico border

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Biden administration officials are weighing whether to toughen an asylum ban to maintain lower levels of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border since the ban went into effect in June, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The ban is designed to be lifted if the number of migrants caught crossing the southern border illegally drops below an average of 1,500 per day for one week, followed by a two-week waiting period.

The change under discussion would lengthen the time the number of people caught must remain below that level to several weeks, the DHS official said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The 1,500 threshold has not yet been reached. In July, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended an average 1,820 migrants a day. There was one day in December when the number reached 10,800, which officials at the time said was at or near a record.

Boeing Starliner set to leave Space Station without crew

(NYT) — Leaving behind the two NASA astronauts it took to the International Space Station three months ago, Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft is set to begin its return to Earth on Friday evening.

Six hours after it undocks from the station, it is to parachute to a landing at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. If bad weather or technical issues cause a delay, Starliner’s return could happen Sept. 10, Sept. 14 or Sept. 18.

After lengthy analysis and ground tests, NASA officials said they still did not fully understand the cause of the propulsion system problems that arose as Starliner approached the space station in June.

Both Boeing and NASA officials have said that they expect the trip back will be uneventful for the empty Starliner. And they maintain that the spacecraft could have probably still brought back safely the two NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose stays on the space station have been extended.

Judge leaves temporary block on Biden program for immigrant spouses

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A U.S. judge on Wednesday left in place a temporary block on a Biden administration legalization program for immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens.

The decision by Texas-based U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker maintains a pause on the program through Sept. 23 to allow for legal briefing and a possible hearing.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration opened applications last month for the Keeping Families Together program, which offers a path to citizenship to around 500,000 immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally if they are married to U.S. citizens.

Texas and a coalition of U.S. states with Republican attorneys general sued to end the Biden program, saying it overstepped the executive branch’s authority to grant legal immigration status to people who entered unlawfully and circumvented U.S. immigration law.

Harris campaign accepts rules to debate Trump including muted mics, source says

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (Reuters) — The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has accepted the rules of next week’s debate against Republican Donald Trump, including microphones being muted when it is not a candidate’s turn to speak, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The debate would be the first between Trump and Harris, who took over as the Democratic candidate from President Joe Biden after he stepped aside on July 21 after a faltering debate performance in late June against the former president.

The source, who declined to be identified, said the Harris campaign was still hoping for moments where ABC News, which will host the Sept. 10 debate, is forced to unmute the mics and let the candidates respond.

Trump campaign says it raised $130 million in August

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign and his party raised $130 million in August, ending that month with $295 million cash on hand, the campaign said in a statement on Wednesday.

The fundraising was slightly lower than the level in July, when the Trump campaign raised $138.7 million. That was the month in which the former president survived an assassination attempt. At the end of July, the Trump campaign had $327 million of cash on hand.

The Democratic presidential campaign of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris outraised the Trump campaign in July. The Democrats’ official August figures are yet to be released by the Harris campaign. Both sides are bombarding battleground states with television ads.

The Harris campaign had said last month that the campaign and the Democratic Party’s main fundraising group had raised a combined $310 million in July.

Goldman Sachs says Harris, Democrats better for economy than Trump

(TNS) — Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs says a win for Kamala Harris and Democrats in November would be better for your pocketbook than if former President Trump succeeds in getting back to the White House.

A report from the investment bank suggests Harris’ plan to assist middle class Americans and small business would increase consumer spending and create tens of thousands of jobs every month.

The boost would narrowly outweigh any negative impact of possible higher taxes Democrats might implement for the wealthy and big business, especially if they control Congress and block extending Trump’s giant 2017 tax cut.

“If Democrats sweep, new spending and expanded middle-income tax credits would slightly more than offset lower investment due to high corporate tax rates, resulting in a very slight boost to [gross domestic product] growth,” Goldman wrote in the note to investors.