10-year-old Japanese schoolboy in China dies after stabbing
SHENZHEN, China/TOKYO (Reuters) — A child enrolled in a Japanese school in the Chinese city of Shenzhen has died after being stabbed on Wednesday, officials confirmed on Thursday, the second such attack near Japanese educational centres in China in recent months.
Chinese authorities said the 10-year-old boy was a Japanese national born to a Japanese father and a Chinese mother, and he had been stabbed on his way to school at about 8 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Wednesday by a 44-year-old assailant surnamed Zhong.
He died in the early hours of Thursday, Japanese foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters in Tokyo.
FCC chair rejects Trump call to pull ABC licenses over presidential debate
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The chair of the Federal Communications Commission rejected former U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Walt Disney-owned ABC should lose its broadcast licenses over the network’s moderating Sept. 10 presidential debate.
“The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The Commission does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said on Thursday.
The FCC, an independent federal agency, does not license broadcast networks, but issues them to individual broadcast stations that are renewed on a staggered basis for eight-year periods.
Flood-hit central Europe will get billions in EU aid
WROCLAW, Poland (Reuters) — The European Union will make billions of euros available to help central Europe recover from severe floods, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday, as she pledged support for regions that have been devastated by the deluge.
The worst floods to hit central Europe in at least two decades have caused widespread damage from Romania to Poland, killing at least 24 people, destroying bridges, submerging cars and leaving towns caked in mud and debris.
The flooding was caused by torrential rain that began last week and lasted for several days, causing rivers to burst their banks in several parts of the region.
EU to send 160 million euros from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The sum of 160 million euros from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets will be allocated to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.
Russia has knocked out about 9 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which von der Leyen said was the “power equivalent of the three Baltic states”.
On top of the cash injection, the EU will help with repairs and additional exports. The International Energy Agency said on Thursday that Ukraine could face a shortfall of 6 GW this winter as peak electricity demand increases.
A fuel power plant is being dismantled in Lithuania and will be rebuilt in Ukraine, where 80% of the country’s thermal plants have been destroyed. A third of Ukraine’s hydropower is also out.
Vance says he will keep calling Haitians legally in Springfield ‘illegal’
(NYT) — Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said Wednesday that he would continue to describe Haitian residents in Springfield, Ohio, as “illegal aliens” even though most of them are in the country legally.
The immigrants are mainly in the United States under a program called temporary protected status, which the executive branch can grant to people whose home countries are in crisis. Vance claimed falsely that this program was illegal.
“If Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien,” he said in response to a reporter’s question after a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. “An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal.”
Congress created the temporary protected status program in 1990, and presidents from both major parties have used it in response to wars, natural disasters and other humanitarian crises in various countries. The program allows people from countries designated by the Department of Homeland Security to live and work legally in the United States for 18 months, a period that the department can renew indefinitely. It does not include a path to permanent residency or citizenship.
N.C. Republican denies calling himself Black Nazi
(Reuters) — North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor promised to stay in the race on Thursday after CNN reported that he once called himself a “black NAZI!” and proposed bringing back slavery in comments posted on a pornography website.
Mark Robinson, an African American who denied making the comments, is North Carolina’s lieutenant governor and running for governor in the Nov. 5 election against Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.
Robinson, 56, who was endorsed by Trump, has a history of inflammatory comments and issued a video denial on social media even before the CNN story published.
In one October 2010 post on the pornography site, CNN said Robinson wrote: “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few.”
US launches civil rights probe into Mississippi sheriff’s office that employed ‘Goon Squad’
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday launched a civil rights probe into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi after several of its former officers known as the “Goon Squad” were prosecuted for torturing and sexually abusing two Black men.
Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division, said the investigation will examine whether the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department uses excessive force, routinely makes unlawful stops or searches, and whether it engages in racially discriminatory policing practices.
Clarke said the department’s decision to launch the investigation was not triggered by a particular incident, though she acknowledged the infamous January 2023 home invasion assault by five former Rankin County and a sixth former narcotics investigator from another police force in the state.
The six former law enforcement officers were convicted for their crimes, and received prison sentences ranging from 10 to 45 years.
S&P 500 surges to record high close on euphoria over Fed rate cut
(Reuters) — The S&P 500 surged to a record high close on Thursday, the day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points and indicated more rate cuts were on the horizon.
The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average also registered a record closing high, ending the session above 42,000 for the first time.
Heavyweight stocks that have enjoyed much of this year’s stock market rally made fresh gains, with Tesla surging over 7%, and Apple and Meta Platforms each up almost 4%.
AI powerhouse Nvidia jumped 4%, helping lift the PHLX semiconductor index surge 4.3%.
Better-than-expected jobless claims data further stoked global risk appetite.