Nation and world news in brief for November 1

Trump sues CBS over Kamala Harris ‘60 Minutes’ interview

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sued CBS on Thursday over an interview of his Democratic rival Kamala Harris aired on its “60 Minutes” news program in early October that the lawsuit alleged was misleading, according to a court filing.

The complaint, filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, alleges the network aired two different responses from Harris responding to a question about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The version that aired during the “60 Minutes” program on Oct. 6 did not include what the lawsuit calls a “word salad” response from Harris about the Biden administration’s influence on Israel’s conduct of the war.

“Former President Trump’s repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false,” a CBS News spokesperson said. “The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.”

Ex-Trump lawyer Chesebro’s law license suspended over fake elector scheme

(Reuters) — An appeals court on Thursday indefinitely suspended the New York law license of Kenneth Chesebro, a former lawyer for Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, after he pleaded guilty last year to a charge stemming from efforts to overturn Trump’s defeat in Georgia.

Chesebro pleaded guilty in October 2023 to conspiracy to commit filing of false documents in Fulton County, Georgia, after prosecutors accused him of crafting the legal strategy behind a scheme to use alternate electors to circumvent Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state.

Chesebro’s conduct “categorically meets the definition of a serious crime in this state,” New York’s Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department said in its suspension ruling.

Oregon identifies 3 human cases of bird flu in people from Washington state

CHICAGO (Reuters) — Bird flu has infected three more people from Washington state after they were exposed to poultry that tested positive for the virus, according to health authorities in Oregon, where the cases were identified.

A total of 39 people have tested positive in the U.S. this year as the virus has spread to more than 400 dairy herds, federal data show. All but one of the people were farm workers who had known contact with infected animals.

The CDC updated an online count of U.S. human cases to include the three new infections from Washington, and Washington raised its state count to nine people from six, the Oregon Health Authority said in a statement on Thursday.

LeBron James endorses Harris for president, says ‘choice is clear’

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Thursday, making him the latest celebrity to back the Democratic vice president in her campaign against Republican Donald Trump.

“What are we even talking about here?? When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS,” James said on social media.

Harris, who is in what polls show to be a tight race against Trump, has already been endorsed by some big celebrities, ranging from actress Meryl Streep to comedian Chris Rock and former talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Superstar singers Beyonce and Taylor Swift have also endorsed her.

Trump says he’ll ‘protect women’ whether they ‘like it or not’

NEW YORK (TNS) — Former President Donald Trump has stirred fresh controversy by vowing to “protect women” whether they “like it or not” as a wide gender gap looms in the White House race with Kamala Harris.

Admitting his own advisers warned him to avoid the insensitive language, Trump insisted at a rally that he won’t back down on his offensive rhetoric about women or his policy stances on issues like immigration or abortion rights.

“They said, ‘It’s just inapppropriate for you to say,’” Trump told a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night. “I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not. I’m gonna protect them.’”

Harris hit back Thursday by reminding female voters that Trump supports bans on abortion, a key issue that the Democratic campaign believes is driving her support among women.

“It actually is very offensive to woman (and) their right to make decisions about their own body,” Harris said before leaving on a campaign swing through battleground Arizona and Nevada. “It’s just the latest in a series of reveals by the former president of what he thinks about women.”

Russia fines Google $20 decillion over banned pro-Putin news outlets

(TNS) — Russia has fined Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, many times more than the world’s entire GDP, for blocking its YouTube accounts.

That figure — a 20 followed by 33 zeroes — is $20 decillion, to the uninitiated who didn’t know such a word existed.

Even the Kremlin acknowledged on Thursday that it was more a symbolic gesture than anything else.

Russia’s beef is that Google is blocking the YouTube accounts of 17 Russian TV channels and other media outlets that support President Vladimir Putin’s regime and his invasion of Ukraine, according to Russian media outlet RBC.

Amazon reports record $15.3B profit

(NYT) — Amazon reported record profits on Thursday, as cloud computing sales picked up steam and its retail business showed resilience.

Sales from July through September hit $158.9 billion, up 11% from the same period a year earlier. Profit rose 55%, to $15.3 billion. The results surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.

Amazon’s cloud computing business is continuing to gain steam, driven partly by its artificial intelligence offerings. Amazon Web Services sales grew 19%, to $27.5 billion. It accounted for 60% of the company’s operating profit.

Striking Boeing workers to vote on 38% pay rise deal on Monday

(Reuters) — Striking Boeing workers on the U.S. West Coast will vote on an improved contract offer on Monday, which includes a 38% pay rise over four years and a bigger signing bonus, their union said on Thursday.

More than 30,000 factory workers who produce Boeing’s strongest-selling 737 MAX commercial jet and other planes have been on strike since Sept. 13 and have rejected two earlier offers from Boeing.

Boeing’s latest offer includes a $12,000 ratification bonus and the reinstatement of an annual bonus scheme that was not included in a previous offer, The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in a statement.

IAM said it was endorsing the offer ahead of the vote.

Workers have been pushing for a 40% wage increase and the return of a defined-benefit pension that they lost a decade ago.

Last week, some 64% of the planemaker’s U.S. West Coast factory workers rejected an offer of a 35% general wage increase over four years that was not endorsed by the union.