North America

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - When a Washington state beauty salon charged Simran Bal $1,900 for training after she quit, she was shocked.

Not only was Bal a licensed esthetician with no need for instruction, she argued that the trainings were specific to the shop and low quality.

Bal's story mirrors that of dozens of people and advocates in healthcare, trucking, retail and other industries who complained recently to U.S. regulators that some companies charge employees who quit large sums of money for training.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks surged in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday and marked the latest about-face for a market that has been unsteadily lurching between gains and losses.

The S&P 500 rose 2.7% as of 12:06 p.m. Eastern. Nearly every stock in the benchmark index gained ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 545 points, or 1.8%, to 30,180 and the Nasdaq rose 3.5%.

Technology and communications companies has some of the biggest gains. Google’s parent company rose 3.8%.

NEW YORK (AP) — The startup union that clinched a historic labor victory at Amazon earlier this year is slated to face the company yet again, aiming to rack up more wins that could force the reluctant retail behemoth to the negotiating table.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on Monday will play one of her last cards to avoid a prison sentence when a federal judge questions a key prosecution witness who expressed post-trial regrets about testimony that helped convince a jury to convict her for investor fraud.

WASHINGTON (AP) — From his home in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Graeme Dean says there’s plenty that’s disheartening about the state of the country and politics these days. At the center of one of this year’s most competitive U.S. Senate races, he’s on the receiving end of a constant barrage of vitriolic advertising that makes it easy to focus on what’s going wrong.

WASHINGTON (AP) — This year’s midterm elections are playing out as a strange continuation of the last presidential race — and a potential preview of the next one.

Donald Trump, who refused to exit the stage after his defeat and continues to rally his supporters with lies about voter fraud, has spent months raging against Joe Biden, reshaping down-ballot campaigns that normally function as a straightforward referendum on the incumbent president.

VENICE, Fla. (AP) — It was less than three weeks before the Sarasota County, Florida, school board election when the former White House national security adviser weighed in on the local political race.

“These ‘woke’ members need to be defeated in detail this upcoming election,” Michael Flynn posted on Telegram on Aug. 6. “Our children’s lives and futures are at risk when our school boards here in Florida and around the nation shove (critical race theory) and transgender nonsense down their throats.”

17 October 2022; MEMO: US Senator Patrick Leahy has blocked $75 million of aid to Egypt over its failure to make progress on human rights reform particularly the release of 60,000 political prisoners.

The annual military aid America gives Egypt, $1.3 billion, has come under heavy scrutiny in the last few years as Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has consolidated control over the country and continued to squeeze the space for free speech.

17 October 2022; MEMO: Washington is "deeply disappointed" with the remarks made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the US National Security Council said on Saturday. Abbas met Putin in Kazakhstan last Thursday and apparently told him that the Palestinians do not trust the Biden administration.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (APP): Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 (developing countries) and China, has called for the international community to mobilize the financing required by the poor nations to deal with the adverse impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, increasing conflicts and depression of global economic conditions, and climate change.