USA

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell broadly in afternoon trading on Wall Street Thursday after another hot reading on inflation had investors bracing for another big interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve later this month.

The S&P 500 fell 0.9% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern. More than 95% of companies in the benchmark index were in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 306 points, or 1%, to 30.468 and the Nasdaq fell 0.6%.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was charged with murder Thursday in the deaths of his wife and younger son, who were fatally shot outside their home more than a year ago.

Murdaugh is already jailed and faces dozens of criminal charges that have piled up in the months since his wife Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, were killed. But until now he had not been charged in connection with his wife and son’s deaths.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo supermarket where 10 Black people were killed by a white gunman is set to reopen its doors to the public Friday, two months after the racist attack.

A moment of silence and prayer will be held Thursday at Tops Friendly Market to honor the victims, employees and community impacted by the May 14 mass shooting, with a ceremonial reopening of the overhauled store before customers return Friday, the company said.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan aren’t waiting until 2024 to fight over the future of the Republican Party.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee’s investigation of the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and the events leading up to the U.S. Capitol insurrection is raising questions about former President Donald Trump’s role and whether he committed crimes.

The various schemes and talking points that witnesses have revealed also highlight what a president has the authority to do.

Government and legal experts say the bigger question is: Can further limits be put on presidential authority to make sure there are no repeats of 2020 in future administrations?

13 July 2022; MEMO: The United States called on Wednesday for "accountability" over the death of Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, whose killing during an Israeli West Bank raid is expected to be a major issue during President Joe Biden's Middle East visit, Reuters reports.

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist working for the Al Jazeera network, was shot in the head on 11 May, while reporting on an Israeli raid in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

13 July 2022; MEMO: Former US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has admitted that he helped Washington plan coups in foreign countries, seeming to confirm an unspoken practice which many have long accused the US of conducting.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 13 (APP): The General Assembly Tuesday decided that intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) on enlarging the UN Security Council will continue during its upcoming 77th session, with the 193-member body’s President , Abdulla Shahid, saying that the negotiating process this year has made progress towards agreement on reforming the 15-member Council.

“We have made progress this year. This is clear,” Shahid said, ahead of the unanimous adoption of a draft oral decision to rollover the IGN process to upcoming session that begins in September this year.

LOS ANGELES, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The newer and most contagious Omicron subvariants, known as BA.4 and BA.5, now make up over 80 percent of COVID-19 infections in the United States, according to data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday.

The BA.5 subvariant accounted for 65 percent of new infections in the latest week ending July 9, while BA.4 accounted for 16.3 percent of new infections, CDC data show.

BA.5 has become the dominant variant in the United States.

UNITED NATIONS, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday underscored the importance of strategic communications to the implementation of UN peacekeeping operations' mandates and to the safety and security of peacekeepers.

In a presidential statement, the council recognizes that strategic communications and the provision of accurate content by UN peacekeeping operations help strengthen understanding of their mandates, manage expectations and garner trust and support among relevant stakeholders, and contribute to countering disinformation and misinformation.