National News

By Ernest Scheyder and Jarrett Renshaw Aug 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $500 million in grants to seven companies building domestic lithium, cobalt and other mineral and battery projects, the latest in a string of investment...

Aug 20 (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits slipped last week, suggesting ​that the labor market ‌remains stable despite a surprise drop in employment in July. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 6...

By Pritam Biswas and Arasu Kannagi Basil Aug 20 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related stocks surged on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump urged Congress to pass legislation establishing clear ​rules for digital assets, following a ...

By Uditha Jayasinghe COLOMBO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government has arranged for water to be delivered to nearly 72,000 people across seven districts as the country tackles ​a drought linked to this year's severe El ‌Niño, a senior official sai...

By Amy Tennery NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Two years after Australian breaker Raygun's much-maligned Olympic performance, the breaking community want to move on from the Paris Games debacle and reshape perceptions of a hip-hop art form they say was un...

By Jack Queen and Jane Ross Aug 20 (Reuters) - The ex-gang leader accused of orchestrating the drive-by killing of Tupac Shakur made public admissions that led to his arrest, but his lawyer had an unusual message for jurors this week: do not take his c...

By Steve Holland and Michael Martina WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. has designated Myanmar scholar and U.S. citizen Min Zin as wrongfully detained after his arrest by Chinese authorities in June, a senior State Department official told Reuters...

By Xiuhao Chen, Ellen Zhang and Kevin Krolicki BEIJING, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A crudely animated, homemade movie about a baby cow has become China's most unlikely box-office smash, generating merchandise and memes and a national conversation about the joy...

Aug 20 (Reuters) - An ​earthquake ‌of magnitude 5.9 ‌struck ​the ⁠Flores region ⁠in Indonesia, the European-Mediterranean ​Seismological ⁠Centre (EMSC) ⁠said ​on Thursday. The ​quake was ‌at a depth ⁠of 10 km (6.21 ⁠mile), ‌EMSC ⁠said. (Reporting ​by ...

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Education Department has issued guidance urging schools to stop what it calls "racial balancing" in student discipline policies, prompting concerns that the Trump ​administration is making it harder to address lo...

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday it is considering requiring businesses to disclose whether they use personalized pricing data, a practice that has drawn mounting scrutiny by state a...

By Jonathan Stempel Aug 19 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a more than $1 billion settlement to resolve antitrust claims that real estate brokerages conspired to inflate agents' commissions, rejecting objections by home ​buyers ...

By David Lawder and Jacob Bogage WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Total U.S. debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday, drawing fresh warnings that a fiscal crisis is brewing as ballooning costs for social...

By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration has told Congress it is sending more than $206 million for a proposed Gaza peacekeeping force, the first significant funding for the stalled U.S. plan to rebuild th...

Aug 19 (Reuters) - The Michigan health department on Wednesday confirmed a locally acquired case of eastern equine encephalitis, a rare ​mosquito-borne disease. The patient, a resident of ‌Roscommon County, is the first human case of the disease report...

BUDAPEST, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Hungary's Paks nuclear plant averted a complete shutdown as water levels on the Danube river, its main coolant source, are expected to stay high enough near the ​plant due to engineering work on the river, Prime Minister ‌P...

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Concern about inflation deepened at the Federal Reserve's meeting last month, with "several" policymakers ready to raise interest rates and "many" saying a hike in borrowing costs would be needed if inflation does not dec...

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has cited a legal thriller written by James Comey as evidence the former FBI director knew his social media post that featured the numbers "86 47" would be interpreted as a threat against ​Pres...

Aug 19 (Reuters) - ABC is accusing U.S. President Donald Trump's administration of employing pressure tactics that have forced the television network to make programming compromises such as refraining from booking political candidates on its popular da...

By Yasmeen Abutaleb WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump named White House policy aide Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration, turning to an "America First" ally to steady an agency shaken by staff losses, low mora...