Businesses, White House plan for possible rail strike Friday
Business and government officials are bracing for the possibility of a nationwide rail strike at the end of this week while talks carry on between the largest U.S. freight railroads and their unions. The railroads have already started to curtail shipments of hazardous materials and refrigerated products ahead of Friday’s strike deadline. Businesses that rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products have started planning for the worst. Meanwhile, Biden administration officials are scrambling to develop a plan to use trucks, ships and planes to try to get the most crucial shipments delivered. But the White House is also keeping the pressure up on both sides to settle their differences.
Midterm primaries wrap up with fresh test of GOP’s future
A staunchly conservative, retired Army general is favored to win New Hampshire’s Republican Senate nomination and face potentially vulnerable Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan. That means Tuesday’s primary could again raise questions about whether hard-right candidates could hurt the GOP in November. National Republicans see Hassan as beatable. But the favorite in New Hampshire’s GOP primary is Don Bolduc, who has falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. New Hampshire is holding the country’s last major primaries along with Delaware and Rhode Island, just eight weeks before Election Day.
Ken Starr, whose probe led to Clinton impeachment, dies
Ken Starr, a former federal appellate judge and a prominent attorney whose criminal investigation of Bill Clinton led to the president’s impeachment, died Tuesday at age 76, his family says. A former colleague, attorney Mark Lanier, says Starr died at a hospital of complications from surgery. In a probe that lasted five years during the 1990s, Starr looked into a number of matters involving Clinton, including the president’s sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. House Republicans impeached Clinton, but he was acquitted in a Senate trial. In 2020, Starr was recruited to help represent Donald Trump in the nation’s third presidential impeachment trial.
Ukrainian troops keep up pressure on fleeing Russian forces
Ukrainian troops are piling pressure on retreating Russian forces, pressing deeper into occupied territory and sending more Kremlin troops fleeing ahead of the counteroffensive that has inflicted a stunning blow on Moscow’s military prestige. As the advance continued Tuesday, Ukraine’s border guard services said the army took control of Vovchansk — a town just 2 miles from Russia seized on the first day of the war. Russian troops were also pulling out of the southern city of Melitopol and heading toward Moscow-annexed Crimea. That’s according to the city’s pre-occupation mayor. His claim could not be verified. Melitopol is the second-largest city in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Ancient skeleton found in Mexico cave threatened by train
A cave-diving archaeologist on Mexico’s Caribbean coast says another prehistoric human skeleton has been found in a cave system that was flooded as seas rose 8,000 years ago. Archaeologist Octavio del Rio says the shattered skull and skeleton collapsed are partly covered by sediment. Given the distance from the cave entrance, it couldn’t have gotten there without modern diving equipment, so it must be over 8,000 years old, Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in the sinkhole caves that experts say are threatened by the Mexican government’s project to build a high-speed tourist train through the jungle.
EU lawmakers support ban of goods linked to deforestation
European Union lawmakers have backed a proposal for a law that would ban the sale in the 27-nation bloc of agriculture products linked to the destruction of forests. Once approved, the law would force companies and producers to give assurances that goods sold in the EU have not bee made on “deforested or degraded land anywhere in the world.” The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, had proposed that the legislation covered soy, cattle, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee. Under the position adopted Tuesday, lawmakers also want to include pig meat, sheep and goats, poultry, maize and rubber, as well as charcoal and printed paper products.
By wire sources
