Author: chicagoinquirer

By Gabriella Borter and Stephanie Kelly FARMINGTON HILLS, Michigan -A star-studded virtual event hosted by Oprah Winfrey Thursday night to build enthusiasm for Kamala Harris’ campaign was marked by teary moments and celebrity endorsements, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers across social media. Winfrey hosted the “Unite for America” event with activist group Win with Black Women, that aimed to register people to vote and bolster Harris in states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan that are set to decide the Nov. 5 election. Shanette Williams, the mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, a 28-year old Georgia woman who died in…

y Ahmad Ghaddar, Trixie Yap and Shariq Khan LONDON/SINGAPORE/NEW YORK – Oil refiners in Asia, Europe and the United States are facing a drop in profitability to multi-year lows, marking a downturn for an industry that had enjoyed surging returns post-pandemic and underlining the extent of the current slowdown in global demand. The weakness is a further sign of soft consumer and industrial demand, especially in China, because of slowing economic growth and rising penetration of electric vehicles. New refineries coming on stream in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have added to the downward pressure. Refiners such as TotalEnergies…

Tina Charles of the Atlanta Dream became the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder on Thursday night. The 13-year WNBA veteran grabbed three rebounds during the first quarter of the regular-season finale against one of her former teams, the host New York Liberty, to surpass Sylvia Fowles with 4,007 rebounds and counting for her career. The record came on an offensive rebound less than four minutes into the game. She, in fact, had two offensive rebounds on one Atlanta possession before Allisha Gray scored on a driving layup. Charles, 35, had starred for the Connecticut Sun (2010-13), Liberty (2014-19), Washington Mystics (2021),…

The Atlanta Dream claimed the WNBA’s final playoff spot on Thursday night to complete the league’s postseason field. Eighth-seeded Atlanta will face the top-seeded New York Liberty in the best-of-three first-round series, which begins Sunday in New York. The three other matchups also will begin Sunday. The second-seeded Minnesota Lynx drew the seventh-seeded Phoenix Mercury, the third-seeded Connecticut Sun face the sixth-seeded Indiana Fever and the fourth-seeded Las Vegas Aces battle the fifth-seeded Seattle Storm. The higher-seeded team hosts Games 1 and 2. The lower seed would host Game 3, if necessary. Two-time defending champion Las Vegas was in the…

by Daniel Trotta and Joseph Ax NEW YORK – North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor promised to stay in the race on Thursday after CNN reported that he once called himself a “black NAZI!” and proposed bringing back slavery in comments posted on a pornography website. Mark Robinson, an African American who denied making the comments, is North Carolina’s lieutenant governor and running for governor in the Nov. 5 election against Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general. North Carolina’s gubernatorial campaign has implications for the presidential contest. The fortunes of high-profile candidates there could affect partisan turnout or…

y Doina Chiacu NEW YORK – Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance will face off next month in the only scheduled U.S. vice presidential debate, a chance for each man to reinforce his running mate’s message to voters just weeks before the Nov. 5 election. Here are some details about the event: WHEN AND WHERE IS THE DEBATE? The 90-minute debate, hosted by CBS News, will take place on Oct. 1 at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Oct. 2) in New York City, a Democratic stronghold that is the former home of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate…

by Linley Sanders and Jonathan J. Cooper WASHINGTON — Until recently, Lillian Dunsmuir of Bullhead City, Arizona, “didn’t really think about” Kamala Harris and had no opinion of the vice president. But now she likes what she’s seeing. “She’s funny. I think she’s very smart. She can speak well,” said Dunsmuir, a 58-year-old real estate agent. “I would feel safe with her because I think she can handle herself with foreign leaders. I like her because she’s for pro-choice, and so am I.” Voters view Harris slightly more favorably than they did in July, just after President Joe Biden dropped…

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a four-month low last week, pointing to solid job growth in September and offering confirmation that the economy continued to expand in the third quarter. The weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, also showed unemployment rolls shrunk to levels last seen in early June. The U.S. central bank on Wednesday cut interest rates by 50 basis points, the first reduction in borrowing costs since 2020, which Federal Reserve Chair Jerome…

by Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON – Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza shook his head in disbelief as he addressed lawmakers and diplomats in a U.S. Senate hearing room on Tuesday, just weeks after he was released from prison in Siberia in a major prisoner swap. “The word surreal doesn’t even come close to describing what I feel now,” the dissident said at an event intended to highlight what participants described as the plight of hundreds of prisoners still detained in Russia for their political beliefs. Coinciding with Kara-Murza’s visit, Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will introduce…

by Moira Warburton WASHINGTON – A U.S. Senate bill aimed at enshrining federal protections and expanding insurance coverage for fertility treatments failed on Tuesday, as Republicans voted against it days after Donald Trump surprised supporters by voicing support for such a policy. The bill failed 51-44, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold after most Republicans voted against it for the second time. Democrats control the chamber by a slim 51-49 margin. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first attempted to get a vote on the same bill in late February, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the embryos…