Tag: Political/General News

Top Hamas Leader Saleh al-Arouri Killed in Suspected Israeli Strike in Beirut
World

Top Hamas Leader Saleh al-Arouri Killed in Suspected Israeli Strike in Beirut

Listen to article(2 minutes)A top Hamas leader was killed Tuesday by a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut, according to two Lebanese security officials, raising the specter of further escalation in Israel’s war against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.The blast killed Saleh al-Arouri, a founder of the Hamas military wing and one of its top political leaders, and at least three other people, the officials said. Hamas confirmed Arouri’s death in a statement. The Israeli military declined to comment on the explosion.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Japan Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 55 With Search On for Those Still Trapped
World

Japan Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 55 With Search On for Those Still Trapped

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 11:42 am ETThe smoking ruins of what was a popular market for tourists and a seven-story building lying on its side testified to the destruction left by a New Year’s Day earthquake in Japan that killed at least 55 people.The city of Wajima in Ishikawa prefecture on the Japan Sea coast suffered some of the worst damage from the magnitude 7.6 quake. Japan’s military was mobilized along with police and fire units to deliver relief supplies and try to rescue those buried under homes and buildings.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere
Health

Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere

It didn’t get a lot of attention, but last month the White House awarded $3.1 billion to the California High-Speed Rail project. This was supposed to be a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. Instead, its costs keep rising even as the state scales back the plan. Since 2008, when California voters authorized a $10 billion bond issue for the train, they’ve been sold a bill of goods.The original total estimated construction cost to taxpayers was $33 billion. That’s risen to at least $100 billion. The authority decided to offer service between San Francisco and Los Angeles in Phase I, then eventually extend the train service north to Sacramento and south to San Diego. Phase I was to have been completed by 2020. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company...
Improve Your Fitness and Financial Life in 2024 With These WSJ Challenges
Money

Improve Your Fitness and Financial Life in 2024 With These WSJ Challenges

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 9:28 am ETIn the past few years, The Wall Street Journal launched six email challenges to help our readers get better at something in their lives, from fitness to money. Each free challenge starts when you sign up, and continues with one email a week to your inbox—full of exercises and how-tos—for four to six weeks.For 2024, we’ve updated and refreshed these short courses for those looking for a project or challenge to kick off the year. While we don’t recommend doing all six challenges at once, we do recommend taking advantage of the fresh-start energy the new year brings and making plans for joy in January.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Car That Hit Pedestrians Outside New Year’s Eve Concert Was Filled With Gas Canisters, Police Say
World

Car That Hit Pedestrians Outside New Year’s Eve Concert Was Filled With Gas Canisters, Police Say

A car involved in a deadly New Year’s Eve crash outside a busy concert venue in Rochester, N.Y., was filled with at least a dozen gas canisters, police said.Two people were killed when a car hit another vehicle and plowed through a group of pedestrians outside the Kodak Center in Rochester as nearly a thousand concertgoers were leaving an event early Monday morning, authorities said.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
All Passengers on Japan Airlines Jet Evacuated After Plane Collision
World

All Passengers on Japan Airlines Jet Evacuated After Plane Collision

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 7:04 am ETTOKYO—A Japan Coast Guard plane and a Japan Airlines passenger jet collided at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport but all 379 people on board the passenger jet were able to escape, Japan Airlines said.Five of the six people aboard the Coast Guard plane died in the crash, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. He said they were planning to deliver relief supplies to people affected by an earthquake on the Japan Sea coast on New Year’s Day.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Lee Jae-myung, Head of South Korean Opposition Party, Is Stabbed
World

Lee Jae-myung, Head of South Korean Opposition Party, Is Stabbed

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 2:17 am ETSEOUL—The head of South Korea’s opposition party was stabbed in the neck during a Tuesday visit to the port city of Busan.Lee Jae-myung, the 59-year-old leader of South Korea’s Democratic Party, remained conscious after being attacked by a male assailant, who was arrested at the scene, according to South Korea’s semiofficial Yonhap News Agency. Blood could be seen on his shirt collar. Lee was transported to a hospital in Busan within 20 minutes of the attack, Yonhap reported.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Double Dipping in Opioid Lawsuits
Health

Double Dipping in Opioid Lawsuits

The plaintiffs bar never met a business it wouldn’t sue, and now the lawyers are using government authority to pursue private interests. In their latest business model, trial lawyers are hired by state attorneys general to help prosecute public lawsuits then use it to the advantage of their private lawsuits. Kudos to one company for pushing back. In December pharmacy benefit manager OptumRx filed a motion in federal court in Ohio to disqualify Motley Rice, a South Carolina plaintiffs firm suing the company in multidistrict opioid litigation. Motley has been retained by state attorneys general and city prosecutors in Washington, D.C., Hawaii and Chicago to handle the government’s litigation, but it continues to represent private clients in related litigation.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones &...
Tariffs and the Common Man
Business

Tariffs and the Common Man

With Donald Trump leading the 2024 polls while calling for a 10% universal tariff, the new GOP protectionists are trying to sell this idea as a boon for the working class. The evidence exposes this folly: Trade wars invite painful retaliation, prop up politically favored industries at the expense of others, and raise prices on consumers like an invisible tax. They hurt the average worker.The economic literature on this point is voluminous. To pick one place to start, here was the conclusion of a study of Mr. Trump’s last trade wars, written in 2019 by two Federal Reserve economists: “We find that U.S. manufacturing industries more exposed to tariff increases experience relative reductions in employment as a positive effect from import protection is offset by larger negative effects from r...