Alvin Hellerstein, a federal judge who for decades oversaw some of the country’s most high-profile cases, counting among his defendants presidents and CEOs, has died, a spokesperson for the Southern District of New York confirmed Wednesday. He was 92. At the time of his death, he was presiding over the criminal case of one former…
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday after hiking borrowing costs in September to clamp down on inflation. The central bank left the federal funds rate at a target range of 3.75% to 4%, keeping it unchanged after raising rates last month for the first time in three years. In a statement, the…
Actor and comedian Russell Brand took the stand in his trial on rape and sexual assault charges in London on Wednesday. Brand, 51, is accused of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one charge of attempted indecent assault. The allegations, made by six female complainants, span a 10-year period between 1999…
A New York woman whose father took her to Syria as a teenager and arranged her marriage to an Islamic State fighter was convicted Tuesday of receiving weapons training from the militant group. Prosecutors said Halima Salman, a U.S. citizen, pledged loyalty to the extremist group and willingly participated in its activities. Jurors were shown…
The Alexander brothers were each sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking, after the trio was convicted of drugging and raping dozens of women over more than a decade. Federal prosecutors had accused Alon and Oren Alexander, 39, and their brother, Tal, 40, of exploiting their wealth, power and social status to…
Israeli police arrested a man with a knife at an event for left-wing leader Yair Golan after what his party described as a “suspected stabbing attempt” Thursday, as Israelis went to the polls in a crucial election. As Golan mobilized voters Tuesday in Tel Aviv, “an unidentified man wearing a jacket approached him in a…
Federal prosecutors filed new criminal charges on Tuesday against two ex-FBI counterintelligence officials, accusing them of obstructing a congressional proceeding and lying to lawmakers about their roles in the bureau’s investigations of Hunter Biden. The unsigned and unsworn superseding complaint, filed early Tuesday morning, comes just hours before the defendants Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides…
Sioux City, Iowa — Less than 24 hours after President Trump held a raucous rally inside an airplane hangar in this western Iowa town, Senate Majority Leader John Thune stood alongside Rep. Ashley Hinson in a strip-mall bar and grill a few miles away. Looking out over a giant water tank that punctuated the flat…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that Venezuela’s interim government told the U.S. “weeks and weeks” earlier that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado could return to the country without interference, as the Trump administration pushes for a political transition that hinges on the cooperation of senior figures from Nicolás Maduro’s former government. “We spoke…
As greater scrutiny is falling on online sports betting companies for the way they offer extravagant perks to customers who are losing large sums of money, there is another question emerging about this fast-growing industry: how the companies treat their biggest winners. States and state lawmakers have raised questions about a practice called “limiting” —…
