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The company leading the Titan submersible trip to the wreckage of the Titanic says the five missing crew members are believed to be dead. OceanGate Expeditions on Thursday says its pilot and chief executive Stockton Rush, along with passengers Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet “have sadly been lost.” Read: Debris field found in search for missing submarine OceanGate did not provide details Thursday when the company announced the “loss of life” in a statement or how officials knew the crew members perished. The vessel’s 96-hour oxygen supply likely ended early Thursday morning. Read: Search for the missing Titanic submersible nears the critical 96-hour mark for oxygen supply The company has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.

The search for a missing submersible with five people aboard took a bleak turn Thursday when the U.S. Coast Guard said a debris field was found at the bottom of the ocean near the Titanic, and the critical 96-hour mark passed when breathable air could have run out. The Coast Guard’s post on Twitter did not say whether officials believe the debris is connected to the Titan, which was on an expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic. It said the debris was discovered within the search area by a remotely operated underwater robot, and was being evaluated. The Titan was estimated to have about a four-day supply of breathable air when it launched Sunday morning in the North Atlantic — but experts have emphasized that was an imprecise approximation to begin with and could be extended if passengers have taken measures to conserve breathable air. And it’s not known if they survived since the sub’s disappearance. Rescuers have rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance. On Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard said an undersea robot sent by a Canadian ship had reached the sea floor, while a French research institute said a deep-diving robot with cameras, lights and arms also joined the operation. Authorities have been hoping underwater sounds might help narrow their search, whose coverage area has been expanded to thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep. Coast Guard officials said underwater noises were detected in the search area Tuesday and Wednesday. Jamie Pringle, an expert in Forensic Geosciences at Keele University, in England, said even if the noises came from the submersible, "The lack of oxygen is key now; even if they find it, they still need to get to the surface and unbolt it." The Titan was reported overdue Sunday afternoon about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, as it was on its way to where the iconic ocean liner sank more than a century ago. OceanGate Expeditions, which is leading the trip, has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021. By Thursday morning, hope was running out that anyone on board the vessel would be found alive.

China on Wednesday called comments by U.S. President Joe Biden referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a dictator “extremely absurd and irresponsible,” as a new rift threatened to upset tentative efforts to stabilize the relationship between the two countries. The clash of words comes just over a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing that sought to break the ice in a relationship that has hit a historical low. While both sides saw those talks as productive, they did not result in any significant breakthroughs beyond an agreement to return to a broad agenda for cooperation and competition. Also read: Blinken and Xi pledge to stabilize deteriorated US-China ties, but China rebuffs the main US request Biden, at a fundraiser in California on Tuesday night, said Xi was embarrassed by recent tensions over a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by the Air Force over the East Coast. “That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened,” Biden said. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, responding to a question about Biden’s remarks, said they “go totally against facts and seriously violate diplomatic protocol, and severely infringe on China’s political dignity.” Also read: Xi meets Blinken in Beijing “It is a blatant political provocation. China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition,” Mao said at a daily briefing. “The U.S. remarks are extremely absurd and irresponsible,” Mao said. Mao reiterated China's contention that the balloon was for meteorological research and had been accidentally blown off course. “The U.S. should have handled it in a calm and professional manner,” she said. "However, the U.S. distorted facts and used forces to hype up the incident, fully revealing its nature of bullying and hegemony.” Also read: US ‘does not support’ Taiwan independence, Blinken says Biden has previously used the term dictator, along with war criminal, to refer to Russian President Vladimir Putin over his country's invasion of Ukraine. While Xi heads a country formally named the People's Republic of China, he faces no limits on his terms as head of state, commander of the military and leader of the ruling Communist Party, which brooks no challenges to its authority. Blinken’s visit, during which he met with Xi, was aimed at easing tensions between the two superpowers. The trip was originally scheduled for February but was put on hold after the balloon incident. While the visit marked a return to high-level contacts between the sides, China continues to refuse talks between their militaries. In recent days, the U.S. says Chinese warplanes and naval ships have maneuvered in ways that threaten their U.S. counterparts in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, despite agreements between them on protocols for avoiding such incidents. During Blinken's visit, China reiterated its strong objections to U.S. support for the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory. The U.S. has also sought to block China's access to cutting-edge computer chip manufacturing technology that could be used for military purposes and accused Beijing of stealing American intellectual property. In his comments at the fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign, Biden said he believed the balloon incident had caught Xi unaware. “It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States. And he didn’t know about it,” Biden said. “When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.” Xi was likely upset by the implication that he hadn't been fully informed about the facts surrounding the balloon incident, said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies and a longtime observer of Chinese politics. “My sense is that Xi may not want to overreact and put the relationship back on ice again,” Tsang said in an e-mail. Despite their sharp political divide, the countries continue to have deep economic and cultural links. Bilateral trade passed $690 billion last year and an estimated 300,000 Chinese are believed to be studying in the U.S., shoring up American institutions that have come under financial pressure. After meeting with Xi on Monday, Blinken acknowledged entrenched differences. “We have no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship. There are many issues on which we profoundly, even vehemently, disagree,” he said. Xi sounded a similar note but suggested the rivalry could be overcome. “The competition among major countries is not in line with the trend of the times and cannot solve the problems of the United States itself and the challenges facing the world,” he told Blinken. “China respects the interests of the United States and will not challenge or supplant the United States. Similarly, the United States should also respect China and not harm its legitimate rights and interests.”

There will be plenty of time to discuss global tensions during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the U.S. this week. But he's starting his day Wednesday by highlighting a pursuit of inner tranquility. After arriving in New York on Tuesday afternoon and holding private meetings, the leader of the world's most populous nation kicks off his public schedule Wednesday with a group yoga session on the United Nations' north lawn. U.N. General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and many other diplomats and U.N. officials are expected to attend the event. It honors the International Day of Yoga, which Modi persuaded the U.N. to designate in 2014 as an annual observance. The yoga-themed U.N. visit is a savvy and symbolic choice for a premier who has made the ancient discipline both a personal practice and a diplomatic tool. First practiced by Hindu sages, yoga has now become one of India's most popular cultural exports, and Modi has energetically promoted it as a — rather literal — feel-good way of stretching the country's influence abroad. Modi, a Hindu nationalist, casts himself as an ascetic who adheres to his religion’s strictures on vegetarianism and yoga. He has posted social media videos over the years of himself practicing yoga poses (to say nothing of providing live visuals of him meditating in a Himalayan mountain cave after national elections in 2019). Modi last visited the U.N. during the 2021 General Assembly, where he said that “all kinds of questions have been raised about the U.N.” and its effectiveness on matters ranging from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic to terrorism. Read: Biden hosting Modi as US sees India as a pivotal force in Asia for decades to come He also made a point of staking out his country's place in the international community, noting that “every sixth person in the world is Indian.” In the years since his speech, India surpassed China to claim the world's largest population, at 1.425 billion. India has long sought a permanent seat on the Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful organ. India has been elected to a two-year seat several times, most recently for 2021-22. Modi heads to Washington later Wednesday for a three-day visit that includes an Oval Office meeting with President Joe Biden, an address to a joint meeting of Congress, a White House state dinner and more. Among the plans: a State Department luncheon hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris, whose mother was born in India, and by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The visit comes as both countries are interested in strengthening ties. The U.S. has been looking to India, also the world's biggest democracy, as a key partner on matters that include checking China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. India, meanwhile, wants to bolster military and trade connections with the U.S. However, human rights advocates are urging Biden to press Modi on human rights issues, both international and within India. Modi has faced criticism over legislation that fast-tracks citizenship for some migrants but excludes Muslims; a rise in violence against Muslims and other religious minorities by Hindu nationalists; and the recent conviction of India’s top opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, for mocking Modi’s surname. (Gandhi recently visited the U.S. himself, speaking to private organizations and university students.) Read: Modi to lead foreign dignitaries in a session on Int'l Yoga Day at UN Secretariat The Indian government defends its human rights record and insists that the nation's democratic principles remain rock-solid. On Tuesday evening, Modi met with a range of prominent U.S. academics and health experts, scientists and business leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Speaking to media afterwards, Musk said he was excited about India’s future and the opportunities it presented. “I think India has more promise than any large country in the world,” Musk said, adding that he was confident Tesla “will be in India … as soon as humanly possible.” The tech billionaire last month said his company may pick a location for a new factory by the end of this year and that India was an interesting place for it. Read more: Indian PM Narendra Modi invited to address Congress

Mass shootings and violence killed and wounded people across the United States this weekend, including at least 60 shot in the Chicago area alone. Four people were found shot to death in a small Idaho town, a Pennsylvania state trooper was killed in an ambush, and bullets struck 11 teenagers, killing one, at a party in Missouri. The shootings happened in cities and rural areas alike, following a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. Officers responded to mass shootings in Washington state, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Southern California, Milwaukee and Baltimore. “There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists.” Researchers disagree over the cause. Theories include the possibility that violence is driven by the prevalence of guns in America, or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses, Nagin said. Only the Idaho killings fit the definition of a mass killing in which four or more people die, not including the shooter. However, the number of injured in most of the weekend cases matches the widely accepted definition for mass shootings. READ: At least 6 killed, dozens injured in weekend shootings across US Here's a look at some of the shootings this weekend: CHICAGO Five people were shot, two fatally on the city's South Side on Sunday evening when someone opened fire from a car that pulled up to a gathering, according to police. Another four men were shot, one fatally, during an altercation in a garage in the West Side neighborhood of Austin around 3 a.m. Sunday, police said. Five others including a teenage girl were shot early Saturday near Lincoln Park Zoo, and two dozen more were shot in other incidents since Friday evening, city data shows. Meanwhile in the suburbs, at least 23 people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday in a parking lot where hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate Juneteenth, authorities said. The White House issued a statement calling the violence a tragedy and saying the president was thinking of those killed and injured. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement that he was monitoring the investigation. KELLOGG, IDAHO Police in Idaho arrested a suspect in a shooting that killed four people on Sunday at an apartment complex behind a church. Responding officers found four people, all dead from gunshot wounds, at a residence in Kellogg that's behind the Mountain View Congregational Church, according to the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office and news reports. Idaho State Police said a 31-year-old man was detained, KXLY-TV reported. ST. LOUIS An early Sunday shooting in a downtown St. Louis office building killed a 17-year-old and wounded 11 other teenagers, the city’s police commissioner said. READ: Shooting, fire at Tennessee home leads to 6 dead including 3 children St. Louis Metropolitan Police Commissioner Robert Tracy identified the victim who was killed as 17-year-old Makao Moore. A spokesman said a minor who had a handgun was in police custody as a person of interest. Teenagers were having a party in an office space when the shooting broke out around 1 a.m. Sunday. The victims ranged from 15 to 19 years old. A 17-year-old girl was trampled as she fled, seriously injuring her spine, Tracy said. WASHINGTON STATE Two people were killed and two others were injured when a shooter began firing “randomly” into a crowd at a Washington state campground where many people were staying to attend a nearby music festival on Saturday night, police said. The suspect was shot in a confrontation with law enforcement officers and taken into custody, several hundred yards from the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival. CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA One state trooper was killed and a second critically wounded just hours apart in central Pennsylvania on Saturday after a gunman attacked a state police barracks. The suspect drove his truck into the parking lot of the Lewistown barracks about 11 a.m. Saturday and opened fire with a large-caliber rifle on marked patrol cars before fleeing, authorities said Sunday. READ: Shooting at California teen's birthday party leaves 18-year-old woman dead, 6 wounded Lt. James Wagner, 45, was critically wounded when he was shot after encountering the suspect several miles away in Mifflintown. Later, Trooper Jacques Rougeau Jr., 29, was ambushed and killed by a gunshot through the windshield of his patrol car as he drove down a road in nearby Walker Township, authorities said. The suspect was shot and killed after a fierce gunbattle, said Lt. Col. George Bivens. “What I witnessed ... was one of the most intense, unbelievable gunfights I have ever witnessed,” Bivens said, lauding troopers for launching an aggressive search despite facing a weapon that “would defeat any of the body armor that they had available to them.” A motive was not immediately known. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA A shooting at a pool party at a Southern California home left eight people wounded, authorities said Saturday. Authorities were dispatched shortly after midnight in Carson, California, south of Los Angeles, KABC-TV reported. The victims range in age from 16 to 24, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said. BALTIMORE Six people were injured in a Friday night shooting in Baltimore. All were expected to survive. Officers heard gunshots in the north of the city just before 9 p.m. and found three men with numerous gunshot wounds. Medics took them to area hospitals for treatment. READ: 9 injured in shooting near beach in Hollywood, Florida Police later learned of three additional victims who walked into area hospitals with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The wounded ranged in age from 17 to 26. SAN FRANCISCO Six people were injured after a “car-to-car” shooting in the streets of San Francisco on Sunday evening, police said. Two victims sustained gunshot wounds, one with life-threatening injuries, in the moving shootout beginning shortly before 7 p.m., San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said at a news conference Sunday. Suspects in two cars, a black SUV and a white sedan, “drove very recklessly and chased each other while engaged in gunfire” near the northern waterfront, Scott said. The area includes Fisherman’s Wharf, one of the city’s busiest tourist areas. Three victims were injured by glass shards caused by “errant gunfire,” Scott said, with none of the injuries considered to be life-threatening. READ: Police: 8 killed in Texas mall shooting, gunman also dead Two girls, ages 10 and 16, were struck by one of the two vehicles while walking their bicycles across the street. The younger girl was injured and transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries while the older girl was not injured. PHILADELPHIA A 4-year-old boy was among five victims of a shooting in south Philadelphia Saturday night. Police responded to the block shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday and found a 58-year-old woman with gunshot wounds to the legs, a 54-year-old woman with gunshot wounds to her wrist and leg, and the boy, who was brought to Presbyterian Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. A 30-year-old man also arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the wrist and a 40-year-old man was brought in with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The last victim was listed in critical condition; all others were said to be in stable condition. MILWAUKEE At least six teenagers were shot Monday afternoon around where Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration had just wrapped up. Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said among the wounded was a 17-year-old who may have been a gunman himself and is in custody. Police were still seeking additional suspects who hadn’t yet been identified. Police said the victims, four girls and two boys, ranged in age from 14-19. Norman said the shooting may have stemmed from a fight among a number of girls and young women, but he didn’t know what sparked the dispute. The injuries of those wounded varied but did not appear life-threatening, the chief said.  

At least six people including a Pennsylvania state trooper were killed and dozens injured in a string of weekend violence and mass shootings across the U.S. The shootings in suburban Chicago, Washington state, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. “There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists.” Researchers disagree over the cause of the increase. Theories include the possibility that violence is driven by the prevalence of guns in America, or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses, Nagin said. Read: Shooting, fire at Tennessee home leads to 6 dead including 3 children As of Sunday evening, none of the weekend events fit the definition of a mass killing, because fewer than four people died at each location. However, the number of injured in most of the cases does match the widely accepted definition for mass shootings. Here's a look at the shootings this weekend: WILLOWBROOK, ILLINOIS At least 23 people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday in a suburban Chicago parking lot where hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate Juneteenth, authorities said. The DuPage County sheriff’s office described a “peaceful gathering” that suddenly turned violent as a number of people fired multiple shots into the crowd in Willowbrook, Illinois, about 20 miles southwest of Chicago. A motive for the attack wasn’t immediately known. Sheriff’s spokesman Robert Carroll said authorities were interviewing “persons of interest” in the shooting, the Daily Herald reported. A witness, Markeshia Avery, said the celebration was meant to mark Juneteenth, Monday's federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Read: Shooting at California teen's birthday party leaves 18-year-old woman dead, 6 wounded “We just started hearing shooting, so we dropped down until they stopped,” Avery told WLS-TV. WASHINGTON STATE Two people were killed and two others were injured when a shooter began firing “randomly” into a crowd at a Washington state campground where people stayed to attend a nearby music festival on Saturday night, police said. The suspect was shot in a confrontation with law enforcement officers and taken into custody, several hundred yards from the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival. A public alert advised people of an active shooter in the area and advised them to “run, hide or fight." Read: 2 dead in shooting after high school graduation ceremony in Virginia capital The festival carried on until early Sunday morning, Grant County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kyle Foreman said. Organizers then posted a tweet saying Sunday’s concert was canceled. CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA One state trooper was killed and a second critically wounded just hours apart in central Pennsylvania on Saturday after a gunman attacked a state police barracks. The suspect drove his truck into the parking lot of the Lewistown barracks about 11 a.m. Saturday and opened fire with a large-caliber rifle on marked patrol cars before fleeing, authorities said Sunday. Lt. James Wagner, 45, was shot and critically wounded after encountering the suspect several miles away in Mifflintown. Later, Trooper Jacques Rougeau Jr., 29, was ambushed and killed by a gunshot through the windshield of his patrol car as he drove down a road in nearby Walker Township, authorities said. The suspect was shot and killed after a fierce gunbattle, said Lt. Col. George Bivens, who went up in a helicopter to coordinate the search for the 38-year-old suspect. Read: Police: 8 killed in Texas mall shooting, gunman also dead “What I witnessed ... was one of the most intense, unbelievable gunfights I have ever witnessed,” Bivens said, lauding troopers for launching an aggressive search despite the fact that they were facing a weapon that “would defeat any of the body armor that they had available to them.” A motive was not immediately known. ST. LOUIS An early Sunday shooting in a downtown St. Louis office building killed a 17-year-old and wounded nine other teenagers, the city’s police commissioner said. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Commissioner Robert Tracy identified the victim who was killed as 17-year-old Makao Moore. A spokesman said a minor who had a handgun was in police custody as a person of interest. Teenagers were having a party in an office space when the shooting broke out around 1 a.m. Sunday. The victims ranged from 15 to 19 years old and had injuries including multiple gunshot wounds. A 17-year-old girl was trampled as she fled, seriously injuring her spine, Tracy said. Shell casings from AR-style rifles and other firearms were scattered on the ground. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA A shooting at a pool party at a Southern California home left eight people wounded, authorities said Saturday. Read: Burials held in Serbia for some victims of mass shootings KABC-TV reported authorities were dispatched shortly after midnight in Carson, California, south of Los Angeles. The victims range in age from 16 to 24, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. They were taken to hospitals, and two were listed in critical condition, the statement said. Authorities said they found another 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound when they responded to a call about a vehicle that crashed into a wall nearby. BALTIMORE Six people were injured in a Friday night shooting in Baltimore. All were expected to survive. Officers heard gunshots in the north of the city just before 9 p.m. and found three men with numerous gunshot wounds. Medics took them to area hospitals for treatment. Read: Police capture suspect in Atlanta medical practice shooting Police later learned of three additional victims who walked into area hospitals with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The wounded ranged in age from 17 to 26, Baltimore Police Department spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said.

President Joe Biden delivered an unapologetically economic populist message Saturday during the first rally of his reelection campaign, telling an exuberant crowd of union members that his policies had created jobs and lifted the middle class. Now, he said, is the time for the wealthy to “pay their fair share” in taxes. Biden spotlighted the sweeping climate, tax and health care package signed into law last year that cut the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums — pocketbook issues that advisers say will be the centerpiece of his argument for a second term. “I'm looking forward to this campaign," Biden said to cries of “four more years!” before adding, "We've got a record to run on.” His choice of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania — and a friendly union audience — as his first official campaign stop reflected their crucial role in his reelection effort. The city was the site of his 2020 campaign headquarters and the state was one of a handful that had voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2016 but flipped back to Democrats four years later. Until the rally, Biden’s primary reelection campaign activity had been fundraising as the campaign tries to amass an impressive fundraising haul before the year’s second quarter concludes at the end of the month. The president raised money at a private home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Friday and soon will hold fundraisers in California, Maryland, Illinois and New York. More than 1,000 union workers representing professions from carpenters and airport service workers to entertainers and heavy service equipment engineers — most wearing T-shirts bearing their union's logos — began chanting “Let's go, Joe!" and “We want Joe” and blowing whistles hours before the president arrived. Read: Not aware of six Congressmen’s letter to Biden on Bangladesh: US Spokesperson Biden did not mention any of his potential Republican opponents by name, but said many in the GOP “oppose everything I've done.” Pointing to high inflation rates, Republicans have criticized “Biden-omics” a term the president tried to turn back his opponents on Saturday. “I don't know what the hell that is,” he said, “but it's working.” The event, which organizers said included unions representing 18 million workers nationwide, recalled then-candidate Biden opening his 2020 presidential campaign at a union hall in Pittsburgh. Several of the nation's most powerful unions — including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — officially endorsed Biden's campaign on Friday. The first-of-its-kind joint endorsement among the unions, and the backdrop of hundreds of workers are part of a meticulously choreographed effort to show the support of labor behind what Biden himself calls the most pro-union president in history. The union endorsements followed Wednesday's joint endorsement from major environmental groups, a back-to-back backing by design, according to a campaign official, meant to demonstrate that tackling climate change through green jobs does not threaten workers' rights. Biden claimed in his remarks that if Wall Street bankers went on strike, no one would notice. But if unions members walked off the job, "the whole country would come to a grinding halt.” He also criticized those worth more than $1 billion for paying, he said, as little as 8% in federal taxes. Read: Biden to host outgoing NATO secretary-general Stoltenberg as competition to replace him heats up That prompted a man in the audience to shout, “What do you pay?” to which Biden responded, “I pay a hell of a lot more than that." He said repeatedly that the wealthy must “pay their fair share.” Before addressing the union gathering, Biden took a helicopter tour over the collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that has complicated traffic along one of the nation's most crowded highways. Michael Smith, a 62-year-old retired electrician and is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said he liked Biden's chances next year because of his administration's championing green jobs and construction. Jennifer McKinnon, 53, a grade school librarian and member of the National Education Association, said she felt that Biden had a personal commitment to education because his wife, Jill, was a teacher who continued to teach English at a Northern Virginia community college as first lady. Jill Biden, an NEA member, addressed the union rally, too. “I fear that the Republicans are going to get caught in their cycle that they did last time and people aren't going to buy it this time, so Joe's going to sweep right in,” McKinnon said of the 2024 election, alluding to Trump, the early front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Biden said his economic policies can lift all Americans regardless of economic status, an argument that could help him counter the kind of economic populism that buoyed Trump with some rank-and-file union members during his first two presidential campaigns. Clark Hamilton, a 63-year-old retiree and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers member, said Biden embraced union values but also noted that the president sometimes “plays it like most politicians, in the middle.” He referenced Biden's urging Congress to helped prevent a rail strike last year, which the president said could cripple commerce nationwide. “That’s a shame,” Hamilton said. “But he was trying to save the economy.” Read:Biden and Sunak to focus on Ukraine and economic security in British PM's first White House visit Still, Hamilton said he's confident that Biden's record will secure him a second term next year “especially if it's against Trump.”

Entering court using a walker, a doctor's note clutched in his hand, 70-year-old Dana Williams, who suffers serious heart problems, hypertension and asthma, pleaded to delay eviction from his two-bedroom apartment in Atlanta. Although sympathetic, the judge said state law required him to evict Williams and his 25-year-old daughter De'mai Williams in April because they owed $8,348 in unpaid rent and fees on their $940-a-month apartment. They have been living in limbo ever since. Also Read: Suicide rate for young adults in US was worst in over 50 years during pandemic: Study They moved into a dilapidated Atlanta hotel room with water dripping through the bathroom ceiling, broken furniture and no refrigerator or microwave. But at $275-a-week, it was all they could afford on Williams' $900 monthly social security check and the $800 his daughter gets biweekly from a state agency as her father's caretaker. "I really don't want to be here by the time his birthday comes" in August, De'mai Williams said. "For his health, it's just not right." The Williams family is among millions of tenants from New York state to Las Vegas who have been evicted or face imminent eviction. After a lull during the pandemic, eviction filings by landlords have come roaring back, driven by rising rents and a long-running shortage of affordable housing. Most low-income tenants can no longer count on pandemic resources that had kept them housed, and many are finding it hard to recover because they haven't found steady work or their wages haven't kept pace with the rising cost of rent, food and other necessities. Homelessness, as a result, is rising. Also Read: Nusrat Choudhury appointed first Bangladeshi-American federal judge "Protections have ended, the federal moratorium is obviously over, and emergency rental assistance money has dried up in most places," said Daniel Grubbs-Donovan, a research specialist at Princeton University's Eviction Lab. "Across the country, low-income renters are in an even worse situation than before the pandemic due to things like massive increases in rent during the pandemic, inflation and other pandemic-era related financial difficulties." Eviction filings are more than 50% higher than the pre-pandemic average in some cities, according to the Eviction Lab, which tracks filings in nearly three dozen cities and 10 states. Landlords file around 3.6 million eviction cases every year. Among the hardest-hit are Houston, where rates were 56% higher in April and 50% higher in May. In Minneapolis/St. Paul, rates rose 106% in March, 55% in April and 63% in May. Nashville was 35% higher and Phoenix 33% higher in May; Rhode Island was up 32% in May. The latest data mirrors trends that started last year, with the Eviction Lab finding nearly 970,000 evictions filed in locations it tracks — a 78.6% increase compared to 2021, when much of the country was following an eviction moratorium. By December, eviction filings were nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. Also Read: Shooting at California teen's birthday party leaves 18-year-old woman dead, 6 wounded At the same time, rent prices nationwide are up about 5% from a year ago and 30.5% above 2019, according to the real estate company Zillow. There are few places for displaced tenants to go, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimating a 7.3 million shortfall of affordable units nationwide. Many vulnerable tenants would have been evicted long ago if not for a safety net created during the pandemic. The federal government, as well as many states and localities, issued moratoriums during the pandemic that put evictions on hold; most have now ended. There was also $46.5 billion in federal Emergency Rental Assistance that helped tenants pay rent and funded other tenant protections. Much of that has been spent or allocated, and calls for additional resources have failed to gain traction in Congress. "The disturbing rise of evictions to pre-pandemic levels is an alarming reminder of the need for us to act — at every level of government — to keep folks safely housed," said Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, urging Congress to pass a bill cracking down on illegal evictions, fund legal help for tenants and keep evictions off credit reports. Housing courts are again filling up and ensnaring the likes of 79-year-old Maria Jackson. Jackson worked for nearly two decades building a loyal clientele as a massage therapist in Las Vegas, which has seen one of the country's biggest jumps in eviction filings. That evaporated during the pandemic-triggered shutdown in March 2020. Her business fell apart; she sold her car and applied for food stamps. She got behind on the $1,083 monthly rent on her one-bedroom apartment, and owing $12,489 in back rent was evicted in March. She moved in with a former client about an hour northeast of Las Vegas. "Who could imagine this happening to someone who has worked all their life?" Jackson asked. Last month she found a room in Las Vegas for $400 a month, paid for with her $1,241 monthly social security check. It's not home, but "I'm one of the lucky ones," she said. "I could be in a tent or at a shelter right now." In upstate New York, evictions are rising after a moratorium lifted last year. Forty of the state's 62 counties had higher eviction filings in 2022 than before the pandemic, including two where eviction filings more than doubled compared to 2019. "How do we care for the folks who are evicted ... when the capacity is not in place and ready to roll out in places that haven't experienced a lot of eviction recently?" said Russell Weaver, whose Cornell University lab tracks evictions statewide. Housing advocates had hoped the Democrat-controlled state Legislature would pass a bill requiring landlords to provide justification for evicting tenants and limit rent increases to 3% or 1.5 times inflation. But it was excluded from the state budget and lawmakers failed to pass it before the legislative session ended this month. "Our state Legislature should have fought harder," said Oscar Brewer, a tenant organizer facing eviction from the apartment he shares with his 6-year-old daughter in Rochester. In Texas, evictions were kept down during the pandemic by federal assistance and the moratoriums. But as protections went away, housing prices skyrocketed in Austin, Dallas and elsewhere, leading to a record 270,000 eviction filings statewide in 2022. Advocates were hoping the state Legislature might provide relief, directing some of the $32 billion budget surplus into rental assistance. But that hasn't happened. "It's a huge mistake to miss our shot here," said Ben Martin, a research director at nonprofit Texas Housers. "If we don't address it, now, the crisis is going to get worse." Still, some pandemic protections are being made permanent, and having an impact on eviction rates. Nationwide, 200 measures have passed since January 2021, including legal representation for tenants, sealing eviction records and mediation to resolve cases before they reach court, said the National Low Income Housing Coalition. These measures are credited with keeping eviction filings down in several cities, including New York City and Philadelphia — 41% below pre-pandemic levels in May for the former and 33% for the latter. A right-to-counsel program and the fact that housing courts aren't prosecuting cases involving rent arears are among the factors keeping New York City filings down. In Philadelphia, 70% of the more than 5,000 tenants and landlords who took part in the eviction diversion program resolved their cases. The city also set aside $30 million in assistance for those with less than $3,000 in arears, and started a right-to-counsel program, doubling representation rates for tenants. The future is not so bright for Williams and his daughter, who remain stuck in their dimly-lit hotel room. Without even a microwave or nearby grocery stores, they rely on pizza deliveries and snacks from the hotel vending machine. Williams used to love having his six grandchildren over for dinner at his old apartment, but those days are over for now. "I just want to be able to host my grandchildren," he said, pausing to cough heavily. "I just want to live somewhere where they can come and sit down and hang out with me."  

The US Senate approved Nusrat Choudhury as a federal judge on Thursday, making her the first Muslim woman and the first Bangladeshi-American to serve on the federal bench. Choudhury, the legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, was confirmed as the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on a 50-49 vote, reports CNN. President Joe Biden nominated the civil rights attorney as one of seven federal judge candidates in January 2022. Biden appointed Zahid Quraishi as a district judge for New Jersey earlier in 2021, making him the first Muslim American federal judge in US history. Also read: Facebook’s importance as source of news sees significant decline in 2023: Reuters Institute Report Choudhury, as the legal director of ACLU, has fought for police reform and litigated against discriminatory methods, said the report. According to the ACLU, among the problems she has taken on include the New York Police Department's post-9/11 monitoring techniques, which have been denounced as discriminating towards Muslim Americans, and the Milwaukee Police Department's stop-and-frisk program. “Nusrat Choudhury is a trailblazing civil rights lawyer with a remarkable record of advancing equal justice for all in our nation,” Anthony Romero, ACLU’s executive director, said in a statement. “The confirmation is an exclamation point on her long track record of protecting civil liberties and civil rights.” Also read: Bangladeshi-American one step away from becoming first Muslim woman on US federal bench Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, voted against her confirmation because he believed some of her earlier statements made her prejudiced against police enforcement, the report also said. “As a staunch supporter of our men and women in uniform, I opposed Ms Choudhury’s nomination,” Manchin said in a statement. Also read: Bangladeshi-American Zayn Siddique gets key White House position    

According to a new Pew Research Center report released Wednesday, the Black Lives Matter movement has lost popularity among Americans in the last three years. According to Pew, 51% of Americans strongly or somewhat support the Black Lives Matter movement. According to the organisation, this is a decrease from over 70% of Americans who voiced support for the campaign in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing in 2020 and 56% last year, reports CNN. According to the report, the waning support is mostly due to a decline in the proportion of white individuals who say they support the movement. According to Pew, the total number of Black and Hispanic adults who voiced support has remained stable over the last year. Also read: Black Americans faced over 1.63 million excess deaths over 2 decades, new study finds Eighty-one percent of Black adults back the movement. According to the poll, 63% of Asians and 61% of Hispanics agreed, compared to 42% of white adults. According to the research, when asked which words best define the movement, over one-third of Americans said "dangerous" and "divisive" describe it extremely or very well, the report said. However, there were considerable disparities across races and ethnic groupings. While white adults were more likely than other groups to think the phrases "dangerous" and "divisive" characterize the Black Lives Matter movement extremely or very well, 50% of Black adults said the word "dangerous" does not describe the movement very well or at all, according to the report. Also read: Protests spread in wake of George Floyd death in US According to Pew, Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans are all more likely than white adults to say the phrase "empowering" characterizes the movement extremely or very well. However, almost one-third, or 34%, thought the same thing about the word "divisive". Adults under 30 were more likely to support the movement than those in all other age categories. The research also revealed a large ideological divide. According to the research, 84% of Democrats and Democratic leaners favour the Black Lives Matter movement, while 82% of Republicans or Republican leaners reject it, the report also said. Americans also shared their thoughts on the movement's influence on a variety of problems. According to the study, around 32% of Americans believe the movement has been extremely effective in drawing attention to racism towards Black people. According to Pew, a smaller proportion of US respondents said the movement had a similar influence on enhancing police accountability (14%), improving the lives of Black people (8%), and improving racial relations (7%). Also read: Bangladesh to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter movement These findings are based on an online survey conducted from April 10 to April 16 among a random sample of 5,073 persons in the United States, derived from panels initially recruited using probability-based approaches, the report concluded.