USA

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is allowing some drivers to use its Autopilot driver-assist system for extended periods without making them put their hands on the steering wheel, a development that has drawn concern from U.S. safety regulators.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered Tesla to tell the agency how many vehicles have received a software update making that possible and it’s seeking more information on what the electric vehicle maker’s plans are for wider distribution.

CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday in Florida as a Category 3 storm and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast, submerging homes and vehicles, turning streets into rivers, unmooring small boats and downing power lines in an area that has never before received such a pummeling.

More than 330,000 customers in Florida and Georgia were without electricity while rushing water covered streets near the coast. As the eye moved inland, high winds shredded signs, sent sheet metal flying and snapped tall trees.

NEW YORK, August 29. /TASS/: The Biden administration may be forced to give weaker-than-hoped-for or overly vague pledges in providing security guarantees for Ukraine, as Washington may not be able to ensure the required levels of military spending earmarked for Kiev in future years, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has picked veteran diplomat Mark Lambert as its top China policy official, five sources familiar with the matter said, bringing in new leadership for a part of the department that has faced staffing problems and criticism over its handling of China-focused initiatives.

Lambert will likely be named as the deputy assistant secretary for China and Taiwan, the sources said, filling the post left in June by Rick Waters.

WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - U.S. rapper Eminem has asked Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire former biotech executive, to not use his music during his presidential campaign, according to a letter disclosed on Monday.

In the letter dated Aug. 23, which was reported first by the Daily Mail, BMI, a performing rights organization, informed Ramaswamy's campaign at the rapper's request that it will no longer license Eminem's music for use by Ramaswamy's campaign.

WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - U.S. job openings fell for a third straight month in July as the labor market gradually slows, but conditions remain tight, likely ensuring that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates high for some time.

Job openings, a measure of labor demand dropped 338,000 to 8.827 million on the last day of July, the lowest level since March 2021, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Monday set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump in the federal case in Washington charging the former president with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejecting a defense request to push back the case by years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hosting Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves at the White House Tuesday, following an agreement between the two nations on possible legal pathways for migrants.

The two leaders are expected to discuss how the two nations can work together to strengthen economic ties through new jobs, advance democracy and promote orderly migration.

The Central American nation has emerged as an immigration hotspot, as migrants increasingly travel through the dangerous Darien Gap from Colombia into Central America and north into Costa Rica.

PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) — Jeanette Kiokun, the tribal clerk for the Qutekcak Native Tribe in Alaska, doesn’t immediately recognize the shriveled, brown plant she finds on the shore of the Salish Sea or others that were sunburned during the long, hot summer. But a fellow student at a weeklong tribal climate camp does.

They are rosehips, traditionally used in teas and baths by the Skokomish Indian Tribe in Washington state and other tribes.

“It’s getting too hot, too quick,” Alisa Smith Woodruff, a member of the Skokomish tribe, said of the sun-damaged plant.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The popular diabetes treatment Jardiance and the blood thinner Eliquis are among the first drugs that will be targeted for price negotiations in effort to cut Medicare costs.

President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday released a list of 10 drugs for which the federal government will take a first-ever step: negotiating drug prices directly with the manufacturer.