USA

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are ending sharply lower after the head of the Federal Reserve dashed Wall Street’s hopes that it may soon ease up on rate hikes in its effort to tame inflation. The S&P 500 lost 3.4% Friday, its biggest drop in two months, after Jerome Powell said the Fed will likely need to keep interest rates high enough to slow the economy for some time in order to beat back the high inflation sweeping the country. Tech stocks led the way lower, pulling the Nasdaq composite down even more. Higher rates help corral inflation, but they also hurt asset prices.

HENDERSON, Ky. (AP) — Two people were killed and two were wounded in a shooting at a homeless shelter for men in western Kentucky, and a suspect has been arrested, authorities said.

Officers responded Thursday evening to a report of an active shooter at the Harbor House Christian Center, the Henderson Police Department said in a statement on social media.

The shooting occurred around 7:40 p.m. when about 15 people were inside the facility, Henderson City Commissioner Robert Pruitt told The Courier & Press in Evansville, Indiana.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Secret Service said Friday that it has recovered $286 million in fraudulently obtained pandemic loans and is returning the money to the Small Business Administration.

The Secret Service said an investigation initiated by its Orlando office found that alleged conspirators submitted Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications by using fake or stolen employment and personal information and used an online bank, Green Dot, to conceal and move their criminal proceeds.

(AP) --- The Biden administration said Friday there’s enough monkeypox vaccine available now but health officials say the shots aren’t getting to some of the people who need the protection the most.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered a stark message Friday: The Fed is determined to fight inflation with more sharp interest rate hikes, which will likely cause pain for Americans in the form of a weaker economy and job losses.

“These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation,” Powell said in a high-profile speech at the Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole. “But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fourteen of the 15 boxes recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate early this year contained classified documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence, according to an FBI affidavit released Friday.

No space at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was authorized for the storage of classified material, according to the court papers, which laid out the FBI’s rationale for searching the property this month, including “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found.”

WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - China's aggressive military drills around Taiwan in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit put Washington on edge, but not enough to spur an immediate sharp increase in weapons sales to the island, sources told Reuters.

President Joe Biden's administration and U.S. lawmakers stress their ongoing support for the government in Taipei, and there are items in the approval pipeline for Taiwan that could be announced in the coming weeks or months.

WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department approved the potential sale of military helicopters and related equipment to Australia for an estimated cost of $1.95 billion, the Pentagon said, as Australia seeks to boost its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Australia had requested to buy 40 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters and the principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and three others were injured in a shooting in northwest Washington, D.C. Wednesday afternoon.

Police were called to North Capitol and O Street, Northwest, around 12:50 p.m. (1650 GMT) for reports of fired gunshots.

Officers found two people with gunshot wounds who were pronounced deceased on the scene.

Three others had walked into nearby hospitals for treatment, police said. Their conditions are unknown.

All of the victims were said to be adults.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned of the dangerous situation in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

"I remain gravely concerned about the situation in and around Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. The warning lights are flashing," he told the UN Security Council.