The State Department on Tuesday announced up to $8 million in rewards to target human smugglers operating in the largely ungoverned Darién region between Colombia and Panama. Hundreds of thousands of migrants cross Panama’s treacherous Darién Gap jungle on foot each month on their way to the U.S. southern border. The announcement came on the third anniversary of Joint Task …

Fifty-three years after a private plane carrying five men disappeared on a snowy Vermont night, experts believe they have found the wreckage of the long-lost jet in Lake Champlain. The corporate jet disappeared shortly after departing the Burlington airport for Providence, Rhode Island, on Jan. 27, 1971. Those aboard included two crew members and three employees of the Atlanta, Georgia, …

Washington — A New Jersey businessmanwho says he bribedSen. Bob Menendez by buying his wife a Mercedes-Benz convertible for the purpose of disrupting two criminal investigations was grilled by defense lawyers on Tuesday, admitting to a long list of lies. For a third day, Jose Uribe, an insurance broker who is the prosecution’s star witness, took the stand in the …

Missouri carried out its second execution this year on Tuesday after Gov. Mike Parson denied a request for clemency filed by inmate David Hosier. Hosier was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. local time at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, a corrections spokesperson said in a statement. Hosier, 69, has maintained his innocence in the …

NEW YORK — Joey Chestnut, the reigning champion of the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contestand holder of the coveted Mustard Yellow Belt, is out of this year’s competition, organizers said Tuesday. At issue is Chestnut’s partnership with Impossible Foods, a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs. The news seemed hard to swallow for Major League Eating, which organizes …

Chiquita Brands was ordered Monday by a Florida jury to pay $38.3 million to the families of eight people killed by a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia, which the banana grower had funded for years during that country’s violent civil war. Chiquita had previously acknowledged funding the paramilitary group, pleadingguilty in 2007 after the U.S. Department of Justice charged the …

NEW YORK — Leaders are speaking out to condemn a protest outside an exhibit commemorating the victims of the Hamas terror attack on the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 that sparked the current Israel-Hamas war. On Monday night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators lit smoke canisters and flares outside The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Lower Manhattan, which pays tribute to the …

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is projected to win her Republican primary in what had shaped up as a proxy fight with former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. Mace on Tuesday defeated challengers Catherine Templeton and Bill Young in the 1st Congressional District race, The Associated Press projected. Mace, who is seeking a third term in Congress, …

Washington —Businessman and former Army Capt. Sam Brown easily won the Republican Nevada Senate primary Tuesday, setting up a key November race with incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen, when the balance of the Senate will be up in the air. Brown and Rosen both won their respective primaries, the Associated Press projected. Republicans haven’t won a Senate race in the …

Atlanta police said one person was fatally shot on a commuter bus Tuesday afternoon that led officers on a chase for miles from the city into neighboring suburbs, with television news footage showing it barreling through rush hour traffic and striking several vehicles. News helicopters followed the dramatic pursuit of the Gwinnett County Transit bus, which police said took off …

The town of Paradise, California, was almost completely destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire — which scorched more than 150,000 acres and was the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history. The once lush landscape covered in pine trees was stripped bare, as 95% of the town burned. But from the ashes, a new breed of American pioneer was born. Kylie …

Washington — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise confirmed the House will vote Wednesday on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, escalating a battle over audio recordings related to President Biden’s handling of classified documents. The Justice Department has defied subpoenas from the Republican-led House Judiciary and Oversight committees, who have demanded that Garland turn over audio recordings …

Washington — President Biden issued a statement in response to his son Hunter Biden beingconvicted on three felony gun charges in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday, with the president saying he will accept the outcome of the case and loves his son. The president returned to Delaware Tuesday afternoon after the conviction, and was photographed hugging his son. The …

Washington — Hunter Biden was convicted Tuesday in the federal gun trial, and now a judge will have to determine whether the president’s son should be imprisoned for the felony conviction. Hunter Biden was convicted by the 12-person jury of two felony counts for making false statements on a federal gun form about his drug use, and one count for …

While many experts predicted that mortgage rates would start falling quickly in 2024, inflation has remained higher than many expected. The latest annual inflation rate for the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) came in at 3.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And, amid relatively hot data like this, the Federal Reserve has continued to hold …