McDonald's new chicken sandwich leads to foot traffic boost, data shows

Associated Press
China's Xi arrives in Hungary for talks on expanding Chinese investments
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Hungary late Wednesday, the final stop on his five-day European tour, where he's expected to finalize a number of agreements with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that will deepen China's economic footprint in the region. Xi is set to spend two nights in the Hungarian capital Budapest where he will meet with Orbán and Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok. Talks will center on future Chinese investments in the Central European country, which has courted deep economic ties with Beijing even as mainstream European leaders have pursued more protectionist policies to limit its reach on the continent.
USA TODAY
Lawmakers grill K-12 school administrators in heated hearing on antisemitic incidents: 4 takeaways
Lawmakers grilled school administrators who have seen antisemitic incidents in their districts.
Associated Press
South Carolina Senate turns wide-ranging energy bill into resolution supporting more power
A bill that power companies call vital to keeping the lights on in South Carolina has been turned into a resolution that only expresses support for the idea by the Senate, which wasn't ready to give more latitude to utilities that cost ratepayers billions. The Senate agreed to gut the House’s 80-plus page energy bill and replace it with a resolution acknowledging the state’s power needs are growing. Upset that the Senate wasn't taking up the proposal, the House started attaching it to entirely different bills like one requiring therapists to take suicide prevention training and another to allow firefighters who live outside the state to get cancer health care benefits if they work in South Carolina.
AFP
South Gaza hospitals have only three days' fuel left: WHO
Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip have only three days of fuel left due to closed border crossings, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday."Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, which means services may soon come to a halt."
Reuters
Ex-correctional official sent to US prison for payments from Galleon's Rajaratnam
A former correctional counselor at a federal prison in Massachusetts was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison for corruptly accepting tens of thousands of dollars from a wealthy inmate identified by a source as Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam. U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston rejected a request by William Tidwell, 50, for a more lenient sentence, calling the corruption he engaged in while at the Federal Medical Center Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts "intolerable." Prosecutors said that corruption involved accepting over $90,000 in payments through an arrangement with an "ultra-high net worth" inmate under Tidwell's care in exchange for giving him favorable treatment.
USA TODAY
Ohio Senate votes to put Biden on 2024 ballot, but problem isn't fixed yet
Senate Republicans voted to put President Joe Biden on the ballot, but only after pairing it with campaign finance legislation opposed by Democrats.
Reuters
Microsoft to shut Africa development centre in Nigeria
Microsoft is closing down its Africa Development Centre in the continent's most populous nation Nigeria, which will lead to job losses, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. The centre, based in the commercial capital Lagos was opened in 2022 as part of Microsoft's push to deliver high-end engineering and innovation solutions for the company. The company said it would, however, continue to operate in Nigeria, continuing to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas.
Associated Press
Lawyers' coalition provides new messengers for Black voter engagement
Young Black lawyers and law students are taking on a new role ahead of the general election: Meeting with Black voters in battleground states to increase turnout and serve as watchdogs against voter disenfranchisement. The Young Black Lawyers’ Organizing Coalition has recruited lawyers and law students from historically Black colleges and universities and is sending them to Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas to meet with Black voters, aiming to better understand the barriers that the historically disadvantaged voting bloc faces when registering to vote and accessing the ballot.
Reuters
Ghana's top court postpones hearing on challenge to anti-LGBTQ bill
Ghana's Supreme Court said on Wednesday that lawyers battling over the legality of one of Africa's most restrictive anti-LGBTQ bill must amend their motions due to insulting language in their submissions and then postponed the case. Parliament unanimously passed the bill that would intensify a crackdown on LGBTQ rights in the West African nation in February, but President Nana Akufo-Addo has delayed signing it with his office citing pending challenges at the Supreme Court. The ruling by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo to adjourn Wednesday's first hearing on the challenges without setting a new date further delays any resolution on a bill that, if signed into law, could jeopardise donor funding for a country facing an economic crisis.
AFP
Hong Kong demands online platforms remove banned protest song
Hong Kong demanded Wednesday that a protest song popular during pro-democracy demonstrations be removed from the internet after a court banned it, judging it was a "weapon" to incite violent protests in 2019."It had been used as an impetus to propel the violent protests plaguing Hong Kong since 2019.
CNN
Waves of storms turn deadly in Tennessee as central and eastern US face another substantial tornado threat
Strong storms tracking through the central and eastern US Wednesday killed at least one person and there are more intense storms on the way.
NBC News
Biden campaign goes after Trump on health care in $14 million ad boost
The ad campaign in battleground states will focus in part on Donald Trump's previous efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
TODAY
Dale Talde fires up the grill for Filipino pork belly and adobo potatoes
Celebrate the start of grilling season with a Filipino-style cookout.
Reuters
Biden set to tighten asylum access at US-Mexico border - sources
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration is set to tighten access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border via a new regulation that could be issued as soon as Thursday, three sources familiar with the matter said, in a targeted move aimed at reducing illegal crossings. The regulation would require migrants to be assessed at an initial asylum screening stage to see whether they should be barred from asylum and quickly deported, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal government planning. The migrants would be assessed for asylum bars related to criminality and security threats, two of the sources said.
Associated Press
Steward Health Care says it is selling the 30+ hospitals it operates nationwide
Steward Health Care said it plans to sell off all its hospitals after announcing this week that it filed for bankruptcy protection. The Dallas-based company, which operates more than 30 hospitals nationwide, said it does not expect any interruptions in its hospitals’ day-to-day operations, which the company said will continue in the ordinary course throughout the Chapter 11 process. In court filings, the company said that beginning in late January, Steward initiated what it described as a “phased marketing process” for the sale of its hospital facilities.
CNN
Rescue team from US Air Force airlifts critically ill passenger from cruise ship in open Atlantic waters
A US Air Force rescue team airlifted a civilian passenger needing urgent medical care this past weekend from a Carnival cruise ship that was hundreds of miles out in open Atlantic waters.
Associated Press
New lawsuit renews challenge to Tennessee laws targeting crossover voting in primary elections
A group of Tennesseans who say they were intimidated into not voting in a primary election or were threatened with prosecution after they did vote has filed a legal challenge to two state laws meant to prevent crossover voting. Tennessee voters do not register by party, and neither law defines what it means to be a bona fide party member. One of the plaintiffs is Victor Ashe, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland and longtime Tennessee Republican politician Victor Ashe, who claims the laws are so vague that he could be prosecuted for voting in a Republican primary.
AFP
Pro-Palestinian campus protests spread to UK universities
The grass outside SOAS University of London has been dotted with a handful of tents since the start of this week, with Palestinian flags and slogans calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.At Edinburgh, a group of students began a hunger strike to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Yahoo Finance
Warner Bros. Discovery earnings preview: Investors eye NBA updates amid linear TV turmoil
Warner Bros. Discovery will report first quarter earnings before the bell on Thursday. Here's what to expect
Associated Press
Why the US paused the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel ahead of a possible Rafah attack
As it targets Hamas’ underground tunnels in Gaza, Israel has relied on powerful 2,000-pound bombs provided by the United States. The U.S. is pausing a shipment of 1,800 of the bombs, as well as 1,700 500-pound bombs, U.S. officials said. The decision comes as Israel is planning an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah in an attempt to root out the final elements of Hamas.

Data: McDonald's foray into chicken sandwich wars leads to foot traffic boost

Latest Stories

China's Xi arrives in Hungary for talks on expanding Chinese investments

Lawmakers grill K-12 school administrators in heated hearing on antisemitic incidents: 4 takeaways

South Carolina Senate turns wide-ranging energy bill into resolution supporting more power

South Gaza hospitals have only three days' fuel left: WHO

Ex-correctional official sent to US prison for payments from Galleon's Rajaratnam

Ohio Senate votes to put Biden on 2024 ballot, but problem isn't fixed yet

Microsoft to shut Africa development centre in Nigeria

Lawyers' coalition provides new messengers for Black voter engagement

Ghana's top court postpones hearing on challenge to anti-LGBTQ bill

Hong Kong demands online platforms remove banned protest song

Waves of storms turn deadly in Tennessee as central and eastern US face another substantial tornado threat

Biden campaign goes after Trump on health care in $14 million ad boost

Dale Talde fires up the grill for Filipino pork belly and adobo potatoes

Biden set to tighten asylum access at US-Mexico border - sources

Steward Health Care says it is selling the 30+ hospitals it operates nationwide

Rescue team from US Air Force airlifts critically ill passenger from cruise ship in open Atlantic waters

New lawsuit renews challenge to Tennessee laws targeting crossover voting in primary elections

Pro-Palestinian campus protests spread to UK universities

Warner Bros. Discovery earnings preview: Investors eye NBA updates amid linear TV turmoil

Why the US paused the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel ahead of a possible Rafah attack