Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso withdraw from West Africa economic bloc ECOWAS, citing coup sanctions, officials say

New York is poised to become the seventh-worst state in the US to take up retirement in 2024, according to a recent study from WalletHub. States that fared worse than New York include Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Mississippi, New Jersey and Kentucky, which landed in last place. WalletHub ranked all 50 US states on how retirement-friendly…

NEW YORK — British billionaire Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club, pleaded guilty Wednesday to insider trading and conspiracy charges in New York. The 86-year-old businessman entered the plea in Manhattan federal court six months after he was charged in the case. He had been free on $300 million bail,…

U.S. stocks closed higher following signals that the economy is growing more powerfully than economists expected

SAN FRANCISCO — A farmworker charged with killing seven people last year in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms was indicted by a grand jury in an effort by prosecutors to move the case along, authorities said. Chunli Zhao was in court Tuesday to be arraigned on seven counts of first-degree murder and…

TRENTON, N.J. — Dawn Ericksen was struggling with an opioid addiction a dozen years ago when she got pregnant and realized she couldn’t keep herself safe, much less a baby. Working part-time, she couldn’t afford the hundreds of dollars she would need for an abortion and had to turn to a trusted friend to help…

Over the past two years, as Ishan Bhabha and his colleagues at the law firm Jenner & Block prepared briefs for the affirmative action case the Supreme Court ruled on last year, Mr. Bhabha had a realization: If higher education institutions like Harvard were the first target of litigation about diversity, equity and inclusion, America’s…