Stock market today: Asian shares rise after eased pressure on bonds pushes Wall Street higher

From auto production lines to Hollywood, the power of labor unions is back in the national spotlight. But despite historic strikes and record contract negotiations seen this year, there’s still a lot stacked against organizing today. Rates of union membership have been falling for decades. More than 35% of private sector workers, for example, had a union in 1953 compared with about 6% today. Experts point to changes in the U.S. economy, ample employer opposition and growing political partisanship seen in recent decades. And, under current federal and state labor laws, desires to organize can only go so far without policy change.

Netflix uber-producer Shonda Rhimes has snapped up the rights for “Black Barbie: A Documentary,” which chronicles Mattel’s 1980 introduction of the first Black doll, bringing some much-needed diversity to the iconic brand.

England’s players will have to make themselves more unpopular than they already are if they want to reach the Rugby World Cup semifinals. They say they have no problem with that. England hooker Jamie George has spoken ahead of the quarterfinal against Fiji on Sunday in Marseille and says “outside of England, I think people probably don’t really like us too much." The Fijians are the darlings of the tournament owing to their style of play and underdog status. The English appear to be adopting an ‘us against the world’ mentality as a form of motivation ahead of their biggest match since the Rugby World Cup final in 2019. They lost that to South Africa.

Lidia has dissipated after hitting land as a Category 4 hurricane near the resort of Puerta Vallarta. One person was killed by a falling tree and two others were injured after the hurricane made landfall on Tuesday and carried winds as high as 140 mph before moving inland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday that Lidia's winds were down to 35 mph as it dissipated about 145 miles north-northeast of the city of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest metropolis. Also Wednesday, Tropical Storm Sean formed far out in the Atlantic, but it was not expected to strengthen much.

A schism between Ohio’s House Republicans appears to only be widening after a rival GOP-contingent sued fellow conservative House Speaker Jason Stephens for control of over $1 million in campaign funds. In a lawsuit filed Saturday, State Rep. Derek Merrin says he controls the Ohio House Republican Alliance and its coffers that fund campaigns for Republican legislators after a closed-door vote earlier this year naming him Republican caucus leader. Merrin, along with two other plaintiffs, are also suing Stephens and another representative for nearly $400,000 in reimbursement and damages. Stephens maintains that as speaker, he is the leader of the alliance and called the lawsuit desperate.

NEW YORK — Billy Joel has added another show to his record-setting Madison Square Garden residency.

Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly speaker revealed the names of the three former state Supreme Court justices he asked to investigate possible impeachment of a sitting justice for the first time in a court filing made public Wednesday. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos floated impeaching liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz if she did not recuse from a redistricting lawsuit seeking to toss GOP-drawn legislative district boundary maps. She is not recusing. Vos asked three former justices to review the possibility of impeachment, but he refused to name them. In a court filing, Vos identified those he asked as former Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and former justices David Prosser and Jon Wilcox.

“Objection, your honor, on the simple fact that she’s just angry!” That’s one of the funnier lines teed up by Jamie Foxx in the courtroom drama “The Burial,” which is based on a real case from the 1990s.

The three leading candidates for California’s Senate seat have presented voters with sharply contrasting styles. On substance, however, their differences have tended to be more nuance than schism.

AUSTIN — State and local police would have the unprecedented power to arrest immigrants who enter the country illegally under a bill that took a critical step forward Tuesday.

A conservation group in Cyprus says that police have been lax in cracking down on criminal gangs who illegally trap songbirds to supply restaurants. Tassos Shialis of the conservation group BirdLife Cyprus says that the overall war on songbird poaching is being won. But he says criminal gangs continue to make “serious money by trapping on an industrial scale” and are doing so “with impunity.” Shialis says there are still up to 15 major trapping sites that use mist nets _  fine mesh suspended between two poles _ to catch the birds.

Prosecutors are recommending a prison sentence for a former Republican candidate for Michigan governor. Ryan Kelley pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for his participation in the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. He returns to federal court in Washington next week. Prosecutors say Kelley has shown no remorse. They want a three-month prison sentence. Kelley has pleaded guilty to a charge of illegally entering a restricted area. Kelley's attorney says probation, not prison, is an appropriate sentence. Kelley's arrest in 2022 gave his campaign for governor a burst of notoriety. But he finished far behind other supporters of former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary election.

Fiction originally written in Vietnamese, Polish and French and poetry in German and Arabic are among this year’s finalists for National Translation Awards. On Wednesday, the American Literary Translators Association announced lists of six finalists in prose and poetry, with winning translators in each category receiving $4,000. The books include a translation of poetry by the late Nobel laureate Nelly Sachs and a compilation of 37 poets from China's Tang Dynasty, as translated by Wong May. Winners will be announced Nov. 11

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Israel formed a rare emergency government with some opposition members on Wednesday to see the country through its war with Hamas.

Seven months after Gov. Gavin Newsom promised that by the fall California would purchase and deliver 1,200 tiny homes to cities across the state, including 350 to Sacramento, officials have not selected a builder nor awarded any contracts.

A Swedish court has fined climate activist Greta Thunberg once again for disobeying police during an environmental protest in July in southern Sweden. The Malmo District Court on Wednesday fined her 2,250 kroner ($206). Thunberg has been fined for a similar offense earlier. She took part in a July 24 environmental protest at an oil terminal in Malmo where activists temporarily blocked access to the facility and were removed by police. Thunberg, 20, has admitted to the facts but denied guilt, saying the fight against the fossil fuel industry was a form of self-defense due to the existential and global threat of the climate crisis.

Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith have lived what she says are “completely separate lives” since 2016. Pinkett Smith made the revelation in a interview with Hoda Kotb. The prominent Hollywood couple married in 1997 and have addressed separations and marital troubles. But never this specifically. Though it’s not a legal divorce, Pinkett Smith told Kotb in a clip released Wednesday that it is essentially a divorce without papers. Smith and Pinkett Smith share two children, Willow and Jaden, as well as a son, Trey, from Smith’s first marriage. Representatives for the actors did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The New England Patriots are making some big changes to try to improve their offense. For now, a change at quarterback won’t be one of them. Coach Bill Belichick says Mac Jones will remain the starter when the Patriots visit the Las Vegas Raiders. Jones is having his worst season since being drafted 15th overall in 2021. He completed just 12 of 22 passes for 110 yards and two interceptions in New England’s 34-0 loss to New Orleans last week. His 30.5 passer rating was the second-worst mark of his career. Jones had six turnovers over the past two weeks, one of the biggest impediments for an offense that has managed just three points during that stretch.

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German authorities have arrested an Iraqi man accused of involvement in the killing of prisoners and the amputation of a person's hand as a member of the Islamic State group in his homeland. Federal prosecutors said the suspect was arrested on Wednesday in the western city of Wuppertal. He is accused of membership in a foreign terrorist organization and participation in war crimes. Prosecutors said that he joined IS by June 2014 and in the following months participated twice in “draconian public punishments.” They said he was involved in the execution of at least six prisoners and is accused of providing security while the hand of an alleged thief was amputated.

The Dominican Republic has partially reopened its border with Haiti to limited commercial activity nearly a month after shuttering the frontier amid an ongoing spat over construction of a canal targeting water from a shared river. Vendors in Dominican border cities are allowed to sell basic goods like food and medicine. But exportation of electronic products and construction materials including cement and metal rods is prohibited. Wednesday marked the first time since Sept. 15 that the border partially reopened. Dominican President Luis Abinader upheld a ban on issuing visas to Haitian citizens that he implemented last month and will keep the border closed to all migrants.

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Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and conductor Rafael Payare are on a four-concert cross-country run that ends Friday night at Carnegie Hall. They met in 2009 at a rehearsal in Caracas, Venezuela, became a couple three nights later and were married in 2013. Getting them on the road together becomes quite complicated, with six plane tickets needed: one each for mom and dad, two for daughters Ariadna and Elina, one for the nanny and one for the cello. Weilerstein and Payare own a home in San Diego and rent a house in Canada, where he is in his second season as music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

A beefy, bald-headed informant known by the Spanish nickname Boliche – bowling ball –is expected to play a key role in the federal trial this month in New York of two veteran U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents charged in a $73,000 bribery conspiracy involving leaked information about ongoing drug investigations. It’s a case expected to cast a harsh light on the seamy underbelly of overseas drug prosecutions and cause more embarrassment for the nation’s premier narcotics law enforcement agency, which has seen at least 18 agents charged or convicted of crimes since 2015.

EDITORS: Customers should not use MENTAL-ILLNESS-CAPITAL-PUNISHMENT:LA, which moved earlier Wednesday. That story has been overtaken.

The Buffalo Bills placed linebacker Matt Milano and nose tackle DaQuan Jones on injured reserve and signed linebacker A.J. Klein to their roster. The moves continue the process of reinforcing the Bills' injury-depleted defense. Milano hurt his lower right leg and Jones tore his pectoral muscle in a 25-20 loss to Jacksonville last weekend. Both require surgery and are out indefinitely. Klein is a 10-year veteran who was signed off Buffalo’s practice squad. The 32-year-old is familiar with the defense after spending much of the past three seasons in Buffalo. The Bills host the New York Giants on Sunday night.

This Date in Baseball, October 12 - Paul Molitor of Milwaukee had five hits, a World Series record

Today in Sports, October 12 - Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge becomes 1st to run a marathon in under 2 hours

Kenya's government has announced that it won't renew a deal that saw Cuban doctors employed in Kenya while those from the East African country travelled to Cuba for specialized training. The program has been unpopular with Kenya’s main doctors union, partly because the Cuban doctors received more than double the average salary of their Kenyan counterparts. Critics have argued that the money would be better spent on Kenya’s medical infrastructure and on its own doctors. Under the deal signed in 2017, 50 Kenyans were sent to Cuba to undergo specialized training, while 100 Cubans were dispatched to county level hospitals in Kenya to help improve services.

Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez is trying to distance the City University of New York from student groups defending Hamas, as organizations across several of its campuses have rallied behind the Palestinian militant group’s attacks on Israeli civilians.

While John Carpenter has become synonymous with fictional horror storytelling, the 75-year-old director is dipping his toe into true life terrors with his new show, “John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams.” The director sat down with The Associated Press for a wide-ranging interview ahead of the release of the unscripted anthology series, which fittingly hits Peacock on Friday the 13th. He said “Barbie” is a sign of incredible progress, even if he “can’t promise you that I understood the damn movie or cared about it that much.”

Two Los Angeles County Sheriff ‘s deputies were injured Tuesday when a fire erupted in a training accident.