Today is Wednesday, June 17, the 168th day of 2026. There are 197 days left in the year. On June 17, 1994, after leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Author Amy Griffin sued a former classmate for defamation on Monday, saying the woman’s statements in a New York Times story and a subsequent lawsuit alleging Griffin appropriated her stories of sexual abuse for her bestselling 2025 memoir “The Tell” are false in “every element.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A lightsaber with Luke Skywalker’s severed hand from “The Empire Strikes Back” that is expected to sell for seven figures headlines an upcoming auction of valuables from movies, music and other corners of pop culture.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Qantas Airways plans to launch the world’s longest direct flight next year, a service of up to 22 hours nonstop between London and Sydney.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve kept its key rate unchanged Wednesday yet almost half the central bank’s policymakers said they could support a rate hike later this year, an unexpectedly aggressive outcome that would disappoint President Trump and suggests heightened concerns about persistent inflation.
TOKYO (AP) – Japan recorded a trade deficit in May, the first in four months, as imports of electrical machinery surged, helping to offset a jump in exports, the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday.
LONDON (AP) – Labour’s Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in Parliament that puts him in a position to challenge embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the country.
BRUSSELS (AP) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at NATO allies on Thursday as he announced a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe whose outcome will depend on how fast the Europeans take responsibility for their own security.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. Navy has allowed more than a dozen ships through to Iranian ports, lifting a blockade as part of an agreement to end the war. Vance made the announcement at a White House press briefing, where he said more oil is now flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.
NEW YORK (AP) – High oil and gasoline prices and energy supply problems won’t be solved overnight, despite an agreement to end the Iran war and open the Strait of Hormuz announced Sunday.





















































































































































