Digest

White House proposes no-cost birth control

WASHINGTON — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods such as condoms, the "morning after" pill and birth control pills for free under a rule the White House proposed Monday.

Health insurers now must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms for which doctors have issued a prescription. The new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or "morning after" pills from local storefronts without a prescription.

The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women's health care access after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago.

Tropical storm heads toward the Bahamas

HAVANA — Tropical Storm Oscar dumped heavy rain across eastern Cuba on Monday after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on the island already beleaguered by a massive power outage.

Oscar's maximum sustained winds blew at 40 mph Monday as it moved northwest at 6 mph. The storm was about 50 miles northwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Up to 14 inches of rain were forecast across eastern Cuba, with isolated amounts of up to 20 inches.

Philippe Papin, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, noted not a single forecast model indicated that Oscar might strengthen into a hurricane on Saturday before making landfall in the Bahamas.

BRIEFLY

SUBWAY DEATH: Jury selection began Monday in the criminal trial of U.S. Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny, 25, charged with manslaughter for placing Jordan Neely, 30, in a deadly chokehold May 1, 2023, on a New York City subway train.

COHEN SUIT: Supreme Court justices did not detail their reasoning for rejecting an appeal Monday from Michael Cohen, who wanted to hold his former boss, ex-President Donald Trump, liable for a jailing he said was retaliation for writing a tell-all memoir.

SUDAN: Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said Monday it shot down a cargo jet in the country's far western reaches of Darfur, a claim that Russian diplomats said they were trying to investigate in the war zone.

VENEZUELA: Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced the arrest of former oil minister Pedro Tellechea on Monday and accused him of working with the U.S. government to undermine the industry.

ANDRE HILL: Adam Coy, former Columbus, Ohio, police officer who is white, went on trial Monday in the killing of Andre Hill, a Black man who was fatally shot as he emerged from a garage holding a cellphone nearly four years ago.

MINING WASTE: Victims of Brazil's worst environmental disaster took their class-action lawsuit to a UK court Monday, seeking an estimated $47 billion in damages from mining giant BHP almost nine years after tons of toxic mining waste poured into the Doce River, killing 19 people and devastating local communities.

— Associated Press