Digest

Social Security and Medicare could fail

WASHINGTON — The financial safety nets millions of older Americans rely on — and millions more young people are counting on — will run short of money to pay full benefits within the next decade, the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released Friday warns.

Medicare, the government-sponsored health insurance that covers 65 million older and disabled people, will be unable to pay full benefits for inpatient hospital visits and nursing home stays by 2031, the report forecast. Just two years later, Social Security won’t have enough cash on hand to pay out full benefits to its 66 million retirees.

The report is another prod for politicians to address the fragile financial state of the social programs, which are only expected to get more expensive.

Case against Fox will go to trial

DOVER, Del. — A voting machine company’s defamation case against Fox News over its airing of false allegations about the 2020 presidential election will go to trial after a Delaware judge on Friday ruled that a jury must decide whether the network aired the claims with actual malice, the standard for proving libel against public figures.

Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled that neither Fox nor Dominion Voting Systems presented a convincing argument to prevail on whether Fox acted with malice without the case going to trial. The decision paves the way for a trial start in mid-April.

Dominion is suing the network for $1.6 billion, claiming Fox defamed it by repeatedly airing false allegations by then-President Donald Trump and his allies in the weeks after the 2020 election claiming the company’s machines and its accompanying software switched votes to Democrat Joe Biden.

BRIEFLY

TRAIN DERAILMENT: The federal government filed a lawsuit this week against railroad Norfolk Southern over environmental damage caused by a train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border that spilled hazardous chemicals into nearby creeks and rivers last month.

VATICAN: Doctors cleared Pope Francis for discharge on Saturday from the Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis, the Vatican said Friday. Francis, 86, was hospitalized Wednesday.

ECONOMY: The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge slowed sharply last month. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed consumer prices rose 0.3% from January to February, down from a 0.6% increase from December to January. Measured year-over-year, prices rose 5%, slower than the 5.3% annual increase in January.

BELARUS: Russian strategic nuclear weapons might be deployed to Belarus along with part of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday, ramping up his rhetoric amid tensions with the West over the war in Ukraine.

JOURNALIST ARREST:  President Joe Biden on Friday urged Russia to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges — allegations the newspaper denies. Russia’s Federal Security Service accused Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, of trying to obtain classified information.  

CANADIAN BORDER: The bodies of two more migrants who died trying to cross from Canada into the United States, were found Friday, bringing the death toll to eight, including two children, police in the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne said. A police helicopter spotted the latest two bodies in the water.

— Associated Press