Stock markets from Hong Kong to New York were hit by a major sell-off on Monday, as a massive Chinese real estate conglomerate called China Evergrande Group faces a potentially devastating debt default.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped more than 800 points as of mid-afternoon, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also fell sharply.

The Evergrande Group owes roughly $300 billion, and investors fear a default could destabilize the financial system in China, one of the world's top economies.

In the spring of 2020, the British newspaper The Guardian asked a group of prominent novelists, including Hilary Mantel, Marlon James and Kazuo Ishiguro to

Comedian and actor A.J. Johnson has died. Johnson was best known for Friday, Menace II Society and Player's Club.

Anthony "AJ" Johnson, who played the homeless drug addict Ezal in Friday and E.Z.E. in House Party, died on Friday. His death was confirmed by a spokesperson. He was 55. No cause of death has been disclosed.

According to TMZ, Johnson "was found lifeless in a store earlier this month in Los Angeles and rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead."

The Biden administration is easing restrictions on foreign nationals wishing to fly to the United States.

Starting in early November, they will be allowed to enter this country if they can show proof that they have been vaccinated for COVID-19 and that they have tested negatively for the virus within three days of their flight.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Dec. 1 in a case from Mississippi that tests whether all state laws that ban pre-viability abortions are unconstitutional.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org, has the potential to pose a serious challenge to Roe v. Wade. That's the 1973 ruling that declared that a woman has a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy in the first six months of her pregnancy when the fetus is incapable of surviving outside the womb.

In 2020, for the first time in recorded history, more people died in Alabama than were born in the state.

Editor's note: This report includes allegations of sexual and physical abuse.

Federal prosecutors rested their case in the trial against R&B star R. Kelly today.

New Orleans often celebrates with parades: Mardi Gras to honor the city's storied culture, funeral parades to celebrate a well-lived life, and now, a garbage parade to do the opposite of celebration — to protest.

Over three weeks after Hurricane Ida devastated parts of Louisiana, residents in New Orleans are still living alongside piles of household trash due to delayed trash collection pickups. The city's mayor says the situation has reached the point of a crisis.