Democrat Jumaane Williams says he’s running for N.Y. governor
NEW YORK — Democrat Jumaane Williams, New York City’s elected public advocate, is running for New York governor, making the self-described activist perhaps the most progressive candidate in next year’s increasingly crowded race already featuring two formidable and potentially history-making candidates. Williams, a 45-year-old former New York City councilman who...
Poland uses water hoses at border, blames Belarus for attack
WARSAW, Poland — Polish border forces said they were attacked with stones by migrants Tuesday at the border with Belarus and responded by using water cannons against them. Police said the migrants were given gas grenades and other weapons by Belarusian forces, who directed the entire violent operation with a...
Woman bites off part of Louisiana officer’s ear in bar fight
HOUMA, La. — Authorities in southern Louisiana are searching for a woman who bit off part of an officer’s ear. Houma police were trying to break up a fight between several women in a bar’s parking lot just after midnight on Friday when one of them started biting the ear...
Pfizer asks U.S. officials to OK promising covid-19 pill
WASHINGTON — Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to authorize its experimental pill for covid-19, setting the stage for a likely launch this winter of a promising treatment that can be taken at home. The company’s filing comes as new infections are rising once again in the United States, driven mainly...
Wyoming GOP votes to stop recognizing Liz Cheney as a Republican
CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Republican Party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in its second formal rebuke for her criticism of former President Donald Trump. The 31-29 vote Saturday in Buffalo, Wyo., by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP...
Heavy rain in Pacific Northwest brings flooding, evacuations, school closuresVideo
BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Heavy rainfall in Washington caused flooding Monday that forced school closures and evacuation warnings and stranded people in their cars as storms with high winds pounded the Pacific Northwest. The National Weather Service warned that winds nearing hurricane strength were possible in the region that has seen...
Biden signs infrastructure bill into law at rare bipartisan gatheringVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed his hard-fought $1 trillion infrastructure deal into law Monday before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn, declaring that the new infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more is going to make life “change for the better” for the American...
Philadelphia labor leader, city council member convicted in corruption trial
PHILADELPHIA — A powerful Philadelphia labor leader and a city council member were found guilty of conspiracy charges Monday in a corruption trial. Prosecutors said John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty kept Bobby Henon, a union electrician-turned-Philadelphia City Council member, on the payroll to help his union keep a tight grip on...
Infowars’ Alex Jones ordered to pay damages to families of Sandy Hook shooting victims
Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was found liable Monday for damages in lawsuits brought by parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting over Jones’ claims that the massacre was a hoax. Judge Barbara Bellis took the rare step of defaulting Jones in the defamation...
Flu rips through University of Michigan campus, bringing CDC to Ann Arbor
DETROIT — Influenza is sweeping the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus, with 528 cases diagnosed at the University Health Service since Oct. 6. The outbreak is so sudden and large — 313 cases were identified the week of Nov. 8 alone and 37% of flu tests that week were...
6 teens injured in drive-by shooting near Denver area school
AURORA, Colo. — Six teenagers were shot in a drive-by shooting Monday in a park near a high school in suburban Denver, but all were expected to survive, police said. The victims, who range in age from 14 to 18, are all students at Aurora Central High School, Aurora police...
Thousands of military families struggle with food insecurity
It’s a hidden crisis that has existed for years inside one of the most well-funded institutions on the planet and has only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. As many as 160,000 active-duty military members are having trouble feeding their families. That estimate by Feeding America, which coordinates the work of...
Space junk sends station astronauts into docked capsules
Space junk threatened the seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Monday and forced them to seek shelter in their docked capsules. The U.S. Space Command said it was tracking a field of orbiting debris, the apparent result of some type of satellite break-up. The astronauts retreated into their...
U.K. raises terror threat level after Liverpool taxi blast
LONDON — British authorities raised the country’s threat level to its second-highest rung on Monday, after police said a blast in a taxi outside a Liverpool hospital that killed one man and injured another was caused by a homemade bomb. Investigators said they were treating the explosion in Liverpool as...
Prosecutor: Kyle Rittenhouse provoked the bloodshed in KenoshaVideo
KENOSHA, Wis. — Kyle Rittenhouse provoked bloodshed on the streets of Kenosha by bringing a semi-automatic rifle to a protest and menacing others, and when the shooting stopped, he walked off like a “hero in a Western,” a prosecutor said in closing arguments Monday at Rittenhouse’s murder trial. But Rittenhouse’s...
Foreign students returning to U.S., but below pre-covid levels
International students are returning to U.S. colleges in stronger numbers this year, but the rebound has yet to make up for last year’s historic declines as covid-19 continues to disrupt academic exchange, according to a new survey. Nationwide, American colleges and universities saw a 4% annual increase in international students...
Austria locks down the unvaccinated amid covid surge
BERLIN — Austria took what its leader called the “dramatic” step Monday of implementing a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people who haven’t recently had covid-19, perhaps the most drastic of a string of measures being taken by European governments to get a massive regional resurgence of the virus under control....
America is about to find where its once-a-decade heart is
The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday is announcing where the new population center of the U.S. is located, an event that take places every 10 years after the once-a-decade census shows where people are living. The center of the U.S. population distribution has been located in Missouri since 1980, and...
Trump ally Steve Bannon appears in court on contempt chargesVideo
WASHINGTON — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon appeared before a judge on Monday to face criminal contempt charges for defying a subpoena from Congress’ Jan. 6 committee, then declared combatively outside court that he was “taking on the Biden regime” in fighting the charges. Bannon did not enter a plea...
Biden’s $1T infrastructure bill historic, not transformative
WASHINGTON — The $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signs into law represents a historic achievement at a time of deeply fractured politics. But the compromises needed to bridge the political divide suggest that the spending might not be as transformative as Biden has promised for the U.S....
Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy won’t seek reelection
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving member of the Senate, said Monday he will not seek reelection in 2022 to the seat he has held for eight terms. Leahy, 81, said he and his wife, Marcelle, have concluded that “it is time to pass the...
Democrat Beto O’Rourke running for Texas governor in 2022
AUSTIN, Texas — Democrat Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas, pursuing a blue breakthrough in America’s biggest red state after his star-making U.S. Senate campaign in 2018 put him closer than anyone else in decades. O’Rourke’s announcement Monday kicks off a third run for office in as many...
Poland arrests 3 in connection to antisemitic demonstration
WARSAW, Poland — Three people have been arrested in Poland in connection with an antisemitic demonstration last week where far-right participants shouted “Death to the Jews!,” the country’s interior minister said Monday. The demonstration took place last Thursday, on Poland’s Independence Day, in the central Polish city of Kalisz. Participants...
Baby elephant loses half its trunk to Indonesia poacher trap
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A baby elephant in Indonesia’s Sumatra island has had half of her trunk amputated after being caught in what authorities said Monday was a trap set by poachers who prey on the endangered species. The 1-year-old female is among the last of the island’s 700 wild...
EU to add airlines to Belarus sanctions as tensions mount
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday ratcheted up pressure on Belarus by agreeing to slap sanctions on airlines accused of helping President Alexander Lukashenko to wage a “hybrid attack” against the bloc using migrants, as tensions mounted on the Polish border. Up to 4,000 migrants are stuck in makeshift...
