New Zealand airline is asking passengers to weigh in before their flights
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand’s national airline is asking passengers to step on the scales before they board international flights. Air New Zealand says it wants to weigh 10,000 passengers during a monthlong survey so pilots can better know the weight and balance of their planes before takeoff. But...
Kevin McCarthy floats contempt for FBI director over document requestVideo
WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy threatened Tuesday to seek to hold the head of the FBI in contempt of Congress if the agency didn’t comply with a congressional subpoena issued after lawmakers received “whistleblower disclosures” related to President Joe Biden. The comments came hours before the head of the House...
Cruise ship passengers left terrified after ship sails through rough seas on return to CharlestonVideo
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A cruise ship that navigated rough seas off the South Carolina coast over the Memorial Day weekend has resumed sailing on its next cruise, Carnival Cruise Lines said. Terrified passengers on the Carnival Sunshine took to social media to post video of water pouring through a flooded...
Manson follower Leslie Van Houten should be paroled, California appeals court rules
LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court said Tuesday that Leslie Van Houten, who participated in two killings at the direction of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969, should be let out of prison on parole. The appellate court’s ruling reverses an earlier decision by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who rejected...
Trump lawyer says he was ‘waved off’ searching Mar-a-Lago office for classified documentsVideo
A lawyer for former President Donald Trump reportedly said he was “waved off” of searching his Mar-a-Lago office for classified documents after the feds issued a subpoena demanding their return. Attorney Evan Corcoran told two colleagues he was barred from looking for secret documents in Trump’s personal office at the...
South Carolina gas station owner charged with murder in 14-year-old’s shooting deathVideo
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina gas station owner was charged Monday with murder in the death of a 14-year-old boy whom he allegedly chased from the store and shot in the back, the sheriff said. Rick Chow thought the teen had shoplifted four bottles of water Sunday night from...
Pa. woman who threatened Nancy Pelosi with hanging during Capitol riot gets over 2 years in prison
A Pennsylvania restaurant owner who screamed death threats directed at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than two years in prison. Pauline Bauer was near Pelosi’s office suite on Jan. 6, 2021, when she yelled at police officers to bring out...
Trump takes aim at birthright U.S. citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants
Former President Trump Tuesday vowed to deny citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants who are born in the U.S. if he wins reelection next year. Although anyone born in the U.S. is guaranteed citizenship by the 14th Amendment, Trump declared he would end birthright citizenship as a priority if he...
Republican Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah planning to resign, report says
WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Stewart, a Republican from Utah, plans to resign from Congress, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The newspaper report, citing multiple unnamed sources, said Stewart plans to step down as early as this week due to undisclosed health issues experienced by his wife, Evie Stewart. He...
11-year-old boy says he thought he would die after Mississippi police officer shot himVideo
JACKSON, Miss. — An 11-year-old Mississippi boy who called police to help his family and then was shot by an officer said the bullet that pierced his lung felt “like a big punch to the chest.” “I actually thought I was about to lose my life,” Aderrien Murry told “Good...
Minnesota governor signs bill legalizing recreational marijuana starting in August
ST. PAUL, Minn. —Surrounded by dozens of cheering people in green clothes, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill Tuesday to legalize recreational marijuana for people over the age of 21 starting in August, making Minnesota the 23rd state to legalize the substance for adults. “This has been a...
NATO to send 700 more troops to Kosovo to help quell violent protests
OSLO, Norway — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that the military organization has sent 700 more troops to Kosovo to help quell violent protests and has put another battalion on standby in case the riots spread. “We have decided to deploy 700 more troops from the operational reserve force...
Biden to host UK Prime Minister Sunak next week for talks on Ukraine, climate
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will host British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the White House next week for talks on Ukraine, climate issues and more. Sunak is slated to visit Washington on June 7-8 and will also meet with U.S. lawmakers and business leaders in addition to his Oval...
Why Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment fight isn’t finished yet
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Legislature already made one historic move with its impeachment of Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Another one is coming. The GOP-led House of Representatives on Saturday approved 20 articles of impeachment on sweeping allegations of wrongdoing that have trailed the state’s top lawyer for...
Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton could vote in trial on husband’s impeachment
AUSTIN, Texas — On the way to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton becoming a rising figure in the GOP, his wife, Angela, used to entertain crowds with a guitar and a song. “I’m a pistol-packin’ mama, and my husband sues Obama,” she sang at campaign events and Republican clubs in...
Norway says Beluga whale with apparent Russian-made harness swims south to Sweden
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norwegian authorities said Tuesday that a beluga whale, which was first spotted in Arctic Norway four years ago with an apparent Russian-made harness and alleged to have come from a Russian military facility, has been seen off Sweden’s coast nearly 2,000 kilometers (around 1,250 miles) to the...
Post-soccer match brawl in Germany leaves teen with life-threatening injuries
FRANKFURT, Germany — A 15-year-old soccer player has been hospitalized with life-threatening brain injuries after being struck by an opposing player in a post-match fight during an international youth tournament in Germany. A 16-year-old from a French team was jailed pending further investigation by a judge in Frankfurt, where the...
Why do Kosovo-Serbia tensions persist?
BELGRADE, Serbia — Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew this weekend after Kosovo’s police raided Serb-dominated areas in the region’s north and seized local municipality buildings. There have been violent clashes between Kosovo’s police and NATO-led peacekeepers on one side and local Serbs on the other, leaving dozens of...
Teenager walks at brain injury event weeks after getting shot in head for knocking on wrong door
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ralph Yarl — a Black teenager who was shot in the head and arm after mistakenly ringing the wrong doorbell — walked at a brain injury awareness event in his first major public appearance since the shooting. The 17-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury when he...
Tesla’s Musk meets Chinese foreign minister, who calls for ‘mutual respect’ in U.S.-China relations
BEIJING — China’s foreign minister met Tesla Ltd. CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday and said strained U.S.-Chinese relations require “mutual respect,” while delivering a message of reassurance that foreign companies are welcome. U.S.-Chinese relations are especially tense after Washington shot down a Chinese balloon believed to be gathering intelligence and...
U.S. ends probe into Tesla allowing video games while vehicles are moving
DETROIT — U.S. highway safety regulators have closed an investigation into Tesla allowing video games to be played on center touch screens while vehicles are moving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted Tuesday that Tesla disabled the feature called “passenger play” with an online software update...
Beijing says no meeting between U.S., Chinese defense chiefs at Singapore gathering
BEIJING — Prospects for a renewed high-level military dialogue between China and the U.S. remain dim, with Beijing saying their defense chiefs will not hold a bilateral meeting while both are attending a weekend security conference in Singapore. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday blamed the U.S., saying Washington...
Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to report to Texas prisonVideo
Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes is scheduled to move to her new home —-a federal prison where she has been sentenced to spend the next 11 years for overseeing a blood-testing hoax that became a parable about greed and hubris in Silicon Valley. The federal judge who sentenced Holmes, 39,...
Debt limit deal heads to vote in full House while McCarthy scrambles for GOP approval
WASHINGTON — Under fire from conservatives, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked furiously Tuesday to sell fellow Republicans on the debt ceiling and budget deal he negotiated with President Joe Biden and win approval in time to avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default. Leaders of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus lambasted...
LGBTQ+ activists call for new strategies to promote equality after Target backlash
RICHMOND, Va. — Following Target’s announcement last week that it removed products and relocated Pride displays to the back of certain stores in the South, activists in the LGBTQ+ community are calling for new campaigns to convince corporate leaders not to cave to anti-LGBTQ+ groups. “We need a strategy on...
