News category, Page 844

With the polar bear species in a fight for survival because of disappearing Arctic sea ice, a new distinct group of Greenland bears seem to have stumbled on an icy oasis that might allow a small remote population to “hang on.” But it’s far from “a life raft” for the...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Abortion providers in some places where the procedure could be banned if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade are bracing for a ruling by halting scheduling for the procedure, transitioning staff to help patients travel to other states and creating networks of clinics that...

MIAMI — Florida is the only the state that hasn’t preordered covid-19 vaccines for toddlers in anticipation of their final approval by the federal government, and Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that he won’t facilitate their distribution, though he said they’ll be available to those who want them. White House...

KYIV, Ukraine — Four European leaders expressed their support for Ukraine on Thursday while meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, vowing to back Kyiv’s candidacy to eventually join the European Union and offering more weapons to fend off Russia’s invasion. French President Emmanuel Macron promised Ukraine six more truck-mounted artillery guns,...

ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA is hoping the fourth time’s the charm for the final big test before it can finally launch its massive new rocket to the moon. The redo of the Artemis I wet dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center is slated to begin Saturday evening with staff called...

NEW YORK — A concert by John Hinckley Jr., who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has been canceled even as Hinckley was freed from federal court oversight, the New York City venue that had booked the performance announced. The Market Hotel in Brooklyn cited “very real and...

WASHINGTON — The 1/6 committee is set to plunge into Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to salvage the 2020 election by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to defy historical precedent and reject the electoral count in the run-up to the U.S. Capitol riot. With two witnesses Thursday, the House panel intends...

WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol has asked Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for an interview, the panel’s chairman said Thursday afternoon. Thomas, a conservative activist, communicated with people in President Donald Trump’s orbit ahead of the...

The federal government is taking preliminary steps toward revising racial and ethnic classifications that have not been changed in a quarter century following calls for more accurate categories for how people identify themselves in federal data gathering. The revisions could open the door to changes long desired by advocates on...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday convicted a Confederate flag-toting man and his son of charges that they stormed the U.S. Capitol together during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden delivered the verdict from the...

The first covid-19 shots for U.S. infants, toddlers and preschoolers moved a step closer Wednesday. The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisers gave a thumbs-up to vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the littlest kids. The outside experts voted unanimously that the benefits of the shots outweigh any risks for...

EL MONTE, Calif. — Two Southern California police officers were patrolling their shared hometown — one on the force for more than two decades and the other for just months — when both were slain Tuesday in a shootout while investigating a possible stabbing at a suburban Los Angeles motel....

NEW YORK — Lawyers for British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell told a judge Wednesday that she should face no more than four to five years in prison for her sex trafficking conviction and role in financier Jeffrey Epstein’s decade-long sex abuse of teenage girls. They said in a Manhattan federal court...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Recognition of Juneteenth, the effective end of slavery in the U.S., gained traction after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. But after an initial burst of action, the movement to have it recognized as an official holiday in the states has largely stalled. Although almost...

The Pennsylvania Senate on Wednesday passed a concurrent resolution that would block Gov. Tom Wolf’s regulatory changes to the state’s charter school law from taking effect. By a 30-20 near party-line vote, the chamber approved the House-passed disapproval resolution which now goes to the governor who is expected to veto...

The stakes over state investment in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education got higher on Wednesday with the approval of a new enrollment-driven formula for allocating dollars to the system’s soon-to-be 10 universities. The system’s governing board on Wednesday unanimously voted to implement a funding distribution formula that at the...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of America’s pandemic response through two White House administrations, has tested positive for the coronavirus. The 81-year-old Fauci, who is fully vaccinated and has received two booster shots, was experiencing mild covid-19 symptoms, according to a statement Wednesday from the National Institutes of Health. Fauci...

NORFOLK, Va. — John Hinckley Jr., who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was freed from court oversight Wednesday, officially concluding decades of supervision by legal and mental health professionals. “After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!,” he wrote on Twitter shortly after 12...

Polling released Tuesday shows Democrat John Fetterman with an early advantage over Republican Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s high-profile U.S. Senate race, while Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican Doug Mastriano are locked in a tight race for governor. The Suffolk University/USA Today poll is the first major polling on the general...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday intensified its drive to tame high inflation by raising its key interest rate by three-quarters of a point — its largest hike in nearly three decades — and signaling more large rate increases to come that would raise the risk of another recession....

KYIV, Ukraine — The Russian military said it used long-range missiles Wednesday to destroy a depot in the western Lviv region of Ukraine where ammunition for NATO-supplied weapons was being stored, and the governor of a key eastern city acknowledged that Russian forces are advancing amid heavy fighting. Those strikes...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The white gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket has been charged with federal hate crimes, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. Payton Gendron had already faced a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted on previously filed state...

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping reasserted his country’s support for Russia on issues of sovereignty and security in a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, state media said. Xi told Putin that “all parties should responsibly push for a proper settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” according...

President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on U.S. oil refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel, saying their profits have tripled during a time of war between Russia and Ukraine as Americans struggle with record high prices at the pump. “The crunch that families are facing deserves immediate action,” Biden...

STOCKHOLM — The police car crash in Sweden that killed Swedish artist Lars Vilks last year was an accident, Swedish authorities said Wednesday, not a targeted attack on the cartoonist who lived under police protection since his controversial 2007 sketch of the Prophet Muhammad. An exploding tire led the driver...