West unleashes SWIFT bans, more crushing penalties on Russia
WASHINGTON — The United States and European nations agreed Saturday to impose the most potentially crippling financial penalties yet on Russia over its unrelenting invasion of Ukraine, going after the central bank reserves that underpin the Russian economy and severing some Russian banks from a vital global financial network. The...
Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert, escalating tensions
KYIV, Ukraine — President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday, while Ukraine’s embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin’s troops and tanks drove deeper into the country, closing in around the capital. Citing “aggressive statements” by NATO and...
Rep. Greene’s speech at white nationalist event draws new calls for reprimand
Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene headlined a white nationalist conference in Florida where attendees cheered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and chanted the name of President Vladimir Putin shortly before she was introduced. The Rome lawmaker was the surprise guest at the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando,...
14 shot at Vegas hookah parlor; 1 dead and 2 critically hurt
LAS VEGAS — Fourteen people were shot before dawn Saturday morning at a hookah parlor, and police said one person died and that two of the victims suffered critical injuries. The shooting happened at about 3:15 a.m. and preliminary information indicated there was a party during which two people got...
No notes, same logo: Dr. Oz’s campaign is like his TV show
NEWTOWN — The banners and big red video screen all said Dr. Oz, the host gave a rousing introduction and in strode the candidate, Mehmet Oz, to take up the microphone and become the center of attention for more than an hour. Welcome to Oz’s campaign for U.S. Senate, where...
Trayvon Martin’s mother: ‘Don’t give up’ fight for justice
NEW YORK — The mother of Trayvon Martin used the 10th anniversary of her son’s death Saturday to urge those who sought justice for her family to continue to fight. “I never do anything on the 26th, I never even plan anything on the 26th of February,” Sybrina Fulton said...
China is Russia’s best hope to blunt sanctions, but wary
BEIJING — China is the only friend that might help Russia blunt the impact of economic sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, but President Xi Jinping’s government is giving no sign it might be willing to risk its own access to U.S. and European markets by doing too much. Even...
War via TikTok: Russia’s new tool for propaganda machine
The Russian TikTok video has it all: a cat, puppies and a pulsing background beat. It’s cute, watchable and hardly seems the stuff of state propaganda. In 2014, Russia flooded the internet with fake accounts pushing disinformation about its takeover of Crimea. Eight years later, experts say Russia is mounting...
Russian troops zero in on Kyiv as 150,000 Ukrainians flee
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops closed in on Kyiv and skirmishes flared on its outskirts Saturday as Ukraine’s leader vowed to continue battling an invasion by a much better-armed adversary. Terrified men, women and children sought safety inside and underground amid a 39-hour curfew the government imposed to keep people...
Explainer: What’s ahead for Biden’s Supreme Court nominee
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court has launched what Democrats hope will be a quick, bipartisan confirmation process for the court’s first Black woman. Jackson would replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who has said he will retire this summer at the end...
U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarchs miss richest of rich
WASHINGTON — The term Russian oligarch conjures images of posh London mansions, gold-plated Bentleys and sleek superyachts in the Mediterranean, their decks draped with partiers dripping in jewels. But the raft of sanctions on oligarchs announced by President Joe Biden this week in response to the invasion of Ukraine may...
Scott Peterson juror denies bias during 2004 trial
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The juror at the heart of convicted murderer Scott Peterson’s retrial bid swore Friday that she had no animosity toward him until after she heard evidence that he had killed his pregnant wife in a case that grabbed worldwide attention in 2004. “Before the trial, I didn’t...
Navy to court-martial sailor accused of starting fire that destroyed $1.2B warship
SAN DIEGO — A 20-year-old sailor will face a military trial on charges he deliberately set the fire that destroyed a $1.2 billion warship on the San Diego waterfront in 2020, the Navy announced Friday. Seaman Recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays, a former deck seaman on the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme...
‘Stand your ground’ laws proliferate after Trayvon Martin spotlight
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The “stand your ground” self-defense law had been in effect in Florida for more than six years when it became part of the national vocabulary with the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. When the 17-year-old was fatally shot, Florida was still one of the few...
In trans people, GOP candidates find latest ‘wedge issue’
SCRANTON — Dr. Mehmet Oz leans in to ask a little girl, “Do you remember when your parents thought you were a boy?” The question was but a few seconds of a full 2010 episode of “The Dr. Oz Show” that focused on the experience of raising transgender children. But...
Popcorn? Fear of death? Theater killing trial goes to jury
A Florida prosecutor told jurors Friday that a retired police SWAT commander fatally shot a fellow moviegoer because he threw popcorn in his face during an argument over cellphone use, angering him because it violated his self-image as an “alpha male.” Prosecutor Scott Rosenwasser told jurors during closing arguments that...
CDC: Most Americans can stop wearing masks as risk of severe covid infection eases
Most Americans live in places where healthy people, including students in schools, can safely stop wearing masks under new U.S. guidelines released Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the new set of measures for communities where covid-19 is easing its grip, with less of a focus on...
Ukrainians flee war, seeking safety across western bordersVideo
PRZEMYSL, Poland — Thousands of Ukrainians crossed into neighboring countries to the west in search of safety as Russia pounded their capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day. Most of those arriving on Friday were women, children and the elderly after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday...
Oklahoma’s Inhofe confirms he is resigning U.S. Senate seat
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, says he will step down before his six-year term is up and that he is “absolutely” at peace with the decision. In an interview published Friday by The Oklahoman, the 87-year-old Inhofe said...
Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson, first Black woman, to Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman selected to serve on a court that once declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed segregation. Introducing Jackson, Biden called her a “proven...
NATO leaders meet to reassure allies near Russia, Ukraine
BRUSSELS — U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will seek Friday to reassure member countries on the alliance’s eastern flank that their security is guaranteed as Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine closes in on the capital Kyiv. With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealing for help, NATO members ranging...
German court convicts Catholic priest of abusing girls
BERLIN — A German court on Friday convicted a Catholic priest of sexual abuse of children in cases that spanned many years and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. The Cologne state court also ordered the 70-year-old to pay three co-plaintiffs in the cases damages totaling $56,000, news agency...
Pope Francis voices concern in visit to Russian embassy in Rome
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis went to the Russian embassy in Rome on Friday to personally express his concern about the war in Ukraine, in an extraordinary papal gesture that has no recent precedent. Popes usually receive ambassadors and heads of state in the Vatican. For Francis to travel a...
Ukrainian president expects conflict with Russia to intensify
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops bore down on Ukraine’s capital Friday while the president grimly predicted that the conflict would soon intensify, and fears of wider war in Europe triggered new international efforts to make Moscow stop, including direct sanctions on President Vladimir Putin. Amid reports of hundreds of casualties...
Mental issue raised in boy’s body in freezer case in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — A defense attorney said Thursday he wants a mental health evaluation for a Las Vegas man now jailed in protective custody after being accused of keeping a widow and her daughter captive at his home, killing the woman’s 4-year-old son and storing the boy’s body in a...
