U.S./World category, Page 161

MOSCOW — Alexander Vinnik, a convicted Russian criminal, is being freed as part of a swap that saw Moscow’s release of American Marc Fogel, two U.S. officials confirmed Wednesday. Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the U.S. on cryptocurrency fraud charges and was later extradited...

SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council passed a bill Tuesday allowing police officers — in limited cases — to use weapons like tear gas, pepper spray and blast balls to control crowd movement during protests. Past councils greatly restricted the use of these so-called “less lethal” weapons in the wake...

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on its maps Tuesday after an order by President Donald Trump was made official by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System. The move follows Google, which announced last month that it would make the change once...

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean police Tuesday were questioning an elementary school teacher who allegedly stabbed a first-grader to death in the city of Daejeon. The killing Monday during after-school care has shocked the nation and prompted the country’s acting president to order school safety standards reviewed. The female...

SANTA FE, N.M. — Public health authorities said Tuesday that an outbreak of measles in western Texas has expanded, while a new case was confirmed nearby across state lines in New Mexico. The Texas Department of State Health Services has identified 24 measles cases in connection with the onset of...

NEW ORLEANS — A scruffy New Orleans rescue dog famed for evading a monthslong effort to recapture him using nets and tranquilizer rifles has finally been caught and returned to domestic life Tuesday. Scrim, a 17-pound mutt who has become a Louisiana folk hero, first escaped from his adopted family...

WASHINGTON — A federal agency is seeking disciplinary action against a former Federal Emergency Management Agency worker who directed workers helping hurricane survivors to avoid homes with yard signs supporting President Donald Trump, according to a complaint filed Tuesday. The complaint with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board was filed...

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to immediately halt a judge’s order requiring the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in federal grants and loans that remain frozen even after a court blocked a sweeping pause on federal funding. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of...

SANTA FE, N.M. — State lawmakers are embracing New Mexico’s time-honored culture of transforming customized lowrider cars into rolling canvases of artistic expression and a source of community pride. House and Senate lawmakers designated Tuesday as Lowrider Day at the state Capitol, marked by celebrations of Latino tradition and history....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s two stuck astronauts may end up back on Earth a little sooner than planned. The space agency announced Tuesday that SpaceX will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights in order to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home in mid-March instead of late March or...

LOS ANGELES — A$AP Rocky will not take the stand at his trial over two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and the defense rested its case Tuesday without calling him to testify. The 36-year-old hip-hop star said “Absolutely, your honor” when asked by Superior Court Judge Mark...

CHICAGO — Marcus Walker said the sexual abuse he experienced two decades ago as a teenager at an Illinois youth detention facility has haunted his life. After a staff member gave him drugs and sexually abused him, he joined a gang hoping it would protect him. It didn’t. For years...

MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie described in graphic detail Tuesday the frenzied moments in 2022 when a masked man rushed at him on a stage in western New York and repeatedly slashed him with a knife, leaving him with terrible injuries and fearful he would die. Rushdie took the stand...

WASHINGTON — The White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday, U.S. officials said, a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds. The White...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he is banning federal use of paper straws, saying they “don’t work” and don’t last very long. Instead he wants the government to exclusively move to plastic. “It’s a ridiculous situation. We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump said as he signed an...

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed an order restoring the name of a storied special operations forces base back to Fort Bragg. The North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 as part of a national effort under the Biden administration to remove names that honored Confederate...

More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans — ranging from the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism to the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists — filed a federal court lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Trump administration move giving immigration agents more leeway to make arrests...

Lawmakers in some states where abortion is already banned are seeking to explicitly bar abortion pills or take a step that most leading anti-abortion groups oppose: punish women who seek to end their pregnancies. It’s too early in some legislative sessions to know whether the measures will get serious consideration....

ROME — Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.” Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant...

BRUSSELS — U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger tough countermeasures from the 27-nation bloc. It means iconic U.S. industries like bourbon, jeans and motorcycles should beware. “The EU will act to...

JERUSALEM — Hamas’ threat to delay the next planned release of Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip has jolted a fragile ceasefire that’s seen as having the potential to wind down the war. It has brought new dismay for Israelis who watched the latest Hamas handover of hostages in growing...

Not only are eggs expensive because of the ongoing bird flu outbreak. Now they are getting hard to find. And even when stores do have eggs, consumers are starting to face limits on how many they can buy. Eggs have even become such a hot commodity that there have even...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — One person was killed and others were injured when a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil collided with another jet Monday afternoon at the Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, authorities said. Neil’s jet was landing at the airport when it veered off the runway and...