U.S./World category, Page 2
Abusive husband gets 8 years in prison in Scotland for wife’s suicide in landmark case
LONDON — Kimberley Milne jumped to her death in Scotland in July 2023, but prosecutors in a landmark case said Friday that she was driven to do it by her husband’s physical abuse. Lee Milne, 40, was sentenced to eight years in prison following his conviction in Glasgow’s High Court...
Former Russian deputy defense minister is sentenced to 19 years for corruption
MOSCOW — Former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov was sentenced to 19 years in prison for corruption by a military court in Moscow, Russian state media said Friday. The case against Popov, who was arrested in 2024, relates to business activities at a sprawling park in Moscow sometimes called...
War in Iran sends inflation soaring and the mood of American consumers plunging
WASHINGTON — The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation last month, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve and heightening already substantial political hurdles for the White House. Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier,...
A president and a pope: The world’s most influential Americans are at odds over Iran
President Donald Trump is accustomed to criticism from coast to coast — Democrats, disaffected Republicans, late-night comedians, massive protests. Yet in his second presidency, Trump’s most influential American critic doesn’t live in the country but at the Vatican. It’s an unprecedented situation, with the first American pope directly assailing the...
U.S. and Iran prepare for ceasefire talks as Netanyahu authorizes negotiations with Lebanon
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, Vice President JD Vance headed Friday to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Many issues could derail the truce and the...
Updated rules for CDC vaccine advisory panel reflect Kennedy skepticism
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has updated the charter of a key federal vaccine advisory committee in ways that may increase the voices of anti-vaccine activists, the latest in a series of moves that critics say are undermining confidence in life-saving shots. The changes published Thursday come after a recent...
Pentagon plays down rift with Vatican despite pope’s criticism
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and the Vatican denied allegations of a rift as a result of Pope Leo XIV’s criticism of the Trump administration and a news report of a contentious meeting between a papal envoy and a top U.S. defense official. In separate statements, the two sides professed an...
Hungary’s election could end Orbán’s journey from liberal firebrand to far-right leader
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the European Union’s longest-serving leader and one of its biggest antagonists, has taken a long road from his early days as a liberal, anti-Soviet firebrand to the Russia-friendly nationalist admired by the global far-right today. After dominating Hungarian politics for more than...
Trump administration admits a glaring error in its accusations about New York health care fraud
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s administration this week acknowledged it made a significant error in figures it used to help justify a fraud probe into New York’s Medicaid program, a glaring mistake that undercuts a federal campaign to tackle waste, mostly in Democratic-led states. The error, one of at...
Well-timed bets on Polymarket tied to the Iran war draw calls for investigations from lawmakers
NEW YORK — Calls are increasing inside Congress for investigations into the prediction market platform Polymarket after the latest instance where groups of anonymous traders made strategic, well-timed bets on a major geopolitical event hours before it occurred. On Wednesday, The Associated Press reported that at least 50 brand new...
Federal judge finds Pentagon violating court order to restore access to reporters
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Defense Department is violating his earlier order to restore access to the Pentagon for reporters, a setback in the administration’s efforts to impede the work of journalists. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman sided with The New York Times for the...
Attorney for man shot by ICE in California says his client denies being a gang member
The attorney for a man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an arrest in central California said Thursday that his client was recovering after three surgeries for multiple gunshot wounds and that he denies being a gang member. Attorney Patrick Kolasinski said federal prosecutors have told him...
Former NYPD officer gets 3 to 9 years in prison for throwing a cooler that caused fatal crashVideo
NEW YORK — A former New York City police sergeant was sentenced Thursday to three to nine years in prison for tossing a picnic cooler full of ice and drinks at a fleeing suspect, who then crashed his motorized scooter and died. Erik Duran, 38, was convicted of manslaughter in...
White House secures foreign steel for ballroom project
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has championed the U.S. steel industry, promising to strengthen it and to impose stiff tariffs on foreign metals to shield manufacturers from overseas competitors. Yet the White House has secured tens of millions of dollars’ worth of donated foreign steel for Trump’s $400 million ballroom...
Trump administration proposes gutting rules targeting coal plant ash that threatens groundwater
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed weakened rules governing the safe disposal of ash produced by burning coal. Those regulations were strengthened under the Biden administration as part of a wider crackdown on pollution from coal-fired power plants. The Trump administration proposed easing standards for monitoring and protecting groundwater...
U.S. abortion opponents want Trump’s FDA to act on abortion pill restrictions
/ U.S. abortion opponents are increasingly frustrated with the lack of action by President Donald Trump’s administration to stem the flow of abortion pills prescribed online that they view as undermining state abortion bans. A court ruling this week in a lawsuit the Louisiana attorney general brought against Trump’s Food...
Melania Trump delivers statement at the White House denying knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimesVideo
WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump is denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his sex crimes, saying Thursday that the “stories are completely false” and calling accusations that she was somehow involved “smears about me.” Reading an extraordinary statement at the White House, Melania Trump said she and...
Coming home may be the most dangerous part of Artemis II
The Artemis II heat shield, NASA agrees, is flawed. The heat shield is the critical layer at the bottom of a spacecraft that protects it — and the astronauts inside — from searing temperatures upon reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. If the shield fails, the underlying metallic structure could melt, rupture...
Netanyahu authorizes direct talks with Lebanon ‘as soon as possible’
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he has authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible,” as a tentative ceasefire in the Iran war staggered under the weight of Israel’s bombardment of Beirut. Netanyahu said he gave the order in response to...
NASA prepares for Artemis II splashdown after historic moon flyby
As the four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission were zooming closer to home Thursday after their record-breaking swing around the moon, extensive preparations were underway to ensure their safe return to Earth. The astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the...
Netanyahu authorizes direct talks with Lebanon in potential boost to ceasefire efforts
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors. The two countries have technically been...
For a 2nd time, Trump seeks to eliminate federal funding for tribal colleges and universities
For the second year in a row, the Trump administration is proposing slashing federal funding for tribal colleges and universities. President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal calls for a $1.5 trillion increase to defense spending and would carve billions of dollars out of programs that fulfill trust and...
Democrats grow bolder on talk about removing Trump from office after his Iran threats
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s threats to wipe out Iran, “a whole civilization,” ended the restraint that Democrats have mostly practiced when it comes to questions of removing him from office in his second term. By the dozens, Democrats came out to say that Trump should no longer serve in...
As Trump throws lifeline to coal plants, critics warn of higher costs and health risks
WASHINGTON — Before Donald Trump returned to the White House, the Biden administration and many electric utilities were building a future dominated by renewable energy. They aimed to replace coal, slashing greenhouse gases and reducing air pollution that kills more than a thousand people annually. Dozens of coal plants —...
Travelers face higher costs and fewer flight options as jet fuel prices swing
A new reality is setting in for travelers worldwide: rising fees, fewer flight options and difficult decisions about whether a trip is worth the cost. The culprit is volatile oil and jet fuel prices, which have spiked sharply since the war in the Middle East began and fighting near the...
