U.S./World category, Page 212
Hannah Kobayashi, missing Hawaii woman whose disappearance prompted a massive search, is found safe
LOS ANGELES — Hannah Kobayashi, the missing Hawaii woman whose disappearance prompted a massive search and a missing persons investigation in Los Angeles, has been found safe, police said Wednesday. Kobayashi vanished last month in Los Angeles. She missed her connecting flight and planned to explore the city the next...
Arguments over whether Luigi Mangione is a ‘hero’ offer a glimpse into an unusual American moment
Is he a hero? A killer? Both? About the same time the #FreeLuigi memes featuring the mustachioed plumber from “Super Mario Brothers” mushroomed online this week, commenters shared memes showing Tony Soprano pronouncing Luigi Mangione, the man charged with murdering the UnitedHealthcare CEO in Manhattan, a hero. There were the...
Blinken faces GOP critics in Congress who say Afghanistan withdrawal ‘lit the world on fire’
WASHINGTON — Under fire from congressional Republicans about one of the darkest moments of Joe Biden’s presidency, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the administration’s handling of the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying Democrats struggled to make the best of a bad pullout deal struck by Donald Trump. Blinken...
Homeland Security shares new details of mysterious drone flights over New Jersey
The large mysterious drones reported flying over parts of New Jersey in recent weeks appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security. In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn...
Britain indefinitely bans puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria
LONDON — The British government on Wednesday indefinitely banned puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria after independent experts found there was an unacceptable safety risk in prescribing the medication. The decision, which will be revisited in 2027, effectively bans a common approach to medical gender transitions for youths. It...
House approves $895B defense bill with military pay raise, ban on transgender care for minors
WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday passed a $895 billion measure that authorizes a 1% increase in defense spending this fiscal year and would give a double-digit pay raise to about half of the enlisted service members in the military. The bill is traditionally strongly bipartisan, but some Democratic lawmakers...
U.S. warns Russia may be ready to use new lethal missile against Ukraine again in ‘coming days’
WASHINGTON — A U.S. intelligence assessment has concluded that Russia may use its lethal new intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine again soon, two U.S. officials said Wednesday. The Oreshnik missile, which was used for the first time last month, is seen more as an attempt at intimidation than as a...
Wisconsin kayaker who faked his death and fled the country is charged after returning to U.S.
GREEN LAKE, Wis. — A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning and left his wife and three children for Eastern Europe willingly returned to the U.S. after four months and was charged Wednesday with obstructing an intense lake search for his body. The criminal complaint charging Ryan Borgwardt with...
Alex Jones keeps Infowars for now after judge rejects The Onion’s winning auction bid
A federal judge in Texas rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet, criticizing the bidding for the conspiracy theory platform as flawed as well as how much money families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive. The decision late Tuesday...
Explosion in Afghan capital kills the Taliban refugee minister
ISLAMABAD — A suicide bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed the Taliban refugee minister and two others, officials said, in the most brazen attack on a member of the Taliban inner circle since they returned to power three years ago. The explosion struck inside the ministry, killing Khalil...
U.K. spy agency releases annual Christmas card puzzle to uncover future codebreakers
LONDON — What does a spy agency give for Christmas? How about a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery. GCHQ, Britain’s electronic and cyber-intelligence agency, on Wednesday published its annual Christmas Challenge — a seasonal greeting card that doubles as a set of fiendishly difficult puzzles designed to...
Haiti’s main international airport reopens 1 month after gang violence forced it to close
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s main international airport reopened on Wednesday to commercial flights, one month after it closed for the second time this year because of gang violence. Haitian soldiers and police, bolstered by Kenyan police leading a U.N.-backed mission to quell gang violence, boosted security in the area, and...
Gun found on suspect in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO matches shell casings at scene, police say
ALTOONA — The gun found on the suspect in the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York City’s police commissioner said Wednesday. Suspect Luigi Mangione ‘s fingerprints also matched a water bottle and a snack bar wrapper that police found...
Atmospheric river brings weather whiplash to East Coast as bomb cyclone develops
PORTLAND, Maine — The U.S. East Coast was beginning a whiplash-inducing stretch of weather on Wednesday that was rainy, windy and potentially dangerous, due in part to an atmospheric river and developing bomb cyclone. Parts of Maine experienced freezing rain that caused vehicles to slide off roads followed by a...
South Korea’s national police chief and Seoul’s top officer detained over enforcement of martial law
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s national police chief and top police officer for the capital, Seoul, were detained for their roles in enforcing President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law decree last week, police said Wednesday. The development comes hours before the main liberal opposition Democratic Party submits a...
From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turn
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City, apparently was living a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation’s top private universities. Friends...
Woman killed in crash as officer responds to threat at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home
ROME, Ga. — A motorist was killed as police responded to a bomb threat at the Georgia home of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, authorities said. A police officer on the local bomb squad was traveling to the scene when he collided with another car on Monday, Rome police said...
Justice Department ignored some policies when seizing reporters’ phone records, watchdog finds
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors sidestepped some Justice Department rules when they seized the phone records or emails of reporters as part of media leak investigations during the Trump administration, according to a new watchdog report being released as the aggressive practice of hunting for journalists’ sources could again be resurrected....
Trump launches fragrance line featuring photo of Jill Biden
President-elect Donald Trump has launched a new fragrance line titled “Fight, Fight, Fight” — for men and women. Selling for $199 each, Trump announced the line on Sunday in a Truth Social post, USA Today reported. “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” the post reads, on top of a photo...
Key details about the arrest of a man in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO
The 26-year-old man charged in last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO appeared in a Blair County courtroom on Tuesday, where he was denied bail and his lawyer said he’d fight extradition to New York City, where the attack happened. Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested Monday in last Wednesday’s attack on...
U.S. says it will support new Syrian leaders who protect women and renounce terrorism
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Tuesday it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the U.S. would work with groups in Syria and...
Japanese survivor of atomic bomb recalls its horrors in Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
OSLO, Norway — A 92-year-old Japanese man who lived through the American atomic bombing of Nagasaki described on Tuesday the agony he witnessed in 1945, including the charred corpses of his loved ones and the ruins of his city, as he accepted this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on his organization’s...
Trump promises to end birthright citizenship: What is it and could he do it?
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end birthright citizenship as soon as he gets into office to make good on campaign promises aiming to restrict immigration and redefining what it means to be American. But any efforts to halt the policy would face steep legal hurdles. Birthright citizenship...
Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine. Both sides are digging in. And everyone is bracing for Trump
WASHINGTON — The grinding war between Ukraine and its Russian invaders has escalated ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, with President Joe Biden rushing out billions of dollars more in military aid before U.S. support for Kyiv’s defenses is thrown into question under the new administration. Russia, Ukraine and their global...
Who is Luigi Mangione, suspect in fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?
NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione, the “strong person of interest” arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is a Maryland native who graduated at the top of his high school class and earned a master of science in engineering with a major in computer science...
