U.S./World category, Page 221
House Republicans signal support for proposal to ban bathroom access for 1st transgender member
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled support Tuesday for a Republican effort to ban Democrat Sarah McBride — the first transgender person to be elected to Congress — from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol once she’s sworn into office next year. “We’re not going to have men in...
‘Bomb cyclone’ threatens Northern California and Pacific Northwest
SEATTLE — Northern California and the Pacific Northwest are bracing for what is expected to be a powerful storm, with heavy rain and winds set to pummel the region and potentially cause power outages and flash floods. The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks beginning Tuesday and lasting through...
Iran defies international pressure, increasing its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium, UN says
VIENNA — Iran has defied international demands to rein in its nuclear program and has increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen Tuesday by The Associated Press. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency...
Forget driverless cars. One company wants autonomous helicopters to spray crops and fight fires
HENNIKER, N.H. — When Hector Xu was learning to fly a helicopter in college, he recalled having a few “nasty experiences” while trying to navigate at night. The heart-stopping flights led to his research of unmanned aircraft systems while getting his doctorate degree in aerospace engineering at Massachusetts Institute of...
1,000 days of war in Ukraine, distilled in a single 24-hour span of violence and resilience
KYIV, Ukraine — The clock on her wall stopped almost as soon as the day began, its hands frozen by the Russian bomb that hit the dormitory serving as home for Ukrainians displaced by war. It was 1:45 a.m. in an upstairs room in the eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, Natalia...
A surge in mass attacks has killed dozens in China in recent months
BEIJING — Dozens of people have been killed in China in the past three months in a series of mass attacks. The latest on Tuesday saw primary school students injured by a car as they arrived for classes. The attacks take one of two forms — either drivers mowing down...
U.S. envoy says truce in Lebanon is ‘within our grasp’ as Gaza’s food crisis worsens after looting
BEIRUT — A United States envoy said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is “within our grasp” after talks in Lebanon on Tuesday. There was no such optimism in the Gaza Strip, where the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks by armed men worsened an already severe food crisis....
Tens of thousands crowd New Zealand’s Parliament grounds in support of Māori rights
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — As tens of thousands crowded the streets in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, on Tuesday, the throng of people, flags aloft, had the air of a festival or a parade rather than a protest. They were marching to oppose a law that would reshape the county’s founding...
Takeaways from the AP’s investigation into Osprey safety issues
After being grounded for months following a crash last November that killed eight service members in Japan, the V-22 Osprey — a complicated aircraft that flies fast like a plane but converts to land like a helicopter — is back in the air. But there are still questions as to...
Osprey’s safety issues spiked over 5 years and caused deaths, but pilots still want to fly it
CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. — Over a New Mexico training range named the Hornet, two Osprey aircraft speed 100 feet off the ground, banking hard over valleys and hills as they close in on a dusty landing zone. A flight engineer in the back braces a .50-caliber machine gun...
Texas proposal would give schools the option to use Bible teachings in lessons
AUSTIN — Texas public schools could use teachings from the Bible in lessons as an option for students from kindergarten through fifth grade under a proposal that drew hours of testimony Monday and follows Republican-led efforts in other states to incorporate more religious teaching into classrooms. Teachers and parents gave...
Georgia appeals court cancels hearing in election interference case against Trump
ATHENS, Ga. — A Georgia appeals court on Monday canceled oral arguments that were scheduled for next month on the appeal of a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against President-elect Donald Trump. Trump and other...
2 killed and 1 critically wounded in New York City knife rampage. A suspect is in custody
NEW YORK — A man stabbed three people on Monday morning across a swath of Manhattan, killing two and critically wounding the third without uttering a word to his victims, officials said. The 51-year-old suspect was in police custody after being found with blood on his clothes and the two...
New Jersey internet gambling sets another revenue record at $213 million
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — New Jersey’s internet gambling market set another record in October, the latest proof that people are betting more of their money online rather than coming to Atlantic City to gamble it in person. Figures released Monday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show the...
Spencer Lawton, the Savannah prosecutor who tried ‘Midnight in the Garden’ case, dies at 81
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Spencer Lawton Jr., a former Georgia district attorney who worked to expand the rights of crime victims and prosecuted a Savannah killing made famous by the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” has died. He was 81. Lawton died Wednesday at his home in...
Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut near key government buildings and embassies
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike late Monday slammed into a densely populated residential area in Lebanon’s capital close to the U.N. headquarters, Parliament, the prime minister’s office and several embassies. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two missiles hit the area of Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood of Beirut. The strike comes...
Abuse survivors urge the Vatican to globalize the zero-tolerance policy it approved in the U.S.
ROME — Survivors of clergy sexual abuse urged the Vatican on Monday to adopt the same zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002, arguing that there’s no reason why children around the world shouldn’t be kept just as safe from predator priests. The U.S. norms,...
India’s capital chokes as air pollution levels hit 50 times the safe limit
NEW DELHI — Authorities in India’s capital shut schools, halted construction and banned non-essential trucks from entering the city on Monday after air pollution shot up to its worst level this season. Residents of New Delhi woke up to thick, toxic smog enveloping the city of some 33 million as...
Moscow warns U.S. over allowing Ukraine to hit Russian soil with long-range weapons
KYIV, Ukraine — President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles was met with ominous warnings from Moscow, a hint of menace from Kyiv and nods of approval from some Western allies. Biden’s shift in policy added an uncertain but potentially crucial new...
From the Amazon rainforest, Biden declares nobody can reverse U.S. progress on clean energy
MANAUS, Brazil — Speaking from the Amazon rainforest, President Joe Biden declared Sunday that there’s no going back in America’s “clean energy revolution” even as the incoming Trump administration vows to spur fossil fuel production and scale back efforts against climate change. Biden, the first sitting U.S. president to visit...
North Korean leader calls for expanding his nuclear forces in the face of alleged U.S. threats
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter U.S.-led threats in comments reported Monday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election. At a conference...
Russia launches one of its fiercest missile and drone attacks at Ukraine’s infrastructure
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian strike on a nine-story building in the city of Sumy in northern Ukraine killed eight people and wounded dozens, an official said Sunday, as Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack described by officials as the largest in recent months. Among the eight killed...
Veteran news executive Reg Murphy, who survived abduction decades ago, has died at 90
Reg Murphy, a renowned journalist whose newsgathering career included stints as an editor and top executive at newspapers in Atlanta, San Francisco and Baltimore — and who found himself the subject of national headlines when he survived a politically motivated kidnapping — has died at age 90. Murphy, who lived...
Trump’s Pentagon pick paid woman after sex assault allegation but denies wrongdoing, his lawyer says
WASHINGTON — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault to head off the threat of a baseless lawsuit, according to Hegseth’s lawyer. Hegseth was accused of sexual assault in 2017 after a speaking appearance at a Republican women’s event...
Wildfire threat continues in much of the U.S. Northeast as dry conditions persist
Firefighters in New York said Sunday that a voluntary evacuation overnight helped them protect more than 160 homes from a stubborn wildfire near the New Jersey border as officials in much of the Northeast coped with hundreds of brush fires in tinder-dry and windy conditions. Communities in New England dealt...
