U.S./World category, Page 249
Hunter Biden enters surprise guilty plea to avoid tax trial months after his gun conviction
LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal tax charges Thursday in a surprise move that spares President Joe Biden and his family another likely embarrassing and painful criminal trial of the president’s son. Hunter Biden’s stunning decision to guilty plea to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits...
Footage of motorcade racing JFK to the hospital after he was shot is set to go to auction
DALLAS — Newly emerged film footage of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway toward a hospital after he was fatally wounded will go up for auction later this month. Experts say the find isn’t necessarily surprising even over 60 years after the assassination. “These images, these...
Small, harmless asteroid burns up in Earth’s atmosphere over the Philippines
NEW YORK — A small asteroid discovered on Wednesday harmlessly burned up in Earth’s atmosphere the same day, NASA said. The asteroid — about 3 feet (1 meter) across — was spotted by astronomers in Arizona and broke apart over the coast of the Philippines hours after the discovery. This...
Father of Georgia school shooting suspect arrested on charges including second-degree murder
WINDER, Ga. — The father of the teenager accused of opening fire at a Georgia high school, killing four people and wounding nine, has been arrested on various charges including second-degree murder, authorities said Thursday. Colin Gray, 54, the father of Colt Gray, was charged with four counts of involuntary...
Do you speak Gen-Alpha? Test your ‘skibidi’ knowledge with this vocab quiz
As American kids head back to school, they’re likely to return home with an alien language their own parents may find befuddling. From TikTok to the kitchen table, words such as “rizzler” and “skibidi” are finding a foothold in the lexicon of today’s tweens. Are you fluent enough to survive...
With charges and sanctions, U.S. takes aim at Russian disinformation ahead of November electionVideo
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two Russian state media employees in its most sweeping effort yet to push back against what it says are Russian attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the November presidential election. The measures, which in addition to indictments also included sanctions...
Trump presses effort to delay N.Y. sentencing with federal appeal
NEW YORK— Donald Trump appealed a ruling that prevents him from moving his New York hush money case to federal court, pressing ahead with a bid to delay his Sept. 18 sentencing until well after the November presidential election. The former president late Tuesday filed a notice of appeal after...
How do you know when AI is powerful enough to be dangerous? Regulators try to do the math
How do you know if an artificial intelligence system is so powerful that it poses a security danger and shouldn’t be unleashed without careful oversight? For regulators trying to put guardrails on AI, it’s mostly about the arithmetic. Specifically, an AI model trained on 10 to the 26th floating-point operations...
14-year-old student fatally shot 4 people in a rampage at a Georgia high school, officials sayVideo
WINDER, Ga. — A 14-year-old student opened fire at a Georgia high school and killed four people on Wednesday, authorities said, sending students scrambling for shelter in their classrooms — and eventually to the football stadium — as officers swarmed the campus and parents raced to find out if their...
Boeing to fly its empty capsule back to Earth soon — 2 NASA astronauts will stay behind
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week — with empty seats. NASA said Wednesday that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim...
U.S. accuses Russia of using state media to spread disinformation ahead of the November election
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration accused Russia on Wednesday of a far-reaching effort to influence the U.S. presidential election, including by promoting disinformation and enlisting unwitting American influencers to spread propaganda on Russian state media. The actions taken by the U.S. government include sanctions against leaders of RT, a state...
Michigan man wins long shot appeal over burglary linked to his DNA on a bottle
DETROIT — A Michigan prisoner has persuaded a judge to throw out his burglary conviction, overcoming long odds by serving as his own lawyer in an appeal of a case that rested solely on his DNA being found on a soda bottle in a beauty shop. Gregory Tucker, 65, argued...
Atlantic City casino workers plan ad blitz to ban smoking after court rejects ban
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A group of Atlantic City casino workers seeking to ban smoking in the gambling halls will launch an advertising campaign featuring their children in response to a judge’s rejection of a lawsuit that would have ended smoking in the nine casinos. The workers, calling themselves Casino...
From attic to auction: A Rembrandt painting sells for $1.4M in Maine
THOMASTON, Maine — A Rembrandt discovered in an attic sold for $1.4 million. The 17th century painting “Portrait of a Girl” by Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was discovered by art appraiser and auctioneer Kaja Veilleux in an attic in an estate in Camden, Maine. A label on the...
U.S. job openings fall as demand for workers weakens
WASHINGTON — America’s employers posted fewer job openings in July than they had the previous month, a sign that hiring could cool in the coming months. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that there were 7.7 million open jobs in July, down from 7.9 million in June. The pace of hiring...
Nordstrom family offers to take department store private for $3.76B with Mexican retail group
NEW YORK — Members of the Nordstrom family with the help of a Mexican retail group are offering to take the century-old department store private for $3.76 billion per share cash, months after first expressing interest in a buyout. In a letter to the board of directors dated Tuesday, Erik...
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba resigns as Russian strikes kill 7 people in Lviv
KYIV, Ukraine — Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, one of Ukraine’s most recognizable faces on the international stage, submitted his resignation Wednesday ahead of an expected major government reshuffle. Russian strikes, meanwhile, killed seven people in a western Ukraine city, a day after one of the deadliest missile attacks since the...
South Korea says North Korea has again launched suspected trash-carrying balloons across the border
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea says it has detected suspected trash-carrying balloons launched by North Korea, in the latest round of a Cold War-style psychological warfare between the war-divided rivals. The metropolitan government of Seoul, South Korea’s capital, issued text alerts Wednesday saying that objects likely to be North...
Grenfell Tower was a ‘death trap’ due to failures by UK government and industry, inquiry finds
LONDON — A damning report on a deadly London high-rise fire said Wednesday that decades of failures by government, regulators and industry turned Grenfell Tower into a “death trap” where 72 people lost their lives. The years-long public inquiry into the 2017 blaze concluded that there was no “single cause”...
Elon Musk ‘can’t wait’ to help cut government programs if Trump is reelected
Elon Musk is excited about the possibility of joining a second Donald Trump administration — and he’s sharpening his ax. The right-wing tech entrepreneur announced shortly after the former president was shot during a July rally in Pennsylvania that he “fully” supports the MAGA candidate. But Trump said in a...
House set to help bald eagle soar as national bird
WASHINGTON — The bald eagle is poised to officially rise to its long-assumed perch as the national bird of the United States if House members follow suit when they return from recess and pass legislation that sailed through the Senate. The Senate took the first step toward that designation July...
At least 7 cars hit, 6 people injured in gunfire on interstate near Seattle
SEATTLE — At least seven vehicles traveling along Interstate 5 just south of Seattle were hit by gunfire overnight, leaving at least six people injured before a suspect was taken into custody, officials said Tuesday. The state patrol did not release any information on the suspect in the shooting that...
Police say 11-year-old used 2 guns to kill former Louisiana mayor and his daughter
MINDEN, La. — An 11-year-old boy is suspected of using two guns to fatally shoot a woman and her father, an 82-year-old man who once served as mayor, city council member and deputy sheriff in Louisiana, police said Tuesday. A 911 caller told police on Sunday morning that there were...
Mongolia ignores an international warrant for Putin’s arrest, giving him a red-carpet welcome
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — Russian President Vladimir Putin received a red-carpet welcome Tuesday to Mongolia, as the country ignored calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The trip, which concluded Tuesday night, was Putin’s first to a member nation of...
Judge rejects Donald Trump’s request to intervene in wake of hush money conviction
NEW YORK — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that Trump had not satisfied the burden...
