U.S./World category, Page 249
Harvey Weinstein won’t face charges in Britain, but he could be hit with new accusations in New York
LONDON — Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein won’t face charges of indecent assault in Britain, prosecutors announced on Thursday. The Crown Prosecution Service, which in 2022 authorized two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein, said it decided to discontinue proceedings because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”...
The U.S. government is looking into airline frequent-flyer programs
The Biden administration says it is examining the four largest U.S. airline frequent-flyer programs and how they devalue points that consumers have earned and frequently change the number of points or miles needed to book flights. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote to the CEOs of American, Delta, Southwest and United...
China’s halt of foreign adoptions leaves questions about pending cases
BEIJING — The Chinese government is ending its intercountry adoption program, and the U.S. is seeking clarification on how the decision will affect hundreds of American families with pending applications. In a phone call with U.S. diplomats in China, Beijing said it “will not continue to process cases at any...
Ugandan Olympic athlete dies after being severely burned by her partner
NAIROBI, Kenya — Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner. She was 33. Kenya’s sports minister said authorities must do more to combat gender-based violence. A spokesperson at...
A 13-foot (and growing) python was seized from a New York home and sent to a zoo
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — A 13-foot (4-meter) Burmese python was confiscated from an upstate New York man who was keeping the still-growing snake in a small tank, authorities said. The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it got a complaint about an illegally owned snake in New Hartford on Aug....
A list of mass killings in the United States this year
The latest mass killing in the U.S. happened Wednesday in Winder, Georgia, where four people were fatally shot at Apalachee High School. Students ran for safety in the football stadium. While officers swarmed the campus near Atlanta, parents raced to find out if their children were safe. It was the...
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”...
