U.S./World category, Page 263
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez gets 11 years in prison for taking bribes and acting as agent of Egypt
NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt — crimes his own lawyer said earned him the nickname “Gold Bar Bob.” U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein in...
‘Remarkably poor judgment’: Wall Street Journal takes a critical eye to start of Trump’s 2nd term
Amid all of the enthusiasm in conservative media for President Donald Trump’s first week back in office, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has notably applied some brakes. The Journal has editorialized against Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 rioters, called presidential appointee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “dangerous to public health,”...
While signing Laken Riley Act, Trump says he’ll send ‘worst’ criminal migrants to Guantanamo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the Laken Riley Act into law, giving federal authorities broader power to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally who have been accused of crimes. He also announced at the ceremony that his administration planned to send the “worst criminal aliens” to a...
Are we all aliens? NASA’s returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday. The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and...
Hamas set to free 3 Israelis, 5 Thais in next hostage release, Israeli official says
JERUSALEM — An Israeli official said Wednesday that Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, and five Thai nationals in the next hostage release, slated for Thursday. The official named the Israel women as Arbel Yehoud, 29, Agam Berger, 19, and the man as Gadi...
Police: At least 30 people died in stampede at massive Maha Kumbh festival in India
PRAYAGRAJ, India — At least 30 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering early Wednesday, police said, as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India. Police officer Vaibhav Krishna in Prayagraj...
U.S. children fall further behind in reading, make little improvement in math on national exam
WASHINGTON — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card. The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and...
The Year of the Snake is underway with Lunar New Year festivities in Asia and around the world
BEIJING — Lunar New Year festivals and prayers marked the start of the Year of the Snake around Asia and farther afield on Wednesday — including in Moscow. Hundreds of people lined up in the hours before midnight at the Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple in Hong Kong in a...
This is what one family in Gaza returned home to after 15 months of war
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip — The grove of orange, olive and palm trees that once stood in front of Ne’man Abu Jarad’s house was bulldozed away. The roses and jasmine flowers on the roof and in the garden, which he lovingly watered so his family could enjoy their fragrance, were...
Explosion forces crew to abandon Hong Kong-flagged container ship in the Red Sea
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An explosion struck a Hong Kong-flagged container ship Tuesday traveling north through the Red Sea, sparking a major fire that forced its crew to abandon the vessel, shipping industry officials said. The ship was drifting and ablaze some 140 miles off the coast of Hodeida,...
Trump fires 2 Democratic commissioners of agency that enforces civil rights laws in workplace
ARLINGTON, Va. — President Donald Trump fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace, an unprecedented move aimed at implementing his crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies. The two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Charlotte...
The tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas is alarming. It’s not the biggest in U.S. history though, CDC says
A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, Kansas, area has taken local experts aback, even if it does not appear to be the largest outbreak of the disease in U.S. history as a state health official claimed last week. “We would expect to see a handful of cases...
New Vatican document offers AI guidelines from warfare to health care
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican document released Tuesday offers wide-ranging ethical guidelines for the application of artificial intelligence in sectors from warfare to health care, with an underlying call that the burgeoning technology must be used as a tool to complement, and not replace, human intelligence. Pope Francis has issued...
Brazil to set up deportee reception center after contentious flight from U.S.
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian government Tuesday said it will create a reception center for deported migrants from the United States following controversy over conditions on a recent deportation flight. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gave the green light to establish a humanitarian reception post at Confins, a...
Dozens are injured in a stampede at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India
NEW DELHI — A stampede injured dozens of people early Wednesday as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in northern India, local media reported. It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic at the festival...
Canada inquiry found no evidence of ‘traitors’ in parliament, but warns against disinformation
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A public inquiry on foreign interference in Canada concluded Tuesday that while some foreign entities tried to interfere in the country’s elections, its democratic institutions remain “robust,” but warned against the danger of misinformation. The final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference found “no...
The discovery of brutal mass graves in Syria reveals Assad’s legacy of horror
DAMASCUS, Syria — The charred remains of at least 26 victims of the Bashar Assad government were located Tuesday by Syrian civil defense workers in two basements outside Damascus. The discovery adds to the growing tally of mass graves unearthed since the fall of the Assad government in December. The...
Weeks after fire ravaged the Pacific Palisades, residents return to dig for their mementosVideo
LOS ANGELES — Jack Hassett was among scores of residents slowly returning on Tuesday to Los Angeles neighborhoods ravaged by wildfires to finally sift through the rubble and salvage any cherished items. Hassett didn’t find much in the ash at his family’s Pacific Palisades house, uncovering only some pottery and...
Trump social media claim of using troops to force water flow refuted by California
President Donald Trump on Monday night heightened his battle with California over water policy by suggesting U.S. military troops had arrived in the state to turn on pumps and send more water flowing — something state officials quickly denied. On Monday evening, Trump wrote that the military “just entered the...
Drones over New Jersey were ‘not the enemy,’ Trump’s press secretary says
The mysterious drone sightings that cropped up over New Jersey starting late last year were “not the enemy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday during the inaugural press briefing of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Instead, Leavitt said, the drones in the Garden State that caused a...
Selena Gomez, who sobbed over ICE raids, spars with critic over family’s immigration storyVideo
LOS ANGELES — Selena Gomez was moved to tears over the weekend as the Trump administration fast-tracked policies to deliver on the president’s mass-deportations campaign promise. Her show of emotion did not sit well with many. The “Only Murders in the Building” and “Emilia Pérez” star, who is of Mexican...
Trump offering federal workers buyouts with about 8 months’ pay in effort to shrink governmentVideo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it is offering buyouts to all federal employees who opt to leave their jobs by next week — an unprecedented move to shrink the U.S. government at breakneck speed. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency,...
New top prosecutor for D.C. advocated for Jan. 6 rioters and echoed Trump’s false 2020 election claims
WASHINGTON — For years, conservative activist Ed Martin has promoted Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen 2020 election, railed against the prosecution of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and represented some of them in court. Now he’s leading the office that prosecuted the nearly 1,600 defendants charged...
Danish leader on European tour as Copenhagen moves to strengthen presence around GreenlandVideo
BERLIN — Denmark’s prime minister embarked on a tour of major European capitals Tuesday as the continent faces what she called “a more uncertain reality” and her country moves to strengthen its military presence around Greenland. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen planned stops in Berlin, Paris and Brussels, the latter to...
Caroline Kennedy warns senators that cousin RFK Jr. a ‘predator’Video
WASHINGTON — Calling Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a “predator” who is addicted to power, Caroline Kennedy urged the U.S. Senate in a Tuesday letter to reject the nomination of her cousin to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary. In a letter to Senators, Ms. Kennedy, who previously served as a...
