U.S./World category, Page 36
Gov. Gavin Newsom: California preparing for possible Iran attacks
The FBI is warning local police that Iran could target the West Coast, including California, with drone strikes in retaliation for the U.S. and Israel’s attacks, according to ABC News. Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters he was “aware” of the report. His administration is working with the Office of Emergency...
Pentagon blocks photographers from Pete Hegseth’s briefings on the Iran war
NEW YORK — The Pentagon has not permitted photographers to cover Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s last two briefings on the war in Iran, and hasn’t explained the change in longstanding policy. A Pentagon spokesman, Joel Valdez, declined to comment for this story. The Defense Department under Hegseth has had a...
Social Security watchdog opens probe into alleged misuse of data by ex-DOGE employee
WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration’s internal watchdog is investigating a whistleblower complaint into what it describes as a former Department of Government Efficiency worker’s potential misuse of data obtained from the Social Security Administration. According to a document the Associated Press obtained Wednesday, the SSA’s inspector general informed the...
Epstein’s longtime accountant testifies on his client’s wealth, business tiesVideo
WASHINGTON — House lawmakers were digging into Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling financial portfolio on Wednesday as a committee deposed his former accountant and tried to understand his connections to some of the world’s wealthiest men. Richard Kahn, who worked closely with Epstein for years and now serves as an executor of...
U.S. at fault in strike on school in Iran, preliminary inquiry says
WASHINGTON — An ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings. The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result...
Tracing the U.S. military’s learning curve on fighting Iran’s drones: What to know
WASHINGTON — The Iran war quickly tested America’s ability to combat the swarms of cheap drones that have become a staple of the modern battlefield after Ukraine and Russia demonstrated how effective they could be. The Islamic Republic launched so many drones across the region at once that some slipped...
IEA agrees to record release of emergency oil reserves in an effort to calm surging prices
PARIS — The International Energy Agency agreed Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the effects on energy markets of the war in the Middle East. The Paris-based organization said it will make 400 million barrels of oil available...
Drone strike kills UN aid worker in the eastern Congo city of Goma
GOMA, Congo — A series of explosions attributed to drones killed at least one person, a U.N. aid worker, as the attack on the Wednesday rocked downtown Goma in eastern Congo, according to the M23 rebel group and local residents. The drone strikes hit Lake Kivu and a private residence...
Lords a-leaving: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years
LONDON — Centuries of British political tradition will end within weeks after Parliament voted to remove hereditary aristocrats from the unelected House of Lords. On Tuesday night members of the upper chamber dropped objections to legislation passed by the House of Commons ousting dozens of dukes, earls and viscounts who...
Iran war has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil chokepoint. Reopening it is a big challenge
PARIS — The rising prices causing winces of pain at gasoline pumps are due, in large part, to the impact of the Iran war on the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passageway for oil and gas from the Persian Gulf. The narrow waterway off Iran’s coast, now effectively closed by...
South Africa deploys troops in Johannesburg to tackle organized crime
JOHANNESBURG — Soldiers were deployed on the streets of South Africa’s biggest city on Wednesday after the president announced plans to use the army in several provinces in Africa’s leading economy to help police fight gang violence and illegal mining. Soldiers were seen in the Johannesburg suburb of Riverlea in...
Iran targets ships, Dubai airport and oil facilities as economic concerns mount
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran fired on commercial ships Wednesday and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of bottling up the oil-rich Persian Gulf as global energy concerns mounted and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic. Iran’s response to the surprise Israeli and U.S. bombardment that...
Tornadoes kill 2 in northwestern Indiana and raze buildings in Kankakee, Illinois
Major storms whipped up tornadoes that killed at least two people in northwest Indiana and leveled buildings in Kankakee, Illinois, authorities said Wednesday, as another round of rain, hail and strong winds made its way through the region. Several intense supercell thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana on...
Cher’s son is expected in court on charges he broke into a New Hampshire home
Cher’s son is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday after being accused of breaking into a New Hampshire home this month. Elijah Allman’s arrest on March 1 was his second in New Hampshire in a matter of days. Allman, the 49-year-old son of the iconic singer and actress, was also...
Inflation was elevated in February even before the Iran war sent energy costs soaring
KANSAS CITY — Inflation stayed stubbornly elevated last month as gas prices rose in a snapshot of what consumer prices looked like before the Iran war sent energy costs soaring. Consumer prices rose 2.4% in February compared with a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, matching January’s 2.4% increase....
Canadian police investigate gunfire at U.S. consulate in Toronto
TORONTO — Canadian police are investigating after the United States consulate in downtown Toronto was hit by gunfire early on Tuesday morning. Nobody was injured. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather called it a national security incident and said the national police force is working with Toronto police...
Smartmatic says Trump’s ‘campaign of retribution’ is driving criminal prosecution
MIAMI — Voting technology firm Smartmatic is seeking to dismiss a criminal indictment for money laundering, blaming President Donald Trump and his allies for seeking its prosecution as part of a “campaign of retribution” against those they blame for his 2020 election loss. Smartmatic’s parent company, UK-based SGO Corporation, was...
U.S. reaches tentative deal ending prosecution of Turkish bank
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has reached a tentative deal to drop criminal charges against a Turkish bank over whether it had done business with Iranian entities, saying it deserved leniency because of Turkey’s help in negotiating the release of hostages from the Hamas attack in Israel in October 2023....
Pete Hegseth threatens ‘most intense day of strikes’ as Iran war injures about 140 AmericansVideo
WASHINGTON — Some 140 American service members have been wounded since start of the Iran war, with eight of them “severely injured” and receiving medical care, the Pentagon said Tuesday. “The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty,” Pentagon spokesperson...
Young kids missed the pandemic’s school disruptions. Their reading scores are still behind
WASHINGTON — When covid-19 wrought havoc on society in early 2020, today’s youngest schoolchildren were infants or yet to be born. Now in their early school years, researchers are beginning to see how the pandemic years have shaped their education, even though many had yet to set foot in a...
Justice Department official Ed Martin accused of ethics violations for letter to Georgetown dean
WASHINGTON — The office that enforces ethics standards for attorneys in the nation’s capital has accused Justice Department official Ed Martin of professional misconduct for a threatening letter that he sent to Georgetown Law School’s dean last year, when Martin was the top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C. Martin was...
Alabama governor commutes death sentence of inmate whose accomplice fired fatal shot
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate who was set to be executed this week even though he was not in the building when the victim was killed. Ivey reduced Charles “Sonny” Burton’s sentence to life in prison without possibility...
‘Ship of Gold’ treasure hunter released from prison, but 500 gold coins remain unaccounted for
A former deep-sea treasure hunter who made one of the greatest shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent the past decade in prison after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of some of its missing gold coins is now free, federal records show. Tommy Thompson, who in 1988 located what was...
Canadian police investigate gunfire at U.S. consulate in Toronto
TORONTO — Canadian police are investigating after the United States consulate in downtown Toronto was hit by gunfire early on Tuesday morning. Nobody was injured. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather called it a national security incident and said the national police force is working with Toronto police...
Jihadis intensify attacks against Nigeria’s military, killing officers and carting away weapons
ABUJA, Nigeria — Jihadi extremist groups, including Boko Haram and one of its factions, have been blamed for intensified attacks targeting Nigeria’s military bases in the northeast of the country in the last week. At least two officers and several soldiers have been killed in the attacks, which analysts say...
