U.S./World category, Page 404
Rite Aid’s bankruptcy plan stirs worries of new ‘pharmacy deserts’
Rite Aid’s plan to close more stores as part of its bankruptcy process could hurt access to medicine and care, particularly in some majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and in rural areas, experts say. The drugstore chain said late Sunday that its voluntary Chapter 11 process will allow it to...
Trump returns to civil fraud trial as accountant testifies, key witness Michael Cohen postpones
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump returned to a New York City courtroom Tuesday to watch the civil fraud trial that threatens to disrupt his real estate empire, renewing his claims that the case is a baseless and politically targeted distraction from his 2024 campaign. After attending the trial’s...
Israel bombs Gaza region where civilians were told to seek refuge, as mediators try to unlock aid
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had told Palestinians to flee to ahead of an expected ground invasion, killing dozens of people on Tuesday in attacks it says are targeted at Hamas militants that rule the besieged territory. With no water, fuel or...
India’s Supreme Court refuses to legalize same-sex marriage, leaving it to Parliament
NEW DELHI — India’s top court on Tuesday refused to legalize same-sex marriages, passing the responsibility back to Parliament in a ruling that disappointed campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights in the world’s most populous country. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also urged the government to uphold the rights of the queer community...
Retail sales up a solid 0.7% in September as American consumers defy rising prices, interest rates
NEW YORK — Americans kept spending in September at a solid pace even as they grappled with higher prices and interest rates. Retail sales rose 0.7% in September, more than twice what economists had expected, and close to a a revised 0.8% bump in August, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday....
$1.4M speeding ticket surprised Georgia man before officials clarified the situation
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia man was left reeling after receiving a $1.4 million speeding ticket, but city officials say the figure was just a placeholder, not the actual fine. Connor Cato told WSAV-TV in Savannah that he received the citation after getting pulled over in September for driving 90...
Legal challenge to dethrone South Africa’s Zulu king heads to court
JOHANNESBURG — The battle for the throne of South Africa’s ethnic Zulu nation has reached the courts as a faction of the royal family seeks to dethrone the king after less than a year. The North Gauteng High Court in the capital Pretoria is hearing legal arguments this week in...
Biden will travel to Israel amid concern that Israel-Hamas conflict could expand
TEL AVIV, Israel — President Joe Biden will travel to Jordan on Wednesday to meet with Arab leaders following his trip to Israel as concerns increase that the raging Israel-Hamas war could expand into a larger regional conflict. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday evening that...
Settlement over Trump family separations at the border limits future separations for 8 years
SAN DIEGO — The federal government would be barred from immigration policies that separate parents from children for eight years under a proposed court settlement announced Monday that also provides families that were split under the Trump administration with temporary legal status and short-term housing aid. The settlement between the...
Pepper X marks the spot as South Carolina pepper expert scorches his own Guinness Book heat record
FORT MILL, S.C. — Ed Currie, the South Carolina hot pepper expert who crossbred and grew the Carolina Reaper that’s hotter than most pepper sprays police use to subdue unruly criminals, has broken his own world record with a pepper that’s three times hotter. Pepper X was publicly named the...
Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford calls on autoworkers to end strike, says company’s future is at stake
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford on Monday called on autoworkers to come together to end a monthlong strike that he says could cost the company the ability to invest in the future. In a rare speech coming during contract talks in the company’s hometown of Dearborn,...
The Supreme Court orders makers of gun parts to comply with rules on ghost guns
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ordered two internet sellers of gun parts to comply with a Biden administration regulation aimed at ghost guns, firearms which are difficult to trace because they lack serial numbers. The court had intervened once before, by a 5-4 vote in August, to keep...
Proud Boys member pleads guilty to obstruction charge in Jan. 6 attack on Capitol
WASHINGTON — A Proud Boys member who joined others from the far-right group in attacking the U.S. Capitol pleaded guilty on Monday to obstructing the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. William Chrestman, 49, of Olathe, Kansas, also pleaded guilty to threatening to assault a...
Mourners in heavily Palestinian Chicago suburb remember Muslim boy killed as kind, energeticVideo
CHICAGO — Crowds of mourners in a heavily Palestinian Chicago suburb paid respects Monday to a 6-year-old Muslim boy killed in an alleged hate crime, hours after authorities revealed new details about the evidence used to charge the family’s landlord with stabbing the child and his mother. Wadea Al-Fayoume, who...
FBI report: Violent crime decreases to pre-pandemic levels, but property crime is on the rise
ST. LOUIS — Violent crime across the U.S. decreased last year — dropping to about the same level as before the onset of the covid-19 pandemic — but property crimes rose substantially, according to data in the FBI’s annual crime report released Monday. The report comes with an asterisk: Some...
Israel-Hamas war has roiled U.S. campuses. Students on each side say colleges aren’t doing enough
America’s colleges aspire to be places where ideas meet and common ground emerges. As the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war, they have become seats of anguish. Many Jewish students and their allies, some with family and friends in Israel, have demanded bold reckonings and strong condemnation after the...
Hezbollah destroys Israeli surveillance cameras along the Lebanese border as tension soars
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Monday it has started destroying surveillance cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border as tension rose following the Israel-Hamas war that began Oct.7. Hezbollah’s military media arm released a video showing snipers shooting at and destroying surveillance cameras placed on five...
Humanitarian aid stuck at Gaza-Egypt border as Israeli siege strains hospitals, water supply
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Truckloads of aid idled at Egypt’s border with Gaza as residents and humanitarian groups pleaded Monday for water, food and fuel for dying generators, saying the tiny Palestinian territory sealed off by Israel after last week’s rampage by Hamas was near total collapse. U.S. President Joe...
Muslim boy killed and woman wounded in Illinois hate crime motivated by Israeli-Hamas war
CHICAGO — An Illinois landlord accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy and seriously wounding his mother was charged with a hate crime after police and relatives said he singled out the victims because of their faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas. In...
Biden considering trip to Israel in the coming days, but travel isn’t final
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is considering a trip to Israel in the coming days but no travel has been finalized, a senior administration official said Sunday. Biden has staunchly proclaimed his support for Israel, and a trip there would be the firmest signal yet but would come amid heightening...
Supreme Court dispute over a $15,000 IRS bill may be aimed at a never-enacted tax on billionaires
WASHINGTON — Charles and Kathleen Moore are about to have their day in the Supreme Court over a $15,000 tax bill they contend is unconstitutional. The couple from Redmond, Washington, claim they had to pay the money because of their investment in an Indian company from which, as Charles Moore,...
War between Israel and Hamas is testing Republican Party’s isolationist shift
ROCHESTER, N.H. — Nikki Haley vowed to stand with Israel “every step of the way.” She promised to “decimate” the Iranian economy. And she called for continued funding for Ukraine as it fights to repel the Russian invasion. “It’s a dangerous world right now,” Haley told Republican primary voters gathered...
Top U.S. envoy will return to Israel after stops in Arab nations aimed at avoiding a broader conflict
CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel this week after completing a frantic six-country rush through Arab nations aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from igniting a broader regional conflict. The U.S. State Department announced Blinken’s plan to travel Monday to Israel — his second...
Packed Gaza hospitals warn that thousands could die as supplies run low and ground offensive looms
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Medics in Gaza warned Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people ran desperately low on fuel and basic supplies. Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave struggled to find food, water and safety ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in the...
Calif. to follow other states in granting community college tuition break to Mexico residents
LOS ANGELES — Agustin Guzman spends hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic and crosses an international border just to get to his college classes. But it’s worth it. Though he’s a resident of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, he pays the same tuition as a student 4 miles away from Laredo, Texas, thanks to...
