U.S./World category, Page 520
Russia said to be eyeing eastern Ukraine push; Kyiv targets graft
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is mustering its military might in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, in what Kyiv suspects is preparation for an offensive as the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches. Also Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government continued its crackdown on alleged corruption. The government dismissed...
U.S. opens embassy in Solomon Islands to counter China
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The United States opened an embassy in the Solomon Islands on Thursday in its latest move to counter China’s push into the Pacific. The embassy is starting small, with a chargé d’affaires, a couple of State Department staff and a handful of local employees. The U.S....
Top U.S. official urges WHO to address sexual misconduct
LONDON — A top U.S. health official urged the World Health Organization to address allegations first reported by The Associated Press that one of its doctors repeatedly engaged in sexual misconduct. “There are many of us who stand with survivors and stand with those who identify as victims and are...
FBI searches Biden’s vacation home; no classified documents
WASHINGTON — The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday without turning up any classified documents, the latest turn in an extraordinary series of searches of his and his predecessor’s properties. Agents did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time...
Oregon kidnapping suspect dies of self-inflicted gunshot, police say
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A suspect in a violent kidnapping in Oregon died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being taken into custody following a standoff with law enforcement, police said. Grants Pass Police Department Lt. Jeff Hattersley told KTVL-TV that Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, died Tuesday night at a...
Spectator dies after melee at middle school basketball game
ALBURGH, Vt. — A brawl broke out among spectators at a middle school basketball game in northern Vermont, and a 60-year-old man who participated in the fight died, police said. State troopers were called to the Alburgh Community Education Center just before 7 p.m. Tuesday after a report of a...
1 guilty, 1 acquitted in roadside shooting of Butler County native
NASHVILLE — The man who shot and killed a Tennessee nurse as she was driving to work two years ago was found guilty of second-degree murder on Tuesday, while a co-defendant was acquitted. Devaunte Hill and James Cowan were both charged with first-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Caitlyn...
Suspects sought after Florida drive-by shooting wounds 11Video
LAKELAND, Fla. — The four-door sedan pulled up near an intersection in a central Florida city where people were milling about, the tinted windows came down and people from inside the vehicle started shooting in all directions, wounding 11 men, including two critically, police officials said. Only a minute earlier,...
Lawmakers aim to raise penalties for U.S. airline disruptions
Senators who want to impose tougher penalties when U.S. airlines strand or delay passengers say they finally might be able to turn their ideas into law because of outrage over debacles like the one at Southwest Airlines in December. Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Edward Markey of Massachusetts said...
Trump lawsuit claims Bob Woodward audiobook violates copyright
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against journalist Bob Woodward, claiming he never had permission to publicly release interview recordings made for the book “Rage.” The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Pensacola, Fla., against Woodward, his publisher Simon & Schuster Inc., and the publisher’s...
Prosecutors file charges in set shooting by Alec Baldwin
SANTA FE, N.M. — Actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons specialist have been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico movie set, according to court documents filed by prosecutors Tuesday. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies filed the charging documents naming...
White House: Harris will attend Tyre Nichols’ funeral
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Vice President Kamala Harris plans to attend the funeral of Tyre Nichols, who died three days after he was beaten by Memphis police officers just minutes from his home, the White House said Tuesday. Harris was invited to attend the funeral services Wednesday by Nichols’ mother and...
Agent insists Alex Murdaugh suggested he killed his son
A state agent insisted Tuesday he heard a possible confession from Alex Murdaugh even after defense attorneys for the disgraced South Carolina lawyer slowed the audio down during Murdaugh’s double murder trial. At question is whether Murdaugh said “I did him so bad” or “They did him so bad” as...
Church of England sheds light on ‘shameful’ slave trade ties
LONDON — Three centuries ago, an enslaved person in Virginia wrote to a leader of the Church of England, begging to be released from “this cruel bondage.” There was no reply from the church, which at the time was accumulating a tidy profit from the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The handwritten...
Boxer Klitschko joins fight against Olympic path for RussiaVideo
GENEVA — Olympic gold medalist Wladimir Klitschko has joined Ukraine’s fight against IOC plans to let some Russians compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Games. The former heavyweight champion suggested in a video message published Monday that sports leaders will be accomplices to the war if athletes from Russia and...
Cheaters beware: ChatGPT maker releases AI detection tool
SAN FRANCISCO — The maker of ChatGPT is trying to curb its reputation as a freewheeling cheating machine with a new tool that can help teachers detect if a student or artificial intelligence wrote that homework. The new AI Text Classifier launched Tuesday by OpenAI follows a weeks-long discussion at...
Bring back dodo? Ambitious plan draws investors, critics
WASHINGTON — The dodo bird isn’t coming back anytime soon. Nor is the woolly mammoth. But a company working on technologies to bring back extinct species has attracted more investors, while other scientists are skeptical such feats are possible or a good idea. Colossal Biosciences first announced its ambitious plan...
Biden visits NYC to highlight grant for Hudson rail tunnel
NEW YORK — New day, new tunnel. President Joe Biden is ready to showcase a $292 million mega grant that will be used to help build a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, part of a broader effort to draw a contrast between...
Winter weather cancels flights, leads to death in Texas
DALLAS — Winter weather brought ice to a wide swath of the United States on Tuesday, causing the cancellation of more than 1,700 flights nationwide, bringing traffic to a standstill on an interstate through Arkansas and causing crashes that seriously injured two Texas law officers. As the ice storm advanced...
FDA revamping foods program to move past ‘constant turmoil’
The head of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday announced an overhaul of the agency’s food safety and nutrition division, vowing that a new structure will better protect consumers and the U.S. food supply. FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said he would create a new human foods program led...
Italy on alert amid anarchist attacks on diplomatic missions
MILAN — Italy’s government has increased security around its diplomatic missions around the globe in response to “a crescendo of terroristic attacks” by an anarchist network that has been acting in solidarity with an imprisoned Italian militant, the foreign minister said Tuesday. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani cited nearly a dozen...
Ukraine pushes for Western fighter jets after tank deals
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine won support Tuesday from Baltic nations and Poland in its quest to obtain Western fighter jets, but there were no signs that larger nations like the U.S. and Britain have changed their stance of refusing to provide the warplanes to Kyiv after almost a year of...
Tyre Nichols’ parents to attend Biden State of Union speech
WASHINGTON — The parents of Tyre Nichols, the Black man who was severely beaten by a group of Memphis, Tennessee, police officers and died days later, will attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address next week at the U.S. Capitol. RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the mother and stepfather...
Alaska gold, copper mine blocked over environmental worries
JUNEAU, Alaska — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took an unusually strong step Tuesday and blocked a proposed mine heralded by backers as the most significant undeveloped copper and gold resource in the world because of concerns about its environmental impact on a rich Alaska aquatic ecosystem that supports the...
‘Hands off Africa!’: Pope blasts foreign plundering of Congo
KINSHASA, Congo — Pope Francis demanded Tuesday that foreign powers stop plundering Africa’s natural resources for the “poison of their own greed” as he arrived in Congo to a raucous welcome by Congolese grateful he was focusing the world’s attention on their forgotten plight. Tens of thousands of people lined...
