U.S./World category, Page 542
Anti-abortion priest Frank Pavone defrocked for blasphemous posts
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop who repeatedly told him to stop his partisan activism for Donald Trump. A letter to U.S. bishops from the...
Ex-Mafia boss ‘Cadillac Frank’ Salemme dies in prison at 89
BOSTON — Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, the once powerful New England Mafia boss who was serving a life sentence behind bars for the 1993 killing of a Boston nightclub owner, has died at the age of 89, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Salemme died on Tuesday, according to Bureau...
Texas mayor declares state of emergency over migrant swell
EL PASO, Texas — The mayor of a Texas border city declared a state of emergency Saturday over concerns about the community’s ability to handle an anticipated influx of migrants across the Southern border. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser issued the state of emergency declaration to allow the city on...
Arctic air will blast much of U.S. just before Christmas
Forecasters are warning of treacherous holiday travel and life-threatening cold for much of the nation as an arctic air mass blows into the already-frigid southern United States. “We’re looking at much-below normal temperatures, potentially record-low temperatures leading up to the Christmas holiday,” said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National...
McCarthy’s race for speaker risks upending House on Day One
WASHINGTON — In his quest to rise to House speaker, Kevin McCarthy is charging straight into history — potentially becoming the first nominee in 100 years unable to win the job on a first-round floor vote. The increasingly real prospect of a messy fight over the speaker’s gavel on Day...
What to watch as Jan. 6 committee wraps up its investigation
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Capitol riot will make its final public presentation Monday about the unprecedented effort by Donald Trump to overturn the results of the presidential election he lost in 2020. The committee has called it an “attempted coup” that warrants criminal prosecution from the Justice...
Anti-LGBTQ hate thrives online, spurs fears of more violence
In the days after a gunman killed five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado last month, much of social media lit up with the now familiar expressions of grief, mourning and disbelief. But on some online message boards and platforms, the tone was celebratory. “I love waking up to...
‘Plastic roads’ are paved with good intention
Transportation officials in multiple states are testing whether roads made from grocery bags, juice cartons, printer ink cartridges or other discarded plastic can make pavement last longer, save money and reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. On sections of a busy, four-lane road that cuts through...
Jan. 6 panel eyes recommending 3 criminal charges for Trump
WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is considering recommending the Justice Department pursue an unprecedented criminal charge of insurrection and two other counts against former President Donald Trump. Besides insurrection, an uprising aiming to overthrow the government, the panel is also considering...
Biden signs bill to keep government open through Dec. 23
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed legislation Friday to fund the government for an additional week as lawmakers race to finish work on a full-year spending package before they head home for the holidays and a new Congress is sworn in. Congress in September passed a bill to keep the...
Drivers are stuck in limbo as world’s oil supply reshuffles
NEW YORK — At a gas station outside New York City, retired probation officer Karen Stowe was faced with a pump price she didn’t want to pay. She bought groceries from the convenience store instead, planning to buy cheaper gas elsewhere. “The price is so high, people have to think...
Russians find asylum lifeline to U.S., but at a high price
CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Phil Metzger promises to arrange entry to the United States for Russian-speaking asylum-seekers through unmatched connections with U.S. border officials and people in Mexico who can guarantee safety while traveling. Though seeking asylum is free, the pastor of Calvary San Diego said his services are “not...
So long, California: Major county votes to study secession
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — The November elections saw Californians continue to embrace progressive leadership, but voters in one of the state’s most populous counties are so frustrated with this political direction that they voted to consider seceding and forming their own state. An advisory ballot proposal approved in San Bernardino...
Report: World’s coal use creeps to new high in 2022
BERLIN — Coal use across the world is set to reach a new record this year amid persistently high demand for the heavily polluting fossil fuel, the International Energy Agency said Friday. The Paris-based agency said in a new report that while coal use grew by only 1.2% in 2022,...
Russia launches another major missile attack on Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s capital came under one of the biggest attacks of the war Friday as Russia’s invading forces fired dozens of missiles across the country, Ukrainian officials said, reporting strikes in at least four cities that triggered widespread emergency power outages. Gunfire from air defense systems and thudding...
Pittsburgh Starbucks stores among those affected by nationwide 3-day worker strike
Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three-day strike starting Friday as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain’s stores. More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be...
Huge Berlin aquarium bursts, unleashing flood of devastation
BERLIN — A huge aquarium in Berlin burst, spilling debris, water and more than a thousand tropical fish out of the AquaDom tourist attraction in the heart of the German capital early Friday. Police said parts of the building, which also contains a hotel, cafes and a chocolate store, were...
Satellite launched to map the world’s oceans, lakes, rivers
A U.S.-French satellite that will map almost all of the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers rocketed into orbit Friday. The predawn launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California capped a highly successful year for NASA. Nicknamed SWOT — short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography...
Easter Island rebounds from wildfire that singed its statues
RAPA NUI, Chile — The hillside of Rano Raraku volcano on Rapa Nui feels like a place that froze in time. Embedded in grass and volcanic rock, almost 400 moai — the monolithic human figures carved centuries ago by this remote Pacific island’s Rapanui people — remained untouched until recently....
Louisiana officers charged in Black motorist’s deadly arrest
FARMERVILLE, La. — Five Louisiana law enforcement officers were charged Thursday with state crimes ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, a death authorities initially blamed on a car crash before long suppressed body-camera video showed white officers beating, stunning and dragging the...
Senate passes defense bill rescinding covid vaccine mandate
WASHINGTON — A bill to rescind the covid-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military and provide nearly $858 billion for national defense passed the Senate on Thursday and now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The bill provides for about $45 billion more for...
Prosecutors: Florida family used sham ministry to get covid loans
ORLANDO — Family members who ran a sham ministry have been charged with defrauding the federal government of covid-19 relief funds in a scheme to buy a $3.7 million luxury home in a development at Walt Disney World, authorities said. Evan Edwards, 64, and his 30-year-old son, Joshua Edwards, were...
Texas officer convicted in shooting of Atatiana JeffersonVideo
FORT WORTH, Texas — A former Texas police officer was convicted of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting a Black woman through a rear window of her home in 2019, a rare conviction of an officer for killing someone also armed with a gun. Jurors were also considering a murder charge...
House approves referendum to ‘decolonize’ Puerto RicoVideo
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday that would allow Puerto Rico to hold the first-ever binding referendum on whether to become a state or gain some sort of independence, in a last-ditch effort that stands little chance of passing the Senate. The bill, which passed 233-191 with...
Lengthy prison terms for 3 who aided Whitmer kidnap plotter
JACKSON, Mich. — A judge on Thursday handed down the longest prison terms so far in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, sentencing three men who forged an early alliance with a leader of the scheme before the FBI broke it up in 2020. Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul...
