U.S./World category, Page 667

LONDON — Britain has granted a conditional authorization to Merck’s coronavirus antiviral, the first pill shown to successfully treat covid-19. It is the first country to OK the treatment, although it was not immediately clear how quickly the pill would be available. The pill was licensed for adults 18 and...

WASHINGTON — The hazard lights are blinking for President Joe Biden after Democratic setbacks in this week’s elections, but the president professes to see no reason for panic. Just one year after he rode to the White House with a record 81 million votes, Biden saw Democratic stalwart Terry McAuliffe...

The woman in charge of weapons on the movie set where actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins said Wednesday night that she had inspected the gun Baldwin shot but doesn’t know how a live bullet ended up inside. “Who put those in there and why is the central...

NEW YORK — Are covid-19 boosters the same as the original vaccines? Yes, covid-19 boosters use the same recipe as the original shots, despite the emergence of the more contagious delta variant. The vaccines weren’t tweaked to better match delta because they’re still working well. The vaccines work by training...

RACINE, Wis. — A sheriff on Wednesday recommended that five members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission be criminally charged for telling local elections officials to send absentee ballots to eight nursing home residents in 2020 instead of sending poll workers to oversee voting there during the coronavirus pandemic. Racine County...

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump said he was just engaging in “fiery rhetoric” when he said a former “Apprentice” contestant was lying about being sexually assaulted by him more than a decade ago. Trump said the defamation lawsuit filed against him by Summer Zervos was doomed to fail...

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday recommended a prison sentence of nearly four years for a New Jersey gym owner who is on track to be the first person sentenced for assaulting a law enforcement officer during the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Scott Fairlamb’s sentencing, scheduled for next Wednesday, could guide...

CHICAGO — A Chicago woman who served more than seven years in an Indonesian prison for killing her mother at a luxury resort on the island of Bali has been indicted on murder conspiracy charges in the United States and taken into federal custody. FBI agents took Heather Mack, 26,...

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas radio host was sentenced to three life prison sentences this week for a Ponzi scheme in which he bilked elderly listeners out of millions of dollars. William Neil “Doc” Gallagher also got a 30-year prison sentence from state District Judge Elizabeth Beach for his...

WASHINGTON — An independent Pentagon review has concluded that the U.S. drone strike that killed innocent Kabul civilians and children in the final days of the Afghanistan war was not caused by misconduct or negligence, and it doesn’t recommend any disciplinary action, The Associated Press has learned. The review, done...

WASHINGTON — China is expanding its nuclear force much faster than U.S. officials predicted just a year ago, highlighting a broad and accelerating buildup of military muscle designed to enable Beijing to match or surpass U.S. global power by mid-century, according to a Pentagon report released Wednesday. The number of...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Constitution, written in 1901, still has language stating that schools should be segregated by race and people are to pay poll taxes to vote. The Committee on the Recompilation of the Constitution on Wednesday approved a plan to strip racist language from the state’s governing...

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine complained Wednesday that Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops not far from the countries’ border after war games, as part of its attempts to exert pressure on its ex-Soviet neighbor. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s statement marked an about-turn from its denial of any Russian...

WASHINGTON — Several Supreme Court justices appear concerned that a broad ruling in favor of gun rights could threaten restrictions on firearms in subways, bars, stadiums and other places where people gather. The court is hearing arguments Wednesday in its biggest guns case in more than a decade, a dispute...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Last call could come three hours earlier in Miami Beach, where a majority of voters fed up with nighttime violence chose “Yes” to rolling back the 5 a.m. closing time for alcohol sales. The voter referendum was held Tuesday in response to increasingly raucous crowds and...

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a prominent Minnesota GOP donor charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking to stay in jail as he prepares his defense, following accusations he threatened law enforcement and prosecutors. Anton Lazzaro allegedly told Minneapolis police officer Brandon Brugger after his arrest that...

BEIJING — China on Tuesday accused the United States of a “lack of transparency and responsibility” regarding an accident in the South China Sea involving a Navy submarine last month. At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the U.S. should provide full details of the incident that...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is rolling out a new initiative aimed at reducing suicides by gun and combating the significant increases in suicides by members of the military and veterans. The White House is announcing the new plan on Tuesday, which officials say is an unprecedented focus by the...

MINNEAPOLIS — The judge who presided over the trial of Derek Chauvin has made public the names of jurors who convicted the former Minneapolis police officer of murder in the death of George Floyd. Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill, in response to a request to release the names by...

KENOSHA, Wis. — Opening statements began Tuesday at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, with a prosecutor detailing the young man’s shooting of three people who were out on the streets of Kenosha during a protest against racial injustice last year. Prosecutor Thomas Binger described what he said were “two...

MINNEAPOLIS — Voters in Minneapolis were deciding Tuesday whether to replace the city’s police department with a new Department of Public Safety, more than a year after George Floyd’s death under the knee of a white police officer launched a movement to defund or abolish police across the country. Democratic...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday launched a wide-ranging plan to reduce methane emissions, targeting a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming and packs a stronger short-term punch than even carbon dioxide. The plan was announced as President Joe Biden wraps up a two-day appearance at...

KABUL, Afghanistan — An explosion went off Tuesday at the entrance of a military hospital in Kabul, killing three people and wounding at least 16, health officials said. The blast went off at the entrance to the Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan military hospital, the spokesman of the Taliban-run Interior Ministry,...