U.S./World category, Page 691

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana communities beginning the huge task of clearing debris and repairing the damage inflicted by Hurricane Ida are facing the depressing prospect of weeks without electricity in the stifling, late-summer heat. Ida ravaged the region’s power grid, leaving all of New Orleans and hundreds of thousands of...

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s leader is traveling to the United States this week in hopes of bolstering security ties with Washington and persuading the administration to ramp up sanctions against a new Russian natural gas pipeline that bypasses his country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called Washington’s failure to block the...

TALLAHASSEE — Florida state education officials on Monday began to make good on threats to withhold funding from local school districts that defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on mask mandates, despite a circuit judge last week ruling the ban unconstitutional. Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran announced that the Florida Department...

China is banning children from playing online games for more than three hours a week, the harshest restriction so far on the game industry as Chinese regulators continue cracking down on the technology sector. Minors in China can only play games between 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends...

NEW YORK — A momentary power surge disrupted half of the New York City subway system for several hours and stranded hundreds of passengers, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday. The unprecedented breakdown affected more than 80 trains on the subway system’s numbered lines plus the L train from shortly after...

NEW YORK — PNC Bank is the latest large U.S. financial services company to increase wages in a bid to keep and attract employees, raising its minimum wage to $18 an hour while also giving higher-paid workers a bump in pay. The bank said Monday that the wage increase will...

A Nevada school board member said he had thoughts of suicide before stepping down amid threats and harassment. In Virginia, a board member resigned over what she saw as politics driving decisions on masks. The vitriol at board meetings in Wisconsin had one member fearing he would find his tires...

CAIRO — Egypt has released an online comedian, a journalist and a political activist after they spent months in pre-trail detention, two lawyers said on Monday. It was the latest in a series of recent releases amid concerns by the United States and international rights groups over the arrests and...

NEW ORLEANS — Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks brought hundreds of people trapped by Hurricane Ida’s floodwaters to safety Monday and utility repair crews rushed in, after the furious storm swamped the Louisiana coast and ravaged the electrical grid in the stifling, late-summer heat. Residents living amid the...

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea appears to have restarted the operation of its main nuclear reactor used to produce weapons fuels, the U.N. atomic agency said, as the North openly threatens to enlarge its nuclear arsenal amid long-dormant nuclear diplomacy with the United States. The annual report by the...

MILAN — Italian firefighters on Sunday battled a high-rise blaze in Milan that spread rapidly through a 20-story residential building and poured black smoke into the air. Residents were hurriedly evacuated. Mayor Giuseppe Sala said there were no reports of injuries or deaths, but that firefighters were kicking down doors,...

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Spiking temperatures and increasing wind on Sunday added to the challenges faced by firefighters battling blazes across Northern California, including one that continued its march toward the Lake Tahoe resort region. “It is going to be the hottest day so far since the fire began,...

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. drone strike Sunday struck a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate before they could target the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul’s international airport, American officials said. There were few initial details about the incident, as well as a rocket that struck...

President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. Another terror attack, he said, is “highly likely” this weekend as the U.S. winds down its evacuation. The Pentagon said...

Thousands of voting rights advocates rallied across the country Saturday to call for sweeping federal laws that would wipe out voting restrictions advancing in some Republican-controlled states that could make it harder to cast a ballot. Many activists view the fight over voting rules as the civil rights issue of...

As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next year’s midterm elections. Little more...

Taliban forces sealed off Kabul’s airport Saturday to most Afghans hoping for evacuation and most NATO nations flew out their troops after two decades in Afghanistan, winding down a frantic airlift that Western leaders acknowledged was still leaving many of their citizens and local allies behind. The United States, which...

A new report from Russia’s state statistics agency shows the country recorded a record number of deaths in July of people infected with coronavirus. The report from the Rosstat agency said 50,421 people suffering from covid-19 died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December....