U.S./World category, Page 700

NEW YORK — After several delays, the first phase of the sex trafficking trial of R&B hitmaker R. Kelly started Monday with jury selection in New York City. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly began questioning potential jurors about whether they can keep an open mind about Kelly two years after...

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers posted a record 10.1 million job openings in June, another sign that the job market and economy are bouncing back briskly from last year’s coronavirus shutdowns. Job openings rose from 9.5 million in May, the Labor Department reported Monday. Employers hired 6.7 million workers in June....

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats unveiled a budget resolution Monday that maps $3.5 trillion in spending boosts and tax breaks aimed at strengthening social and environmental programs, setting up an autumn battle over President Joe Biden’s domestic policy ambitions. The measure lays the groundwork for legislation later this year that over...

Thick smoke that held down winds and temperatures began to clear Sunday from the scenic forestlands of Northern California as firefighters battling the largest single wildfire in state history braced for a return of fire-friendly weather. The winds weren’t expected to reach the ferocious speeds that helped the Dixie Fire...

ALBANY, N.Y. — An executive assistant who accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of groping her breast at the governor’s mansion detailed why she felt empowered to go public with her allegations Monday, as a key legislative committee is set to discuss possible impeachment hearings. Brittany Commisso, one of nearly...

Earth’s climate is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity.” “It’s just guaranteed that it’s going to...

NEWLAND, N.C. — A caretaker for a western North Carolina woman who was found dead last week in her home, buried in concrete, has been arrested and charged with murder, a sheriff said on Sunday. Elizabeth Carserino, 53, of Goose Creek, S.C. was in the Avery County jail on secured...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dug in for the fight of his political life despite the threat of potential criminal investigations and widespread calls for his impeachment over findings that he sexually harassed 11 women, including close aides. Scores of Democrats, including President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi...

Hundreds of people, among them many Belarusians living in exile in Poland, marched Sunday in Warsaw to protest political repression in neighboring Belarus — a demonstration held on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Belarus presidential election that they consider rigged. Many carried the Belarusian opposition’s red-and-white flag...

Census Bureau statisticians and outside experts are trying to unravel a mystery: Why were so many questions about households in the 2020 census left unanswered? Residents did not respond to a multitude of questions about sex, race, Hispanic background, family relationships and age, even when providing a count of the...

Nearly 50 years after skyjacker D.B. Cooper vanished out the back of a Boeing 727 into freezing Northwest rain — wearing a business suit, a parachute and a pack with $200,000 in cash — a crime historian is conducting a dig on the banks of the Columbia River in Vancouver,...

On a hot summer afternoon, Latrell Snider and his partner knocked on Abdullahi Mohamed’s door, introduced themselves and launched their pitch: Minneapolis, they said, has a chance to replace its police department with something new, and they wanted Mohamed’s support. With his children looking on from a living room window,...

KABUL — Taliban fighters seized most of the capital of northern Afghanistan’s key Kunduz province on Sunday, and took another neighboring provincial capital after a monthlong siege. The advances were the latest in a series of blows to government forces as U.S. troops complete their pullout after nearly two decades...

Facebook already asks for your thoughts. Now it wants your prayers. The social media giant has rolled out a new prayer request feature, a tool embraced by some religious leaders as a cutting-edge way to engage the faithful online. Others are eyeing it warily as they weigh its usefulness against...

Motorists put the pedal to the metal during the pandemic and police are worried as roads get busy with the final stretch of summer travel. The latest data shows the number of highway deaths in 2020 was the greatest in more than a decade even though cars and trucks drove...

The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said Saturday his group will retaliate against any future Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, a day after his supporters fired a barrage of rockets toward Israel. Hassan Nasrallah said it would be wrong to assume Hezbollah would be constrained by internal divisions in Lebanon,...

Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting Evia, the country’s second-largest island, in half. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as “a biblical catastrophe.” A flotilla of ten ships —...

The Senate moved closer to passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package Saturday after lawmakers from both parties came together and voted to clear a key procedural hurdle. More votes will be needed before Senate passage of one of President Joe Biden’s top priorities. The measure would provide a massive injection...

As ominous storm clouds gathered in western Colorado over a large area blackened by a recent wildfire, torrential rain fell and the charred land stripped of vegetation gave way, sending a rush of mud and boulders tumbling down steep canyon walls and onto a major highway. The July 29 mudslides...

The U.S. is now averaging 100,000 new covid-19 infections a day, returning to a milestone last seen during the winter surge in another bleak reminder of how quickly the delta variant has spread through the country. Health officials fear that cases, hospitalizations and deaths will continue to soar if more...

Want to find your inner Matt Damon and spend a year pretending you are isolated on Mars? NASA has a job for you. To prepare for eventually sending astronauts to Mars, NASA began taking applications Friday for four people to live for a year in Mars Dune Alpha. That’s a...

The Biden administration on Friday issued what it says will be the final extension to a student loan moratorium that has allowed millions of Americans to put off debt payments during the pandemic. Under the action, payments on federal student loans will remain paused through Jan. 31, 2022. Interest rates...

Nearly two decades after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a group of survivors who lost loved ones and first responders afflicted with lingering illnesses are asking President Biden to avoid ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks next month. About 1,800 who lost loved ones as well as first responders...