U.S./World category, Page 725
U.K. raises terror threat level after Liverpool taxi blast
LONDON — British authorities raised the country’s threat level to its second-highest rung on Monday, after police said a blast in a taxi outside a Liverpool hospital that killed one man and injured another was caused by a homemade bomb. Investigators said they were treating the explosion in Liverpool as...
Prosecutor: Kyle Rittenhouse provoked the bloodshed in KenoshaVideo
KENOSHA, Wis. — Kyle Rittenhouse provoked bloodshed on the streets of Kenosha by bringing a semi-automatic rifle to a protest and menacing others, and when the shooting stopped, he walked off like a “hero in a Western,” a prosecutor said in closing arguments Monday at Rittenhouse’s murder trial. But Rittenhouse’s...
Foreign students returning to U.S., but below pre-covid levels
International students are returning to U.S. colleges in stronger numbers this year, but the rebound has yet to make up for last year’s historic declines as covid-19 continues to disrupt academic exchange, according to a new survey. Nationwide, American colleges and universities saw a 4% annual increase in international students...
Austria locks down the unvaccinated amid covid surge
BERLIN — Austria took what its leader called the “dramatic” step Monday of implementing a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people who haven’t recently had covid-19, perhaps the most drastic of a string of measures being taken by European governments to get a massive regional resurgence of the virus under control....
America is about to find where its once-a-decade heart is
The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday is announcing where the new population center of the U.S. is located, an event that take places every 10 years after the once-a-decade census shows where people are living. The center of the U.S. population distribution has been located in Missouri since 1980, and...
Trump ally Steve Bannon appears in court on contempt chargesVideo
WASHINGTON — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon appeared before a judge on Monday to face criminal contempt charges for defying a subpoena from Congress’ Jan. 6 committee, then declared combatively outside court that he was “taking on the Biden regime” in fighting the charges. Bannon did not enter a plea...
Biden’s $1T infrastructure bill historic, not transformative
WASHINGTON — The $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signs into law represents a historic achievement at a time of deeply fractured politics. But the compromises needed to bridge the political divide suggest that the spending might not be as transformative as Biden has promised for the U.S....
Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy won’t seek reelection
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving member of the Senate, said Monday he will not seek reelection in 2022 to the seat he has held for eight terms. Leahy, 81, said he and his wife, Marcelle, have concluded that “it is time to pass the...
Democrat Beto O’Rourke running for Texas governor in 2022
AUSTIN, Texas — Democrat Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas, pursuing a blue breakthrough in America’s biggest red state after his star-making U.S. Senate campaign in 2018 put him closer than anyone else in decades. O’Rourke’s announcement Monday kicks off a third run for office in as many...
Poland arrests 3 in connection to antisemitic demonstration
WARSAW, Poland — Three people have been arrested in Poland in connection with an antisemitic demonstration last week where far-right participants shouted “Death to the Jews!,” the country’s interior minister said Monday. The demonstration took place last Thursday, on Poland’s Independence Day, in the central Polish city of Kalisz. Participants...
Baby elephant loses half its trunk to Indonesia poacher trap
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A baby elephant in Indonesia’s Sumatra island has had half of her trunk amputated after being caught in what authorities said Monday was a trap set by poachers who prey on the endangered species. The 1-year-old female is among the last of the island’s 700 wild...
EU to add airlines to Belarus sanctions as tensions mount
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday ratcheted up pressure on Belarus by agreeing to slap sanctions on airlines accused of helping President Alexander Lukashenko to wage a “hybrid attack” against the bloc using migrants, as tensions mounted on the Polish border. Up to 4,000 migrants are stuck in makeshift...
U.S. journalist jailed in Myanmar for nearly 6 months is freed
BANGKOK — American journalist Danny Fenster, who was recently sentenced to 11 years of hard labor after spending nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, was freed and on his way home Monday, a former U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate the release said. Fenster, the managing editor of the...
9-year-old Dallas boy dies after Astroworld festival crush
HOUSTON — A 9-year-old Dallas boy has become the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston. Ezra Blount of Dallas died Sunday at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, family attorney Ben Crump said. Ezra was placed in a medically...
Mar-a-Lago-trespasser deported to China 2 years later
PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Chinese businesswoman convicted of trespassing at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and lying to Secret Service agents was deported over the weekend, federal authorities said, more than two years after serving her sentence. Yujing Zhang was turned over to immigration officials in December 2019 after...
Woman arrested for punching Southwest Airlines worker
DALLAS — A woman has been arrested after punching a Southwest Airlines employee in the head during boarding for a flight out of a Dallas airport, police said. Arielle Jean Jackson, 32, was arrested Saturday afternoon at Love Field, Dallas police said. Police said Jackson has been charged with aggravated...
Trump’s Washington hotel to be sold, renamed Waldorf Astoria
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s family-run company reached a deal to sell the rights to its Washington, D.C., hotel for $375 million, after which the property will be branded as Waldorf Astoria, according to people familiar with the matter. A Miami-based investment firm, CGI Merchant Group, is in contract to acquire...
U.K.’s Boris Johnson: Climate deal sounds ‘death knell’ for coal
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the U.N. climate summit as a “game-changing agreement” that sounded the “death knell for coal power” on Sunday — although he added that his delight at the progress on fighting climate change was “tinged with disappointment.” Johnson said it was “beyond question”...
Nations strike climate deal with coal compromise
GLASGOW, Scotland — Almost 200 nations accepted a contentious climate compromise Saturday aimed at keeping a key global warming target alive, but it contained a last-minute change that watered down crucial language about coal. Several countries, including small island states, said they were deeply disappointed by the change promoted by...
Ecuador battle between prison gangs leaves at least 68 dead
A prolonged gun battle between rival gangs inside Ecuador’s largest prison early Saturday left at least 68 inmates dead in the latest violence to hit the Litoral Penitentiary, which recently saw the country’s worst prison bloodbath. The fighting lasted for almost eight hours in the lockup in the coastal city...
Sister: Hawaii girl was inside dog cage and not breathing
A biological sister of a 6-year-old Hawaii girl reported missing by their adoptive parents told police the parents forced her to keep it a secret that Isabella Kalua was not breathing inside a dog cage in the bathroom, with duct tape on her mouth and nose. The new details were...
Nursing homes can now lift most covid restrictions on visits
The government on Friday directed nursing homes to open their doors wide to visitors, easing many remaining pandemic restrictions while urging residents, families and facility staff to keep their guard up against outbreaks. The new guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services instructs nursing homes to allow visits...
Britney freed: Judge dissolves Spears’ conservatorship
Britney is free. A Los Angeles judge on Friday ended the conservatorship that has controlled Britney Spears’ life and money for nearly 14 years. The decision capped a stunning five-month odyssey that saw Spears publicly demand the end of the conservatorship, hire her own attorney, have her father removed from...
Homer Plessy, key to ‘separate but equal,’ on road to pardon
A Louisiana board on Friday voted to pardon Homer Plessy, whose decision to sit in a “whites-only” railroad car to protest discrimination led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling affirming state segregation laws. The state Board of Pardons’ unanimous decision to clear the Creole man’s record...
Man who went to space with Shatner dies in plane crash
A man who traveled to space with William Shatner last month was killed along with another person when the small plane they were in crashed in a wooded area of northern New Jersey, according to state police. The one-time space tourist Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York City,...
