U.S./World category, Page 1066
Dutch inventor unveils device to scoop plastic out of rivers
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Dutch inventor Boyan Slat is widening his effort to clean up floating plastic from the Pacific Ocean by moving into rivers, too, using a new floating device to catch garbage before it reaches the seas. The 25-year-old university dropout founded The Ocean Cleanup to develop and deploy...
New evacuations, power outages near California wildfireVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities ordered at least 50,000 residents to evacuate towns near a massive Northern California wildfire Saturday, and the state’s largest utility announced power shut-offs for an estimated 2.35 million people due to forecasts of severe winds and extreme fire danger. Two previous electricity shut-offs in recent weeks...
Separatists clash with police in Barcelona after huge rallyVideo
BARCELONA, Spain — Police and violent protesters in Spain’s restive Catalonia region clashed Saturday after a massive rally in Barcelona against the imprisonment of nine separatist leaders for their roles in an illegal 2017 secession bid. The flare-up in violence came after a week of tense calm without major incidents...
Critics gear up for response to lease sale in Arctic refuge
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Opponents of oil drilling in America’s largest wildlife refuge have a message for oil drillers and the people who finance them: Don’t become the company known for the demise of America’s polar bears. The Department of the Interior hopes to conduct a lease sale in the Arctic...
Lawsuit: Flight attendant caught pilots livestreaming bathroom in cockpit during flight from Pittsburgh
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant said she witnessed two pilots streaming live voyeur-camera footage from the airplane’s bathroom into the cockpit, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. The attendant, Renee Steinaker, alleged she discovered the sneaky surveillance during a 2017 flight from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, according to Arizona Central. The...
More Vietnamese fear relatives are among 39 dead in truck
LONDON — More Vietnamese families came forward Saturday with information that their relatives may be among the 39 people found dead in the back of a container truck in southeastern England. British police had initially said they believed the victims were Chinese but have acknowledged this is a “developing picture.”...
Medication lockers help Miami’s homeless living with HIV
MIAMI — Ivette Naida says keeping tabs on her HIV medication can be a daunting task. Naida lives underneath a Miami highway overpass with several other homeless men and women. She has no safe place to keep her belongings. HIV-positive people who live on the streets are less likely to...
ERA activists are eyeing a win in Virginia. Is now the time?
RICHMOND, Va. — As Carol Jenkins sees it, a nearly 100-year push to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is closer to reality now than it’s ever been. That’s why there’s a “tremendous effort” underway to elect supporters of the long-stalled gender equality measure in Virginia’s elections...
Georgia inmate maintains innocence, won’t seek clemency ahead of execution
ATLANTA — Ray “Jeff” Cromartie met with Georgia officials to ask them to halt his execution. In the private meeting, the 52-year-old told the Board of Pardons and Paroles what he’s long said: he did not kill anyone. Cromartie, scheduled to be killed Wednesday, didn’t deny involvement in the April...
South Dakota inmate on death row loses 2 appeals in 1 day
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A convicted killer in South Dakota who is scheduled to be executed early next month for the fatal stabbing of a young doughnut shop worker lost two appeals on Friday. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a request by Charles Russell Rhines, 63, to...
Pentagon hands Microsoft $10B ‘war cloud’ deal, snubs Amazon
SAN FRANCISCO — The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract , snubbing early front-runner Amazon, whose participation drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals. Bidding for the huge project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon,...
Firefighters race to control blazes before winds roar back
LOS ANGELES — Howling winds that fueled destructive wildfires across California began to die down Friday, but residents in the northern part of the state braced for another round of power outages aimed at preventing what are expected to be the strongest gusts in years from sparking more blazes this...
Defense secretary says U.S. troops, armored vehicles going to Syria oil fields
BRUSSELS — The United States will send armored vehicles and combat troops into eastern Syria to keep oil fields from potentially falling into the hands of Islamic State militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday. It was the latest sign that extracting the military from Syria is more uncertain...
U.S. budget deficit hits $984 billion, highest in 7 years
The federal deficit for the 2019 budget year surged to $984.4 billion, its highest point in seven years, and is widely expected to top the $1 trillion mark in coming years. The 26% surge from the 2018 deficit of $779 billion that the government reported Friday reflected such factors as...
Woman drives motorhome into casino after she’s kicked out
Police say a woman who was angered when she was kicked out of a Las Vegas-area casino intentionally drove her motorhome into the building, injuring a custodian. North Las Vegas Police spokesman Eric Leavitt says the 50-year-old woman was ejected from the Cannery casino Friday morning and drove her Winnebago...
GOP’s top leaders navigate impeachment in their own ways
WASHINGTON — One of them is a gregarious, backslapping Californian unwavering in his defense of President Donald Trump. The other is a reserved, calibrated Kentuckian who chooses his words about Trump with care and doesn’t stroke the president’s ego. But it’s more than style and temperament that separate House GOP...
Trump critic gets 1st pitch at World Series game that Trump will attend
WASHINGTON — A day after President Donald Trump said he plans to attend Game 5 of the World Series, the Washington Nationals announced the ceremonial first pitch at that game will be thrown by chef José Andrés, a vocal critic of Trump. Four years ago, Andrés withdrew from plans to...
Center for Lyme launches to lobby Congress for more research, treatment options
A new nonprofit launched this week will focus on lobbying Congress to expand funding for the development of new drugs and diagnostic tools for battling Lyme disease. The Center for Lyme Action launched on Tuesday in addition to hosting a congressional forum with lawmakers from Minnesota, New Jersey and California,...
Man getting haircut robbed at gunpoint in Brooklyn barbershopVideo
The New York Police Department is looking for the suspect in an apparent robbery of a man who was getting his hair cut at a barbershop in Brooklyn. The incident was caught on surveillance footage which appears to show the suspect pressing a pistol into the victim’s neck while he’s...
Hundreds flee Northern California wildfire amid blackoutsVideo
GEYSERVILLE, Calif. — Hundreds of people were forced to flee Northern California wine country early Thursday as a wildfire exploded in size, fueled by dangerous winds that prompted utilities throughout the state to impose electrical blackouts to prevent fires. Authorities ordered the entire community of Geyserville to evacuate after the...
Hunter killed when deer he shot gets up, attacks himVideo
An Arkansas hunter’s good fortune turned tragic when he was killed by the same deer he had just shot. “I’ve worked for the (Arkansas) Game and Fish Commission for 20 years, and it’s one of the stranger things that’s happened,” Keith Stephens, communications chief for the agency, told KY3. Stephens...
Boris Johnson seeks December election to break Brexit impasse
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has finally abandoned his promise of an October Brexit and pinned his hopes on a December election. Two days after lawmakers stymied Johnson’s latest attempt to pass his European Union divorce deal, he said Thursday that the only way to break Britain’s Brexit...
Jimmy Carter out of hospital after treatment for fall
ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter is out of the hospital where he was treated after fracturing his pelvis in a recent fall, a spokeswoman said Thursday. Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in a statement that the former president had been released from Phoebe Sumter Medical Center and was...
World’s largest tree house burns down in 15 minutesVideo
An iconic tree house burned to the ground in just 15 minutes. The fire Tuesday at the structure, famous for being the largest tree house in the world, started at about 10:30 p.m., reports WVLT-TV. It collapsed just as emergency crews arrived on scene. Minister’s Tree House near Crossville, Tenn.,...
Smart watch calls 911 after 2 hikers fall off cliff
MIDDLETOWN, N.J. — A New Jersey man says he and his hiking companion were rescued after they fell off a cliff because the impact spurred his smart watch to call 911. James Prudenciano and Paige Paruso were hiking in Hartshorne Woods Park in Middletown last week when they got lost...
