U.S./World category, Page 377
Joe Biden wants to complete his goals on civil rights, taxes, and social services if he’s reelected
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has a simple reelection pitch to voters — let him “finish the job.” So what does that mean? What’s left for him to get done? Unlike Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination who has been releasing videos and statements detailing...
Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital and people trapped inside say they cannot flee
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate Sunday, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...
House Republicans look to pass two-step package to avoid partial government shutdown
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his proposal on Saturday to avoid a partial government shutdown by extending government funding for some agencies and programs until Jan. 19 and continuing funding for others until Feb. 2. The approach is unusual for a stopgap spending bill. Usually, lawmakers extend funding...
Trump’s plans if he returns to the White House include deportation raids, tariffs and mass firings
NEW YORK — A mass deportation operation. A new Muslim ban. Tariffs on all imported goods and “freedom cities” built on federal land. Much of the 2024 presidential campaign has been dominated by the myriad investigations into former President Donald Trump and the subsequent charges against him. But with less...
NYC Jewish sites hit with bomb threats, fake grenade as Gaza war sparks surge in antisemitism
NEW YORK — Reported bombs at separate Jewish sites caused alarm on Saturday and prompted an New York Police Department response as antisemitic incidents sparked by the war in Gaza continue to rise, police said. First, police were called to Holocaust Memorial Park on West End Avenue in Sheepshead Bay,...
Texas police officer, suspect killed in a shooting; 2 others found dead
A Texas police officer was killed early Saturday in a shooting that left the shooter dead, a second officer wounded, authorities said. Two other people were later found dead inside a home in Austin, according to interim Police Chief Robin Henderson. An emotional Henderson, who paused often during a news...
Constitutional challenge to Georgia voting machines set for trial early next year
ATLANTA — The question of whether Georgia’s electronic voting system has major cybersecurity flaws that amount to a violation of voters’ constitutional rights to cast their votes and have those votes accurately counted is set to be decided at trial early next year. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg issued a...
Biden and Xi set to meet next week at the APEC summit — no detail too small to sweat
WASHINGTON — When President Joe Biden meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, there will be no such thing as a small detail. How they greet? If they eat? Where they sit? Will there be flowers? Bottled water or in a glass? “Pretty intense,” senior administration officials say of navigating...
Missile strike targets Kyiv as Russian train carriages derail due to ‘unauthorized interference’
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces targeted Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as part of an overnight bombardment felt across the country, local officials said Saturday, while drones that Russian officials blamed on the Ukrainian military targeted areas around Moscow and the region of Smolensk. A ballistic missile was shot down as it...
In rare move, Pope forcibly removes leading U.S. conservative, Texas bishop
ROME — Pope Francis on Saturday forcibly removed from office the bishop of Tyler, Texas, a conservative active on social media who has been a fierce critic of the pontiff and some of his priorities. A one-line statement from the Vatican said Francis had “relieved” Bishop Joseph Strickland of the...
U.K. police step up efforts to ensure a massive pro-Palestinian march in London remains peaceful
LONDON — London police have stepped up efforts to ensure a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday remains peaceful following a week of political sparring over whether the demonstration should go ahead on the weekend Britain honors its war dead. More than 2,000 officers, some called in from surrounding forces, will be...
Gaza’s main hospital goes dark as Israel battles Hamas outside, causing patients to die; Netanyahu rejects cease-fire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the military will continue its battle against Hamas in Gaza with “full force,” in a rejection of growing international calls for a cease-fire. Netanyahu said in a televised address that a cease-fire would only be possible if...
4 men wounded in shootout over allegedly stolen car on Interstate 59 in Alabama
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A confrontation over an allegedly stolen car in Birmingham, Alabama, ended Friday in a shootout on a busy interstate that wounded four people, including two who had life-threatening injuries, police said. The shooting took place shortly after 4:30 p.m. on southbound Interstate 59 near the 20th Street...
4 injured, 1 critically, in shooting at mall in Missouri
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Independence police are investigating a shooting Friday afternoon at the Independence Center mall. Police initially said three people had been shot, but later updated that to four shot. One person is in critical condition. A police spokesperson said the shooting occurred in a public area inside...
Lindell’s troubled MyPillow goes with in-house counsel to defend federal Smartmatic case
MINNEAPOLIS — MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has turned to in-house corporate counsel to defend him and his company against Smartmatic’s defamation claim in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, according to a court filing Friday. Doug Wardlow, who ran twice for state attorney general, filed formal notice that he and fellow...
Republican faction seeks to keep courts from interpreting Ohio’s new abortion rights amendment
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Four Ohio Republican state lawmakers are seeking to strip judges of their power to interpret an abortion rights amendment after voters opted to enshrine those rights in the state’s constitution this week. Republican state Reps. Jennifer Gross, Bill Dean, Melanie Miller and Beth Lear said in a...
Moody’s lowers U.S. credit outlook, though keeps triple-A rating
WASHINGTON — The credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook on the U.S. government’s debt on Friday to “negative” from “stable,” citing the cost of rising interest rates and political polarization in Congress. Moody’s retained its top triple-A credit rating on U.S. government debt, though it is the...
5.0 magnitude quake strikes Dominican Republic near border with Haiti
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck the northwest Dominican Republic on Friday near the border with Haiti. The tremor occurred at a depth of 12 miles just west-northwest of Las Matas de Santa Cruz, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Officials in the Dominican Republic said...
Iranian-born Norwegian man is charged over deadly Oslo Pride attack in 2022
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran was charged Friday with aggravated terrorism for the 2022 deadly shooting ahead of an LGBTQ festival in the nightlife district of the capital, Oslo. Two people were killed and nine seriously wounded in the shooting at three locations, chiefly outside the...
Groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State take root on the coast of West Africa
ATACORA, Benin — The insurgents pressured Zackari to join their movement, and he turned them down. Now he’s frightened of their revenge. He has been on the run from the jihadi fighters for more than a year. They regularly call the 33-year-old, warning: “We haven’t forgotten about you.” Groups linked...
The great grift: Covid-19 aid thieves bought fancy cars, a Pokemon card — even a private island
YANKEETOWN, Fla. — A freshwater spring bubbles amid the mangroves, cabbage palms and red cedars on Sweetheart Island, a two-acre uninhabited patch of paradise about a mile off the coast of this little Gulf Coast town. Pelicans divebomb nearby into the cool waters of Florida’s Withlacoochee Bay and the open...
Palestinian evacuees say thousands of people sheltering at Shifa hospital have fled after strikes
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Thousands of Palestinians on Friday fled from around Gaza City’s main hospital after a series of strikes that staff blamed on Israel hit in and around several hospitals overnight. They joined a growing exodus of people toward the south amid intensified fighting as Gaza officials...
U.S. childhood vaccination exemptions reach their highest level ever
NEW YORK — The proportion of U.S. kindergartners exempted from school vaccination requirements has hit its highest level ever, 3%, U.S. health officials said Thursday. More parents are questioning routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, an effect of the political schism that emerged during the pandemic around...
Former Arizona senator reports being molested while running in Iowa
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — A former United States senator from Arizona has said she was molested while jogging along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Martha McSally described the attack on Wednesday morning in a video she posted online. “A man came up behind me and he engulfed me...
Election offices are sent envelopes with fentanyl or other substances. Authorities are investigatingVideo
WASHINGTON — Authorities were hunting Thursday for whoever sent suspicious letters — including some containing fentanyl — to elections offices in at least five states this week, delaying the counting of ballots in some local races in the latest instance of threats faced by election workers around the country. The...
