U.S./World category, Page 388
Biden’s pick to be ambassador to Israel tells senators he’ll ensure the U.S. ally ‘has what it needs’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel told senators Wednesday that he would “ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself” and would work with the U.S. ally to end the attacks by Hamas if he were confirmed. Jacob Lew, a treasury secretary under President...
Gaza’s doctors struggle to save hospital blast survivors as Middle East rage growsVideo
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Doctors in Gaza City faced with dwindling medical supplies performed surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of a massive blast that killed civilians sheltering in a nearby hospital amid Israeli bombings and a blockade of...
Biden pledges solidarity with Israelis and suggests ‘other team’ to blame for Gaza hospital blastVideo
TEL AVIV, Israel — President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israel during his visit there Wednesday, and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital that prompted mass protests in Arab nations apparently was not carried out...
SpaceX launch equals Space Coast record for the year
ORLANDO, Fla. — A SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday night marked the Space Coast’s 57th launch of the year, equaling the record total seen in 2022. A Falcon 9 with 22 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at...
Officials: Remains of at least 189 removed from Colorado funeral home
DENVER — The remains of at least 189 people have been removed from a Colorado funeral home, up from an initial estimate of about 115 when the decaying and improperly stored bodies were discovered two weeks ago, officials said Tuesday. The remains were found by authorities responding to a report...
More U.S. ships head toward Israel; 2,000 troops on heightened alert
WASHINGTON — Within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the U.S. began moving warships and aircraft to the region to be ready to provide Israel with whatever it needed to respond. On Tuesday, more ships and forces were heading toward Israel, and other troops in the U.S. were...
Pentagon releases footage of hundreds of ‘concerning’ aircraft intercepts by Chinese planes
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft that have occurred in the past two years — more than the total number over the previous decade and part of a trend U.S. military officials called concerning. The...
Blast kills hundreds at Gaza hospital; Hamas and Israel trade blame, as Biden heads to Mideast
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by...
IRS plans limited rollout of free e-file tax return system with invitations to select taxpayers
WASHINGTON — The IRS plans to invite select taxpayers across 13 states to try out the agency’s pilot electronic free file tax return system beginning in January. The agency estimates that hundreds of thousands of taxpayers will participate in the limited rollout of the program for the 2024 filing season....
Rite Aid’s bankruptcy plan stirs worries of new ‘pharmacy deserts’
Rite Aid’s plan to close more stores as part of its bankruptcy process could hurt access to medicine and care, particularly in some majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and in rural areas, experts say. The drugstore chain said late Sunday that its voluntary Chapter 11 process will allow it to...
Trump returns to civil fraud trial as accountant testifies, key witness Michael Cohen postpones
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump returned to a New York City courtroom Tuesday to watch the civil fraud trial that threatens to disrupt his real estate empire, renewing his claims that the case is a baseless and politically targeted distraction from his 2024 campaign. After attending the trial’s...
Israel bombs Gaza region where civilians were told to seek refuge, as mediators try to unlock aid
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had told Palestinians to flee to ahead of an expected ground invasion, killing dozens of people on Tuesday in attacks it says are targeted at Hamas militants that rule the besieged territory. With no water, fuel or...
India’s Supreme Court refuses to legalize same-sex marriage, leaving it to Parliament
NEW DELHI — India’s top court on Tuesday refused to legalize same-sex marriages, passing the responsibility back to Parliament in a ruling that disappointed campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights in the world’s most populous country. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also urged the government to uphold the rights of the queer community...
Retail sales up a solid 0.7% in September as American consumers defy rising prices, interest rates
NEW YORK — Americans kept spending in September at a solid pace even as they grappled with higher prices and interest rates. Retail sales rose 0.7% in September, more than twice what economists had expected, and close to a a revised 0.8% bump in August, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday....
$1.4M speeding ticket surprised Georgia man before officials clarified the situation
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia man was left reeling after receiving a $1.4 million speeding ticket, but city officials say the figure was just a placeholder, not the actual fine. Connor Cato told WSAV-TV in Savannah that he received the citation after getting pulled over in September for driving 90...
Legal challenge to dethrone South Africa’s Zulu king heads to court
JOHANNESBURG — The battle for the throne of South Africa’s ethnic Zulu nation has reached the courts as a faction of the royal family seeks to dethrone the king after less than a year. The North Gauteng High Court in the capital Pretoria is hearing legal arguments this week in...
Biden will travel to Israel amid concern that Israel-Hamas conflict could expand
TEL AVIV, Israel — President Joe Biden will travel to Jordan on Wednesday to meet with Arab leaders following his trip to Israel as concerns increase that the raging Israel-Hamas war could expand into a larger regional conflict. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday evening that...
Settlement over Trump family separations at the border limits future separations for 8 years
SAN DIEGO — The federal government would be barred from immigration policies that separate parents from children for eight years under a proposed court settlement announced Monday that also provides families that were split under the Trump administration with temporary legal status and short-term housing aid. The settlement between the...
Pepper X marks the spot as South Carolina pepper expert scorches his own Guinness Book heat record
FORT MILL, S.C. — Ed Currie, the South Carolina hot pepper expert who crossbred and grew the Carolina Reaper that’s hotter than most pepper sprays police use to subdue unruly criminals, has broken his own world record with a pepper that’s three times hotter. Pepper X was publicly named the...
Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford calls on autoworkers to end strike, says company’s future is at stake
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford on Monday called on autoworkers to come together to end a monthlong strike that he says could cost the company the ability to invest in the future. In a rare speech coming during contract talks in the company’s hometown of Dearborn,...
The Supreme Court orders makers of gun parts to comply with rules on ghost guns
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ordered two internet sellers of gun parts to comply with a Biden administration regulation aimed at ghost guns, firearms which are difficult to trace because they lack serial numbers. The court had intervened once before, by a 5-4 vote in August, to keep...
Proud Boys member pleads guilty to obstruction charge in Jan. 6 attack on Capitol
WASHINGTON — A Proud Boys member who joined others from the far-right group in attacking the U.S. Capitol pleaded guilty on Monday to obstructing the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. William Chrestman, 49, of Olathe, Kansas, also pleaded guilty to threatening to assault a...
Mourners in heavily Palestinian Chicago suburb remember Muslim boy killed as kind, energeticVideo
CHICAGO — Crowds of mourners in a heavily Palestinian Chicago suburb paid respects Monday to a 6-year-old Muslim boy killed in an alleged hate crime, hours after authorities revealed new details about the evidence used to charge the family’s landlord with stabbing the child and his mother. Wadea Al-Fayoume, who...
FBI report: Violent crime decreases to pre-pandemic levels, but property crime is on the rise
ST. LOUIS — Violent crime across the U.S. decreased last year — dropping to about the same level as before the onset of the covid-19 pandemic — but property crimes rose substantially, according to data in the FBI’s annual crime report released Monday. The report comes with an asterisk: Some...
Israel-Hamas war has roiled U.S. campuses. Students on each side say colleges aren’t doing enough
America’s colleges aspire to be places where ideas meet and common ground emerges. As the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war, they have become seats of anguish. Many Jewish students and their allies, some with family and friends in Israel, have demanded bold reckonings and strong condemnation after the...
