U.S./World category, Page 425
New study finds that night owls’ unhealthy habits may lead to early deaths
According to a May 2023 study published in Chronobiology International, night owls — people who go to bed later and wake up later — possibly die earlier than those who operate during the earlier portions of the day. That mainly because those who are up late are more at risk...
Explosion in downtown Tokyo injures 4, media reports
TOKYO — An explosion at a building in Tokyo’s Shimbashi commercial district on Monday shattered windows and spewed smoke, injuring four people, department officials said. Tokyo Fire Department said the explosion occurred at an eatery on the second floor of an eight-story building, injuring two people inside and two pedestrians...
Wait for U.S. passports creates travel purgatory, snarls summer plans
WASHINGTON — Seeking a valid U.S. passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport. A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels...
Amazon Indigenous are leaving rainforest for cities, and finding urban poverty
ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil — In 1976, Binan Tuku ventured to meet a Brazilian government’s expedition on the banks of the Itui River in a remote area of the western Amazon rainforest. After some initial suspicion, he and his father accepted machetes and soap in what was the beginning of...
Judge awards Black church $1 million after BLM banner burned by Proud Boys during protest
WASHINGTON — A judge on Friday awarded more than $1 million to a Black church in downtown Washington, D.C. that sued the far-right Proud Boys for tearing down and burning a Black Lives Matter banner during a 2020 protest. Superior Court Associated Judge Neal A. Kravitz also barred the extremist...
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is making a long-awaited trip to China
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel Thursday to Beijing as part of an ongoing Biden administration effort to thaw U.S.-China relations, a senior Treasury official said Sunday. Yellen, who has called the notion of an economic decoupling from China “disastrous,” has frequently said in the past year that...
Excessive heat warnings remain in many areas of US through MondayVideo
Excessive heat warnings remain in place in many areas across the U.S. and are expected to last at least through Monday. In Arizona’s largest metro area, Phoenix and surrounding communities flirted with a high of 115 degrees on Sunday. The National Weather Service in Phoenix is forecasting 116 degrees for...
At least 1 person is dead in a fiery small plane crash in South Carolina beach resort
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — A single-engine plane carrying five people crashed Sunday near a golf course in the South Carolina coastal resort community of North Myrtle Beach, killing at least one person, police and federal officials said. The Piper PA-32 went down northwest of the city’s Grand Stand Airport...
Prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case denies retaliating against IRS agent who talked to House GOP
WASHINGTON — The federal prosecutor leading the investigation of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is pushing back against claims that he was blocked from pursuing criminal charges in Los Angeles and Washington and denies retaliating against an IRS official who disclosed details about the case. In a two-page letter to...
Web designer in Supreme Court gay rights ruling cited client who denies making wedding site request
DENVER — A Colorado web designer who the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday could refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples cited a request from a man who says he never asked to work with her. The request in dispute, from a person identified as “Stewart,” wasn’t the basis...
Kansas nightclub shooting leaves 9 hurt; police capture one of multiple suspected shooters
A shooting in a Kansas nightclub early Sunday morning left seven people with gunshot wounds and two more people hospitalized after being trampled in a rush for the exits, police said. Wichita Police Lt. Aaron Moses said investigators believe several shooters opened fire inside the City Nightz club just before...
Hungry ticks can use this static trick to land on you and your pets
NEW YORK — Hungry ticks have some slick tricks. They can zoom through the air using static electricity to latch onto people, pets and other animals, new research shows. Humans and animals naturally pick up static charges as they go about their days. And those charges are enough to give...
Climate change keeps making wildfires and smoke worse. Scientists call it the ‘new abnormal’
It was a smell that invoked a memory. Both for Emily Kuchlbauer in North Carolina and Ryan Bomba in Chicago. It was smoke from wildfires, the odor of an increasingly hot and occasionally on-fire world. Kuchlbauer had flashbacks to the surprise of soot coating her car three years ago when...
Baltimore block party shooting victims include more than a dozen minors, police sayVideo
BALTIMORE — Gunfire erupted Sunday at a block party in Baltimore — killing two people, wounding 28 and leaving an extensive crime scene that marred the U.S. holiday weekend, police said. Three of the wounded were in critical condition and more than a dozen were under 18. The shooting took...
Moms for Liberty’s focus on school races nationwide sets up political clash with teachers unions
PHILADELPHIA — Moms for Liberty, a “parental rights” group that has sought to take over school boards in multiple states, is looking to expand those efforts across the country and to other education posts in 2024 and beyond. The effort is setting up for a clash with teachers unions and...
In 370 days, Supreme Court conservatives dash decades of abortion and affirmative action precedents
WASHINGTON — Overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. In a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both a reality. Last June, the court...
Why social media is being blamed for fueling riots in France
Social media companies are once again under scrutiny, this time in France as the country’s president blames TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms for helping fuel widespread riots over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron accused social media of playing a “considerable role”...
Russian attacks in Ukraine leave 3 killed, 17 wounded
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials reported more civilian casualties from Russian shelling in the country’s east and south on Saturday, as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez began a visit to Kyiv as a show of continuing support from Madrid and the European Union for Ukraine’s fight to dislodge invading Russian...
Dutch king apologizes for country’s role in slavery on 150th anniversary of abolition
AMSTERDAM — Dutch King Willem-Alexander apologized Saturday for his country’s role in slavery and asked for forgiveness in a historic speech greeted by cheers and whoops at an event to commemorate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery. The king’s speech followed Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s apology late last...
Recovering Titan with the Odysseus underwater robot was complex, dangerous, emotional
BUFFALO, N.Y. — When Edward Cassano and his colleagues arrived in the remote stretch of ocean where the Titan submersible had gone missing, they quickly learned that they would have to do what other deep-sea experts had already tried unsuccessfully: to find the lost sub in some of the most...
State Department failed to plan or respond fast enough in Afghanistan collapse, new U.S. report finds
WASHINGTON — The State Department failed to do enough planning before the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan, according to a Biden administration review of the department’s performance during the chaotic evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies. The review repeatedly blames the administrations of both former President Donald Trump...
Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to Jim Crow-era Mississippi bans blocking some felons from voting
JACKSON, Miss. — The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will not stop Mississippi from removing voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies — a practice that originated in the Jim Crow era with the intent of stopping Black men from influencing elections. The court declined to reconsider...
‘Watermelon snow’ piques curiosities in Utah after abnormally wet winter
LOGAN, Utah — High up in the mountains, amid pinyon pine and quaking aspen trees, the remaining remnants of the winter’s snow is dotted with hues of pinks, purples and oranges. Hikers, campers and church youth groups journeying by grasp it in their palms and liken it to flavored snow...
Supreme Court to decide if some judges have gone too far in striking down gun restrictions
WASHINGTON — A year after its sweeping gun rights ruling, the Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether judges are going too far in striking down restrictions on firearms. The justices will hear the Biden administration’s appeal of one such ruling that struck down as unconstitutional a federal law meant...
Rep. George Santos appears in federal court on fraud, money laundering charges
NEW YORK — Prosecutors said Friday that they have turned over more than 80,000 pages of materials to U.S. Rep. George Santos’ lawyers in the federal fraud and money laundering case against him. The documents weren’t publicly released, as is common during this stage of a case. The barely five-minute...
