U.S./World category, Page 602
2 men charged in fatal fireworks explosion that killed 4 near St. Louis
BLACK JACK, Mo. — Two men were charged with murder in a house explosion near St. Louis that authorities say killed four people who were assembling fireworks in a garage. St. Louis County prosecutors say 37-year-old Terrell Cooks and 43-year-old Seneca Mahan made fireworks and directed younger people on how...
Yellen: Recession not inevitable, gas tax holiday weighed
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that she expects the U.S. economy to slow in the months ahead, but that a recession is not inevitable. Yellen offered a dose of optimism even as economists grow increasingly worried about a recession fueled by skyrocketing inflation and the...
Political commentator and columnist Mark Shields dies at 85
CHEVY CHASE, Md. — Columnist and political commentator Mark Shields, who shared his insight into American politics and wit on “PBS NewsHour” for decades, died Saturday. He was 85. Shields died at his Chevy Chase, Maryland, home, from kidney failure, “PBS NewsHour” spokesman Nick Massella said. Shields was a regular...
Justices seem poised to hear elections case pressed by GOP
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seems poised to take on a new elections case being pressed by Republicans that could increase the power of state lawmakers over races for Congress and the presidency, as well as redistricting, and cut state courts out of the equation. The issue has arisen repeatedly...
Independent booksellers grew in number, diversity in 2021
NEW YORK — Laura Romani, a Chicago-area resident with a background in education and library science, had been thinking of a new career. “I was at home a couple of years ago reflecting on all the experience I gained and how I wanted to contribute to the Latino community, while...
For families deeply divided, a summer of hot buttons begins
NEW YORK — Kristia Leyendecker has navigated a range of opposing views from her two siblings and other loved ones since 2016, when Donald Trump’s election put a sharp, painful point on their political divisions as she drifted from the Republican Party of today and they didn’t. Then came the...
Yellowstone National Park to reopen partially after floods
BILLINGS, Mont. — Yellowstone National Park will partially reopen at 8 a.m. Wednesday, after catastrophic flooding destroyed bridges and roads and drove out thousands of tourists. The Park Service announced Saturday that visitors will once again be allowed on the park’s southern loop under a temporary license plate system designed...
Biden’s optimism collides with mounting political challenges
WASHINGTON — Democrats are going to hold onto the House after November’s midterm elections. They will pick up as many as four seats in the Senate, expanding their majority and overcoming internal dissent that has helped stifle their agenda. As the challenges confronting President Joe Biden intensify, his predictions of...
CDC advisers recommend covid-19 shots for children under 5
NEW YORK — U.S. health advisers on Saturday recommended covid-19 vaccines for infants, toddlers and preschoolers — the last group without the shots. The advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously decided that coronavirus vaccines should be made available to children as young as 6 months, offering...
Biden takes spill while getting off bike after beach ride
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden fell when he tried to get off his bike at the end of a ride Saturday at Cape Henlopen State Park near his beach home in Delaware, but said he wasn’t hurt. “I’m good,” he told reporters after U.S. Secret Service Agents quickly...
Explainer: How did Russia-Ukraine war trigger a food crisis?
LONDON — Russian hostilities in Ukraine are preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe, threatening to worsen shortages, hunger and political instability in developing countries. Together, Russia and Ukraine export nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley, more...
Yellowstone flooding rebuild could take years, cost billions
Created in 1872 as the United States was recovering from the Civil War, Yellowstone was the first of the national parks that came to be referred to as America’s best idea. Now, the home to gushing geysers, thundering waterfalls and some of the country’s most plentiful and diverse wildlife is...
18 dead in India, Bangladesh floods; millions without homes
DHAKA, Bangladesh — At least 18 people have died as massive floods ravaged northeastern India and Bangladesh, leaving millions of homes underwater and severing transport links, authorities said Saturday. In India’s Assam state, at least nine people were killed in the floods and 2 million saw their homes submerged, according...
In Ukraine, funeral for activist killed and mourned in war
KYIV, Ukraine — Poppies, the blood-red flowers that cover the battlefields of Europe’s two world wars, were lain in mourning Saturday on the coffin of yet another dead soldier, this one killed in yet another European war, in Ukraine. The hundreds of mourners for Roman Ratushnyi, 24, included friends who...
Watergate 50th meets Jan. 6. Common thread: Thirst for power
WASHINGTON — The wreckage of Watergate and Jan. 6 are a half-century apart yet rooted in the same ancient thirst for power at any cost. Two presidents, wily and profane, tried an end run around democracy. Mysteries from both affairs endure as the House inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021,...
Report: Smoking bans no longer a threat to casino revenue
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — For decades, it was accepted wisdom in the casino industry that eliminating smoking would automatically lead to revenue declines and customer losses. But a new report examining how the coronavirus pandemic has changed gamblers’ habits says that may no longer be the case. The report issued...
AP photos: A week of ruins and ruined lives in Ukraine
There is life amid the ruins in Ukraine, but there are so many ruins, and life is so fraught. In the course of the last week, Associated Press photographers captured images of a man peering upward through the hole in a roof of a hospital damaged during shelling in Donetsk;...
Texas committee still trying to question Uvalde police
UVALDE, Texas — Police in Uvalde still haven’t committed to speaking to a Texas House committee investigating the May 24 massacre at an elementary school and the law enforcement response that day, the lawmaker leading the probe said Friday. Republican state Rep. Dustin Burrows said his committee was in conversations...
Ex-Trump aide Navarro pleads not guilty to contempt charges
WASHINGTON — Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro pleaded not guilty Friday to contempt of Congress charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Navarro, 72, appeared in federal court in Washington to be arraigned on the two-count indictment....
Louisiana asks Supreme Court to delay mostly Black district
Louisiana’s secretary of state and attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to put a hold on a federal judge’s order for the state to create a second majority Black congressional district by Monday. Judge Shelly Dick’s ruling “throws the election process into chaos, and creates confusion statewide,”...
Ukraine introduces visa regime for Russians amid war
KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian cabinet approved a resolution on Friday to bar Russian citizens from entering Ukraine without a visa. The move is likely to be viewed as symbolic given that the borders between Russian and Ukraine have remained shut since Moscow invaded its neighbor on Feb 24 and...
Towns near Yellowstone fear impact of lost tourism seasonVideo
RED LODGE, Mont. — A gnawing uncertainty hung over the Yellowstone National Park gateway town of Gardiner this week following unprecedented flooding that shut down one of America’s most beloved natural attractions and swept away roads, bridges and homes. Gardiner itself escaped the flooding but briefly became home to hundreds...
Iowa Supreme Court: Abortion rights not protected by state constitution, clearing way for ban on procedure
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for lawmakers to severely limit or even ban abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to the procedure under the Iowa Constitution. The court, now composed...
Building collapse kills 6 in Egyptian capital of Cairo
CAIRO — A building collapse early on Friday in the Egyptian capital of Cairo killed six people, authorities said, as rescuers at the scene searched through the rubble. It was not immediately known what caused the collapse. The city’s deputy governor, Ibrahim Abdel-Hadi, said in a statement released by the...
U.K. government orders Julian Assange’s extradition to U.S.; appeal planned
LONDON — The British government on Friday ordered the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges, a milestone — but not the end — of a decade-long legal saga sparked by his website’s publication of classified U.S. documents. WikiLeaks said it would challenge...
