U.S./World category, Page 604
Biden tells oil refiners: Produce more gas, fewer profits
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on U.S. oil refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel, saying their profits have tripled during a time of war between Russia and Ukraine as Americans struggle with record high prices at the pump. “The crunch that families are facing deserves immediate action,” Biden...
Sweden: Cartoonist Vilks’ fatal car crash was an accident
STOCKHOLM — The police car crash in Sweden that killed Swedish artist Lars Vilks last year was an accident, Swedish authorities said Wednesday, not a targeted attack on the cartoonist who lived under police protection since his controversial 2007 sketch of the Prophet Muhammad. An exploding tire led the driver...
Odessa, Texas, remains without water as temperatures soar
ODESSA, Texas — Residents of the West Texas city of Odessa remained without water Wednesday as crews worked to restore service amid scorching temperatures in the area. The city water system’s 165,000 customers’ taps lost pressure or went completely dry after the 24-inch main broke Monday afternoon, according to the...
U.S. report: nearly 400 crashes of automated tech vehicles
DETROIT — Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes of vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 involving Teslas, according to statistics released by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cautioned against using the numbers to compare automakers, saying it didn’t weight them by the number...
Election 2022 Takeaways: Big Trump win, Nev. Senate race set
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump notched a significant victory in South Carolina, where his preferred candidate easily ousted five-term Rep. Tom Rice, the first Republican to be booted from office after voting to impeach the former president last year. But another high-profile GOP target of Trump in the state, Rep. Nancy...
Sen. Pat Toomey: Chances of Senate passing gun bill better than 50%
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey expressed optimism Tuesday that the Senate — where gun control bills long have failed to gain traction — will pass some sort of gun legislation this year. Toomey, a Lehigh Valley Republican, placed the odds at better than 50%. “The fact that we were able to...
Sig Sauer sued over pistol critics say goes off by itself
A pistol made by Sig Sauer and sold to law enforcement and civilians alike is prone to going off without the trigger being pulled, a defect that has led to dozens of injuries over the past several years, a U.S. Army veteran alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The veteran...
At 2nd trial, ex-CIA employee defends himself in big leak
NEW YORK — A former CIA software engineer charged with causing the biggest theft of classified information in CIA history defended himself at the start of his trial Tuesday, telling jurors he was falsely accused and the victim of a political witch hunt. Joshua Schulte, 33, said he was singled...
UN says latest bout of tribal violence in Sudan killed 145
CAIRO — Clashes in Sudan killed at least 145 people and injured over 180 others this month, the United Nations said Tuesday, the latest tribal violence to rock the war-wrecked east African nation. The violence in West Darfur and South Kordofan provinces, some of the deadliest in recent years, comes...
Imprisoned Kremlin critic Navalny moved, alarming his allies
MOSCOW — Allies of imprisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny sounded the alarm Tuesday when they discovered he was no longer in the prison where he had been serving his time and there was no word on where he had been taken. But late in the day, the chairman of a...
1st of 4 summer supermoons rose Monday night
June’s full moon, traditionally known as the “strawberry moon,” is usually the last full moon of spring or first of summer. This year it happened on Monday night and was also a “supermoon.” The lunar event was most visible for residents of Pennsylvania on Monday night with the best viewing...
Synagogue challenges Florida abortion law over religion
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A new Florida law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions violates religious freedom rights of Jews in addition to the state constitution’s privacy protections, a synagogue claims in a lawsuit. The lawsuit filed by the Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach contends the law...
FDA advisers back Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for older kids
NEW YORK — A government advisory panel Tuesday endorsed a second brand of covid-19 vaccine for school-age children and teens. The Food and Drug Administration’s outside experts voted unanimously that Moderna’s vaccine is safe and effective enough to give kids ages 6 to 17. If the FDA agrees, it would...
Dangerous heat wave descends on parts of Midwest and South
CHICAGO — Much of the Midwest and a swath of the South braced for a potentially dangerous and deadly heat wave on Tuesday, with temperatures that could reach record highs in some places and combine with humidity to make it feel like it’s 100 degrees or hotter in spots. More...
Russia lowers gas flows to Europe with part stuck in Canada
Russian natural gas deliveries through a key pipeline to Europe will drop by around 40% this year, state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday, after Canadian sanctions over the war in Ukraine prevented German partner Siemens Energy from delivering overhauled equipment. Germany’s utility network agency said it did not see gas...
WHO convenes experts to decide if monkeypox is an emergency
GENEVA — The World Health Organization will convene an emergency committee of experts to determine if the expanding monkeypox outbreak that has mysteriously spread outside Africa should be considered a global health emergency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday he decided to convene the emergency committee on June 23...
Nebraska’s capital city rescinds LGBTQ fairness ordinance
LINCOLN, Neb. — The City Council in Nebraska’s capital city has rescinded an anti-discrimination measure that extended protections to sexual orientation and gender identity, just four months after unanimously approving it. The Lincoln City Council voted 4-3 Monday to rescind the February revision to the city’s fairness ordinance in the...
Police: House Republican’s tour of Capitol wasn’t suspicious
WASHINGTON — Police have determined that there is nothing suspicious about a tour of U.S. Capitol office buildings that a House Republican gave about 15 people the day before the Jan. 6 attack by rioting supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection examined whether rioters...
Nude woman steals police car, runs over officer’s leg, then crashes car, cops say
CHICAGO — A nude woman lying in the street stole a Chicago police squad car, ran over an officer with it and then crashed it Monday morning, Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference. Police received a call of a woman in the street unclothed, Brown said. When police...
‘How to Murder Your Husband’ author gets life in prison for killing her husband
PORTLAND, Ore. — A self-published romance novelist who once wrote an online essay called “How to Murder Your Husband” was sentenced Monday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for murdering her husband at his workplace in Portland four years ago. Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, was convicted of...
Abortion foes, accustomed to small wins, ready for a big one
COLUMBIA, S.C. — For tens of millions of Americans who see abortion as wrong, it’s gone this way for a half-century: One woman swayed to reconsider as dozens of others follow through. One clinic’s doors closed only to see desperate patients go elsewhere. One law passed, another overturned. A movement...
Mexican government prodding its farmers to grow more food
MEXICO CITY — The corn has begun to sprout on the hillsides south of Mexico’s capital, though it’s unclear whether these shoots will have enough water to grow or whether the farmer will be able to afford the increasingly expensive fertilizer. What is known is that the government of President...
2 dead, 4 critically hurt when intoxicated driver crashes into golf cart, N.C. cops say
Two people — including a 5-year-old — were killed and four others were critically injured when an intoxicated driver collided with a golf cart near Statesville, N.C., according to the N.C. State Highway Patrol. Among the injured are three children, ages 2, 13 and 16, the highway patrol said in...
1/6 panel postpones hearing with ex-Justice Dept. officials
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol has postponed a hearing that was to feature Trump-era Justice Department officials. The hearing had been set for Wednesday, but the committee on Tuesday morning said that it had been postponed. It did not give...
U.S. producer prices soar 10.8% in May as energy costs spike
WASHINGTON — U.S. producer prices surged 10.8% in May from a year earlier, underscoring the ongoing threat to the economy from inflation that shows no sign of slowing. Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose...
