U.S./World category, Page 614
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice being treated for possible Lyme disease
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday he is bring treated for possible Lyme disease after becoming ill following two events he attended in the northern part of the state. The Republican governor postponed his regularly scheduled covid-19 briefings this week and said he has tested negative...
‘How to Murder Your Husband’ author found guilty of murder
PORTLAND, Ore. — A jury in Portland has convicted a self-published romance novelist — who once wrote an essay titled “How to Murder Your Husband” — of fatally shooting her husband four years ago. The jury of seven women and five men found Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, guilty of second-degree...
Trump vows to speak at NRA convention days after Texas school shooting
Former President Donald Trump vowed to speak at the National Rifle Association convention this weekend even after an 18-year-old gunman killed 21 people, including 19 children, at a Texas elementary school. Denouncing “politicians and partisanship,” Trump said he would appear as scheduled on Friday at the pro-gun group’s annual confab...
Reality TV’s Josh Duggar gets 12 years in child porn case
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Former reality TV star Josh Duggar was sentenced Wednesday to about 12 1/2 years in prison after he was convicted of receiving and possessing child pornography. Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks to give the maximum term of 20 years to Duggar, whose large family...
Beto O’Rourke disrupts Texas governor’s news conference on shootingVideo
UVALDE, Texas — Surrounded by fellow Republicans on a high school stage, Gov. Greg Abbott was wrapping up his opening remarks about the killing of school children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, when Beto O’Rourke strode forward from his seat in the audience. “Gov. Abbott, I have something to say,”...
From Columbine to Robb, 169 dead in U.S. mass school shootings
Mass shooters have killed hundreds of people throughout U.S. history in realms like stores, theaters and workplaces, but it is in schools and colleges where the carnage reverberates perhaps most keenly — places filled with children of tender ages, older students aspiring to new heights and the teachers planting the...
2 years after Floyd murder, racial trauma permeates US
Black Men Heal co-founder Zakia Williams was deeply moved as she watched a young Black man become emotional while speaking about the mental health toll the past few years have taken on him. “He said ‘I just want to play basketball without fear of getting shot, I just want to...
Blast in Kabul mosque, IS bombs in north Afghanistan kill 14
ISLAMABAD — A series of explosions shook Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Taliban said, including a blast inside a mosque in the capital of Kabul that killed at least five worshippers and three bombings of minivans in the country’s north that killed nine passengers. The Islamic State group’s local affiliate claimed...
Long covid affects more older adults; shots don’t prevent it
New U.S. research on long covid-19 provides fresh evidence that it can happen even after breakthrough infections in vaccinated people, and that older adults face higher risks for the long-term effects. In a study of veterans published Wednesday, about one-third who had breakthrough infections showed signs of long covid. A...
U.K.’s Johnson faulted for lockdown parties but won’t quit
LONDON — An investigative report released Wednesday blamed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other senior leaders for allowing boozy government parties that broke the U.K.’s covid-19 lockdown rules, and while Johnson said he took “full responsibility” for the breaches, he insisted he would not resign. Revelations that Johnson and...
Turkish foreign minister makes rare visit to Israel as nations mend ties
JERUSALEM — Turkey’s foreign minister visited Israel on Wednesday as part of ongoing efforts to improve ties between the two countries, which have often been bitterly divided in recent years over Turkey’s support for the Palestinians. Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the first official visit to Israel by a Turkish official in...
UN official urges world not to forget Rohingya refugees
DHAKA, Bangladesh — The head of the U.N. refugee agency urged the international community on Wednesday not to forget more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who are living in sprawling camps in Bangladesh after fleeing from neighboring Myanmar. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said he visited...
Texas school shooting live updates: Gunman sent Facebook messages before shooting
UVALDE, Texas — A Facebook spokesman says messages posted by the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school were private. Andy Stone says the messages “were private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy.” He says Facebook is cooperating with investigators....
Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas school
UVALDE, Texas — Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by...
School massacre continues Texas’ grim run of mass shootings
AUSTIN, Texas — Once again, one of America’s deadliest mass shootings happened in Texas. Past shootings targeted worshippers during a Sunday sermon, shoppers at a Walmart, students on a high school campus and drivers on a highway. Among the latest victims were 19 children and two teachers in the small...
France: Climate protesters block TotalEnergies meeting
PARIS — Several hundred climate protesters disrupted a TotalEnergies shareholders meeting in Paris and blocked the venue entrance Wednesday to denounce the oil and gas giant’s stake in Russia despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine. TotalEnergies, which was renamed last year from Total, tweeted that due to activists impeding access to...
Families mourn, worry in wake of Texas elementary school shooting
UVALDE, Texas — Distraught families gathered at a local civic center and turned to social media to mourn and to make desperate pleas for help finding missing children as the death toll in a gruesome school shooting at a Texas elementary school rose to at least 19 students and two...
Russian rockets hit eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk
POKROVSK, Ukraine — The Russian rocket strikes came early in the morning in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Wednesday, shaking buildings, jolting people out of bed and sending chunks of concrete and jagged pieces of metal flying through the air. One of the two rockets left a crater...
Pope greets Russian patriarch, criticized for ‘naïve’ policy
ROME — Pope Francis has sent a protocol greeting to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, assuring him of prayers on his patron’s feast day and stressing the value of human life and wisdom, as the Vatican insists on maintaining cordial relations amid the war in Ukraine. The website...
Delegations from Sweden and Finland in Turkey for NATO talks
ANKARA, Turkey — Senior officials from Sweden and Finland met with Turkish counterparts in Ankara on Wednesday in an effort to overcome Turkey’s strong objections to the Nordic nations’ bids to join NATO. Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of...
Ukraine: Russia must withdraw to pre-war positions for talks
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president said Wednesday that Russia must pull back to its pre-war positions as a first step before diplomatic talks, a negotiating line that Moscow is unlikely to agree to anytime soon. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he currently sees no willingness on the part of Russia to...
Biden says ‘we have to act’ after Texas school shootingVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden delivered an emotional call for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman opened fire at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday. “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden said at the White House shortly after returning from...
W.Va. man pleads guilty to sending threatening emails to Dr. Fauci
GREENBELT, Md. — A West Virginia man pleaded guilty Monday to sending emails that threatened Dr. Anthony Fauci and former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, federal prosecutors in Maryland said. Thomas Patrick Connally Jr., 56, most recently of Snowshoe, W.Va., pleaded guilty to making threats against a...
Capitol rioter draped in Confederate flag gets 33 months in prison
WASHINGTON — A Maryland man who was draped in a Confederate flag when he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Monday to 33 months in prison for assaulting police officers and obstructing an official proceeding during the mob’s attack. Matthew Ryan Miller, 23, sprayed a fire...
U.S. births rose last year but still less than before pandemic
NEW YORK — U.S. births bumped up last year, but the number of babies born was still lower than before the coronavirus pandemic. The 1% increase was a bit of a rebound from 2020, the first year of the pandemic, which witnessed the largest one-year drop in the U.S. births...
