U.S./World category, Page 628
Survey: Americans increasingly see China as a threat
BEIJING — Americans are increasingly seeing China as a world superpower and a threat, though growing numbers perceive it more as a competitor than an enemy, according to a survey released Thursday. The Washington-based Pew Research Center said that negative views of China reached a new high, with 82% of...
Explosions rock Kyiv again as Russians rain fire on Ukraine
IRPIN, Ukraine — Russia pounded targets from practically one end of Ukraine to the other Thursday, including Kyiv, bombarding the city while the head of the United Nations was visiting in the boldest attack on the capital since Moscow’s forces retreated weeks ago. Several people were wounded in the attack...
Federal judge halts preparations for end of U.S. asylum limits
NEW ORLEANS — The Biden administration must stop what amounts to the phasing out a pandemic-related public health rule allowing the expulsion of migrants without giving them an opportunity to seek asylum, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled Wednesday. The administration plans to end the policy outright on May 23....
Bond set at $1M for teen accused of killing 10-year-old Wisconsin girl
CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — A judge set a $1 million cash bond Wednesday for a 14-year-old boy prosecutors say fatally strangled and then sexually assaulted a 10-year-old western Wisconsin girl. The boy, who authorities say was known to the victim, Illiana “Lily” Peters, appeared in adult court in Chippewa County...
One-fifth of reptiles worldwide face risk of extinction
Even the king cobra is “vulnerable.” More than 1 in 5 species of reptiles worldwide are threatened with extinction, according to a comprehensive new assessment of thousands of species published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Of 10,196 reptile species analyzed, 21% percent were classified as endangered, critically endangered or vulnerable...
Post-Floyd probe finds discrimination by Minneapolis police
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minneapolis Police Department has engaged in a pattern of race discrimination, according to the findings released Wednesday of a two-year investigation by the state’s Department of Human Rights launched after George Floyd was killed by a city police officer. The report said the department will...
Police union backs Michigan officer in Patrick Lyoya killing
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The union representing police officers in a Michigan city is defending the officer who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head. The Grand Rapids Police Officers Association called Lyoya’s death “tragic” but said an “officer has the legal right to protect themselves and community...
Georgia tax cut could hit $2 billion, but maybe not by 2029
BONAIRE, Ga. — A major state income tax cut signed by Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp as he seeks reelection could eventually total more than $2 billion, but the reductions may only happen by a 2029 target date if state revenue holds up. For Kemp, Tuesday’s signing was a tax-cutting...
Russia cuts off gas to 2 NATO nations in bid to divide West
POKROVSK, Ukraine — Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, using its most essential export in what was seen as a bid to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine. The move,...
Fruity near-miss for France’s Macron, targeted by tomatoes
PARIS — Newly reelected French President Emmanuel Macron narrowly avoided being pelted by what looked like a small sackful of cherry tomatoes Wednesday as he waded through a boisterous and packed crowd in a market northwest of Paris. About six of the small fruits, some orange, some red, contained in...
Russia releases U.S. Marine vet as part of prisoner exchange
WASHINGTON — Russia and the United States have carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, both countries announced Wednesday. The surprise deal involving Trevor Reed, an American jailed for nearly three...
Researchers: Covid, Israel-Gaza war fueled antisemitism
JERUSALEM — The coronavrius pandemic and Israel’s overwhelming force during the Gaza war helped fuel a worldwide spike in antisemitism last year, Israeli researchers reported on Wednesday. The prominence of political extremism and the reach of social media also may have intensified the ancient phenomenon of scapegoating Jews in recent...
Los Angeles sheriff investigates how reporter obtained leaked videoVideo
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County sheriff on Tuesday disputed allegations he orchestrated a cover-up of an incident where a deputy knelt on a handcuffed inmate’s head and said a Los Angeles Times reporter who used leaked documents and video to first report on the case is part of...
Nuclear chief: Russia’s Chernobyl seizure risked accidentVideo
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — Thirty-six years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Russian troops risked causing an accident with their “very, very dangerous” seizure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Standing under an umbrella during a rain shower...
Report: N.C. Rep. Madison Cawthorn found with a loaded gun at Charlotte airportVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn was cited for having a gun at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Tuesday morning, WSOC-TV reported. Cawthorn was stopped after agents found the North Carolina Republican congressman with a 9 mm handgun at Checkpoint D, according to the...
U.S. preps for even busier border amid lifting of health order
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration released a plan Tuesday to deal with an expected increase in already high numbers of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border because of the planned lifting of a public health order that has kept people from seeking asylum — and that Republican and some Democratic lawmakers...
CDC estimates 3 in 4 kids have had coronavirus infections
NEW YORK — Three out of every four U.S. children have been infected with the coronavirus and more than half of all Americans had signs of previous infections, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers estimated in a report Tuesday. The researchers examined blood samples from more than 200,000 Americans...
Activist’s self-immolation stirs questions on faith, protest
Wynn Bruce, a 50-year-old climate activist and Buddhist, set himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court last week, prompting a national conversation about his motivation and whether he may have been inspired by Buddhist monks who self-immolated in the past to protest government atrocities. Bruce, a photographer...
Vice President Kamala Harris positive for covid-19, Biden not ‘close contact’
WASHINGTON —Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for covid-19 on Tuesday, the White House announced, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus even as the U.S. eases restrictions in a bid to return to pre-pandemic normalcy. Harris press secretary Kirsten Allen said neither President Joe Biden nor first lady...
Biden pardons former Secret Service agent, 2 others
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has granted the first three pardons of his term, providing clemency to a Kennedy-era Secret Service agent convicted of federal bribery charges that he tried to sell a copy of an agency file and to two people who were convicted on drug-related charges but went...
Mississippi protesters call for end to Confederate holiday
TUPELO, Miss. — On a day that many state and local government offices were closed for Confederate Memorial Day in Mississippi, protesters on Monday said the state needs to stop commemorating the Confederacy. Several members of Indivisible Northeast Mississippi held signs denouncing the holiday in front of a Confederate monument...
Wisconsin election investigation may be nearing end, or not
MADISON, Wis. — One of a handful of 2020 election reviews pushed by Republicans could be nearing an end in Wisconsin — or not. A special investigator’s taxpayer-funded contract to look into President Joe Biden’s win in the battleground state is set to expire on Saturday. But Donald Trump as...
UN nuclear watchdog chief visits Chernobyl
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency says it was possible that an accident could have occurred when Russian troops seized control of the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster during the war in Ukraine. Speaking on a visit to the former nuclear power plant...
Trial of 3 ex-officers in George Floyd death won’t be livestreamed
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge ruled Tuesday that the trial of three fired Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting George Floyd’s killing will not be livestreamed. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, who cited the threat of COVID-19 to allow livestreaming of last year’s murder trial of Derek...
U.S. urges more arms for Ukraine amid fears of expanding war
TORETSK, Ukraine — The United States pressed its allies Tuesday to move “heaven and earth” to keep Kyiv well-supplied with weapons as Russian forces rained fire on eastern and southern Ukraine amid growing new fears the war could spill over the country’s borders. For the second day in a row,...
