U.S./World category, Page 672
‘This Is Us,’ ‘black-ish’ salutes set for Paley TV festival
LOS ANGELES — “This Is Us,” “black-ish” and “Better Call Saul” are among the shows to be saluted at the Paley Center for Media’s annual TV festival, returning to live events after two years of pandemic-caused virtual editions. The trio of shows, all set to end this year, will be...
Decaying fixer-upper on ‘best block’ in San Francisco sells for $2M
OAKLAND, Calif. — A decaying, 122-year-old Victorian marketed as “the worst house on the best block” of San Francisco has sold for nearly $2 million — an eye-catching price that the realtor said was the outcome of overbidding in an auction. A developer’s $1.97 million cash offer for the 2,158-square-foot...
Blinken to visit Ukraine as U.S.-Russia tensions escalateVideo
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Ukraine this week and meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalate over a possible Russian invasion of its neighbor, the State Department said Tuesday. Blinken will be in Kyiv on a hastily arranged trip to...
Biden year 1 takeaways: Grand ambitions, humbling defeats
Joe Biden’s long arc in public life has always had one final ambition: to sit behind the Resolute Desk of the Oval Office. He achieved it — albeit, at 78, as the oldest person to assume the presidency. After the turbulence and chaos of his predecessor, Donald Trump, Biden was...
Suspended professor who made profanity-filled video threatens to sue if he’s not reinstated
DETROIT — A Michigan professor who was suspended after making a profanity-filled video for his students is threatening to file a lawsuit if Ferris State University doesn’t quickly lift the sanction. An attorney for Barry Mehler warned the school in a letter Tuesday, saying the history teacher is protected by...
Abortion clinics challenging Texas law dealt new setback
NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court on Monday steered a decision about Texas’ strict abortion law to the state’s Republican-majority Supreme Court, dealing opponents another defeat and raising their concerns that the near-total ban on abortions will remain intact for the foreseeable future. The Texas law that bans abortion...
Winter storm whipping northeast U.S. with snow, thunderstormsVideo
NEW YORK — A dangerous winter storm brought significant snowfall, strong thunderstorms and blustery wind to the northeastern United States on a holiday Monday. The storm system dropped a foot or more of snow in parts of New York state, Ohio and Pennsylvania Sunday night through Monday morning after pummeling...
Trump backers sought ways into Michigan Capitol for electors meetingVideo
LANSING, Mich. — Supporters of former President Donald Trump privately discussed ways they could gain access to the Michigan Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, when the battleground state’s presidential electors met, according to four sources with knowledge of the planning. The conversations reveal some of Trump’s Michigan backers were considering...
Texas hostage-taker had ‘mental health issues,’ his brother saysVideo
DALLAS — The brother of the hostage-taker who held four people captive at a Colleyville synagogue over the weekend said the British national had “serious mental health issues” prior to traveling to the U.S. and allegedly getting a gun on the streets. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, of Blackburn, England, is...
North Korea fires short-range missiles in 4th launch this monthVideo
North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea Monday in its fourth weapons launch this month, South Korea’s military said, with the apparent goal of demonstrating its military might during paused diplomacy with the United States and pandemic border closures. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North...
Out of this world: 555.55-carat black diamond lands in Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Auction house Sotheby’s Dubai has unveiled a diamond that’s literally from out of this world. Sotheby’s calls the 555.55-carat black diamond — believed to have come from outer space — “The Enigma.” The rare gem was shown off on Monday to journalists as part of...
Official: Alec Baldwin surrenders phone for shooting probe
SANTA FE, N.M. — Alec Baldwin has surrendered his cellphone to authorities as part of the investigation into a fatal shooting on a New Mexico film set last fall, a law enforcement official said. Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Juan Rios said Baldwin’s phone was turned over Friday to...
Flights sent to assess Tonga damage after volcanic eruptionVideo
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand and Australia were able to send military surveillance flights to Tonga on Monday to assess the damage a huge undersea volcanic eruption left in the Pacific island nation. A towering ash cloud since Saturday’s eruption had prevented earlier flights. New Zealand hopes to send...
Western Pa. native, Pitt grad helped shine new light on betrayal of Anne Frank
AMSTERDAM — A cold case team that combed through evidence for five years in a bid to unravel one of World War II’s enduring mysteries has reached what it calls the “most likely scenario” of who betrayed Jewish teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family. Their answer, outlined in a...
On MLK Day, Janet Yellen says U.S. economy is unfair to Black people
ATLANTA — The U.S. economy “has never worked fairly for Black Americans — or, really, for any American of color,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech delivered Monday, one of many by national leaders acknowledging unmet needs for racial equality on Martin Luther King Day. Major events for...
Pandemic hasn’t slowed China’s love for U.S. lobster
PORTLAND, Maine — China is showing no signs of slowing its demand for American lobster this year despite disruption to the supply chain and international trade caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese demand for the crustaceans grew dramatically during the 2010s in part because of the expansion of the country’s...
Russia denies looking for pretext to invade Ukraine
MOSCOW — Russia’s top diplomat on Monday angrily rejected the U.S. allegations that it was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine as Russian troops have remained concentrated near the border. The White House said Friday that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to rebel-controlled eastern...
Celebrated Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee dies at 102
Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who flew 409 fighter combat missions over three wars, has died. He was 102. Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on Sunday announced his death on Twitter, both of them calling McGee an American hero. “While I am saddened...
Woman killed in subway shove at Times Square
NEW YORK — A woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train at the Times Square station Saturday, police said, a little more than a week after the mayor and governor announced plans to boost subway policing and outreach to homeless people in New York City’s...
Snow, ice blasts through South with powerful winter stormVideo
ATLANTA — A dangerous winter storm combining high winds and ice swept through parts of the U.S. Southeast on Sunday, knocking out power, felling trees and fences and coating roads with a treacherous, frigid glaze. Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and...
For Oath Keepers and founder, Jan. 6 was weeks in the making
WILMINGTON, Del. — Two days after the presidential election on Nov. 2, 2020, the Oath Keepers were already convinced that victory had been stolen from President Donald Trump and members of the far-right militia group were making plans to march on the U.S. Capitol. “We aren’t getting through this without...
Texas rabbi: Captor grew ‘belligerent’ late in standoffVideo
COLLEYVILLE, Texas — A rabbi who was among four people held hostage at a Texas synagogue said Sunday that their armed captor grew “increasingly belligerent and threatening” toward the end of the 10-hour standoff, which ended with an FBI SWAT team rushing into the building and the captor’s death. Authorities...
After Biden’s first year, the virus and disunity rage on
WASHINGTON — From the inaugural platform, President Joe Biden saw American sickness on two fronts — a disease of the national spirit and the one from the rampaging coronavirus — and he saw hope, because leaders always must see that. “End this uncivil war,” he implored Americans on Jan. 20,...
Hostages safe after Texas synagogue standoff; captor dead
COLLEYVILLE, Texas — Four hostages were spared and their captor was killed, ending an hourslong standoff at a Texas synagogue, where the man — a British national — could be heard ranting on a livestream and demanding the release of a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted of trying to kill...
A digital divide haunts schools adapting to virus hurdles
When April Schneider’s children returned to in-person classrooms this year, she thought they were leaving behind the struggles from more than a year of remote learning. No more problems with borrowed tablets. No more days of missed lessons because her kids couldn’t connect to their virtual schooling. But coronavirus cases...
