U.S./World category, Page 695
What’s inside Biden’s $1.85T social and climate measure
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s $1.85 trillion plan to boost social and education programs as well as protect against global warming has passed the House, pushing it one step closer to law. The 2,135-page bill includes universal preschool, funding to limit child care costs, expanded health care programs and a...
AAA predicts more than 53 million people will travel for Thanksgiving
AAA Travel is predicting that 53.4 million Americans will travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, an increase of 13% from 2020. According to AAA Travel’s latest data, the combination of 6.4 million more people traveling for the holiday this year and the reopening of the U.S. borders to fully vaccinated international...
Democrats’ sweeping social, climate bill passes divided House
Democrats brushed aside months-long divisions and pushed their expansive social and environment bill through a sharply divided House on Friday, as President Joe Biden and his party moved closer to capitalizing on their control of government by funneling its resources toward their top domestic priorities. The House approved the legislation...
Rare 1st printing of U.S. Constitution sells for record $43M
A rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $43.2 million, a record price for a document or book sold at auction. The anonymous winning bidder at Thursday night’s sale outbid a group of 17,000 cryptocurrency enthusiasts from around the world who crowdfunded to...
U.K. says it will make Hamas a banned terrorist organization
LONDON — The British government said Friday that it intends to ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas as a terrorist organization. The military wing of Hamas has been outlawed in the U.K. since 2001 but the organization as a whole is not proscribed. Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is in...
White supremacist prison guards work with impunity in Fla.
In June, three Florida prison guards who boasted of being white supremacists beat, pepper sprayed and used a stun gun on an inmate who screamed “I can’t breathe!” at a prison near the Alabama border, according to a fellow inmate who reported it to the state. The next day, the...
Car found with 4 dead inside during hunt for former Maryland police officerVideo
COCKEYSVILLE, Md. — Four people were found dead Thursday inside a car which matched the description of a vehicle connected to a former Maryland police officer accused of taking off with his daughters in Pennsylvania, authorities say. Elena Russo, spokeswoman for Maryland State Police, told a news conference that Pennsylvania...
2 Iranians charged with threatening U.S. voters in 2020Video
WASHINGTON — Two suspected Iranian computer hackers have been charged in a broad campaign of election interference aimed at intimidating American voters during last year’s presidential race and undermining confidence that the results of the contest could be trusted. The activities, prosecutors say, exploited not only computer vulnerabilities but also...
Oklahoma governor grants clemency, spares Julius Jones’ lifeVideo
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s governor spared the life of Julius Jones on Thursday, just hours before his scheduled execution that had drawn widespread outcry and protests over doubts about his guilt in the slaying of a businessman more than 20 years ago. Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted the 41-year-old Jones’ death...
Ann Arbor becomes 1st U.S. city to require menstrual products in all public bathrooms
DETROIT — A new Ann Arbor ordinance requires all public bathrooms to provide sanitary products, including pads and tampons, to users at no cost — and it’s believed to be the first city in the United States to do so. The new ordinance, effective Jan. 1, 2022, applies to all...
GOP paints Biden’s choice for bank regulator as radical
President Joe Biden’s choice to run one of the agencies charged with overseeing the banking industry faced sharp questioning Thursday from Republican senators, who tried to label Saule Omarova as someone who would nationalize the U.S. banking system. Omarova, 55, was nominated in September to be the nation’s next comptroller...
German lawmakers shift in covid rules after dire warnings
German lawmakers approved new measures Thursday to rein in record coronavirus infections after the head of the country’s disease control agency warned Germany could face a “really terrible Christmas.” The measures passed in the Bundestag with votes from the center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats....
Arbery’s shooter admits he was not under any threat
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The man who killed Ahmaud Arbery testified Thursday that Arbery did not speak, show a weapon or threaten him in any way before he raised his shotgun and pointed it at him. Under cross-examination by the prosecution on his second day of testimony, Travis McMichael said he...
Doubts over China tennis star’s email raise safety concerns
A Chinese professional tennis player not seen in public since she accused a former top government official of sexual assault purportedly sent an email claiming she was safe and that the allegation was false, a message that only amplified concerns about her safety and demands for information about her well-being...
New laws steer some teachers away from race-related topics
New measures that restrict how race is addressed in classrooms have spread confusion and anxiety among many educators, who in some cases have begun pulling books and canceling lessons for fear of being penalized. Education officials have nixed a contemporary issues class in a Tennessee district, removed Frederick Douglass’ autobiography...
Winds whip up volcanic ash from 1912 eruption in Alaska
Volcano scientists issued an alert Wednesday, warning that a cloud of ash — from an eruption more than century ago — was headed toward Alaska’s Kodiak Island. The ash is from the powerful 1912 eruption of Novarupta, a volcano on the Alaska Peninsula that dropped volcanic ash that is still...
U.S. overdose deaths topped 100,000 in 1 year, officials say
An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year, a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the covid-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply. Overdose deaths have been rising for more than two decades, accelerated in the past two years and, according to new...
Rittenhouse lawyers ask judge to declare mistrial over videoVideo
KENOSHA, Wis. — Kyle Rittenhouse’s attorneys asked the judge to declare a mistrial even as the jury was deliberating Wednesday, saying the defense received an inferior copy of a potentially crucial video from prosecutors. Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately rule on the request, the second mistrial motion from the...
2 men set to be cleared in the 1965 killing of Malcolm X
NEW YORK — Two of the three men convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X are set to be cleared Thursday after insisting on their innocence since the 1965 killing of one of the United States’ most formidable fighters for civil rights, their lawyers and Manhattan’s top prosecutor said Wednesday....
U.S. offers investment to boost global covid vaccine capacity
Pressed to address gaping inequality in global covid-19 vaccines, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic. Under the new initiative, the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development...
Jan. 6 rioter who carried spear, wore horns gets 41 months in prison
Jacob Chansley, the spear-carrying Jan. 6 rioter whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the more recognizable figures in the assault on the Capitol, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison. Chansley, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official...
Judge: Vegas man’s vote fraud claim ‘cheap political stunt’
LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas man’s admission that he voted twice in November 2020 in a case that state Republicans seized on to claim voter irregularities amounted to “a cheap political stunt” that backfired, a state court judge said Tuesday. Donald “Kirk” Hartle appeared by videoconference from his defense...
Police: Infant run over, killed after falling out car door in TexasVideo
IRVING, Texas — An 8-month-old child fell from the rear passenger door of a vehicle and was run over and killed by the car behind it, Irving police said. Police in the Dallas suburb were seeking information from the public after the child was struck about 10:30 a.m. Sunday at...
Russia rejects accusations of endangering ISS astronautsVideo
MOSCOW — Russian officials on Tuesday rejected accusations that they endangered astronauts aboard the International Space Station by conducting a weapons test that created more than 1,500 pieces of space junk but a White House official said the move by Russia would threaten activities in space “for years to come.”...
Bishops urged to listen as they consider Communion document
BALTIMORE — Pope Francis’ top envoy to the United States cautioned the country’s bishops on Tuesday that the church needs to listen before it teaches as they deliberated at their fall meeting on a sensitive document about Holy Communion that emerged amid debates over Catholic politicians’ support for abortion. “It...
