U.S./World category, Page 840
50 countries vow to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030Video
PARIS — At least 50 countries committed to protecting 30% of the planet, including land and sea, over the next decade to halt species extinction and address climate change issues, during a global summit Monday aimed at protecting the world’s biodiversity. About 30 leaders, government officials and heads of international...
Biden inauguration theme set: ‘America United’
WASHINGTON — The theme for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration will be “America United,” an issue that’s long been a central focus for Biden but one that’s taken on added weight in the wake of the violence at the U.S. Capitol last week. In an announcement shared first with the Associated...
No more puny prizes: Mega Millions, Powerball jackpots soar
After a long stretch of relatively paltry prizes, U.S. lottery players now have a choice of games that offer combined jackpots of more than $1 billion. The jackpot for Mega Millions’ Tuesday night drawing has climbed to $600 million, and the top prize in the Powerball game reached $550 million...
Judge halts 1st U.S. execution of female inmate in 67 years
MISSION, Kan. — A judge has halted the U.S. government’s first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades, saying a court must first determine whether the Kansas woman who killed an expectant mother, cut the baby from her womb and then tried to pass off the newborn as...
Trump to honor Belichick with Presidential Medal of Freedom
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will present one of the nation’s highest civilian honors to Bill Belichick, the football coach of the New England Patriots and the only coach to win six Super Bowl titles. The presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is expected Thursday, a White House official...
Nancy Bush Ellis, sister and aunt of presidents, dies
Nancy Bush Ellis, a longtime Democrat who helped her Republican brother and nephew get elected president, has died of complications of the coronavirus. She was 94. “We are sad to share that President Bush’s beloved sister, Nancy Bush Ellis, has passed away. Our condolences and prayers are with the Ellis...
Meet the online gadget show, a hall of mirrors to the future
Every January, huge crowds descend on Las Vegas for the CES gadget show, an extravaganza of tech and glitz intended to set the tone for the coming year in consumer technology. CES kicks off this week, but thanks to the pandemic, it will be in a radical new format —...
Pope says women can read at Mass, but still can’t be priests
ROME — Pope Francis changed church law Monday to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass, granting them access to the most sacred place on the altar, while continuing to affirm that they cannot be priests. Francis amended the law to formalize and institutionalize what is common practice...
Capitol assault a more sinister attack than first appeared
Under battle flags bearing Donald Trump’s name, the Capitol’s attackers pinned a bloodied police officer in a doorway, his twisted face and screams captured on video. They mortally wounded another officer with a blunt weapon and body-slammed a third over a railing into the crowd. “Hang Mike Pence!” the insurrectionists...
Supreme Court won’t hear Pittsburgh abortion clinic free speech case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is declining to get involved in a case about free speech outside a Pittsburgh abortion clinic. The high court turned away the case Monday. The court’s decision not to hear the case leaves in place a 2019 appeals court decision that upheld a Pittsburgh ordinance...
Supreme Court denies fast-track hearings for remaining GOP challenges to Pa. election results
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court declined to fast-track remaining legal challenges to Pennsylvania’s election results on Monday, underscoring the justices’ reluctance to wade into widely discredited Republican arguments for reversing the outcome of the 2020 vote. The decision did not dismiss the election challenges outright and kept them alive...
Army investigating officer who led group to Washington rally
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Army is investigating a psychological operations officer who led a group of people from North Carolina to the rally in Washington that led up to the deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. Commanders at Fort Bragg are reviewing Captain Emily...
Israel announces new settler homes, risking Biden’s anger
JERUSALEM — Israel on Monday advanced plans to build 800 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a move that could strain ties with the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the move, saying it would include 100 homes in a settlement where...
First lady ‘disappointed’ by Trump supporters’ Capitol riot
WILMINGTON, Del. — First lady Melania Trump said Monday that she is “disappointed and disheartened” by the deadly riot at the Capitol last week by supporters of her husband. But in breaking her silence, she also lashed out at people she said have used the tragic event to spread “salacious...
Winter storm coats Southern states with blanket of snow
A winter storm has brought snow to parts of the U.S. South, moving into Alabama and Tennessee on Monday after blowing across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi the day before. The blanket of white falling across the region forced some school and government office closures, and fostered some play time for...
Capitol police were overrun, ‘left naked’ against rioters
WASHINGTON — Despite ample warnings about pro-Trump demonstrations in Washington, U.S. Capitol Police did not bolster staffing on Wednesday and made no preparations for the possibility that the planned protests could escalate into massive violent riots, according to several people briefed on law enforcement’s response. The revelations shed new light...
Virginia town places 2 officers on leave over D.C. rally
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. — A Virginia town put two officers on leave after they went off-duty to events in Washington that led to a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. The town of Rocky Mount issued a statement Sunday saying that two off-duty officers from the Rocky Mount Police Department...
Coronavirus infections top 90 million confirmed cases
BALTIMORE — Coronavirus infections have now surpassed 90 million confirmed cases around the world, as more countries braced for wider spread of more virulent strains of a disease that has now killed nearly 2 million worldwide. The number of infections worldwide has doubled in just 10 weeks, according to a...
Indonesian divers find parts of plane wreckage in Java Sea
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Authorities said they determined the location of the crash site and black boxes of a Boeing 737-500 on Sunday, a day after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital. The head of Indonesia’s National Search...
Oaths questioned as Trump’s backers fight against loss
Before they take office, elected officials swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution. But what happens when they are accused of doing the opposite? As some Republicans continued to back President Donald Trump’s doomed effort to overturn the election, critics — including President-elect Joe Biden — accused them of violating their...
In wake of Capitol riot, Americans struggle for answers
This past week, Americans watched as the hallowed chambers of the Capitol were overrun and defiled, not by some foreign enemy of democracy but a mob of their fellow citizens. And then they tried to make sense of it. In letters to the editor and posts on social media, they...
Police: Man shoots 7 in series of Chicago-area attacks
CHICAGO — A man killed three people and wounded four others in a series of shootings over roughly four hours that started on Chicago’s South Side and ended with his death in a shootout with police in a parking lot just north of the city. Investigators are trying to determine...
Parler squeezed as Trump seeks new online megaphone
President Donald Trump has been kicked off of most mainstream social media platforms following his supporters’ siege on the U.S. Capitol. But it remains to be seen how fast or where — if anywhere — on the internet he will be able to reach his followers. The far right-friendly Parler...
Trump legacy on race shadowed by divisive rhetoric, actions
CHICAGO — President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed in the final months of his presidency — and without a trace of irony — to have done more for Black Americans than anyone with the “possible exception” of Abraham Lincoln. He boasted that the African American unemployment rate dropped to record lows...
Maine marijuana shops report brisk business despite pandemic
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s rollout of legal marijuana sales has been muted compared with other states because of the coronavirus pandemic, but shops are reporting brisk business nonetheless. Maine wasn’t able to replicate the grand opening scenes that have followed the first sales in other states. But regulators reported more...
