U.S./World category, Page 870
Biden cheers vaccine progress but says masks remain a must, names advisory coronavirus board
WILMINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden on Monday cheered news about the promising development of a coronavirus vaccine but cautioned Americans need to be aggressive about mask wearing and social distancing as infections continue to surge around the country. The Democrat’s transition team also unveiled members of Biden’s coronavirus working group...
Russia’s Putin says time for Syrian refugees to return home
DAMASCUS, Syria — Millions of Syrian refugees who fled their country’s civil war should start returning home to help rebuild Syria now that large parts of the Arab nation enjoy relative peace, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday. Putin’s comments came in a video call with Syrian President Bashar Assad...
Turkish finance minister, Erdogan’s son-in-law, resigns post
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s finance minister and son-in-law to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his resignation on social media Sunday. Berat Albayrak said on Instagram that he was stepping down from his post for health reasons and would spend more time with his family. Albayrak, 42, was appointed minister of...
Astronauts arrive at launch site for 2nd SpaceX crew flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Sunday for SpaceX’s second crew launch, coming up next weekend. For NASA, it marks the long-awaited start of regular crew rotations at the International Space Station, with private companies providing the lifts. There will be double the number...
Eta expected to be hurricane and strike Florida KeysVideo
HAVANA — A strengthening Tropical Storm Eta sliced across Cuba on Sunday and was aimed at the southern tip of Florida, where officials braced for a storm that could hit at hurricane force after leaving scores of dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America. The U.S. National...
Convention centers, museums become classrooms amid pandemic
MISSION, Kan. — In ordinary times, the airy convention center on a 61-acre site in Hesston, Kansas, hosts weddings, corporate retreats and church events. During the pandemic, it has become a schoolhouse for the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders. Megan Kohlman teaches literature and writing inside one of the rooms, separated...
Iran’s president calls on Biden to return to nuclear deal
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president called on President-elect Joe Biden to “compensate for past mistakes” and return the U.S. to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, a state-run news agency reported Sunday. Hassan Rouhani’s comments mark the highest-level response from Iran to Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris clinching...
Gun-waving St. Louis couple sues news photographer
ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis couple facing felony charges for waving guns at racial injustice protesters who marched near their home allege in a lawsuit that a news photographer trespassed to capture an image of the confrontation. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, lawyers in their 60s, filed the lawsuit Friday...
Census takers say they were told to enter false information
Two census takers told The Associated Press that their supervisors pressured them to enter false information into a computer system about homes they had not visited so they could close cases during the waning days of the once-a-decade national headcount. Maria Arce said her supervisor in Massachusetts offered step-by-step instructions...
Doctors fear more death as Dakotas experience virus ‘sorrow’
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — With coronavirus cases running rampant in the Dakotas and elected leaders refusing to forcefully intervene, the burden of pushing people to take the virus seriously has increasingly been put on the families of those killed. The ranks of those who know what it means to lose...
Mourners say farewell to Walter Wallace Jr., killed in encounter with police
PHILADELPHIA — Mourners began lining up at a North Philadelphia church Saturday morning to pay respect to Walter Wallace Jr., who was shot and killed last month by police during a domestic call. A steady line of mourners began forming shortly before 9 a.m. outside National Baptist Temple Church. A...
World leaders congratulate Biden and Harris on election win
Although U.S. President Donald Trump wasn’t conceding defeat, world leaders swiftly congratulated Joe Biden for his election victory Saturday and expressed hope that the new White House will prioritize the fight against climate change. The news elicited cheers in an Italian coffee bar, encouraged protesters outside the house of Israel’s...
Biden win sparks smattering of protests; most stay peaceful
A smattering of protests broke out around the country Saturday after former Vice President Joe Biden won the presidency, with President Donald Trump and his supporters refusing to accept defeat and pushing unfounded suspicions that rampant voter fraud was denying him a second term. Outside the state capitol building in...
1st woman free-climbs El Capitan’s Golden Gate route in day
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Rock climber Emily Harrington has become the first woman, and fourth person, to free-climb the Golden Gate route on Yosemite National Park’s 3,000-foot granite wall in a single day. While most of the country was focused on the results of the U.S. presidential election early...
Elation and anger: Catharsis in the streets around U.S. as election ends
As soon as the news buzzed on their phones, Americans gathered spontaneously on street corners and front lawns — honking their horns, banging pots and pans, starting impromptu dance parties — as an agonizingly vitriolic election and exhausting four-day wait for results came to an end Saturday morning. And for...
Biden wins White House, will become 46th president of U.S., vows new direction for divided country
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania catapulted its native son, Democrat Joe Biden, to victory and the White House on Saturday after a long, hard-fought and expensive campaign in which Democrats wrested the battleground state’s 20 electoral votes back from President Donald Trump after the Republican’s surprise victory in 2016. Biden also carried...
Suspended animation: Count drags on as Biden nears victory
WASHINGTON — Four days after the election, the U.S. presidential race hovered in suspended animation Saturday as the long, exacting work of counting votes brought Democrat Joe Biden ever closer to a victory over President Donald Trump. The delay in producing a verdict can be attributed to high turnout, a...
Trump chief of staff Meadows diagnosed with covid-19
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as the nation sets daily records for confirmed cases for the pandemic. Two senior administration officials confirmed Friday that Meadows had tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so...
Criminal justice reformer wins LA district attorney’s race
LOS ANGELES — Advocates for criminal justice reform who have elected a wave of progressive prosecutors nationwide captured the crown jewel Friday as former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon defeated Los Angeles DA Jackie Lacey. The bitter race to run the nation’s largest prosecutor’s office was a referendum on...
Incendiary texts traced to outfit run by top Trump aide
BOSTON — A texting company run by one of President Donald Trump’s top campaign officials sent out thousands of targeted, anonymous text messages urging supporters to rally where votes were being counted in Philadelphia on Thursday, falsely claiming Democrats were trying to steal the presidential election. The messages directed Trump...
Increasingly normal: Guns seen outside vote-counting centers
The most turbulent and norm-breaking presidential election of a lifetime has led to an extraordinary spectacle in the United States over the past three days: armed protesters gathering nightly outside offices where local workers are counting the votes that will decide who wins the White House. Some carry shotguns. Some...
Protesters crying foul over vote counts stir safety concerns
Pro-Trump protesters — some of them openly carrying rifles and handguns — rallied outside vote-tabulation centers in a few cities around the country Friday, responding to groundless accusations from President Donald Trump that the Democrats were trying to steal the White House. Elections officials in several states where Democrat Joe...
Tennessee governor gives death row inmate temporary reprieve
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has granted a death row inmate a temporary reprieve from execution. Lee issued a short statement Friday afternoon saying he is granting a reprieve to Pervis Payne until April 9 “due to the challenges and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Payne is...
Demolition starts on big ship stranded 14 months off Georgia
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Using a heavy anchor chain like a saw, a towering crane Friday began cutting apart a cargo ship that’s been stranded on the Georgia coast since it overturned nearly 14 months ago. Demolition of the South Korean ship Golden Ray finally started after months of planning and...
UK, EU leaders to discuss state of post-Brexit trade talks
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are set to speak by telephone Saturday to assess the state of post-Brexit trade talks between the U.K. and the European Union. A spokesman at Johnson’s Downing Street office said Friday that the prime minister’s...
