U.S./World category, Page 890
Brazil president says Biden’s Amazon comments ‘disastrous’
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday attacked U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden for saying that the South American nation should suffer “significant economic consequences” if devastation of the Amazon rainforest continues. Biden said during Tuesday’s debate with President Donald Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro, that foreign...
U.S. says it will block palm oil from large Malaysian producer
The United States will detain shipments of palm oil and its products from a major producer in Malaysia after a wide range of labor abuse indicators were found, including physical and sexual violence and forced child labor, an official said Wednesday. The withhold release order against FGV Holdings Berhad goes...
Cold weather means new challenges for struggling restaurants
U.S. restaurants are moving warily into fall, hoping their slow recovery persists despite the new challenge of chilly weather and a pandemic that’s expected to claim even more lives. New York opens indoor dining on Wednesday, restricting capacity to 25%. San Francisco may do the same as early as this...
Resorts to RV parks: Parents take school year on the road
NEW YORK — In RVs, rental homes and five-star resorts, families untethered by the constraints of physical classrooms for their kids have turned the new school year into an extended summer vacation, some lured by the ailing hotel industry catering to parents with remote learners through “roadschooling” amenities. With the...
Pompeo urges Vatican to condemn human rights abuses in China
ROME — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the Vatican on Wednesday to join the U.S. in denouncing violations of religious freedom in China, saying the Catholic Church should be at the forefront in the fight to insist on basic human rights there. Pompeo made the appeal at a...
UN atomic watchdog inspects disputed Iranian nuclear site
BERLIN — The United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency said Wednesday its inspectors have been able to visit the second of two disputed sites where Iran is suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material in the past. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in late...
Acquitted Cardinal Pell back in Rome amid Vatican scandal
ROME — Cardinal George Pell, the former Vatican finance czar who left in 2017 to face child sexual abuse charges in his native Australia, returned to Rome on Wednesday after his acquittal to find a Vatican mired in a corruption scandal. The 79-year-old Pell arrived at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci...
Glass fire grows nearly fourfold in a day, burning 80 homes in CaliforniaVideo
CALISTOGA, Calif. — At least 80 homes have been destroyed in Napa and Sonoma counties as the Glass fire continues to rampage through Northern California’s wine country. The blaze had burned 42,560 acres as of Tuesday — nearly quadrupling in size since Monday morning — and there is still no...
Biden to Trump during debate: ‘Will you shut up, man?’
It didn’t take long for tempers to flare during the first head-to-head debate for the 2020 debate of the general election between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. From the opening moments of the debate, Trump pounced on Biden — whether it was his turn or not — as the...
Lake Michigan drownings surge to new high in 2020
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Drownings in Lake Michigan have reached record levels with at least 53 people dead so far this year, according to a water safety advocacy group. The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, a nonprofit that tracks Great Lakes drownings, said that compares with 48 drownings in 2019...
Lawyer for Michael Flynn says she asked Trump not to pardon him
WASHINGTON — A lawyer for former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn told a judge Tuesday that she recently updated President Donald Trump on the case and asked him not to issue a pardon for her client. The attorney, Sidney Powell, was initially reluctant to discuss her conversations with...
Texas prosecutors drop Alex Jones’ drunken driving charge
AUSTIN, Texas — Prosecutors in Texas have rejected a drunken driving charge against conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones, who was arrested earlier this year in Austin. The Travis County attorney’s office rejected the misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated against Jones on Sept. 18, records show. A Travis...
U.S. man could get prison for negative review of Thailand hotel
BANGKOK — Labor activists, journalists and whistleblowers in Thailand have been targets in recent years of criminal defamation lawsuits for exposing alleged corporate wrongdoing, but now a disgruntled hotel guest has joined their ranks and could face prison time for his online comments disparaging a hotel. American expat Wesley Barnes,...
U.S. ‘outraged’ by Baghdad rocket attack that killed women, children
BAGHDAD — The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it was outraged by a rocket attack a day earlier that killed Iraqi civilians and called on the government to take action amid an impending diplomatic crisis between Baghdad and Washington. The condemnation comes after the U.S. threatened to close its embassy...
Court to release grand jury record in Breonna Taylor caseVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky’s attorney general acknowledged that he never recommended homicide charges against any of the police officers conducting the drug raid that led to Breonna Taylor’s death, and said he didn’t object to a judge’s order to publicly release the grand jury’s deliberations. Amid outrage over the jury’s...
Suspect claims prophet caricatures prompted Paris stabbingsVideo
PARIS — The chief suspect in a double stabbing in Paris told investigators he acted out of anger over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad recently republished by the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, France’s counterterrorism prosecutor said Tuesday. Two people were seriously wounded in last week’s attack, which took place...
Ammo inside burning home shoots out and injures fire chief
HINESBURG, Vt. — A fire chief suffered a minor injury when ammunition inside a burning home shot out and hit him, officials said. Firefighters responded to the fire in Hinesburg, Vt., shortly after 3:30 p.m. Saturday. No one was home at the time, WCAX-TV reported. The ammunition that caught fire...
Some in NYC get absentee ballots with wrong return address
NEW YORK — Mail-in voting has gotten off to a rocky start in New York City, where election officials sent out a large number of absentee ballots with the wrong names and addresses on the return envelopes. The faulty ballots were sent to an unknown number of voters in Brooklyn...
U.K., Canada impose sanctions on Belarus president, 7 others
LONDON — Britain has imposed sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, his son and six other senior government officials following the disputed presidential election and a crackdown on protesters in Belarus. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Tuesday that the sanctions were introduced as part of a coordinated approach with...
Woman expected in court over driving into California rally
LOS ANGELES — A woman who drove into counter-protesters after organizing a Southern California rally against racism had asked police for help from a hostile crowd but was ignored, her lawyer said Monday. Tatiana Turner was fearing for her life and never intended to harm anyone when she drove through...
Child poverty likely to increase in EU amid virus pandemic
BRUSSELS — Child poverty has reached an “unacceptable” level across the European Union, the world’s largest trading bloc, a situation likely to worsen during the coronavirus pandemic, the EU’s external auditor said Tuesday. According to EU data, almost 23 million people under 18 — about one in four children —...
Purging Texas water system of brain-eating microbe to take 60 days
LAKE JACKSON, Texas — A Houston-area official said Monday it will take 60 days to ensure a city drinking water system is purged of a deadly, microscopic parasite that doctors believed killed a boy and that led to warnings for others not to drink tap water. Lake Jackson City Manager...
U.S. official: 2020 census to end Oct. 5 despite court orderVideo
ORLANDO — Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross says the 2020 census will end Oct. 5, despite a federal judge’s ruling last week allowing the head count of every U.S. resident to continue through the end of October, according to a tweet posted on the Census Bureau’s website Monday. The tweet...
Ex-Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale knocked to the ground to end standoff, body camera footage showsVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Brad Parscale, former campaign manager to President Donald Trump, was in the middle of a standoff with police at his Fort Lauderdale home when unexpected help arrived: Officer Christopher Wilson, a personal friend. The officer persuaded Parscale to step outside his home, allowing officers to knock...
Louisville officer charged in Breonna Taylor case pleads not guilty
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The lone Kentucky detective charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor pleaded not guilty Monday. Brett Hankison’s plea comes five days after a grand jury indicted him on three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into the home of Taylor’s neighbors. The grand jury...
