Police, federal agents stop yacht off Miami-Dade with 30 Haitian migrants on board
MIAMI — Miami-Dade County police marine patrol officers stopped a yacht near Key Biscayne last Friday that turned out to be a human smuggling boat with more than 30 people from Haiti on board, the department, state fish and wildlife police and federal agents said. Dade officers stopped the 60-foot...
Arizona judge declares mistrial in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a migrant
PHOENIX — An Arizona judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border. The decision came after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision after more than two full days of deliberation in trial...
‘Miracle’ weight-loss drugs could have reduced health disparities. Instead they got worse
LOS ANGELES — The American Heart Association calls them “game changers.” Oprah Winfrey says they’re “a gift.” Science magazine anointed them the ” 2023 Breakthrough of the Year.” Americans are most familiar with their brand names: Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound. They are the medications that have revolutionized weight loss and...
New government heat risk tool sets magenta as most dangerous level
WASHINGTON — Forget about red hot. A new color-coded heat warning system relies on magenta to alert Americans to the most dangerous conditions they may see this summer. The National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday — Earth Day — presented a new online...
Biden will send Ukraine air defense weapons, artillery once Senate approves, Zelenskyy says
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday the U.S. will send badly needed air defense weaponry once the Senate approves a massive national security aid package that includes $61 billion for Ukraine. Zelenskyy said in a posting on X that Biden also assured him that...
Feds say prehistoric lake sturgeon not endangered, despite calls from conservationists
MADISON, Wis. — Lake sturgeon don’t need Endangered Species Act protections, federal wildlife officials announced Monday, saying that stocking programs have helped the prehistoric fish return to areas where they had vanished. The decision ends the Arizona-based Center of Biological Diversity’s petition filed in May 2018 asking the U.S. Fish...
U.S., Philippine forces launch combat drills in disputed South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines — American and Filipino forces launched their largest combat exercises in years Monday in a show of allied firepower near the disputed South China Sea that has alarmed Beijing. The annual exercises by the longtime treaty allies will run until May 10 and involve more than 16,000 of...
Philly DA withdraws arrest warrant for Democratic lawmaker Kevin Boyle
Philadelphia Democratic state Rep. Kevin Boyle is no longer facing imminent arrest by Philadelphia Police Department after new information has come forward to indicate the protection from abuse order that was the basis of an arrest warrant was no longer in effect. At a late Monday afternoon news conference, Philadelphia...
Papua New Guinea leader takes offense after Biden implies his uncle was eaten by cannibals there
MELBOURNE, Australia — Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape accused Joe Biden of disparaging the South Pacific island nation by implying that an uncle of the U.S. president had been eaten by “cannibals” there during World War II. Biden’s comments offended a key strategic ally as China moves to...
Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at nearly twice the average global rate, report says
NAPLES, Italy — Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, two top climate monitoring organizations reported Monday, warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity. The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s climate agency, Copernicus,...
Heavy rainstorms kill 4 in southern China; 10 people missing
BEIJING — Heavy rainstorms that swept across southern China over the weekend killed at least four people in riverside cities, while a search was underway for 10 others missing, state media said Monday. The official Xinhua news agency said three people died in Zhaoqing city while one rescuer died in...
Baltimore leaders accuse ship’s owner and manager of negligence in Key Bridge collapse
BALTIMORE — The owner and manager of the massive container ship that took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month should be held fully liable for the deadly collapse, according to court papers filed Monday on behalf of Baltimore’s mayor and city council. The two companies filed a petition...
Pro-Palestinian protests sweep U.S. college campuses following mass arrests at Columbia
NEW YORK — Columbia canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at Yale and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public on Monday as some of the most prestigious U.S. universities sought to diffuse campus tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas. The various actions followed the...
West Virginia confirms first measles case since 2009
CHARLESTON — A West Virginia hospital has confirmed the first known case of measles in the state since 2009, health officials said Monday. The Monongalia County Health Department said WVU Medicine alerted officials Sunday that an adult patient living in the county tested positive for the viral infection. Health officials...
Local election workers fear threats to their safety as November nears. One group is trying to help
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The group gathered inside the conference room, mostly women, fell silent as the audio recording began to play. The male voice, clearly agitated, railed against what he thought had been fraud that cost former President Donald Trump reelection four years ago. “You’re gonna pay for it,”...
Man who attacked police after storming U.S. Capitol with Confederate flag gets over 2 years in prison
WASHINGTON — A Kentucky man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while carrying a Confederate battle flag was sentenced on Monday to more than two years in prison for pepper spraying two police officers in the face, partially blinding them for hours during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Isreal Easterday was...
Supreme Court to decide if government can regulate ‘ghost guns’
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will decide whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can regulate so-called “ghost gun” kits that can be assembled into a working firearm. The Biden administration asked the justices to overturn a lower court decision that tossed out a rule meant to curb...
No charges yet in weekend crash that killed 2 siblings at Michigan birthday party
BERLIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Investigators need more time to collect information before charges can be filed in the deaths of two young siblings who were killed by a suspected drunken driver at a child’s weekend birthday party, a Michigan prosecutor said Monday. “We expect to make a charging decision” on...
Kenneth Mash re-elected leader of Pa. state university union
Kenneth Mash has been re-elected president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, the 5,000-plus member union for professors and coaches across the State System of Higher Education. The union on Monday announced result of voting by delegates across the state. Mash, a political science professor at...
Work starts on bullet train rail line from Las Vegas to Los Angeles
LAS VEGAS — A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction, officials said Monday, amid predictions that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. “People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades,” U.S. Transportation Secretary...
European nations with Patriot missiles hesitate to give air defense systems to Ukraine
BRUSSELS — European Union countries possessing Patriot air defense systems gave no clear signal on Monday whether they might be willing to supply them to Ukraine, which is desperately seeking at least seven of the missile batteries to help fend off Russian air attacks. Russia’s air force is vastly more...
Russia convicts the spokesperson for Facebook owner Meta in a swift trial in absentia
A court in Russia on Monday convicted the spokesperson of U.S. technology company Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison in a swift trial in absentia, Russia’s independent news site Mediazona reported. According to the outlet, the charges against Meta...
With homelessness on the rise, the Supreme Court will weigh bans on sleeping outdoors
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court wrestled with major questions about the growing issue of homelessness on Monday as it considered whether cities can ban people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking. The case is considered the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the...
Toxic: How the search for the origins of covid-19 turned politically poisonous
BEIJING — The hunt for the origins of covid-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months. The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and...
Security forces kill 11 militants in northwest region bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani military says
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces killed eleven militants in two raids Monday targeting their hideouts in the volatile northwest region bordering Afghanistan, the military aid in a statement. Ten militants were killed in the first raid in Dera Ismail Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This came a day...
