U.S./World category, Page 282
Germany to impose tougher penalties on people who break through airport perimeters
BERLIN — Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved legislation that would impose tougher penalties on people who break through airport perimeters, a response to incidents such as disruptive protests by climate activists. The bill, which must still be passed by lawmakers, foresees punishment ranging up to a two-year prison sentence for...
Judge’s order dismissing Trump classified docs case won’t be final word as long court fight awaits
WASHINGTON — A judge’s stunning decision to dismiss the classified documents case against Donald Trump brought an abrupt halt to what experts have considered the strongest and most straightforward of the prosecutions of the former president. But it’s hardly the final word. Special counsel Jack Smith’s planned appeal of U.S....
Movie armorer seeks dismissal of her conviction or new trial in fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin
SANTA FE, N.M. — A movie armorer has asked a judge to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter conviction or convene a new trial in the shooting death of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin, alleging suppression of evidence and misconduct by the prosecution. In a court filing Tuesday, defense counsel for...
Homeland Security inspector general investigates Secret Service handling of security at Trump rally
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general says it has opened up an investigation into the U.S. Secret Service’s handling of security for former President Donald Trump on the day a gunman tried to assassinate him at a Pennsylvania rally. In a brief notice posted to the inspector...
3 days after attempted assassination, Trump shooter remains an elusive enigma
BETHEL PARK — After three days, an enigmatic portrait emerged of the 20-year-old man who came close to killing former President Donald Trump with a high-velocity bullet: He was an intelligent loner with few friends, an apparently thin social media footprint and no hints of strong political beliefs that would...
Traces of cyanide are found in the blood of Vietnamese and Americans found dead in a Bangkok hotel
BANGKOK — Initial autopsy results showed traces of cyanide in the blood of six Vietnamese and American guests at a central Bangkok luxury hotel and one of them is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment, Thai authorities said Wednesday. The bodies were found Tuesday in the...
Webcam monitors hundreds of rattlesnakes at a Colorado ‘mega den’ for citizen scienceVideo
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — They creep, slither and slide over and around each other by the dozen and now there’s a webcam so that anybody can watch them online at any time, even at night. A “mega den” with as many as 2,000 rattlesnakes isn’t top binge-watching for many people....
Young Thug trial in peril after judge’s removal: ‘Irrevocably tainted’
The recusal of Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville in the midst of the gang and racketeering trial against rapper Young Thug and his alleged associates is unprecedented and places what has become Georgia’s longest trial in uncertain territory. Legal experts say a mistrial is likely, and that, if there...
President Joe Biden to propose Supreme Court reforms, including term limits
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is planning to unveil proposals that could dramatically reshape the Supreme Court, including term limits on justices who now sit on the court for life, according to a person familiar with the deliberations. The effort represents a substantial shift for a president who has long...
Houston power outages have repair crews facing threats from residents
HOUSTON — Drawn guns. Thrown rocks. Threatening messages. Houston’s prolonged outages following Hurricane Beryl has some fed-up and frustrated residents taking out their anger on repair workers who are trying to restore power across the city. The threats and confrontations have prompted police escorts, charges in at least two cases...
How to teach Alice Munro: Educators struggle in wake of her daughter’s revelations
NEW YORK — For decades, Robert Lecker has read, taught and written about Alice Munro, the Nobel laureate from Canada renowned for her short stories. A professor of English at McGill University in Montreal and author of numerous critical studies of Canadian fiction, he has thought of Munro as the...
Dam fails in Illinois as tornadoes, storms pound Midwest
CHICAGO — Hundreds of people in a southern Illinois town were ordered to evacuate Tuesday as water rolled over the top of a dam, just one perilous result of severe weather that raged through the Midwest overnight with relentless rain and tornadoes and hit the Chicago area especially hard. Hundreds...
Violence plagued officials at all levels of American politics long before the attempt on Trump’s life
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Long before a would-be assassin shot and wounded former President Donald Trump, the fuse of political violence had been burning across America. Members of Congress have been shot. One lawmaker’s staffers in Virginia were attacked with a baseball bat. In Louisville, a bullet grazed the mayor’s sweater...
Sen. Bob Menendez guilty of taking bribes in cash and gold and acting as Egypt’s foreign agent
NEW YORK — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted of all charges at his corruption trial Tuesday, including accepting bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acting as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government. Prosecutors said the Democrat abused the power of his office to...
French president accepts prime minister’s resignation but keeps him as head of caretaker government
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron accepted the prime minister’s resignation Tuesday but kept him on as head of a caretaker government, as France prepares to host the Paris Olympics at the end of the month. Macron’s office said in a statement that Macron “accepted” the resignation of Prime Minister...
6 people found dead in downtown Bangkok hotel; poisoning suspected, police say
BANGKOK — Police in Thailand say the bodies of six people were found Tuesday in a luxury hotel in downtown Bangkok and poisoning is suspected. Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said in a short statement that the dead were reported to be two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals. They were not...
SUV carrying 5 people falls into hot, acidic geyser at Yellowstone National Park
Five people ended up in the hospital after their SUV drove off the road and landed in a geyser at Yellowstone National Park last week. The vehicle went off the road and was fully submerged in 9 feet of water inside the inactive Semi-Centennial Geyser thermal feature near Roaring Mountain,...
Hawaiian residents return home after crews contain wind-swept wildfire on Kauai
KAUMAKANI, Hawaii — Firefighters have contained a wind-swept wildfire that was threatening about 200 homes on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, authorities said late Monday night, and an evacuation notice for the area has been lifted. The fire burned 1.56 square miles of land between Hanapepe and Kaumakani, the County...
On an unusually busy news day, did the assassination attempt’s aftermath change the media tone?
If this were a typical presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his running mate on the Republican ticket would have likely dominated media discussions for a week or two. This is not a typical presidential campaign. On Monday, that choice was just part of the mix. On...
Police in Kenya use tear gas to break up new protests calling for the president to resign
NAIROBI, Kenya — Police in Kenya hurled tear gas canisters on Tuesday to break up protests in Nairobi and several other towns and cities accusing the president of poor governance and demanding his resignation despite his dismissal of nearly the entire Cabinet last week. Businesses in Nairobi remained closed for...
Israeli strikes in southern, central Gaza kill more than 60 Palestinians, including in ‘safe zone’
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes killed more than 60 Palestinians in southern and central Gaza overnight and into Tuesday, including one that struck an Israeli-declared “safe zone” crowded with thousands of displaced people. Airstrikes in recent days have brought a constant drumbeat of deaths of Palestinians in the...
Thailand is set to roll out a controversial $13.8 billion handout plan in digital money to citizens
BANGKOK — Thailand’s prime minister said Monday that eligible businesses and individuals can register from August for digital cash handouts, a controversial program that will cost billions of dollars and is meant to boost the lagging economy. The government announced in April the widely criticized ambitious plan, named the Digital...
Border arrests plunge 29% in June to the lowest of Biden’s presidency as asylum halt takes hold
SAN DIEGO — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico plunged 29% in June, the lowest month of Joe Biden’s presidency, according to figures released Monday that provide another window on the impact of a new rule to temporarily suspend asylum. Arrests totaled 83,536 in June, down from 117,901...
Texas governor criticizes Houston energy as utility says power will be mostly restored by Wednesday
AUSTIN, Texs — The majority of Houston outages that followed Hurricane Beryl should be fixed within the next two days, the city’s main utility company said Monday as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to punish CenterPoint Energy even after the lights come back. The Texas Public Utility Commission, the state’s...
Bolivia’s beleaguered president announces natural gas discovery, promising a boon for the country
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia’s embattled president on Monday announced the discovery of vast natural gas reserves, describing it as the biggest find in nearly two decades that could help the cash-strapped country reverse its falling production. President Luis Arce called the trove just north of the capital a “mega...
