U.S./World category, Page 587
America’s secrets: Trump’s unprecedented disregard of norms
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump isn’t the first to face criticism for flouting rules and traditions around the safeguarding of sensitive government records, but national security experts say recent revelations point to an unprecedented disregard of post-presidency norms established after the Watergate era. Document dramas have cropped up from time to...
How Archives went from ‘National Treasure’ to political prey
WASHINGTON — It was the setting for “National Treasure,” the movie in which Nicolas Cage’s character tries to steal the Declaration of Independence. It has long been among the most trafficked tourist destinations in the nation’s capital. But what the National Archives and Records Administration has never been — until...
Gorbachev buried in Moscow in funeral snubbed by Putin
MOSCOW — Russians who came for a last look at former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday mourned both the man and his policies that gave them hope. President Vladimir Putin claimed to be too busy to attend. Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at age 91, launched drastic reforms that helped...
Uvalde children grapple with trauma after school massacre
UVALDE, Texas — One girl runs and hides when she sees thin people with long hair similar to the gunman who stormed into her Uvalde school and killed 21 people. One boy stopped making friends and playing with animals. A third child feels her heart race when she’s reminded of...
Border patrol: 9 migrants die crossing swift Texas river
Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border searched for more victims Saturday after at least nine migrants died while trying to cross the rain-swollen Rio Grande river, a dangerous border-crossing attempt in an area where the water level had risen by more than 2 feet in a single day....
Man who flew plane over Mississippi faces criminal charges
JACKSON, Miss. — Authorities say a man who stole a plane and flew it over Mississippi after threatening to crash it into a Walmart store Saturday morning faces charges of grand larceny and terroristic threats. Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka said at a press conference that Cory Wayne Patterson didn’t...
Knock, knock: Jehovah’s Witnesses resume door-to-door work
Jehovah’s Witnesses have restarted their door-to-door ministry after more than two and a half years on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, reviving a religious practice that the faith considers crucial and cherished. From coast to coast, members of the Christian denomination fanned out in cities and towns Thursday to...
Fuel leak ruins NASA’s 2nd shot at launching moon rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s new moon rocket sprang another dangerous fuel leak Saturday, forcing launch controllers to call off their second attempt to send a crew capsule into lunar orbit with test dummies. The first attempt earlier in the week was also marred by escaping hydrogen, but those leaks...
Judge tosses manslaughter charge in boat fire that killed 34
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles federal judge threw out an indictment Friday charging a dive boat captain with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people in a 2019 fire aboard a vessel anchored off the Southern California coast. The ruling came on the third anniversary of one of the...
Fleeing Nicaraguans strain Costa Rica’s asylum system
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — After four years of trying to continue his studies in Nicaragua, Elthon Rivera finally reached the same conclusion as thousands of his countrymen. The government shuttered his university, its director told him he was going into exile and warned that the police were coming for...
Sheriff: Man left dead animals at Parkland massacre memorial
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida man has been charged with leaving dead animals on three separate occasions at a memorial for the 17 victims of the Parkland school massacre, officials said Friday. Robert Mondragon, 29, is being held without bail on three felony charges of defacing a monument for...
West Virginia officials investigating underground mine death
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia officials on Friday were investigating the death of a coal miner at a Kanawha County mine. Blackhawk mining issued a statement Thursday reporting a fatality at the Coalburg Tunnel underground mine. The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health and Safety identified the miner as 34-year-old...
Biden seeks $47B for Ukraine, covid, monkeypox, natural disasters
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is asking Congress to provide more than $47 billion in emergency dollars that would go toward the war in Ukraine, the response to the covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing monkeypox outbreak and help for recent natural disasters in Kentucky and other states. The request, which comes...
G-7 pledges to move forward with Russia oil price cap system
BERLIN — Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial powers on Friday pledged to impose a cap on the price of Russian oil in a bid to limit the Kremlin’s revenues and ability to fund its war in Ukraine, while also curtailing the war’s impact on energy prices and...
Trump White House lawyer arrives for Jan. 6 grand jury
WASHINGTON — The White House counsel under then-President Donald Trump arrived Friday for his appearance before a federal grand jury investigating efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election. Pat Cipollone was the top White House lawyer at the end of the Trump administration as Trump and outside allies pressed for...
Russia warns U.S. about sending long-range weapons to Ukraine
MOSCOW — A senior Russian diplomat sternly warned Washington Friday against supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine, noting that the U.S. is balancing on the edge of direct involvement in the conflict. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also pointed to the country’s military doctrine that envisages the use of nuclear weapons...
Trump search inventory released, reveals new details on docs
WASHINGTON — FBI agents who searched former President Donald Trump’s Florida home last month found top secret records in an office and storage room, along with empty folders with classified banners on them and more than 10,000 government records without any classification markings at all, according to a more detailed...
Man arrested after fatal attack at German gay pride event
BERLIN — Police in Germany said Friday they have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with a fatal attack on a 25-year-old man at a gay pride event in the western city of Muenster last month. The victim, identified in German media only by his first name Malte, had come...
Biden administration awards $1 billion for economic projects; Pa. to get nearly $63M
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are announcing on Friday $1 billion worth of federal grants for manufacturing, clean energy, farming, biotech and other sectors that will go to 21 regional partnerships. The winners were chosen from 529 initial applicants vying for grants that were part...
Afghan mosque blast kills 18, including senior cleric
HERAT, Afghanistan — An explosion tore through a crowded mosque in western Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 18 people, including a prominent cleric, Taliban officials and a local medic said. At least 21 people were hurt. The blast went off in the Guzargah Mosque in the western city of...
Biden to help unveil Obama White House portrait
WASHINGTON — It’s been more than a decade since President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, welcomed back George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, for the unveiling of their White House portraits, part of a beloved Washington tradition that for decades managed to transcend partisan politics. President Joe Biden...
Former Idaho lawmaker sentenced to 20 years’ prison for rape
BOISE — A former Idaho lawmaker convicted of raping a 19-year-old legislative intern has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crime. Aaron von Ehlinger must serve at least eight years before he will be eligible for parole, 4th District Judge Michael Reardon said during the sentencing hearing...
Jan. 6 panel asks former Speaker Newt Gingrich for information
WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is seeking information from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about his communications with senior advisers to then-President Donald Trump in the days leading up to the 2021 attack on the Capitol. The committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote in...
Ginni Thomas emails urged lawmakers to overturn Biden’s win in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — The wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas contacted at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers, including the chair of the Senate elections committee, urging them to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in the tightly contested state, emails obtained Thursday by The Associated Press show....
Florida GOP chair found guilty in vote-siphoning scheme
SANFORD, Fla. — A local Republican Party chairman in central Florida was found guilty Thursday of a misdemeanor campaign finance violation that prosecutors say was part of a larger scheme to siphon off votes from a Democrat in a state senate race. Following the verdict, a judge in Seminole County...
