U.S./World category, Page 609
Mega Millions jackpot skyrockets to $660M
The Mega Millions jackpot has skyrocketed to an estimated $660 million after nobody claimed the jackpot Tuesday night. If it’s claimed, the jackpot would be the third-largest ever awarded by Mega Millions. The jackpot Tuesday was $555 million. The next drawing is Friday. The winning numbers Tuesday were 2, 31,...
‘The mouth of a bear’: Ukrainian refugees sent to Russia
NARVA, Estonia — For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked, and he was huddling with dozens of others in the freezing basement of a building...
Explainer: Can Europe live without Russian natural gas?
BERLIN — Europe faced an energy crisis even before the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany went offline for regular maintenance. Government officials are bracing for the possibility that the key pipeline won’t restart Thursday as scheduled, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin is using energy for political leverage...
Sesame Place apologizes after Black girls snubbed at paradeVideo
A Sesame Street-themed amusement park has apologized and promised more training for its employees after a video showing a costumed character waving off two 6-year-old Black girls during a parade went viral online. The nine-second video, posted to Instagram on Saturday by Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the...
Army cuts force size amid unprecedented battle for recruits
WASHINGTON — The Army is significantly cutting the total number of soldiers it expects to have in the force over the next two years, as the U.S. military faces what a top general called “unprecedented challenges” in bringing in recruits. Army officials on Tuesday said the service will fall about...
New York police officer suspended after handcuffing EMT at hospitalVideo
A police investigator in western New York has been suspended after he handcuffed an emergency medical technician in a hospital emergency room after she bumped his vehicle while unloading a patient from an ambulance. The suspension was announced by city police Monday, a week after EMT Lekia Smith was handcuffed...
U.S. House passes same-sex marriage bill in retort to Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex and interracial marriages amid concerns that the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade abortion access could jeopardize other rights criticized by many conservative Americans. In a robust but lopsided debate, Democrats argued intensely and often personally in...
Abortion doctor signals she’ll sue Indiana AG over commentsVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio took the first step Tuesday toward suing Indiana’s attorney general for defamation. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who gave the girl a medication-induced abortion on June 30, filed a tort claim notice over...
CDC advisers endorse more traditional Novavax covid shot
U.S. adults who haven’t gotten any covid-19 shots yet should consider a new option from Novavax — a more traditional kind of vaccine, influential government advisers said Tuesday. Regulators authorized the nation’s first so-called protein vaccine against covid-19 last week, but Novavax shots cannot begin until the Centers for Disease...
Secret Service Jan. 6 texts erased despite Congress’ request
WASHINGTON — Secret Service text messages from around the time of the attack on the U.S. Capitol were deleted despite requests from Congress and federal investigators that they be preserved, the agency confirmed Tuesday in response to a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee. Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a...
Deadly Minneapolis police standoff revives racial concerns
MINNEAPOLIS — The shooting of a young Black man whose family says he was experiencing a mental health crisis has revived some activists’ mistrust of the Minneapolis Police Department and their perception that officers are quick to take Black lives while going to greater lengths to capture white suspects alive....
Jurors see gruesome video of Florida school shooting
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jurors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz viewed graphic video Tuesday of him murdering 17 people as he stalked through a three-story classroom building at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago. The video, compiled from 13 security cameras inside...
Hoover Dam transformer explodes; no one hurtVideo
BOULDER CITY, Nev. — A transformer exploded Tuesday at Hoover Dam, one of the nation’s largest hydroelectric facilities, producing a thick cloud of black smoke and flames that were quickly extinguished. No one was hurt in the explosion near the base of the dam, an engineering marvel on the Colorado...
Government says Steve Bannon ignored subpoena, acted above the law
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors called their first witness to the stand Tuesday and began building their case that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon willfully ignored a congressional subpoena in open defiance of the U.S. government. Bannon, a longtime adviser and strategist for former President Donald Trump, was brought to trial...
WHO: Covid triples across Europe, hospitalizations double
LONDON — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally. Hospitalization rates have also doubled, although intensive care admissions have remained low. In a statement on Tuesday, WHO’s Europe director, Dr. Hans...
Russia pounds Ukraine as Putin holds talks in Tehran
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday, hitting homes, a school and a community center as Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to discuss a U.N.-backed proposal to unblock exports of Ukrainian grain. In Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province...
UK breaks its record for highest temperature as heat builds
LONDON — Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seized swaths of Europe — and the national weather forecaster predicted it would get hotter still in a country ill prepared for such extremes. The typically temperate nation was just the latest...
Greek Church protests baptism for celebrity same-sex parents
ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s Orthodox Church says it will send a letter of protest to the archbishop who heads the church in the United States after he baptized the children of celebrity fashion designer Peter Dundas and his partner, Evangelo Bousis. Archbishop Elpidophoros of America presided at the July 9...
Two decades of shooter response strategy ignored in Uvalde
A total of 376 officers converged on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — more than the entire police force in a midsize American city like Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or Tempe, Arizona. But for more than 70 minutes on May 24, not one stopped the shooter. Amid the sounds of...
House passes same-sex marriage bill in retort to high court
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex and interracial marriages amid concerns that the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade abortion access could jeopardize other rights criticized by many conservative Americans. In a robust but lopsided debate, Democrats argued intensely in favor of enshrining...
Hawaii waves swamp homes, weddings during ‘historic’ swellVideo
HONOLULU — Towering waves on Hawaii’s south shores crashed into homes and businesses, spilled across highways and upended weddings over the weekend. The large waves — some more than 20 feet high — came from a combination of a strong south swell that peaked Saturday evening, particularly high tides and...
Former White House aides to testify at next Jan. 6 hearing
WASHINGTON — Two former White House aides are expected to testify at the House Jan. 6 committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday as the panel examines what Donald Trump was doing as his supporters broke into the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the plans. Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security...
Pair charged with making straw donations to Trump committees
NEW YORK — Two Chinese American businesspeople were charged Monday with funneling foreigners’ money into political donations that bought entry to an exclusive dinner with then-President Donald Trump so the duo could impress and swindle Chinese investors. Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo “Mike” Wang were being held without bail after...
Authorities: West Virginia woman awakens from coma, identifies brother as attackerVideo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia man has been charged with trying to kill his sister, who recently awakened from a two-year coma and identified him as her attacker, authorities said. News outlets reported that Wanda Palmer was found unconscious with serious head injuries at her home in Jackson County...
Judge blocks enforcement of West Virginia abortion ban
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A judge in West Virginia’s capital blocked enforcement of the state’s 150-year-old abortion ban on Monday, opening the door for abortions to resume in the state, at least for now. Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Tera L. Salango granted the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia a...
