U.S./World category, Page 700
China plans space station completion, many launches in 2022
China has recommitted itself to completing its orbiting space station by the end of the year and says it is planning more than 40 launches for 2022, putting it roughly level with the United States. Launches would include those of two Shenzhou crewed missions, two Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and the...
U.S. average long-term mortgage rates rise; 30-year at 3.22%
Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose in the past week to start the new year. They reached their highest level since May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, yet remained historically low. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan...
Scientists explore Thwaites, Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier
A team of scientists is sailing to “the place in the world that’s the hardest to get to” so they can better figure out how much and how fast seas will rise because of global warming eating away at Antarctica’s ice. Thirty-two scientists on Thursday are starting a more than...
Powerball tickets sold in Wisconsin, California split $632M
MADISON, Wis. — Powerball tickets sold in Wisconsin and California were winners of the latest jackpot and will split $632 million, officials said. The Wisconsin Lottery didn’t immediately announce where the winning ticket in its state was sold. The winning ticket in California was sold at a 7-Eleven convenience store...
Biden decries Trump backers as ‘trying to rewrite history’ on anniversary of Capitol breach
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump and his supporters of holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy” in a forceful speech Thursday marking the anniversary of the deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol. He warned that though it didn’t succeed, the insurrection remains a serious threat to...
Trump maintains grip on GOP despite violent insurrection
WASHINGTON — As a raging band of his supporters scaled walls, smashed windows, used flagpoles to beat police and breached the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn a free and fair election, Donald Trump’s excommunication from the Republican Party seemed a near certainty, his name tarnished beyond repair. Some...
Russia-led alliance sending peacekeepers to KazakhstanVideo
MOSCOW — A Russia-led military alliance said Thursday that it will dispatch peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan after the country’s president asked for help in controlling protests that escalated into violence, including the seizure and setting afire of government buildings. Protesters in Kazakhstan’s largest city stormed the presidential residence and the...
Ghislaine Maxwell seeks new trial after juror says he was sex abuse victim and urged jury to convict
Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team is calling for a new trial after one of the jurors who convicted her last week of five of six counts related to child sex trafficking told reporters that he was a victim of sexual abuse and had convinced other jurors to convict Maxwell. Earlier, federal...
Recalling Jan. 6: A national day of infamy, half remembered
NEW YORK — Beneath a pale winter light and the glare of television cameras, it seemed hard not to see the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot for what it was. The violent storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters bent on upending the election of Joe Biden was as...
North Carolina trooper crashes at traffic stop, killing another trooper who was his brother
MOORESBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper and a South Carolina man he was detaining were killed when the trooper’s brother, also a trooper, hit a stopped patrol vehicle as he arrived to help with a traffic stop, officials said. The crash occurred around 9 p.m. Monday...
Fed officials now seeing U.S. job market near full recovery
Federal Reserve policymakers at a meeting last month said the U.S. job market was nearly at levels healthy enough that the central bank’s low-interest rate policies were no longer needed, according to minutes of the meeting released Wednesday. Fed officials also expressed concerns that surging inflation was spreading into more...
Prosecutors alert Ghislaine Maxwell judge of juror’s sex abuse claims
NEW YORK — Prosecutors urged the judge who presided over the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell on Wednesday to conduct an inquiry into a juror’s reported claims that he was a victim of sexual abuse. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, prosecutors said the claims published in...
Oldest U.S. veteran of WWII, Lawrence N. Brooks, dies at 112
NEW ORLEANS — Lawrence N. Brooks, the oldest World War II veteran in the U.S. — and believed to be the oldest man in the country — died on Wednesday at the age of 112. His death was announced by the National WWII Museum and confirmed by his daughter. Most...
Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy plan misses mark in vote by abuse claimants
DOVER, Del. — A preliminary voting report in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy indicates the group’s reorganization plan has failed to win the desired support from tens of thousands of men who say they were sexually abused as children. The report, filed late Tuesday night, shows 73% of 53,888...
Bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria come under attack
BAGHDAD — A Katyusha rocket struck an Iraqi military base hosting U.S. troops at Baghdad’s international airport Wednesday while in Syria, eight rounds of indirect fire hit a base with members of the U.S.-led coalition, the Iraqi and U.S. militaries said. No damage or casualties were reported from the Iraq...
Chrysler aims to be all electric by 2028
LONDON — Chrysler plans go all electric by 2028, the latest automaker to announce a shift away from gasoline-powered engines under rising pressure to act on climate change. The company said Wednesday that it will launch its first electric vehicle by 2025. Chrysler announced its electric plans along with a...
North Korea fires ballistic missile, in 1st test in 2 months
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, its first weapons launch in about two months and a signal it isn’t interested in rejoining denuclearization talks anytime soon and would rather focus on boosting its weapons arsenal. The launch...
Colorado fire evacuees aided by good road access, daylight
DENVER — A late-season wildfire pushed by hurricane-force winds tore through two densely populated Denver suburbs and seemed destined to leave a trail of deaths. Yet, only two people are unaccounted for out of some 35,000 forced from their homes. It’s a remarkably low number of possible casualties, according to...
Another man arrested in Mall of America shooting in Minnesota
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — A second man has been arrested in a shooting at the Mall of America in a Minneapolis suburb last week that left two people wounded, police said. The 18-year-old St. Paul man was arrested in nearby Roseville, Bloomington police said Tuesday. He was being held on a...
Niger police seize 440 pounds of cocaine from mayor of town
NIAMEY, Niger — Police in Niger have seized more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of cocaine from the vehicle of the mayor of a small town in the country’s north, the government said Wednesday. Nearly 200 bricks of cocaine were apprehended in Agadez over the weekend from the official vehicle...
UN peacekeepers attacked in south Lebanon near Israel border
BEIRUT — Unknown perpetrators attacked a group of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, vandalizing their vehicles and stealing official items from them, a U.N. official said Wednesday. Such scuffles with U.N. peacekeepers are not uncommon in southern Lebanon since the peacekeeping force was expanded following the 2006 war between Israel...
Prosecutor: Illinois cop was disarmed, killed with own gun
KANKAKEE, Ill. — A police officer who was killed at a northern Illinois hotel pleaded for her life before a man allegedly shot her with her own gun after she was disarmed during a struggle, a prosecutor said. Bradley police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic and her partner, Officer Tyler Bailey, were...
Jan. 6 panel seeks interview with Fox News host Sean HannityVideo
WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection on Tuesday requested an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the media, as the committee continues to widen its scope. In a letter to Hannity, Mississippi Rep. Bennie...
Police boot protesters from Florida Gov. DeSantis’ briefingVideo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Police in Florida removed a handful of community activists from a news conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday after the group demanded to challenge the governor’s coronavirus policies. A live video feed of the confrontation showed police handcuffing a protester and leading the rest of the...
NASA nails trickiest job on newly launched space telescope
NASA aced the most complicated, critical job on its newly launched space telescope Tuesday: unrolling and stretching a sunshade the size of a tennis court. Ground controllers cheered and bumped fists once the fifth and final layer of the sunshield was tightly secured. It took just 1 1/2 days to...
