U.S./World category, Page 745
California Gov. Gavin Newsom beats back GOP-led recall
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday emphatically defeated a recall aimed at kicking him out of office early, a contest the Democrat framed as part of a national battle for his party’s values in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and continued threats from “Trumpism.” Newsom bolted...
Alaska Senate passes dividend bill after House nixes floor
JUNEAU, Alaska — The Alaska Senate approved a roughly $1,100 dividend on the last day of a special session Tuesday, after the House canceled its floor and left the Senate with what amounted to a take-it-or-leave-it decision on the check for residents that the House had previously passed. The Senate...
Judge rejects ballot question to scrap Minneapolis PD
MINNEAPOLIS — A judge on Tuesday rejected an attempt to salvage a proposed charter amendment on the future of policing in Minneapolis, ruling just days before early and absentee voting begins in the city where George Floyd died in police custody that any votes on the question won’t count. Hennepin...
3 former U.S. officials charged in UAE hacking scheme
WASHINGTON — Three former U.S. intelligence and military operatives have admitted providing sophisticated computer hacking technology to the United Arab Emirates and agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million to resolve criminal charges in an agreement that the Justice Department described Tuesday as the first of its kind. The defendants —...
Mexico gives drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes 28 years
MEXICO CITY — A judge in Mexico has sentenced drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes to 28 years in prison for organized crime, money laundering and weapons violations, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Carillo Fuentes was a former leader of the Juarez drug cartel, based in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across...
Feds: Los Angeles bomb technicians caused major explosion
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police bomb technicians made major miscalculations in June when they detonated illegal fireworks improperly and caused a massive explosion that rocked a city neighborhood and injured 27 people in June, according to a report by federal investigators. The 51-page report from the Bureau of Alcohol,...
Problems continue to plague El Savador’s bitcoin rollout
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — One week after El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, problems continued to plague the system Tuesday. El Salvador rolled out a digital wallet known as the “Chivo” on Sept. 8, but the system has often been down for maintenance. It...
Ex-cops accused of violating Floyd’s rights plead not guilty
Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a federal hearing that included arguments on several pretrial motions, including requests to hold separate trials. A federal grand jury indicted Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao in May for...
Officials: Al-Qaida could threaten in 1-2 years
WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials say al-Qaida could begin to threaten the homeland from Afghanistan within one to two years, echoing warnings that were issued prior to the U.S. withdrawal ending its 20-year war. Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, who leads the Defense Intelligence Agency, gave that estimated timeframe Tuesday while...
Book: Top U.S. officer feared Trump could order China strike
Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks as president, the United States’ top military officer twice assured his Chinese counterpart that the two nations would not go to war, according to a forthcoming book. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of...
Fires shut Sequoia National Park, could threaten huge trees
Sequoia National Park was shut down and its namesake gigantic trees were potentially threatened Tuesday as two forest fires burned in steep and dangerous terrain in California’s Sierra Nevada. Both fires were projected to advance in the direction of Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias including the...
Covid-19 cases in U.S. climbing, wiping out months of progress
Covid-19 deaths and cases in the U.S. have climbed back to where they were over the winter, wiping out months of progress and potentially bolstering President Joe Biden’s argument for sweeping new vaccination requirements. The cases — driven by the delta variant combined with resistance among some Americans to getting...
General promises U.S. ‘surge’ against foreign cyberattacks
The general who leads U.S. efforts to thwart foreign-based cyberattacks, and punish those responsible, says he’s mounting a “surge” to fight incursions that have debilitated government agencies and companies responsible for critical infrastructure. In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Gen. Paul Nakasone broadly described “an intense focus” by...
Foreign minister says Taliban government won’t allow militant attacks on others
KABUL, Afghanistan — The foreign minister in Afghanistan’s new Taliban-run Cabinet on Tuesday said the government remains committed to its promises not to allow militants to use its territory to attack others. The first press conference by Amir Khan Muttaqi since the Taliban formed an interim government a week ago...
Census: Relief payments staved off hardship in covid crash
WASHINGTON — The share of Americans living in poverty rose slightly as the covid-19 pandemic shook the economy last year, but massive relief payments pumped out by Congress eased hardship for many, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The official poverty measure showed an increase of 1 percentage point in 2020,...
Putin to self-isolate, virus cases in inner circle
MOSCOW — The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin is going into self-isolation because of coronavirus cases among his inner circle. The announcement came Tuesday in the Kremlin’s readout of Putin’s phone call with Tajikistan’s president. Putin has been fully vaccinated with the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. He received...
Secretary of State Blinken defends Afghanistan withdrawal at congressional hearingVideo
WASHINGTON — Facing often-hostile questioning by some Republican lawmakers Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken vigorously defended his department’s handling of the massive, if incomplete, evacuation from Afghanistan of U.S. citizens, green card holders and other at-risk Afghans. The top U.S. diplomat testified in the administration’s first public congressional...
Child tax credit payments go out this week. Here’s what to know.
Eligible families are set to receive a third round of monthly child tax credit direct payments this week. The temporarily enhanced tax credits — included in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Biden in March — provide eligible parents with up to $3,600 per child...
Nicholas gets stronger, threatens to hit Texas as hurricaneVideo
HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Nicholas gathered strength Monday and threatened to blow ashore in Texas as a hurricane that could bring up to 20 inches of rain to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana. Although the system was...
Police arrest California man carrying machete, bayonet in truck near DNC headquarters
WASHINGTON — U.S. Capitol Police on Monday arrested an Oceanside, California, man outside the Washington headquarters of the Democratic National Committee on suspicion of possession of prohibited weapons. Around midnight, an officer on patrol noticed a black Dodge Dakota pickup truck with a swastika and other white supremacist symbols outside...
Oldest U.S. veteran of WWII celebrates his 112th birthday
A Louisiana man who is the oldest living World War II veteran in the United States has marked his 112th birthday. Lawrence Brooks celebrated Sunday with a drive-by party at his New Orleans home hosted by the National World War II Museum, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. He also...
Covid vaccine for ages 5-11 could be ready for fall, early winter: reports
The former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a Pfizer board member said Sunday that a covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 could be ready as soon as Halloween. Appearing on CBS News “Face the Nation,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, said that Pfizer expects to have...
Sept. 11 monument is defaced by vandals in South Carolina
GREENVILLE, S.C. — A large granite monument honoring 9-11 victims was defaced by vandals who spray-painted “Taliban” on it in two places, authorities in South Carolina said. The granite statue is made of two towers, each weighing 4,000 pounds with a light beam outside a Greenville County business, WYFF-TV reported....
School starts for 1 million NYC kids amid new vaccine rules
NEW YORK — About a million New York City public school students went back to school Monday in the nation’s largest experiment of in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic. The start of the school year coincides with several milestones in the city’s pandemic recovery that hinge on vaccine mandates. Nearly...
Indonesia arrests key leader in al-Qaida linked group
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism squad has arrested a convicted militant and suspected leader of an al-Qaida-linked group that has been blamed for a string of past bombings in the country, Indonesia police said Monday. Abu Rusdan was seized late Friday in Bekasi near the capital of Jakarta, along...
