U.S./World category, Page 785
Police: Attacker wounds 13 in Austin shooting, escapes
AUSTIN, Texas — Someone opened fire in a busy entertainment district in downtown Austin early Saturday, wounding 13 people, including two critically, before getting away, authorities said. Investigators were looking into what sparked the shooting and weren’t able to get a detailed description of the shooter, but they believe it...
Judge orders rare hearing in New York for R. Kelly to decide on potential attorney conflicts
CHICAGO — A federal judge in New York has scheduled a rare hearing for indicted R&B superstar R. Kelly into whether the attorneys he has elected to defend him at his upcoming racketeering trial have conflicts of interest. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly scheduled the hearing for Thursday after Kelly’s...
YouTube suspends Sen. Johnson for covid ‘misinformation’
MILWAUKEE — Sen. Ron Johnson was suspended Friday from uploading videos to YouTube for one week, after the company said he violated its covid-19 “medical misinformation policies.” The Wisconsin Republican’s removal stems from statements he made during a June 3 Milwaukee Press Club event, which were posted to YouTube. He...
G-7 pledge to share, but jostle for ground in the sandbox
CARBIS BAY, England — Group of Seven leaders brought pledges to share vaccine doses and make a fairer global economy Friday to a seaside summit in England, where British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the coronavirus pandemic should not be allowed to leave a “lasting scar” on the world. The...
California governor signs orders to roll back virus rules
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s official: Most of California’s coronavirus rules governing public gatherings will disappear on Tuesday after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday afternoon that heralds the end of the pandemic’s hold on much of public life for the nation’s most populous state. Newsom’s action on Friday...
Justice Dept., Congress probing Trump seizures of Dems’ data
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s internal watchdog launched an investigation Friday after revelations that former President Donald Trump’s administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats as part of an aggressive leaks probe. Democrats called the seizures “harrowing” and an abuse of power. The announcement by Inspector...
Company drops plan for $2.3B methanol plant in Washington
SEATTLE — A company backed by the Chinese government on Friday ended its seven-year effort to build one of the world’s largest methanol plants along the Columbia River in southwestern Washington, following a series of regulatory setbacks and a long debate over its environmental footprint. Northwest Innovation Works proposed a...
Queen Elizabeth II hosts G-7 leaders, spouses
FALMOUTH, England — Queen Elizabeth II has hosted the Group of Seven leaders at an evening reception where Britain’s royals mingled with some of the world’s most powerful politicians. The event, which was closed to most media, saw royals, world leaders and their spouses enjoying drinks at Cornwall’s Eden Project,...
Oregon GOP legislator ousted over state Capitol breach
SALEM, Ore. — Republican lawmakers voted with majority Democrats in the Oregon House of Representatives to take the historic step of expelling a Republican member who let violent, far-right protesters into the state Capitol on Dec. 21. Legislators said on the House floor that this could be the most important...
Teen who recorded George Floyd’s arrest, death wins Pulitzer nod
MINNEAPOLIS — The teenager who pulled out her cellphone and recorded the police restraint and death of George Floyd, helping to launch a global movement to protest racial injustice, was on Friday awarded a special citation by the Pulitzer Prizes. Darnella Frazier was cited “for courageously recording the murder of...
U.S. closes Trump-era office for victims of immigrant crime
SAN DIEGO — The Biden administration said Friday that it has dismantled a Trump-era government agency to help victims of crimes committed by immigrants, a move that symbolizes President Joe Biden’s rejection of former President Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to link immigrants to crime. Trump created the the Victim Of...
Lucky number: Biden is 13th U.S. president set to meet queen
LONDON — Imagine trying to make an impression on someone who’s met, well, almost everyone. Such is the challenge for President Joe Biden, who is set to sip tea with Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday at Windsor Castle after a Group of Seven leaders’ summit in southwestern England. Biden will...
Crime leads voter concerns as New York City mayoral primary approaches
NEW YORK — Fear of crime is back as a political issue in New York City. For the first time in years it could be a prime factor in who voters pick as their next mayor. Early voting begins Saturday in the city’s party primaries. Ballots are being cast as...
Law enforcement struggles to recruit since killing of George Floyd
Law enforcement agencies across the country experienced a wave of retirements and departures and are struggling to recruit the next generation of police officers in the year since George Floyd was killed by a cop. And amid the national reckoning on policing, communities are questioning who should become a police...
G-7 nations gather to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world
CARBIS BAY, England — Leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to sharing at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world — half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K. Vaccine sharing commitments...
Ex-police chief, 5 others charged in Capitol riot conspiracy
A former California police chief and five other men have been indicted on conspiracy charges in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents made public Thursday. The men — four of whom prosecutors say identify as members of the Three Percenters antigovernment extremist movement —...
1 injured, 7 detained after shootout outside Georgia mall
MORROW, Ga. — A shouting match led to dozens of gunshots and one person wounded Thursday at a mall southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Local news outlets report officers were called to Southlake Mall in Morrow just before 3 p.m. “We believe there may have been a verbal altercation inside...
Sinkhole at Mexico farm swallows more land, traps 2 dogs
MEXICO CITY — A large sinkhole that appeared in late May at a farm in central Mexico has grown larger than a football field, begun swallowing a house and trapped two dogs in its depths. The government of the central state of Puebla responded Thursday to emotional requests from animal...
UN: Don’t forget to save species while fixing global warming
To save the planet, the world needs to tackle the crises of climate change and species loss together, taking measures that fix both and not just one, United Nations scientists said. A joint report Thursday by separate U.N. scientific bodies that look at climate change and biodiversity loss found there...
No audience, new venue, but Westminster dog show barks on
NEW YORK — There will be plenty of tradition, pup and circumstance at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this weekend. But for the first time in its 145-year history, the storied canine competition is trading the buzz of the Big Apple for the airy grounds of a suburban riverfront...
Sunrise special: Solar eclipse thrills world’s northern tier
The top of the world got a sunrise special Thursday — a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. This so-called annular eclipse began at the Canadian province of Ontario, then swept across Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia, as the moon passed directly in front of the sun. An annular...
Wife of drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ pleads guilty to U.S. charges
WASHINGTON — The wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded guilty Thursday to charges in the U.S. and admitted that she helped her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire. Emma Coronel Aispuro, wearing a green jail uniform, appeared in federal court in Washington and pleaded guilty to...
Meat company JBS confirms it paid $11M ransom in cyberattack
The world’s largest meat processing company says it paid the equivalent of $11 million to hackers who broke into its computer system late last month. Brazil-based JBS SA said on May 31 that it was the victim of a ransomware attack, but Wednesday was the first time the company’s U.S....
Man stuck for days inside giant fan at California vineyard
Authorities rescued a man who said he had been trapped for two days inside a large fan at a Northern California vineyard. The man was discovered Tuesday by a deputy responding to a call about a suspicious vehicle parked near the winery in Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office...
Keystone XL pipeline nixed after Biden stands firm on permit
The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline pulled the plug on the contentious project Wednesday after Canadian officials failed to persuade President Joe Biden to reverse his cancellation of its permit on the day he took office. Calgary-based TC Energy said it would work with government agencies “to...
