U.S./World category, Page 858
Georgia certifies Democrats Warnock and Ossoff’s Senate wins
ATLANTA — Georgia’s secretary of state has certified the results of the two U.S. Senate runoff elections, paving the way for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to be sworn in and for Democrats to take control of the chamber. They’ll take office just as the Senate considers whether to convict...
SAT doing away with optional essay, subject tests
NEW YORK — The College Board said Tuesday it will eliminate the optional essay from the SAT and do away with subject tests amid a changing college admissions landscape. “The pandemic has highlighted the importance of being innovative and adaptive to what lies ahead,” according to a statement from the...
Oklahoma judge orders ‘Tiger King’ zoo to turn over big cats
MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A federal judge in Oklahoma has ordered the new owners of an Oklahoma zoo featured in Netflix’s “Tiger King” documentary to turn over all the lion and tiger cubs in their possession, along with the animals’ mothers, to the federal government. U.S. District Judge John F. Heil...
Janet Yellen pushes GOP senators on $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package
Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice as Treasury secretary, said Tuesday that the incoming administration would focus on winning quick passage of its $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, rejecting Republican arguments that the measure is too big given the size of U.S. budget deficits. “More must be done,” Yellen told...
McConnell: Trump ‘provoked’ Capitol siege, mob ‘fed lies’
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday explicitly placed blame on President Donald Trump for the deadly riot at the Capitol, saying the mob was “fed lies” and that the president and others “provoked” those intent on overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s election. McConnell’s remarks as he opened the Senate were...
12 National Guard members removed from Biden inauguration for ties to fringe groups
Twelve U.S. Army National Guard members have been removed from the presidential inauguration security mission after they were found to have ties with right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online, according to two U.S. officials. There was no threat to President-elect Joe Biden, they said. The officials, a senior...
Mega Millions jackpot now $865M; Powerball up to $730M
DES MOINES, Iowa — Lottery players will have another shot Tuesday night at the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history. The Mega Millions top prize climbed to an estimated $865 million, the biggest jackpot in more than two years. Powerball, the other lottery game offered in most of the U.S., isn’t...
Massive car pileup on Japan highway kills 1, injures 17
TOKYO — One person was killed and at least 17 injured Tuesday in a massive pileup of at least 134 vehicles in blizzard conditions on a highway in northern Japan, officials said. About 200 people were stranded in the pileup, which forced the closure of the Tohoku Expressway in Miyagi...
Heavy metal guitarist photographed at Capitol riot charged
INDIANAPOLIS — A heavy metal guitarist who was photographed with the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol and is accused of spraying police officers with a pepper-based bear spray irritant has been arrested, the FBI said. Jon Ryan Schaffer turned himself in Sunday after he was featured on an FBI...
Poll: Virus, economy swamp other priorities for U.S.
WASHINGTON — Containing the coronavirus outbreak and repairing the economic damage it has inflicted are the top priorities for Americans as Joe Biden prepares to become the 46th president of the United States, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Overall, 53% of...
Meghan seeks court ruling over ‘serious breach’ of privacy
LONDON — Lawyers for the Duchess of Sussex asked a British judge on Tuesday to settle her lawsuit against a newspaper before it goes to trial by ruling that its publication of a “deeply personal” letter to her estranged father was “a plain and a serious breach of her rights...
Texas man threatened to shoot family if they reported him going in U.S. Capitol, FBI saysVideo
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas man arrested over the weekend for going inside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 told his family he went there “to protect the country” and threatened to shoot his children if they turned him in, authorities say. Guy Reffitt took his gun with...
Carl Icahn nixes charity bid to blow up ex-Trump casino
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — An auction house trying to raise money for a youth charity by soliciting bids to blow up a former casino once owned by President Donald Trump called off the effort Monday after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from conservative billionaire Carl Icahn. Icahn told The Associated Press...
Feds: West Virginia woman said U.S. Capitol raid ‘was cool’
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia woman took a “Members Only” sign near the Senate chambers as she accompanied supporters of President Donald Trump in illegally storming the U.S. Capitol, according to federal court documents. Gracyn Dawn Courtright, 23, was charged in a criminal complaint with theft of government property...
Trump baby protest blimp enters Museum of London collection
The Trump Baby Blimp will live on long after its namesake has left the White House. The Museum of London said Monday that it had added the giant balloon, which depicts Donald Trump as a screaming orange baby, to its collection as an illustration of the protests that greeted the...
Garth Brooks joins lineup of entertainers at Biden inaugural
Add Garth Brooks to the lineup of entertainers at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. “This is a great day in our household,” the country music superstar said during a virtual press conference Monday, two days before Biden is to be sworn in. “This is not a political statement. This...
‘Rooting hard for you’: Will departure notes end with Trump?
Presidential traditions are usually known for their solemnity and carry the weight of future historical significance. This one began with cartoon turkeys and a reference to lunch. As he was preparing to leave the White House in January 1989, President Ronald Reagan wanted to leave a note for his successor,...
Biden, Harris take break from inaugural prep to mark MLK day
Two days from the inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris pitched in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day service projects as a militarized and jittery Washington prepared for a swearing-in that will play out under extraordinary security. Biden and his wife, Jill, joined an assembly line in...
Coronavirus deaths rising in 30 U.S. states amid winter surge
Coronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold. As Americans observed a national holiday Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded with federal authorities to curtail travel...
Guatemala troops, police break up caravan of weary migrantsVideo
VADO HONDO, Guatemala — Guatemalan police and soldiers on Monday broke up a group of hundreds of migrants who had spent two nights stuck at a roadblock on a rural highway. Some migrants threw rocks while authorities launched tear gas and pushed the migrants with their riot shields back down...
Woman ruled dead in 2017 fights to be declared alive
PARIS — Frenchwoman Jeanne Pouchain has an unusual problem. She’s officially dead. She has been trying for three years to prove that she is alive. The 58-year-old woman says she lives in constant fear, not daring to leave her house in the village of Saint Joseph, in the Loire region....
Man allegedly hid 3 months at Chicago airport due to virus
A California man who told police that the coronavirus pandemic left him afraid to fly has been arrested on charges that he hid in a secured area at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for three months. Aditya Singh, 36, is charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an...
Kremlin foe Navalny jailed for 30 days; allies plan protestsVideo
MOSCOW — A Russian judge on Monday ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for 30 days, a ruling that comes after the leading Kremlin critic returned to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on President Vladimir Putin’s government. The ruling concluded an...
Hardest change to immigration policy post-Trump? Ending mindset that immigrants are criminals
Like heads of other Philadelphia-based agencies that support and defend immigrants, Cathryn Miller-Wilson has been staggered by the four-year onslaught of nationalist Trump administration directives, policies and rules. The incoming Biden administration has pledged to undo as much as it can as fast as it can. But the hardest single...
Ex-Florida employee in jail after arrest warrant issued
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former Florida Department of Health employee, who was fired for insubordination after repeatedly violating the agency’s policy about communicating with the media, turned herself in to sheriff’s officials Sunday night on charges of accessing computer equipment without authority. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced...
