U.S./World category, Page 974
No crowds delight art lovers in Italy at reopened museumsVideo
FLORENCE, Italy — The Uffizi Galleries, the most-visited museum in Italy, is open after three months of covid-19 lockdown, delighting art lovers who don’t have to jostle with throngs of tourists thanks to new social distancing rules. Uffizi director Eike Schmidt told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the government-ordered...
‘Comeback kid’? West Virginia governor gets unlikely boost from coronavirus
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Before the coronavirus upended the world, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was in trouble. His own party rebelled against him. Federal prosecutors investigated him. Embarrassing lawsuits loomed. But now some believe that the Republican governor has been able to use his daily virus news conferences to stabilize...
Trump administration moves to block Chinese airlines from U.S.Video
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Wednesday to block Chinese airlines from flying to the United States in an escalation of trade and travel tensions between the two countries. The Transportation Department said it would suspend passenger flights of four Chinese airlines to and from the United States starting June...
Scientists learn how tiny critters make ocean ‘snot palaces’
Master builders of the sea construct the equivalent of a complex five-story house that protects them from predators and funnels and filters food for them — all from snot coming out of their heads. And when these delicate mucus homes get clogged, the tadpole-looking critters — called giant larvaceans —...
Army: Defense Secretary Mark Esper reverses plan to send active-duty troops home
WASHINGTON — In an abrupt reversal, Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Wednesday overturned an earlier Pentagon decision to send a couple hundred active-duty soldiers home from the Washington, D.C., region, amid growing tensions with the White House over the military response to the protests. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The...
Scientist defends Sweden’s hotly debated virus strategy
Sweden’s chief epidemiologist on Wednesday defended his country’s controversial coronavirus strategy, which avoided a lockdown but resulted in one of the highest per capita COVID-19 death rates in the world. Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency denied that “the Swedish strategy was wrong and should be changed. That’s not...
Trump: Deploying forces to DC shows how to quell protests
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday took credit for a massive deployment of National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers to the nation’s capital, saying it offered a model to states on how to quell protests nationwide. Trump argued that the massive show of force was responsible for...
Trump, chafing at oversight, takes aim at inspectors general
WASHINGTON — Steve Linick irritated powerful Democrats and Republicans alike in his seven years as the independent watchdog investigating waste and mismanagement at the State Department. Still, he was stunned by a Friday night phone call saying President Donald Trump had fired him. Linick’s access to the computer system, and...
Curfews give sweeping powers to cops, but are often flouted
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Hundreds of cities have imposed curfews to keep the peace during a week of violent unrest across the U.S., employing a tactic that gives law enforcement sweeping arrest powers but is frequently flouted and criticized as being unconstitutional. From New York City to Fargo, North Dakota, cities...
Widow: Retired police captain died protecting friend’s store
ST. LOUIS — A retired police captain who died during a night of violent protests was trying to protect his friend’s pawn shop, his widow said. David Dorn’s last moments were caught on video and apparently posted on Facebook Live, though the video has since been taken down. He was...
Friends mourn ex-Indiana football player slain during unrest
INDIANAPOLIS — To those who knew former Indiana University football player Chris Beaty, it was no surprise that he would participate in a protest over the death of George Floyd. That a man they saw as a “gentle giant” who brought positivity everywhere he went would turn up dead in...
‘Not stopping’: Defiant NYC protesters march through curfew
NEW YORK — An 8 p.m. curfew didn’t stop thousands of defiant demonstrators from marching through the streets of New York City throughout the night Tuesday, though some of the rampant destruction seen over the past few nights was quelled. The citywide curfew, which is in place through Sunday and...
Protesters return to the streets as Trump decries ‘lowlifes’Video
WASHINGTON — Undeterred by curfews, protesters streamed back into the nation’s streets Tuesday, hours after President Donald Trump pressed governors to put down the violence set off by George Floyd’s death and demanded that New York call up the National Guard to stop the “lowlifes and losers.” As more demonstrations...
4 St. Louis officers shot, ex-captain killed during protestsVideo
ST. LOUIS — Protests that began peacefully over the death of George Floyd turned violent in the St. Louis area, where four police officers were shot and wounded and a retired St. Louis police captain was killed by looters at a pawn shop, actions that the governor blamed on “criminals”...
Officer accused of killing George Floyd was disciplined for pulling woman from car during stop
WASHINGTON — The Minneapolis Police Department on Tuesday released personnel records for Derek Chauvin, the now-fired officer accused of killing George Floyd, a black man whose death has sparked protest nationwide. The records provide some insight into Chauvin’s background, starting as a military police officer with the U.S. Army from...
White supremacist group posing as Antifa called for violence online, Twitter saysVideo
A white supremacist group created a fake Twitter account, posed as the leftist Antifa movement and called for violence during the ongoing protests sweeping the nation, the social media giant said Monday. “Tonight’s the night comrades,” the group tweeted on Sunday. “Tonight we say ‘f—- the city’ and we move...
Police chief: More than 2,700 arrests in Los Angeles so far
LOS ANGELES — More than 2,700 people have been arrested since protests and violence began in Los Angeles in response to the death of George Floyd. Chief Michel Moore told the city Police Commission on Tuesday that about 2,500 of those arrests were for failure to disperse or curfew violations....
Police: Video shows man killed in Louisville fired a gun
LOUISVILLE — Video released by police shows a popular barbecue stand operator firing a gun as officers approached his business in Louisville shortly before he was shot to death, the city’s acting police chief said Tuesday. The video showing David McAtee opening fire early Monday was obtained from security cameras...
President Trump ordered show of force on Monday nightVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday night ordered military aircraft to fly above the nation’s capital as a “show of force” against demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, according to two Defense Department officials. Show-of-force missions are designed to intimidate and, in combat zones, warn opposing forces of...
Virginia county pulls officers from D.C. as a result of Trump photo-opVideo
ARLINGTON, Va. — Arlington County, Va., pulled its officers out of the District of Columbia on Monday night after they played a supporting role in clearing protesters from a park outside the White House so the president could walk to a church for a photo opportunity. The County Board issued...
Agency puts Florida police officer on leave as videos reportedly show him kneeling on man’s neck
ORLANDO —A Florida police force has started an internal investigation after it was tagged in a social media post showing an arrest in which an officer is reportedly seen kneeling on the head and neck of the man being arrested. The arrest came on May 18, by the Sarasota Police...
Minnesota files civil rights charge against police in George Floyd’s death
MINNEAPOLIS — The state of Minnesota filed a human rights complaint Tuesday against the Minneapolis Police Department in the death of George Floyd who died after an officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for minutes, even after he stopped moving. Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human...
Concerns mount about 2 studies on drugs for coronavirus
Concerns are mounting about studies in two influential medical journals on drugs used in people with coronavirus, including one that led multiple countries to stop testing a malaria pill. The New England Journal of Medicine issued an “expression of concern” Tuesday on a study it published May 1 that suggested...
China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO
Throughout January, the World Health Organization (WHO) publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus and thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus “immediately.” But in fact, Chinese officials sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the...
Man gets 10-month sentence for threatening Muslim politician
A North Carolina man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 months in prison for anonymously threatening on social media to lynch a Muslim-American man who ran for a state Senate seat in Virginia, according to prosecutors. Joseph Cecil Vandevere, 53, of Black Mountain, had faced a maximum sentence of 5 years...
