U.S./World category, Page 247
Tropical Storm Ernesto batters northeast Caribbean, aims at Puerto Rico as it strengthensVideo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Ernesto battered the northeast Caribbean on Tuesday as it took aim at Puerto Rico, where officials closed schools, opened shelters and moved dozens of the U.S. territory’s endangered parrots into hurricane-proof rooms. Ernesto is expected to become a hurricane overnight Tuesday as the...
Trial begins in case of Florida woman who fatally shot Black neighbor during dispute
OCALA, Fla. — A Florida jury will determine whether a 60-year-old white woman was justified when she fired through the door of her central Florida apartment a year ago, killing a Black mother during an ongoing dispute over neighborhood children. In opening statements on Tuesday, jurors were told that shortly...
Initiative to enshrine abortion rights in Missouri constitution qualifies for November ballot
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri voters will decide in November whether to guarantee a right to abortion with a constitutional amendment that would reverse the state’s near-total ban on the procedure. The secretary of state’s office certified Tuesday that an initiative petition received more than enough signatures from registered voters...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom nudges school districts to restrict student cellphone use
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California and South Carolina could become the next states to limit cellphone use in schools, with state officials taking up the issue Tuesday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending letters to school districts, urging them to restrict students’ use of smartphones on campus. South Carolina’s State Board...
Ferguson police to release body camera footage of protest where officer was badly hurt
FERGUSON, Mo. — Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle will release body camera footage from a protest that turned violent on the 10th anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, resulting in a life-threatening brain injury to a Black police officer, police said. Doyle and other leaders will speak at a...
Ex-Kansas police chief who led a raid on a newspaper is charged with obstruction of justice
TOPEKA — A former Kansas police chief who led a raid last year on a weekly newspaper has been charged with felony obstruction of justice and is accused of persuading a potential witness to withhold information from authorities when they later investigated his conduct. The single charge against former Marion...
Ohio officer faces murder charge in shooting of pregnant Black woman who was accused of shoplifting
COLUMBUS — An Ohio police officer was indicted Tuesday on murder and other charges in the shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black mother who was killed after being accused of shoplifting last August. Young was suspected of stealing bottles of alcohol when Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb...
A trove of artifacts from Egypt’s last dynasty has been found in 63 tombs
CAIRO — A trove of artifacts from Egypt’s last dynasty has been discovered in 63 tombs in the Nile Delta area and experts are working to restore and classify the finds, an official with the country’s antiquities authority said Monday. The artifacts include gold pieces and jewelry dating to Egypt’s...
U.S. wholesale inflation cooled in July in sign that price pressures are continuing to ease
WASHINGTON — Wholesale price increases in the United States eased in July, suggesting that inflation pressures are further cooling as the Federal Reserve moves closer to cutting interest rates, likely beginning next month. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches...
Banksy unveils new rhino art in an animal-themed collection that has popped up across London
LONDON — Street artist Banksy on Monday unveiled a new mural of a rhinoceros that looks like it is climbing on top of a car in London — the eighth animal-themed artwork he has posted in the past week in a collection that includes elephants, a goat, a wolf, pelicans...
Russia says it thwarted a Ukrainian charge to expand its incursion. Kyiv says it won’t occupy land
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia said Tuesday that its forces checked an effort by Ukrainian troops to expand a stunning weeklong incursion into the Kursk region, as a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Kyiv has no intention of occupying Russian territory. Russian army units, including fresh reserves, aircraft, drone teams and...
Top Ukrainian commander says his forces now control almost 390 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi made the...
Trump sues Justice Department for $115 million over Mar-a-Lago documents search
Former President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to sue the federal government for $115 million over the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, accusing the Department of Justice of unconstitutional “political persecution.” Even though the search turned up hundreds of classified documents and led to his indictment on federal charges,...
Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, hero to election deniers, convicted in election computer breach
DENVER — Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, a hero to election deniers, was found guilty by a jury on most charges Monday in a breach of her county’s election computer system. Peters was accused of using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive...
Puerto Rico cancels classes, activates National Guard as Tropical Storm Ernesto approachesVideo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico activated the National Guard and canceled the start of classes in public schools as forecasters warned that the U.S. territory would be hit by Tropical Storm Ernesto, which formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday. Tropical storm warnings were in effect for Puerto...
Dozens of pregnant women, some bleeding or in labor, are turned away from ERs despite federal law
WASHINGTON — Bleeding and in pain, Kyleigh Thurman didn’t know her doomed pregnancy could kill her. Emergency room doctors at Ascension Seton Williamson in Texas handed her a pamphlet on miscarriage and told her to “let nature take its course” before discharging her without treatment for her ectopic pregnancy. When...
New Mars study suggests an ocean’s worth of water may be hiding beneath the red dusty surface
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Mars may be drenched beneath its surface, with enough water hiding in the cracks of underground rocks to form a global ocean, new research suggests. The findings released Monday are based on seismic measurements from NASA’s Mars InSight lander, which detected more than 1,300 marsquakes before...
Quake felt from LA to San Diego, swaying buildings and knocking items off shelves but no big damageVideo
LOS ANGELES — A 4.4 magnitude earthquake was strongly felt Monday afternoon from the Los Angeles area all the way to San Diego, swaying buildings, rattling dishes and setting off car alarms, but no major damage or injuries were immediately reported. The temblor caused a pipe to burst at the...
Marathon swimmer says he quit Lake Michigan after going in wrong direction with dead GPS
A swimmer said two lost batteries spoiled his attempt to cross Lake Michigan on the third day of the extraordinary journey. Jim Dreyer, 60, was pulled from the water last Thursday after 60 miles (96 kilometers). He said he had been swimming from Michigan to Wisconsin for hours without a...
Mini farm animals are adorable. There’s also a growing demand for them
NEW YORK — They’re adorable. They require less food and space. And without much coaxing, they might help cut the grass. Americans are showing more interest in owning miniature cows, goats, donkeys and other diminutive farm animals, a trend driven by hobby farmers looking for easy-to-manage livestock and homesteaders who...
North Dakota voters to weigh in again on marijuana legalization
BISMARCK, N.D. — A ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota has qualified for the November election, the state’s top election official said Monday. That sets up another vote on the issue in the conservative state after voters and lawmakers rejected previous efforts in recent years. North Dakota...
Tropical Storm Ernesto could form soon in the Caribbean. Here’s what the forecast says
More watches and warnings were issued across the Caribbean on Monday as hurricane hunters set out to investigate a system expected to turn into a tropical storm. The future Ernesto will bring heavy rain, flash flooding and other stormy conditions to Puerto Rico, the Virgin islands and a dozen other...
Crews begin demolishing Texas church where gunman killed 26 people in 2017
SUTHERLAND SPRING, Texas — Crews started Monday to tear down a Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshippers in 2017, using heavy machinery to raze the small building after some families had sought to preserve the scene of the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history. A...
Donald Trump is returning to X for a live interview with Elon Musk
Donald Trump is returning — at least for one night — to do a live interview Monday on X, the platform from which he was banned for nearly two years following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. Trump and Elon Musk, X’s owner, are slated to have...
Top Ukrainian commander says his forces now control almost 390 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 386 square miles of Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi made the statement in a...
