U.S./World category, Page 270
President of Columbia University has resigned, effective immediately
NEW YORK — Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after a brief, tumultuous tenure that saw the head of the prestigious New York university grapple with protests over the Israel-Hamas war and criticism over how the school handled divisions related to the conflict. The school in upper Manhattan was...
Disney says man can’t sue for wrongful death because he signed up for Disney+, bought parks tickets
Walt Disney Co. is asking a Florida state court to toss a wrongful death lawsuit because the plaintiff agreed to terms and conditions mandating arbitration when he signed up for Disney+ and when he purchased park tickets. The response comes after plaintiff Jeffrey Piccolo sued Disney in February, alleging that...
Ohio family reaches $7M settlement in fatal police shooting of Casey Goodson Jr.
The family of an Ohio man who was shot and killed by a former sheriff’s deputy will receive $7 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit over the December 2020 shooting. The Franklin County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the settlement late last month. Casey Goodson Jr., 23, was...
Hunter Biden reportedly sought U.S. government help for Ukrainian gas company Burisma
WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden asked the U.S. ambassador to Italy for help regarding an energy project a Ukrainian gas company was pursuing while his father was vice president, according to The New York Times. Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, wrote a letter to the ambassador in 2016 seeking...
Hidden report reveals how workers got sick while cleaning up Ohio derailment site
The creeks around East Palestine, Ohio, were so badly contaminated by last year’s disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment that some workers became sick during the cleanup. Workers who reported headaches and nausea — while shooting compressed air into the creek bed, which releases chemicals from the sediment and water — were...
WHO declares mpox outbreaks in Africa a global health emergency as a new form of the virus spreads
LONDON — The World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency on Wednesday, with cases confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries and a new form of the virus spreading. Few vaccine doses are available on the continent....
NASA still deciding whether to keep 2 astronauts at space station until next year
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA said Wednesday it’s still deciding whether to keep two astronauts at the International Space Station until early next year and send their troubled Boeing capsule back empty. Rather than flying Boeing’s Starliner back to Earth, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams would catch a ride on...
Ukraine says it has taken more ground and prisoners during its advance into Russia border region
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces pushed on with their major cross-border advance into Russia’s Kursk region for a second week Wednesday, claiming that they took more ground, captured more Russian prisoners and destroyed a bomber in attacks on military airfields. Assault troops advanced 1 to 2 kilometers (about a mile)...
Annual U.S. inflation falls to 3-year low, clearing the way for the Fed to begin cutting rates
WASHINGTON — Year-over-year inflation reached its lowest level in more than three years in July, the latest sign that the worst price spike in four decades is fading and setting up the Federal Reserve for an interest rate cut in September. Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer...
Longest-held Russian dissident freed in swap says ‘colors get brighter by the day’ in his new life
BERLIN — Andrei Pivovarov knows there are about 1,000 hours in 42 days. Doing the math in his head and quietly marking milestones left in his sentence helped the Russian opposition politician survive more than three years in prison, much of it spent in complete isolation. “You have no one...
Ernesto becomes a hurricane after pummeling northeast Caribbean and knocking out power in the region
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane Wednesday as it dropped torrential rain on Puerto Rico and left half of all customers in the U.S. territory without power as it threatened to become a major storm en route to Bermuda. The storm was located about 180 miles...
U.S. approves $20 billion in weapons sales to Israel amid threat of wider Middle East war
WASHINGTON — The United States has approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, the State Department announced Tuesday. Congress was notified of the impending sale, which includes more than 50 F-15 fighter jets, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs,...
Death Valley’s scorching heat kills 2nd man this summer
LOS ANGELES — California’s Death Valley National Park has claimed another life in its second heat-related death of the summer, park officials said Monday. On Aug. 1, a day where temperatures reached nearly 120 degrees, bystanders saw a man stumble back from the Natural Bridge Trailhead, a one-mile roundtrip trail,...
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...
