U.S./World category, Page 314
Corruption trial for Sen. Bob Menendez underway with jury selection
NEW YORK — Sen Bob Menendez, a Democrat, went on trial in Manhattan federal court Monday, accused of accepting bribes of gold and cash to use his influence to deliver favors that would help three New Jersey businessmen. Menendez, 70, sat with his lawyers and listened as Judge Sidney H....
Violence is traumatizing Haitian kids. Now the country’s breaking a taboo on mental health services
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Students often throw up or wet themselves when gunfire erupts outside their school in northern Port-au-Prince. When they do, school director Roseline Ceragui Louis finds there’s only one way to try to calm the children and keep them safe: getting them to lie on the classroom floor...
Star witness Michael Cohen directly implicates Trump in testimony at hush money trialVideo
NEW YORK — Donald Trump was intimately involved with all aspects of a scheme to stifle stories about sex that threatened to torpedo his 2016 campaign, his former lawyer said Monday in matter-of-fact testimony that went to the heart of the former president’s hush money trial. “Everything required Mr. Trump’s...
Rescuers free 2 horses stuck in the mud in Connecticut
LEBANON, Conn. — Two horses stuck deep in mud for hours in Connecticut were pulled out by more than a dozen rescuers Saturday, emerging messy and tired, but safe. A trio of horses were walking from a pasture to a barn though swampy woods in Lebanon, Connecticut, about 25 miles...
For a second time, Sen. Bob Menendez faces a corruption trial. This time, it involves gold bars
NEW YORK — For the second time in a decade, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez faces a corruption trial Monday with his political career and freedom on the line in a criminal case that already has forced him out of one of the most powerful posts in Congress. The 70-year-old New...
Michael Cohen: A challenging star witness in Donald Trump’s hush money trialVideo
NEW YORK — He once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. Now Michael Cohen is prosecutors’ biggest piece of legal ammunition in the former president’s hush money trial. But if Trump’s fixer-turned-foe is poised to offer jurors this week an insider’s view of the dealings at the...
Pro-Palestinian protests dwindle to tiny numbers and subtle defiant acts at U.S. college graduationsVideo
A tiny contingent of Duke University graduates opposed pro-Israel comedian Jerry Seinfeld speaking at their commencement Sunday in North Carolina, with about 30 of the 7,000 students leaving their seats and chanting “free Palestine” amid a mix of boos and cheers. Some waved the red, green, black and white Palestinian...
Putin in cabinet shakeup moves to replace defense minister as he starts his 5th term in officeVideo
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a cabinet shakeup that comes as he begins his fifth term in office. In line with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned Tuesday following Putin’s glittering inauguration in the Kremlin, and most members have been widely...
Suspect is being sought in shooting death of an Ohio police officer, officials say
EUCLID, Ohio — An Ohio police officer was shot and killed after being “ambushed” while answering a disturbance call over the weekend, and a suspect was being sought, authorities said Sunday. Police in the Cleveland suburb of Euclid said officers were dispatched just before 10 p.m. Saturday to a home...
Federal agency says a second, if weaker, solar storm surge is likely SundayVideo
A U.S. government agency said a weaker repeat of Saturday’s powerful solar storm was likely on Sunday. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that “coronal mass ejections” — clouds of ejected solar plasma that can cause power grid irregularities and issues with high-frequency communications and global positioning systems...
Israel pushes deeper into Rafah and battles a regrouping Hamas in northern Gaza
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Sunday and battled Hamas in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago but where militants have regrouped. Warnings continued against the growing offensive in Rafah, considered the last...
Israel orders new evacuations in Gaza’s last refuge of Rafah as it expands military offensive
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Saturday, forcing tens of thousands more people to move as it prepares to expand its military operation closer to the heavily populated central area, in defiance of growing pressure amid the war from close ally...
Panama’s next president says he’ll try to shut down one of the world’s busiest migration routes
PANAMA CITY — Panama is on the verge of a dramatic change to its immigration policy that could reverberate from the dense Darien jungle to the U.S. border. President-elect José Raúl Mulino says he will shut down a migration route used by more than 500,000 people last year. Until now,...
Russia claims capture of villages in northeast Ukraine as more than 1,700 civilians flee
VOVCHANSK, Ukraine — Moscow’s forces have captured five villages as part of a renewed ground assault in Ukraine’s northeast, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday. Ukrainian journalists reported Friday that Russian troops took the villages of Borysivka, Ohirtseve, Pylna and Strilecha, all of which lie in a militarily contested “gray...
Flash floods kill more than 300 people in northern Afghanistan after heavy rains, UN says
ISLAMABAD — Flash floods from unusually heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan have killed more than 300 people and destroyed more than 1,000 houses, the U.N. food agency said Saturday. The World Food Program said it was distributing fortified biscuits to the survivors of one of the many floods that hit...
Billy Graham statue for U.S. Capitol to be unveiled next week
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A statue of the late Rev. Billy Graham set to stand inside the U.S. Capitol to represent North Carolina will be unveiled next week in a ceremony. House Speaker Mike Johnson, other congressional members and the family of the Charlotte-born evangelist are expected to attend unveiling of...
Civil War General William T. Sherman’s sword, other relics to be auctioned in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bidders will fight with their dollars next week at an Ohio auction house for the sword of the Civil War Union general who led a scorched-earth campaign across Georgia and coined the phrase, “War is hell.” General William Tecumseh Sherman’s wartime sword, likely used between 1861 and...
Appeals court upholds Steve Bannon contempt of Congress convictions
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on contempt of Congress charges, rejecting his arguments he did not need to comply with subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Bannon, who was...
U.S. to impose tariffs on EVs, other Chinese green energy imports, sources say
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to impose major new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plan. Tariffs on electric vehicles, in particular, could quadruple — from 25% to 100%. The plan...
U.S. says Israel’s use of U.S. arms likely violated international law, but evidence incomplete
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Friday that Israel’s use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law, but wartime conditions prevented U.S. officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes. The administration’s finding of “reasonable” evidence to conclude its ally breached international law in its conduct...
U.S. announces new $400 million package of weapons for Ukraine to try to hold off Russian advances
WASHINGTON — The U.S. announced a new $400 million package of military aid for Ukraine on Friday, as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the northeast Kharkiv region. This is the third tranche of aid for Ukraine since Congress passed supplemental funding in late April after...
Third week of testimony in Trump’s hush money trial draws to a close, with Michael Cohen yet to come
NEW YORK — In the wake of salacious testimony from porn actor Stormy Daniels, prosecutors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial narrowed their focus to checks and phone records Friday as they laid the groundwork for jurors to hear from their star witness: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney. With the...
U.S. consumer sentiment drops to 6-month low on inflation, unemployment fears
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer sentiment fell sharply in May to the lowest level in six months as Americans cited stubbornly high inflation and interest rates, as well as fears that unemployment could rise. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, released Friday in a preliminary version, dropped to 67.4 this...
Biden administration won’t conclude Israel violated terms of U.S. weapons agreement, AP sources say
WASHINGTON — A soon-to-be released Biden administration report does not conclude that Israel has violated the terms for its use of U.S. weapons, according three people who have been briefed on the matter. The report is expected to be sharply critical of Israel even though it didn’t conclude that Israel...
Education board in Virginia votes to restore Confederate names to 2 schools
WOODSTOCK, Va. — A Virginia school board voted Friday to restore the names of Confederate military leaders to a high school and an elementary school, four years after the names had been removed. Shenandoah County’s school board voted 5-1 to rename Mountain View High School as Stonewall Jackson High School,...
