U.S./World category, Page 328
Swedish Parliament votes to make it easier for people to legally change their gender
The Swedish parliament passed a law Wednesday lowering the age required for people to legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Young people under 18 will still need approval from a guardian, a doctor, and the National Board of Health and Welfare. However, a gender dysphoria diagnosis — defined...
FDA announces recall of heart pumps linked to deaths and injuries
A pair of heart devices linked to hundreds of injuries and at least 14 deaths has received the FDA’s most serious recall, the agency announced Monday. The recall comes years after surgeons say they first noticed problems with the HeartMate II and HeartMate 3, manufactured by Thoratec Corp., a subsidiary...
Storm dumps record rain across desert nation of UAE, floods Dubai’s airport
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The desert nation of the United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Wednesday from the heaviest rain ever recorded there after a deluge flooded out Dubai International Airport, disrupting flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. The state-run WAM news agency called the...
UN report points to yawning gap of inequality in sexual and reproductive health worldwide
GENEVA — A new study says an African woman is roughly 130 times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth complications than a woman in Europe or North America, the U.N. population fund reported Wednesday as it decried widening inequality in sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide. UNFPA’s...
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in U.S. more likely to believe in climate change: AP-NORC poll
Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States are more likely than the overall adult population to believe in human-caused climate change, according to a new poll. It also suggests that partisanship may not have as much of an impact on this group’s environmental views, compared to...
Heavy rain lashes UAE, surrounding nations as the death toll in Oman flooding rises to 18Video
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Heavy rain lashed the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, flooding out portions of major highways and leaving vehicles abandoned on roadways across Dubai. Meanwhile, the death toll in separate heavy flooding in neighboring Oman rose to 18 with others still missing as the sultanate prepared...
Executor of O.J. Simpson’s estate plans to fight payout to the Brown, Goldman families
LAS VEGAS — The executor of O.J. Simpson’s estate says he will work to prevent a payout of a $33.5 million judgment awarded by a California civil jury nearly three decades ago in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend...
A painting of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work he hated is up for auction
LONDON — A portrait of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work the British leader loathed went on display Tuesday at Churchill’s birthplace ahead of an auction in June. The painting by modernist artist Graham Sutherland was made in preparation for a larger portrait that Churchill hated and which was...
Salman Rushdie’s ‘Knife’ is unflinching about his brutal stabbing and uncanny in its vital spirit
NEW YORK — In Salman Rushdie’s first book since the 2022 stabbing that hospitalized him and left him blind in one eye, the author wastes no time reliving the day he thought might be his last. “At a quarter to eleven on August 12, 2022, on a sunny Friday morning...
Supreme Court questions obstruction charges brought against Jan. 6 rioters and Trump
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned whether federal prosecutors went too far in bringing obstruction charges against hundreds of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. But it wasn’t clear how the justices would rule in a case that also could affect the prosecution of former President...
U.K. lawmakers will vote on a landmark bill to gradually phase out smoking
LONDON — The British government’s plan for a landmark smoking ban that aims to stop young people from ever smoking was expected to clear its first hurdle Tuesday despite vocal opposition from within Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party. The bill, a key policy announced by Sunak last year, would...
Supreme Court won’t hear election denier Mike Lindell’s challenge over FBI seizure of cellphone
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition by MyPillow founder and election denier Mike Lindell to consider his challenge to the legality of the FBI’s seizure of his cellphone at a restaurant drive-through. The high court, without comment Monday, declined to reconsider three lower court...
West Virginia transgender sports ban discriminates against teen athlete, appeals court says
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s transgender sports ban violates the rights of a teen athlete under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools, an appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the law cannot be applied to...
North Korea is buying Chinese surveillance cameras in a push to tighten control, report says
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is putting surveillance cameras in schools and workplaces and collecting fingerprints, photographs and other biometric information from its citizens in a technology-driven push to monitor its population even more closely, a report said Tuesday. The state’s growing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine...
Only 1 in 3 U.S. adults think Trump acted illegally in New York hush money case, AP-NORC poll shows
WASHINGTON — The first criminal trial facing former President Donald Trump is also the one in which Americans are least convinced he committed a crime, a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds. Only about one-third of U.S. adults say Trump did something illegal in the hush money...
First 7 jurors are chosen for Trump’s hush money criminal trial; 11 more still neededVideo
NEW YORK — The first seven jurors for Donald Trump’s hush money trial were seated Tuesday after lawyers grilled the jury pool about their social media posts, political views and personal lives to decide who can sit in fair judgment of the former president. The panelists who were selected are...
Biden administration announces new partnership with 50 countries to stifle future pandemics
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the covid-19 outbreak that suddenly halted normal life around the globe in 2020. U.S. government officials will work with the countries to develop better testing, surveillance, communication...
Fire rages through 17th-century Old Stock Exchange in Copenhagen, toppling iconic spire
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A fire raged through one of Copenhagen’s oldest buildings on Tuesday, causing the collapse of the iconic spire from the 17th-century Old Stock Exchange as passersby rushed to help emergency services save priceless paintings and other valuables. Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said it was “touching” to...
Police: Knife attack in Australia against a bishop, priest being treated as terrorism
SYDNEY— Australian police say a knife attack in Sydney that wounded a bishop and a priest during a church service as horrified worshippers watched online and in person was an act of terrorism. Police arrested a 16-year-old boy Tuesday after the stabbing at Christ the Good Shepherd Church that injured...
Owners of a Colorado funeral home where 190 decaying bodies were found are charged with covid fraud
DENVER — A couple who owned a Colorado funeral home where authorities last year discovered 190 decaying bodies were indicted on federal charges that they misspent nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, cosmetic surgery, jewelry and other personal expenses, according to court documents unsealed Monday. The indictment reaffirms...
Audit cites potential legal violations in purchase of $19,000 lectern for Arkansas governor
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office potentially violated state laws on purchasing, state property and government records when it purchased a $19,000 lectern for the Republican governor that’s prompted nationwide attention, an audit requested by lawmakers said Monday. Legislative auditors referred the findings in the long-awaited audit...
Supreme Court allows Idaho to enforce its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is allowing Idaho to enforce its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth while lawsuits over the law proceed, reversing lower courts. The justices’ order Monday allows the state to put in a place a 2023 law that subjects physicians to up to 10 years...
Members of self-proclaimed anti-government group ‘God’s Misfits’ held in killings of Kansas women
OKLAHOMA CITY — Two Kansas women who vanished as they tried to pick up children for a birthday party two weeks ago were killed over a custody dispute involving a group of anti-government Oklahomans calling themselves “God’s Misfits,” authorities said Monday. Their vehicle was found March 30 along a rural...
Gun supervisor for ‘Rust’ movie gets 18 months in prison for fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin on setVideo
SANTA FE, N.M. — A movie weapons supervisor was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust,” during a hearing Monday in which tearful family members and friends gave testimonials that included calls for...
Retail sales up a strong 0.7% in March from February, underscoring the resiliency of the U.S. consumer
NEW YORK — Americans increased their spending pace in March at a better-than-expected pace the previous month, , underscoring how shoppers remain resilient despite inflationary pressures and other economic challenges. Retail sales rose 0.7% last month after being up a revised 0.9% in February, according to the Commerce Department’s report...
