U.S./World category, Page 198
U.S. children fall further behind in reading, make little improvement in math on national exam
WASHINGTON — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card. The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and...
The Year of the Snake is underway with Lunar New Year festivities in Asia and around the world
BEIJING — Lunar New Year festivals and prayers marked the start of the Year of the Snake around Asia and farther afield on Wednesday — including in Moscow. Hundreds of people lined up in the hours before midnight at the Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple in Hong Kong in a...
This is what one family in Gaza returned home to after 15 months of war
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip — The grove of orange, olive and palm trees that once stood in front of Ne’man Abu Jarad’s house was bulldozed away. The roses and jasmine flowers on the roof and in the garden, which he lovingly watered so his family could enjoy their fragrance, were...
Explosion forces crew to abandon Hong Kong-flagged container ship in the Red Sea
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An explosion struck a Hong Kong-flagged container ship Tuesday traveling north through the Red Sea, sparking a major fire that forced its crew to abandon the vessel, shipping industry officials said. The ship was drifting and ablaze some 140 miles off the coast of Hodeida,...
Trump fires 2 Democratic commissioners of agency that enforces civil rights laws in workplace
ARLINGTON, Va. — President Donald Trump fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace, an unprecedented move aimed at implementing his crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies. The two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Charlotte...
The tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas is alarming. It’s not the biggest in U.S. history though, CDC says
A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, Kansas, area has taken local experts aback, even if it does not appear to be the largest outbreak of the disease in U.S. history as a state health official claimed last week. “We would expect to see a handful of cases...
New Vatican document offers AI guidelines from warfare to health care
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican document released Tuesday offers wide-ranging ethical guidelines for the application of artificial intelligence in sectors from warfare to health care, with an underlying call that the burgeoning technology must be used as a tool to complement, and not replace, human intelligence. Pope Francis has issued...
Brazil to set up deportee reception center after contentious flight from U.S.
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian government Tuesday said it will create a reception center for deported migrants from the United States following controversy over conditions on a recent deportation flight. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gave the green light to establish a humanitarian reception post at Confins, a...
Dozens are injured in a stampede at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India
NEW DELHI — A stampede injured dozens of people early Wednesday as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in northern India, local media reported. It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic at the festival...
Canada inquiry found no evidence of ‘traitors’ in parliament, but warns against disinformation
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A public inquiry on foreign interference in Canada concluded Tuesday that while some foreign entities tried to interfere in the country’s elections, its democratic institutions remain “robust,” but warned against the danger of misinformation. The final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference found “no...
The discovery of brutal mass graves in Syria reveals Assad’s legacy of horror
DAMASCUS, Syria — The charred remains of at least 26 victims of the Bashar Assad government were located Tuesday by Syrian civil defense workers in two basements outside Damascus. The discovery adds to the growing tally of mass graves unearthed since the fall of the Assad government in December. The...
Weeks after fire ravaged the Pacific Palisades, residents return to dig for their mementosVideo
LOS ANGELES — Jack Hassett was among scores of residents slowly returning on Tuesday to Los Angeles neighborhoods ravaged by wildfires to finally sift through the rubble and salvage any cherished items. Hassett didn’t find much in the ash at his family’s Pacific Palisades house, uncovering only some pottery and...
Trump social media claim of using troops to force water flow refuted by California
President Donald Trump on Monday night heightened his battle with California over water policy by suggesting U.S. military troops had arrived in the state to turn on pumps and send more water flowing — something state officials quickly denied. On Monday evening, Trump wrote that the military “just entered the...
Drones over New Jersey were ‘not the enemy,’ Trump’s press secretary says
The mysterious drone sightings that cropped up over New Jersey starting late last year were “not the enemy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday during the inaugural press briefing of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Instead, Leavitt said, the drones in the Garden State that caused a...
Selena Gomez, who sobbed over ICE raids, spars with critic over family’s immigration storyVideo
LOS ANGELES — Selena Gomez was moved to tears over the weekend as the Trump administration fast-tracked policies to deliver on the president’s mass-deportations campaign promise. Her show of emotion did not sit well with many. The “Only Murders in the Building” and “Emilia Pérez” star, who is of Mexican...
Trump offering federal workers buyouts with about 8 months’ pay in effort to shrink governmentVideo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it is offering buyouts to all federal employees who opt to leave their jobs by next week — an unprecedented move to shrink the U.S. government at breakneck speed. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency,...
New top prosecutor for D.C. advocated for Jan. 6 rioters and echoed Trump’s false 2020 election claims
WASHINGTON — For years, conservative activist Ed Martin has promoted Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen 2020 election, railed against the prosecution of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and represented some of them in court. Now he’s leading the office that prosecuted the nearly 1,600 defendants charged...
Danish leader on European tour as Copenhagen moves to strengthen presence around GreenlandVideo
BERLIN — Denmark’s prime minister embarked on a tour of major European capitals Tuesday as the continent faces what she called “a more uncertain reality” and her country moves to strengthen its military presence around Greenland. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen planned stops in Berlin, Paris and Brussels, the latter to...
Caroline Kennedy warns senators that cousin RFK Jr. a ‘predator’Video
WASHINGTON — Calling Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a “predator” who is addicted to power, Caroline Kennedy urged the U.S. Senate in a Tuesday letter to reject the nomination of her cousin to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary. In a letter to Senators, Ms. Kennedy, who previously served as a...
Deportation flights from the U.S. to Colombia resume after diplomatic spat
BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian migrants returning home Tuesday on Colombian military flights described being shackled during earlier U.S. flights that were blocked by their country’s leader in a dispute with President Donald Trump that nearly sparked a trade war. Deportation flights between the U.S. and Colombia resumed Tuesday after the...
Israel’s prime minister says Trump has invited him to the White House on Feb. 4
WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says President Donald Trump has invited him to visit the White House on Feb. 4, which would make him the first foreign leader to visit Washington in Trump’s second term. The visit comes as the United States pressures Israel and...
What is Lunar New Year and how is it celebrated?
On Jan. 29, Asian American communities around the U.S. will ring in the Year of the Snake with community carnivals, family gatherings, parades, traditional food, fireworks and other festivities. In many Asian countries, it is a festival that is celebrated for several days. In diaspora communities, particularly in cultural enclaves,...
Police accuse Michigan mom of setting house fire that killed daughter
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A western Michigan woman is accused of setting a house fire that killed her 12-year-old daughter who was trapped in a bedroom. “This is a shockingly cruel, unimaginable crime committed by a mom against her three kids,” Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said. The child...
‘Doomsday Clock’ moves closer to midnight amid threats of climate change, nuclear war, pandemics, AIVideo
Earth is moving closer to destruction, a science-oriented advocacy group said Tuesday as it advanced its famous “Doomsday Clock” to 89 seconds till midnight, the closest it has ever been. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists made the annual announcement — which rates how close humanity is from ending —...
‘Mona Lisa’ will get its own room under a major renovation of the LouvreVideo
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday that the “Mona Lisa” will get its own dedicated room inside the Louvre museum under a major renovation and expansion of the Paris landmark that will take up to a decade. The renovation project, branded “Louvre New Renaissance,” will include a wide...
