Category: USA

Nine sheriff’s deputies in Memphis have been indicted in the death of a man with mental health problems who died in custody last fall after being stomped, punched and pinned down, a sheriff and lawyer said on Wednesday, the latest case to draw attention to how law enforcement responds to a person in mental distress. […]

WASHINGTON — The Republican-led legislatures of Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama find themselves backed against courtroom walls this month in strikingly similar circumstances, defending congressional maps that federal judges have said appear to discriminate against Black voters. It is a familiar position. Last year, the same judges said that, even before full trials were held, the […]

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine plans to make his second wartime visit to Washington on Thursday, meeting with President Biden and congressional lawmakers as he tries to preserve his country’s most critical source of funding and weapons. Mr. Biden will be looking to get a “battlefield perspective” on the war from Mr. Zelensky, said John […]

Peso Pluma, the Mexican singer-songwriter who burst onto the global stage earlier this year, said safety concerns had forced him to cancel his Oct. 14 show in Tijuana, Mexico, just over a week after he was the apparent target of threats from a drug cartel. The singer, who performed at the MTV Video Music Awards […]

A day after promising to “defend democracy,” President Biden brought up India and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday during a round of meetings at the United Nations — not to raise concerns about repression by either, but to hail them for helping establish a new economic corridor. “I think it’s a big deal,” he said. Perhaps […]

Thousands of migrants crossed into the small city of Eagle Pass, Texas, from Mexico on Wednesday, crowding onto the banks of the Rio Grande and under an international bridge in what officials described as an unfolding crisis. The mayor, Rolando Salinas Jr., declared a state of emergency, seeking additional support to respond to an influx […]

For a few seconds during a marathon hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, one of the most drama-averse and self-controlled figures in official Washington, lost it. The fuse was lit midway through the session by Representative Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Democrat-turned-Republican in a purple necktie, who […]

For the past year, Kevin de León, a Los Angeles city councilman, has been trying to make amends in his diverse and liberal city, hoping to remind voters of the formidable record he had before a secretly taped conversation nearly ended his political career. The campaign has been arduous. The audio was about as damaging […]

Facing pressure from animal rights activists, Anheuser-Busch announced on Wednesday that it had ended the practice of amputating the tails of its Budweiser Clydesdales, the familiar equine figures in the brewing company’s advertising campaigns for nearly a century. The move came as Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser’s parent company, has faced criticism for the practice, which is banned […]

The family of a Virginia man who died after he was handcuffed and pinned to the floor by sheriff’s deputies and medical staff members for about 11 minutes earlier this year at a state psychiatric hospital has settled a lawsuit for $8.5 million with the state, county and sheriff’s office. The man, Irvo Otieno, 28, […]

Four years ago, a young Black man returning home from a store in Aurora, Colo., was confronted by the police, arrested, put in a carotid chokehold, injected with a sedative by paramedics and placed into an ambulance. The entire encounter was over in about 18 minutes, a state prosecutor said. And the young man, Elijah […]

A judge in Delaware on Wednesday rejected a request by the president’s son, Hunter Biden, to make his first court appearance remotely, scheduling his arraignment on three gun charges for next week at the federal courthouse in Wilmington. The decision came a day after Mr. Biden’s lawyer announced he would plead not guilty, and just […]

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Wednesday unveiled an energy plan in the heart of oil country, criticizing electric vehicles and global climate agreements, promising lower fuel prices and pushing for more oil and gas development. In a policy rollout at an oil rig site in Midland — a West Texas city that derives much […]

Lawyers for three Georgia Republicans charged in a racketeering indictment for casting false Electoral College votes for former President Donald J. Trump offered a glimpse of their defense strategy on Wednesday, telling a federal judge that they submitted the votes as part of their “duty” under federal law. The three defendants — David Shafer, the […]

Judge Pauline Newman’s colleagues on a federal appeals court in Washington have called her “the heroine of the patent system” and “the most beloved colleague on our court.” But on Wednesday, they also told Judge Newman, 96, that she had been suspended amid growing concerns about her mental fitness. The order suspending Judge Newman for […]

Ray Epps, the Trump supporter who was swept up in one of the most persistent right-wing conspiracy theories connected to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a single misdemeanor charge for his role in the attack on the Capitol. The 20-minute plea hearing, conducted by video in Federal District Court […]

The Senate was expected on Wednesday to confirm three generals to serve on the president’s top military advisory council, steering around a monthslong blockade of military promotions by Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, who has held up hundreds of nominees in protest of a Pentagon abortion access policy. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New […]

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, facing a right-wing rebellion in his ranks and mounting G.O.P. resistance to aiding Ukraine, has declined to convene a forum for President Volodymyr Zelensky to address members of the House on Thursday during a visit to Capitol Hill. While Mr. McCarthy is expected to meet with Mr. Zelensky privately, his decision not […]

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it was awarding $238 million through the Defense Department to set up eight hubs around the United States for promoting innovation in the semiconductor industry. The funds are one of the earliest releases of the nearly $53 billion in grants and subsidies that Congress and the Biden administration […]

House Republicans remained paralyzed on Wednesday as deep internal divisions left Speaker Kevin McCarthy with no immediate way to advance needed spending legislation, significantly increasing the chances of a government shutdown in 10 days. Despite plans to move toward considering a stopgap funding measure that would keep federal agencies open through October, that effort was […]

After eking their way into the first Republican presidential debate last month, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, long-shot candidates, appear to be in jeopardy of failing to qualify for the party’s second debate next week. Both have been registering support in the low single digits in national polls […]

The Biden administration, looking ahead to a possible winter surge of Covid-19, announced on Wednesday that it was reviving its program of offering Americans free coronavirus tests through the mail and would spend more than $600 million to buy tests from a dozen domestic manufacturers. The website for the program, covidtests.gov, will begin accepting orders […]

Bay Area and Northern California residents woke up to air quality rated as “unhealthy for some” on Wednesday. Winds are bringing smoke from wildfires in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon to the Bay Area, according to the National Weather Service. Smoky air from the fires could linger across the Bay Area for the next few […]

The policy plan on artificial intelligence released by former Representative Will Hurd of Texas on Wednesday makes him the first candidate in the Republican presidential field to formally propose a way to navigate the uses and dangers of a technology so thorny he likened it to nuclear fission. “Nuclear fission controlled gives you nuclear power […]

Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s latest embarrassing setback unfolded on the House floor on Tuesday, when five rebel Republicans took the rare step of breaking with their party to block a Pentagon spending bill from coming to the floor for a vote. The five represent just a fraction of about a dozen hard-right lawmakers who are pushing […]

Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa attacked former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday for his criticism of restrictive abortion legislation, highlighting a potential weakness for Mr. Trump in her state just months before the Iowa caucuses. During an interview broadcast on Sunday, Mr. Trump called a six-week abortion ban signed by his main rival in […]

Michigan’s economy and identity have been intertwined with auto manufacturing since Henry Ford perfected the moving assembly line and made Detroit a magnet for blue-collar workers seeking a middle-class foothold. But the symbiosis between the state and its signature industry has been repeatedly challenged in recent decades by competition from abroad, factory closures and balance […]

About 171,000 people living in California are homeless, a total that, stunningly, accounts for nearly one-third of all the homeless people in the United States. This growing problem is hard to miss: Camps are sprawling across sidewalks in some places and are overwhelming public parks in others. And there are 40,000 more homeless people in […]

Over the decades, residents have gathered, feasted and proposed marriage beneath the 150-year-old banyan tree in the downtown area of Lahaina, Hawaii. But last month, after a fast-moving blaze tore through the town in West Maui, scorching the tree, some feared that it might not live on. Then, green shoots began to unfurl around the […]

NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of the country’s largest advocacy groups for abortion rights, announced on Wednesday that it had changed its name, a switch that illustrates the issue’s shifting politics after the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights. For decades, abortion rights activists cast their mission as a fight over health care and women’s rights. […]

Even as former President Donald J. Trump faces a crowded field of Republican primary challengers, he has kept a relatively light campaign schedule, particularly in Iowa, the first state to hold a nominating contest in the 2024 election. But with less than four months until Iowa’s caucuses, Mr. Trump and his team are beginning a […]

Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa attacked former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday for his criticism of restrictive abortion legislation, highlighting a potential weakness for Mr. Trump in her state just months before the Iowa caucuses. During an interview broadcast on Sunday, Mr. Trump called a six-week abortion ban signed by his main rival in […]

Unlawful crossings along the Southern border have reached levels not seen for several months, straining government resources and taxing some local communities where large numbers of migrants have been released from federal custody. There were more than 8,000 arrests on Monday, according to Brandon Judd, the head of the union that represents Border Patrol agents. […]

Hunter Biden plans to plead not guilty to three federal gun charges during an initial court appearance and is requesting to hold the hearing by videoconference instead of appearing in federal court in Wilmington, Del., his lawyer said in a filing on Tuesday. Mr. Biden, 53, was indicted last week by David C. Weiss, the […]

Three former Columbus Zoo and Aquarium executives were indicted on Monday, accused of scheming to defraud the nonprofit zoo out of more than $2 million and spending the money on trips, concert tickets and vehicles, the Ohio attorney general said. Tom Stalf, the zoo’s former chief executive; Pete Fingerhut, a former marketing director; and Greg […]

Deep Republican divisions erupted onto the House floor on Tuesday as a handful of far-right conservatives blocked a Pentagon spending bill from coming up for debate, dealing an embarrassing setback to Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he struggled to round up votes to prevent a government shutdown in less than two weeks. In a development rarely […]

The City of Sacramento was sued on Tuesday by the top prosecutor of the surrounding county, who said that California’s capital had suffered an “utter collapse into chaos” because city authorities were not doing enough to remove homeless people from the streets. The lawsuit is the latest sign of mounting frustration over homelessness in California, […]

JoAnne A. Epps, the acting president of Temple University in Philadelphia whose tenure came at a turbulent time for the school, died on Tuesday after becoming ill onstage at a memorial service, the university said. Ms. Epps, who was appointed in April, was taken to a hospital after becoming ill at the memorial service and […]

A former assistant to Donald J. Trump has informed investigators that the former president told her to say she did not know anything about the boxes containing classified documents that he had stashed at his private club in Florida after leaving the White House, according to a person briefed on her comments. The assistant, Molly […]

Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio has accused President Biden of trying to inundate the heartland with fentanyl to “punish people who didn’t vote for him.” He has eagerly promoted the false claim that former President Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election. And recently, he announced his plans to block all nominations to the Justice […]

The military judge in the Sept. 11 case at Guantánamo Bay reopened pretrial hearings on Tuesday for the first time in nearly two years by announcing that he will retire next year before the case ever reaches a trial. Col. Matthew N. McCall, the fourth judge to hold hearings in the case, said he would […]

The vice president of Seattle’s police union inadvertently recorded himself saying that the life of a woman who had just been struck and killed by a police vehicle had “limited value,” prompting widespread outrage and an investigation by a police watchdog agency. Last week, the Seattle Police Department released body camera footage of the union […]

On the Issues Where the Republican Candidates Stand on Social Security and Medicare Social Security and Medicare are known as third rails of American politics for a reason. Reducing benefits is very unpopular, but higher taxes are divisive, too — and without at least one of those two steps, both programs are on track to […]

On paper, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is doing everything that a Republican presidential candidate should do to win Iowa. He is doggedly crisscrossing the state, visiting 58 of its 99 counties so far and vowing to make it to the rest. He is meeting voters at small-town churches, meeting halls, county fairgrounds and ice-cream […]

The group that won a major Supreme Court victory against affirmative action in June sued the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday, arguing that the court’s ruling barring race-conscious college admissions should extend to the nation’s military academies as well. The group, Students for Fair Admissions, was the driving force behind the lawsuit […]

Ray Epps, the man at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory that the federal government instigated the events of Jan. 6, 2021, was charged on Tuesday with a single count of disorderly conduct for his role in the attack on the Capitol. In a bare-bones charging document filed in Federal District Court in Washington, […]

Along the southeastern edge of Oklahoma, where expansive cattle ranches and empty storefronts dot the landscape, the lack of high-speed internet service has become a daily frustration for residents. Wanda Finley, a fourth-grade teacher in Sawyer, Okla., said the satellite service at her home was often too slow to use, and it sometimes went out […]

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina took a harsher stance toward striking autoworkers on Monday than many of his fellow Republican presidential candidates, saying it did not make sense for workers to want higher pay for shorter workweeks and noting approvingly that President Ronald Reagan had fired federal employees for striking. “I think Ronald Reagan […]

American and Saudi officials are discussing terms of a mutual defense treaty that would resemble the robust military pacts that the United States has with its close allies Japan and South Korea, a central component in President Biden’s high-stakes diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, according to U.S. officials. Under such […]

Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could play an outsize role in the 2024 presidential election, will begin to automatically register new voters as part of its driver’s license and state ID approval process, officials said on Tuesday. The program, which was announced by Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, is similar to those offered in 23 […]