National News

WASHINGTON -- The government's response to the failure of two large banks has already involved hundreds of billions of dollars. So will ordinary Americans end up paying for it, one way or another? And what will the price tag be? It could be months before the answers are fully known. The Biden administration said it will guarantee uninsured deposits at both banks. The Federal Reserve announced a new lending program for all banks that need to borrow money to pay for withdrawals...

Medicaid coverage will end for millions of Americans in the coming months, and it will push many into unfamiliar territory: the health insurance marketplace. States will start cutting people from the government-funded plans when they no longer qualify based on income, a process that has been paused since shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit...

WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon study has found high rates of cancer among military pilots and for the first time has shown that ground crews who fuel, maintain and launch those aircraft are also getting sick. The data had long been sought by retired military aviators who have raised alarms for years about the number of air and ground crew members they knew who had cancer. They were told that earlier military studies had found they were not at greater risk than the general U.S. population...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Miami Beach officials imposed a curfew beginning Sunday night during spring break after two fatal shootings and rowdy, chaotic crowds that police have had difficulty controlling. The city said in a news release the curfew would be from 11:59 p.m. Sunday until 6 a.m. Monday, with an additional curfew likely to be put in place Thursday through next Monday, March 27. The curfew mainly affects South Beach, the most popular party location for spring breakers...

Delaying the start of Social Security benefits is a powerful way for retirees to cope with inflation, survive bad investment markets and reduce the risk they'll run short of money. The advantages of waiting are so great that financial planners often recommend their clients tap other savings, such as retirement funds, to help them delay claiming...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, his first trip to Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September and a show of defiance after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges...

GENEVA -- Banking giant UBS is buying troubled rival Credit Suisse for almost $3.25 billion, in a deal orchestrated by regulators in an effort to avoid further market-shaking turmoil in the global banking system. Swiss authorities pushed for UBS to take over its smaller rival after a plan for Credit Suisse to borrow up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) failed to reassure investors and the bank's customers. ...

QUITO, Ecuador -- Some affectionately call Machala the "Banana Capital of the World." This port community on Ecuador's Pacific coast is home to about a quarter million people and normally bustles with commercial activity. But not this weekend, not after the deadly quake...

Minnesota regulators knew four months ago that radioactive waste had leaked from a nuclear power plant in Monticello -- but they didn't announce anything about the leak until this week. The delay in notifying the public about the November leak raised questions about public safety and transparency, but industry experts said Friday there was never a public health threat. ...

WASHINGTON -- Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk's new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility...

NEW YORK -- Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is standing firm against Donald Trump's increasingly hostile rhetoric, telling his staff that the office won't be intimidated or deterred as it nears a decision on charging the former president. Bragg sent an internal memo late Saturday hours after Trump unleashed a three-part, all-caps social media post in which he said he could be arrested in the coming days, criticized the district attorney and encouraged his supporters to protest and "TAKE OUR NATION BACK!". ...

MADISON, Wis. -- Just two days before he drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee, killing six people and injuring more than 60, Darrell Brooks Jr. had posted bail for charges of domestic violence. He had been accused of using his SUV to run over the mother of his child, and a pretrial assessment found Brooks was at high risk of reoffending. ...

FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- One by one, the presenters inside the crowded hotel ballroom shared their computer screens and promised to show how easy it is to hack into voting systems across the U.S. Drawing gasps from the crowd, they highlighted theoretical vulnerabilities and problems from past elections. ...

WILMINGTON, Del. -- President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express "concern" over his government's planned overhaul of the country's judicial system that has sparked widespread protests across Israel and to encourage compromise...

CAIRO -- Israel and the Palestinians pledged Sunday at a meeting in Egypt to take steps to lower tensions ahead of a sensitive holiday season -- including a partial freeze on Israeli settlement activity and an agreement to work together to "curb and counter violence."...

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's rainy season brings a bonanza of wild mushrooms, which many rural families feast upon and sell to boost their incomes. But the bounty also comes with danger as each year there are reports of people dying after eating poisonous fungi. ...

PARIS -- A parody photo appearing on protest signs and online in France shows President Emmanuel Macron sitting on piles of garbage. It's both a reference to the trash going uncollected with Paris sanitation workers on strike -- and to what many French people think about their leader...

ISLAMABAD -- Police in the Pakistani capital filed charges Sunday against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, 17 of his aides and scores of supporters, accusing them of terrorism and several other offenses after the ousted premier's followers clashed with security forces in Islamabad the previous day...

BERLIN -- Governments gave their blessing on Sunday to a major new U.N. report on climate change, after approval was held up by a battle between rich and developing countries over emissions targets and financial aid to vulnerable nations. The report by hundreds of the world's top scientists was supposed to be approved by government delegations on Friday at the end of a weeklong meeting in the Swiss town of Interlaken...

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Monday it simulated a nuclear attack on South Korea with a ballistic missile launch over the weekend that was its fifth missile demonstration this month to protest the largest joint military exercises in years between the U.S. and South Korea...

Today is Monday, March 20, the 79th day of 2023. There are 286 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 20, 1996, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents. (They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)...

Today is Sunday, March 19, the 78th day of 2023. There are 287 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 19, 1945, during World War II, 724 people were killed when a Japanese dive bomber attacked the carrier USS Franklin off Japan (the ship was saved). Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands in his so-called "Nero Decree," which was largely disregarded...

Federal prosecutors investigating the potential mishandling of classified documents at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate will be able to again question a Trump lawyer before a grand jury, a judge ruled Friday in a sealed order. The order will require M. ...

WASHINGTON -- A retired Air Force officer who stormed the U.S. Capitol dressed in combat gear and carried zip-tie handcuffs into the Senate gallery was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison. Larry Brock, 55, of Grapevine, Texas, joined other rioters on the Senate floor only minutes after then-Vice President Mike Pence, senators and their staff evacuated the chamber to escape the mob attacking the building Jan. 6, 2021...

DINWIDDIE, Va. -- Video from a state mental hospital shows a Black Virginia man who was handcuffed and shackled being pinned to the ground by seven deputies who are now facing second-degree murder charges in his death, according to relatives of the man and their attorneys who viewed the footage Thursday. Three people employed by the hospital have also been charged...

NEW YORK -- Law enforcement officials in New York are making security preparations for the possibility that former President Donald Trump could be indicted in the coming weeks and appear in a Manhattan courtroom in an investigation examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with him, four law enforcement officials said Friday...

WASHINGTON -- Sporting a green tie and shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day, President Joe Biden on Friday voiced his support for a recent economic accord affecting Ireland as he hosted the republic's prime minister, a longstanding meetup scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic the past two years...

NEW YORK -- Lance Reddick, a character actor who specialized in intense, icy and possibly sinister authority figures on TV and film, including "The Wire", "Fringe" and the "John Wick" franchise, has died. He was 60. Reddick died "suddenly" Friday morning, his publicist Mia Hansen said in a statement, attributing his death to natural causes. His death was first reported by celebrity website TMZ.com...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Doctors in California who mail abortion pills to people in other states would be protected from prosecution under a new bill announced Friday in the state Legislature. The bill would not let California extradite doctors who are facing charges in another state for providing abortion medication. It would also shield doctors from having to pay fines. And it would let California doctors sue anyone who tries to stop them from providing abortions...

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden on Friday called on Congress to allow regulators to impose tougher penalties on the executives of failed banks, including clawing back compensation and making it easier to bar them from working in the industry. Biden wants the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to be able to force the return of compensation paid to executives at a broader range of banks should they fail, and to lower the threshold for the regulator to impose fines and bar executives from working at another bank.. ...

WASHINGTON -- In early March, President Joe Biden met with members of Alaska's bipartisan congressional delegation as they implored him to approve a contentious oil drilling project in their state. Around the same time, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland held a very different meeting on the same topic...

BLANTYRE, Malawi -- Authorities are still getting to grips with the scale of Cyclone Freddy's destruction in Malawi and Mozambique since late Saturday, with over 370 people confirmed dead, several hundreds still missing and tens of thousands displaced...

BAGHDAD -- Along the Tigris River, young Iraqi men and women in jeans and sneakers danced with joyous abandon on a recent evening to a local rapper as the sun set behind them. It's a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. invasion 20 years ago...

BEIJING -- Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA commingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab, international experts said...

THE HAGUE -- The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Although world leaders have been indicted before, it was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council...

MOSCOW -- Russian fighter pilots involved in an incident with a U.S. drone that resulted in its crash will be given state awards, the Defense Ministry announced Friday. The move appears to signal Moscow's intention to adopt a more aggressive stance toward future U.S. surveillance flights...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Moscow next week, offering a major diplomatic boost to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi's visit was the latest sign of Beijing's emboldened diplomatic ambitions, and came amid sharpening East-West tensions over the war in Ukraine, now in its 13th month...

Today is Saturday, March 18, the 77th day of 2023. There are 288 days left in the year. Today's highlight in history: On March 18, 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany's war against France and Britain. On this date:...

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen offered firm, upbeat reassurances to rattled bank depositors and investors Thursday, even as American financial institutions and European agencies ordered fresh rescue efforts following the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history...

KYIV, Ukraine -- The Biden administration released video Thursday of a Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone as the U.S. sought to hold Russia responsible for the collision that led to the drone's crash into the Black Sea without escalating already fraught tensions with the Kremlin...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Record snowfall and rain have helped to loosen drought's grip on parts of the western U.S. as national forecasters and climate experts warned Thursday that some areas should expect more flooding as the snow begins to melt. The winter precipitation wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California for the first time since 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday in a seasonal, nationwide outlook that came as parts of the state are under water. ...

NEW YORK -- Deaths of pregnant women in the U.S. fell in 2022, dropping significantly from a six-decade high during the pandemic, new data suggests. More than 1,200 U.S. women died in 2021 during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth, according to a final tally released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2022, there were 733 maternal deaths, according to preliminary agency data, though the final number is likely to be higher...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate took a first step Thursday toward repealing two measures that give open-ended approval for military action in Iraq, pushing to end that authority as the United States marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War. Senators voted 68-27 to move forward on legislation that would repeal the 2002 measure greenlighting that March 2003 invasion of Iraq and also a 1991 measure that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War to expel Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait. ...

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered several improvements in access to mental health care Thursday to reduce suicides in the military, but held off on endorsing more controversial recommendations to restrict gun and ammunition purchases by young troops, sending them to another panel for study...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Some 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in war-torn Libya have gone missing, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Thursday, raising safety and proliferation concerns. However, forces allied to a warlord battling the Libyan government based in the capital of Tripoli claimed Thursday night they recovered the material. U.N. inspectors said they were trying to confirm that...

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israel's former prime minister Thursday urged world leaders to shun Israel's current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as he presses ahead with a plan to overhaul the country's justice system. The United States and Germany, two of Israel's closest allies, called on Netanyahu to slow down...

BLANTYRE, Malawi -- After four days of destructive wind and rain, local communities and relief workers are now confronting the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy, which has killed more than 250 people and displaced tens of thousands of others across Malawi and Mozambique and may still cause further damage...

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland said Thursday it plans to give Ukraine about a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, which would make it the first NATO member to fulfill Kyiv's increasingly urgent requests for warplanes to defend itself against the Russian invasion. Warsaw will hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes "within the next few days," President Andrzej Duda said, and the rest needed servicing but would be supplied later. ...

TikTok is once again fending off claims that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, would share user data from its popular video-sharing app with the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf. China's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday accused the United States itself of spreading disinformation about TikTok's potential security risks following a report in the Wall Street Journal that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. ...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Abortion clinics in Utah could be banned from operating under a law signed by the state's Republican governor, setting off a rush of confusion among clinics, hospitals and prospective patients in the deeply conservative state. Administrators from hospitals and clinics have not publicly detailed plans to adapt to the new rules, adding a layer of uncertainty on top of fear that, if clinics close, patients may not be able to access care at hospitals due to staffing and cost concerns.. ...