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More severe storms were expected to roll across the central US this week following the weather-related deaths of more than two dozen people and a devastating Kentucky tornado. The National Weather Service said a multitude of hazardous weather would impact the US over the next several days from thunderstorms and potentially baseball-sized hail on the Plains, to heavy mountain snow in the West and dangerous heat in the South. Areas at risk of thunderstorms include communities in Kentucky and Missouri that were hit by Friday's tornadoes. In London, Kentucky, people whose houses were destroyed scrambled Sunday to put tarps over salvageable items or haul them away for safe storage, said Zach Wilson. His parents' house was in ruins, their belongings scattered. We're trying the hardest to get anything that looks of value and getting it protected, especially pictures and papers and things like that, he said. Here's the latest on the recent storms, some tornado history and where to look o
Republicans advanced their massive tax cut and border security package out of a key House committee during a rare Sunday night vote as deficit hawks who blocked the measure two days earlier reversed course after gaining commitments on the package's spending cuts. Speaker Mike Johnson met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting, telling reporters that the changes agreed to were "just some minor modifications. Not a huge thing. Democrats on the panel pressed for more details about the changes that Republicans had agreed to in the private negotiations. But Rep Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he could not do so. Deliberations continue at this very moment," Arrington said. "They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House. The first time Republicans tried advancing the bill out of the House Budget Committee, deficit hawks joined with Democratic lawmakers in
Pope Leo XIV, history's first American pope, vowed on Sunday to work for unity so that the Catholic Church becomes a sign of peace in the world, offering a message of love and communion during an inaugural Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of people, presidents, patriarchs and princes. Leo officially opened his pontificate by taking his first popemobile tour through the piazza, a rite of passage that has become synonymous with the papacy's global reach and mediatic draw. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary smiled and waved from the back of the truck, but didn't appear to stop to kiss babies and the crowd. During the Mass, Leo appeared to choke up when the two potent symbols of the papacy were placed on him the pallium woolen stole over his shoulders and the fisherman's ring on his finger as if the weight of responsibility of leading the 1.4-billion strong church had just sunk in. He turned his hand to look at the ring and seal and then clasped his hands in fr
An explosion killed a person and heavily damaged a fertility clinic on Saturday in the upscale California city of Palm Springs in what the FBI characterized as an intentional act of terrorism. Akil Davis, the head of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in the evening that the clinic was deliberately targeted, while declining to elaborate on how authorities have reached a conclusion on a motive. Authorities were still working to confirm the identity of the person who died at the scene. Davis would not directly say whether that person was the suspect but said authorities were not searching for a suspect. Davis also said four people were hurt but provided no additional details on the severity of the injuries. Authorities were also investigating the possibility that the explosion was being livestreamed. The FBI said it was sent investigators, including bomb technicians, to the scene. Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said in a statement that the blast appears to be an intentio
At least 27 people have been killed by storms systems that swept across part of the U.S. Midwest and South, with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announcing Saturday that 18 of the deaths came in his state and 10 others were hospitalized in critical condition. A devastating tornado in Kentucky damaged homes, tossed vehicles and left many people homeless. Seventeen of the deaths were in Laurel County, located in the state's southeast, and one was in Pulaski County: Fire Department Maj. Roger Leslie Leatherman, a 39-year veteran who was fatally injured while responding to the deadly weather. Parts of two dozen state roads were closed, and some could take days to reopen, Beshear said. He also said the death toll could still rise. We need the whole world right now to be really good neighbors to this region, the governor said. State Emergency Management Director Eric Gibson said hundreds of homes were damaged, Kayla Patterson, her husband and their five children huddled in a tub in their ...
Ten men broke out of a New Orleans jail Friday in an audacious overnight escape by fleeing through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a wall while the lone guard assigned to their cell pod was away getting food, authorities said. Eight of the escapees, including suspects charged with murder, remain on the lam following the breakout that the local sheriff says may have been aided by members within the department. Surveillance footage, shared with media during a news conference, showed the escapees sprinting out of the facility some wearing orange clothing and others in white. They scaled a fence, using blankets to avoid being cut by barbed wire, and then some could be seen sprinting across the nearby interstate. A photograph obtained by The Associated Press from law enforcement shows the opening behind a toilet in a cell that the men escaped through. Above the hole are scrawled messages that include To Easy LoL with an arrow pointing at the gap. The absence of the 10 men, who also
Moody's Ratings stripped the U.S. government of its top credit rating Friday, citing successive governments' failure to stop a rising tide of debt. Moody's lowered the rating from a gold-standard Aaa to Aa1 but said the United States "retains exceptional credit strengths such as the size, resilience and dynamism of its economy and the role of the U.S. dollar as global reserve currency.' Moody's is the last of the three major rating agencies to lower the federal government's credit. Standard & Poor's downgraded federal debt in 2011 and Fitch Ratings followed in 2023. In a statement, Moody's said: "We expect federal deficits to widen, reaching nearly 9% of (the U.S. economy) by 2035, up from 6.4% in 2024, driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation.' Extending President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, a priority of the Republican-controlled Congress, Moody's said, would add $4 trillion over the next decade to
New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike Friday, leaving an estimated 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home. The walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn't produce an agreement. It is the state's first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labour agreement with management. We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock," said Tom Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri described the situation as a pause in the conversations. I certainly expect to pick back up these conversations as soon as possible, he said late Thursday during a joint news conference with New Jersey Gov Phil Murphy. If they're willing to meet tonight, I'll meet them again tonight. If they want to meet tomorrow
The FBI is disbanding a Washington-based squad that investigates allegations of fraud and public corruption against members of Congress and other federal officials, people familiar with the matter said Thursday. The move is part of a broader reorganization of the FBI's Washington field office, said one FBI official familiar with the plans, adding that the bureau would continue to pursue investigations into alleged corruption by public officials. It was not immediately clear where the agents on the squad might be reassigned, though the office does have other squads focused on public corruption in the District of Columbia and Virginia. The people who confirmed the FBI's decision insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel changes that had not been previously announced. The action comes as the Trump administration has overhauled its approach to enforcement of public corruption, including by moving to dramatically slash the size of a prestigious section of Justice Department prosecutors
Indian-origin techie Vishnu Irigireddy was among the three persons killed in a tragic climbing accident in Washington state's North Cascades Range of western North America. Vishnu, 48, a resident of Seattle, was attempting to climb North Early Winters Spire area of the Cascades along with his three friends, Tim Nguyen, 63, Oleksander Martynenko, 36 and Anton Tselykh, 38, on Saturday when the accident happened, NBC News reported. The group noticed a storm coming and started to retreat when at some point during their descent, the team's anchor point failed and sent the group plunging 200 feet down, Climbing website reported. Tselykh, the sole surviving climber, miraculously survived the dangerous fall and drove 64 kilometres to inform the authorities about the accident that killed his three friends. Vishnu's friends and family describe him as an experienced climber who found joy and purpose in nature. Originally from India and a proud member of Seattle's vibrant tech and cultural ..
A federal judge agreed Wednesday to temporarily block the Trump administration from stripping Foreign Service employees of their collective bargaining rights. US District Judge Paul Friedman granted a federal labour union's request for a preliminary injunction that, while its lawsuit against the government is pending, stops the Republican administration from implementing a key portion of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents more than 18,000 members of the Foreign Service, sued to stop the administration over the March 27 executive order. The union said Trump's order upended decades of stable labor-management relations in the Foreign Service, removing all members at the State Department and US Agency for International Development from coverage of a law that gives them the right to organise and bargain collectively. Government lawyers said Trump determined that agencies with a primary national security focus a