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Proud Boys 1/6 verdict boosts Justice Dept. in Trump probe

WASHINGTON — Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio wasn’t even in Washington when members of his extremist group, angry over Donald Trump ‘s election loss, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Yet, federal prosecutors, using his words, won a conviction on the most serious charge levied in the insurrection. The seditious conspiracy guilty verdicts of Tarrio and three lieutenants handed down Thursday — after a contentious and erratic trial that lasted more than twice as long as expected — bolsters the Justice Department’s record in its historic prosecution of the Capitol ...

Biden said to pick Air Force general as Joint Chiefs chair

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is expected to nominate a history-making Air Force fighter pilot with years of experience in shaping U.S. defenses to meet China’s rise to serve as the nation’s next top military officer, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. would replace the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, whose term ends in October. Brown has long been considered a front-runner for the position and Biden is likely to announce his nomination shortly, according ...

WHO: COVID pandemic no longer emergency

GENEVA — The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide. The announcement, made more than three years after WHO declared the coronavirus an international crisis, offers some relief, if not an ending, to a pandemic that stirred fear and suspicion, hand-wringing and finger-pointing across the globe. The U.N. health agency’s officials said that even though the emergency ...

2 mass shootings in 2 days plunge Serbia into shock, dismay

BELGRADE, Serbia) — The first shooting left Serbia weeping. The second set off waves of soul-searching in a deeply divided nation, awash in weaponry, where war criminals are glorified and memories run deep of years of civil war. Two mass killings in two days. Nineteen people dead and 21 injured. “We walked around like zombies for 24 hours, not believing what has happened and looking for reasons,” President Aleksandar Vucic, a populist authoritarian who began his political career as a far-right Serbian nationalist during the Yugoslav civil wars, said Friday in a nationwide TV ...

Russia’s Wagner boss threatens Bakhmut pullout in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — The owner of Russia’s Wagner military contractor threatened Friday to withdraw his troops next week from the protracted battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, accusing Moscow’s military command of starving his forces of ammunition. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy entrepreneur with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed that Wagner fighters had planned to capture Bakhmut by May 9, Russia’s Victory Day holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany. But they were undersupplied and suffering heavy losses, he said, and would hand over ...

Family dog fatally attacks 9-month-old, injures grandmother

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A dog has fatally attacked a 9-month-old baby and seriously injured the child’s grandmother at an Iowa home, authorities say. Waterloo police Capt. Jason Feaker said that the 49-year-old grandmother was watching the baby at the child’s home Thursday morning when the family pet, a neutered boxer/hound mix, attacked. He said the grandmother was hurt trying to intervene. Patrol officers and other emergency responders went to the home, where the baby was declared dead. The grandmother was rushed to a local hospital and then flown to the larger University of ...