North America

Student in custody after shooting at Milwaukee-area school

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A police officer shot an armed male student in a classroom at a suburban Milwaukee high school Monday morning after the teenager pointed a gun at officers, a police chief said.

Officers performed life-saving measures on the 17-year-old Waukesha South High School student, who is in custody and in stable condition, and no officers or other students were injured, Waukesha Police Chief Russell Jack said.

Lawsuit: Ex-Cardinal McCarrick abused boy in Newark in 1990s

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused a teenage boy in the 1990s when he was leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, according to a lawsuit filed under a newly enacted New Jersey law that gives accusers more time to make legal claims.

Another lawsuit filed by two of six sisters alleges that a now-deceased priest who had previously worked for the archdiocese abused them and their siblings for nearly 10 years after he was transferred to Pennsylvania.

Patriotism is the theme of Christmas at the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump is celebrating American patriotism at the White House this Christmas, incorporating red and blue into the traditional holiday green, adding a timeline of American design, innovation and architecture and studding a Christmas tree with her family’s annual ornament, the American flag.

The traditional gingerbread White House shares its stage with American landmarks including the Statue of Liberty and Golden Gate Bridge.

Rosenstein said he was ‘horrified’ at how Comey was fired

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the FBI he was “angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed” at the way James Comey was fired as FBI director, according to records released Monday.

Rosenstein was interviewed by FBI agents several weeks after Comey’s firing as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. An FBI summary of that interview was among roughly 300 pages of documents released as part of public records lawsuits brought by BuzzFeed News and CNN.

Now Roquefort: US eyes tariffs on $2.4B in French imports

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is proposing tariffs on up to $2.4 billion worth of French imports — including Roquefort cheese, handbags, lipstick and sparkling wine — in retaliation for France’s tax on American tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative charged Monday that France’s new digital services tax discriminates against U.S. companies. The trade office will accept public comments on the tariffs, which could hit 100%, through Jan. 6 and hold a hearing Jan. 7.

Report: Blacks imprisoned more than whites, but gap narrows

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Racial disparities have narrowed across the U.S. criminal justice system over 16 years, though blacks are still significantly more likely to be behind bars than whites, new federal figures show.

Racial gaps broadly declined in local jails, state prisons, and among people on probation and parole, according to the study released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice.

U.S.-China trade deal 'stalled because of Hong Kong legislation': Axios

(Reuters) - A trade deal between United States and China was now “stalled because of Hong Kong legislation”, news website Axios reported on Sunday, citing a source close to U.S. President Donald Trump’s negotiating team.

The deal was stalled also because time was needed to allow Chinese President Xi Jinping’s domestic politics to calm, the report added, citing the unnamed source.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that legislation signed by Trump on Wednesday backing protesters in Hong Kong was a serious interference in Chinese affairs.

Legal reckoning: New abuse suits could cost church over $4B

NEW YORK (AP) — At the end of another long day trying to sign up new clients accusing the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse, lawyer Adam Slater gazes out the window of his high-rise Manhattan office at one of the great symbols of the church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“I wonder how much that’s worth?” he muses.

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