AP-National

By GARY D. ROBERTSON and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C (AP) — The North Carolina General Assembly has given final approval to Republican-backed legislation that would shift control of the State Board of Elections away from the governor and to lawmakers entering the 2024 election season. The House and Senate voted Friday to accept

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man wanted for a 2021 killing in Minnesota was mistakenly released from jail in Indianapolis last week and authorities are now offering a reward as they continue searching for him. Twenty-eight-year-old Kevin Mason was arrested in Indianapolis on Sept. 11 but was released two days later, apparently due to a faulty

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A privately owned high-speed passenger train service has been launched between Florida’s two biggest tourist hubs. The Brightline train is a $5 billion bet by owner Fortress Investment Group that eventually 8 million people annually will make the 3.5-hour trip between Miami and Orlando. Friday’s launch was marred by the death

ESSEN, Germany (AP) — Catholic church officials in Germany say a statue of late Cardinal Franz Hengsbach will be removed from outside a cathedral after allegations of sexual abuse against him surfaced. German news agency dpa reported Friday that a memorial for victims of sexual abuse will be created to take the place of the

By JILL LAWLESS and PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Before he hit America, Rupert Murdoch ripped through Britain’s media like a tornado. His newspapers changed the political and cultural weather and swung elections. His satellite television channels upended the staid broadcasting scene. Journalists and politicians in the U.K. both hailed and reviled the

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who attacked an Associated Press photographer and threw a flagpole and smoke grenade at police officers guarding the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison. Rodney Milstreed, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared himself for battle” on Jan.

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A military judge at Guantanamo Bay has ruled one of the 9/11 defendants unfit for trial after a military medical panel found that the man’s sustained abuse in CIA custody years earlier has rendered him lastingly psychotic. The judge, Col. Matthew McCall, said the incompetency finding for

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A bipartisan coalition of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a proposal designed to cut food waste in half by 2030. The lawmakers submitted their legislation on Thursday and said it would improve collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and regional waste prevention and food recovery organizations. The lawmakers said the proposal

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man convicted of fatally shooting five people during a 2016 home invasion has been sentenced to life in prison. A Cook County judge sentenced 35-year-old Lionel Parks on Thursday. The Chicago Sun-Times reports Parks was convicted in July in the December 2016 killings at a drug dealer’s home on the

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s right-wing leaders have amplified their denunciations of a new feature film by Polish director Agnieszka Holland before its premiere in the country. “Green Border” is a harrowing exploration of human suffering in the border zone between Belarus and Poland. Its fictional characters include Polish security

By MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s top court is deciding whether abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy will be decriminalized nationwide. The South American nation currently allows abortions only in cases of rape, an evident risk to the mother’s health or if the fetus has no functioning brain. The

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Some adults in North Carolina will soon get Medicaid coverage because Gov. Roy Cooper says he’ll let the state budget bill become law. The budget’s enactment was the last step necessary for Medicaid expansion provided in the 2010 federal health care law to states to

By SARAH BRUMFIELD and BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Tropical Storm Ophelia gained strength as it churned toward the North Carolina coast on Friday, promising a weekend of heavy rain and windy conditions throughout the mid-Atlantic. Forecasters issued a hurricane watch for parts of eastern North Carolina. The storm was expected to

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Biden administration is appealing a federal judge’s order requiring the Interior Department to expand next week’s scheduled sale of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases by millions of acres. The Thursday night ruling rejected a scaled-back plan announced last month by the Biden administration

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Everyone who enters Barter Theatre in southwestern Virginia is met and welcomed by Katy Brown, the producing artistic director. It’s a simple touch but a telling one for the 90-year-old theater in Abingdon that has forged a very human connection with its 8,000 residents. Barter

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has accused China of using “economic coercion” against Japan by banning imports of Japanese seafood in response to the release of treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, while Chinese boats continue to fish off Japan’s coasts.

By MADDIE BURAKOFF AP Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Fall is in the air — officially. The equinox arrives on Saturday, marking the start of the fall season for the Northern Hemisphere. But what does that actually mean? Here’s what to know about how we split up the year using the Earth’s orbit. WHAT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s National Guard has been deployed to help fight a large landfill fire in the U.S Virgin Islands that has been burning for more than a week and which has forced schools and businesses to close. Helicopters are swooping down to gather seawater and help battle the blaze

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Powerful Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey was charged Friday with secretly aiding the authoritarian government of Egypt and trying to thwart the criminal prosecution of a friend in exchange for gold bars and cash under a corruption indictment that

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Across New York City, civil society groups and large philanthropies meet on the sidelines of the United Nations while world leaders gather at the annual General Assembly. Nonprofit organizations send their senior leaders at significant expense to make sure their voices are heard in the right