AP-National

By ALEXANDRA OLSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A venture capital firm that has backed buzzy new companies has become symbolic of the fight over corporate diversity policies. Fearless Fund has become a target of a lawsuit over a grant program for Black women. But it is a tiny player in the approximately

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — It was a moment the diplomatic world was watching for — but didn’t get. In the end, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov avoided staring each other down at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday. Zelenskyy left before Lavrov arrived. The near-miss

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press/Report for America RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence. A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court claims Google had been informed of

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s debate over abortion access intensified Wednesday as the Democratic governor pounded away at his rival’s longstanding support for the state’s existing abortion ban shortly after Republican challenger Daniel Cameron had signaled new willingness to accept exceptions for rape and incest. Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign tried

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A white 84-year-old homeowner who is accused of shooting a Black teenager after the high-schooler mistakenly came to his Kansas City home entered a not guilty plea Wednesday. Andrew Lester is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the April 13 shooting of Ralph

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — New court documents show Oscar Pistorius was eligible for parole in March under South African law. The double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic runner may have been wrongly denied early release from prison due to a miscalculation over when he began serving his sentence for murder.

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale.” Their suit was filed Tuesday in New York and is the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that AI programs

BAGLEY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A woman was rescued Tuesday from an outhouse toilet in northern Michigan after she climbed in to retrieve her Apple Watch and became trapped. State police say Wednesday that the woman lowered herself inside the toilet after dropping the watch at the Department of Natural Resources boat launch at Dixon

DETROIT (AP) — Two lawsuits filed by a Detroit-area man whose decades in prison for drug dealing and work as an informant inspired the movie “White Boy Rick” have been dismissed by a federal judge who found he waited too long to file them. U.S. District Court Judge Judge F. Kay Behm on Monday dismissed

STROUD, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper fatally shot the driver of a semi truck during a traffic stop on Interstate 44. OHP spokesperson Sarah Stewart says the trooper shot the man Wednesday morning near a toll booth east of Stroud, about 55 miles east of Oklahoma City. The names of the trooper

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man charged with murder in the ambush killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Officials say Kevin Cataneo Salazar fatally shot 30-year-old Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer on Saturday in Palmdale as the deputy sat

By STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he won’t give up in trying to pass a conservative bill to prevent a government shutdown. The California Republican is confronted with dwindling time and no sure support from his hard-right flank to avert a shutdown by the end

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer Planet Earth is about to receive a special delivery — the biggest sample yet from an asteroid. A NASA spacecraft will fly by Earth on Sunday and drop off what is expected to be at least a cupful of rubble it grabbed from the asteroid Bennu, closing out a

By VANESSA GERA and MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A dispute about whether Ukrainian grain should be allowed to enter the domestic markets of Poland and other European Union countries has pushed the tight relationship between Kyiv and Warsaw to its lowest point since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Polish leaders have

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The key players in the two strikes that brought Hollywood to a halt include little-known leaders, labor lawyers and entertainment tycoons. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, a lawyer who began his career prosecuting criminals, is leading the negotiations that just restarted for the actors union. Across the table

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Parliament has taken a major step toward reserving 33% of the seats in its powerful lower house and in state legislatures for women to ensure more equal representation, an issue that languished for nearly three decades because of a lack of consensus among political parties.

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief says Earth is facing a hellish problem in climate change and its leaders still aren’t doing nearly enough to curb carbon emissions that’s causing it. In his Wednesday special climate ambition summit he was pleading with major polluting nations to do

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is beginning a new effort to contact former service members who may have been forced out of the military and deprived of years of benefits due to policies targeting their sexual orientation, starting with those who served under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Under that policy,

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — UNESCO added World War I funerary and memorial locations across the Western Front to its prestigious World Heritage registry, expanding its list of landmarks of monumental importance. The World Heritage Committee announced the decision Wednesday during its ongoing meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The list includes sites