AP-National

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press SILER CITY, N.C. (AP) — Just 81,000 people live in rural Chatham County in North Carolina, where there are more than 1,000 farms. But life is changing. The new Wolfspeed factory that overlooks I-64 will soon produce advanced wafers for computer chips. Automaker Vinfast is scheduled to open a factory

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that Russia is preparing to intensify its offensive along Ukraine’s northern border, as the death toll rose to 14 in an aerial bomb attack on a large construction supplies store in the city of Kharkiv. The bombing of Kharkiv on Saturday

BY SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — An international aid group says more than two weeks of fighting between Sudan’s military and a notorious paramilitary group over a major city in the western Darfur region killed at least 123 people. It said Sunday that the fighting in el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross says the Houthi rebels in Yemen have released more than 100 war prisoners linked to the country’s long-running conflict. It says release took place Sunday morning in the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa. The unilateral release came more than a year

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — All 18-year-olds in Britain will have to perform a year of mandatory military or civilian national service if the governing Conservative Party wins the July 4 national election, the party said Sunday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to bring back a form of national service for the

By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan officials say renewed heavy rains have triggered more flash floods in Afghanistan, killing at least 15 people, including a set of parents and their eight children in the northeast. The unusually heavy seasonal rains have been wreaking havoc on multiple parts of the country, killing hundreds

By WAFAA SHURAFA, TIA GOLDENBERG and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian health workers say Israeli attacks have killed at least 35 people and hit tents for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. They say “numerous” others are trapped in flaming debris. Sunday’s attacks came two days

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuanians are returning to the polls for the second round of the Baltic country’s presidential election as incumbent President Gitanas Nausėda seeks to hold off Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and win another five-year term. On Sunday, voters will decide whether the banker-turned-politician, who won the first round, will hold the Baltic country’s top

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Nepali official says it isn’t possible to search for a British climber and his Sherpa guide who went missing after reaching the top of Mount Everest six days ago because both fell on their way down from “a very high altitude” on the Chinese side

NEW DELHI (AP) — Bangladesh has evacuated nearly 800,000 people from vulnerable areas as the country and neighboring India await the arrival of a severe cyclone that has formed over the Bay of Bengal. Three airports have also been closed. The cyclone is expected to cross Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal coasts around midnight Sunday.

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB and OMAR ALBAM Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Living in a tent in rebel-held northwestern Syria, Rudaina al-Salim and her family struggle to find enough water for drinking and other basic needs such as cooking and washing. Their encampment north of the city of Idlib hasn’t seen any aid in six

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe introduced the world’s newest currency in April with public rallies and commercial jingles. The ZiG is short for Zimbabwe Gold. It’s the African nation’s sixth national currency in 15 years. The ZiG is the latest attempt to replace the Zimbabwe dollar which had been battered

By BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press When Balu Natarajan became the first Indian American champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985, a headline on an Associated Press article read, “Immigrants’ son wins National Spelling Bee,” with the first paragraph noting the champion “speaks his parents’ native Indian language at home.” Those details would hardly

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A 60-year-old woman saw her dreams of becoming the oldest Miss Universe contestant in history melt away in a haze of sequins and selfies Saturday at Argentina’s annual beauty pageant. Alejandra Marisa Rodríguez, a hopital legal adviser whose entry into the competition had been cheered

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The International Organization for Migration on Sunday increased its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670 as emergency responders and traumatized relatives gave up hope that any survivors will now be found. Serhan Aktoprak, the chief

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is once again under the spotlight after a manager failed to consult a collections committee before purchasing a 21-star flag whose description as a rare banner marking Illinois’ 1818 admission to the Union is disputed. The flag’s acquisition

By ERIN HOOLEY Associated Press LISLE, Ill. (AP) — It was late morning when The Morton Arboretum’s Senior Horticulturist Kate Myroup arrived at the Children’s Garden with a special guest: a rare, blue-eyed female Magicicada cassini cicada, spotted earlier in the day by a visitor. A lucky few saw the cicada Friday at the arboretum

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The Japanese and South Korean leaders have raised sensitive topics like Taiwan, North Korea and the South China Sea as well as ways to boost cooperation, when they individually met China’s premier. It was unclear how serious discussions the three leaders had on those thorny

NEW DELHI (AP) — A fire broke out in a baby care center in India’s capital and killed seven infants. Fire officer Suresh Kumar says five newborns survived the blaze on Saturday night and are being treated for smoke inhalation in a nearby hospital in Vivek Vihar district in east Delhi. The fire on the

By PATRICIA LUNA Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A Chilean judge on Saturday ordered a volunteer firefighter and a former forestry official detained for allegedly planning and causing a mammoth forest fire in the Valparaiso region that caused 137 deaths and made 16,000 people homeless in February. The court in Valparaiso ruled the two