AP-National

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia says its military has flown 115 people from the restive French Pacific territory of New Caledonia and France will soon evacuate and 100 to the Australian city of Brisbane. The two flights late Tuesday carried 84 Australians plus passengers of other nationalities. New Zealand also made

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s trade deficit in April grew nearly 8% from a year earlier as the weak yen boosted the cost of imports, offsetting a jump in exports. Ministry of Finance data show Japan’s exports rose 8% in April to nearly 9 trillion yen, or $57 billion, while

By DAVID RISING Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Vietnam’s National Assembly has confirmed the country’s top security official, To Lam, as its new president. Lam was confirmed Wednesday to the job after his predecessor resigned amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that has shaken the country’s political establishment and business elites. Vietnam’s presidency is largely ceremonial,

By SARA CLINE Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana lawmakers have advanced a bill that would reclassify two abortion-inducing drugs, making it a crime to possess without a prescription. Mifepristone and misoprostol have other critical uses, including to induce labor, stop obstetric hemorrhaging and treat miscarriages. Doctors say they are “greatly concerned” about

By SOPHIE AUSTIN Associated Press/Report for America SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Senate has passed a set of ambitious reparations proposals Tuesday. The bills would create an agency to help families research their family lineage, create a fund for reparations programs and compensate Black families for property the government unjustly seized from them. They

NEW YORK (AP) — A former model accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting her at his New York City recording studio in 2003 in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the latest in a series of allegations against the embattled hip-hop mogul. The woman said she was a successful 22-year-old model when she met Combs at

By ANUPAM NATH Associated Press MORIGAON, India (AP) — Yaad Ali is dreading the rainy season’s arrival this year. The 56-year-old farmer from northeastern India’s Assam state lives with his wife and son on Sandahkhaiti island on India’s Brahmaputra River. The island, like two thousand others on the river, floods with increasing ferocity and unpredictability

By DAVID CRARY AP National Writer Twenty years ago, Beth Stroud was defrocked as a United Methodist Church pastor after telling her Philadelphia congregation that she was in a committed same-sex relationship. On Tuesday night, less than three weeks after the UMC repealed its anti-LGBTQ bans, she was reinstated. In a closed meeting of clergy

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaragua’s National Police appear to confirm that retired Gen. Humberto Ortega, brother of President Daniel Ortega, has been under guard since local media reports emerged two days earlier that police had surrounded his home. The police said in a statement that the Health Ministry had visited 77-year-old Humberto Ortega, who suffers

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — A Texas petrochemical company has pleaded guilty to a violation of the Clean Air Act and agreed to pay more than $30 million in connection with two explosions that injured workers and caused the evacuation of thousands. The U.S. Justice Department announced the plea on Tuesday. Two explosions at a TPC

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has toured the Houston area to assess the damage from last week’s deadly storms. Local officials are reassuring residents still without power that their lights will be back on and they can soon begin rebuilding their lives. CenterPoint

LUQUE, Paraguay (AP) — Coaches at the Copa America will be able to make a 6th and extra substitution in cases of suspected head trauma or concussion. South American soccer’s governing body CONMEBOL announced the decision Tuesday, making it valid for all its competitions once the Copa America starts in the United States on June

By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has rested its case in his hush money trial after calling just two witnesses and opting not to have the former president take the stand in his own defense. But criminal defense lawyers say that isn’t all that unusual, despite what Hollywood

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill before California lawmakers would require new cars sold in the state in coming years to beep a warning whenever drivers exceed the speed limit by at least 10 mph. The state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would require all new cars sold

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Forecasters say this year’s hurricane season for waters around Hawaii will likely be “below normal” with one to four tropical cyclones across the central Pacific region. That estimate includes tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes. The outlook is for the overall tropical cyclone activity in the

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The family of an Alaska man who was fatally attacked by a moose said the amateur photographer died doing what he loved. And Dale Chorman’s family says the moose that attacked him should not be killed for protecting her newborn calves. Chorman and a friend were

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A Washington state police officer acquitted in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis — a Black man who was shocked, beaten and restrained as he pleaded for breath — has filed multimillion-dollar claims against state and local officials alleging defamation. Media outlet KNKX reported Monday that former Tacoma Police Department officer

By RICK CALLAHAN Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A coroner says a renewed effort to identify thousands of bones found at the Indiana estate of a long-deceased businessman suspected in a string of killings has pushed the number of his presumed victims to 13. Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison says four new DNA profiles have

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have introduced legislation that would prohibit U.S. officials from accepting money, payments or gifts from foreign governments without congressional consent. It is their response to a yearslong probe into former President Donald Trump’s overseas business dealings. The proposal led by Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Richard

By SARA CLINE Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A conservative legislative committee in Louisiana has blocked an effort by the Jewish community to bar nitrogen gas as an execution method. Religious leaders, relatives of Holocaust survivors and representatives of a local coalition called Jews Against Gassing argue that the method invokes trauma from