AP-National

By PATRICK WHITTLE and DAVID SHARP Associated Press AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Police have said repeatedly since Maine’s deadliest shooting that officers thought the gunman’s family had been taking his weapons away. The family of Robert Card challenged that claim Thursday in testimony to an investigative committee. The gunman’s sister-in-law suggested that law enforcement officers

By MOLLY QUELL and RAF CASERT Associated Press THE HAGUE (AP) — Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders have agreed on a coalition deal that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right. It caps a half year of tumultuous negotiations, though it’s still unclear who will become prime minister. The “Hope, courage

By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (AP) — A towering stadium boasting 34,000 seats and a precisely trimmed field of soft Kentucky bluegrass is rising in a suburban New York park that will host one of the world’s top cricket tournaments next month. But on a recent Saturday morning, on the other side

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Like a political convention held amidst an intra-party rift, Thursday night’s PEN America gala was a call for unity, dialogue and a renewed sense of mission at a time when PEN’s priorities have been called into question. “Our assembly is disassembling,” PEN America CEO Suzanne

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — A judge has decided that a Southern California college professor will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of a Jewish counter-protester during demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war last year. Superior Court Judge Ryan Wright judge declared Wednesday that there’s enough evidence to try Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji. He’s

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The lesson on diversity started slowly in a first-grade classroom in Topeka, where schools were at the center of a case that struck down segregated education. “I like broccoli. Do you like broccoli?” Marie Carter, a Black school library worker, asked broccoli-hating librarian Amy Gugelman, who

By TARA COPP and CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — In 2020, the top enlisted leader of the Air Force went public with his fear of waking up to the news that a Black airman had been killed by a white police officer. Then four years later, a Florida deputy shot and killed Senior

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The lesson on diversity started slowly in a first-grade classroom in Topeka, where schools were at the center of the case that struck down segregated education. “I like broccoli. Do you like broccoli?” Marie Carter, a Black school library worker, asked broccoli-hating librarian Amy Gugelman, who

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press SABANA DE MENDOZA, Venezuela (AP) — At an intersection packed in four directions, rally-goers scream and light up cellphones in the evening as Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado climbs onto a flatbed truck like a presidential candidate. She has been barred from the July 28 election. Still, she

By BILL BARROW and MATT BROWN Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will have his most direct engagement with college students since the start of the Israel-Hamas war when he speaks at Morehouse College’s commencement. Morehouse is a center of Black politics and culture. It’s located in Atlanta, the largest city in a

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, JAKE OFFENHARTZ and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers accused the star prosecution witness in his hush money trial of lying to jurors, portraying Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen on Thursday as a serial fabulist who is bent on seeing the presumptive Republican presidential

By The Associated Press Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China underlines an increasingly close partnership between the two allies. China, led by President Xi Jinping, has offered robust diplomatic support to Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine. It also has emerged as a top export market for Russian oil and gas, helping to fill

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japan has reported that its economy contracted at an annual rate of 2% in the first quarter of the year, as spending and exports declined. The Cabinet Office said Thursday that on a quarter-to-quarter basis, the preliminary seasonally adjusted gross domestic product, or GDP, a measure

By TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI Associated Press KASAMA, Zambia (AP) — Every morning, Bridget Chanda places her prosthetic legs beside her bed, pulls on her stockings and pushes the remains of her limbs into the prosthetics as best she can. After six years they no longer fit, and it’s painful to stand or walk for too long,

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — A University of Hawaii study examining the health effects of last year’s deadly wildfires on Maui has found that up to 74% participants may have difficulty breathing and otherwise have poor respiratory health. It found almost half showed signs of compromised lung function. Researchers gathered the data

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — The vast flooding that has devastated Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state has yet to subside. But another scourge has spread across the region: Disinformation on social media that has hampered desperate efforts to get aid to hundreds of thousands in need.

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer Rory McIlroy has all the momentum he could want heading into the PGA Championship as he tries to end a drought in the majors that has lasted a decade. He also has a major distraction. McIlroy is coming off two straight victories, one of them with Irish pal Shane

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP Sports Writer It’s not a rock. It’s the Athens Rock Lobsters. Ah-ahh-ahhh-ahhhhh! The minor league hockey team that will begin play next season in the home of the University of Georgia paid homage to the city’s rich musical heritage by choosing a nickname made famous by one of its most famous

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho inmate who slipped custody after the correctional officers guarding him were attacked at a hospital has pleaded guilty to escape. Skylar Meade entered the plea in 4th District Court on Wednesday. The escape happened March 20, after Meade was taken to a Boise hospital for treatment. Prosecutors say an

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival a film on which he has risked everything, one that’s arriving clouded by rumors of production turmoil. Sound familiar? On Thursday, Coppola’s self-financed opus “Megalopolis” will make its much-awaited premiere. Other films are