AP-National

By PETER SMITH Associated Press United Methodist delegates have overwhelmingly endorsed a constitutional amendment seen by advocates as a way of defusing debates over the role of LGBTQ people in the church by giving rule-making autonomy to each region of the international church. Delegates voted 586-164 on Thursday for the “regionalization” proposal on the third

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Supporters of offshore wind energy projects in New Jersey and New York are trading blows with opponents in some shore towns who say vacationers and local residents don’t want to see turbines filling the ocean horizon. Eight Jersey Shore beach towns tell state utility

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Prosecutors in Texas asked the state’s highest criminal appeals court on Thursday to reverse a ruling that overturned a Fort Worth woman’s voter fraud conviction and five-year prison term for casting an illegal provisional ballot. Last month, Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction was overturned by the Second Court of Appeals.

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Reggie Bush says the return of his Heisman Trophy is the biggest step yet in his fight against the NCAA to restore his reputation and his records from his incredible career at Southern California. Bush and his family celebrated the restoration of his Heisman honors

By JOHN HANNA Associated Press Arkansas authorities say the death of a Missouri doctor who was found 11 months ago in a northwest Arkansas lake has been ruled a suicide. The Benton County, Arkansas, sheriff’s department said in a statement Thursday that Dr. John Forsyth died of a gunshot wound to the head. The statement

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president says the country’s violent criminal gangs and drug cartels are essentially “respectful people” who “respect the citizenry” and mostly just kill each other. The claims by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are at odds with the reality of millions of Mexicans who live in areas dominated by drug cartels.

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Ridley Scott’s “Alien” is back in theaters Friday for its 45th anniversary and to get audiences excited about the new installment coming in August. The Alien franchise has sunk its teeth into different genres over the years, but “Alien: Romulus” filmmaker Fede Álvarez wanted to take it back to

SEATTLE (AP) — The federal government plans to restore grizzly bears to an area of northwest and north-central Washington. Plans announced this week by the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service call for the release of three to seven bears a year for five to 10 years to achieve an initial population

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Special anti-terrorism measures being put in place to safeguard the unprecedented opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics on the River Seine will also apply to all buildings along the route. The Paris police chief said Thursday that will mean people who work and live along the route

By JOHN SEEWER and MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Two police officers are on paid leave after the death of an Ohio man who was handcuffed and left facedown on a barroom floor.  Authorities in Canton, Ohio, released police body-camera footage Wednesday that shows the arrest and subsequent medical crisis of 53-year-old

By The Associated Press Russian President Vladimir Putin said he plans to visit China in May, in what could become the first foreign trip for the Russian leader after he extended his rule by six more years in an election that offered voters little real choice. Putin’s inauguration is scheduled for May 7. Last month,

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The two NASA astronauts assigned to Boeing’s first human spaceflight have arrived in Florida for their May launch. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew from Houston to Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. They will serve as test pilots for Boeing’s Starliner. The capsule is

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria have handed over 50 women and children, family members of militants from the Islamic State group, to a delegation from Tajikistan that is repatriating them back home. The Syrian Kurdish authorities said the women and children are all citizens of Tajikistan and

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — BNSF will become the second major freight railroad to allow some of its employees to report safety concerns anonymously through a federal system without fear of discipline. The Federal Railroad Administration announced Thursday that the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had agreed to

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. officials say the United States will pull the majority of its troops from Chad and Niger as it works to restore key agreements governing what role there might be for the American military and its counterterrorism operations. One U.S. official said Thursday that the U.S.

By LARRY LAGE AP Sports Writer DETROIT (AP) — There’s no place Drake Maye would rather be. When the NFL invited the former North Carolina quarterback to attend the draft in Detroit, he quickly said yes. Maye says it’s a dream come true to walk across the stage. Not everyone feels the same way. Only

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Israel-Hamas war demonstrations that began at Columbia University last week have spawned a nationwide movement. How did they begin? Students at the school’s upper Manhattan campus who have been involved say it was two thing: Meticulous planning and heavy improvisation. Despite the arrests of more than

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press Native American tribes and environmentalists want a U.S. appeals court to weigh in on their request to halt construction along part of a $10 billion energy transmission line. The disputed stretch of the SunZia Transmission line is in southern Arizona’s San Pedro Valley. The line will carry wind-generated electricity

By JULIA DIAS CARNEIRO and ALAN K. GUIMARÃES Associated Press BELEM, Brazil (AP) — The bodies of nine migrants found on an African boat off the northern coast of Brazil’s Amazon region have been buried in a cemetery in Belem, Para state’s capital. Fishermen off the coast of Para found a boat adrift on April

By JACK DURA Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota U.S. John Hoeven has announced that the National Park Service will abandon plans that could have removed the 200 or so wild horses that roam Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Advocates have feared that park officials would remove the beloved animals. In 2022, the Park