AP-National

By ERIC TUCKER and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program has been blocked by a conservative revolt, pushing the prospects of final passage into uncertainty amid a looming deadline. The legislative impasse Wednesday follows an edict earlier from former President Donald Trump to

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Amanda Knox is again defending herself in an Italian court in a slander case that has the potential to remove the last legal stain against her. It follows her exoneration nine years ago in the 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. Despite her exoneration and

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Voters in a New Hampshire town have passed an ordinance addressing what local officials call “a path forward” for the installation of murals and other public artwork. But a lawyer for a bakery owner in a First Amendment dispute with the town over a pastry painting

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian authorities have put more Kremlin critics on a wanted list as its crackdown against dissent reaches unprecedented levels since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine more than two years ago. Independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reports that it found women’s rights activist Darya Serenko and prominent

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press A retired U.S. Army colonel who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Korean War has died at age 97. A funeral home says that Ralph Puckett Jr. died Monday at his home in Columbus, Georgia. President Joe Biden presented Puckett with the Medal of Honor in

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — Federal safety investigators are focusing on the electrical power system of the massive container ship that veered off course and crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge last month. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said her agency is gathering data with assistance from Hyundai, the

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Japan is giving the United States 250 new cherry trees to help replace the hundreds that are being ripped out this summer as construction crews work to repair the crumbling seawall around the capital’s Tidal Basin. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made the announcement as President Joe

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Tennessee on Wednesday advanced legislation making it illegal for adults to help minors get an abortion without parental consent, sparking objections from Democrats who counter that doing so could result in young victims needing approval from their parents who may have raped them

By BILL BARROW and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Arizona law that criminalizes nearly all abortions goes too far and called on Arizona lawmakers to change it, while also defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade that cleared states to ban the procedure. “It’ll be straightened

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The top general for U.S. forces in Europe told Congress Wednesday that Ukraine will be outgunned 10 to one by Russia within a matter of weeks if Congress does not find a way to approve sending more ammunition and weapons to Kyiv soon. The testimony from Army

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The family of a Nigerian business leader who died in a Southern California helicopter crash that killed five others filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming the flight should have been grounded because of treacherous weather. Relatives of Abimbola Ogunbanjo, the former chair of the Nigerian stock exchange, allege in Wednesday’s court filing

By SAM METZ Associated Press AMIZMIZ, Morocco (AP) — Communities hit hard by last year’s deadly earthquake in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains have marked the holy month of Ramadan with a mix of festiveness and despair. The task of rebuilding is daunting. The government estimates that more than 300,000 people were affected by the earthquake in

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin elections officials say the effort by supporters of former President Donald Trump to recall Wisconsin’s top elected Republican did not gather enough signatures to trigger the recall election and therefore should be rejected. The recommendation released Wednesday was to be considered Thursday by the Wisconsin

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — Angel Studios wants to give audiences the power to decide what movies are made. The company behind last summer’s surprise box office hit, the child trafficking movie “Sound of Freedom,” employs a crowdfunding model to finance projects from the ground up. Says Angel’s distribution head

DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling nearly 43,000 small SUVs because gasoline can leak from the fuel injectors onto hot engine surfaces, increasing the risk of fires. But the recall remedy does not include repairing the fuel leaks. The recall covers certain Bronco Sport SUVs from the 2022 and 2023 model years, as well as

By SAMYA KULLAB and ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities say a Russian attack has hit a grocery store and a pharmacy in a Ukrainian village close to the border with Russia, killing three people. Officials Another strike with guided aerial bombs destroyed a hospital in Vovchansk, also near the border in

ATTICA, Kan. (AP) — Investigators in Kansas say a deputy fatally shot an Oklahoma woman who was wielding a knife and scissors and lunged at another officer. A Harper County deputy responded to a report of a car parked in the middle of a highway Tuesday morning and found the woman in the car with

By JACK DURA Associated Press A North Dakota woman has been sentenced to 19 years in prison in connection with the death of a baby who attended her unlicensed home child care center. Patricia Wick pleaded guilty in January to murder, child abuse and operating an unlicensed day care center. A judge sentenced her Tuesday.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s influential former President Álvaro Uribe has denounced as “vengeance” a move by national prosecutors to bring him to trial in a case of witness tampering that has shadowed his political legacy. Uribe insisted in a video message that there was no evidence against him, a day after prosecutors announced their

By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s government has extended exemptions to tourist visa requirements for citizens of the U.S., Australia and Canada until April 2025, extending a program aimed at boosting tourism that had been scheduled to end Wednesday.  The decision, issued by Brazilian presidency and the Ministry of