AP National News

By AARON MORRISON and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press Ben Crump, the Rev. Al Sharpton says, is “Black America’s attorney general.” In less than a decade, the Florida-based attorney has become the voice for the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Tyre Nichols — Black people whose deaths at the hands

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER and MARK THIESSEN Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, began erupting on Wednesday after a three-month pause, displaying spectacular fountains of mesmerizing, glowing lava that’s a safe distance from people and structures in a national park on the Big Island. A glow

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said Thursday it will investigate 237 more cases of South Korean adoptees who suspect their family origins were manipulated to facilitate their adoptions in Europe and the United States. The new cases in the commission’s expanded inquiry into South

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee has called off a vote that would move forward with holding FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress. This came after Rep. James Comer accepted a last-minute offer Wednesday night by the bureau to allow the full committee

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville says the top general in charge of U.S. Space Command told him during a meeting Wednesday that Huntsville, not Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the preferred location for its new headquarters. Space Command had no comment. The tweet, which Tuberville’s office also issued

By VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities rushed to rescue hundreds of people stranded on rooftops and supply drinking water to areas flooded by a collapsed dam in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, in a growing humanitarian and ecological disaster along a river that forms part of the front line in the 15-month

By KATHY McCORMACK and MICHAEL PHILLIS Associated Press Intense smoke blanketed the northeastern United States for a second day Wednesday, turning the air a yellowish gray and prompting warnings for people to stay inside and keep windows closed. The smoke was flowing from dozens of wildfires in several Canadian provinces. Much of the air was

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press An actor known for his roles on the comedy television shows “Bob’s Burgers” and “Mr. Show with Bob and David” has been arrested on charges that he joined a mob of Donald Trump supporters in confronting police officers during the U.S. Capitol riot. Court records show that Jay Johnston was

By SAM METZ Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says elections to replace resigning U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart will take place in the fall. The announcement Wednesday expedites the timeline prescribed by state law to ensure the six-term Republican’s seat doesn’t remain vacant for more than a few months. Stewart

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press Two police officers in New Haven, Connecticut, have been fired for what authorities call their reckless actions and lack of compassion in handling prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he became paralyzed in the back of a police van last year. City police commissioners voted Wednesday evening to fire officers Jocelyn

By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Democratic-controlled Connecticut General Assembly is poised to wrap up what’s been one of the most bipartisan legislative sessions in recent memory. It’s a marked contrast from the partisan rancor seen in other legislatures this year. Democratic and Republican lawmakers are crediting old fashioned relationship-building, a

SEATTLE (AP) — Federal prosecutors say six people from Washington, Arizona and Texas have been arrested and accused of fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars of COVID-19 aid from an assistance program meant for renters. U.S. Attorney Nick Brown, of the Western District of Washington, announced the arrests Wednesday and charges of wire fraud and money

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An autopsy has determined that a man who died in January after police officers in North Carolina’s capital city repeatedly used stun guns died from “sudden cardiac arrest.” The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner released on Wednesday the autopsy report, which labeled the death a homicide. It says the Jan.

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Against all odds, the remaining handful of Mexico’s endangered vaquita porpoises are holding on in their only habitat in the Gulf of California, according to a new research expedition report released Wednesday. Experts on the expedition estimate they saw from 10 to 13 of the tiny,

By JENNIFER PELTZ and ROB GILLIES Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, holding up flights at major airports, postponing Major League Baseball games and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has vetoed legislation that would have canceled his plan to forgive student debt. The measure had been pushed by Republicans, but it garnered a handful of Democratic votes in the Senate as well. “It is a shame for working families across the country that

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. investigators are compiling evidence on the development and use of chemical weapons by Islamic State extremists in Iraq after they seized about a third of the country in 2014. And they are advancing work on the militant group’s gender-based violence and crimes against children,

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president has described the slayings of five men caught on security camera footage as an apparent “execution” by soldiers, and has vowed that the perpetrators would face justice. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a staunch supporter of the armed forces who has insisted that

By SAM METZ Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican lawmakers rallied with more than one hundred Bible-toting parents and children at Utah’s Capitol on Wednesday to protest a school district’s decision to remove the Bible from middle and elementary school libraries in the wake of a GOP-backed “sensitive materials” law passed two years