AP National News

By MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Diplomats from 20 countries have gathered in Colombia for a conference in on the political crisis in Venezuela, where Nicolas Maduro’s socialist administration has strengthened its autocratic rule despite international efforts to expand political freedoms in the South American nation. Tuesday’s conference is hosted by Colombian

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts has declined a request from the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify at a hearing next week on ethical standards at the court, instead providing the panel with a statement of ethics reaffirmed by the court’s nine justices. Senate Judiciary

By FARNOUSH AMIRI, MATTHEW LEE, AAMER MADHANI and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A ground assault by the Taliban killed the Islamic State militant who spearheaded the August 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that left 13 U.S. troops and about 170 Afghans dead during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan,

By AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off the state visit of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol with a tour of a NASA facility as the Biden administration looks to deepen ties with a close ally that it sees as only growing in importance in

RACINE, Wis. (AP) — A judge has dropped a felony charge against the former chairperson of the Wisconsin Parole Commission. The Racine Journal Times reports that Racine County Circuit Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz dismissed the case against John Tate on Tuesday. Prosecutors charged Tate last week with using his public position as a Racine alderman for

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina grand jury Tuesday charged convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh with two counts of tax evasion after prosecutors reviewed his final years of tax returns before he headed behind bars. The former attorney is currently serving a sentence of life in prison without parole after

By AMY BETH HANSON and SAM METZ Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s House speaker canceled a Tuesday floor session a day after seven protesters were arrested for disrupting proceedings with demands that Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Democrat silenced by lawmakers for comments against a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care, be allowed

By EVENS SANON Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Resident in the hilly suburbs of Haiti’s capital are arming themselves with machetes, bottles and rocks and fighting back against encroaching gangs after a crowd beat and burned 13 suspected gang members to death in a gruesome outburst of vigilante violence. Scores of men in the

By DEEPA BHARATH Associated Press A bill that would outlaw caste discrimination in California has cleared its first big legislative hurdle. On Tuesday, the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the legislation, sending it on to the next committee for consideration. If passed, the bill could make California the first state in the

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama state investigator has described how 89 bullet casings were fired into a crowded a Sweet Sixteen birthday party. Last week’s shooting killed four young people and injured dozens. Six people have been charged with murder. Tuesday’s court hearing could determine if the three adults

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants went to the jury on Tuesday after dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S.

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese and foreigners streamed out of the capital of Khartoum and other battle zones, as fighting Tuesday shook a new three-day truce brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Aid agencies raised increasing alarm over the crumbling humanitarian situation in a country reliant on outside help.

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s infamous killer clown murder case has finally ended with the long-suspected murderer taking a plea deal. Sheila Keen-Warren pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday for the 1990 shooting of Marlene Warren. The 59-year-old Keen-Warren was allegedly the mistress of Marlene Warren’s husband and married

By STEVE PEOPLES AP National Political Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Sen. Bernie Sanders says he is forgoing another presidential bid of his own and endorsing President Joe Biden’s reelection. The leading progressive was Biden’s chief rival in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday shortly after Biden’s reelection announcement

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Before ousting Tucker Carlson, Fox News had twice fired wildly popular hosts – and both times the network recovered better than the stars it cut loose. Fox’s dismissals of Glenn Beck in 2011 and Bill O’Reilly in 2017 offer lessons in what the post-Carlson fallout

LEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Authorities say an explosion and fire at a suburban Chicago petroleum refinery killed one person and injured a second Tuesday morning. The Will County Sheriff’s Office says one person was confirmed dead and a second was transported to a hospital in Joliet following the explosion at Seneca Petroleum in Lemont, Illinois.

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says a British tobacco company has agreed to a $629 million settlement to resolve allegations that it did illegal business with North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions. British American Tobacco has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department while the

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A man who escaped from a Mississippi jail over the weekend is suspected of killing a man and stealing his pickup truck in Jackson, authorities said Tuesday. Anthony Watts, 61, was shot and killed Monday night around 7 p.m. on Interstate 55 after he pulled over to help a man who