AP National News

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Books that explore subjects from William Shakespeare and The Beatles to the lure of Mount Everest and life inside one of the world’s most secretive states are competing to be named the best-ever winner of Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize. The Baillie Gifford Prize is marking its

MADRID (AP) — Authorities in Spain say that three workers are trapped 900 meters (3,000 feet) underground in a potash mine in the northeastern Catalonia region. The three were working at the Cabanasses de Súria mine around 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Barcelona. A police official said that land collapsed inside the mine just before

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong national security police have arrested a veteran labor activist who is also the wife of an organizer of annual vigils commemorating China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Two people close to Elizabeth Tang say she was arrested outside Stanley Prison but it was still

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt says inflation in the country has hit a new high this year, with the steepest price rises for basic foods. Official figures Thursday showed the country’s struggle with an economic crisis and currency depreciation has hit the country’s poor —  roughly a third of the population. Annual inflation rose to 32.9%

By HANNA ARHIROVA and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed “a massive rocket attack” that hit critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions of Ukraine, the country’s president said Thursday, with officials reporting at least six deaths in the largest such night-time attack in three weeks. Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the

By JADE LE DELEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Young people in France are protesting against the government’s push to raise the retirement age. Students plan to block access to some universities and high schools on Thursday, and a youth-led protest is planned in Paris. It is part of nationwide strikes and demonstrations against the

By SOPHIKO MEGRELIDZE Associated Press TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia’s ruling party says it is withdrawing a draft law from the parliament criticized as potentially stifling media freedom and civil society. The announcement came Thursday after several days of protests in the country’s capital. The Georgian Dream party and its allies said they were withdrawing

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A suspected Israeli airstrike targeting Aleppo International Airport in Syria again tore multiple craters on its runway, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed Thursday. A United Nations official separately has criticized the attack for hindering earthquake relief for the hard-hit, war-torn nation.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Police say a Taliban-appointed provincial governor and two others have been killed in a bomb explosion. Mohammad Asif Waziri, the Taliban police spokesman for the northern Balkh province, said Thursday that Daud Muzmal and two others were killed inside the governor’s office in Mazar-e Sharif, the provinicial capital. No one has claimed

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian officials say at least three Palestinian militants were killed after Israeli security forces entered a village in the northern occupied West Bank. The Israeli Police said Thursday that troops carried out a raid in Jaba to apprehend suspects wanted for attacks on Israeli soldiers in the vicinity. The three militants killed

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean and Japanese leaders will hold a summit next week. That’s according to an announcement Thursday from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office. South Korea recently took a major step toward resolving strained bilateral ties stemming from Tokyo’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Yoon is to visit

By EDNA TARIGAN and VICTORIA MILKO Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Jakarta is congested, polluted, prone to earthquakes and rapidly sinking into the Java Sea. Now the government is in the process of leaving, moving Indonesia’s capital to the island of Borneo. Indonesian officials say the new metropolis will be a “sustainable forest city”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three Los Angeles police officers were shot and wounded Wednesday evening in a confrontation with a wanted parolee who was found dead hours later after a standoff, police said. The three officers, all senior officers and members of an Los Angeles Police Department’s K-9 dog-handling unit, were hospitalized in stable condition

By FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Peterson Zah, who guided one of the largest Native American tribes in the U.S. through a politically tumultuous time, has died. Navajo Nation officials say Zah died late Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Defiance, Arizona, following a lengthy illness. He was 85. Zah served as

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — With the government at risk of defaulting, President Joe Biden on Thursday will make his opening offer in a high-stakes debate over federal finances as he proposes a federal budget that would cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade. It’s part of a broader

By STEPHEN GROVES and JOSH FUNK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief executive of one of the nation’s largest railroads is coming to a Senate hearing with an apology and a commitment to send millions of dollars to the village on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border disrupted by a fiery derailment as senators investigate railway safety

JERUSALEM (AP) — Chaim Topol, a leading Israeli actor who charmed generations of theatergoers and movie-watchers with his portrayal of Tevye, the long-suffering and charismatic milkman in “Fiddler on the Roof,” has died in Tel Aviv, Israeli leaders said Thursday. He was 87. The cause was not immediately released. Israeli leaders on Thursday tweeted their

WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials have informed members of the House and Senate and their staffs that hackers may have gained access to their sensitive personal data in a breach of a Washington, D.C., health insurance marketplace. Employees of the lawmakers and their families were also affected. DC Health Link confirmed Wednesday that data on an

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was hospitalized after tripping at a local hotel, a spokesman for the senator said. The Kentucky senator, who’s 81, was attending a private dinner in Washington on Wednesday when he tripped. He was admitted to a hospital for