AP National News

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — A high-stakes, yearslong legal battle over a huge lithium mine planned in Nevada is headed back to court in Reno. A federal judge will hear new arguments Thursday from lawyers for the mining company, the U.S. agency that approved it and the rancher, tribes and conservationists

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s highest court will hear arguments Thursday on whether a newly organized firing squad or the old electric chair are legal ways to execute inmates in the state, which has been unable to obtain drugs for lethal injections. A lower court judge ruled in September

By NICOLE WINFIELD, GIADA ZAMPANO and FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Bells tolled Thursday for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the German theologian who made history by retiring, as thousands of mourners packed St. Peter’s Square for a rare requiem Mass of a dead pontiff presided over by a living

BEIJING (AP) — Patients, most of them elderly, are lying on stretchers in hallways and taking oxygen while sitting in wheelchairs as COVID-19 surges in China’s capital Beijing. The Chuiyangliu hospital in the city’s east was packed with newly arrived patients on Thursday. By midmorning beds had run out, even as ambulances continued to bring

By SAM METZ Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Eight family members, five of them children, were found dead from gunshot wounds in a southern Utah home, according to authorities who did not provide more details or a potential motive for the killings. The victims were found Wednesday when police did a welfare check

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Officials in California ordered evacuations in a high-risk coastal area where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018 as a huge storm barreled into the state Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain that threatened widespread flooding and knocked out power to more than 100,000 people. The

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — It’s been weeks since four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their beds, and now some of the mystery surrounding the case may soon fall away. Bryan Kohberger, who was attending a nearby university around the time of the killings, was returned to

BEIJING (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has cited stable ties with China during a visit to Beijing that has sought to downplay the contentious issue of territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Marcos said he discussed the rights of Filipino fishermen and was given an assurance by Chinese President Xi Jinping that

By KEN MORITSUGU and KANIS LEUNG Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — The attendance of both the former bishop of Hong Kong and an adviser to Taiwan’s leader at this week’s funeral for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI highlights the Vatican’s uneasy relationship with communist-ruled China. Pope Francis has tried to mend fences with Beijing, signing an

The Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — CES is not allowing Russian exhibitors to display their products at the annual tech show because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. A spokesperson for the Consumer Technology Association, the trade group putting together the event, said the move has only impacted one potential exhibitor. The spokesperson says

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mostly higher following a rally on Wall Street as investors assessed minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting of policymakers and welcomed encouraging data on U.S. jobs. Worries over China’s economic slowdown were weighing on regional sentiment. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The suspect in the November slayings of four University of Idaho students has arrived in Idaho, where he is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary. Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University, was flown by Pennsylvania State Police to

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — A Mexican man who was arrested by U.S. immigration agents in 2017 despite his participation in a program designed to protect those brought to the U.S. illegally as children will be allowed to remain in the country for at least the next four years under a settlement

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois man charged in a July 2017 crash that killed a pregnant woman and her three sons has been sentenced to two years in prison. Thirty-year-old Sean Woulfe of Orland Park pleaded guilty in July to five counts of reckless homicide. Will County Judge Daniel Rippy sentenced Woulfe to two

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writers E-commerce giant Amazon and business software maker Salesforce are the latest U.S. tech companies to announce major job cuts. Amazon said Wednesday that it will be cutting about 18,000 positions. It’s the largest set of layoffs in the Seattle-based company’s history, although just a fraction of

The Associated Press Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate armed with the country’s latest Zircon hypersonic missile on a trans-ocean cruise in a show of force as tensions with the West escalate over the war in Ukraine. Russia touts that the Zircon missile can evade any Western air defenses by flying at

By SEUNG MIN KIM and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press HEBRON, Ky. (AP) — President Joe Biden says he intends to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in connection with his meeting next week in Mexico City with the leaders of Canada and Mexico. It will be his first visit to the border since taking office. Biden says

By LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans flailed through a long second day of fruitless balloting Wednesday, unable to either elect their leader Kevin McCarthy as House speaker or come up with a new strategy to end the political chaos that has tarnished the start of their new majority.

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press A man accused of chewing off the ear of a 78-year-old man on a light-rail train platform near Portland, Oregon, told detectives he thought the victim was a robot trying to kill him, police said. Koryn Daniel Kraemer was charged with second-degree assault in Multnomah County District Court on Wednesday,

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republicans squabble over who will be the next speaker, there are essentially no members in the U.S. House of Representatives — only members-elect. Without a speaker, none of the members can be sworn in, and the 118th Congress can’t convene or vote on any rules.