AP National News

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping is attending a pair of regional summits in Saudi Arabia this week amid efforts to kick-start economic growth weighed down by strict anti-COVID-19 measures. The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Xi will attend the inaugural China-Arab States Summit and a meeting with leaders of the six nations that

By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A ruling by a state court judge placed Oregon’s tough new voter-approved gun law on hold late Tuesday, just hours after a federal court judge allowed the ban on the sale and transfer of high-capacity magazines to take effect this week. The ruling by Harney County

NEW YORK (AP) — The American Museum of Natural History has chosen college president Sean Decatur to become its next president, making him the first Black leader of the institution. The museum says Decatur, currently the president of Kenyon College in Ohio, will succeed Ellen Futter in April of next year. Futter was the first

By BILL BARROW and JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican football legend Herschel Walker were locked in a tight race Tuesday night in their runoff election that will decide the final U.S. Senate seat. With votes still being counted, Warnock was notching a strong performance in and around

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has delivered another rebuke of Donald Trump, saying anyone who thinks the Constitution can be suspended would have a “very hard time” becoming president in the United States. The comment marked the second time in as many weeks that McConnell and

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to put the brakes on a controversial policy that would have let police use robots for deadly force, reversing course just days after their approval of the plan generated fierce pushback and warnings about the militarization and automation of policing. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously

By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — More than two decades after a tiny Greek Orthodox church in lower Manhattan was destroyed by the falling south tower of the World Trade Center, that church’s far grander replacement opened to the public this week in an elevated park overlooking the rebuilt trade center’s memorial

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — Several hours after firefighters extinguished a warehouse fire in southwest Baltimore early Sunday, the scene was eerily quiet as Donte Craig stepped through the charred rubble, trying to remain hopeful. He was looking for his older brother James Craig Jr., who leased the warehouse for his demolition

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is expected to remain leader of the eastern Caribbean island after snap general elections that the main opposition party and its supporters boycotted. Twenty-one of 32 seats in the House of Assembly were up for grabs in Tuesday’s voting, with several automatically going to

By BILL BARROW and JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was hoping to push back a challenge from Republican football legend Herschel Walker on Tuesday night in their runoff election that will decide the final U.S. Senate seat. With Democrats already assured a Senate majority, the race will determine whether

By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Coast Guard investigation into the grounding in March of a cargo ship in the Chesapeake Bay is faulting the pilot tasked with helping the ship navigate the waterway. In a news release Tuesday the Coast Guard specifically cited “the pilot’s failure to maintain situational awareness and

CHICAGO (AP) — A woman who watched her former boyfriend kill six members of his family in their Chicago home, then helped him steal their property has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Twenty-five-year-old Jafeth Ramos pleaded guilty to armed robbery under a deal with Cook County prosecutors in which she agreed to testify

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Parliament unanimously voted on Tuesday to ban sex outside of marriage and insulting the president and state institutions. Once in force, the bans will affect foreign visitors as well as citizens. They’re part of an overhaul of the country’s criminal code that has been in

By GUILLERMO GARAT Associated Press MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — A summit of the four Mercosur nations has exposed tensions as Uruguay’s eagerness to seek out foreign markets collides with opposition from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Uruguay has complained of economic damage from the bloc’s tariffs and other trade restrictions and criticizes the failure of Mercosur

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Washington state officials say citizen trapping of northern giant hornets in northwest Washington ended Nov. 30 without any confirmed sightings of the hornets this year. The Washington State Department of Agriculture also said Tuesday that no confirmed sightings of the hornets were reported nearby in British Columbia, Canada. More than 1,000

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press/Report for America RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Duke Energy said it expects to restore power ahead of schedule to thousands of homes in a central North Carolina county that have been without electricity for several days after an attack on the electric grid. Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said the company

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The House Ethics Committee has told departing U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina to pay over $14,000 to charity. The committee determined Cawthorn financially benefited while purchasing a cryptocurrency that he was promoting and violated conflict of interest rules. The Republican lost his reelection

By JENNA FRYER AP National Writer LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo was a solitary figure as he walked off the field following a World Cup match in which he was not the center of attention. He’d come off the bench in a 6-1 victory over Switzerland on Tuesday that moved Portugal into the quarterfinals.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco supervisors have voted to put the brakes on a controversial policy to let police use robots for deadly force. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to ban such use of robots for now. But supervisors sent the issue back to a policy committee for further discussion and may allow it

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge ordered a Wisconsin company that cleans hundreds of slaughterhouses nationwide to ensure it is complying with child labor laws after investigators identified at least 50 minors scrubbing and sanitizing dangerous equipment at five different meatpacking plants in Nebraska, Minnesota and Arkansas. Packers