AP National News

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Hy-Vee Hall ballroom in Des Moines erupted in cheers in 2008 when the youthful Illinois senator hinted at the improbable possibility of the feat ahead: “Our time for change has come!” That Iowa, an overwhelmingly white state, would propel Barack Obama’s rise to become

By HOGIR AL ABDO Associated Press QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — U.S. troops have resumed joint patrols with Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria days after they were stopped amid Turkish threats of a new ground incursion into the war-torn country. U.S. officials had said the patrols that resumed Saturday are not to counter Islamic State group

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press/Report for America LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Republicans who lost their races for Michigan’s top three statewide offices after promoting falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election are not planning to go quietly. Two of the candidates who denied President Joe Biden’s victory in the state have announced plans to run

CAIRO (AP) — Iranian state TV said the country has begun construction on a new nuclear power plant. The new 300-megawatt plant will take eight years to build and cost around $2 billion. The announcement comes amid tensions with the U.S. over sweeping sanctions and nationwide anti-government protests. The plant will be located in Iran’s

HELSINKI (AP) — NATO member and Russia’s neighbor Estonia is boosting its defense capabilities by acquiring an advanced U.S. rocket artillery system. Estonian defense officials said Saturday that a deal with the U.S. worth more than $200 million is the Baltic country’s largest arms procurement project ever. The deal for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A strong earthquake has shaken parts of Indonesia’s main island of Java, causing panic and sending people into the streets. There are no immediate reports of casualties and official say there’s no danger of a tsunami. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake Saturday at magnitude 5.7 and said it was

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States has condemned the attack on the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan’s capital in which a senior Pakistani diplomat escaped unhurt but one of his Pakistani guards was wounded. The condemnation came Saturday, a day after hots were fired at the embassy from a nearby building.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities on Saturday announced a further easing of COVID-19 curbs with major cities such as Shenzhen and Beijing no longer requiring negative tests to take public transport. The slight relaxation of testing requirements comes even as daily virus infections reach near-record highs, and follows weekend protests across the country by residents

By AUDREY McAVOY and HAVEN DALEY Associated Press HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Many people on the Big Island of Hawaii are bracing for major upheaval if lava from Mauna Loa volcano slides across a key highway and blocks the quickest route connecting two sides of the island. The molten rock could make the road impassable

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States has condemned the attack on the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan’s capital in which a senior Pakistani diplomat escaped unhurt but one of his Pakistani guards was wounded. Shots were fired at the embassy Friday from a nearby building in what Pakistan called an attempt

By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — A musical manuscript handwritten by Ludwig van Beethoven is getting returned to the heirs of the richest family in pre-World War II Czechoslovakia, whose members had to flee the country to escape the Holocaust. The Moravian Museum in the Czech city of Brno has had the original

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Even as Ukraine celebrates recent battlefield victories, its government faces a looming challenge on the financial front: how to pay the enormous cost of the war effort without triggering out-of-control price spikes for ordinary people or piling up debt that could hamper postwar reconstruction. The

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators representing organized labor marched in South Korea’s capital on Saturday to denounce government attempts to force thousands of striking truckers back to work after they walked out in a dispute over the price of freight. There were no immediate reports of injuries

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — When BNSF railroad conductor Justin Schaaf needed to take time off from work this summer, he had to make a choice: go to the dentist to get a cavity in his molar filled or attend a party for his son’s 7th birthday. He chose his

By DAKE KANG and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press SHANGHAI (AP) — The mourners in Shanghai lit candles and placed flowers. Someone scrawled “Urumqi, 11.24, Rest in Peace” in red on cardboard — referring to the deadly apartment fire in China’s western city of Urumqi that sparked anger over perceptions the country’s strict COVID-19 measures played

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is being warned about the potentially dire consequences of a case next week involving a Christian graphic artist who objects to designing wedding websites for same-sex couples. Rule for the designer and the justices will expose not only same-sex couples but also Black people,

BANGKOK (AP) — The U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights says Myanmar’s military-installed government has sentenced more critics to death, bringing the total to 139, and is using capital punishment as a tool to crush opposition. High Commissioner Volker Türk says at least seven university students were sentenced to death behind closed doors on Wednesday

By SAM McNEIL and FARES AKRAM Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s paramilitary border police says an officer killed an alleged Palestinian assailant in the occupied West Bank after they wrestled over a weapon. Dramatic amateur video captured the moments Friday when the officer fired the fatal shots. The video was widely shared on social

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s former national security director was arrested Saturday over a suspected cover-up surrounding North Korea’s killing of a South Korean fisheries official near the rivals’ sea boundary in 2020. Suh Hoon’s arrest early Saturday came as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative government investigates his