AP National News

By EDGAR H CLEMENTE Associated Press HUIXTLA, Mexico (AP) — About 20 members of an extreme ultra-orthodox Jewish sect overpowered guards and escaped a government shelter in southern Mexico where they had been held since one of their leaders was arrested last Friday on organized crime and human trafficking allegations. Mostly made up of children

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter’s tantalizing, icy moon Europa in more than 20 years. The Juno spacecraft zoomed past Europa on Thursday, passing within 219 miles. Scientists had hoped to get lucky and capture pictures of possible water plumes

By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — Czech police have fired warning shots in the air before detaining a driver of a van carrying 15 migrants after the Czech Republic and Austria renewed checks at their borders with Slovakia amid a renewed wave of migration. Czech police reported traffic delays, especially for trucks, after

By SYLVIE CORBET The Associated Press PARIS (AP) — European Union nations are continuing to import and export nuclear fuel that is not under EU sanctions on Russia. The Ukrainian government and environmental activists want the ongoing trade to end. A ship carrying uranium that departed from France was heading toward the Russian port of

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — Chloe got almost ready-to-dance at Paris Fashion Week as designer Gabriela Hearst developed disco fever. She cracked open the strobe lighting, 1970s motifs and retro hair for a collection that while not exactly disco, was a very Hearst-for-Chloe version of it. Think pared down minimalist with

By DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Google says it plans to expand its cloud services infrastructure to Greece, promising to create nearly 20,000 jobs through direct investment and partnerships by the end of the decade. The move announced Thursday follows two-year-old plans by Microsoft to invest $1 billion to create data centers

By NICOLE WINFIELD, GANTRY MEILANA and HELENA ALVES Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says it imposed disciplinary sanctions on Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo following allegations that he sexually abused boys in East Timor in the 1990s. The Vatican spokesman said the office that handles sex abuse cases received allegations

BERLIN (AP) — Germany plans to spend up to 200 billion euros helping consumers and businesses cope with the surge in energy prices. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that the government is reactivating an economic stabilizing fund previously used during the global financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Scholz said Russia’s decision to cut back

LONDON (AP) — An American woman who fled the U.K. claiming diplomatic immunity after she was involved in a fatal traffic accident has appeared in a British court via videolink — an apparent breakthrough in the long-deadlocked case. Anne Sacoolas, 45, was accompanied by her lawyer during the 6-minute hearing Thursday at Westminster Magistrates Court

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, appeared on Thursday for a voluntary interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The committee has for months sought an interview with Thomas in an effort to know

By DAVID A. LIEB and KAVISH HARJAI Associated Press States are spending billions of dollars of federal pandemic relief funds on infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and public buildings. The American Rescue Plan law signed by President Joe Biden last year provided $350 billion to states and local governments to respond to the coronavirus

By DIANE JEANTET and CARLA BRIDI Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s presidential election Sunday is being contested by 11 candidates but only two stand a chance of reaching a runoff: former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Both are political titans, and eight of 10 Brazilians will vote

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits dropped last week, a sign that few companies are cutting jobs despite high inflation and a weak economy. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 24 fell by 16,000 to 193,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Battered by surging consumer prices and rising interest rates, the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.6% annual rate from April through June, the government announced Thursday, unchanged from its previous second-quarter estimate. It marked the second consecutive quarter of economic contraction, one informal rule of thumb

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government says residents whose wealth exceeds 3 million euros ($2.9 million) will be subject to a new asset tax in 2023 and 2024. Finance Minister María Jesús Montero said Thursday that the temporary wealth tax would affect 23,000 people, or 0.1 % of taxpayers.

By LORI HINNANT, EVGENIY MALOLETKA and VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of children from eastern Ukraine are stranded in Russian summer camps, on the wrong side of a front line that shifted after they were bused away for what was supposed to be holiday. Parents in the occupied towns of eastern

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — In a show of defiance, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday, hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris flew home from a visit to South Korea during which she emphasized the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to the security

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is unveiling a Pacific strategy designed to bolster U.S. engagement with more than a dozen island nations on issues including climate change and maritime security. The Biden administration is pledging to expand the U.S. diplomatic presence in the region and provide $810 million in

By The Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian official says protests over the death of a woman who was being held by the morality police have ended in Tehran. But anti-government chanting could be heard from windows and rooftops in some areas of Iran’s capital overnight and into Thursday. Iran has