AP National News

By TERRY SPENCER and FREIDA FRISARO Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A preschool administrator and a neighbor both say that as a toddler, Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz was intellectually and physically behind other children. The women testified at his penalty trial Tuesday. They said his developmental issues caused him to isolate himself

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor driving under the influence charges related to a May crash in California’s wine country and was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation. Paul Pelosi already served two

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A showdown between defense attorneys for disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh who say prosecutors are unfairly withholding evidence and those prosecutors who want the defense to agree to secrecy rules first is heading for a courtroom next week. In their latest court filing, defense lawyers said the

By ADRIANA MORGA Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Whether you want to pay off debt, start a rainy day fund or save for a family trip, budgeting is the first step toward reaching your financial goals. Colleen McCreary of Credit Karma says creating a budget is a lot like trying to eat better or

CAIRO (AP) — A Sudanese official says the death toll from flash floods across the country since the start of the rainy season in May has climbed to at least 89. The downpours continue to inundate villages across the east African nation. The spokesman for Sudan’s National Council for Civil Defense said on Tuesday that

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and ED WHITE Associated Press GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A jury on Tuesday convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, delivering swift verdicts in a plot that was broken up by the FBI and described as a rallying cry for a U.S. civil war by

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was 73% effective in protecting children younger than 5 as omicron spread in the spring, the company announced Tuesday. Vaccinations for babies, toddlers and preschoolers opened in the U.S. in June after months of delay. Only about 6% of youngsters ages 6 months through 4 years had gotten at least one dose

By FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press VILLAGE OF TEWA, Ariz. (AP) — They skateboarded on basketball courts and in parking lots, through highway intersections and down roads that twist from the mesas that rise above the high desert. They set up tricks with old railroad ties and lumber, sometimes using their own skateboards to move the

By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Protesters in Thailand have called for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to step down, saying he has exceeded his constitutional term limit. Prayuth led a military coup in May 2014, and his critics say he has held the office of prime minister for eight years as of Wednesday.

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and ED WHITE Associated Press GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A jury on Tuesday convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, in a plot prosecutors described as a rallying cry for a U.S. civil war by anti-government extremists. The jury also found Adam Fox and Barry

LONDON (AP) — A 9-year-old girl was killed Monday night in northwestern England when a gunman fired three shots at a man who forced his way into her home as he sought refuge from the attacker, police said. Olivia Pratt-Korbel died at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool shortly after the shooting, which occurred about

By PAUL BYRNE and DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The sense of dread deepened Tuesday in Ukraine because of warnings that Russia may try to spoil the country’s Independence Day holiday and mark the war’s six-month point with intensified attacks. The U.S. reinforced the worry with a security alert citing “information that

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A strong undersea earthquake has struck Indonesia’s Sumatra island, causing residents to panic, but there are no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 6.0 quake was centered south of Pagar Alam city in South Sumatra province at a depth of 59 kilometers (36

By KARL RITTER Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — The longtime leader of the nationalist Sweden Democrats says he’s hoping for a stronger role as a “blow torch” in Swedish politics after next month’s elections, even if he doesn’t get a seat in the next government. Jimmie Akesson, who for almost two decades has sought to

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former head of security at Twitter has filed whistleblower complaints with U.S. officials, alleging that the company misled regulators about its cybersecurity defenses and its problems with fake accounts, according to reports by The Washington Post and CNN. Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s security chief until he was fired early this year, filed

By SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan investigators raided the home of the alleged leader of a migrant smuggling ring tucked into mountains near the Mexican border in January and found some $51,000 in coins, nearly 100 slot machines and late-model vehicles purchased with cash. They arrested David Coronado Pérez and

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s disgraced former House Speaker Glen Casada and his top aide were arrested Tuesday on federal charges including bribery, kickbacks and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Their indictments follow the abrupt resignation in March of Republican Rep. Robin Smith, who pleaded guilty to

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Schools in Bangladesh will close an additional day each week and government offices and banks will shorten their work days by an hour to reduce electricity usage amid concerns over rising fuel prices and the impact of the Ukraine war. The reduced hours take effect Wednesday.

BERLIN (AP) — A man has died after falling from a peak in the Austrian Alps as he was trying to take a photo of a companion with whom he had reached the summit, police said Tuesday. The 77-year-old German and his companion, a 63-year-old Spanish woman, hiked to the Greitspitze — a peak about

BY SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer Parts of northern Texas, mired in a drought labeled as extreme and exceptional, are flooding under torrential rain. In a drought. Sound familiar? It should. The Dallas region is just the latest drought-suffering-but-flooded locale during a summer of extreme weather whiplash, likely goosed by human-caused climate change, scientists say.