AP National News

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press NEWBERG, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon school board has banned educators from displaying Black Lives Matter and gay pride symbols, prompting a torrent of recriminations and threats to boycott the town and its businesses. Newberg is a town of 25,000 residents situated 25 miles southwest of Portland in gorgeous wine

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a massage therapist to three prison terms of 25 years to life for several sex crimes against five people. They include a child and three female soccer players at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Douglas County Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced 50-year-old Shawn P. O’Brien on Friday

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer Almost four years ago, Time’s Up was formed by high-profile Hollywood women, aiming to ‘clean house’ regarding sexual harassment in the entertainment industry and beyond. Now, the embattled organization is seeking to clean its own house after a scandal forced the departure of its chief executive, amid outrage over

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden sat down with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for important talks about the Indo-Pacific region. But first the leaders caught up on the president’s own family ties to the subcontinent. Biden said that after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate, he received

YORKVILLE, Ill. (AP) — The deadline to finalize an out-of-court settlement between former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and a man who accused him of child sexual abuse has been delayed until next week. The court clerk’s office in Kendall County, Illinois, says a hearing on the agreement and an order to dismiss the man’s

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge has handed down a second blow to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s contentious order allowing parents to opt out of school mask requirements. U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer on Friday ruled that Knox County Schools must implement a mask mandate to help protect

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran’s new foreign minister says the country will return to nuclear negotiations “very soon.” But Hossain Amir Abdollah accused the Biden administration of sending contradictory messages — saying it wants to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal while slapping new sanctions on Tehran and not taking

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Officials from companies with fleets of trucks are urging governors across the country to embrace a rule meant to speed the adoption of zero-emission trucks and reduce a potent source of greenhouse gases spewed from the large commercial vehicles. Representatives of companies like IKEA, Nestle, Siemens, Etsy,

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and other crimes in a Northern California wildfire last year that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Investigators determined that aging equipment belonging to the nation’s largest utility sparked the Zogg Fire last

By ERIC TUCKER, JIM MUSTIAN and ROB GILLIES Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Two Canadians detained in China have been released from prison. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced their release Friday night, hours after the U.S. Justice Department resolved criminal charges against a top executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei.  Canadians Michael Kovrig

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — For years, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson kept hearing about two drug kingpin brothers who were embraced by hip-hop culture. Jackson became so intrigued by their rags-to-illegal-riches climb that he developed a series based on their life. Now, he is on the cusp on delivering

By LEANNE ITALIE AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Meghan and Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have made an appearance at a Harlem public school. The couple, who were masked, offered lots of hugs while spending about an hour Friday at PS 123, the Mahalia Jackson School. Meghan read her picture book,

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer Millions of Americans are now eligible to receive a Pfizer booster shot to help increase their protection against the worst effects of the coronavirus. Boosters are free and available at health departments, clinics and drugstores. People 65 and older who got the Pfizer shots qualify for a booster,

By ARNO PEDRAM Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French authorities have launched an investigation into the asphyxiation death of a 37-year-old man after subway security agents detained him in the southern city of Marseille. The death came as arrest techniques have been under heightened criticism in France after multiple cases of abuse or fatal arrests.

By JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday gave Israel one year to end its occupation of territories the Palestinians want for a future state. He threatened to withdraw political recognition — a cornerstone of three decades of failed peace efforts — if it failed to do so. In an

By MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An officer in the nation’s capital has been indicted on a murder charge for his role in a fatal vehicle accident during a police chase that sparked two days of protests and clashes. Federal prosecutors announced Friday that Terrence Sutton was indicted on second-degree murder, conspiracy and

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — About a month and a half out from the finale of the Virginia governor’s race, optimism among Democrats in this state long trending blue is increasingly tinged with nervousness. Meanwhile, Republicans long stuck in the political wilderness are more hopeful and energized than they’ve been in

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Police have given the all-clear after a search of two state office buildings in Virginia’s capital prompted by a report of a possible active shooter. Virginia’s Capitol Police said in a tweet Friday that police concluded their search of the Madison and Monroe state office buildings in downtown Richmond and no

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Associated Press NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus’ president says Turkey’s new push for separate Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot states on ethnically divided Cyprus shows a desire to control the whole of the east Mediterranean island nation. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Friday President Nicos Anastasiades blasted the “absurdity” of Turkish

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma man who took part in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection and took a beer from a refrigerator in the building has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Court documents show 24-year-old Andrew Craig Ericson of Muskogee entered the plea Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. In a