AP National News

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A new study finds pension systems for state government workers are in their best shape since the Great Recession. The Pew Charitable Trusts credits a booming stock market over the past year as well as states’ longer-term steps. Those include boosting taxpayer contributions to public pension funds and reducing promised

LONDON (AP) — China’s ambassador to Britain has been barred from Parliament and told he could not enter the building for a talk he was scheduled to give. Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said it was not “appropriate” for Ambassador Zheng Zeguang to enter Parliament because China imposed sanctions against seven British parliamentarians over their criticism

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida woman has pleaded guilty to making death threats against Vice President Kamala Harris. Court records show that 39-year-old Niviane Petit Phelps pleaded guilty last week in Miami federal court to six counts of making threats against the vice president. She faces up to five years in prison at a

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Dozens of American Indian tribes are demanding the Biden administration enact emergency protections for gray wolves. Groups representing the tribes sent a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland asking her to place wolves back on the endangered species list on an emergency basis for 240

JERUSALEM (AP) — Ida Nudel, one of the most prominent activists who campaigned for the right of Jews to leave the Soviet Union in the 1970s and ’80s, has died in Israel. She was 90. Nudel was born in the Soviet Union in 1931 and came to prominence in the 1970s as a leading activist

By ANDRÉS VILLARREAL Associated Press CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — The house that former drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán fled in 2014 when Mexican marines had him surrounded has undergone some changes. The surveillance cameras that covered every angle of the exterior have been removed. And the hole Guzmán slipped through to reach an escape

By JONATHAN LEMIRE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks as president, the United States’ top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not suddenly go to war. A senior defense official acknowledged the conversations after they were described in

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked New York state from forcing medical workers to be vaccinated after a group of health care workers sued, saying their Constitutional rights were violated. Judge David Hurd in Utica issued the order Tuesday after 17 health professionals, including doctors and nurses, claimed the vaccine mandate

By WILSON RING Associated Press BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has become the latest state to sue some of the country’s top fossil fuel companies by alleging they misled the public about the impact their products have on climate change. Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan said Tuesday his office had filed a consumer protection lawsuit

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, CATHY BUSSEWITZ and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press COVID-19 deaths and cases in the U.S. have climbed to levels not seen seen since last winter, wiping out months of progress and potentially bolstering President Joe Biden’s argument for sweeping new vaccination requirements. The U.S. is averaging over 1,800 COVID-19 deaths and 170,000 new

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Sequoia National Park has been shut down and its namesake gigantic trees could be in danger as forest fires burn in steep terrain across California’s Sierra Nevada. The combined size of two fires has grown to more than nine square miles since they were ignited by lightning last week.

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A defense attorney for a Tennessee state senator charged with stealing $600,000 in federal grant money from a health care school she operated says she did not use government funds to pay for personal expenses. Katrina Robinson’s lawyer said during opening statements of her trial Tuesday

By MARIO LOBÃO Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A project to give children in poor neighborhoods a shot at going to the movies has resumed in Rio de Janeiro now that the pace of new cases and deaths from COVID-19 has ebbed. Some 200 children in the Vila Cruzeiro favela lined up to

By EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s chief prosecutor has asked a judge to charge Prime Minister Ariel Henry in the slaying of the president and asked other officials to bar him from leaving the country. The order filed Tuesday by Port-au-Prince prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude comes on the same

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — After a public fallout over release strategy with Warner Bros., Christopher Nolan’s next film, about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atom bomb, will be released by Universal Pictures. Representatives for the studio confirmed Tuesday that Universal will finance and distribute Nolan’s not-yet-titled

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization and its partners hope to provide Africa with about 30% of the COVID-19 vaccines the continent needs by February. That will badly miss the 60% vaccination coverage goal that African leaders had once hoped for this year. At a press briefing on Tuesday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

By NOMAAN MERCHANT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The general who leads U.S. efforts to thwart foreign-based cyberattacks says he’s mounting a new “surge” to fight incursions that have at times debilitated government agencies and companies responsible for critical infrastructure. In an interview, Gen. Paul Nakasone broadly describes “an intense focus” by government specialists to

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Novels that explore historical injustices, the nature of consciousness and the dizzying impact of the internet are among six finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. Three books by American authors are on the shortlist announced Tuesday for the 50,000 pound ($69,000) prize. Those are Patricia

By BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are paring back their signature elections bill in hopes of kickstarting their stalled push to pass it. They unveiled a new bill Tuesday aimed at counteracting state laws that could make it more difficult to cast a ballot. But the new compromise legislation is likely

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has declared a mistrial at the trial of the founders of the lucrative classified site Backpage.com on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money. U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich said Tuesday prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no