AP National News

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Museum of Art is dropping the Sackler name from seven exhibition spaces amid growing outrage over the role the family may have played in the opioid crisis. The museum and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the institution and their once-deep

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — Bob Dole is lying in state at the U.S. Capitol. President Joe Biden and others gathered Thursday to pay tribute to the man Biden called a “giant of our history.” The service is one of several over two days in Washington for the former Republican senator

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Britain to make it easier for people to apply for asylum and harder for people to work illegally to stem risky migration efforts across the English Channel after a recent deadly sinking. Macron also accused the British government of reneging on promises over fishing licenses and of betraying French-British

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Five mixed-race women who were taken away from their Black mothers in infancy and sued the Belgian state for allegedly committing a crime against humanity have lost their case. One of their lawyers told The Associated Press on Thursday that they will likely appeal the Brussels court’s

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina authorities say a high school student has been taken into custody after he was found carrying a rifle with a loaded magazine on a school bus. According to The Daily Advance of Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said the juvenile student was carrying a pistol-grip AK-47

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s regulatory authority has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as a booster shot, opening the way for third doses to be administered to battle the current surge driven by the omicron variant. South Africa’s new COVID-19 cases continue to rise. In the last 24 hours, South Africa

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas judge says prosecutors are entitled to blood test results in their felony drunk-driving case against former Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs III. But they can’t ask doctors to tell what Ruggs said about the fiery, fatal crash or his injuries. Ruggs is accused of

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan have traded blame for border clashes in which officials say at least one soldier has been killed and two others have been wounded amid simmering tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbors. Armenia’s military said Thursday that two of its troops were wounded after Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Armenian

By ALAN SUDERMAN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A prominent political activist who pushed to end a ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is suing three former U.S. intelligence and military officials she says helped hack her cellphone so a foreign government could spy on her before she was imprisoned and tortured. The

BEAVER DAM, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man who police say sold his juvenile daughter to another man has been arrested and charged with human trafficking. The Kentucky State Police said Wednesday that troopers and social services launched an investigation in November after investigators learned that the girl had given birth in March. Authorities say

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and MAE ANDERSON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A surprise year-end decree by Mayor Bill de Blasio ordering virtually all businesses to get workers vaccinated is forcing vaccine holdouts to choose between jabs or jobs. The mandate will take effect Dec. 27, with workers needing to provide proof they received

By DAVID PITT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The attorney for an Iowa teenager charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of his high school Spanish teacher has asked a judge to try him as a juvenile and not as an adult as prosecutors plan. If convicted as

By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s largest city was at the center of the nation’s progressive push to cut police budgets amid the outrage that swept the nation after the murder of George Floyd. Months later, the sustained protests that made Portland the far-left’s darling have mostly faded away and the

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — America’s casinos have won more money this year than ever before, according to figures released Thursday from a national gambling trade association. The American Gaming Association says U.S. casinos have already broken the record for most money won in a single year at over $44

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associatd Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James has suspended her campaign for governor, saying she will run for reelection to her current position. The Democrat said in a statement Thursday that she needs to continue her work as attorney general, citing “a

BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore jury has convicted a man of first-degree murder in the 2018 stabbing of his wife that he blamed on a panhandler. The Baltimore Sun reports jurors deliberated about five hours over two days before convicting Keith Smith on Thursday of murdering his wife, Jacquelyn Smith. Keith Smith told police his

By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has convened the first White House Summit for Democracy by sounding an alarm about a global slide for democratic institutions. He’s calling for world leaders to “lock arms” and demonstrate that democracies can deliver. In making the case for action Thursday,

By ADELLE M. BANKS of Religion News Service and PETER SMITH of The Associated Press Most major Black Christian denominations in the U.S. have no doctrinal bar to ordained women leaders, and women have preached and been ordained in historically Black churches since at least the 19th century. Yet denominational leadership remained all-male until the

By AMY FORLITI and STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The woman who was riding with Daunte Wright when he was pulled over by suburban Minneapolis police and fatally shot by an officer testified to the chaotic moments immediately afterward. Wright’s girlfriend, Alayna Albrecht-Payton, told the court Thursday that she screamed at Wright but

By DASHA LITVINOVA and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top military officer has sternly warned Ukraine against trying to reclaim control over separatist areas by force. He said Thursday that Moscow will “suppress” any such attempt. Thursday’s statement comes amid soaring tensions over a Russian troop buildup near the border with Ukraine