AP National News

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is spawning in an explosion of color as the World Heritage-listed natural wonder recovers from life-threatening coral bleaching episodes. Scientists on Tuesday night recorded the corals fertilizing billions of offspring by casting sperm and eggs into the Pacific Ocean off the Queensland state coastal city of Cairns.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A thick cloud of smog has enveloped Pakistan’s cultural capital, earning it the ignominious title of the world’s most polluted city, according to a Swiss air quality monitoring company. Platform IQAir says that Lahore now stands at the top of its polluted cities ranking, with an air quality index of 203

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer DALLAS (AP) — Millions of Americans are loading up their cars or piling onto planes, determined to reclaim Thanksgiving traditions that were put on pause last year by the pandemic. The number of air travelers this week is expected to approach or even exceed pre-pandemic levels. Auto club AAA

By DANIEL NIEMANN and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press ESCHWEILER, Germany (AP) — Germany is inching toward the mark of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. The country’s leader-in-waiting announced plans Wednesday to create an expert team at the heart of the next government to provide daily scientific advice on tackling the coronavirus pandemic. German officials including outgoing

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hosting Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates seek to repair ties and increase economic cooperation. The visit by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, seen as the de-facto leader, is the highest-level visit by an Emirati official since relations

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have finally driven President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion package of family services, health care and climate initiatives through the House. Now the focus turns to the Senate, where painful Republican amendments, restrictive rules and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin lurk. It took Democrats six months, but

By JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA has launched a spacecraft on a mission to smash into an asteroid and test whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course if one were to threaten Earth. The spacecraft is called DART, for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. It lifted

By MARK PRATT Associated Press The city manager in Newport, Rhode Island, is standing by the city police department’s review of the 1966 death of an employee of wealthy heiress Doris Duke. The city manager in a statement Tuesday said there is no new evidence that would suggest that the death of Eduardo Tirella after

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Jury deliberations are set to continue for a second day in the trial of three white man charged with the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in coastal Georgia. The mostly white jury spent about six hours deliberating Tuesday before adjourning without a verdict. They are to resume

By JULIE WATSON Associated Press FERGUS FALLS, Minnesota (AP) — A Minnesota woman who worked as an agricultural adviser in the hinterlands of Afghanistan has been using her own time and money to get the Afghans who worked for her program out of the country. So far, five of the men and their families have

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have finally driven President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion package of family services, health care and climate initiatives through the House. Now the focus turns to the Senate, where painful Republican amendments, restrictive rules and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin lurk. It took Democrats six months, but

By JULIE WATSON Associated Press FERGUS FALLS, Minnesota (AP) — A Minnesota woman who worked as an agricultural adviser in the hinterlands of Afghanistan has been using her own time and money to get the Afghans who worked for her program out of the country. So far, five of the men and their families have

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and climate activists generally support President Joe Biden’s decision to release a record-setting 50 million barrels of oil from America’s strategic reserve, even as the action appeared to contradict Biden’s long-term goal to fight climate change. The U.S. action announced Tuesday is aimed at global energy

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden has ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil from America’s strategic reserve. The move aims to reduce energy costs, which are a growing burden for millions of Americans embarking on Thanksgiving travel. The U.S. action was done in rare coordination

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia intends to add far-right extremist group The Base and the entirety of the Lebanese group Hezbollah to its list of outlawed terrorist organizations. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said Wednesday that Hezbollah’s External Security Organization has been listed as a terrorist organization under Australia’s Criminal

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Biotechnology entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, a former billionaire accused of engineering a massive scam, expressed some remorse while on the witness stand Tuesday, but denied trying to conceal that her company’s blood-testing methods weren’t working as she had promised. In her third day of testimony

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities say a group of hundreds of mainly Haitian and Central American migrants who had started walking north have agreed to be separated and taken by bus to several cities to get humanitarian visas. The migrant march had originally set out on Nov. 18 with about 2,000 migrants from the

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand will reopen its borders to the world over the coming months, allowing for the return of displaced residents from January and tourists from April. The South Pacific nation imposed harsh border restrictions when the pandemic began, effectively banning tourists and requiring returning residents

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — New coronavirus infections in South Korea have exceeded 4,000 in a day for the first time since the start of the pandemic as a delta-driven spread continues to rattle the country after it eased social distancing in recent weeks to improve its economy. The Korea