AP National News

By SARA BURNETT Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — In the fight to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats need help from the few places where state lawmakers can make 2022 difficult for Republicans. Illinois Democrats delivered Thursday, using their dominance in state government to advance new congressional district maps intended to eliminate

By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A sheriff’s officer has accused former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of groping a woman in an investigation stemming from the scandal that drove him from office earlier this year. But prosecutors said Thursday they didn’t know the document had been filed. And the woman’s attorney

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Filled with pink and fuzzy things and cuddly bears, 6%DOKIDOKI, a tiny store in the heart of Tokyo’s Harajuku district, is bursting with “kawaii,” the Japanese for “cuteness.” What it doesn’t have enough of, as in zero, are foreign tourists. And it could sure use some.

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are slipping, despite recent signs of optimism about the global economy, including recent rallies on Wall Street. Benchmarks fell in morning trading in Japan, China, South Korea and Australia. Investors stepped to the sidelines to see the outcome of Japan’s parliamentary elections Sunday. The

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is in talks to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to each child and parent who was separated under a Trump-era practice of splitting families at the border. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the government was considering payments around $450,000

By FIRDIA LISNAWATI and NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — An American woman convicted of helping to kill her mother on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali has walked free from prison. Heather Mack was released Friday after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence. She was almost 19 and a few weeks pregnant

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California judge has declined to validate a contract granting permanent access to federally controlled water for the nation’s largest agricultural water supplier. A state court needs to approve the deal for the U.S. government to be bound by its terms. Environmentalists had blasted the deal

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A new study says endangered California condors can have “’virgin births.” Researchers with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance say genetic testing confirmed that two male chicks hatched from unfertilized eggs in 2001 and 2009 were related to their mothers. Neither was related to a male. It’s the first report of

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Joel Quenneville resigned as coach of the Florida Panthers on Thursday, two days after the second-winningest coach in NHL history was among those implicated for not swiftly responding to allegations by a Chicago Blackhawks player of being sexually assaulted by another coach during the 2010

By BEN FOX Associated Press FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who went through the brutal U.S. government interrogation program after the 9/11 attacks has described it openly for the first time. Majid Khan described for a military jury in grim detail how he was left terrified and hallucinating from techniques that

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press PURCELLVILLE, Va. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence has hailed activist parents in suburban Washington who are decrying school curriculums as un-American. He declared Thursday that instruction about the effects of institutional racism has left children “being taught to be ashamed of their skin color.” The fight over schools

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma has executed a man who stabbed a prison cafeteria worker to death in 1998 in the state’s first lethal injection following a six-year moratorium. Sixty-year-old John Marion Grant began convulsing and vomiting shortly after the first drug, midazolam, was administered. He was declared dead about

PHOENIX (AP) — Services for former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods have been set for next month. His wife, Marlene Galan Woods, announced Thursday that Cindy McCain and retired NBA star Charles Barkley are among those who will eulogize Woods at the Nov. 12 celebration of life. The service will be held at 10 a.m.

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta says Africa is at a crossroads, poised on one hand to reap the economic benefits of its youthful population and economic reforms but facing the spread of terrorism and insurgency on the other that are challenging almost all 54 nations on

By JOSH BOAK and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press ROME (AP) — President Joe Biden promised to show the world that democracies can work to meet the challenges of the 21st century. As he prepares to push that message at a pair of global summits, his case could hinge on what’s happening in Washington, where he

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A company that made and operated casino-style games used for illegal gambling will pay $3.5 million and permanently stop its California operations under a court settlement announced Thursday. Pong Game Studios Corp. agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged it provided software to gambling dens that offered slot- and poker-style computer

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon isn’t just grappling with the easing of pandemic-induced splurges. The online retail behemoth is also contending with surging costs as it navigates a snarled supply chain and labor shortages. Those challenges resulted in Amazon reporting Thursday a shortfall in third-quarter profits and sales. It

By ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden set out to be a president who under-promised and over-delivered. That worked, until it didn’t. The White House is trying to nail down a nearly $3 trillion domestic package that Biden frames as a historic investment in infrastructure and social spending. But

By DAVID PITT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Legislature has passed a bill that requires businesses to allow employees to seek medical and religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates. It also guarantees that employees who are denied exemptions and are fired due to their decision not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, an 18-year-old Illinois man accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, fatally shot Joseph