AP National News

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. health agency says Europe stood out as the only major region worldwide to report an increase in both coronavirus cases and deaths over the last week, with double-digit percentage increases in each. The World Health Organization said Wednesday that cases in its 53-country European region, which includes former Soviet republics

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Joanna Hogg first had the instinct to make a film about her then unfolding relationship to her heroin-addicted first love in 1979. Back then, she didn’t feel capable of tackling something so ambitious and personal. Her career detoured, instead, into television. It wasn’t until Hogg

By MARK GILLISPIE Associated Press CLEVELAND (AP) — A Cleveland-area roller derby team that has called itself the Guardians since 2013 is suing Cleveland’s newly renamed Major League Baseball team to stop it from using the Guardians name. The former Cleveland Indians announced in July it would change the team’s name to Guardians after years

By LISA MASCARO, AAMER MADHANI and ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is telling colleagues that Democrats are in “pretty good shape” on President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic policy plan and a related $1 trillion infrastructure bill. However, pivotal Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is panning his party’s

By ZEKE MILLER and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — For nine months under President Joe Biden, the U.S. has pursued a diplomatic strategy that could be characterized as about China, without China. On security, trade, climate and COVID-19, the Biden White House has tried to reorient the focus of the U.S. and its

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Taxes on alcoholic drinks in the U.K. are being radically simplified in the biggest overhaul in more than 140 years. Britain’s Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said Wednesday in his annual budget speech the changes will take into account a drink’s strength as opposed to what type of

By MORGAN LEE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Investigators say there was “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on a movie set where Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer and wounded another person. Speaking Wednesday at a news conference, they also said it’s too

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Researchers are worried about coronavirus-related disruptions to one of the U.S. Census Bureau’s most important surveys about how Americans live, saying a gap in the 2020 data will make it more difficult to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and measure year-to-year changes. The Census Bureau released a report

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s health authorities will offer a second dose to people who have received a shot of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. But the second shot will be from a different drug manufacturer. Spain’s health ministry said on Wednesday that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has proven to be less effective than

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — A suspended Virginia Tech linebacker accused in the fatal beating of a Tinder match has been indicted on a charge of second-degree murder. The Roanoke Times reports that Isimemen Etute was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday in the death of Jerry Smith in May. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 18.

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese man who was critically injured in the massive explosion at Beirut’s port last year has died nearly 15 months after the blast. The cousin of Abbas Mazloum said he died Wednesday morning in his hometown in eastern Lebanon, where he was laid to rest hours

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain has sent another minister to Algeria to seek guarantees that its supply of natural gas won’t be impacted when Algeria closes its pipeline through Morocco on Sunday. Algeria provides over a third of Spain’s natural gas. Spanish officials worry that a shortage in supplies will

BOSTON (AP) — A nor’easter that battered the Atlantic coast with hurricane-force wind gusts has left more than a half-million customers without power in New England. Dozens of schools canceled classes Wednesday. Utility workers labored to restore power as winds diminished throughout the day. The process is expected to take days in hardest-hit southeastern Massachusetts.

By JOSH FUNK Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A U.S. House report says at least 59,000 meatpacking workers became ill with COVID-19 and 269 workers died when the virus tore through the industry last year. The report released Wednesday shows the coronavirus hit the industry much harder than previously thought. The United Food and

By MORGAN LEE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico authorities said Wednesday they have recovered a lead projectile believed to have been fired from the gun used in the fatal movie-set shooting. Investigators discussed their initial findings in the shooting in which actor Alec Baldwin fired

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The New York judge assigned to a lawsuit alleging Prince Andrew sexually abused an American when she was 17 says a 2008 legal agreement that his lawyer says would protect him against the claims can remain secret. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the ruling

By BABAR DOGAR and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say violence at an anti-France Islamist rally in eastern Pakistan has left at least four police officers and two demonstrators dead. The government deployed paramilitary troops to restore order. Thousands of supporters of a radical Islamist party rallied Wednesday on a highway

By ROBERT BURNS AP National Security Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. military officer says China recently conducted a test of a hypersonic weapon that was “very concerning.” In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Milley said the test was “very close” to being a so-called Sputnik moment, referring to the Soviet Union’s 1957 breakthrough

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Former New York Times reporter and columnist Nicholas Kristof has announced he is running for governor of Oregon, the state where he grew up on a sheep and cherry farm. Kristof left the newspaper earlier this month and has frequently written about the economic and social

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators have opened an investigation into graphics chipmaker Nvidia’s $40 billion purchase of chip designer Arm. The European Commission said Wednesday that it’s concerned the combined company would restrict access to technology from Arm, whose chip designs power the vast majority of the world’s