AP National News

BEIJING (AP) — China has launched three astronauts to its space station for a record-setting six-month stay for the country. The spacecraft blasted off early Saturday and was due to dock at the space station about six hours later. The three astronauts are the second crew to move into the new space station, which was

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The attorneys for prominent South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh have released medical records they say show he was shot in the head on the side of a highway last month. Like many of the developments in the case, that seemingly basic fact has ended up in

ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) — Investigators say a man on a motorcycle who fired on officers as they tried to pull him over was shot and killed on a South Carolina road. Authorities say 39-year-old Robert Allen Maness died shortly after crashing in Anderson County around 11 p.m. Thursday. Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride says the

By DON BABWIN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has taken her fight with the head of the city’s police officers union to court, arguing that his call for officers to ignore an order to report their COVID-19 vaccination status by Friday was illegal. The mayor said in a statement that the

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian authorities say around 30 Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinian farmers harvesting their olive trees in the occupied West Bank, leaving four people injured. Friday’s attack comes amid an uptick in settler violence in recent months. The official Palestinian news agency says the attack began when Israeli settlers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts has rejected a Supreme Court appeal by the St. Louis-based natural gas company Spire Inc. to allow it to keep operating a pipeline through Illinois and Missouri. Roberts did not comment Friday in refusing to temporarily pause a lower court order affecting the operation of the Spire STL

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges after prosecutors say he helped to hide evidence of a rioter’s involvement in January’s insurrection. The officer, Michael A. Riley, is accused of tipping off someone who participated in the riot

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge has denied a request by dozens of scientists and others at Los Alamos National Laboratory who sought to block a vaccine mandate. Workers risk being fired if they don’t comply with the lab’s Friday afternoon deadline. It’s possible an appeal could

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters have made significant progress in corralling a wildfire in coastal mountains of Southern California. The Alisal Fire in the Santa Ynez Mountains west of Santa Barbara has grown only slightly and containment on Friday jumped to 41%. The improved situation allowed authorities to reopen the vital U.S. 101 highway

By SAMYA KULLAB and TAMEEM AKHGAR Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque packed with worshippers attending Friday prayers in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 47 people and wounding 70, a Taliban official said. It was the deadliest day since the U.S. military withdrawal. There was no immediate claim of

BRUSSELS (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Poland’s European Union partners need to step away from confrontation and instead talk to the government in Warsaw to seek solutions to the difficulties in their relationship. Last week, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that Polish laws take precedence over those of the 27-nation EU, which Poland joined

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration says it will turn next to the U.S. Supreme Court in another attempt to halt a Texas law that has banned most abortions since September. The announcement Friday by the Justice Department comes after an appeals court again left in place the

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (AP) — A suburban Detroit woman has been ordered to find another home for her four African caracals after one of the wild cats spent hours on the loose this week. Royal Oak police have issued Elaine Westfall five citations. Westfall told the Detroit Free Press for a story Friday that the

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A senior diplomat says Southeast Asia’s foreign ministers have decided not to invite Myanmar’s military leader to an annual summit for refusing to let an envoy meet ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The move by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is the biggest

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, ERIC TUCKER and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has set a vote to recommend criminal contempt charges against former White House aide Steve Bannon after he defied the panel’s subpoena. Rep. Bennie Thompson says the panel will vote Tuesday to recommend

By SAMYA KULLAB and TAMEEM AKHGAR Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque packed with worshippers attending Friday prayers in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 32 people and wounding 68, according to a Taliban official. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the carnage at the Fatimiya mosque in

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — Colby College in the U.S. state of Maine is banning discrimination based on caste, a system of inherited social class. The private liberal arts college announced that it has revised its nondiscrimination policy to add caste to its list of protections for the campus community. The professor who led the push

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The lawyer for an American journalist detained almost five months in military-ruled Myanmar says he is being prosecuted for an offense allegedly carried out by a news service for which he had stopped working more than half-a-year previously. Danny Fenster,  managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, an online

By ZEKE MILLER and ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to highlight his plan to lower the cost of child care for most American families as he makes the case for his stalled social spending bill during a visit to Connecticut. Biden is visiting a child development center in

By ALMUDENA CALATRAVA Associated Press EPECUEN, Argentina (AP) — The Argentine spa town of Villa Epecuen was a mecca of tourism for much of the 20th century, until the adjoining lake poured through a broken embankment in 1985 and destroyed hotels, restaurants and other buildings. Today, it is drawing a new stream of tourists, who