AP National News

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The future of abortion rights is in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court that’s beginning a new term on Monday. And there are major cases on gun rights and religion. The court’s credibility with the public also could be on the line, especially if a divided

By MARK GILLISPIE Associated Press CLEVELAND (AP) — A bellwether trial is set to start Monday in federal court in Cleveland to determine whether retail pharmacy chains are liable for costs related to the opioid crisis in two Ohio counties. Lake and Trumbull counties have sued CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Giant Eagle, claiming the companies

By KELLI KENNEDY Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Miami Beach wants to turn down the volume in the city’s South Beach party neighborhood. Officials cite increasingly raucous crowds, public drinking and growing violence. But efforts to curb the carousing have raised complaints about racism, classism and business practices along one of the nation’s most glamorous

By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a tempestuous week in Washington, with insults and accusations flying, deadlines pressing and some major things to get done. Altogether, it’s been an illustration of governing by crisis. Democrats have been arguing with Republicans and at times themselves. What was at stake? President Joe Biden’s

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Investigators in Texas have arrested a man suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail inside Travis County Democratic Party headquarters in Austin. The actions were caught on surveillance video. A fire official says 30-year-old Ryan Faircloth was booked Friday in the Travis County jail. He is charged with arson and possessing a

BERLIN (AP) — The leaders of Germany’s environmentalist Green party are urging their members to seize the chance to join the country’s next government. The Greens placed third in Germany’s national election last week with 14.8% of the vote. They are in a strong position to form a governing coalition under the first-placed Social Democrats

BERLIN (AP) — A joint European-Japanese spacecraft got its first glimpse of Mercury as it swung by the solar system’s innermost planet while on a mission to deliver two probes into orbit in 2025.The BepiColombo mission made the first of six flybys of Mercury on Friday night, using the planet’s gravity to slow the spacecraft

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Officials say a major crackdown in western Libya has resulted in the detention of 4,000 migrants, including hundreds of women and children. The U.N. said initial reports were that at least one person was killed and 15 others injured in the crackdown. Officials said Saturday the raids

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government has extended an emergency visa program for truck drivers as fuel shortages frustrate motorists lining up at empty pumps. The Conservative government said late Friday that temporary visas for nearly 5,000 foreign truck drivers it hoped to recruit would run into 2022 instead of

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Qatari citizens have voted for the first time in elections for an advisory council. It’s a long-delayed step that aims to give people in the autocratic sheikhdom slightly more say over how they’re ruled. The “experiment,” as Qatari officials have described the vote, comes as the 2022 World Cup casts a

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees says that his organization is facing an “existential” budget crisis and appealing for urgent funding of $120 million to keep essential education, healthcare and other services running. Philippe Lazzarini was speaking Friday when he said it

By JIM GOMEZ and JOEAL CALUPITAN Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he is backing out of an announced plan to run for vice president in next year’s elections and will retire from politics after his term ends. That decision clears the way for his daughter politician to take a

BEIJING (AP) — A former Chinese justice minister has become a target of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. The Communist Party’s discipline commission announced Saturday that former Justice Minister and Vice Minister of Public Security Fu Zhenghua is under investigation for severe violations of party discipline and law. It did not provide details. It’s unclear

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for killing a member of Pakistan’s minority Sikh community earlier in the week in the northwestern city of Peshawar. An IS statement issued late Friday described Satnam Singh, 45, as “polytheist” and said he was shot dead by IS members. Pakistani officials have denied any

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Abu Dhabi air ambulance flown by the emirate’s police has crashed, killing four people. The Abu Dhabi police gave no details Saturday on the location or cause of the crash. Police said the dead included two pilots, a civilian doctor and a nurse. Abu Dhabi is the capital

By DARIA LITVINOVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — When Russians discuss the coronavirus, the talk often turns to “antitela.” That’s the Russian word for antibodies. Tests to detect the proteins produced by the body to fight infection are cheap, widely available and actively marketed in Russia. But Western health experts say the antibody tests are

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s Expo 2020 has acknowledged that five workers had been killed on site during construction of the massive world’s fair, revealing for the first time overall statistics for worker fatalities. Expo previously acknowledged that its 200,000 laborers who built the site worked some 240

By JONATHAN MATTISE and TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press WAVERLY, Tenn. (AP) — A hundred years ago, the massive rural Tennessee flood that killed 20 people could have been chalked up to a fluke of nature. But experts say climate change is making the type of flood-producing rainfall that inundated Waverly last month more common. The

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge is deciding whether to block the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, which has banned most abortions in Texas since early September and sent women racing hundreds of miles to get care outside the state. The Biden administration on Friday urged U.S. District

By TAMMY WEBBER and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 700,000. It’s a grim and frustrating milestone as the nation confronts a surge in infections and deaths driven by the delta variant and the refusal of millions of Americans to get vaccinated. The last 100,000 deaths were recorded in