AP National News

By TED ANTHONY AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly is unfolding this week under a thundercloud of deep pessimism. Coherence is spotty. Misinformation and disinformation. are scurrying around unchecked. The secretary-general is saying that the world has to wake up. But world leaders are, to hear them tell it, unsettled

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A bipartisan group of lawmakers is renewing a push to expand a U.S. compensation program for people who were exposed to radiation following uranium mining and nuclear testing carried out during the Cold War. Advocates have been trying for years to bring awareness to the

By MARÍA VERZA Associated Press CIUDAD ACUÑA, Mexico (AP) — An informal camp of migrants is slowly growing along the banks of the Rio Grande. Haitian migrants who account for the majority in Ciudad Acuña now feel increasingly trapped between U.S. efforts to process thousands camped across the river in Texas and Mexico’s increased operations

By COLLEEN BARRY AP Fashion Writer MILAN (AP) — Italy’s fashion capital is again alive with the sound of shoppers swarming boutiques and editors filling socially distanced fashion week venues, a sign of a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.  Milan Fashion Week opened Wednesday with 42 live runway shows, led by Fendi

NEW YORK (AP) — Owen Wilson, Kim Kardashian West, Rami Malek and Jason Sudeikis will take turns hosting the first four weeks of ‘Saturday Night Live’ this season. Wilson will be host on Oct. 2, when the show opens its 47th season, and Kacey Musgraves will be the musical guest. It’s also the first time

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears said in a court filing that she agrees with her father that the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money for 13 years should be terminated. The filing Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court says she “fully consents” to “expeditiously” ending the

By AYA BATRAWY and ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s monarch expressed hope that the kingdom’s direct talks with Iran will lead to confidence building as the two bitter regional rivals take small steps toward dialogue following several years of heightened tensions. King Salman made the remarks Wednesday in

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Prosecutors in Virginia have dropped all charges against a man charged with hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife after the accused hitman refused to cooperate with the investigation into the 2004 double slayings that also left the woman’s 7-year-old son dead. Christopher Schmidt had been held in jail on

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A coroner presiding over an inquest into the death of British woman who was poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent wants the probe to be turned into a public inquiry so she can examine Russia’s possible involvement. Unlike an inquest, British law allows a public inquiry to

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s governor on Wednesday appointed a review panel to determine whether a district attorney who was indicted on charges of criminal misconduct while in office should be suspended while the case is pending. Chattahoochee Circuit District Attorney Mark Jones is accused of trying to get a police

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has struck down part of a Florida immigration enforcement law as racially motivated. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom on Tuesday rejected parts of the 2019 law banning local government sanctuary policies and requiring local law enforcement to make their best efforts to work

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate negotiators say bipartisan congressional talks on overhauling policing practices have ended without agreement. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has told reporters that bargainers were not making progress on issues like whether to hold individual officers personally liable for abusive behavior. The breakdown marks an unproductive end

By MIKE SILVERMAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Met Opera’s season opens on Monday, and for the first time in its 138-year history it will perform an opera by a Black composer. The staging of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” will be an awakening in other ways too for the Met, which

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s broadcasting regulators have extended the license of Discovery Inc.-owned TVN24. But they also also adopted a resolution to pressure the American company to sell its majority stake in the TV news channel, which airs coverage that is critical of Poland’s government. The National Broadcasting Council had delayed the renewal of

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced that masks will be required inside temples to limit the spread of COVID-19. Church leaders said Wednesday that masks will be required temporarily in an effort to keep temples open. The message isthe latest in a series of statements from

NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Sheeler, a former Rocky Mountain News journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his extensive and compassionate reporting on the families of Colorado soldiers killed in the Iraq War and the man tasked with notifying them, has died. Sheeler, also an author, was 53. Case Western Reserve University, where Sheeler

By JIM SALTER Associated Press The St. Louis County prosecutor’s office is investigating an incident caught on cellphone video in which white officers allowed a police dog to repeatedly bite a Black man during an arrest. The video of the arrest Monday in the St. Louis suburb of Woodson Terrace has sparked outrage online and

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled Wednesday that the Fed plans to announce as early as November that it will start withdrawing the extraordinary support it unleased after the coronavirus paralyzed the economy 18 months ago. Powell said that if the job market maintained its steady

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The European Union’s top diplomat has urged Iran to return to talks on its nuclear program while the country’s foreign minister reiterated Tehran’s “willingness to resume negotiations.” The last round of talks ended in June, ahead of Iran’s elections that boosted the ranks of hard-liners.

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President George W. Bush will headline a fundraiser for top Donald Trump critic Liz Cheney next month. The move turns Cheney’s congressional reelection race into a proxy war of sorts between the two ex-presidents who represent competing factions of the Republican Party. Bush will be