AP National News

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana man who is the oldest living World War II veteran in the United States has marked his 112th birthday. Lawrence Brooks celebrated Sunday with a drive-by party at his New Orleans home hosted by the National World War II Museum. Festivities included a Jeep parade, a live performance from

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press Officials say Libyan authorities have arrested two suspected human traffickers and facilitated the return of more than 50 Egyptian migrants to their home country. Fifty-three Egyptians landed in Cairo’s international airport on a private flight late Sunday after authorities in Libya’s capital of Tripoli arrested them for attempting to travel

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A jury has been selected in the trial of a Tennessee state senator charged with stealing more than $600,000 in federal funds. The federal trial of state Sen. Katrina Robinson started Monday in Memphis. Robinson is accused of stealing funds from federal grants slated for The

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press An international group of scientists is arguing the average person doesn’t need a COVID-19 booster yet — an opinion that highlights the intense scientific divide over the question. Two of those scientists are top U.S. vaccine regulators, raising questions about whether White House plans for booster doses

By CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press / Report for America Across the U.S., vaccine-hesitant parents are struggling with vaccine-seeking teenagers set on getting their shots. A return to in-person school this month are raising the stakes for high school students who want to be safe in packed classrooms and homecoming rallies. Coronavirus outbreaks are already forcing

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pushed back against harsh Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. In a sometimes contentious hearing on Monday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Blinken sought to blunt complaints from angry GOP lawmakers about

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — The new chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board wants to change the way governments and businesses look at highway safety to consider the whole system rather than individual driver behavior. Jennifer Homendy says such an approach worked in aviation, where there were no U.S.

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer Researchers in Germany have potty trained cows, all in the name of science. Monday’s study in the journal Current Biology reports how scientists got 11 of 16 Holsteins to do their business inside a special pen called a “MooLoo.” They only worked on getting the cows to urinate in

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Auditors say the European Union’s program for deporting migrants is not working well. But the European Court of Auditors warns that it would be counterproductive to try to impose coercive measures to force countries to take their citizens back. The EU has been deeply divided over how

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The hospitality and events industry in South Africa has received a major boost with the government easing tough COVID-19 regulations that have since June prevented it from accommodating more than 50 people in restaurants and public events. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country would

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations human rights chief says a highly awaited joint investigation into abuses in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict was unable to deploy to the site of one of its deadliest attacks, the alleged massacre of several hundred people in the holy city of Axum. Michelle Bachelet

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The new exhibit at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art seeks to start a new conversation about American fashion, says its curator, Andrew Bolton. “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” part one of a larger “In America” show, opens to the public

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The long-delayed Tony Awards have landed two impressive master of ceremonies — Tony- and Grammy-winning singer and actor Leslie Odom Jr. will host a splashy TV special and the awards will be hosted by Tony-, Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning actor and singer Audra McDonald. Producers

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Authorities in South Carolina say a large granite monument honoring 9-11 victims was defaced by vandals who spray-painted “Taliban” on it in two places. WYFF-TV reports that the granite statue is made of two towers, each weighing 4,000 pounds with a light beam in Greenville County. Paul Nichols, founder and CEO

By HOLLY RAMER Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man who alleges that he was raped by multiple staffers at New Hampshire’s youth detention center in the 1990s has filed the first lawsuit against the state, the facility and former workers since a judge dismissed a class action suit in May. Four former Youth

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press MILAN (AP) — An Israeli-French-American Holocaust survivor and historian and a U.S. scientist specializing in gut bacteria were among the recipients this year’s Balzan Prizes, recognizing scholarly and scientific achievements. The prizes were announced on Monday.  Saul Friedlander, was awarded the prize for Holocaust and Genocide Studies for his work

NEW YORK (AP) — The latest novels from Colson Whitehead and Joy Williams, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ debut work “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” are among this year’s finalists for the Kirkus Prize. The $50,000 awards are presented by the trade publication. Whitehead’s crime story “Harlem Shuffle” is his first novel since the

By RENATA BRITO Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Climate change could push more than 200 million people to move within their own countries in the next three decades and create migration hotspots unless urgent action is taken in the coming years to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s new government has held its first meeting with a call by the president to resume talks with the International Monetary Fund. Michel Aoun said Monday he wants to work on getting the small nation out of one of the world’s worst economic crises in more than

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press A new study says up to half of the $14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since 9/11 went to for-profit defense contractors. While much of this money went to weapons suppliers, the research is the latest to point to the dependence on contractors for war-zone duties as contributing to mission