AP National News

By JERRY SCHWARTZ Associated Press Rudolph Giuliani was a hero before he was a punchline. Lisa Beamer was a wife and mother before she became a symbol of Sept. 11, and though her celebrity passed, her widowhood cannot. In the aftermath of the planes falling from the sky, America and the world were introduced to

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares have fallen in Asia after further losses on Wall Street following a Federal Reserve report showing U.S. economic activity slowed this summer. The report pointed to resurgent coronavirus cases and mounting supply chain problems and labor shortages. Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney. On Wednesday,

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 3,000 people who died from the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 aren’t being forgotten. Their stories endure at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, where personal artifacts help memorialize some of those who perished. From scorched and bloodied shoes to mangled eyeglasses, the growing

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The first trial of “Operation Varsity Blues” will begin this week with the potential to shed light on investigators’ tactics and brighten the spotlight on a college admissions process many complain favors the rich. Jury selection is beginning Wednesday in federal court in Boston in the

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors say there is overwhelming evidence proving New York real estate heir Robert Durst killed his best friend 21 years ago. Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian told jurors Wednesday in closing arguments in Los Angeles Superior Court that Durst killed Susan Berman in 2000 because he

By SARAH RANKIN and DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that towered over Richmond, Virginia, for generations has been taken down, cut into pieces and hauled away. It happened as the former capital of the Confederacy erased the last of the Civil War figures that once

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — California’s interior is hot and dry and the forecast calls for a risk of fire-starting dry lightning as thousands of firefighters already have their hands full with wildland blazes. A heat advisory for Wednesday stretches down the Central Valley and through inland Southern California, with an excessive heat warning

By WILL WEISSERT and PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republicans in America’s largest conservative state for years racked up victories under the slogan “Keep Texas Red,” a pledge to quash a coming blue wave that Democrats argued was inevitable given shifting demographics. Now, those population transformations have arrived, with the 2020

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, MATTHEW LEE and ROBERT BURNS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Americans trying to evacuate hundreds of Afghans and American citizens pleaded for action from the Biden administration to get the would-be evacuees aboard charter flights that are standing by to fly them from Afghanistan. The list includes one Afghan who worked

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE and MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters in her home state of California to defend the Democratic Party’s progressive values by defeating the recall against Gov. Gavin Newsom. Harris appeared alongside Newsom on Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas death row inmate has won a reprieve from execution for killing a convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery that garnered $1.25. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday evening blocked the lethal injection of John Henry Ramirez after his attorney

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer TOKYO (AP) — Some of the world’s largest broadcasters including American network NBC are being asked by human rights groups to cancel plans to cover the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Winter Games are set to open on Feb. 4. The request comes in an open letter from

By LEANNE ITALIE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — With Katie Holmes and Lil’ Kim on his front row and singer Marina on the mic high above his runway, Christian Siriano helped kicked off New York Fashion Week Tuesday night. It’s the first big pandemic round of in-person shows and he put on a flurry

By JOE McDONALD Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — An avalanche of changes launched by China’s ruling Communist Party has jolted everyone from tech billionaires to schoolchildren. Behind the changes is President Xi Jinping’s vision of reviving an idealized earlier era of vigorous party leadership, with more economic equality and tighter control over society and billionaire

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A massive fire raged through an overcrowded prison near Indonesia’s capital, killing at least 41 inmates, two of them foreigners serving drug sentences, and injuring 80 others. Firefighters battled through the early morning hours Wednesday to extinguish the flames as black smoke billowed from the compound

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Officials say the city of Portland, Oregon’s plan to boycott Texas goods and services over the new abortion law could cost companies there millions of dollars a year. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Office of Management and Finance spokeswoman Heather Hafer says Portland has inked almost $35 million in contracts with Texas-based businesses

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A powerful earthquake has struck in southern Mexico near the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, causing buildings to rock and sway in Mexico City hundreds of kilometers away. At least one death has been reported. The U.S. Geological Survey says Tuesday night’s magnitude 7 quake was centered northeast of Acapulco. The

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s highest court has made a landmark ruling that media outlets are “publishers” of allegedly defamatory comments posted by third parties on their official Facebook pages. The High Court on Wednesday dismissed an argument by some of Australia’s largest media organizations that for people to be

HONG KONG (AP) — Four leaders of the group that organized annual Tiananmen Square commemorations in Hong Kong have been arrested after refusing to cooperate in a national security investigation. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China had openly challenged the enforcement of a 14-month-old national security law, saying the

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Lawmakers are moving to make California the first to outlaw “stealthing.” That’s removing a condom without permission during intercourse. Legislators on Tuesday sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill adding the act to the state’s civil definition of sexual battery.  It makes it illegal to remove the