AP National News

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A privately designed, unmanned rocket built to carry satellites into orbit exploded in a fireball off the California coast. The Alpha rocket from the company Firefly Aerospace lifted off Thursday evening at Vandenberg Space Force Base. About two-and-a-half minutes into its flight it suffered what was termed an

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Ahmaud Arbery’s parents are praising the indictment of a former Georgia prosecutor. Former District Attorney Jackie Johnson is now charged with trying to help the men who chased and killed their 25-year-old son. Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, told reporters Friday that the Johnson’s indictment is

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Supreme Court has allowed a Texas law banning most abortions to remain in effect, marking a key turning point for abortion opponents in their fight to implement stronger restrictions. The Texas law bans abortions at the point of the “first detectable heartbeat,” which is usually

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu’s chief of staff says tests confirm that the cause of his flulike symptoms is a bleeding ulcer. Sununu was admitted to a hospital Friday after having flulike symptoms since Wednesday. He had tested negative three times for COVID-19. Chief of Staff

By ARITZ PARRA Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spanish scientists say Europe’s southernmost glaciers will likely be reduced to ice patches in the next two decades due to climate change. The study also found that the shrinking of ice mass on the Pyrenees mountain range is continuing at the steady but rapid speed seen at

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s plans to start delivery of booster shots by Sept. 20 for most Americans who received COVID-19 vaccines are facing new complications that could delay the availability for those who received the Moderna vaccine. Biden announced last month that his administration was preparing to administer

MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin teenager has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in the death of a 7-year-old relative who was beaten, forced to carry a 44-pound log and buried in the snow before he died. Seventeen-year-old Damian Hauschultz pleaded guilty in June to first-degree reckless homicide in the April 2018 death

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The independent body advising the British government on the rollout of coronavirus vaccines says the direct health benefits of offering the jabs to all healthy 12-to-15-year-olds are marginal. With just two per million of healthy children needing intensive care treatment for COVID-19, the Joint Committee on Vaccination

By BEN FOX and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The secretary of homeland security says tens of thousands of Afghans have been admitted into the United States since the fall of Kabul and more are expected as part of an “unprecedented” evacuation. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters Friday that the U.S.

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials are looking into reports that in the frantic evacuation of desperate Afghans from Kabul, older men were admitted together with young girls they claimed as “brides” or otherwise sexually abused. U.S. officials at intake centers in the United Arab Emirates and in Wisconsin have

By CALEB JONES Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Health care workers in Hawaii say a lack of government action is worsening an already crippling surge of coronavirus cases in the islands, and without effective policy changes the state’s limited hospitals could face a grim crisis. An infectious diseases doctor says the state’s health care workers

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VENICE, Italy (AP) — Kristen Stewart says there’s a “huge, vast” difference between her loss of privacy as a teenage movie star and that of Princess Diana. Stewart gained that perspective filming Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” the latest cinematic look at the late Princess of Wales, which premiered Friday at the

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A group of parents of disabled students has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to strike down Iowa’s law banning schools from requiring masks, arguing it endangers their health and denies equal access to education. The lawsuit is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A top European Union official has condemned Belarus and expressed support for Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell spoke Friday hours after a state of emergency took effect in areas of eastern Poland following a surge in illegal migration. He said EU members “are ready to take

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman has testified that R&B singer R. Kelly paid $200,000 to settle a lawsuit she brought accusing him of giving her herpes two decades ago without disclosing he had it. The woman testified on Friday at Kelly’s sex-trafficking trial. She told jurors when they began having sex, she told him

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zambia’s parliament has elected its first female speaker, days after new President Hakainde Hichilema began shaking up the government by firing security commanders and promising economic reforms. Earlier this month the long-time opposition leader was elected after campaigning to break with the past. Since his inauguration

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most senior and influential Muslim Shiite clerics, has died, members of his family said. He was 85.  A relative, Mohsen al-Hakim, told The Associated Press that al-Hakim died at the Al Hayat hospital in the southern holy city of Najaf on

By ROXANA HEGEMAN and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — Civil rights advocates and federal public defenders have urged the White House to intervene to ensure that a privately run federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, shuts down when its contract expires at the end of this year. The letter emailed Thursday to

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A judge says a former student accused of murdering 17 people at a Florida high school cannot be called “animal” or “that thing” during his upcoming trial. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled Friday that it’s impossible to create a complete list of words prosecutors and

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court has blocked an order that had allowed well over 50,000 felony offenders who aren’t serving prison or jail time to immediately register to vote and cast ballots. The state Court of Appeals agreed on Friday to halt last week’s decision