AP National News

BOSTON (AP) — A public marker remembering the enslaved Africans forced to journey across the ocean to toil in the Americas has been formally dedicated in Boston. The Middle Passage Port Marker was installed last October and is meant to acknowledge Boston’s history of slavery and honor the Africans who survived or perished on the

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Terry McAuliffe is asking a court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Virginia Republicans that seeks to remove him from the ballot in this year’s closely watched race for governor over an alleged paperwork error. In a filing Friday evening, attorneys for the former governor

SHARON HILL, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a child was killed when gunfire erupted outside a high school football game near Philadelphia. Officials said the gunfire erupted shortly before 9 p.m. Friday near the main gate to the football field at Academy Park High School in Sharon hill shortly after the conclusion of the game

By KRISTA LARSON Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Authorities in Senegal say dozens of people are missing and feared dead after a wooden boat capsized off the coast. At least 60 people were believed to have been onboard when the vessel sank, and authorities only rescued 11 survivors. Despite efforts to locate victims by

Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s conservative People’s Party has voted overwhelmingly to reelect Chancellor Sebastian Kurz as its leader at a party gathering. Kurz, 35, received the backing of 533 of 536 delegates, or 99.4%. He has led the party, known as OVP, since 2017, and became the country’s youngest-ever chancellor later that year.

By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Empty cow pastures on one day can be bustling with hundreds of firefighters the next as fire camps with colorful tent cities spring up. More than 20,000 wildland firefighters are battling some 100 large wildfires in the U.S. West, and truckloads of supplies and equipment are

By MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar in the nation’s pandemic response. States are hiring new staff and seeking volunteers to bolster the

By WILSON RING Associated Press A decade after a Vermont teenager disappeared as the rains of Tropical Storm Irene started inundating the state, his mother is still hoping someone will be able to answer the question about what happened to him. Marble Arvidson was 17 when he left his Brattleboro foster home on Aug. 27,

MOSCOW (AP) — A new report from Russia’s state statistics agency shows the country recorded a record number of deaths in July of people infected with coronavirus. The report from the Rosstat agency said 50,421 people suffering from COVID-19 died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December. However, the

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — Haitians continue to show up at hospitals seeking care for injuries two weeks after an earthquake battered their country. That delay in getting medical care has now placed many at high risk of infections and even amputations. Some delayed medical care

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Health officials across five states have linked 178 virus cases to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. In the three weeks since the rally kicked off, coronavirus cases in South Dakota have shot up at a startling pace. State health officials have reported 63 cases among rallygoers

By TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The second week of the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial in New York City proved to be an exercise by the government in trying to paint the “I Believe I Can Fly” R&B star as a man-child control freak. They also sought to portray him as a

ROME (AP) — Italian military vessels have aided a decrepit fishing boat crammed with 539 migrants aboard, which was approaching the tiny southern island of Lampedusa south of Sicily. Alida Serrachieri,  a nurse who runs the Doctors Without Borders’ operation on Lampedusa, said the passengers included three women and several unaccompanied minors. Two coast guard

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The often-heated debate over whether returning students should wear masks in the classroom has moved from school boards to courtrooms. In at least 14 states, lawsuits have been filed either for or against masks in schools. In some Republican-led states, normally rule-enforcing school administrators

By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The need for crisis-driven leadership comes to all U.S. presidents. Now, on several fronts at once, it’s come to President Joe Biden. As the president who is ending the Afghanistan war, America’s longest, he’ll be judged by history for how he did it. To some, the scenes

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Republican efforts questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential race have led to voting system breaches that election security experts say pose a heightened risk to future elections. Copies of Dominion Voting Systems software used to manage elections were distributed at an event this month in

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has replaced an Australian bishop who stepped down amid a Vatican investigation into what Australian media have described as allegations of sexual misconduct. The Vatican said Francis accepted Bishop Christopher Alan Saunders’ resignation as head of the Broome diocese. Francis on Saturday appointed another bishop to temporarily administer the

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British troops have left Kabul, ending the U.K.’s evacuation operation, and its 20-year military involvement in Afghanistan. The U.K. government said about 1,000 troops who have been running an airlift of British nationals and Afghan civilians  departed on military planes from Kabul airport on Saturday, hours after

Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Survivors of last month’s extreme flooding in western Germany have joined first responders, religious leaders and government officials in remembering the more than 180 killed in the disaster and to express hope for the future. Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble, the leader of Germany’s

By SAYED ZIARMAL HASHEMI, RAHIM FAIEZ, JILL LAWLESS and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban forces have sealed off Kabul’s airport to most Afghans as NATO nations wrap up evacuation flights out of Afghanistan. Western leaders acknowledged their withdrawal would mean leaving behind some of their citizens and many Afghans who helped