AP National News

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ and ALEXIS TRIBOULARD Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — An all-woman Afghan robotics team known as the “Afghan Dreamers” are now safe in Mexico, but they say they want to help others who remain in their country after the Taliban takeover. The five women, accompanied by one man, arrived Tuesday after travelling

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and JAY REEVES Associated Press Kentucky and Texas have joined a growing list of states that have surpassed their record for hospitalized coronavirus patients. The two states on Wednesday reported the most COVID-19 patients in their hospitals since the pandemic began. At least six other states have already surpassed their records amid

By TAMEEM AKHGAR and JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press Salgy Baran got the highest score in all of Afghanistan on her university entrance exams this year, but she has no answers for what comes next. The 18-year-old graduate wants to stay in the country and become a doctor. But as with so many other Afghans, those

ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP) — An inmate who confessed in court to using a hammer to kill a nurse and correctional officer during an escape attempt at an Iowa prison has been sentenced to life in prison. Thomas Woodard Jr. was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty earlier this month to two counts of first-degree murder, as

AARON MORRISON Associated Press In the nation’s capital on Saturday, multiracial coalitions of civil, human and labor rights leaders are convening rallies and marches to urge passage of federal voter protections that have been eroded since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Satellite marches and rallies are planned for dozens of other cities, including Atlanta,

LONDON (AP) — A Scottish court has dismissed extradition proceedings against a Catalan politician sought by Spain over Catalonia’s failed independence bid. Clara Ponsati was accused of sedition over her role as education minister in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 effort to secede after a referendum that was not sanctioned by the Spanish government. She’s a former

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Blue Origin has launched artwork painted on a capsule and a moon-landing navigation experiment for NASA into space. Thursday’s brief flight from West Texas comes a month after Blue Origin sent founder Jeff Bezos on the company’s first passenger flight. No one was on

By CARLA K. JOHNSON and NICKY FORSTER Associated Press The U.S. is projected to see nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths between now and Dec. 1. That’s the prediction from the nation’s most closely watched forecasting model. But health experts say that toll could be cut in half if nearly everyone wore a mask in public

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois will require all educators from kindergarten through college and health care workers to get COVID-19 vaccines or submit to weekly testing. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday also announced a fresh statewide mandate on wearing masks indoors in response to a spike in cases, particularly in southern

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan didn’t know one another before this year. But the two actors got very familiar very quickly thanks to the new film “Together,” a cutting examination of a failing relationship only held together by their 10-year-old son over a year in the pandemic. Armed with

By ED WHITE Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — A woman fed up with how a Michigan city tracked parking violations has won a major decision from a federal appeals court. Alison Taylor says Saginaw violated the U.S. Constitution by chalking her car tires and gathering information without a search warrant. The appeals court agreed, saying

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Ida has formed in the Caribbean and forecasters say it’s aimed at the U.S. Gulf Coast, prompting Louisiana’s governor to declare a state of emergency and forecasters to announce a hurricane watch for New Orleans. The governor says all the state’s coastline is in the storm’s forecast cone and says

KANKAKEE, Ill. (AP) — Authorities say two men were killed and another was injured in shootings outside a northern Illinois courthouse stemming from a long-running internal gang dispute. Kankakee Police Chief Robin Passwater says the shootings occurred after one of the victims, Victor Andrade, emerged from the Kankakee County Courthouse and was fatally shot by

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — State officials have destroyed the first Asian giant hornet nest of the season, which was located near the town of Blaine along the Canadian border. The Washington state Department of Agriculture said it eradicated the nest on Wednesday. The nest was located in the base

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer The Education Department has announced it will forgive student debt for more than 100,000 borrowers who attended colleges in the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute chain but left before graduating. The agency says it will erase federal loans for borrowers who left the for-profit colleges during an eight-year window before

By KRISTIN M. HALL AP Entertainment Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The music industry is moving toward vaccine mandates for concertgoers, but local and state laws have created murky legal waters for COVID-19 rules in venues. With tour cancellations on the rise and attendance lower than normal, major touring artists are hoping to salvage another

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — A member of the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma whose case led to a landmark decision on criminal jurisdiction in tribal lands has been sentenced to life in a federal prison for sexual abuse of a child. Federal prosecutors in Muskogee announced Wednesday that 72-year-old Jimcy McGirt was sentenced for two counts

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a gunman opened fire at a popular Southern California pier and wounded two people before police killed him. The shooting Wednesday night at the Redondo Beach Pier complex sent people stampeding to get away, and police tweeted for people inside businesses on and near the pier to stay

MILLINOCKET, Maine (AP) — The U.S. Department of Defense says the remains of a World War II pilot whose body was lost in Europe’s Adriatic Sea have been recovered and will be buried in his home state of Maine. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Thursday that U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Ernest N.

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina prosecutor whose office was run for decades by a prominent legal family who had two members killed in a shooting has excused himself from any prosecution in the case. In a letter August 11, Solicitor Duffie Stone turned the case of who killed