AP National News

By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer Just as school doors are reopening across the U.S., children are filling hospital beds instead of classrooms in record numbers, sick with COVID-19. The surging virus is spreading anxiety and causing turmoil and infighting among parents, administrators and politicians around the U.S., especially in states like Florida and Texas,

LONDON (AP) — A 13-day hunger strike by former Nepalese Gurkha soldiers has ended after the British government agreed to enter talks with the Nepalese Embassy over veterans’ pensions. The agreement came a day after a 60-year-old Gurkha veteran was admitted to the hospital with heart problems. Gurkha soldiers, have served the British Army for

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A pair of new lawsuits contend the office of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is illegally delaying the release of public records related to its $26 million, no-bid coronavirus testing contract. Reynolds and her office’s public records custodian are the latest officials to be accused

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer “Candyman” was always more than a surface level horror film. The 1992 film dealt with class, race and trauma. But almost 30 years later, a new version, in theaters Aug. 27, reclaims and recenters the narrative around the Black experience. The original drew some criticisms at the time but

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has announced an agreement with Qatar to resume aid payments to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip. The step is aimed at easing tensions with the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory in the wake of an 11-day war in May. Qatar has provided hundreds of millions of

By MARK STEVENSON and EVENS SANON Associated Press LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — Officials say two doctors at hospitals treating earthquake victims in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince have been kidnapped, forcing one of the institutions to declare a two-day shutdown in protest. The abductions Tuesday and Wednesday dealt a major blow to attempts to control

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma has once again stopped short of offering an apology or acknowledgment of responsibility in the opioid crisis. Mortimer D.A. Sackler testified in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Thursday and was the third member of the wealthy family to testify in the confirmation

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The number of U.S. tourists who came to Florida in the second quarter of this year has returned to pre-pandemic levels, though the international market is still lagging. Figures released Thursday show 30.6 million domestic visitors came to Florida from April through June of this year. That’s a 6% increase over

By DAVID PORTER Associated Press A former women’s basketball player at Seton Hall has been added to a lawsuit filed against the school by former men’s player Myles Powell. Both Powell and Jasmine Smith claim their knee injuries were misdiagnosed. In an amended complaint filed Tuesday, Smith alleges team staff told her she’d suffered a

By DON BABWIN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago police officer who was fatally shot this month has been remembered for her compassion with stories of kindnesses, big and small. At a 90-minute funeral service on Thursday, speakers told of how Officer Ella French rushed a one-year-old gunshot victim to the hospital, and ferried

By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators have sharpened their antitrust attack against Facebook. They are alleging in a revised complaint that the social network giant pursued a laser-focused strategy to “buy or bury” innovative rivals to suppress competition. It is the second try by the Federal Trade Commission. A federal

HENRICO, Va. (AP) — Hundreds of workers at a Mondelez International bakery in Virginia are on strike, seeking to block the company’s contract negotiation concession demands and end what the union calls the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that about 400 workers from the Henrico plant started striking Monday. The plant

By TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A key accuser at the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial has resumed testimony, weeping when she was asked to read from a journal entry describing how he allegedly beat and choked her the last time they were together. Jerhonda Pace is the first government witness. She told

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer The number incidents involving unruly airline passengers is growing, and so are the fines imposed by federal safety officials. The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it has proposed fines against 34 more passengers, pushing the total of potential penalties to more than $1 million this year. That’s a record.

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway is down right now, struggling to reopen during the pandemic. But it has been down before and gotten back up. That’s the message of “On Broadway,” a new documentary celebrating the Great White Way. The 85-minute film traces how Broadway’s fortunes have gone up

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italian police say one of Italy’s most wanted men has been arrested in Dubai. They said on Thursday that the alleged cocaine trafficker suspected of having bought two stolen Van Gogh paintings on the black market was arrested on Aug. 4. Raffaele Imperiale is being held in

By DIARLEI RODRIGUES and MARCELO SILVA DE SOUSA SAO JOAO DA BARRA, Brazil (AP) — Over the past half century, the Atlantic Ocean has been slowly and relentlessly consuming Atafona, part of the Sao Joao da Barra municipality that is 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Rio de Janeiro’s capital and home to 36,000 people. The

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer The Biden administration says it will automatically erase student loan debt for more than 300,000 Americans with disabilities that leave them unable to earn significant incomes. The Education Department says the move will wipe out more than $5.8 billion in debt, and it marks the start of a broader

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister is vowing that his country will block migrants who have been seeking to enter from neighboring Belarus. Poland accuses the authoritarian government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending the migrants across its border creating a humanitarian crisis. The prime minister said Thursday that, “(the migrants) are people

BERLIN (AP) — A leading member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc has called for the United States to provide funding and shelter to those fleeing Afghanistan now. The governor of Bavaria said Thursday that the U.S. bore the main responsibility for the current situation because of what he called Washington’s “in parts