Associated Press The United Nations is calling for a flurry of efforts to reduce the human toll from soaring and searing temperatures in what it calls an extreme heat epidemic. Thursday’s report from 10 UN agencies and the secretary-general comes on the heels of three of the hottest days ever measured. Europe’s Copernicus climate service
Continue ReadingAssociated Press PIPER CITY, Ill. (AP) — In Scott Saffer’s science classroom, kids bake cookies in a decked-out kitchen, care for fish, turtles and a snake, and have access to a workshop full of tools. As the gifted enrichment coordinator at Tri-Point School District, Saffer is living his teaching dream, one he knew he’d need
Continue ReadingAssociated Press After NextEra proposed a wind farm in Greeley County, Nebraska two years ago, Robert Bernt, a dairy farm owner in the area, helped to mobilize community members against the idea. His group held town hall meetings and ran ads on the radio, arguing the wind farm would “fragment” the community, by lowering property
Continue ReadingAssociated Press Adding a citizenship question to the census reduces the participation of people who aren’t U.S. citizens, particularly those from Latin American countries. That’s according to a new study released last month. The study says noncitizens are less likely to fill out the census questionnaire if there is a citizenship question, exacerbating undercounts of
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Due to warmer temperatures and increasing urbanization, the market for cooling systems is expanding in Africa. But the chemicals that make air conditioning and refrigeration work are very potent at heating the planet, and an older one called R-22, which is still very common in Africa, is also harmful
Continue ReadingNEW DELHI (AP) — India and Britain are launching a new technology security initiative expected to boost economic growth and deepen collaboration on critical technologies. The two countries announced their collaboration on Wednesday, during the first official visit to India by the new British foreign minister. Foreign Secretary David Lammy held talks with his counterpart,
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BUNDIBUGYO, Uganda (AP) — A nonprofit group in rural Uganda says domestic violence is so widespread that it’s hard to find a woman who isn’t affected. It has launched a campaign to educate communities and also to instill fear in abusers. An accused perpetrator is asked to sign a “reconciliation form” in which
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The State Election Board in Georgia once toiled in relative obscurity. Now it hosts raucous meetings where public comment lasts for hours and attendees loudly heckle board members and speakers. The shift highlights how election administration has become scrutinized and politicized nationwide. Republican Party leaders take credit for placing a
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MIAMI (AP) — Thousands of secret law enforcement documents obtained by The Associated Press offer a never-before-seen window into a culture of corruption among U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents who parlayed the agency’s shadowy money laundering operations into a worldwide pursuit of binge drinking and illicit sex. Among the documents is a recovered
Continue ReadingAssociated Press UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A former school police officer who was part of the slow law enforcement response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of failing to take action as a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MIAMI (AP) — In a WhatsApp chat that quickly devolved into depravity, a group of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents boasted about their “world debauchery tour” of “boozing and whoring” on the government’s dime. They swapped lurid images of their latest sexual conquests. And at one point they even joked about “forcible anal
Continue ReadingTAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A strong typhoon made landfall on China’s southeastern coast on Thursday evening after sweeping across the nearby island of Taiwan, where it caused landslides and flooding in low-lying areas and left three dead. Typhoon Gaemi had swept up the western Pacific, intensifying seasonal rains earlier in the week in the Philippines,
Continue ReadingAssociated Press CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (AP) — Behind a church surrounded by rolling prairie on the outskirts of this Colorado town sits a donated RV that Joe Ridenour called home for a year after he lost his job during the pandemic. Being able to live in the RV, he said, allowed him to avoid returning
Continue ReadingAssociated Press HOUSTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has blasted Republicans’ views on gun control and public education in a speech to the American Federation of Teachers. The union was the first to formally endorse her candidacy since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her as his successor. In her
Continue ReadingAssociated Press When Jennifer Wexton rises Thursday to speak on the House floor, something she has done countless times before, the congresswoman will be using a voice she thought was gone forever. After a rare neurological disorder robbed her of her ability to speak clearly, Wexton has been given her voice back with the help
Continue ReadingAssociated Press When Jennifer Wexton rose Thursday to speak on the House floor, something she has done countless times before, the congresswoman used a voice she thought was gone forever. After a rare neurological disorder robbed her of her ability to speak clearly, Wexton has been given her voice back with the help of a
Continue ReadingAssociated Press A plan to help shore up the Colorado River by cutting off water to alfalfa fields in California’s crop-rich Imperial Valley is finding support among water managers and farmers. The Imperial Irrigation District has offered to pay farmers to temporarily shut off irrigation to forage crops including alfalfa during the summer. District water
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says that Russian and Chinese bombers flying together for the first time in international airspace off the coast of Alaska is a new show of expanding military cooperation and it raises concerns. The flights were not seen as a threat, and the bombers were tracked
Continue ReadingAssociated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Some U.S. states are scrapping investments in Chinese companies amid tensions between countries with the world’s largest economies. Indiana, Florida and Missouri all have taken actions requiring their public retirement systems to divest from certain Chinese companies. A similar measure was vetoed this year in Arizona. The National
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said she urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal soon with Hamas so that dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza since Oct. 7 can return home. Harris said she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu
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