News

By ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press Despite starring in the blockbuster franchises like “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Zoe Saldaña was too intimidated at first to say yes to a role in Taylor Sheridan’s new series “Special Ops: Lioness.” Saldaña says she has ADD and is dyslexic so she finds the task of learning a

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with his contentious judicial overhaul, despite unprecedented mass protests at home, growing defections by military reservists and appeals from the U.S. president to put the plan on hold. Netanyahu’s message, delivered Thursday in a

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Associated Press NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hasn’t ruled out reviving deadlocked negotiations to resolve Cyprus’ nearly 50-year ethnic division. But on Thursday he again rejected any deal that wouldn’t offer Turkish Cypriots a state of their own in contradiction of a United Nations-sanctioned framework envisioning a federated

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has imposed sanctions on roughly 120 firms and people in an effort to choke off Moscow’s access to products, money and financial channels that support its continued invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions imposed Thursday by the Treasury and State departments target people and companies

By RIO YAMAT and KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A home that Las Vegas police searched this week in connection with the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur is tied to a man long known to investigators, whose nephew had emerged as a suspect shortly after the rapper’s killing. The Las Vegas

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court would have to abide by stronger ethics standards under legislation approved on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, a response to recent revelations about donor-funded trips by justices. The bill faced united opposition from Republicans, who said it could “destroy” the court. The

By MARCIO SANCHEZ Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A tiny neighborhood store in downtown Los Angeles sold the winning ticket for the Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the third largest in the history of the game. The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded Ukraine’s southern cities with drones and missiles for a third consecutive night Thursday, keeping Odesa in the Kremlin’s crosshairs after a bitter dispute over the end of a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to send grain through the key Black Sea port. The strikes

By KARL RITTER Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — A recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Sweden has sparked an angry reaction in Muslim countries and raised questions about why such acts are allowed. There is no law in Sweden specifically prohibiting the burning or desecration of

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan town clerk says he’ll respect a ban on his participation in elections while he faces charges related to election fraud. Republican Stan Grot was notified Thursday that he’s prohibited from holding elections after being charged earlier this week. He’s one of 16 Republicans accused

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Calvin has brought high surf, heavy rain and gusts to parts of Hawaii’s Big Island but left only minor flooding in its wake. By late Wednesday morning, the storm had passed to the west and the National Weather Service called off its tropical storm warning.

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center. Jemaine Cannon, 51, received a lethal injection at 10:01 a.m. and was pronounced dead 12 minutes later at the Oklahoma

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate slipped this week to the lowest level in four weeks, a boost for house hunters facing a market held back by persistently high prices and a near-historic low number of homes for sale. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday

ISABELLA O’MALLEY Temperatures have peaked at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) the entire month of July in Phoenix. Air conditioning, which made modern Phoenix even possible, is a lifeline. When a cloudless sky combines with outdoor temperatures over 100 F, your house turns into an “air fryer” or “broiler,” as the roof

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Police in Kenya say they have been ordered not to report deaths amid demonstrations against the rising cost of living. An independent watchdog says police shot dead at least six people on Wednesday. It also says 27 were shot dead in such protests in previous weeks.