News

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden will promote women and youth empowerment and plans to attend a royal wedding in Jordan during an upcoming trip to the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. The first lady’s office says she’ll depart Wednesday on a six-day trip that will take her to Jordan,

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican cardinal on trial in the Holy See’s big financial crimes case has complained he can’t properly defend himself because prosecutors have withheld key evidence. Cardinal Angelo Becciu spoke out in court after Judge Giuseppe Pignatone rejected his lawyers’ latest attempt to force prosecutors to turn

By SUSIE BLANN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities say Russia’s southern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine came under attack from Ukrainian artillery fire, hours after two drones struck a Russian city in a region next to the Crimea Peninsula. The Kremlin’s forces meanwhile struck a clinic in Dnipro on Friday, killing two and

By EDWIN KINDZEKA MOKI Associated Press YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — The government in Cameroon says that at least 19 people have been killed when a passenger bus collided with a truck. The crash happened on the Douala-Edea road near a police checkpoint and the injured were taken to hospitals in the capital. Police have blamed

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus’ Supreme Court on Friday upheld an eight-year prison sentence that was handed to a journalist and prominent member of the country’s sizable Polish minority. The Court on Friday rejected the appeal of Andrzej Poczobut, a 50-year-old reporter with Gazeta Wyborcza, an influential Polish newspaper. Poczobut

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army veteran who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a military-style formation with fellow members of the Oath Keepers was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in prison, a day after the far-right extremist group’s founder received an 18-year prison

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service can keep using chemical retardant to fight wildfires, despite finding that the practice pollutes streams in western states in violation of federal law. The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Montana came after environmentalists

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa teachers will be banned from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through grade six, and all books depicting sex acts will be removed from school libraries, under a bill signed into law by Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Her office announced

By ANDREW DeMILLO, ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) — As he vies for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting a series of measures he has pushed that have led to an upswing in banned or restricted books — not just in Florida schools but in an

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A pod of killer whales repeatedly rammed a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar this week, damaging it enough to require Spanish rescuers to come to the aid of its four crew members. It was the latest episode in a perplexing trend in the behavior of

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has offered military support to Somalia’s army in the war against terrorism. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks Friday with his Somali counterpart Abshir Omar Jama in Moscow that Russia was ready to supply the Somali army with military equipment. The offer further underscores Russia’s growing interest in the

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A college baseball player died after he was struck in the face when a makeshift dugout he was helping to dismantle collapsed on him this week. Angel Mercado, 19, was a middle infielder who had just completed his freshman season at Division II Central Penn College. He had been playing in

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stripped one of the nation’s largest drug distributors of its license to sell highly addictive painkillers Friday after determining it failed to flag thousands of suspicious orders at the height of the opioid crisis. The action against Morris & Dickson Co. that

By DAMIAN J. TROISE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street Friday, led by more gains in technology stocks as another chipmaker reported strong demand related to artificial intelligence. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 240 points, or 0.7%, at 33,003 as

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian court data shows that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is appealing a three-month extension of his detention on espionage charges. Gershkovich, a 31-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested in March on a reporting trip in Russia. He, his employer and the U.S. government have denied the charges. A Moscow court system