By Harmeet Kaur, CNN (CNN) — Some of the nation’s brightest young minds are putting their knowledge of the English language to the test at the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. The 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee kicked off on Tuesday in National Harbor, Maryland, with 231 students from around the country and other parts
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The supreme leader of the Taliban met in Afghanistan with Qatar’s prime minister this month. The meeting May 12 is the first-such publicly known meeting between the Taliban’s reclusive leader and a foreign official. Al Jazeera English reported on the meeting Wednesday. It said Haibatullah Akhunzada met Qatar’s Sheikh
Continue Reading By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the U.S. Border Patrol announced that he’s retiring, after seeing through a major policy shift that seeks to clamp down on illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border following the end of Title 42 coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Chief Raul Ortiz said Tuesday in a note
Continue Reading By ALBERT AJI Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Two Palestinian officials say a blast at a military base has killed five militants of a Syria-backed Palestinian faction in eastern Lebanon and wounded 10 others. The faction said an Israeli airstrike was behind the explosion, but that account was disputed by an Israeli official, speaking
Continue Reading By JILL COLVIN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch his second campaign for the Republican nomination for president next week in New Hampshire. Christie is planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
Continue Reading PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A student who says he got goosebumps the first time he played the violin in an orchestra is this year’s recipient of a college scholarship given in honor of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Geivens Dextra of Pittsfield High School will use the $2,000 Daniel Pearl Berkshire Scholarship to pursue
Continue Reading By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — A spokesman for Sudan’s military says it has suspended its participation in talks with a paramilitary force it has been battling for weeks. The official said Wednesday that the move is a protest against the Rapid Support Forces’ “repeated violations” of the humanitarian cease-fire, including the continued
Continue Reading By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government has hailed an era of cheaper Australian wine and New Zealand kiwi fruit as free-trade agreements with the two southern hemisphere nations took effect. U.K. Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said Wednesday’s start of the first all-new trade deals Britain has struck since
Continue Reading By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum has denounced a political spot by Poland’s ruling party that uses the theme of the Nazi German extermination camp to discourage participation in an upcoming anti-government march. The state-run museum attacked “instrumentalization of the tragedy” of the 1.1 million people were murdered
Continue Reading By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — When child welfare workers and police knocked on Sarah Perkins’ and Joshua Sabey’s front door well past midnight one weekend last summer, the parents were shocked to learn the state of Massachusetts had come to take their two young sons. It’s the kind of harrowing scene that
Continue Reading By Taylor Romine, CNN (CNN) — A California Appeals Court has paved the way for Leslie Van Houten, a former Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer, to be granted parole – but a lengthy legal battle likely lies ahead. The court’s ruling reverses a 2020 decision from California Gov. Gavin Newsom denying Van Houten’s release,
Continue Reading By Annette Choi, CNN (CNN) — Most educators leaving the field aren’t retiring or being laid off — they’re quitting. Nearly half of the public education employees — working in elementary, secondary and postsecondary institutions — who left the profession in March resigned, according to preliminary numbers released in May by the US Bureau of
Continue Reading By Rebekah Riess and Nouran Salahieh, CNN (CNN) — A South Carolina convenience store owner has been charged with murder after allegedly chasing a 14-year-old boy and shooting him in the back after suspecting the boy of shoplifting, authorities said. The child, Cyrus Carmack-Belton, had gone into the store in Columbia around 8 p.m. Sunday
Continue Reading By Dakin Andone, CNN (CNN) — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Wednesday in the trial of the former school resource officer who remained outside a Parkland, Florida, high school as a gunman massacred 17 people, marking the rare prosecution of a law enforcement officer over his response to a mass shooting. Scot Peterson –
Continue Reading By AJ Willingham, CNN (CNN) — One-time Silicon Valley darling Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison Tuesday to begin serving out her 11-year sentence after being convicted on multiple charges of defrauding investors. Her life in prison will be quite a change, with mandatory jobs, very early mornings and no black turtlenecks. Here’s what else you
Continue Reading JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s intelligence agency has confirmed that a retired agent was among four people killed in Italy when a sudden storm sank a houseboat hired for a pleasure cruise during weekend on a northern Italian lake. The Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement Wednesday on behalf of the Mossad saying the unnamed
Continue Reading By MICHAEL CANTU Edmunds Designing and producing electric vehicles is a tough business, but some startup companies have already started selling EVs hoping to become as successful as Tesla. Edmunds checks out the top EV startups in this week’s Behind the Wheel Column for The Associated Press.
Continue Reading WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — Namibia’s state broadcaster says 13 people from the same family have died after eating porridge that authorities believe became toxic when it was mixed with a fermented substance left over from a homemade alcoholic beverage. The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation reported that four more people are in a critical condition in the
Continue Reading By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — United Nations appeals judges have significantly expanded the convictions of two allies of late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, holding them responsible for involvement in crimes across Bosnia and in one town in Croatia as members of a joint criminal plan to drive out non-Serbs from
Continue Reading BEIJING (AP) — China’s commerce minister met Tesla Ltd. CEO Elon Musk and promised to support the development of foreign companies. Musk joined a series of CEOs from global companies including Apple Inc. who have met with Cabinet officials this year following the end of anti-virus controls that blocked most travel into China. The ruling
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