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By EDNA TARIGAN and MADDIE BURAKOFF Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Under a cloudless sky, 20,000 eclipse chasers crowded a tiny outpost to watch a rare solar eclipse plunge part of Australia’s northwest coast into brief midday darkness Thursday while temporarily cooling the tropical heat. The remote tourist town of Exmouth, with fewer than

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Not long ago, some were predicting more and more films would be diverted from theaters and sent straight into homes. Moviegoing was destined to die, they said. Not only has that forecast fallen flat, the opposite is happening in some cases. Amazon and Apple are

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press Move over “Dick and Jane.” A different approach to teaching kids how to read is on the rise. For decades, two schools of thought have clashed on how to best teach children to read, with passionate backers on each side of the so-called reading wars. The battle has reached into

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has told Japanese officials the United States hopes to deepen trade ties as it strengthens and expands economic security cooperation with its Asian allies and partners. Tai is visiting Tokyo after stopping in the Philippine capital, Manila. The United States, Japan and

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares were mostly lower in Asia in narrow trading Thursday after they barely budged on Wall Street following a mixed batch of earnings reports from big U.S. companies. U.S. futures and oil prices also declined. Japan reported that its trade deficit narrowed in March as exports rose more than

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — A ban on dozens of semi-automatic rifles cleared the Washington state Legislature on Wednesday and the governor is expected to sign it into law. The high-powered firearms — once banned nationwide — are now the weapon of choice among young men responsible for most of the

COLE, Okla. (AP) — Strong storms including tornadoes, strong winds and hail are moving through parts of the Central U.S. The National Weather Service began issuing tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings Wednesday evening in Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa with forecasters warning people to find shelter. Central Oklahoma was seeing multiple tornadoes with damage reported. KFOR-TV

By MADDIE BURAKOFF AP Science Writer A rare solar eclipse will cross over remote parts of Australia, Indonesia and East Timor on Thursday. The lucky few in the path of the hybrid solar eclipse will either get plunged into the darkness of a total eclipse or they’ll see a “ring of fire” as the sun

By AHMED AL-HAJ and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A crowd apparently spooked by gunfire and an electrical explosion stampeded at an event to distribute financial aid during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Yemen’s capital late Wednesday, killing at least 78 people and injuring at least 73 others, according to

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal watchdog is investigating whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under chief Anne Milgram improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire her past associates. That’s according to several people familiar with the probe who spoke to The Associated Press. The

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and SIBI ARASU Associated Press India’s population will surpass China’s by the middle of this year. Unless it’s happened already? Demographers are unsure when exactly India will take the title from China as the most populous nation in the world because they are relying on estimates. But they know it’s going to

By KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India is on track to surpass China by mid-2023 as the world’s most populous nation, United Nations data said Wednesday, raising questions about whether a booming, young Indian population will fuel economic growth for years to come. While India’s 254 million people between ages 15 and