National News

FILE - Members from the National Guard working as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force conduct a com...

Memphis residents claim harassment, arrest and abuse by Trump-ordered Memphis Safe Task Force

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Four Memphis residents are suing U.S. and Tennessee officials, saying they have been harassed, arrested and physically mistreated for engaging in First Amendment protected activities by observing and recording law enforcement agents in their city. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court targets the Tennessee National Guard. Since late September, hundreds […]
6 months ago
The United States and Chinese flags are flown outside a hotel expected to be used for U.S. Presiden...

US and China seek to repair damage from tariff war that sent trade into a freefall

WASHINGTON (AP) — During a tumultuous 2025, the United States and China proved how much they could hurt each other in a trade war. Now Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are meeting in Beijing to repair some of the damage. A decade of conflict between the world’s two biggest economies has left U.S.-China trade […]
6 months ago
FILE - Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol, Dec. 17, 2...

Fani Willis vows to sue over new Georgia law that removes party labels in Atlanta-area elections

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law requiring nonpartisan elections for most local officials in the five most populous counties in the Atlanta area, leading Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and another Democratic prosecutor to threaten to sue over the bill’s constitutionality. Kemp signed the bill privately Tuesday, the final day […]
6 months ago
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in New York. (Stev...

Jury deliberations begin in Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial in New York

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors started deliberating Wednesday in rape retrial, weighing an unresolved piece of a case that epitomized the #MeToo movement. The jury is tasked with deciding whether the former movie mogul raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel on March 18, 2013. Mann, 40, testified that the two had […]
6 months ago
A bald eaglet raises its head from a nest in Park No. 597 on the south side of Chicago, Tuesday, Ma...

Bald eagle hatchlings spotted in a Chicago park may be the city’s first for more than a century

CHICAGO (AP) — Two bald eagles hatchlings have been spotted in a nest in a Chicago park in what city officials believe is the raptors’ first successful wild breeding in the Windy City in more than a century. Chicago Park District officials announced last week that bird-watchers observed nesting activity starting in February in Park […]
6 months ago
Kevin Warsh testifies during his nomination hearing to be a member and chairman of the Federal Rese...

Senate is set to confirm Trump pick Warsh as chairman of the Federal Reserve, following Powell

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday is set to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, bringing new leadership to the world’s most powerful central bank at a fraught moment for the global economy. Warsh’s confirmation was thrown into doubt in recent months after Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of […]
6 months ago
Dr. Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator, speaks at an event about mat...

Trump administration freezes new Medicare enrollments for hospice and home health agencies

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration said Wednesday it is expanding its sweeping fraud-busting initiative in federal health programs with a nationwide six-month freeze on any new Medicare enrollments by hospice and home health agencies. The moratorium will temporarily stop all new providers in these categories from signing up for reimbursement from Medicare, the […]
6 months ago
FILE - Disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh arrives in court in Beaufort, S.C., Sept. 14, 2023. (AP Pho...

South Carolina Supreme Court overturns Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions in deaths of wife and son

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder convictions and life sentence of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh in the shooting deaths of his wife and younger son. In a unanimous ruling, the justices said the conduct by the court clerk “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility” by suggesting to jurors his […]
6 months ago
FILE - The overdose-reversal drug Narcan is displayed during training for employees of the Public H...

US overdose deaths fell again in 2025, but some worry about policy and drug supply changes

NEW YORK (AP) — About 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year — about 14% fewer than the previous year, according to preliminary government data. It was the third straight annual drop, making it the longest decline in decades, according to federal data released Wednesday. The 2025 total is about the same as the […]
6 months ago
Protestors fill the halls in the Louisiana Legislature in Baton Rouge during a Senate committee hea...

Louisiana advances plan to eliminate majority-Black US House district after court ruling

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Republican senators in Louisiana advanced a plan Wednesday to eliminate one of two majority-Black, Democratic-held congressional seats following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state’s U.S. House map as an illegal racial gerrymander. The early morning Senate committee vote came after hours of impassioned testimony from Black […]
6 months ago
FILE - Todd Lyons, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs. Enforcement (ICE), speaks d...

Former private prison executive David Venturella will become ICE’s acting leader

WASHINGTON (AP) — David Venturella, a former executive at a private prison operator, will serve as the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Trump administration says, after the agency’s current leader steps down at the end of the month. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said late Tuesday that Venturella […]
6 months ago
Customers shop in the produce section of a grocery store on Monday, May 11, 2026, in Portland, Ore....

Producer prices shot up 6%, adding to pressure on companies to raise prices for customers

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale inflation came in hot last month. Producer prices rose 6% from a year earlier, most since December 2022, as the 10-week Iran war pushed up energy prices and put pressure on companies to pass along higher costs to consumers. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — […]
6 months ago
FILE - Alex Soros, on behalf of his father George Soros, stands in the East Room of the White House...

Soros’ Open Society Foundations commit $30M to groups fighting antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate

NEW YORK (AP) — Open Society Foundations, the family philanthropy founded by hedge fund billionaire George Soros, is putting $30 million toward groups fighting antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate over the next three years. The major human rights funder pledged Wednesday to strengthen interfaith partnerships and protect those facing heightened threats in response to the rising […]
6 months ago
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One, Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at Beijing Capital Intern...

The Latest: Trump arrives in China to meet with Xi in Beijing

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for his highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a restless moment for a world worried about war, trade and artificial intelligence. The visit occurs at a delicate moment for Trump’s presidency, as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the U.S. […]
6 months ago
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr....

AP Exclusive: Senate Democrats plan to force votes on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rollbacks

NEW YORK (AP) — Senate Democrats plan to force several votes on the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a maneuver aimed at making vulnerable Republicans take politically difficult votes in an election year. The plan to hold the votes Wednesday, shared exclusively with The Associated Press, is tied to rule changes […]
6 months ago
FILE - Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin speaks during an interview with The Associate...

Inside the furor plaguing Democratic National Committee leader Ken Martin

NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats keep winning at the ballot box. And yet Ken Martin, the man leading the Democratic National Committee, is facing a crisis of confidence among party officials who are increasingly concerned about the health of their political machine barely a year into his term. Major donors aren’t giving. Liberal influencers are […]
6 months ago
Evan Duke, a 30-year-old bartender who lives in Raleigh, N.C., works at the Pearl & Peril, March 10...

Tax cuts collide with inflation as voters weigh Trump’s economy in the midterms

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Standing behind a downtown bar, Evan Duke smiled when he thought about no longer paying federal income tax on the hundreds of dollars in tips he earns on a busy night pouring beers and mixing drinks. But the 30-year-old said he cannot afford health insurance and worries about how higher costs […]
6 months ago
A person looks at the fresh fish at a grocery store Monday, May 11, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP P...

US grocery prices rose in April, but gas spikes weren’t the only reason

Americans paid more for their groceries last month, but high gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war were only one of the reasons why. Prices for food eaten at home rose 2.9% in April compared to the same month a year earlier, according to government figures released Tuesday. That was the highest year-over-year inflation rate […]
6 months ago
This combination of images shows actors, from left, Kumail Nanjiani, Sandra Oh, and Bowen Yang. (AP...

Sandra Oh, Kumail Nanjiani and Bowen Yang are in a HBO doc on being Asian American, Pacific Islander

Director Eugene Yi has always been interested in the term Asian American and Pacific Islander and which ethnicities it includes. “When we’re talking about Asian Americans or Asian people in the U.S., oftentimes it’s people who might look like you and me, and maybe not people who look like (New York City Mayor) Zohran Mamdani,” […]
6 months ago
Republican candidate for governor Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Secretary of State, appears before ...

Brad Raffensperger became famous by defying Trump. Now he wants Georgia Republicans to forget that

CHAMBLEE, Ga. (AP) — Being as well known as Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger would be a dream for many ambitious politicians. “I think most people by now know who I am,” the Republican candidate for governor joked Tuesday as someone put up signs with his name before a speech in the Atlanta suburb […]
6 months ago
FILE -Kouri Richins looks on during her murder trial at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City, ...

Utah woman who published a book on grief after husband’s death to be sentenced for his murder

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later found guilty of killing him finds out Wednesday how long she will spend in prison. Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband’s cocktail with five […]
6 months ago
Sixth graders read a passage and give constructive feedback to their partners during Nancy Barajas'...

Kids are in a ‘reading recession,’ as test scores continue to decline

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) — Before every important test, teacher Nancy Barajas dims the lights, turns on a disco ball and blasts music from her playlist. Her sixth graders dance together as a “pre-celebration” to boost their confidence, then take their exam. Lately, there’s been a lot to celebrate in elementary schools in Modesto, California. Both […]
6 months ago
FILE - Spencer Pratt speaks during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" at Fox News headquarters, Jan. ...

From ‘The Hills’ villain to LA mayoral contender: Spencer Pratt’s viral video-fueled campaign

On the reality television show “The Hills,” Spencer Pratt played something of a villain, blamed for spreading a salacious rumor and driving a wedge between his girlfriend and her best friend. Pratt is casting himself as a hero in his latest venture, a bid to be mayor of Los Angeles, in which he’s promising to […]
6 months ago

Missouri man charged after bomb-making tutorials were allegedly used in New Orleans attack

Federal prosecutors charged a Missouri man on Tuesday with allegedly sharing instructional bomb-making videos on social media, which were eventually used by the man who killed 14 people and injured dozens in New Orleans on New Year’s Day in 2025. Investigators believe Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street, downloaded the tutorials […]
6 months ago