UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have detained two Afghan members of the U.N. political mission in the country, the United Nations said Wednesday, The Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence detained the two staffers in the western city of Herat on Sunday, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told U.N. reporters. He said the U.N. […]
An Army Apache attack helicopter crashed in a central Texas field on Wednesday, killing both people on board and sparking a wildfire that forced several homes to be evacuated, sheriff’s official said. Officials from nearby Fort Hood announced that the AH-64 Apache helicopter had crashed. Cliff Coleman, spokesman for the Bell County Sheriff’s office confirmed […]
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers gloves that deliver painful electric shocks faced criticism Wednesday from Democratic elected officials and civil rights advocates, who called it unnecessary and cruel. ICE plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to outfit officers and agents with “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” according to a […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice has charged nearly a dozen people with participating in a multimillion-dollar scheme to help hundreds of Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain green cards through sham marriages to U.S. citizens, officials said Wednesday. American citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to enter into bogus marriages with immigrants seeking lawful […]
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A small Texas law firm with ties to the Trump administration declined a $150 million federal contract it was offered to represent migrant children traveling alone to the U.S., authorities said Wednesday, raising long-term questions about who would represent them. The administration last week announced plans to award the contract to […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave at month’s end, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. Leavitt, 28, just recently returned to the White House after taking a brief leave for the birth of her second child in May. Leavitt, who served Trump as a […]
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A small Kansas town has agreed to pay $850,000 to a former reporter at its weekly newspaper to end her federal lawsuit over a police raid of the paper’s offices in 2023 that ignited a national furor over press freedom. Now-retired Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn said in her lawsuit […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Southern Poverty Law Center official has been charged in the Department of Justice’s broader criminal case against the Alabama-based civil rights group, a lawyer for the ex-official said Wednesday. Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who served as the law center’s chief financial officer, was expected to make her initial […]
Washington (AP) — U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians, according to a Pentagon review of the attacks, which comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties during military campaigns under the Trump administration. The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Across the U.S., calls to “tax the rich” have become potent political slogans. But even in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s New York, getting the wealthy to pay more isn’t playing out as smoothly as supporters hoped. What seemed at first like an easy idea — slapping a new tax on people who […]
A municipal judge’s appointment in a small Mississippi Delta town has drawn social media backlash, from internet trolls and a few Mississippi politicians, because she is Muslim. But those who know Assma Ali, including a law professor, say the U.S. native is qualified and an upstanding member of Mississippi’s legal community. “We have people from […]
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ___ Aug. 10 The Washington Post says America’s budget is on the precipice of catastrophe The budget of the federal government is the largest of any organization in human history. It’s larger than the entire economy of every foreign country except China. And it mostly […]
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Jury selection began Wednesday in Meta’s federal trial over claims its platforms have harmed youth mental health and track children in violation of federal law. The trial is scheduled to begin next week and is expected to last six to eight weeks. Meta faces 29 states in the federal multidistrict lawsuit […]
Lawyers for the man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk say he shouldn’t be eligible for the death penalty because the shooter “hit the intended target” during the assassination last year at a Utah event attended by thousands of people. Defendant Tyler Robinson’s attorneys say prosecutors have not proven that others who attended Kirk’s […]
HOPKINS, Minn. (AP) — A man killed his partner and their child at a Minnesota home daycare on Wednesday before taking his own life, police said. Authorities said other children were at the daycare in Hopkins, but none were injured, and all have been reunited with their parents. Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson said another […]
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — David Crowley’s razor-thin primary win over a democratic socialist in swing state Wisconsin sets up a match against a congressman who has voted with President Donald Trump 100% of the time, a dream scenario for Democrats and a potential nightmare for Republicans. Crowley overcame Francesca Hong in dramatic, narrow fashion in […]
MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Cristobal formed Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean well west of the Azores, forecasters said. There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said, and the storm was forecast to dissipate on Thursday. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, the NHC initiated advisories on Potential […]
Google on Wednesday unveiled its latest lineup of Pixel phones, with slimmer cameras that include more a powerful zoom and artificial intelligence features designed to help users accomplish things with fewer taps and swipes. With the improvements, the search giant hopes to give users a reason to buy new models and expand the number of […]
President Donald Trump says he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted didn’t scare him. Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow […]
NAPPANEE, Ind. (AP) — Hoosier cabinets — the original all-in-one kitchen — were once a mainstay in early 20th-century American homes. Though they have long since fallen out of fashion, a giant, climbable replica has been unveiled outdoors in a northern Indiana town to celebrate the cabinet’s place in kitchen history. The 30-foot (9-meter) model […]
CHICAGO (AP) — First responders and utility crews worked overnight into Wednesday clearing roads from trees and wires that were downed during severe storms in the Midwest that unleashed tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding while knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers. A 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on […]
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Parent-teacher conferences can conjure a familiar scene: adults crammed into child-size chairs, listening to teachers run through a list of students’ achievements and struggles. For many families, they can also mean frustration. Today’s school conferences are sometimes 15 to 20 minutes, with little time for parents to ask their own questions. […]
Doctors say President Donald Trump’s new executive order on vaccines is misguided and likely to stoke fear and confusion among parents at a time when measles is raging, immunization rates are falling and children are heading back to school. “Many families are finishing up that back-to-school checklist, and among those things is the medical checkup […]
