Month: August 2021

Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Family and friends of a New Orleans police officer who was shot and killed while vacationing with friends in Houston are gathering to remember him. Officer Everett Briscoe was dining in the patio area of a restaurant with Dyrin “DJ” Riculfy on Saturday when two men armed with guns

By TAMEEM AKHGAR and JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press Salgy Baran got the highest score in all of Afghanistan on her university entrance exams this year, but she has no answers for what comes next. The 18-year-old graduate wants to stay in the country and become a doctor. But as with so many other Afghans, those

By DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — When it opened 2 1/2 years ago near the Hudson River, the 150-foot-tall (46-meter-tall) piece of public art known as the Vessel looked like another surefire Manhattan tourist draw. It’s strange honeycomb of platforms and staircases, partially ringed by skyscrapers, offered striking views of the waterfront

By TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville-based helicopter pilot Joel Boyers had just finished helping his fiancee earn her pilot’s license on Saturday morning, and they were heading home to celebrate, when he received a frantic call from a woman in Pennsylvania. Her brother’s home in Waverly, Tennessee, was underwater and he

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An Afghan couple who arrived in Philadelphia this week navigated the streets of Taliban-controlled Kabul with their six children for three days before making it onto a rescue flight. The 36-year-old father, Mohammad, who asked to be identified only by his first name to protect relatives still

By KEVIN McGILL and JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Ida struck Cuba on Friday and threatened to slam into Louisiana with devastating force over the weekend, prompting evacuations in New Orleans and across the coastal region. Ida intensified rapidly Friday from a tropical storm to a hurricane with top winds of

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Kuulei Perreira-Keawekane could barely breathe when she went to a Hawaii emergency room. Nausea made it difficult for her to stand and her body throbbed with pain. Like many Native Hawaiians, she was not vaccinated against COVID-19. Perreira-Keawekane’s situation highlights the COVID-19 crisis that is gripping

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A rapidly strengthening Tropical Storm Nora is rolling toward a brush at possible hurricane strength along Mexico’s Pacific Coast and the Baja California Peninsula over the weekend. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Nora could bring dangerous flash floods and mudslides through the weekend. Nora may head up into the Gulf

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and ROBERT BURNS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden’s promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate Saturday. The strike came amid what

By PAUL J. WEBER and ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans advanced new voting restrictions Thursday night after months of protests by Democrats, who after returning from a 38-day walkout are now all but out of ways to stop a bill that includes a ban on drive-thru voting and would empower

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday that diplomacy was his first option, but he would consider other options if his effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal fails. Biden made the comments as the two sat down for their first face-to-face meeting