AP National News

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME and GERALD IMRAY Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans are voting in local government elections that will offer an indication if support for the ruling African National Congress has rebounded after waning in recent years. Monday’s municipal elections will decide the composition of councils responsible for providing essential services like water,

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says the Biden administration is already assembling and shipping millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11. The first shots could go into kids’ arms by midweek, and the U.S. has enough vaccine for all 28 million children in the age

CHICAGO (AP) — A judge has suspended a Dec. 31 deadline for Chicago police officers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. But he didn’t interfere with a requirement that officers be regularly tested. Police unions had sought a restraining order against the city of Chicago. Judge Raymond Mitchell says the dispute over getting vaccinations should be

By KEN SWEET and EMILY SWANSON The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Americans’ opinions on the U.S. economy have soured noticeably in the past month, a new poll finds. Just 35% of Americans now call the national economy good, while 65% call it poor, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, ZEKE MILLER and JOSH BOAK Associated Press GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — President Joe Biden says at the U.N. summit that the United States and other developed nations bear much of the responsibility for climate change. He says actions taken this decade to contain climate change will be decisive. Biden is challenging fellow

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — One of musical theater’s most exciting new writing partnerships started with a breakup song. Composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Steven Sater bonded while creating “Ready to Be Done With You,” cementing a collaboration that has now produced a 13-track concept album sung by some of

Elon Musk says he will sell $6 billion worth of Tesla stock and donate it to the United Nations’ food agency if it could show how the money would solve world hunger. The Tesla CEO made the comments Sunday on Twitter after U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley challenged Musk and other billionaires

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Tribal protesters have lifted their weekslong blockade on Sudan’s main seaport and oil pipelines, and reopened roads linking the port to the rest of the country. An official of the Baja tribal council says they have reached a deal with the military to lift the blockade on

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will return to its pre-pandemic form this year, with its route restored through Manhattan, high-flying helium balloons once again pulled by handlers and crowds welcomed back to cheer them on. This year’s parade — the 95th annual — will snap

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, ZEKE MILLER and JOSH BOAK Associated Press GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — President Joe Biden is declaring at the U.N. summit that the actions taken this decade to contain climate change would be decisive. Biden is challenging fellow world leaders gathered in Scotland by asking, “Will we do what is necessary?” The president

WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies with at least 100 workers will be required to give employees paid time off to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and paid sick leave if they have side effects from the shots. That’s according to a Biden administration official who spoke Monday about pending vaccine mandate rules from the Occupational Safety and

By SCOTT BAUER, MICHAEL TARM and AMY FORLITI Associated Press KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has begun with the challenging task of seating jurors who haven’t already made up their minds about the man who shot three people, killing two, during a violent night of protests last summer. Rittenhouse was 17

By SARAH RANKIN and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin are campaigning in many of the same, highly competitive parts of Virginia. Both are trying to secure last minute support in a governor’s race that has captured national attention as a referendum on President Joe Biden’s

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Michelle Obama’s next promotion for her memoir, “Becoming,” will center on the college market. The former first lady will appear Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. with “black-ish” actor Yara Shahidi for a livestream conversations with students from 22 schools around the country. Obama and Shahidi

By ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi students have returned to classrooms for the first time in a year, following the prolonged closure caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Iraq’s Health Ministry has mandated health safety protocols that include obligatory vaccination or weekly PCR tests for teachers, social distancing among students and face masks.

BERLIN (AP) — Authorities say a man in Germany faces a murder investigation after he apparently deliberately drove into a group of schoolchildren, killing an eight-year-old girl and seriously injuring two other girls. Friday’s incident outside a day care center in Witzenhausen, near the central city of Kassel, was initially thought to be an accident.

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Audra McDonald is going from host of the Tony Awards to another stage role. The six-time Tony-winner will return to Broadway in the play “Ohio State Murders” by Adrienne Kennedy, directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. Dates and the creative team will be announced

LONDON (AP) — British authorities are investigating the crash of two passenger trains that left 14 people injured, including a train driver who was seriously hurt. The rear carriage of a train derailed Sunday after “striking an object” as it approached the station in Salisbury in southern England. Network Rail said the derailment knocked out

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippines forces have killed a key communist rebel commander in one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies, in what the military described as a daring raid in the remote south, but what guerrilla leaders said was an ambush. Jorge Madlos, who used the nom de guerre Ka Oris,

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — World leaders are turning up the heat and resorting to end-of-the-world rhetoric in an attempt to bring new urgency to sputtering international climate negotiations. The metaphors were dramatic and mixed at the start of the talks known as COP26 on Monday. For British Prime Minister