AP National News

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX shipment of ants, avocados and a human-sized robotic arm rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday. The delivery — due to arrive Monday — is the company’s 23rd for NASA in just under a decade. A recycled Falcon rocket blasted into

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer TOKYO (AP) — Afghan athletes Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli have arrived in Tokyo, via what’s been described as a harrowing journey from Kabul to Paris, to compete in the Paralympics. But for now, they are sequestered in the Paralympics Village alongside Tokyo Bay. Officials say they will not

By WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of Palestinians gathered Sunday night along the separation fence with Israel, setting tires on fire and throwing explosives as Gaza’s Hamas rulers pressed ahead with a campaign aimed at pressuring Israel to ease a stifling blockade of the territory. One protester was moderately wounded by Israeli

By DARKO BANDIC Associated Press DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AP) — Beaches along Croatia’s Adriatic Sea coastline are swarming with people. Guided tours are fully booked, restaurants are packed and sailboats were chartered well in advance. Summer tourism has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations in Croatia this year. Once fearful that the coronavirus pandemic would discourage

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer “Dune” is just one of the high-profile premieres coming to 78th Venice International Film Festival, which begins Wednesday on the Lido with new films from acclaimed directors like Jane Campion, Ridley Scott, Pedro Almodóvar, Paolo Sorrentino, Paul Schrader and Edgar Wright. Stars including Ben Affleck, Kristen Stewart, Penelope Cruz,

REBECCA SANTANA and MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Southern Louisiana’s hospitals, already packed with coronavirus patients from a fourth surge of the virus, were dealing Sunday with another challenge — the howling Category 4 hurricane pounding the coast. Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Lafourche Parish, near where Ida made landfall,

By REBECCA SANTANA, KEVIN McGILL and JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Ida blasted ashore Sunday as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., knocking out power to all of New Orleans, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River as it rushed from

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has the capacity to evacuate the approximately 300 U.S. citizens remaining in Afghanistan who want to leave before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline, senior Biden administration officials said Sunday, as another U.S. drone strike against suspected Islamic State militants underscored the grave threat

By PAUL DAVENPORT Associated Press Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s top court is eliminating the longstanding practice of allowing lawyers in criminal and civil trials in state courts to remove potential jurors without explanation. The move by the Arizona Supreme Court in an order dated Tuesday and released Friday is one that proponents said would

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Nora caused floods and landslides along Mexico’s Pacific coast Sunday, while making landfall and passing just inland of the Mazatlan resort area before veering into the Gulf of California and weakening into a tropical storm. Communities in the coastal states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco experienced heavy rain and rough

By BEN FOX Associated Press JEREMIE, Haiti (AP) — U.S. military aircraft are now ferrying food, tarps and other material into southern Haiti amid a shift in the international relief effort to focus on helping people in the areas hardest hit by the recent earthquake to make it through the hurricane season. Aircraft flying out

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Several hundred migrants, including many children, headed north from near Mexico’s border with Guatemala on Saturday hoping to reach the U.S., but Mexican security forces dispersed the group several hours later. About 300 Haitians, Cubans and Central Americans set out on foot from the town of Tapachula, and a few hundred

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press BEND, Ore. (AP) — The death toll from COVID-19 in Oregon is climbing so rapidly in some counties that the state has organized delivery of one refrigerated truck to hold the bodies and is sending a second one, the state emergency management department said Saturday. So far, Tillamook County, on

By HALELUYA HADERO and GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writers Dozens of desperate Afghans who had been trying to flee the Taliban before Tuesday’s deadline for the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul made it to safety with help from an unexpected place: Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino. Quarantino is the alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus of New

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) — A Tesla using its partially automated driving system slammed into a Florida Highway Patrol cruiser Saturday on an interstate near downtown Orlando and narrowly missed its driver, who had pulled over to assist a disabled vehicle. Earlier this month, the U.S. government opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot driving system

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of voting rights advocates rallied across the country Saturday to call for sweeping federal laws that would wipe out voting restrictions advancing in some Republican-controlled states that could make it harder to cast a ballot. Many activists view the fight over voting

By SETH BORENSTEIN Science Writer Hurricane Ida is looking eerily like a dangerous and perhaps scarier sequel to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm in American history. But there’s a few still-to-come twists that could make Ida nastier in some ways, but not quite as horrific in others. “The main story with Katrina was storm

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When Andy Murray sat in the U.S. Open’s main interview room for a pre-tournament news conference Saturday, the moderator informed the 2012 champion he was allowed to remove the sort of light blue medical mask that has become so ubiquitous during the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wildlife authorities say that a mountain lion that attacked a 5-year-old boy and dragged the child across his front lawn in Southern California has been shot and killed. The 65-pound mountain lion attacked the boy while he was playing near his house Thursday in Calabasas and dragged him about 45 yards