AP National News

By KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Tissue holders sit atop the conference table where the congressman’s aides field frantic requests from constituents desperate for help in getting friends and loved ones out of Afghanistan before it’s too late. The stories have poured in by the thousands with heartbreaking pleas not

BEIJING (AP) — China’s defense ministry has protested the passage of a U.S. Navy warship and Coast Guard cutter through the waters between China and Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by China. A statement posted Saturday on the ministry’s website called the move provocative and said it shows that the United States is the biggest

By The Associated Press From the Great Wall to the picturesque Kashmir valley, Asia’s tourist destinations are looking to domestic visitors to get them through the COVID-19 pandemic’s second year. With international travel heavily restricted, foreign tourists can’t enter many countries and locals can’t get out. In the metropolis of Hong Kong, glamping and staycations

By JULIE WATSON and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — For 15 years, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin was denied parole by a California parole board that maintained Sirhan Sirhan did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime that rocked the nation and the world in 1968. But on Friday,

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Nora formed off Mexico’s Pacific coast Saturday and swept past the Puerto Vallarta area, following a path that could take it for possible close encounters with other resorts farther north. Nora had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) late Saturday, with tropical storm force winds extending out 105

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Jurors convicted Friday two former Colorado sheriff’s deputies accused of causing the death of an intoxicated man by placing him on his stomach and squeezing him into a van to take him to a detox center. Former Boulder County sheriff’s deputies James O’Brien, 52, and Adam Lunn, 39, were found guilty

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police officer briefly pressed a knee to the neck of NBA player Jaxson Hayes as the New Orleans Pelicans center gasped “I can’t breathe” seconds before another officer used a Taser on him during a struggle, according to body camera video released Friday.

SALINAS, Calif. (AP) — Several Northern California high school students have been disciplined after officials learned they posted online photos and videos of a Black baby doll being stomped on and driven over at a football game. The students posted images and videos on an Instagram account where some images were accompanied by racists captions.

By KELLI KENNEDY and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — One of Florida’s largest health networks is seeing the capacity of its hospital morgues strained amid a spike in seriously ill COVID-19 patients and a backup at funeral homes. While virus-related hospitalizations in the state recently started leveling off, the number of daily

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Two Texas police officers have been indicted muon murder charges in a line-of-duty fatal shooting of an Austin scientist. One officer, Christopher Taylor, was already under a murder indictment for another on-duty shooting death in Austin. A Travis County grand jury indicted Taylor and Officer Karl Krycia on murder and deadly

By WILL WEISSERT and DARRON CUMMINGS Associated Press WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Bernie Sanders has long argued — but not proved — that his big government populism can win over voters in the largely white, rural communities that flocked to Republican Donald Trump in recent elections. Now, as the chief Senate shepherd of a

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The family of a 23-year-old Marine from Omaha says he was among the 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. The family of Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page said Friday in a statement that he was part of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines based in

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state judge struck a Seattle measure on homelessness from the November ballot even as the city remains mired in a long-term humanitarian crisis. The so-called “Compassion Seattle” proposal would direct the city to provide 2,000 units of emergency or permanent housing within a year and

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft says it has fixed a flaw in its cloud computing platform that cybersecurity researchers warned could have enabled hackers to take over a cloud-based database product used by many big companies. The company said Friday there’s no evidence the potential opening was exploited by malicious actors or that any customer

WASHINGTON (AP) — ABC’s “This Week” — Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. __ NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Blinken; Fauci; H.R. McMaster, a former national security adviser. ___ CBS’ “Face the Nation” — National security adviser Jake Sullivan;

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A panel of state trial judges has refused to halt its order restoring voting rights for tens of thousands of North Carolina residents convicted of felonies whose current punishments don’t include prison time. The three judges on Friday denied the delay sought by top Republican

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston police say two men have been arrested in the fatal shooting of an off-duty New Orleans police officer during a holdup while he was dining at a Houston restaurant. Houston officials say 19-year-old Frederick D. Jackson and 21-year-old Anthony Rayshard Jenkins each face charges of capital murder and attempted capital murder.

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is forecasting that this year’s budget deficit will be $555 billion lower than it estimated back in May, helped by an economy that is rebounding more quickly than had been expected. But even with the improvement, the administration said Friday that it is