AP National News

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends in how people are watching television differently. A study from Hub Entertainment Research found that the percentage of people who paid to watch a specific movie or television show at least once a week in June was essentially double what

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19. His office said Tuesday that Abbot is in good health and experiencing no symptoms. Spokesman Mark Miner says Abbott is isolating in the governor’s mansion in Austin and receiving monoclonal antibody treatment. Abbott was vaccinated

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s government has spelled out laws against using social media or the internet to stir up protests or insult the state. And it’s offering people a form to report offenders. The decrees published Tuesday follow the largest protests Cuba has seen in years, which broke out last

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams has announced Tuesday that a former United States Golf Association employee has been charged in relation to a scheme to embezzle funds from the unauthorized sale of U.S. Open Championship tickets. According to a statement released by Williams, Robert Fryer faces conspiracy, wire fraud, and

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former relief pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates has been sentenced to two to four years behind bars for statutory sexual assault and other charges in a case involving a girl who was 13 when the encounters began. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday that 30-year-old Felipe Vazquez has already served almost

By JONATHAN MATTISE and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An order by the Tennessee governor letting parents opt their children out of following mask rules at school has drawn defiance from officials in Memphis and Nashville. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk offered an assurance Tuesday to a school board member that he

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — The family of a man identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of a deputy in southwestern Michigan said he had been “tormented by invasive and irrational thoughts.” Gary Goidosik and Kim Goidosik referred to themselves in a statement Tuesday as the family of the shooter in the weekend death

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Sean Penn is sort of done with movies. He’s still making them, here and there. But Penn is mostly seeing out commitments he made years earlier. After those? He’s not so sure how much more he’s going to be acting or directing.  The 61-year-old maverick

By TOM FOREMAN Jr. Associated Press WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — The dean of the school of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who led the effort to bring award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones to her faculty, says she’s stepping down. Susan King issued a statement to the faculty of the Hussman School

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — House Democrats are offering a new proposal to update the landmark Voting Rights Act. The bill from Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama seeks to restore a key provision of the federal law that compelled states with a history of discrimination to undergo a federal review before

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Health activists in Africa have slammed Johnson & Johnson for exporting vaccines produced in South Africa to countries in Europe, which have already immunized a large proportion of their populations and often have a surplus of vaccines. The J&J doses were exported from South Africa, where they

By CARLOS VALDEZ and JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s recent interim government persecuted opponents with “systematic torture” and “summary executions” by security forces in the tumultuous aftermath of Evo Morales’ resignation in 2019, according to a new report by independent human rights experts. The scathing, 471-page report is the most

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer U.S. health officials may soon recommend COVID-19 booster shots for fully vaccinated Americans. While many details remain unclear, it’s common for protection from vaccines to decrease over time. Researchers have been monitoring the performance of the COVID-19 vaccines to see how long protection lasts and to understand when

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan authorities say a senior government official has been released, two weeks after armed men abducted him and his colleague in the capital of Tripoli. The chief of staff for the first deputy prime minister returned to the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday. The government hasn’t said which armed group was

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has announced that he and husband Chasten have become parents.  Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate, posted the news Tuesday  on Twitter.  He says he and Chasten are “overjoyed” and that had wanted to grow their family for some time.  He says the

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A witness to an incident last week involving MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell says he saw no reason for Lindell to claim he was attacked at a South Dakota hotel. Lindell, who was in Sioux Falls hosting an election fraud symposium, told the crowd last

By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge has refused to close pretrial hearings to the media and public in the case of the man accused of killing 17 people in a 2018 high school mass shooting. Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer on Tuesday rejected a motion

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A ship that sank four decades ago off Kodiak Island has suddenly started leaking diesel fuel, and last month’s magnitude 8.2 earthquake off the Alaska Peninsula might be the cause. The Saint Patrick was hit by a rogue wave in 1981. Only two of the 12 people on board survived. The

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Missouri family alleges in a federal lawsuit that Yellowstone National Park rangers and Wyoming sheriff’s deputies seeking a murder suspect held them at gunpoint without adequate cause for an hour. Brett and Genalyn Hemry, of Independence, Missouri, seek unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s autocratic leader Aleksandar Vucic has challenged Twitter to close his account like it did with Donald Trump’s, after several media outlets under his control have been labeled state-affiliated by the social media site. Vucic said Tuesday that “I can’t wait for them (Twitter) to close my account so I become