TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters have sent a resounding message about their desire to protect abortion rights by rejecting a measure that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten abortion restrictions or ban the procedure outright. The vote Tuesday in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement was the first…
CHICAGO (AP) — Across the U.S., COVID-19 relief money is helping to subsidize growing numbers of big-city schools with small numbers of students. When the money runs out in a few years, officials will face a difficult choice: Keep the schools open despite the financial strain, or close them, upsetting communities looking for stability for…
JACKSON, Ky. (AP) — Search and rescue teams backed by the National Guard are searching flooded Appalachian communities for missing people. Record floods have wiped out entire communities in some of the poorest places in America. Kentucky’s governor said 16 people have died, a toll he expects to grow as the rain keeps falling. The…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has emerged from five days of isolation after contracting the coronavirus, telling Americans that “COVID isn’t gone” but saying serious illness can be avoided with vaccines, booster shoots and treatments. President Joe Biden ended his COVID-19 isolation after testing negative for the virus Tuesday night and again Wednesday morning.…
MASKWACIS, Alberta (AP) — Pope Francis has apologized for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “devastating” policy of Indigenous residential schools. The pontiff says the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed their families and marginalized generations in ways still being felt today. Francis spoke Monday near the site of…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump has been convicted of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The verdict was handed down on Friday after a trial in federal court in Washington. He was charged…
ISTANBUL (AP) — Russian and Ukrainian officials have signed deals to safely export wheat and other food staples across the Black Sea. Ukraine is one of the world’s key breadbaskets but a Russian blockade of its ports during the war has threatened food security around the world. The two countries signed separate agreements Friday in…
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence is becoming increasingly brazen in his willingness to counter former President Donald Trump. The two will hold dueling events in Arizona on Friday as they stump for rival candidates who offer dramatically different visions of the Republican Party in a critical battleground state. Days later, Trump…
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white gunman charged with killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges punishable by the death penalty. Along with hate crimes and weapons counts, the 27-count indictment returned last week accuses Gendron of engaging in substantial planning…
PARIS (AP) — Challenged by high temperatures and strong winds, 1,000 firefighters with 10 water-dumping planes are struggling to contain two wildfires in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France. The fires have forced the evacuation of 11,300 people and ravaged pine forests near the Atlantic coast. It’s one of several areas around Europe being scorched…