National News

WASHINGTON (AP) — With sunset remarks and a national moment of silence, President Joe Biden has offered a head-on acknowledgement of the country’s once-unimaginable loss — half a million Americans in the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden addressed what he called a “grim, heartbreaking milestone” directly and publicly, speaking from a lectern in the White House Cross…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, vowed on Monday to prioritize civil rights, combat extremist attacks and ensure the Justice Department remains politically independent. Garland appeared Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and faced questions about the investigation of Biden’s son Hunter as well as the fallout from the…

(AP) -- The U.S. stands at the brink of 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus. A year into the pandemic, America’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, calls the looming milestone horrible and historic. The running total of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, was about 498,000 on Sunday. That's roughly the population…

DALLAS (AP) — Higher temperatures are spreading across the southern United States, bringing some relief to a region weary of winter. The region faces a challenging clean-up and expensive repairs from days of extreme cold and widespread power outages. In hard-hit Texas, where millions were warned to boil tap water before drinking it, the warm-up…

LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will not be returning to royal duties, and Harry will give up his honorary military titles. Harry and Meghan stepped away from full-time royal life in early 2020, and it was agreed at the time that the situation would be reviewed…