Associated Press stories, Page 1251

Black Men Heal co-founder Zakia Williams was deeply moved as she watched a young Black man become emotional while speaking about the mental health toll the past few years have taken on him. “He said ‘I just want to play basketball without fear of getting shot, I just want to...

WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Donald Trump opened May by lifting a trailing Senate candidate in Ohio to the Republican nomination, seemingly cementing the former president’s kingmaker status before another possible White House run. He’s ending the month, however, stinging from a string of defeats that suggests a diminishing stature. Trump faced...

ISLAMABAD — A series of explosions shook Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Taliban said, including a blast inside a mosque in the capital of Kabul that killed at least five worshippers and three bombings of minivans in the country’s north that killed nine passengers. The Islamic State group’s local affiliate claimed...

New U.S. research on long covid-19 provides fresh evidence that it can happen even after breakthrough infections in vaccinated people, and that older adults face higher risks for the long-term effects. In a study of veterans published Wednesday, about one-third who had breakthrough infections showed signs of long covid. A...

LONDON — An investigative report released Wednesday blamed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other senior leaders for allowing boozy government parties that broke the U.K.’s covid-19 lockdown rules, and while Johnson said he took “full responsibility” for the breaches, he insisted he would not resign. Revelations that Johnson and...

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Mt. Pleasant resident caught a record carp while fishing from the bank of Summersville Lake in West Virginia, regulators said. Ayden Minick caught and released the carp on May 7, the Division of Natural Resources said in a news release. It measured by a DNR...

JERUSALEM — Turkey’s foreign minister visited Israel on Wednesday as part of ongoing efforts to improve ties between the two countries, which have often been bitterly divided in recent years over Turkey’s support for the Palestinians. Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the first official visit to Israel by a Turkish official in...

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The head of the U.N. refugee agency urged the international community on Wednesday not to forget more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who are living in sprawling camps in Bangladesh after fleeing from neighboring Myanmar. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said he visited...

UVALDE, Texas — A Facebook spokesman says messages posted by the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school were private. Andy Stone says the messages “were private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy.” He says Facebook is cooperating with investigators....

UVALDE, Texas — Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by...

AUSTIN, Texas — Once again, one of America’s deadliest mass shootings happened in Texas. Past shootings targeted worshippers during a Sunday sermon, shoppers at a Walmart, students on a high school campus and drivers on a highway. Among the latest victims were 19 children and two teachers in the small...

Pfizer said Wednesday that it will provide nearly two dozen products, including its top-selling covid-19 vaccine and treatment, at not-for-profit prices in some of the world’s poorest countries. The drugmaker announced the program at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, and said it was aimed at improving...

PARIS — Several hundred climate protesters disrupted a TotalEnergies shareholders meeting in Paris and blocked the venue entrance Wednesday to denounce the oil and gas giant’s stake in Russia despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine. TotalEnergies, which was renamed last year from Total, tweeted that due to activists impeding access to...

UVALDE, Texas — Distraught families gathered at a local civic center and turned to social media to mourn and to make desperate pleas for help finding missing children as the death toll in a gruesome school shooting at a Texas elementary school rose to at least 19 students and two...

POKROVSK, Ukraine — The Russian rocket strikes came early in the morning in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Wednesday, shaking buildings, jolting people out of bed and sending chunks of concrete and jagged pieces of metal flying through the air. One of the two rockets left a crater...

NEW YORK (AP) — The Boss is hitting the road again, and the E Street Band band is coming with him. The rockers announced Monday that they will begin an arena tour in February in the United States, followed by stadium shows beginning in April in Europe. Details on the...

ROME — Pope Francis has sent a protocol greeting to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, assuring him of prayers on his patron’s feast day and stressing the value of human life and wisdom, as the Vatican insists on maintaining cordial relations amid the war in Ukraine. The website...

ANKARA, Turkey — Senior officials from Sweden and Finland met with Turkish counterparts in Ankara on Wednesday in an effort to overcome Turkey’s strong objections to the Nordic nations’ bids to join NATO. Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of...

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president said Wednesday that Russia must pull back to its pre-war positions as a first step before diplomatic talks, a negotiating line that Moscow is unlikely to agree to anytime soon. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he currently sees no willingness on the part of Russia to...

PARIS — This was the sort of point in the sort of contest that, if 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz eventually reaches the heights so many believe he will, the lucky folks on hand at Court Simonne Mathieu on Wednesday night just might regale dinner guests for years with tales that begin,...

NEW YORK — Andrew Copp had a goal and two assists, and Frank Vatrano and Adam Fox each had a goal and an assist as the New York Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, in Game 4 on Tuesday night, evening the second-round series. Mika Zibanejad also scored, Ryan Lindgren...

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia easily dispatched Donald Trump’s hand-picked challenger on Tuesday in a Republican primary that demonstrated the limits of the former president and his conspiracy-fueled politics in a critical swing state. Kemp will face Democrat Stacey Abrams this fall in what will be one of...

CHICAGO — Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson said Tuesday that Josh Donaldson clearly was trying to rattle him when the New York Yankees third baseman referred to him as “Jackie,” a remark that led to Donaldson being suspended one game by MLB. Anderson and White Sox manager Tony La...