Associated Press stories, Page 1275
Speaker Nancy Pelosi receives Communion in Vatican amid abortion debate
ROME — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Pope Francis on Wednesday and received Communion during a papal Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, witnesses said, despite her position in support of abortion rights. Pelosi attended the morning Mass marking the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, during which...
3-on-3 hockey league launches, could be step toward Olympics
Hours before Canada beat the United States to win women’s hockey gold at the Beijing Olympics in February, International Ice Hockey Federation officials lamented having only two medal events on sports’ biggest stage. The IIHF and IOC have discussed adding to that, and a new 3-on-3 league that debuted earlier...
A viral reprise: When covid-19 strikes again and again
For New York musician Erica Mancini, covid-19 made repeat performances. March 2020. Last December. And again this May. “I’m bummed to know that I might forever just get infected,” said the 31-year-old singer, who is vaccinated and boosted. “I don’t want to be getting sick every month or every two...
Researchers caution beachgoers ahead of white shark season
BOSTON — Great white shark researchers on Cape Cod are reminding visitors that warmer weather signals not just the start of the busy tourist season, but also the arrival of the region’s famous predators. July tends to be when great whites appear in earnest as the cape’s waters warm, with...
‘Woody’ Williams, last remaining WWII Medal of Honor recipient dies at 98Video
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, the last remaining Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, died Wednesday. He was 98. Williams’ foundation announced on Twitter and Facebook that he died at the Veterans Affairs medical center bearing his name in Huntington. “Today, America lost not just a...
Roy Williams, Jim Calhoun among coaches headed to college hoops Hall
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Roy Williams and Jim Calhoun will join John Beilein and Lon Kruger in a star-studded cast of coaches who will be inducted into the National College Basketball Hall of Fame in November. Another longtime coach, Jerry Krause of Eastern Washington, will join the quartet along with...
Singer R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in sex trafficking caseVideo
NEW YORK — R&B star R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday for using his superstardom to subject young fans — some just children — to systematic sexual abuse. The singer and songwriter, 55, was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking last year at a trial that...
WHO chief: U.S. abortion ruling ‘a setback,’ will cost lives
GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday criticized the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, saying the decision to no longer recognize a constitutional right to abortion was “a setback” that would ultimately cost lives. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a...
St. Petersburg mayor reopens talks on future of Rays stadium site
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, is reopening talks about the future of the Tropicana Field site where baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays play their home games. Mayor Ken Welch said Wednesday that two previous proposals for the 86-acre downtown location are being scrapped, with a new...
Giuliani associate Lev Parnas sentenced to 20 months in prison
NEW YORK — Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who was a figure in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment investigation, was sentenced Wednesday to a year and eight months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes. Parnas, who had helped Giuliani connect with Ukrainian figures as part of...
Chief: Officer hit woman at abortion rally, should be fired
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The chief of police in Rhode Island’s capital has recommended that a city officer charged with assaulting a woman during an abortion-rights protest should lose his job. Patrolman Jeann Lugo’s “disturbing, egregious, assaultive and unprofessional behavior while off duty, has brought discredit to your name and has...
CEO, Florida museum part ways following Basquiat raid
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Museum of Art has parted ways with its CEO in the days after the FBI raided the Florida museum and seized more than two dozen paintings attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat that are the subjects of an investigation into possible wire fraud and conspiracy. The...
Analysis: If this was it for Serena Williams at Wimbledon, it works
WIMBLEDON, England — If this turns out to have been the last time the world gets to watch Serena Williams at Wimbledon — and she says she doesn’t know, so how could the rest of us? — it would not be how she would want to depart, naturally. Yet it...
Big 12 picks Roc Nation’s Brett Yormark as next commissioner
DALLAS — Brett Yormark, an executive with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and former CEO of the Brooklyn Nets, was named Big 12 commissioner Wednesday, another unconventional hire by a major conference amid the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics. Yormark is taking over for Bob Bowlsby, who came to the league...
NATO calls Russia its ‘most significant and direct threat’
MADRID — NATO declared Russia the “most significant and direct threat” to its members’ peace and security on Wednesday and vowed to strengthen support for Ukraine, even as that country’s leader chided the alliance for not doing more to help it defeat Moscow. The alliance’s condemnation was not wholly surprising:...
Russians fight to encircle Ukraine’s last eastern stronghold
KREMENCHUK, Ukraine — Russian forces battled Wednesday to surround the Ukrainian military’s last stronghold in a long-contested eastern province, as shock reverberated from a Russian airstrike on a shopping mall that killed at least 18 in the center of the country two days earlier. Moscow’s battle to wrest the entire...
Clinics scramble to divert patients as states ban abortion
They call her, desperate, scared and often broke. Some are rape and domestic violence victims. Others are new mothers, still breastfeeding infants. Another pregnancy so soon, they say, is something they just can’t handle. “Heart wrenching,” said Angela Huntington, an abortion navigator for Planned Parenthood in Missouri, who is helping...
Trump painted in testimony as volatile, angry president
WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump learned his attorney general had publicly rejected his election fraud claims, he heaved his lunch at the wall with such force that the porcelain plate shattered and ketchup streamed down. On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, consumed by crowd size concerns, he directed...
Germany: Former Nazi guard, 101, jailed for aiding murder
BERLIN — A 101-year-old man was convicted in Germany of more than 3,500 counts of accessory to murder on Tuesday for serving at the Nazis’ Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. The Neuruppin Regional Court sentenced him to five years in prison. The man, who was identified by local...
NYC mayor: Investigate Giuliani for ‘false’ slap claim
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested Tuesday that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani be investigated for filing a false police report for claiming he was assaulted by a heckler who clapped him on the back Sunday at a Staten Island grocery store. “Someone needs to remind former...
New attitude? Chase Elliott prefers practical approach
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As he prepared for one of the hottest races of the NASCAR season, Chase Elliott said he would use positive thinking to convince himself it wasn’t so bad. And when Elliot was frustrated with his struggling Chevrolet in the early stages at Nashville Superspeedway, his crew chief...
U.S. officials announce more steps against monkeypox outbreak
NEW YORK — Reacting to a surprising and growing monkeypox outbreak, U.S. health officials on Tuesday expanded the group of people recommended to get vaccinated against the monkeypox virus. They also said they are providing more monkeypox vaccine, working to expand testing, and taking other steps to try to get...
AP: Hearing for Browns QB Deshaun Watson continues WednesdayVideo
Deshaun Watson’s hearing will continue Wednesday after his legal team and the NFL presented their arguments in front of a retired judge in Delaware on the opening day, a person who was in attendance told the Associated Press. Former U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson, who was jointly appointed by the...
U.S. Senate sergeant-at-arms during Capitol riot dies at 71
WASHINGTON — Michael Stenger, who served as the U.S. Senate’s sergeant-at-arms and resigned after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, has died. He was 71. Stenger died Monday of natural causes, according to two people familiar with the matter. One of the people said he had been diagnosed with...
Bills, Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula ‘progressing’ from health issueVideo
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills and Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula is “progressing well” while rehabilitating from a health issue she experienced earlier this month, the family said in a statement released Tuesday. The family would only say Pegula is resting while adding they are “grateful for the medical professionals providing...
