Associated Press stories, Page 1848

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to side with a Catholic social services agency in a dispute with Philadelphia over the agency’s refusal to work with same-sex couples as foster parents. The case is a big test of religious rights on a more conservative court. Catholic Social...

Election officials in several states said Thursday they are worried about the safety of their staffs amid a stream of threats and gatherings of angry protesters outside their doors, drawn by President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in the race for the White House. “I can tell you...

WASHINGTON — For 40 hours, President Donald Trump fumed in private and tweeted his grievances in all caps. When he at last emerged, it was to stand behind the presidential seal in the White House and deliver a diatribe most notable for his litany of false statements about the election...

U.S. voters went to the polls starkly divided on how they see President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. But in places where the virus is most rampant now, Trump enjoyed enormous support. An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number of new cases...

HOUSTON — Brandt Snedeker found a lot of fairways and greens at difficult Memorial Park, top-ranked Dustin Johnson returned from the coronavirus, and fans were back, too, Thursday at the Houston Open. Snedeker shot a 5-under-par 65 in the afternoon to take a two-stroke lead in the last event before...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei said Thursday that a water-soaked mountainside in the central part of the country had slid onto the town of San Cristobal Verapaz, burying homes and leaving at least 25 dead. Two other slides in Huehuetenango had killed at least 12 more, he said....

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kevin Harvick was a sure bet to make the NASCAR finale and likely close out one of the most dominant seasons of the decade. Instead, he’s been eliminated and the hyped head-to-head matchup between Harvick and Denny Hamlin has been scrapped. For better or worse, NASCAR’s title-deciding...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers coach Matt Rhule said barring a setback he expects Christian McCaffrey to play Sunday against the Chiefs. The 2019 All-Pro running back, who has missed the past six games with a high ankle sprain, practiced for the second straight day Thursday. Rhule said McCaffrey looked...

The president of Kosovo, who served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, resigned Thursday and was sent to a special court in The Hague where he will face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity. President Hashim Thaci said he...

U.S. voters went to the polls starkly divided on how they see President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, with a surprising twist: In places where the virus is most rampant now, Trump enjoyed enormous support. An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number...

They go together all too closely these days: momentous events — and bad information that tells an inaccurate story about how they’re happening. The two days since Election Day, predictably, demonstrate this to be true. Karen Mahabir, fact check and misinformation editor for The Associated Press, says her team of...

Election officials in key battleground states pushed back on claims by the Trump campaign that Republican poll watchers were being improperly denied access to observe the counting of ballots, saying Thursday that rules were being followed and they were committed to transparency. Tasked this year with monitoring a record number...

The Philadelphia Eagles reached the midpoint of their season with a losing record and a spot in first place. Only in the NFC East. The Eagles (3-4-1) won two straight games entering a bye to take control of the weakest division in the NFL. They struggled to earn both victories...

After several months in pandemic-altered theaters, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” will head to home release on Dec. 15, Warner Bros. said Thursday. “Tenet” will be available digitally as well as on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K just before the holidays, potentially bringing an end to its turbulent but singular run in theaters....

MINNEAPOLIS — A judge on Thursday rejected defense requests to move the trial of four former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death, and also ordered that all four will be tried together instead of separately. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled after defense attorneys had argued that pretrial...

Not everyone at the Jersey Shore loves boardwalks. Voters in Margate, a well-to-do seaside community near Atlantic City, overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to build a boardwalk along its beachfront. In incomplete tallies released by the Atlantic County Clerk’s office, a non-binding referendum on whether Margate should study the feasibility of...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low near zero Thursday and signaled its readiness to do more if needed to support an economy under threat from a worsening coronavirus pandemic. The Fed announced no new actions after its latest policy meeting but left...

MOSCOW — The brother of an American convicted of espionage in Russia said Thursday that his imprisoned sibling is suffering sleep deprivation at a prison colony where he is serving a 16-year sentence. David Whelan said his brother, Paul, complained that he was being woken up at approximately 2-hour intervals...

MIAMI — A section of road that leads to the South Florida high school that Trayvon Martin attended now bears the name of the Black teenager whose 2012 death sparked a movement for social justice. The road became Trayvon Martin Avenue during a brief ceremony on Thursday morning near Dr....

O’FALLON, Mo. — A suburban St. Louis election official who worked at a polling place on Election Day despite a positive test for the coronavirus has now died, raising concerns for the nearly 2,000 people who voted there. St. Charles County, Missouri, spokeswoman Mary Enger said in a news release...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Department of Justice sued payment processing giant Visa on Thursday to block the company’s purchase of financial technology startup Plaid, calling it a monopolistic takeover of a potential competitor to Visa’s ubiquitous payments network. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, seeks to stop...

ESPN announced Thursday it is eliminating about 500 jobs worldwide, including about 300 through layoffs. The cuts amount to about 10% of the employees at the sports network and are due largely to the impact of the pandemic on its business and the “tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports.”...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish fur farmers say they’ve been dealt a major blow after the world’s largest mink fur exporter decided to cull all 15 million minks in Denmark’s farms, to minimize the risk of them re-transmitting the coronavirus to humans — a decision that has also raised eyebrows among...

WASHINGTON — Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits Thursday, undercutting a campaign legal strategy to attack the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean President Donald Trump’s defeat. The rulings came as Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has often touted the role of the military in distributing a covid-19 vaccine, but health officials close to the process who are concerned about public distrust are taking pains to say the federal government won’t actually be handling vaccines. The president said at the final...