Associated Press stories, Page 213

WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals became the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot this season, doing so after winning in their 69th game and getting the help they needed elsewhere around the league. They are the only team since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams...

Two California researchers said Friday a U.S. government health publication instructed them to remove data on sexual orientation from a scientific manuscript that had been accepted for publication. The researchers also said they were told to remove the words “gender,” “cisgender” and “equitable” from their paper, which looked at smoking...

NEW YORK — Under threat from the Trump administration, Columbia University agreed to implement a host of policy changes Friday, including overhauling its rules for protests and conducting an immediate review of its Middle Eastern studies department. The changes, detailed in a letter sent by the university’s interim president, Katrina...

DURHAM, N.C. — Oregon women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves was excited when he saw his team was headed to Duke to play in the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks had success there when they played in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, advancing also as a 10 seed. But more importantly, it meant...

NEW YORK — Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías was suspended through the All-Star break by Major League Baseball on Friday under its domestic violence policy with the players’ association. Urías had pleaded no contest last May to one count of misdemeanor domestic battery. The penalty was the second...

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to trigger the process for an early parliamentary election this weekend for an expected vote on April 28. The election will take place against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. The governing Liberals...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday began sketching a roadmap for dismantling the Education Department, with other agencies taking over responsibility for federal student loans and programs serving students with disabilities. The executive order Trump signed Thursday to do away with the department did not offer a timeline or...

Dick’s Sporting Goods purchased a one-of-a-kind Paul Skenes baseball card for $1.11 million in a two-week auction and will display it at the company’s Ross Park House of Sport location. There were 64 bids on Skenes’ debut patch card, which is autographed and contains a patch that was on the...

SAN DIEGO — Lennon Tyler and her German fiancé often took road trips to Mexico when he vacationed in the United States since it was only a day’s drive from her home in Las Vegas, one of the perks of their long-distance relationship. But things went terribly wrong when they...

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said late Thursday that he would be meeting with billionaire Elon Musk at the Pentagon Friday to discuss “innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.” Musk, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, and his Department of Government Efficiency have played an integral role in the...

WASHINGTON — A little more than 23 years ago, Republican President George W. Bush sat at a desk at a high school in Hamilton, Ohio, and signed a law that would vastly expand the role of the Education Department and transform American schooling. On Thursday, his Republican successor, President Donald...

Johnson & Johnson says it will invest more than $55 billion within the United States over the next four years, including four new manufacturing plants. A number of companies have highlighted investments in the U.S. in recent months, a focus of Trump administration. Johnson & Johnson said Friday that it...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving to fulfill a campaign promise, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, an agency Republicans have talked about closing for decades. The order says Education Secretary Linda McMahon will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by...

JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister said Friday he has ordered ground forces to advance deeper into the Gaza Strip, and vowed to hold more land until Hamas releases the remaining hostages it holds. “The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more territory it will lose to...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing...

SEOUL, South Korea — A top Russian security official traveled to North Korea on Friday to meet leader Kim Jong Un, after North Korea recently reportedly sent additional troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. A brief dispatch by Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported that Sergey Shoigu,...

CAIRO — Sudan’s military said Friday it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting. The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, represents a major symbolic victory for Sudan’s military against...

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drones pummeled the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring three people and sparking massive fires, officials said Friday, an attack that underlined Moscow’s intention to pursue aerial attacks even as it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy facilities. The strike came shortly before...

LONDON — Britain’s Heathrow Airport was closed all day Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out its power, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers at Europe’s busiest travel hub. At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24...

In early 2024, Matthew Hart took a hard look at the upcoming elections around the world and worried that the outcomes did not look promising. “What we knew was that the winds were not in our favor. The winds were not in our sail, and we saw all around the...

A key adviser warned President John F. Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the agency behind it, the CIA, had grown too powerful. He proposed giving the State Department control of “all clandestine activities” and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special...

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Keith Mitchell thrived in a tough wind on a tough Copperhead course at Innisbrook on Thursday until he dropped two shots late in his round and had to settle for a 4-under-par 67 and a five-way share of the lead in the Valspar Championship. The gusts...