Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham are again at odds, now over abortion. The strife could help both men
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The long and occasionally quixotic relationship between Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham has again turned negative after the South Carolina senator criticized the former president for refusing to support a federal abortion ban. Trump repeatedly disparaged Graham on his social media site and said he regretted endorsing...
McCormick gets Trump’s endorsement in Pa. Senate race despite awkward history
Former President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick of Pennsylvania on Saturday, urging his supporters in the state to “go out and vote for him” in one of the year’s most hotly contested Senate races. Trump’s endorsement came two years after he successfully helped sink McCormick in Pennsylvania’s...
Oldest living conjoined twins, Lori and George Schappell, die at 62
READING — Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, according to funeral home officials. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died April 7...
Police in Australian identify Sydney stabbing attacker who killed 6
SYDNEY — Police have identified the assailant who stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center before he was fatally shot by a police officer. New South Wales Police said Sunday that Joel Cauchi, 40, was responsible for the Saturday afternoon attack at the Westfield Shopping Centre...
Israel hails ‘success’ in blocking Iran’s unprecedented attack
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel on Sunday hailed its air defenses in the face of an unprecedented attack by Iran, saying the systems thwarted 99% of the more than 300 drones and missiles launched toward its territory. Regional tensions were high amid fears of an Israeli counter-strike that could fuel...
Donald Trump says he’ll ‘absolutely’ testify in upcoming hush money criminal trial
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump said he’ll have no issue taking the stand in his upcoming criminal trial centered on an illicit hush money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels. “I’m testifying,” he declared during a news briefing Friday night. “I tell the truth. All I can do...
Biden will meet with his national security team as fears rise of an Iranian strike against Israel
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden is cutting short a weekend stay at his Delaware beach house and returning to the White House on Saturday to meet with his national security team and monitor the situation in the Middle East ahead of a feared Iranian attack against Israel. Tensions...
Executor of O.J. Simpson’s estate plans to fight payout to the families of Brown and Goldman
LAS VEGAS — The executor of O.J. Simpson’s estate says he will work to prevent a payout of a $33.5 million judgment awarded by a California civil jury nearly three decades ago in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend...
Israel finds the body of a teen whose disappearance sparked a deadly settler attack in the West Bank
Al-MUGHAYYIR, West Bank — Israel’s army said Saturday the body of a missing Israeli teen was found in the West Bank after he was killed in a “terrorist attack,” as violence escalated across the Israeli-occupied territory where tensions have simmered for months. The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked attacks...
How O.J. Simpson burned the Ford Bronco into America’s collective memory
The Ford Bronco initially was conceived and designed for rugged outdoorsy types, a two-door means of escape to nature from the bustling cities of mid-century America. But it had already been tamed and polished for suburbanites, with cruise control and air conditioning, by 1994 when O.J. Simpson cowered in the...
How a hush money scandal tied to a porn star led to Trump’s first criminal trial
NEW YORK — It was the kind of tawdry tale that Donald Trump might have relished before politics: a porn actor claiming they had had sex. But on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Trump feared the story, which he says is false, would cost him votes. So, prosecutors...
‘Run, run, run’: Chaos at a Sydney mall as 6 people stabbed to death, and the suspect fatally shot
SYDNEY — A man stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said, with hundreds fleeing the chaotic scene, many weeping as they carried their children. Eight people, including a 9-month-old, were injured. The 40-year-old was stopped in the knifing...
Maine lawmakers approve shield law for providers of abortion, gender-affirming care
The Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature gave final approval Friday to a bill that would protect health care workers who provide abortion and gender-affirming care from legal action brought in other states. If signed by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, Maine would join more than a dozen states that shield medical providers and...
Robert MacNeil, creator and first anchor of PBS ‘NewsHour’ nightly newscast, dies at 93
NEW YORK — Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93. MacNeil died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to his daughter,...
Judge rejects defense efforts to dismiss Hunter Biden’s federal gun case
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Delaware refused Friday to throw out a federal gun case against Hunter Biden, rejecting the president’s son’s claim he is being prosecuted for political purposes as well as other arguments. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika denied defense efforts to scuttle the prosecution charging Hunter...
‘HELP’ on beach points rescuers to men stuck 9 days on Pacific atoll
Three men stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island survived for more than a week and used palm fronds to spell out HELP on the beach — leading to rescue by Navy and Coast Guard aviators who spotted the sign from several thousand feet in the air. They had embarked March...
Police: 1 dead, 13 injured after tractor-trailer rams Texas public safety office
BRENHAM, Texas — A Texas tractor-trailer driver rammed a stolen 18-wheeler through the front of a public safety building where his renewal for a commercial driver’s license had been rejected, killing one person and injuring 13 others, authorities said Friday. The crash into the single-story brick building off a highway...
Biden also used political donations to cover lawyer costs
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, who has criticized Republican rival Donald Trump for relying on political donations to pay his legal bills, used nearly $2 million raised by the Democratic National Committee to pay his own lawyers. The DNC paid $1.1 million to Bob Bauer PLLC, the firm of the...
Judge declines to delay Trump’s N.Y. hush money trial over complaints of pretrial publicity
NEW YORK — The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal case on Friday turned down the former president’s request to postpone his trial because of publicity about the case. It’s the latest in a string of delay denials Trump has gotten from various courts this week as he fights...
Trump pushes Arizona lawmakers to ‘remedy’ abortion ruling he says ‘went too far’
TUCSON, Ariz. — Former President Donald Trump urged Arizona lawmakers Friday to swiftly “remedy” the state Supreme Court ruling allowing prosecutors to enforce a near-total abortion ban that he declared anew “went too far.” Trump repeatedly has expressed pride in his role in overturning the national constitutional right to an...
Prosecutors: South Carolina prison supervisor took $219,000 in bribes; got 173 cellphones to inmates
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A supervisor who managed security at a South Carolina prison accepted more than $219,000 in bribes over three years and got 173 contraband cellphones for inmates, according to federal prosecutors. Christine Mary Livingston, 46, was indicted earlier this month on 15 charges including bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud...
In death, 3 decades after his trial verdict, O.J. Simpson still reflects America’s racial divides
For many people old enough to remember O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, his 1995 exoneration was a defining moment in their understanding of race, policing and justice. Nearly three decades later, it still reflects the different realities of white and Black Americans. Some people recall watching their Black coworkers and classmates...
Sudan’s war began a year ago. Children are among its most fragile survivors
METCHE CAMP, Chad — The war in Sudan began a year ago. Here in a remote camp for tens of thousands of people who have fled into neighboring Chad, the anniversary is marked by near starvation. Assadig Abubaker Salih is a 42-year-old mother of six. The family survived the hot,...
Project to shore up Pompeii yields stunning black banquet hall, with frescoes of Trojan War figures
ROME — Archaeologists excavating new sites in Pompeii have uncovered a sumptuous banquet hall decorated with intricately frescoed mythological characters inspired by the Trojan War, officials said Thursday. The hall, which features a mosaic floor, was uncovered as part of a project to shore up the areas dividing the excavated...
Kremlin says 2022 draft document could serve as starting point for future Ukraine peace talks
MOSCOW — A draft peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine negotiated in the early days of the war could serve as a starting point for talks to end the fighting, the Kremlin said Friday, reviving a proposal that Ukraine had rejected. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the draft document...
