High court denies energy companies’ appeals in climate suits
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from oil and gas companies that are fighting lawsuits from state and local governments over whether they can be held responsible for harms resulting from global warming. The justices handed the companies a setback in their legal fight with city, county...
Supreme Court takes social media cases with echoes of Trump
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether public officials can block critics from commenting on their social media accounts, an issue that previously came up in a case involving former President Donald Trump. Two years ago the Supreme Court dismissed a case over Trump’s efforts to...
Tucker Carlson departs Fox News, pushed out by Rupert Murdoch
Tucker Carlson, the provocative conservative prime-time host who helped build Fox News into a ratings juggernaut, has been forced out of the network. Fox News announced the stunning departure of its top-rated host Monday with no explanation, but people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to comment publicly...
Drones attack Sevastopol, crashed drone found near Moscow
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea said the military fended off a Ukrainian strike on a main naval base on Monday, while an exploding drone was also reportedly found in a forest near Moscow — attacks that come as Ukraine is believed to be preparing for a major counteroffensive....
Prosecutor: Proud Boys viewed themselves as ‘Trump’s army’
WASHINGTON — Ready for “all-out war,” leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Donald Trump as the former president clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said Monday at the close of a historic trial over the U.S. Capitol insurrection....
The man in a hurry: King Charles III rushes to make a mark
LONDON — King Charles III is a man in a hurry. After waiting 74 years to become king, Charles has used his first six months on the throne to meet faith leaders across the country, reshuffle royal residences, stage his first overseas state visit and hold a sleepover at Windsor...
Biden’s 2024 campaign has been hiding in plain sight
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has been hiding in plain sight all along. The contours of the 2024 campaign that Biden will formally launch with a video as soon as this week will look a lot like his messaging and policy moves from the past few months: Play...
Cities reviving downtowns by converting offices to housing
NEW YORK — On the 31st floor of what was once a towering office building in downtown Manhattan, construction workers lay down steel bracing for what will soon anchor a host of residential amenities: a catering station, lounge, fire pit and gas grills. The building, empty since 2021, is being...
Probe ordered after Florida shooter fires at delivery driver
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida prosecutor has ordered an investigation in a confrontation in which a homeowner fired shots into a couple’s car when they mistakenly turned onto his property while making a late-night grocery delivery. Police closed the case without consulting the state attorney’s office. No one was...
Dragon bursts into flames during popular Disneyland showVideo
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Spectators at Disneyland’s popular “Fantasmic!” show got a shock this weekend when the feature’s fire-breathing animatronic dragon suddenly burst into flames. No injuries were reported following the blaze Saturday night at the Southern California theme park, the Anaheim Fire Department said. Ryan Laux, a frequent Disneyland visitor,...
9 teenagers injured in a Texas prom after-party shooting
AUSTIN, Texas — Nine teenagers were shot in an east Texas residence early Sunday at a prom after-party attended by hundreds, local officials said a statement. Just after midnight, deputies responded to shots fired at a private residence in Jasper County where the party was held and found nine victims...
Kevin McCarthy says House will pass GOP debt limit bill this week
WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the House will pass his $1.5 trillion debt ceiling increase plan this week, but he dodged when asked if he has already secured the 218 Republican votes he needs. “We will hold a vote this week and we will pass it,” McCarthy said...
How rich are the U.S. Supreme Court justices?
WASHINGTON — The nine Supreme Court justices in total are worth at least $24 million. Or it might be closer to $68 million. It’s impossible to get more specific than that. That’s because federal ethics laws require justices to disclose only those assets that might pose a conflict of interest....
Fox’s settlement with Dominion unlikely to cost it $787.5M
Fox Corp.’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation charges is eye-popping, but the ultimate cost to the media company is likely to be much lower. On Tuesday, Fox settled with Dominion over charges that Fox News baselessly accused the company of rigging its voting machines against former...
A deeply divided Israel limps toward its 75th birthday
JERUSALEM — Orit Pinhasov strongly opposes the Israeli government’s proposed judicial overhaul, but you won’t find her anywhere near the mass protests against the plan. She says her marriage depends on it. Pinhasov’s husband sits on the opposite side of Israel’s political divide, and joining the protests will only deepen...
The front door, threshold of welcome — and perilous border
NEW YORK — The American front door is a place where the welcome mat offers friendly greetings, where affable neighbors knock or ring, where boxes brimming with possibility are delivered. It is where home meets a world full of potentially good things. The American front door is a place where...
Unprepared for long war, U.S. Army under gun to make more ammo
SCRANTON, Pa. — One of the most important munitions of the Ukraine war comes from a historic factory in this city built by coal barons, where tons of steel rods are brought in by train to be forged into the artillery shells Kyiv can’t get enough of — and that...
Trump defends push to restrict abortion rights after rebuke
CLIVE, Iowa — Donald Trump, stinging from a rebuke by the nation’s leading anti-abortion group, used a speech Saturday before influential evangelicals in Iowa to spotlight his actions as president to try to restrict abortion rights. Chief among the accomplishments Trump listed were his nominations of three conservative judges to...
U.S. evacuating diplomats in Sudan as fighting rages
WASHINGTON — U.S. troops are carrying out a precarious evacuation of American embassy staffers in the African nation of Sudan, shuttering the U.S. embassy there as fighting rages for a ninth day, according to a senior Biden administration official. U.S. troops that airlifted embassy staff out of Khartoum have safely...
For transgender kids, a frantic rush for treatment amid bans
SALT LAKE CITY — As a third grader in Utah, mandolin-playing math whiz Elle Palmer said aloud what she had only before sensed, telling a friend she planned to transfer schools the following year and hoped her new classmates would see her as a girl. Several states northeast, Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier...
Pittsburgh man charged with rape stemming from October incident
A Pittsburgh man who is facing rape and sexual assault charges was arrested early Saturday morning, according to the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office. Kierran Young, 30, was charged Thursday with rape and sexual assault involving an incident last October involving a woman at a home on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh....
Will Fox settlement alter conservative media? Apparently not
NEW YORK — Days after Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit over its airing of 2020 election lies, you’d be hard-pressed to notice anything had changed there. Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham led their shows Thursday talking about Hunter Biden, the president’s...
Rape lawsuit trial puts spotlight back on Trump and women
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump’s behavior toward women, long a source of flashpoints in his political career, now faces a new level of scrutiny: a trial in a lawsuit accusing him of rape. Jury selection is set to start Tuesday in the case filed by former advice columnist...
Extreme weather is nearly universal experience: AP-NORC poll
WASHINGTON — An overwhelming majority of people in the United States say they have recently experienced an extreme weather event, a new poll shows, and most of them attribute that to climate change. But even as many across the country mark Earth Day on Saturday, the poll shows relatively few...
What’s next for abortion pill after Supreme Court’s action
WASHINGTON — Nothing will change for now. That’s what the Supreme Court said Friday evening about access to a widely used abortion pill. A court case that began in Texas has sought to roll back Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug, mifepristone. Lower courts had said that women...
