‘It’s just hell there’: Russia still pounds eastern Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s military was grinding down Ukraine’s defenses on Monday, with combat in eastern areas entering a “decisive” phase, as the war’s consequences for food and fuel supplies increasingly weighed on minds around the globe. In Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, which in recent weeks has become the focal...
Teen killed, officer, 2 adults shot at unpermitted D.C. event
WASHINGTON — A 15-year-old boy was shot to death and three adults, including a police officer, were wounded after a musical event lacking a permit erupted into chaos on a District of Columbia street Sunday night, police said. The wounded police officer and the other adults were recovering at hospitals,...
6,000 bees removed from inside wall of Omaha couple’s home
OMAHA, Neb. — About 6,000 bees were recently removed from inside the walls of an Omaha couple’s 100-year-old home. Thomas and Marylu Gouttierre told the Omaha World-Herald they have been planting bee-friendly flowers outside their midtown home, but they never expected the bees to move in. The bees likely infiltrated...
2 men charged in fatal fireworks explosion that killed 4 near St. Louis
BLACK JACK, Mo. — Two men were charged with murder in a house explosion near St. Louis that authorities say killed four people who were assembling fireworks in a garage. St. Louis County prosecutors say 37-year-old Terrell Cooks and 43-year-old Seneca Mahan made fireworks and directed younger people on how...
Yellen: Recession not inevitable, gas tax holiday weighed
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that she expects the U.S. economy to slow in the months ahead, but that a recession is not inevitable. Yellen offered a dose of optimism even as economists grow increasingly worried about a recession fueled by skyrocketing inflation and the...
Political commentator and columnist Mark Shields dies at 85
CHEVY CHASE, Md. — Columnist and political commentator Mark Shields, who shared his insight into American politics and wit on “PBS NewsHour” for decades, died Saturday. He was 85. Shields died at his Chevy Chase, Maryland, home, from kidney failure, “PBS NewsHour” spokesman Nick Massella said. Shields was a regular...
Justices seem poised to hear elections case pressed by GOP
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seems poised to take on a new elections case being pressed by Republicans that could increase the power of state lawmakers over races for Congress and the presidency, as well as redistricting, and cut state courts out of the equation. The issue has arisen repeatedly...
Independent booksellers grew in number, diversity in 2021
NEW YORK — Laura Romani, a Chicago-area resident with a background in education and library science, had been thinking of a new career. “I was at home a couple of years ago reflecting on all the experience I gained and how I wanted to contribute to the Latino community, while...
For families deeply divided, a summer of hot buttons begins
NEW YORK — Kristia Leyendecker has navigated a range of opposing views from her two siblings and other loved ones since 2016, when Donald Trump’s election put a sharp, painful point on their political divisions as she drifted from the Republican Party of today and they didn’t. Then came the...
Trans kids’ treatment can start younger, new guidelines sayVideo
A leading transgender health association has lowered its recommended minimum age for starting gender transition treatment, including sex hormones and surgeries. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health said hormones could be started at age 14, two years earlier than the group’s previous advice, and some surgeries done at age...
Yellowstone National Park to reopen partially after floods
BILLINGS, Mont. — Yellowstone National Park will partially reopen at 8 a.m. Wednesday, after catastrophic flooding destroyed bridges and roads and drove out thousands of tourists. The Park Service announced Saturday that visitors will once again be allowed on the park’s southern loop under a temporary license plate system designed...
Pa. health department ready to give covid vaccines to young children
The Pennsylvania Department of Health said Saturday that providers across the state are prepared to begin providing covid vaccines for young children starting early next week. The announcement comes shortly after the approval of two vaccines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and emergency use authorization from the...
Biden’s optimism collides with mounting political challenges
WASHINGTON — Democrats are going to hold onto the House after November’s midterm elections. They will pick up as many as four seats in the Senate, expanding their majority and overcoming internal dissent that has helped stifle their agenda. As the challenges confronting President Joe Biden intensify, his predictions of...
CDC advisers recommend covid-19 shots for children under 5
NEW YORK — U.S. health advisers on Saturday recommended covid-19 vaccines for infants, toddlers and preschoolers — the last group without the shots. The advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously decided that coronavirus vaccines should be made available to children as young as 6 months, offering...
Biden takes spill while getting off bike after beach ride
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden fell when he tried to get off his bike at the end of a ride Saturday at Cape Henlopen State Park near his beach home in Delaware, but said he wasn’t hurt. “I’m good,” he told reporters after U.S. Secret Service Agents quickly...
Explainer: How did Russia-Ukraine war trigger a food crisis?
LONDON — Russian hostilities in Ukraine are preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe, threatening to worsen shortages, hunger and political instability in developing countries. Together, Russia and Ukraine export nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley, more...
Yellowstone flooding rebuild could take years, cost billions
Created in 1872 as the United States was recovering from the Civil War, Yellowstone was the first of the national parks that came to be referred to as America’s best idea. Now, the home to gushing geysers, thundering waterfalls and some of the country’s most plentiful and diverse wildlife is...
18 dead in India, Bangladesh floods; millions without homes
DHAKA, Bangladesh — At least 18 people have died as massive floods ravaged northeastern India and Bangladesh, leaving millions of homes underwater and severing transport links, authorities said Saturday. In India’s Assam state, at least nine people were killed in the floods and 2 million saw their homes submerged, according...
In Ukraine, funeral for activist killed and mourned in war
KYIV, Ukraine — Poppies, the blood-red flowers that cover the battlefields of Europe’s two world wars, were lain in mourning Saturday on the coffin of yet another dead soldier, this one killed in yet another European war, in Ukraine. The hundreds of mourners for Roman Ratushnyi, 24, included friends who...
1 firefighter dead after Philadelphia building collapse
PHILADELPHIA — One firefighter has died after being trapped in a building that caught fire in Philadelphia and then collapsed early Saturday, fire officials said. The fallen firefighter was not immediately identified, but Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said he was a 27-year department veteran. “It’s going to be a...
Western Pa. counties, municipalities to see bump in money from fees on natural gas production
Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, along with municipalities in the counties, will receive about $3.1 million from impact fees the state collected last year on Marcellus Shale gas well production, a considerable increase over the year before, according to data released Friday. Allegheny County and its municipalities will receive nearly $1.9...
Watergate 50th meets Jan. 6. Common thread: Thirst for power
WASHINGTON — The wreckage of Watergate and Jan. 6 are a half-century apart yet rooted in the same ancient thirst for power at any cost. Two presidents, wily and profane, tried an end run around democracy. Mysteries from both affairs endure as the House inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021,...
Report: Smoking bans no longer a threat to casino revenue
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — For decades, it was accepted wisdom in the casino industry that eliminating smoking would automatically lead to revenue declines and customer losses. But a new report examining how the coronavirus pandemic has changed gamblers’ habits says that may no longer be the case. The report issued...
Fayette County man killed by police on West Virginia interstate
WESTON, W.Va. — A gunman who was fatally shot by police on an interstate highway in northern West Virginia after he wounded a sheriff’s deputy has been identified as a Pennsylvania man, state police said. Matthew Brevosky, 38, of Grindstone, Fayette County, was killed by law enforcement Thursday on Interstate...
AP photos: A week of ruins and ruined lives in Ukraine
There is life amid the ruins in Ukraine, but there are so many ruins, and life is so fraught. In the course of the last week, Associated Press photographers captured images of a man peering upward through the hole in a roof of a hospital damaged during shelling in Donetsk;...
