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WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Tim Scott accused Democrats on Wednesday of dividing the country and suggested they're wielding race as “a political weapon," using the official Republican response to President Joe Biden’s maiden speech to Congress to credit the GOP for leading the country out of its pandemic struggles and toward a hopeful future.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Forty years ago, a newly elected American president declared government the source of many of the nation's problems, reshaping the parameters of U.S. politics for decades to come. On Wednesday night, President Joe Biden unabashedly embraced government as the solution.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India set another global record in new virus cases Thursday, with another 375,000 people infected, as the country gears up to open its vaccination rollout to all adults Saturday.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia has swept up thousands of ethnic Tigrayans into detention centers across the country on accusations that they are traitors, often holding them for months and without charges, the AP has found.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department brought federal hate crimes charges Wednesday in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, charging a father and son who armed themselves, chased and fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man after spotting him running in their Georgia neighborhood.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking a swipe at his predecessor, President Joe Biden gave a distorted account of the historical forces driving migrants to the U.S. border, glossing over the multitudes who were desperate to escape poverty in their homelands when he was vice president.
In his speech to Congress on Wednesday night, Biden also made his spending plans sound more broadly supported in Washington than they are.
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal agents raided Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan home and office Wednesday, seizing computers and cellphones in a major escalation of the Justice Department’s investigation into the business dealings of former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Inside Ms. Sadat’s Beauty Salon in Afghanistan’s capital, Sultana Karimi leans intently over a customer, meticulously shaping her eyebrows. Make-up and hair styling is the 24-year-old’s passion, and she discovered it, along with a newfound confidence, here in the salon.
She and the other young women working or apprenticing in the salon never experienced the rule of the Taliban over Afghanistan.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday launched the main module of its first permanent space station that will host astronauts long term, the latest success for a program that has realized a number of its growing ambitions in recent years.
The Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony," module blasted into space atop a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan, marking another major advance for the country’s space exploration.
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Offices were closed, markets were shuttered and vehicles were forced off the streets in Nepal’s capital on Thursday as authorities imposed a 15-day lockdown because of spiking cases of COVID-19.
The lockdown was imposed in most of the Himalayan nation's major cities and towns. In Kathmandu and surrounding districts, police set up checkpoints and were stopping drivers and pedestrians. Several vehicles were impounded for defying the lockdown.
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SINGAPORE (AP) — Inbee Park birdied two of her final three holes in a bogey-free round Thursday for an 8-under 64 and a one-stroke lead at the LPGA Tour's HSBC Women’s World Championship at Sentosa Golf Club.
Hee Young Park holed out from the fairway for an eagle to start her back nine and birdied three of her final five holes and was a stroke behind her world No. 2-ranked compatriot.
BERLIN (AP) — German police said Thursday that a 51-year-old woman detained on suspicion of killing four people at a hospital in the eastern city of Potsdam is an employee at the clinic.
Officers called to the Oberlin Clinic shortly before 9 p.m. on Wednesday found the victims and a fifth person who was seriously injured in patient rooms, Brandenburg state police said.
“The victims showed signs of significant external violence,” police spokesman Thorsten Herbst told The Associated Press.
Asian shares rose Thursday and U.S. futures also were higher after President Joe Biden delivered a speech to Congress outlining ambitious plans for jobs-creating spending on early education, child care and other public services.
Tyler Tumminia is leaving the door open should members of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association ever want to reach out to the National Women’s Hockey League in a bid to thaw what has been a chilly relationship.
The NWHL’s first-year commissioner said she is willing to listen, and doesn’t believe the two sides’ objectives in growing the sport are all that different
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Steve Asmussen grew up in a barn in dusty Laredo, Texas. He and older brother Cash were the help in their parents' Ma-and-Pa stable. Nearly 4,000 miles away, Patrick O'Neill watched from Hawaii as his Uncle Doug made his way up the training ranks.
The families' worlds collide in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Islamic militant group Hamas has rejected the idea of postponing Palestinian elections ahead of a leadership meeting Thursday in which President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party is expected to push for a delay, citing a dispute with Israel over voting in east Jerusalem.
MIAMI (AP) — The postgame routine between San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra is almost always the same. A handshake or embrace near midcourt at the final buzzer. They exchange a few words. They laugh. And then the coaches head off in opposite directions.
NEW YORK (AP) — Francisco Lindor's contract negotiations with the Mets seemed pretty smooth. His swing certainly has not.
The $341 million star shortstop is batting .203 with three RBIs through 19 games with his new team and has started drawing boos at Citi Field.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jacob deGrom doesn't give up much on the mound. Fortunately for his opponents, sometimes it doesn't take a whole lot to beat him, either.
Christian Vázquez hit an early RBI double, producing the only run required for the Boston Red Sox to slip past deGrom and the punchless New York Mets 1-0 on Wednesday night.
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Graduations can be safely held outside, Maine CDC head says
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said outdoor graduation ceremonies can be safely held in the state this year.
Common sense should guide the events at high schools and colleges, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said. Masks should be worn at events that will pack hundreds of students into a close setting, he said.
PHOENIX (AP) — Devin Booker was in middle school and starting center Deandre Ayton was 11 years old when the Phoenix Suns were last in the playoffs.
As for point guard Chris Paul? He was an NBA star in those days, just like he was on Wednesday night.
Paul scored 28 points, Booker added 21 and the Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers 109-101 to secure a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2010.
RANSIH KALAN. India (AP) — Every year, Swarn Singh sows rice in his fields, knowing that the thirsty crop is draining northern India's Punjab of its groundwater. But Singh says he has no choice, adding, “We'd rather plant crops that need less water."
BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) — Indian Point will permanently stop producing nuclear power Friday, capping a decades-long battle over a key source of electricity in the heart of New York City's suburbs that opponents have called a threat to millions living in the densely packed region.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — As many as one-third of Mexicans may have been exposed to the coronavirus by the end of 2020, according to a study of random blood samples taken between February and December.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The roar of applause that typically greets a new president entering the House chamber softened Wednesday to just a few hundred hands clapping as Joe Biden arrived to deliver his first joint address to Congress under strict coronavirus restrictions and tight security at the Capitol.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden returned to the U.S. Capitol, his home for more than three decades, and used his first address to Congress to make the case that the era of big government is back.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina law that gives local courts authority over the release of body camera video has come under a harsh glare after a judge refused to make public footage of deputies shooting and killing Andrew Brown Jr.
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is extending an already monthlong lockdown by two weeks as the country’s worst coronavirus infection spike starts to ease but remains alarming.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, has probably toured more COVID-19 vaccination centers than he ever imagined.
If he ever imagined that at all.
His drop-ins at places where people are rolling up their sleeves for a jab of protection have become a particular focus for Emhoff as he begins to shape his groundbreaking role as SGOTUS — the first “second gentleman of the United States.”
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hearing of excess vaccine and unfilled appointments frustrates Dr. Aaron Roland, a family physician who has been lobbying for doses to inoculate his patients, many of whom are low-income, immigrants or elderly.
The San Francisco Bay Area doctor has more than 200 patients who have inquired when he will offer inoculations against the coronavirus. One patient, who is 67, said he walked into a Safeway supermarket because signs said doses were available.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — With the austerity of a monk, a vocation to seek the good of others and a bright scientific mind, Jose Gregorio Hernández won the affection of those who called him “the doctor of the poor.” He became a religious icon after his death in 1919, and since then millions of Venezuelans have fervently asked that he be universally worshipped.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden declared Wednesday night that “America is rising anew” as he called for an expansion of federal programs to drive the economy past the pandemic and broadly extend the social safety net on a scale not seen in decades.
In his first address to Congress, he pointed optimistically to the nation's emergence from the coronavirus scourge as a moment for America to prove that its democracy can still work and maintain primacy in the world.
Full Coverage: Biden's First 100 Days
Text of speech by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Republican response to President Joe Biden's address to Congress, as provided by the office of the Senate minority leader:
Good evening. I’m Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Joe Biden's first joint address to Congress (all times local):
11 p.m.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has used the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s address to Congress to vow that “America is not a racist country.”
Connecticut will no longer allow a religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities, becoming the sixth state to end that policy.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics said Thursday its operating profit for the last quarter jumped 46% from a year earlier driven by increased sales of smartphones and televisions as its business continues to flourish amid the pandemic.
The South Korean tech giant also said its quarterly revenue of 65.39 trillion won ($59 billion) was its highest for the first three months of the year.
Seconds after Anthony Alvarez was shot from behind by a Chicago police officer, the fatally wounded 22-year-old looked over at the officer and asked: “Why you shooting me?” The officer answered, “You had a gun.”
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A juror who cast one of the unanimous votes to convict a white former Minneapolis police officer in George Floyd's death said Wednesday that deliberations were relaxed and methodical as he and 11 other jurors quickly talked their way to agreement in parts of just two days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made history Wednesday as the first women — one of them Black and Indian American — to share the stage in Congress during a presidential address.
President Joe Biden noted the historic development at the very opening of his address. After taking the podium, Biden greeted the two women standing behind him with a “Madam Speaker” and “Madam Vice President.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Louisville police officer who fired at Breonna Taylor after being shot during the deadly raid on Taylor’s apartment is retiring.
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly is planning to retire from the Louisville Metro Police Department on June 1, police spokesperson Beth Ruoff told news outlets.
FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) — Rapper Kodak Black was sentenced to probation Wednesday for assaulting a teenage girl in a South Carolina hotel room.
Black was originally charged with rape, but accepted a deal and pleaded guilty to first-degree assault at the Florence County courthouse.
Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, faces a 10-year suspended prison sentence. He won't have to go to prison on the charge as long as he completes 18 months of probation, media outlets reported.
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar government forces launched airstrikes against ethnic minority guerrillas in two areas of the country on Wednesday, local reports said.
Fighting has been raging daily in northern Myanmar in territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization, representing the Kachin minority, and in the east by the Karen National Union, representing the Karen.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Police in Alameda, California, are under fire over the death of a Latino man who was pinned to the ground face down for more than five minutes on the same day a jury in Minneapolis began deliberating in the George Floyd case.
Autopsy findings have not been released, but the family of 26-year-old Mario Gonzalez accused police Wednesday of using excessive force and escalating what should have been a minor encounter with the unarmed man.
Easily the most heartfelt movie about family life that also includes a robot apocalypse and a pug often mistaken for a loaf of bread, “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” is an antic, irreverent animated delight that somehow doesn't sacrifice depth even as it hurtles forward at breakneck comic speed.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Three days after his coronavirus symptoms appeared, Rajendra Karan struggled to breathe. Instead of waiting for an ambulance, his son drove him to a government hospital in Lucknow, the capital of India’s largest state.
But the hospital wouldn’t let him in without a registration slip from the district’s chief medical officer. By the time the son got it, his father had died in the car, just outside the hospital doors.
Full Coverage: Coronavirus pandemic