AP-National

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average rate on a 30-year mortgage dipped this week to just below 7% for the first time since mid April, a modest boost for home shoppers navigating a housing market dampened by rising prices and relatively few available properties. The rate fell to 6.94%

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is calling a rare special session of the General Assembly next Tuesday to pass legislation ensuring that President Joe Biden is on the state’s 2024 ballot. DeWine said Thursday that Ohio is “running out of time” to get Biden on the ballot. He adds that failing

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Louis Vuitton has unveiled its latest fashion designs at Barcelona’s Park Güell in an homage to one of Antoni Gaudí’s architectural masterpieces. Nicolas Ghesquiere’s ambitions for the Parisian house’s 2025 Cruise collection were unveiled before an A-list crowd that included actresses Ana de Armas, Jennifer Connelly,

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — The one remaining wrongful death lawsuit filed after 10 people were killed during a deadly crowd crush at the 2021 Astroworld music festival has been settled, an attorney said Thursday. Jury selection in the lawsuit filed by the family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, the youngest person

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer New research suggests the HPV vaccine is preventing cancers in men, as well as in women. The vaccine is credited, along with screening, for lowering cervical cancer rates in the United States. But evidence that the shots are preventing cancers in men has been slower to emerge. The

BERLIN (AP) — German police have cleared about 150 pro-Palestinian demonstrators from a Berlin university faculty, ending one of a wave of student-led protests across Europe over Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas. Activists had occupied several rooms of the Humboldt University’s Institute for Social Sciences in downtown Berlin on Wednesday. University administrators agreed

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The incumbent mayor of Alaska’s largest city has lost his re-election bid. Dave Bronson, who had floated the idea of giving the homeless one-way plane tickets out of Anchorage, on Thursday conceded the election to challenger Suzanne LaFrance. Bronson says he called and congratulated LaFrance and

By ELÉONORE HUGHES Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state ravaged nearly everything needed for economic activity, from local shops to factories, farms and ranches. The environmental catastrophe — unprecedented in state history — upended transportation, including the airport in capital Porto Alegre, which is expected to

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer Will the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation give concertgoers, sports fan and theater patrons some relief from surging ticket prices? The lawsuit could potentially lead to a breakup of Live Nation Entertainment. The DOJ accuses the company that resulted from Ticketmaster’s 2010 merger with concert promoter

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NBA great Dwyane Wade was back in South Florida on Thursday to do battle again. The Hall of Famer spent more than 14 seasons as a guard for the Miami Heat, winning three championships, having Miami-Dade County nicknamed “Wade County,” and he still leads

By JOHN ZENOR AP Sports Writer Birmingham-Southern’s baseball team is playing on, even as the college prepares to close its doors. The Division III Panthers, in fact, could outlast the 168-year-old private liberal arts school with a super regional win this weekend at Denison in Grandville, Ohio. The school is closing its doors because of

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A northern Arizona man was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder and other crimes in the 2020 starvation death of his 6-year-old son. Authorities say the boy, Deshaun Martinez, was locked in a tiny bedroom closet for 16 hours a day over a month with his older brother as punishment for stealing

By HOLLY RAMER Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The judge who oversaw a landmark trial over abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention center says capping the verdict at $475,000 would be a “miscarriage of justice.” Jurors awarded $38 million to a man who said he was beaten and raped hundreds of times at the

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s highest court has thrown out a defamation lawsuit against attorneys who assisted voters in the 2016 election with submitting some ballot complaints. The state Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in favor of the lawyers and a legal defense fund for then-Republican Gov. Pat

By MARK ANDERSON AP Sports Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Oakland Athletics are on a tight schedule to get agreements in place and demonstrate that financing is set for construction to begin on time for the team’s new stadium in Las Vegas. The A’s hope to open the approximately $1.5 million, 33,000-seat ballpark for

By TERRY CHEA Associated Press SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, California (AP) — High in the evergreen canopy of General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, researchers searched for evidence of an emerging threat to giant sequoias: bark beetles. The climbers descended the towering 2,200-year-old tree with good news on Tuesday. “The General Sherman tree is doing fine

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are signaling to major Republican donors that they’re putting their rivalry behind them after a contentious and often personal primary fight. DeSantis brought together allies this week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to press them to support the presumptive

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Searchers announced Thursday they’ve discovered what they believe is the wreckage of World War II ace Richard Bong’s plane in the South Pacific. The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin, and the nonprofit World War II historical preservation group Pacific Wrecks announced in

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Former South African President Jacob Zuma has criticized the country’s highest court and his former allies in the ruling African National Congress over his disqualification from next week’s election. Zuma’s comments came in a video message he said was aimed at the people of

By ALI SULTAN Associated Press ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — Police say an electric short at a sugar factory in Tanzania set off an explosion that killed 11 workers, including three foreign nationals. The electrical fault caused a steam pipe to burst as a technical team was readying machines to start production for the day on

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When it was time to start making “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” production designer Colin Gibson went to a garage in Australia to find some old friends. It had been years since 2015’s “Fury Road” wrapped production. Many of the vehicles seen in the film

By ZENEL ZHINIPOTOKU and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s parliament has approved a bill on leasing some of its prison space to Denmark, to help the Scandinavian country cope with its overcrowded prison system. Lawmakers voted 86-7, with no abstentions, in favor of the bill that leases 300 cells at the

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore will cut the number of parishes in the city and nearby suburbs by about two-thirds. It’s part of a realignment plan responding to falling attendance and aging infrastructure in the nation’s oldest archdiocese. Under the final plan released Wednesday, the number of parishes will drop from 61

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer OpenAI will start using news content from News Corp. as part of a multiyear deal between the two companies. Open AI will be allowed to display content from News Corp. mastheads in response to user questions and to enhance its products. It will have access to current and archived

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Congressman Dwight Evans of Philadelphia says he’s in a rehabilitation facility recovering from a minor stroke, and plans to return to voting in Washington in about six weeks. Evans said in a statement Thursday that he’s having difficulty with one of his legs, which will impact his walking for some time.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani government says that the United Arab Emirates has committed to investing up to $10 billion in Pakistan during a meeting in the UAE capital between that country’s president and the Pakistani prime minister. The office of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The independent bookstore boom continues. Even as industry sales were slow in 2023, membership in the American Booksellers Association expanded strongly. It now stands at 2,433, more than 200 over the previous year and nearly double since 2016, when membership rules were looser. The ABA

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Ballet, one of the world’s premier dance troupes, has been celebrating its 75th anniversary all year. But while the company founded by George Balanchine is getting older, its audience is skewing younger. And that’s all part of the plan, to ensure the

LYONS, N.Y. (AP) — The owner of seven unlicensed cannabis shops in New York whose promotions included an Easter egg hunt has been fined more than $15 million. State officials complained David Tulley repeatedly ignored notices to stop operating without approval and sold products to underage customers. A state judge in Lyons, New York, imposed

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press The Navajo Nation Council has signed off on a proposed settlement that would ensure water rights for its tribe and two others in the drought-stricken Southwest — a deal that could become the most expensive enacted by Congress. The Navajo Nation has one of the largest single outstanding claims