AP-National

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer McDonald’s plans to introduce a $5 meal deal in the U.S. next month to counter slowing sales and customers’ frustration with high prices. The deal would let customers get a four-piece McNugget, small fries, a small drink and either a McDouble burger or a McChicken sandwich for $5 in

By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former top official in Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget office has pleaded not guilty to extortion, bribery, conspiracy and false statement charges. Konstantinos Diamantis appeared in federal court in Hartford on Thursday. Federal authorities allege Diamantis demanded and received thousands of dollars in bribes from

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has announced multiple arrests in a series of complex stolen identity theft cases that officials say are part of a wide-ranging scheme that generates enormous proceeds for the North Korean government, including for its weapons program. The conspiracy involves thousands of North Korean information

By REBECCA SANTANA and ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Thursday that a new fast-track docket in immigration courts will cut the time it takes decide asylum claims from years to months for some single adults. Migrants who settle in five cities — Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a full pardon Thursday for a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice. Abbott announced the pardon shortly after the Texas Board of Pardons

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia lodged a complaint over statements by the U.S. ambassador after he said the release of political prisoners could help the country engage in a productive dialogue and that detaining critics won’t resolve the country’s issues. The Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement that Ambassador

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A major North Carolina political donor and his associate have been convicted a second time of attempting to bribe the state’s insurance commissioner to secure preferential regulatory treatment for his insurance business. Insurance magnate Greg Lindberg and former consultant John Gray were convicted Wednesday of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm sued the baseball players’ association Thursday, asking for a restraining order against the union that would allow it to keep working with the company’s clients — a roster it says now includes NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. Rimas Sports, under

By WILL GRAVES AP National Writer SPRING, Texas (AP) — Simone Biles is not “cured.” A cure implies finality. An ultimate and decisive victory. If the gymnastics superstar has learned anything in the three years since those strange, uncertain days in Tokyo when she put her mental health and personal safety ahead of her pursuit

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday premiered his self-financed opus “Megalopolis” at the Cannes Film Festival, unveiling a wildly ambitious passion project the 85-year-old director has been pondering for decades. Reactions ranged from “a folly of gargantuan proportions” to “the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.” But

By ED WHITE Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit man who dropped a teenager’s body into a dumpster has been convicted of second-degree murder. The case gripped the region in 2022 when police spent months combing a landfill for Zion Foster’s remains. Her body was never found during that summer search through tons of

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Authorities in Belarus have announced raids and the seizure of property of 104 opposition activists who have fled the country. The action announced on Thursday was the latest step in the crackdown on dissent that has continued unabated for nearly four years. Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) — A wildfire that has forced thousands of people out of their homes in Canada’s oil sands hub city of Fort McMurray, Alberta is being held in place as rain and cooler temperatures sweep through the area. Alberta Wildfire information officer Christie Tucker says the blaze remained out of control —

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The government of South Sudan and rebel opposition groups have signed a “commitment declaration” for peace during high-level mediation talks in Kenya, described as key step in efforts to end the conflict in South Sudan that has long crippled its economy. The content of the agreement

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer Scientists say temperatures that have gone “crazy haywire” hot, especially in the Atlantic, are close to making the current global coral bleaching event the worst in history. It’s so bad that scientists are hoping for a few hurricanes to cool things off. Federal meteorologists and coral experts say more

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge has ruled in favor of a Republican candidate challenging the results in a 2022 judicial race and ordered that a new election be held in the nation’s third-most populous county, a Democratic stronghold that’s been beset by GOP efforts to dictate how ballots

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has evoked language adopted by the far-right Proud Boys extremist group as he supports Donald Trump at his New York hush money trial. Gaetz posted a social media photo of him with other congressional Republicans standing behind Trump outside the courtroom Thursday and wrote, “Standing back,

By JOSH DUBOW AP Pro Football Writer Creating the NFL schedule is a complicated process that requires tens of thousands of computers coming up with countless possibilities over a process that lasts about four months. There are several sometimes competing factors at play from keeping all of the television partners happy, to competitive balance for

ROME (AP) — An aid group says that the number of unaccompanied children who arrived in the northern Italian city of Trieste through the Balkan migratory route has more than doubled last year. The International Rescue Committee’s annual report released on Thursday said that about 3,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Trieste in 2023. There was

By JIM SALTER Associated Press Police records show that officers responded nearly 1,000 times in the past three years to an Iowa juvenile treatment center where a staff member was killed. Police say 50-year-old Kathleen Galloway-Menke was assaulted May 8 by a 15-year-old resident at the center, Ellipsis Iowa, in the Des Moines suburb of

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has marked the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that struck down institutionalized racial segregation in public schools by welcoming plaintiffs and their family members in the landmark case to the White House. Thursday’s Oval Office visit to commemorate the 1954 Brown v.

By The Associated Press Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was gravely injured in an apparent assassination attempt that rocked the small country and the rest of Europe just weeks before an election. The attack calls to mind other notable political assassinations and attempts in recent years. Among those killed are Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo

By MAYSOON KHAN Associated Press/Report for America ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A disability rights advocate made a complaint to New York State Police saying was shoved twice by state Senator Kevin Parker. Advocate Michael Carey says Parker got inches from his face Wednesday and yelled “I don’t care” before grabbing him by his shoulders and

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. (AP) — The chancellor of the California State University system has suspended the president of its Sonoma campus for announcing an agreement with pro-Palestinian activists to pursue an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and divestment strategies. Chancellor Mildred García says the message by Sonoma State University President Ming-Tung “Mike” Lee was issued

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — One person died and another was hospitalized after a vehicle crashed into a tanker truck carrying fuel on Colorado’s main east-west highway near Denver on Thursday, sending up a fireball and a huge plume of black smoke, authorities said. The crash happened on the westbound Interstate 70

By ZEKE MILLER and JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden campaign says Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from CBS News to debate former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick this summer. Harris’ team told the network she would debate on Tuesday, July 23, or Tuesday, August 13, and encouraged

PHOENIX (AP) — A truck driver has been killed after a tank holding waste material depressurized at a construction site in Phoenix, where workers are building an advanced semiconductor manufacturing plant that could supply tens of millions of chips for powering smartphones, vehicles and data center servers. Cesar Anguiano-Guitron, 41, was taking waste material away

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press A bronze sculpture of the late Rev. Billy Graham was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, with Christianity’s most prolific evangelist once known as “America’s Pastor” immortalized in the halls of Congress on behalf of his native North Carolina. Graham’s likeness, depicting the Charlotte-born minister with his archetypal

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA and MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press VERON, Dominican Republic (AP) — As soaring violence and political turmoil grip neighboring Haiti, the Dominican Republic will hold elections Sunday that have been defined by calls for more crackdowns on migrants and finishing a border wall dividing the countries. Politics in the two Caribbean nations

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Through its long history, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has offered a way for people to get a quick read on how Wall Street is doing. But its importance is on the wane. Because it holds just 30 stocks and uses a quirky way to