AP National News

By GEOFF MULVIHILL and JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press On the campaign trail, Donald Trump used contentiousness around transgender people’s access to sports and bathrooms to fire up conservative voters and sway undecideds. And in his first months back in office, Trump has pushed the issue further, erasing mention of transgender people on government websites and

By CHARLOTTE KRAMON Associated Press/Report for America ATLANTA (AP) — Mary Favors is still plagued by nightmares from the days her husband beat her, choked her and verbally and sexually abused her. Now, she is in prison for killing him. Their disagreements often turned physical, and five times he was convicted of abusing her. Then

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies involved in a 2022 shootout along a California freeway that killed a teenage girl and her fugitive father will not face any criminal charges, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday. Bonta released a report compiled by the California Department of Justice following an

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A University of Minnesota international student is being detained by U.S. immigration authorities, school leaders said in a statement this week. University leadership said Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained the graduate student Thursday at an off-campus residence. They described the situation as “deeply concerning.” The student is enrolled in business school at

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Protesters against billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump demonstrated outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the world’s richest man. The protesters were

By MICHAEL CASEY and MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The top vaccine official with the Food and Drug Administration has resigned and criticized the nation’s top health official for allowing “misinformation and lies” to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccinations. Dr. Peter Marks sent a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to change how U.S. elections are run is creating uncertainty for state and local election officials and worries about voter confusion before the next federal election, the 2026 midterms. Election officials were already dealing with the loss of some cybersecurity

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin appellate court denied the state Democratic attorney general’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters at a rally planned for Sunday, just two days before a closely contested Supreme Court election. The denial Saturday by the

By MELINA WALLING and RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — In Uganda’s Mbale district, famous for its production of arabica coffee, a plague of plastic bags locally known as buveera is creeping beyond the city. It’s a problem that has long littered the landscape in Kampala, the capital, where buveera are woven into

A U.S. passenger flight preparing to leave the nation’s capital and an incoming military jet received instructions to divert and prevent a possible collision, officials said. Delta Air Lines Flight 2983 was cleared for takeoff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday around 3:15 p.m., the same time four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon

By KATHY McCORMACK and RODRIQUE NGOWI Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Parker Tirrell, 16, enjoys her art classes, scrolling on TikTok and working at her new job at a pet store. But most of all, the transgender teen loves playing soccer. Until last year, that wasn’t a problem. “I was just living my life

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With the promise of newer, cheaper nuclear power on the horizon, U.S. states are vying to position themselves to build and supply the industry’s next generation as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and paving over regulatory obstacles. Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong has resigned, returning to her post running the New York school’s medical center. Armstrong’s return to her former job as CEO of Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center comes days after Columbia agreed to a host of policy changes demanded by the Trump administration as a

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking the city at the heart of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments from enforcing its camping rules unless it meets certain conditions, as part of a lawsuit filed by advocates. Under the decision by Josephine

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Voice of America can’t be silenced just yet. A federal judge on Friday halted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the eight-decade-old U.S. government-funded international news service, calling the move a “classic case of arbitrary and capricious decision making.” Judge James Paul Oetken blocked

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The U.S. Naval Academy will no longer consider race, ethnicity or sex as a factor for admission to the service institution, a response to an executive order by President Donald Trump, according to federal court documents made public Friday. The change in policy was made in

By TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press In North Carolina, wildfires stoked by unusually dry air and debris from last year’s Hurricane Helene are burning out of control. In Florida, there are dozens of blazes, including one that scorched about 42 square miles in Miami-Dade County. And they continue to burn in Oklahoma, where four people have

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer President Donald Trump’s FCC commissioner said Friday he’s opening an investigation into the Walt Disney Co. and its ABC television network to see whether they are “promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the probe in a letter to Disney CEO Robert Iger on Friday.

By KIM CHANDLER AND SAFIYAH RIDDLE Associated Press TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama was arrested by immigration agents at his apartment in the middle of the night, even though his lawyer said he was allowed to stay in the country and — unlike some students targeted for

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A jury from outside of Memphis will be seated in the state court trial of three former police officers charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in 2023, a judge ruled Friday. Shelby County Judge James Jones Jr.

By HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press Sgt. Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving World War II paratrooper and a member of the U.S. Army’s first all-Black parachute infantry battalion, has died. He was 108. Harris died March 15 in a hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by family, grandson Ashton Pittman told The Associated Press.

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press A large wildfire in the South Carolina mountains has doubled in size on each of the last three days. But fire crews have been able to keep the blaze away from structures. Firefighters battling the Table Rock Mountain fire have concentrated on saving lives and property by digging fire breaks

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Lithuanian troops and authorities are struggling to drain a swampy area in Lithuania in an ongoing effort to recover four American Army soldiers who went missing three days ago. The soldiers’ armored vehicle was discovered submerged in 15 feet of water and so far

By VALERIE GONZALEZ and JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Drenching rains along the Texas-Mexico border trapped hundreds of people in flooded homes and in cars stranded in high waters, scrambling rescue crews to calls for help that continued Friday even as the downpours let up. At least four people died, including

By HILLEL ITALIE and AARON MORRISON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” targets the Smithsonian Institution — which has, he contends, “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” Critics have pushed back, saying the order is an attempt to whitewash

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina death row inmate on Friday chose execution by firing squad, just five weeks after the state carried out its first death by bullets. Mikal Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004, is scheduled to be executed April

By DAVID FISCHER Associated Press The city of St. Augustine — with its centuries-old buildings and massive stone fort — is an enduring reminder of Spain’s storied history in Florida, going back generations before the United States even existed. But for two decades in the 1700s, Great Britain controlled the region, and archeologists have finally

By MATTHEW BROWN, HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MEAD GRUVER Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, pushing past opposition from dentists and national health organizations who warn the move will lead to medical problems that disproportionately affect low-income communities. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general asked a court on Friday to block billionaire Elon Musk from handing out $1 million checks to voters this weekend, just days before the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race was to be decided. Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the lawsuit in

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer A little-known federal agency that touches the lives of people across the United States by funding the 988 crisis line, naloxone distribution and addiction treatment may be weakened and possibly eliminated in the proposed overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Health Secretary Robert