Antlers and fancy dress: Stonehenge welcomes 8,000 visitors for summer solstice
STONEHENGE, England — All hail the rising sun. Around 8,000 revellers gathered around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun. Druids, pagans, hippies, local residents and tourists, many clad in an array of colorful...
NFL QB Aaron Rodgers is set to speak at a psychedelics conference
DENVER — Months after Colorado’s voters decided to join Oregon in decriminalizing psychedelic mushrooms, Denver will host a conference this week put on by a psychedelic advocacy group bringing together an unlikely cohort of speakers — including an NFL star, a former Republican governor and a rapper. The conference and...
Search area for lost Titanic-bound submersible deepens, doubles in size as oxygen dwindles
Rescuers on Wednesday rushed more ships and vessels to the area where a submersible disappeared on its way to the Titanic wreckage site, hoping underwater sounds they detected for a second straight day might help narrow their search in an increasingly urgent mission. Crews were scouring an area twice the...
7-year-old fatally shoots 5-year-old child in eastern Kentucky
MCKEE, Ky. — A 7-year-old child fatally shot a 5-year-old child inside a home in eastern Kentucky, police said. An initial investigation found that the shooting reported Monday evening at the home in McKee was accidental, Kentucky State Police said in a statement. Life-saving measures were attempted, but the child...
Sweltering heat tests Texas’ power grid and patience as thousands in South still without electricity
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept large swaths of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures. On the last day of spring, the sweltering heat felt...
Pitt students frustrated after being told following commencement they were short of degree requirements
College students trying to understand what precise combination of courses they need to graduate generally take it on faith that if they follow a campus adviser’s instructions, they will get their degree. But what if the adviser gets it wrong? What if they needed more courses than they were told...
Georgia officials won’t take over elections in state’s largest, Democrat-heavy county
ATLANTA — Georgia’s State Election Board won’t take over running elections in the state’s most populous county, ending an investigation that had sparked fears of partisan meddling. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to end its performance review of Fulton County nearly two years after it had begun. Multiple board...
Tropical Storm Bret spins toward eastern Caribbean as forecasters warn of heavy rainfall
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Bret chugged toward the eastern Caribbean on Tuesday as the region prepared itself for an unusually early storm and the torrential rains that are forecast. Bret had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was moving across the Atlantic Ocean at 18 mph,...
DA, ethics panel back judge in Donald Trump hush-money case, finding no evidence of bias
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s tempestuous views aside, Manhattan prosecutors say neither the former president nor his lawyers have shown any evidence to support their claims that the judge in his hush-money criminal case has an anti-Trump bias. They urged him to reject defense demands that he step aside from...
Judge strikes down Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors
LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law,...
Pennsylvania House passes tax credit for new police officers, teachers and nurses
HARRISBURG — A proposed tax credit to recruit new teachers, nurses and police officers passed through the Pennsylvania House of Representatives with bipartisan support on Tuesday, but leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate have suggested it lacks support in the caucus. The bill passed 137-66, with every Democrat and about one-third...
Probe blames Pennsylvania county’s November ballot paper shortage on inexperience, poor training
HARRISBURG — A prosecutor’s review of voting problems in a Pennsylvania swing county where ballot paper ran out last year found no evidence of criminal activity or purposeful efforts to prevent voting, according to a new report that blamed inexperienced supervisors. Luzerne District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce’s 24-page review said only...
I-95 will open this weekend in Philadelphia, Shapiro says
About two weeks after a section of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia, the heavily trafficked freeway should reopen to traffic. Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday that three lanes in each direction will reopen this weekend, about a week ahead of the originally projected timeline, and well...
Blood-red crickets invade Nevada town, residents fight backVideo
ELKO, Nev. — Dana Dolan was driving through her small Nevada hometown when she thought she had come upon a gory crash. The ground surrounding Elko’s stretch of Interstate 80 looked as if it had been covered in blood. As the red color shifted and moved, she realized instead it...
What to know about Hunter Biden’s plea deal in federal tax and gun case
The announcement that federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter over tax and gun charges marks the likely end of a five-year Justice Department investigation that has dogged the Biden family. It doesn’t, however, mean that congressional Republicans are done with their own wide-ranging...
Why haven’t China and the U.S. agreed to restore military contacts?
TAIPEI, Taiwan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up a closely watched visit to Beijing during which he and President Xi Jinping pledged to stabilize plunging U.S-China ties. But China refused the biggest U.S. request: restoring military-to-military contacts. Blinken said he raised the issue of military communications...
Supreme Court turns away veterans who seek disability benefits over 1966 hydrogen bomb accident
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal on behalf of some U.S. veterans who want disability benefits because they were exposed to radiation while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Spain. The justices did not comment in turning away an appeal from Victor Skaar,...
Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely averts time behind bars in a tax and gun case
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter will plead guilty to federal tax offenses but avoid a full prosecution on a separate gun charge in a deal with the Justice Department that likely spares him time behind bars. Hunter Biden, 53, will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as...
Trump adviser faces possible disbarment over his efforts to overturn 2020 election
LOS ANGELES — Attorney John Eastman, the architect of a legal strategy aimed at keeping former President Donald Trump in power, concocted a baseless theory and made false claims of fraud in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, a prosecutor said Tuesday in arguing that Eastman be disbarred. Eastman’s...
Who gets a break? Clashing ideas on tax relief are teed up for the 2024 campaign
WASHINGTON — Just six days after the bipartisan deal on the debt limit became law, House Republicans proposed a slew of tax cuts, leading to charges of hypocrisy by Democrats in a squabble that shows two clashing visions for the U.S. economy. GOP lawmakers are pushing deep tax cuts for...
The U.S. Coast Guard says debris field has been found near the Titanic during search for submersible
The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that an underwater vessel has located a debris field near the Titanic in the search for a missing submersible with five people aboard, a potential breakthrough in an increasingly urgent around-the-clock effort. The Coast Guard’s post on Twitter gave no details, such as whether...
Inside the deepening rivalry between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom says there’s no chance “on God’s green earth” he’s running for president in 2024, but he wants to make clear that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running, is “weak” and “undisciplined” and “will be crushed by Donald Trump.” DeSantis, meanwhile, likes to...
Himalayan glaciers could lose 80% of their volume if global warming not controlled, study finds
BENGALURU, India — Glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain ranges and could lose up to 80% of their current volume this century if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t sharply reduced, according to a new report. The report Tuesday from Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain...
Trump gives reason for hoarding Mar-a-Lago classified documents: ‘Didn’t want to hand them over’Video
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he didn’t “want to hand over” boxes of classified government documents despite getting a subpoena because he hoped to keep personal items that he believed belong to him. Doubling down on his “my boxes” defense, Trump admitted in an interview with Fox News’...
U.N. members adopt first-ever treaty to protect marine life in the high seas
UNITED NATIONS — Members of the United Nations adopted the first-ever treaty to protect marine life in the high seas on Monday, with the U.N.’s chief hailing the historic agreement as giving the ocean “a fighting chance.” Delegates from the 193 member nations burst into applause and then stood up...
