National News

By  PAUL WISEMAN WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in at 7.7 million with ongoing uncertainty over the direction of the American economy. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close…

By  MICHAEL R. SISAK NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department can publicly release investigative materials from a sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein, a federal judge said on Tuesday. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ruled after the Justice Department…

By  MARCIA DUNN CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade. Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend. NASA said this week that it was working fine before…

By  MICHELLE CHAPMAN and BERNARD CONDON NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount on Monday launched a hostile takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, initiating a potentially bruising battle with rival bidder Netflix to buy the company behind HBO, CNN and a famed movie studio along with the…

By  STAN CHOE NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks pulled away from their record heights on Monday. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% for just its second loss in the last 11 days, but it remains within 0.6% of its all-time high set in…

By  ALI SWENSON and NICKY FORSTER NEW YORK (AP) — The number of Americans signing up for Affordable Care Act health insurance for 2026 is moderately higher than it was at a similar time last year, initial new federal data shows, even as subsidies…

By  JENNA FRYER CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — An economist testified in Michael Jordan’s federal antitrust trial against NASCAR that the racing series owes a combined $364.7 million in damages to the two teams suing it over a revenue-sharing dispute. Edward Snyder,…

By  BILL BARROW and JOHN HANNA Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett launched a campaign Monday for the U.S. Senate in Texas, bringing a national profile to a race that may be critical to Democrats’ long-shot hopes of reclaiming a Senate majority in next year’s…

By  MEG KINNARD and MAYA SWEEDLER Ahead of next year’s midterms, a number of members from both major parties have already announced they’re heading for the exits, either because they’re seeking higher office, simply aren’t running again, or are leaving the chamber early.…

By  MICHAEL R. SISAK NEW YORK (AP) — Moments after Luigi Mangione was put in handcuffs at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear. The discovery, recounted in…

By  DARLENE SUPERVILLE WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday presented the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned…

By  JACK BROOK NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Archdiocese will pay at least $230 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse under a settlement approved Monday by a federal judge that follows years of negotiations. Richard Trahant, an attorney…

By  SEUNG MIN KIM, JOSH FUNK and DIDI TANG WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning a $12 billion farm aid package, according to a White House official — a boost to farmers who have struggled to sell their crops while getting hit by rising…

By  SAFIYAH RIDDLE MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Seven decades after Rosa Parks was thrust indelibly into American history for refusing to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, new photos of the Civil Rights Movement icon have been made public…

By  JIM MUSTIAN and JACK BROOK NEW ORLEANS (AP) — State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public…

By  CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A seal walked into a bar. Or to use a technical term, it galumphed. The creature was apparently lost, curious and well below New Zealand ’s legal drinking age. It lodged itself under the dishwasher and showed…

By  COREY WILLIAMS and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER DETROIT (AP) — RoboCop has finally found a permanent home in Detroit. A statue looming 11 feet tall (3.3 meters) and weighing 3,500 pounds (1,587 kilograms) has been drawing fans since it began standing guard over the…

By  SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN The spots gave it away. Just like a human fingerprint, the rosette pattern on each jaguar is unique so researchers knew they had a new animal on their hands after reviewing images captured by a remote camera…

By  ELÉONORE HUGHES and LUCAS DUMPHREYS RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Towering talipot palms in a Rio de Janeiro park are flowering for the first and only time in their lives, decades after famed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx introduced them in the 1960s. Towards the end of…

By  HILLEL ITALIE NEW YORK (AP) — The first full-length book by Pope Leo XIV to come out in the U.S. will be published next year. HarperOne announced Wednesday that it had acquired world rights to “Peace Be with You! My Words to…

By  ASHLAND and Va. The masked burglar broke into the closed Virginia liquor store early on Saturday and hit the bottom shelf, where the scotch and whisky were stored. The bandit was something of a nocturnal menace: bottles were smashed, a ceiling tile…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security Administration is hoping to cut visits to its field offices in half next year, a move that advocates for the agency fear signals more closures are coming. Field offices have long been community-based branches that serve as…