National News

By  IAIN SULLIVAN and SUMAN NAISHADHAM SAN BARTOLOME DE PINARES, Spain (AP) — Hundreds of Spaniards watched horses gallop through towering flames, hours before pet owners in Madrid on Saturday took their dogs and cats to church to be blessed with holy water.…

By  EDDIE PELLS The NCAA unearthed another revenue stream Friday when Division I leaders approved patches for uniforms in a move that could generate millions to fund athletic departments that are looking for new ways to pay players. Beginning Aug. 1,…

By  STAN CHOE NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market drifted through mixed trading Friday, as a zigzag week punctuated by loud threats and pullbacks finished with a quiet and tentative close. The S&P 500 was basically flat and edged up by less than…

By  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Meta is halting teens’ access to artificial intelligence characters, at least temporarily, the company said in a blog post Friday. Meta Platforms Inc., which own Instagram and WhatsApp, said that starting in the “coming weeks,” teens will no…

By  BARBARA ORTUTAY TikTok has at last finalized a deal to keep the popular video sharing platform operating in the U.S. after years of uncertainty, but questions remain about whether users’ experience will change and whether the changes actually address security…

By  SOPHIE AUSTIN SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California sued the federal government Friday for approving a Texas-based company’s plans to restart two oil pipelines along the state’s coast, escalating a fight over the Trump administration’s removal of regulatory barriers to offshore oil…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out a deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first known attack since the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier…

By  R.J. RICO and JEFFREY COLLINS ATLANTA (AP) — Every morning this week, Newberry Electric Cooperative CEO Keith Avery walks into his office and turns on The Weather Channel. Then he starts making calls, lining up crews and equipment to respond to outages…

By  ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, MIKE BALSAMO and AMY TAXIN ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) — Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, a top FBI fugitive, was arrested in Mexico and on Friday was flown to the U.S. to face charges related to running a multinational drug…

By  GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A vast network of labor unions, progressive organizations and clergy urged Minnesotans to stay away from work, school and stores Friday to protest immigration enforcement operations, even as subzero temperatures beset the state. Minneapolis and St. Paul…

By  MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione ’s federal murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson will begin with jury selection Sept. 8, a judge said Friday. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett said the rest of the trial…

By  MIKE STOBBE and DEVI SHASTRI NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, one year after President Donald Trump announced America was ending its 78-year-old commitment, federal officials said Thursday. But it’s hardly a clean…

By  EMILIE MEGNIEN, JEFFREY COLLINS and JAMIE STENGLE DALLAS (AP) — It was too cold for school in Chicago and other Midwestern cities Friday as a huge, dayslong winter storm began to crank up that could bring snow, sleet, ice and bone-chilling temperatures as well as…

By  KAITLYN HUAMANI TikTok has finalized a deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a ban in the United States that has been in discussion for years on the platform now used by more than 200 million…

By  STAN CHOE NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose again Thursday and regained more of their losses for the week following the latest walk back by President Donald Trump from tariffs he had earlier threatened. The S&P 500 gained 0.5% and added to its big…

By  MATT OTT WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits inched up last week but U.S. layoffs remain historically low despite signs of a softening labor market. U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending…

By  PAUL WISEMAN WASHINGTON (AP) — Powered by strong consumer spending, the U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace in two years from July through September, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade of its first estimate. America’s gross domestic product…

By  ALEX VEIGA The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate ticked higher this week, but remains near its lowest level in more than three years. The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.09% from 6.06% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie…

By  KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed this year’s final batch of spending bills on Thursday as lawmakers, still smarting from last fall’s record 43-day shutdown, worked to avoid another funding lapse for a broad swath of the federal government.…

By  ERIC TUCKER, MARY CLARE JALONICK, LISA MASCARO and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday defended his investigations of Donald Trump at a public congressional hearing in which he insisted that he had acted without regard to politics…

By  GEOFF MULVIHILL President Donald Trump’s budget office this week ordered most government agencies to compile data on the federal money that is sent to 14 mostly Democratic-controlled states and the District of Columbia in what it describes as a tool…

By  ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A prominent civil rights attorney and at least one other person involved in an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church have been arrested, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday, just…