US

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees. The agency’s Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift … Read more

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch Friday, a day after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein. The move came shortly after the Justice Department asked a federal court on Friday … Read more

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela on Friday released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, officials said. The complex, three-country arrangement represents a diplomatic achievement for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, helps President … Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — A Virginia man pleaded guilty Friday in a federal case that accused him of stockpiling the largest number of finished explosives in FBI history and of using then-President Joe Biden’s photo for target practice. Brad Spafford pleaded guilty in federal court in Norfolk to possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle and … Read more

ATLANTA — The family of a homeless man who died after a bulldozer crushed his tent during an encampment sweep sued the city of Atlanta on Friday over his death, calling it “tragic and preventable.” The lawsuit filed by Cornelius Taylor’s sister and son alleges that city employees failed to look to see if there … Read more

SAN ANTONIO — A speeding stolen car smashed into a bus on an interstate in San Antonio on Thursday, causing a multi-vehicle crash that left four people dead and more than a dozen injured, police said. Two people traveling on the bus were pronounced dead at the scene on Interstate 35 and two died at … Read more

DARIEN, Ga. — Black landowners from a tiny island community returned to a Georgia courtroom Friday urging a judge to let them move forward with a lawsuit that accuses local officials of illegally weakening protections for one of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities founded by freed slaves. Residents and landowners of Hogg Hummock on Sapelo … Read more

BOSTON — Attorneys for Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide argued in federal court Friday that cutting off Medicaid funding to its abortion providers would hurt vulnerable patients who already have limited health care options. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates in Massachusetts and Utah are fighting to block part of President Donald Trump’s tax … Read more

TOKYO — A Nagasaki cathedral has blessed the final piece to complete its restoration nearly 80 years after being destroyed by the second U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Japan: a reproduction of its lost bell restored by a group of Americans. The new bell was blessed and named “St. Kateri Bell of Hope,” by Peter … Read more

WASHINGTON — The State Department says its destruction of 500 metric tons of emergency food aid that was stored in a warehouse in the Middle East was required because it had expired and that the move will not affect the distribution of similar assistance moving forward. The high energy biscuits — used primarily to provide … Read more