National News - The Morning Sun

A member of Team Ukraine competes during the final of highlights of the artistic swimming at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, June 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi)

JUNE 23– JUNE 30, 2022 From Greek wildfires and the aquatic world championships in Budapest to the beginning of the Tour de France in Copenhagen, this photo gallery highlights some of the most … more

By The Associated Press | 7/1/22

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a joint news conference with Indonesian President Joko Widodo after their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 30, 2022. It has not been an easy week for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He took his first foreign trip since the invasion of Ukraine to shore up relations with troublesome Central Asian allies. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Putin's week: Facing NATO expansion, West's unity on Ukraine

It hasn't been an easy week for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He took his first foreign trip since the invasion of Ukraine to shore up relations with troublesome Central Asian allies. He watched … more

7/1/22

An Indigenous woman sits on a sidewalk in Izucar de Matamoros in the Mexican state of Puebla, Wednesday, June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean

- more

7/1/22

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, center, speaks in support of health care for all low-income immigrants living in the country illegally during a rally at the Capitol Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign a $307.9 billion operating budget on Thursday June 30, 2022, that makes all low-income adults eligible for the state's medicaid program regardless of their immigration status. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

California first to cover health care for all immigrants

California will be the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants who are living in the country illegally. Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign a $307.9 billion … more

By ADAM BEAM and DON THOMPSON | 6/30/22

FILE - Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. Seated from left are Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Standing from left are Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Anti-Roe justices a part of Catholicism's conservative wing

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade at a time when it has an unprecedented Catholic supermajority. That’s not a coincidence. Nor is it the whole story. U.S. Catholics are more ambivalent on … more

By PETER SMITH | 6/30/22

FILE - A Northwell Health registered nurse fills a syringe with a COVID-19 vaccine at a pop up vaccination site the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center, April 8, 2021, in the Staten Island borough of New York. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, June 30, 2022 recommended that COVID-19 booster shots be modified to better match more recent variants of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)

Tweaked COVID boosters in US must target newer omicron types

U.S. regulators are telling COVID-19 vaccine makers to tweak any booster doses intended for fall so they protect against the newest omicron relatives. There's no way to know what coronavirus variant … more

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MATTHEW PERRONE | 6/30/22

Mary J. Blige arrives at the BET Awards on Sunday, June 26, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Mary J. Blige is next artist in Apple Music concert series

Mary J. Blige’s 2022 is going pretty well. Her new album landed in the top 10 of Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and she was featured at the Super Bowl halftime show. Now she’s been … more

By MARK KENNEDY | 6/30/22

A leopard is seen walking across a ridge in Aarey colony near Sanjay Gandhi National Park overlooking Mumbai city, India, May, 12, 2018. Los Angeles and Mumbai, India are the world’s only megacities of 10 million-plus where large felines breed, hunt and maintain territory within urban boundaries. Long-term studies in both cities have examined how the big cats prowl through their urban jungles, and how people can best live alongside them. ( Nikit Surve, Wildlife Conservation Society – India/ Sanjay Gandhi National Park via AP)

Big cats in urban jungle: LA mountain lions, Mumbai leopards

Los Angeles and Mumbai, India, are the world’s only megacities of 10 million-plus people where large felines breed, hunt and maintain territory within urban boundaries. Long-term studies in both … more

By CHRISTINA LARSON and ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL | 6/30/22

FILE - Jonathan Annicks poses for a portrait with his wheelchair in front of his home in Chicago on Oct. 13, 2016, just a few feet from where a lone gunman shot him, leaving him paralyzed sitting in his brother's parked car. Six years later Annicks has received a bachelor's degree in communications and media and has become a part-time peer advisor for patients at the same rehabilitation hospital where he was a patient. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Resilience Story: A bullet, a wheelchair, then perseverance

Jonathan Annicks was 18 when a gunman shot him outside his Chicago home, leaving him paralyzed and in a wheelchair. His shooter was never caught. The Associated Press first reported on his story a … more

By MARTHA IRVINE | 6/30/22

Police and other first responders work the scene where officials say dozens of people have been found dead and multiple others were taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses after a semitrailer containing suspected migrants was found, Monday, June 27, 2022, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

EXPLAINER: Heat, humidity a perilous mix in immigrant deaths

An expert says the combination of heat and humidity would have quickly created life-threatening conditions inside the packed, un-airconditioned tractor-trailer where dozens of immigrants were found … more

By TAMMY WEBBER | 6/29/22

FILE - Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry talks to reporters outside the Supreme Court on Jan. 7, 2022, in Washington. Landry on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, warned doctors against performing abortions, despite a judge’s order blocking the state from enforcing its ban on the procedure. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Louisiana AG warns doctors against performing abortions

Louisiana's attorney general is warning doctors against performing abortions, despite a judge’s order blocking the state from enforcing its ban on the procedure. Attorney General Jeff Landry said … more

By KEVIN McGILL | 6/29/22

FILE - This Jan. 24, 2011, photo shows "Sesame Street" muppet Elmo posing for a portrait with the assistance of puppeteer Kevin Clash in the Fender Music Lodge during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival to promote the documentary "Being Elmo" in Park City, Utah. Elmo got a COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, June 28, 2022, according to Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street." (AP Photo/Victoria Will, File)

Elmo, 3, joins youngest Americans in getting vaccinated

Elmo got a COVID-19 vaccine. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, announced that Elmo had gotten vaccinated in public service announcement posted to YouTube. … more

By The Associated Press | 6/29/22

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown at the defense table during jury selection in the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. The jury that is seated will decide whether Cruz is sentenced to death or receives life without parole for murdering 17 people at the school on Feb. 14, 2018. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Florida jury sworn in to determine school shooter's penalty

A jury of seven men and five women have been sworn in for the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz. The final selections were made Wednesday with the defense using its final strikes … more

By TERRY SPENCER | 6/29/22

Quincey Johnson, left, outreach director Upper Missouri Waterkeeper in Bozeman, Mont., and Martin Lizely, Grand Riverkeeper with LEAD Agency in Miami, Okla., fly their drones during a training session, Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Poolesville, Md. They work to protect rivers and waterways and are training to use drones to catch polluters in places where wrongdoing is difficult to see or expensive to find. The Waterkeeper alliance has already used drone images to formally accuse companies of wrongdoing. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Enviros train drone pilots to find and pursue pollution

People who work to protect rivers and waterways have begun using drones to catch polluters in places where wrongdoing is difficult to see or expensive to find. The images they capture have already … more

By MICHAEL PHILLIS and JULIO CORTEZ | 6/29/22

FLE - A line of Spirit Airlines jets sit on the tarmac at the Orlando International Airport on May 20, 2020, in Orlando, Fla. Shareholders of Spirit Airlines will vote Thursday, June 29, 2022, on a proposed merger with Frontier Airlines, and the outcome could affect fares for millions of air travelers who depend on the budget airlines. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

Merger vote at Spirit could reshape discount airline market

Shareholders of Spirit Airlines will vote Thursday on a proposed merger with Frontier Airlines, and the outcome could affect fares for millions of air travelers who depend on the budget airlines. The … more

By DAVID KOENIG | 6/29/22

Erica Mancini, an accordionist, poses before taking the stage to perform in a Ukrainian avant garde jazz opera, Friday June 17, 2022, at Bohemian National Hall in New York. Mancini has suffered three COVID-19 infections: one at the beginning of the pandemic, one last year and one in May of this year. Medical experts warn that we'll be seeing more multiple reinfections given how long the pandemic is stretching on. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

A viral reprise: When COVID-19 strikes again and again

Medical experts warn that repeated COVID-19 infections are getting more likely as the pandemic drags on and the coronavirus evolves. This means some people may well get hit more than twice whether … more

By LAURA UNGAR | 6/29/22

FILE - R. Kelly appears during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago, Sept. 17, 2019. R&B legend R. Kelly is entering another phase of his well-publicized downward spiral with a sentencing in a New York City courtroom Wednesday, June 29, 2022, that could put him behind bars for a quarter century or more. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

R&B hitmaker R. Kelly due in court for sex abuse sentencing

R. Kelly is being sentenced in a sex trafficking case that could put him behind bars for years. A judge is set to impose the sentence Wednesday in a federal court in New York City. Prosecutors are … more

By TOM HAYS | 6/29/22

In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell, right, sits with her attorney, Christian Everdell, as the prosecutor speaks at her sentencing hearing on June 28, 2022, in New York.

Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years for helping Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. more

By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER / Associated Press | 6/29/22

Final jury selection begins in Florida school massacre trial

The final phase in the selection of 12 jurors who will decide whether Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz should receive the death sentence is now underway. Tuesday's court hearing marks the … more

By TERRY SPENCER | 6/28/22

FILE - A person is silhouetted against a wall as they look down at their cell phone outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on July 29, 2021, in Los Angeles. With abortion now or soon to be illegal in over a dozen states and severely restricted in many more, Big Tech companies that vacuum up personal details of their users are facing new calls to limit that tracking and surveillance. One fear is that law enforcement or vigilantes could use those data troves against people seeking ways to end unwanted pregnancies. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

EXPLAINER: Abortion, tech and surveillance

With abortion now or soon to be illegal in over a dozen states and severely restricted in many more, Big Tech companies that vacuum up personal details of their users are facing new calls to limit … more

By BARBARA ORTUTAY | 6/28/22