Decades of inactivity blamed for Russian lander’s crash
LONDON — The head of Russia’s space agency said Monday that the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon after its engines failed to shut down correctly, and he blamed the country’s decades-long pause in lunar exploration for the mishap.
Republicans gather in city where Trump was indicted
ATLANTA — For much of the Republican presidential field, Donald Trump is the candidate who must not be named — or at least not criticized too harshly.
Illegal crossings rose in July, still down from last year
Arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico soared 33% from June to July, according to U.S. government figures released Friday, reversing course after a plunge that followed the introduction of new asylum restrictions in May.
Judges rule against GOP-backed voting laws in Georgia, Texas
AUSTIN, Texas — Federal judges in Georgia and Texas have ruled against key provisions of two controversial election laws passed two years ago as the Republican Party sought to tighten voting rules after former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential contest.
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San Francisco launches driverless bus service
SAN FRANCISCO — First came the robotaxis. Then the driverless buses arrived.
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Rare New England tornado lifts car from a highway
A rare Rhode Island tornado lifted a car off a highway Friday as severe weather swept already storm-weary New England, damaging homes, flooding roads and toppling trees.
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City empties as wildfire burning near Canada’s Northwest Territories capital
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Residents heeded warnings to evacuate the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as a large wildfire burned just miles outside the city of 20,000 Friday, while firefighters in battled a growing fire that set homes ablaze in a city in British Columbia.
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Hurricane Hilary heads for Baja, storm watch issued for California
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Hurricane Hilary churned off Mexico’s Pacific coast Friday as a powerful Category 4 storm threatening to unleash torrential rains on the mudslide-prone border city of Tijuana before heading into Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years.
Ukraine will get F-16 fighter jets from the Dutch
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The United States has given its approval for the Netherlands and Denmark to deliver F-16s to Ukraine, officials in Washington and Europe said Friday, in a major gain for Kyiv, even though the fighter jets are unlikely to affect the war any time soon.
Ukraine to boost Kyiv’s grain exports through Romania
BUCHAREST, Romania — Ukraine and neighboring Romania signed an agreement Friday to work together to boost Kyiv’s export of grain through Romania after Moscow broke off a key wartime shipping agreement that allowed safe passage through the Black Sea.
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11 nations commit to restore the ousted president of Niger
NIAMEY, Niger — Eleven West African nations have agreed to commit troops to a military deployment aimed at restoring Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup, an official for the regional bloc said Friday after a defense ministers meeting.
Trump’s press conference on election fraud claims canceled
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump now says he won’t be holding a press conference next week to unveil what he claims is new evidence of fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia, citing the advice of lawyers.
Trump seeks April 2026 trial date in federal election subversion case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawyers for Donald Trump asked a federal judge Thursday to put off until 2026 a trial in Washington on charges that the former president plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Biden’s approval rating on the economy stagnates
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden has devoted the past several weeks to promoting the positive impacts of his policies — but his efforts have yet to meaningfully register with the public.
Georgia teacher fired for reading about gender identity
ATLANTA — A Georgia school board voted along party lines Thursday to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth grade class.
Wildfire approaches capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories
YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories — Thousands of residents fled the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories ahead of an approaching wildfire Thursday, some driving hundreds of miles to safety and others waiting in long lines for emergency flights, the latest chapter in Canada’s worst fire season on record.
Hilary grows into major hurricane in Pacific off Mexico
MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Hilary strengthened into a major storm Thursday evening off Mexico’s Pacific coast, and it could bring heavy rain to the southwestern U.S. by the weekend.
Ukrainian children’s war diaries are displayed in Amsterdam
AMSTERDAM — The city where Anne Frank wrote her World War II diary while hiding with her family from the brutal Nazi occupation is hosting an exhibition about the Ukraine war with grim echoes of her plight more than three quarters of a century later.
Bolsonaro asked hacker to hack voting system
RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian hacker claimed at a congressional hearing Thursday that then-President Jair Bolsonaro wanted him to hack into the country’s electronic voting system to expose its alleged weaknesses ahead of the 2022 presidential election.
At Camp David, Biden to nudge Japan, South Korea toward unity
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden aims to further tighten security and economic ties between Japan and South Korea, two nations that have struggled to stay on speaking terms, as he welcomes their leaders to the rustic Camp David presidential retreat Friday.