Author: Staff Writer

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) — Swashbuckling billionaire Richard Branson hurtled into space aboard his own winged rocket ship Sunday, bringing astro-tourism a step closer to reality and beating out his exceedingly richer rival Jeff Bezos. The nearly 71-year-old Branson and five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space-tourism company reached an altitude of 53.5 miles […]

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson helped create an impression that his Conservative Party is “insensitive” to Muslims with a newspaper column comparing veil-wearing women to “letter boxes,” a report into prejudice in Britain’s governing party said Tuesday. The inquiry, set up by the party in 2019 to investigate all forms of discrimination, said […]

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A U.S. appeals court on Monday gave little indication of how it might rule on the constitutionality of the first law in the nation banning transgender women and girls from playing on women’s sports teams. The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard virtual arguments in the […]

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — The Rev. Al Sharpton issued a powerful call for transparency and the release of body camera footage at the funeral Monday for Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man shot and killed by deputies in North Carolina, with the civil rights leader likening withholding the video to a “con” job done […]

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union moved Wednesday toward stricter export controls for coronavirus vaccines, seeking to make sure its 27 nations have more COVID-19 shots to boost the bloc’s flagging vaccine campaign amid a surge in new infections. The EU’s executive body said on the eve of a summit of the EU’s leaders that […]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A lawyer for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death asked the judge again Tuesday to allow evidence of a previous arrest during which Floyd was found with drugs, a request the prosecutor derided as an attempt to “smear” Floyd’s character. Defense attorney Eric Nelson said that Floyd’s May […]