Skip to main content

Hail hurts dozens of concertgoers, scraps Louis Tomlinson show at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver

  • Updated

A brief but fierce storm pummeled concertgoers at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver with golf ball-sized hail, injuring dozens and forcing the cancellation of the show’s headliner, former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson. Authorities say as many as 90 people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries from Wednesday night’s storm and seven people were taken to the hospital. Nicole Criner and her sister covered their heads with a small plastic sign they grabbed as the storm intensified as they were trying to get to their car. Tomlinson tweeted he was “devastated” about the cancellation and promised to return.

National
AP

The latest on the Titan submersible tragedy and what's next in the recovery efforts

  • Associated Press
  • Updated

The desperate search for the missing Titan submersible has turned into a possible recovery effort after officials announced that the vessel imploded sometime this week, killing all five aboard, near the Titanic shipwreck. Deep-sea robots will continue to search the sea floor for clues about what happened deep in the North Atlantic. The Titan's pilot and four passengers died in the catastrophic implosion. Officials say there isn’t a timeframe for when they will call off the massive international search, and Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger says the prospect of finding or recovering remains is unknown.

AP

Victor Wembanyama is the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, with expectations of stardom

  • Updated

Victor Wembanyama is the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, headed to San Antonio with enormous expectations to become basketball’s newest sensation. The selection of the 19-year-old from France that had been a foregone conclusion for months was announced by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Thursday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Wembanyama arrives with far more height and hype than most No. 1 picks. Listed at 7-foot-4, he dominated his French league in his final season there, leading all players in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. Brandon Miller of Alabama was the No. 2 pick by the Charlotte Hornets and Scoot Henderson went third to the Portland Trail Blazers.

AP

Twitter faces 'stress test' of Europe's tough new Big Tech rules

  • Updated

A top European Union official is in Silicon Valley to check whether Twitter is ready to comply with sweeping new standards that the world’s biggest online platforms must obey soon. Thierry Breton, who oversees digital policy, is the EU’s point person working to get tech companies in line for the Digital Services Act, which kicks in Aug. 25. The law, along with regulations in the pipeline for data and artificial intelligence, has made Brussels a trailblazer in the growing movement to clamp down on Big Tech. The voluntary mock exercise is a simulation of how Twitter copes with the DSA’s requirements, including protecting children online and detecting and mitigating risks like disinformation.

AP

Arizona Republican election official sues Kari Lake for defamation

  • Updated

A top Republican election official in Arizona has filed a defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake, who falsely claims she lost the 2022 race for governor because of fraud. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said Thursday he’s faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of lies spread by Lake, including death threats and the loss of friendships. Lake is a former Phoenix television news anchor who quickly built an enthusiastic political following as a loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump and his lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. She did not immediately comment on Richer's lawsuit.

AP

NASA opposes lithium mining at tabletop flat Nevada desert site used to calibrate satellites

  • Updated

The latest challenge to lithium mining in Nevada in the push for cleaner energy comes from a place where no opposition has arisen before: space. At NASA's request, U.S. land managers have withdrawn about 36 square miles of federal land from potential mineral exploration and mining at a desert site 250 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The U.S. space agency says the unusually flat desert tract above the lithium deposit must be left undisturbed because the unique topography is used to calibrate razor-sharp measurements for hundreds of satellites orbiting overhead. A Nevada congressman has introduced legislation opposing the removal of the tract as a potential lithium mining site.

AP

Tourist sub's implosion draws attention to murky regulations of deep-sea expeditions

  • Updated

The fatal implosion of the Titan submersible has drawn attention to the murkily regulated waters of deep-sea exploration. It’s a space where laws and maritime conventions can be sidestepped by entrepreneurs who operate in international waters. Salvatore Mercogliano is a history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina who focuses on maritime history and policy. He says deep-sea exploration is less scrutinized than private space travel. Mercogliano says the sector is at a state of development similar to where aviation was in the early 20th Century. He notes that it took accidents for aviation laws and regulations to be passed.

AP

Maine bill proposing one of country's least restrictive abortion laws narrowly clears House vote

  • Updated

A proposal to expand access to abortions narrowly passed in the Maine House, clearing the first legislative hurdle after an emotional floor debate. The 74-72 vote late Thursday was closer than expected after at least one Democratic co-sponsor had a change of heart, joining lawmakers opposed to the proposal that would give the state one of the least restrictive abortion laws in the country. The proposal would allow abortions any time before birth if deemed necessary by a medical provider. Current state law bans abortions after a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks. The bill moves next to the Maine Senate for consideration.

AP

Qatar sovereign wealth fund buys stake in Washington's NBA, NHL and WNBA teams, AP source says

  • Updated

A person with knowledge of the sale tells The Associated Press the Qatar Investment Authority is buying a roughly 5% stake of Monumental Sports & Entertainment as part of a $4.05 billion deal. Monumental is the parent company of the NBA's Washington Wizards, NHL's Washington Capitals and WNBA's Washington Mystics. It is believed to be the first time the government of Qatar is investing in U.S. professional sports. Qatar last year hosted soccer's World Cup for the first time. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the agreement had not been announced.

AP

3M reaches $10.3 billion settlement over contamination of water systems with 'forever chemicals'

  • Updated

Chemical manufacturer 3M has agreed to pay at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of many U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds known as PFAS. The deal was announced Thursday by the company based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and an attorney representing hundreds of public water systems. 3M is a leading maker of PFAS chemicals used widely in firefighting foams and many nonstick and grease-resistant consumer products. They're described as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally in the environment. PFAS compounds been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver and immune-system damage and some cancers.

AP

AP Week in Pictures: North America

This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images from North America made orpublished by The Associated Press in the past week.

The Titan submersible imploded, killing all 5 on board, the US Coast Guard says
AP

The Titan submersible imploded, killing all 5 on board, the US Coast Guard says

  • Updated

The U.S. Coast Guard says a missing submersible imploded near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people on board. Coast Guard officials said during a news conference Thursday that they’ve notified the families of the crew of the Titan, which had been missing for several days. OceanGate Expeditions is the company that owned and operated the vessel. The company issued a statement expressing its sorrow and lauding the passengers as adventurers with a “deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.” A senior U.S. military official says a Navy acoustic system detected an “anomaly” Sunday that was likely the Titan’s fatal implosion.

AP

North Carolina GOP legislators making changes to new abortion law days before enforcement

  • Updated

North Carolina Republican legislators have rolled out adjustments to the state’s new abortion restrictions set to take effect in days. The Senate voted on Thursday for what GOP lawmakers called clarifying and technical changes to a new law that as of July 1 will prohibit nearly all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. But the language also appears to be an attempt to thwart a federal lawsuit that seeks to have all or parts of that law declared unconstitutional. These adjustments still require more affirmative votes in the General Assembly before it goes to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who vetoed the underlying measure. The GOP-controlled legislature overrode that veto.

AP

Woman pleads guilty to straw purchase of gun used to kill Illinois officer

A woman has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the straw purchase of a gun used to fatally shoot one central Illinois police officer and wound another in 2021. Twenty-nine-year-old Ashantae Corruthers entered the plea Thursday to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the government. She is accused of buying and transferring a gun to 24-year-old Darion Marquise Lafayette and covering up the transaction by falsely reporting to Indianapolis police that the gun had been stolen. Lafayette shot Champaign police Officer Christopher Oberheim on May 19, 2021. The News-Gazette of Champaign reports Corruthers faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced Nov. 6.

AP

2.5M Genworth policyholders and 769K retired California workers and beneficiaries affected by hack

  • Updated

California's public pension fund says the personal data of more than 769,000 retired workers and beneficiaries including Social Security numbers has been stolen in the breach of a popular file-transfer application by a Russian ransomware gang that is extorting victims. Cybersecurity experts estimate hundreds of organizations globally have been compromised, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the BBC. The California fund, CalPERS, blamed the breach on a third-party vendor that verifies deaths. The same Minnesota-based vendor is also named in the loss of personal data of at least 2.5 million policyholders of the Fortune 500 insurer Genworth Financial.

AP

A Titanic expert, an adventurer, a CEO, and a father and son were killed in Titan's implosion

  • Updated

A renowned Titanic expert, a world record-holding adventurer and two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families and the CEO of the company leading an expedition to the world's most famous shipwreck were killed when the Titan submersible imploded. It's not known when exactly the catastrophic implosion occurred this week. The vessel was reported missing Sunday and the Coast Guard announced the deaths Thursday. The people on board included British businessman and world record-holding adventurer Hamish Harding; Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who had made multiple trips to the wreck; and businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman. OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush was the pilot.

AP

Where abortion laws stand in every state a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe

  • Updated

State abortion policies have shifted quickly since the U.S. Supreme Court last year ended a nationwide right to abortion after nearly 50 years. Nearly every state has had changes made or attempted since then. In most Republican-controlled states, bans or restrictions have been adopted, including some with implementation delayed due to court challenges. Most Democrat-led states have taken steps to protect access to abortion. The court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization  overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protected the right to an abortion prior to the viability of the fetus.

Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.

Topics

Breaking News

Weather Alerts

Top Stories