Stories by Associated Press

U.S. regulators on Friday authorized the first COVID-19 shots for infants and preschoolers, paving the way for vaccinations to begin next week.

A federal civil right lawsuit Mia Wright and four relatives filed states that they drove to the Brickyard Mall on May 31, 2020, to go shopping and didn’t realize it was closed due to the unrest. The suit alleges that police officers suddenly surrounded their car, broke the windows with their batons and pulled Wright out by her hair.

Production for Abbott’s EleCare specialty formula has been suspended, but there is enough supply to meet demand until production is restarted, the company said. 

The central bank is ramping up its drive to tighten credit and slow growth with inflation having reached a four-decade high of 8.6%, spreading to more areas of the economy and showing no sign of slowing. 

The National Weather Service maintained an excessive heat warning through Wednesday evening for most of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, which have been dealing with the sticky humidity and soaring temperatures since Tuesday. 

The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisers gave a thumbs-up to vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the littlest kids.

“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move,” CEO Jim Umpleby said.

According to American Booksellers Association CEO Allison Hill, the association now has 2,010 members, at 2,547 locations, an increase of more than 300 since spring 2021. It’s the highest ABA total in years.

U.S. regulators have historically inspected baby formula plants at least once a year, but they did not inspect any of the three biggest manufacturers in 2020, according to federal records reviewed by The Associated Press.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday he decided to convene the emergency committee on June 23 because the virus has shown “unusual” recent behavior by spreading in countries well beyond parts of Africa, where it is endemic.

The proposal falls far short of tougher steps long sought by President Joe Biden and many Democrats. Even so, if the accord leads to the enactment of legislation, it would signal a turn from years of gun massacres that have yielded little but stalemate in Congress.

Federal health officials said Sunday that kid-sized doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and effective for kids under 5, a key step toward a long-awaited decision to begin vaccinating the youngest American children.

Those arrested came from at least 11 states, including Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas, police said. Only one was from Idaho.

The Republican and Democratic parties have dominated politics in America since the 1850s. These days, they’ve staked out sharply opposing positions on gun control, abortion rights, policing, climate change and much more, leaving a lot of middle-ground opportunities for independent and third-party candidates.

As a candidate for president, Joe Biden was not shy about calling out dictators and authoritarian leaders as he anchored his foreign policy in the idea that the world is in a battle between democracy and autocracy. But Biden’s governing approach as president has been far less black and white as he tries to balance such high-minded principles with the tug toward pragmatism.

Consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from a year earlier, faster than April’s year-over-year increase of 8.3%, the Labor Department said Friday. The new inflation figure, the highest since 1981, will heighten pressure on the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates aggressively.

The next round of hearings won’t take place in prime time like the debut on Thursday, but lawmakers will go into greater detail about specific aspects of the insurrection. Here’s a snapshot of what the committee says is ahead.

The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Thursday’s prime-time hearing will open with eyewitness testimony from the first police officer pummeled in the mob riot and from a documentary filmmaker tracking the extremist Proud Boys, who prepared to fight for Trump immediately after the election, and led the storming of the Capitol.

On Monday, he got off at a stop on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line when he noticed a nearly unconscious man on the electrified third rail of the tracks. He jumped down onto the tracks and pulled the man to safety.

A New York City jury found Kelly guilty of racketeering and multiple other counts last year at a sex-trafficking trial. Prosecutors alleged that the entourage of managers and aides who helped Kelly meet girls — and keep them obedient — amounted to a criminal enterprise.

Ryan Kelley, one of five Republican candidates for Michigan governor, was charged with misdemeanors Thursday for his role in the 2021 postelection riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

That stance marks a sharp reversal of the U.N. health agency’s initial assessment of the pandemic’s origins. WHO concluded last year that it was “extremely unlikely” COVID-19 might have spilled into humans from a lab.

Working in private rooms in a Capitol office building, the seven Democrats and two Republicans have participated in hours of interviews, hearing testimony from members of former President Donald Trump’s family, former Justice Department officials and Trump White House aides. 

The charges against members of the angry pro-Trump mob range from low-level misdemeanors for those who only entered the Capitol to felony seditious conspiracy charges against far-right extremists. It’s the largest prosecution in the history of the Justice Department.

As several dozen D-Day veterans — now all in their 90s — set foot on the sands that claimed so many colleagues, they are thankful for the gratitude and friendliness of the French toward those who landed here on June 6, 1944.