Hundreds trying to storm Wisconsin beagle research facility met with rubber bullets, pepper spray

BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. (AP) – About 1,000 animal welfare activists who tried to gain entry Saturday to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin were turned back by police who fired rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd and arrested the group’s leader.

Republicans plan big spending to keep Ohio's Senate seat

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – As he seeks to retain his U.S. Senate seat this fall, Ohio Republican Jon Husted has been unable to escape the shadow of a $60 million bribery scandal that has roiled state politics for more than five years.

Billionaire Steyer's spending binge dwarfs rival campaigns in California

LOS ANGELES (AP) – In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge. The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.

Editorials from The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and others

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

Pope prays at Catholic shrine in Angola that was a center of African slave trade

MUXIMA, Angola (AP) – Pope Leo XIV on Sunday recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, as the American pope prayed at a Catholic shrine located at the site of an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule.

US backs South Africa project to extract rare earths despite diplomatic clash

PHALABORWA, South Africa (AP) – Two enormous sandlike dunes at an old chemical processing plant in South Africa are at the center of an exploratory U.S.-backed project to extract highly sought-after rare earth elements from industrial mining waste.

Resignations and firings have depleted the FBI and Justice Department

WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI and Justice Department are scrambling to rebuild a depleted workforce after a wave of departures over the past year, with leaders easing hiring requirements and accelerating recruitment in ways that some current and former officials see as a lowering of long-accepted standards.

A mass shooting in Ukraine's capital leaves 6 dead before police kill gunman

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A gunman wielding an automatic weapon killed six people and barricaded himself inside a supermarket with hostages in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Saturday, before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said.

Iran fully closes Strait of Hormuz over US blockade and fires on ships

CAIRO (AP) – The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz escalated again Saturday as Iran reversed its reopening of the crucial waterway and fired on ships attempting to pass, in retaliation after the United States pressed ahead with its blockade of Iranian ports.