Labour leader Keir Starmer officially became prime minister of the United Kingdom on Friday after his party won a landslide victory in a national election. Starmer received the blessing of King Charles III to form a government in a ceremony known as the “kissing of hands.” A photo of the occasion served as the official announcement of Starmer’s new title. Earlier on Friday, Rishi Sunak…

LONDON — Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, vowed Friday to reverse the hopelessness that grew over 14 years of Conservative rule and said he would lead an urgent mission of national renewal after his Labour Party’s landslide victory. It will be a tall order. Rising poverty, crumbling infrastructure, a lagging economy and an overstretched National Health Service contributed to widespread dissatisfaction and gripes about…

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose to more records Friday after a highly anticipated report on the job market bolstered Wall Street’s hopes that interest rates may soon get easier. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% to set an all-time high for a third straight day following Thursday’s pause in trading for the Fourth of July holiday. The index has already set 34 records and climbed…

BISMARCK, N.D. — A Native American tribe in North Dakota will soon grow lettuce in a giant greenhouse complex that when fully completed will be among the country’s largest, enabling the tribe to grow much of its own food decades after a federal dam flooded the land where they had cultivated corn, beans and other crops for millennia. Work is ongoing on the Mandan, Hidatsa…

TULUM, Mexico — Beryl moved into the the Gulf of Mexico Friday and took aim at the south Texas coast after battering Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Texas officials issued disaster declarations and urge coastal residents to prepare as the storm headed their way. Beryl hit Tulum as a Category 2 hurricane and toppled trees but caused no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm…

An ancient tree from India is now thriving in groves where citrus trees once flourished in Florida, and could help provide the nation with renewable energy. As large parts of the Sunshine State’s once-famous citrus industry have all but dried up over the past two decades because of two fatal diseases, greening and citrus canker, some farmers are turning to the pongamia tree, a climate-resilient…

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron could awake — if he has slept at all — with clipped wings on Monday morning. The high-stakes second round of the legislative election on Sunday will almost certainly impact the French leader’s sway in the areas of defense and foreign affairs. It could diminish his role as an energetic and influential figure in European and world affairs and…

Air travel is getting more miserable WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Air travel got more miserable last year, if the number of consumer complaints filed with the U.S. government is any measure. The Transportation Department said Friday that it received nearly 97,000 complaints in 2023, up from about 86,000 the year before. The department said there were so many complaints that it took until July…

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio — When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, with a nod to its century-long history, the cozy Ohio arthouse theater had some talented help. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Steve Bognar is a resident of Yellow Springs, the bohemian college town between Columbus and Cincinnati where the theater is a downtown fixture….

The flames from derailed train cars carrying hazardous material are mostly extinguished a day after the incident in a remote area of North Dakota Enflamed railcars carrying hazardous material were mostly extinguished Saturday, a day after they derailed in a remote area of North Dakota. Officials said Friday no one had been hurt. The threat to those living nearby remained low, according to county emergency…