by Hallie Golden and Kathy McCormack Major storms whipped up tornadoes in parts of Illinois and Indiana that leveled homes, killing at least two people and injuring others, and another round of rain, hail and strong winds made its way through the region Wednesday, authorities said. Several intense supercell thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana on Tuesday, including one supercell responsible for at least four tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service office in Chicago. “Please do not come here. Do not try to help right now,” Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran said in a video update in…

by Jon Gambrell DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  — The war with Iran, for all its complexity and global effects, boils down to a single question: Who can take the pain the longest? A surge in oil prices points to what may be Iran’s most effective weapon and the United States’ biggest vulnerability in continuing the campaign: Damaging the world economy. A sharp rise in gas prices has rattled consumers and financial markets, and international travel and shipping have been severely disrupted. U.S. President Donald Trump appears aware of the danger. As oil jumped to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday,…

by Mark Sherman WASHINGTON — Sharing a stage, Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jacksonand Brett Kavanaugh sparred Monday over the many emergency orders the court has issued allowing President Donald Trump to move ahead with key parts of his agenda. The setting was extraordinary, a federal courtroom filled with legal luminaries, including the federal judge singled out by Trump after blocking part of the president’s immigration crackdown. Kavanaugh, 61, and Jackson, 55, sat a few feet apart in a courtroom in which they both heard cases when they served on the federal appeals court in Washington. They were separated only…

by Alex Veiga and Elaine Kurtenbach Oil prices spiked near $120 per barrel before falling back Monday as the Iran warintensified, threatening production and shipping in the Middle East and pummeling financial markets. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, surged to $119.50 per barrel early in the day but later was trading near $106 per barrel, up 14%, before the opening bell. West Texas Intermediate, the light, sweet crude oil produced in the United States, soared above $119.48 per barrel but fell back closer to $103. The war’s toll on civilian targets grew as Bahrain…

by Jon Gambrell, Sam Metz, Kareem Chehayeb and Samy Magdy DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, has been named as the Islamic Republic’s next ruler, authorities announced Monday, as Tehran widened its attacks across the Mideast to strike oil and water facilities crucial to its desert sheikdoms. With Iran’s theocracy under assault by the U.S. and Israel for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose as the next supreme leader a secretive, 56-year-old cleric who maintains close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The Guard has been firing…

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court this week sided with a lower judge’s ruling against the Trump administration’s efforts to end temporary protected status for roughly 350,000 Haitians living in the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., issued the 2-1 ruling on Friday. “The government’s failure to meet its burden of demonstrating irreparable harm alone justifies denying emergency relief that would upend the status quo and increase uncertainty while this appeal proceeds,” the court said. A message seeking comment was left Saturday with the Homeland Security Department. Temporary Protected Status can be granted by the Homeland…

by Gary D. Robertson and Bill Barrow RALEIGH, N.C.  — North Carolina does not mind electing Democrats as governor, but it is a different matter when it comes to sending them to the U.S. Senate. Roy Cooper, who led the state for two terms, is trying to change that with a campaign that could reshape power in Washington. Standing in his way is Michael Whatley, who has Donald Trump’s full backing after previously serving as the president’s chosen Republican National Committee chairman. Both Cooper and Whatley easily won their party’s primaries this week, solidifying one of this year’s marquee Senate…

by the Associated Press Israel has struck southern Lebanon, Beirut and an oil storage facility in Tehran as the war in the Middle East keeps escalating, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “many surprises” for the next phase of the conflict. Iran also hit a desalination plant in Bahrain. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a U.S. airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, warning that in doing so “the U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.” Such infrastructure is critical for drinking water supplies in the parched deserts of the Gulf. An Israeli attack on an oil storage…

LAKE FOREST, Ill.  — The Chicago Bears released linebacker Tremaine Edmunds on Friday after granting him permission last week to seek a trade. The 27-year-old Edmunds was entering the final season of a four-year, $72 million contract he signed in 2023. The Bears saved $15 million in cap space by letting him go before the start of the league year next week. Edmunds helped the Bears go from worst to first in the NFC North. He led the team with 112 tackles and had four interceptions despite missing four games with a groin injury. Chicago went 11-6 and won its…

by Cathy Bussewitz NEW YORK  — The price of oil surged higher and showed no signs of halting its rapid climb a week after the U.S. and Israel launched major attacks on Iran that escalated into a war in the Middle East. The conflict, in which nearly every country in the Middle East has sustained damage from missiles or drone strikes, has left ships that carry roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf that is bordered on its north…