The Atlanta Dream claimed the WNBA’s final playoff spot on Thursday night to complete the league’s postseason field. Eighth-seeded Atlanta will face the top-seeded New York Liberty in the best-of-three first-round series, which begins Sunday in New York. The three other matchups also will begin Sunday. The second-seeded Minnesota Lynx drew the seventh-seeded Phoenix Mercury, the third-seeded Connecticut Sun face the sixth-seeded Indiana Fever and the fourth-seeded Las Vegas Aces battle the fifth-seeded Seattle Storm. The higher-seeded team hosts Games 1 and 2. The lower seed would host Game 3, if necessary. Two-time defending champion Las Vegas was in the…

by Daniel Trotta and Joseph Ax NEW YORK – North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor promised to stay in the race on Thursday after CNN reported that he once called himself a “black NAZI!” and proposed bringing back slavery in comments posted on a pornography website. Mark Robinson, an African American who denied making the comments, is North Carolina’s lieutenant governor and running for governor in the Nov. 5 election against Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general. North Carolina’s gubernatorial campaign has implications for the presidential contest. The fortunes of high-profile candidates there could affect partisan turnout or…

y Doina Chiacu NEW YORK – Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance will face off next month in the only scheduled U.S. vice presidential debate, a chance for each man to reinforce his running mate’s message to voters just weeks before the Nov. 5 election. Here are some details about the event: WHEN AND WHERE IS THE DEBATE? The 90-minute debate, hosted by CBS News, will take place on Oct. 1 at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Oct. 2) in New York City, a Democratic stronghold that is the former home of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate…

by Linley Sanders and Jonathan J. Cooper WASHINGTON — Until recently, Lillian Dunsmuir of Bullhead City, Arizona, “didn’t really think about” Kamala Harris and had no opinion of the vice president. But now she likes what she’s seeing. “She’s funny. I think she’s very smart. She can speak well,” said Dunsmuir, a 58-year-old real estate agent. “I would feel safe with her because I think she can handle herself with foreign leaders. I like her because she’s for pro-choice, and so am I.” Voters view Harris slightly more favorably than they did in July, just after President Joe Biden dropped…

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a four-month low last week, pointing to solid job growth in September and offering confirmation that the economy continued to expand in the third quarter. The weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, also showed unemployment rolls shrunk to levels last seen in early June. The U.S. central bank on Wednesday cut interest rates by 50 basis points, the first reduction in borrowing costs since 2020, which Federal Reserve Chair Jerome…

by Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON – Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza shook his head in disbelief as he addressed lawmakers and diplomats in a U.S. Senate hearing room on Tuesday, just weeks after he was released from prison in Siberia in a major prisoner swap. “The word surreal doesn’t even come close to describing what I feel now,” the dissident said at an event intended to highlight what participants described as the plight of hundreds of prisoners still detained in Russia for their political beliefs. Coinciding with Kara-Murza’s visit, Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will introduce…

by Moira Warburton WASHINGTON – A U.S. Senate bill aimed at enshrining federal protections and expanding insurance coverage for fertility treatments failed on Tuesday, as Republicans voted against it days after Donald Trump surprised supporters by voicing support for such a policy. The bill failed 51-44, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold after most Republicans voted against it for the second time. Democrats control the chamber by a slim 51-49 margin. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first attempted to get a vote on the same bill in late February, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the embryos…

y Andrea Shalal and Stephanie Kelly PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris called on Tuesday for an end to the Israel-Gaza war and said that Israel must not reoccupy the Palestinian enclave once the nearly year-old conflict comes to an end. Speaking in Philadelphia to the National Association of Black Journalists, she called for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants, a two-state solution and Middle East stability in a way that does not empower Iran. “We’ve made ourselves very clear this deal needs to get done in the best interest of everyone in the region,”…

y Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK -Sean “Diddy” Combs used his fame as one of hip-hop’s biggest names to coerce women into demeaning sexual acts as part of a long-running scheme of sex trafficking and racketeering, prosecutors said on Tuesday in bringing three criminal charges against him. Combs, 54, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court hours after the 14-page indictment was unsealed. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky denied bail for Combs, granting a prosecution request for continued detention before trial following the music mogul’s arrest on Monday. The rapper and producer used his business empire including his…

by Thalia Beaby NEW YORK — The billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates thinks the richest governments should increase their support for African countries that have been overshadowed by development funding increasingly going toward the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine as well as support for refugees around the world in recent years. “There’s less money going to Africa at a time when they need it,” whether it’s for debt relief, vaccinations or to reduce malnutrition, Gates told The Associated Press in an interview. As a portion of aid money, the funds going to Ukraine are “substantial,” he…