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Maine Democrats plan convention to replace Platner: What to know about Senate race

SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) — The Maine Democratic Party has voted to hold a convention now that Democrat Graham Platner has announced he’ll drop out of the state’s U.S. Senate race after a former girlfriend accused him of sexual assault. Platner, who denies the allegation, faced considerable pressure from his own party to quit the race. The first-time candidate also was accused of trying to influence how his replacement is selected — a claim he also denied. He announced his decision to leave the race Wednesday. His exit leaves a crucial U.S. Senate race unsettled just months ...

US home prices hit an all-time high as sales slow and mortgage rates rise

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in June, but a key measure of home prices climbed to an all-time high, adding to affordability challenges for prospective homebuyers. Existing home sales fell 2.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million units, ...

Today in History

On July 10, 1940, during World War II, the Battle of Britain began as the German Luftwaffe launched attacks on southern England. (The Royal Air Force was ultimately victorious.) Also on this date: In 1509, theologian John Calvin, a key figure of the Protestant Reformation, was born in Noyon, Picardy, France. In 1890, Wyoming was admitted as the 44th US state. In 1925, jury selection began in Dayton, Tennessee, in the trial of John T. Scopes, charged with violating the law by teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (Scopes was convicted and fined, but the verdict was overturned ...

Bonnie Tyler, who topped the charts with epic ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ has died at 75

Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star whose 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart” enchanted succeeding generations with its bombastic charms during solar and lunar eclipses, has died. She was 75. Tyler died unexpectedly in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery. She had been placed in an induced coma for a period but was reportedly improving last month and ...

China allocates millions in new disaster relief after storms and a deadly landslide

BEIJING (AP) — China allocated millions of dollars in additional relief funding for disaster-hit areas Wednesday after severe storms destroyed homes and displaced thousands of people and a landslide killed 21 forestry workers. The central government allocated 50 million yuan ($7.4 million) to restore roads, schools and other facilities in central China’s Hubei province and another 20 million yuan to help rebuild homes and resettle residents there, state media said. Eleven people died and hundreds were injured Monday night in violent thunderstorms and rare tornadoes. The ...

At least five children die in monsoon landslide at a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A landslide caused by monsoon rains killed at least five children as it swept through an Islamic school at a camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, a fire official said. More than 1 million refugees live in the camp. Dollar Tripura, local chief of the Fire Service and Civil Defense, said the landslide hit as children were attending classes. Tripura said they rescued another five injured children but suspected that more could be buried. The rescue operation continued Wednesday evening. Three days earlier, ...