North America

DALLAS (AP) — A spate of tornadoes raked across the Southern Plains, leaving damage and causing few injuries, and parts of the region were bracing for more severe thunderstorms and possible flooding.

The National Weather Service confirmed an EF2 twister Saturday morning with winds up to 130 mph (209 kph) that destroyed at least two homes and left one person with minor injuries in southwestern Oklahoma.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats will hear from former CIA director John Brennan about the situation in Iran, inviting him to speak next week amid heightened concerns over the Trump administration’s sudden moves in the region.

Brennan, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, is scheduled to talk to House Democrats at a private weekly caucus meeting Tuesday, according to a Democratic aide and another person familiar with the private meeting. Both were granted anonymity to discuss the meeting.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A teen searching for arrowheads in southern Iowa found something much bigger: the prehistoric jawbone of a mastodon.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the 30-inch bone belonged to a juvenile mastodon, an elephant-like animal believed to have roamed Iowa some 34,000 years ago.

Officials with the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository, which now has possession of the bone found last week, say the mastodon might have stood around 7-feet tall.

CHICAGO (AP) — A spokeswoman for the family a 19-year-old who was killed and whose baby was cut from her womb says what they’re going through is “a nightmare, a horror film.”

Julie Contreras is a spokeswoman for relatives of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, whose body was found in a garbage can this week. She spoke Friday before a court hearing for three people charged in the killing.

Contreras said the family wanted to see justice for Ochoa-Lopez, and for the defendants to be held without bail.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It started with a surprise statement on a Sunday night that the U.S. was rushing military forces to counter alleged Iranian threats. What followed were two weeks of bombastic rhetoric and swells of fear and confusion over whether Washington and Tehran were lurching toward open conflict. And that’s how President Donald Trump says he likes it.

“With all of the Fake and Made Up News out there,” Trump wrote Friday on Twitter, “Iran can have no idea what is actually going on.”

18 May 2019 (AP) - Stocks fell broadly on Wall Street Friday as investor jitters over the heated trade war between the world’s two biggest economies overshadowed encouraging developments in conflicts between the U.S. and other key trading partners.

The sell-off gained strength in the last hour of trading, handing the benchmark S&P 500 index its second straight weekly loss.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s governor plans to fight any federal plans to fly hundreds of immigrants weekly from the Mexican border to South Florida, saying Friday he’ll take his case to President Donald Trump.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis made his remarks a day after being caught off guard when Broward and Palm Beach county officials said they had been notified by U.S. Border Patrol that about 1,000 migrants per month would be sent to the two counties starting in about two weeks.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A now-dead Ohio State team doctor sexually abused at least 177 male students from the 1970s through the 1990s, and numerous university officials got wind of what was going on over the years but did little or nothing to stop him, according to a report released by the school Friday.

Dr. Richard Strauss groped or ogled young men while treating athletes from at least 16 sports and working at the student health center and his off-campus clinic, investigators from a law firm hired by the university found.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mexico’s National Chamber of the Iron and Steel Industry is congratulating the country’s officials on the agreement reached with the United States on ending steel and aluminum tariffs.

The chamber says in a statement posted online that it considers the deal “a strong and very positive step for industry in the entire region.”

It also calls it “a great advance” toward ratifying the new trade deal between Mexico, the United States and Canada.

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Luckin Coffee, a fast-growing rival to Starbucks in China, rose 20% in their U.S. stock market debut Friday.

The Chinese company, which opened its first store in Beijing less than two years ago, has 2,370 locations and plans to surpass the 3,700 stores Starbucks has in China by the end of the year.

But unlike Starbucks, Luckin is losing money.

It brought in $125 million in revenue last year, but spent much more than that on coffee beans, store rent and other costs. Last year, it lost $475 million.