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US president continues to fuel global economic uncertainty with erratic trade policy.United States President Donald Trump has backed away from launching a trade war with the European Union, two days after threatening to impose punishing tariffs. Trump said on Sunday that he has agreed to extend trade negotiations with the EU to July 9 following a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. As part of that agreement, the US will also hold back from imposing a 50 percent tariff on imports from the bloc, which Trump announced on Friday would be imposed on June 1. The announcement…

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Wendy Cullum lay flat on her back completely relaxed in “shavasana” or “corpse pose,” a common closing position in a yoga class.She and several other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were finishing up a 90-minute session in the sanctuary of the only Hindu temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, a bucolic community about 55 miles (88 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.This small Thursday evening yoga class at Shri Shri Radha Krishna Temple in the heart of Mormon country is an example of the embrace of yoga and meditation among members…

United States President Donald Trump has lambasted his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, describing him as “absolutely crazy” after Moscow launched its largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine, killing at least 13 people. Trump’s comments, issued on his Truth Social platform late on Sunday, marked a rare rebuke of Putin. “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” the US president wrote. “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right,…

MIAMI (AP) — Flamingos, pelicans, herons and parrots are just a few of the wild birds that call Miami home, but it’s the roosters, hens and baby chicks that have come to rule the roost in recent years. Not only found in residential neighborhoods like Little Havana, Little Haiti and Wynwood, the fowl families are also making their home among the high-rises and government buildings downtown. And while some people find the crowing to be a nuisance, many have adopted the rooster as an unofficial mascot for the city. A piece of homePaul George, the resident historian at HistoryMiami Museum,…

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (AP) — A British-South African endurance athlete is closing in on the finish line of his 62-mile (100-kilometer) multi-day swim around Martha’s Vineyard on Monday, aiming to become the first becoming the first person to swim all the way around the island. Lewis Pugh began swimming multiple hours a day in the 47-degree (8-degree Celsius) water on May 15 to raise awareness about the plight of sharks as the film “Jaws” nears its 50th birthday. He wants to change public perceptions and encourage protections for the at-risk animals — which he said the film maligned as “villains,…

U.S. children whose parents divorce when they are age 5 or younger have reduced earnings as adults and increased chances by young adulthood of teen pregnancy, incarceration and death, according to a study released this month. After a divorce, a household’s income typically is halved as a family splits into two households, and it struggles to recover that lost income over the ensuing decade. Families after divorce also tend to move to neighborhoods with lower incomes that offer reduced economic opportunities, and children are farther away from their non-custodial parent, according to the working paper by economists at the University…

The best young spellers in the English language are set to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation’s capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River in Oxon Hill, Maryland. It starts Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.This will be the 97th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in…

Joanne Lagatta arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 1995 with a flawless academic record and an achievement on her resumé that she didn’t like to talk about — but that no other undergrad on the sprawling Madison campus could claim: Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.The bee winner in 1991 at age 13, Lagatta nonetheless struggled adjusting to life outside her rural hometown of Clintonville, Wisconsin — until she got a push from a professor who was a devoted spelling-bee fan.“I went in thinking I was a smart kid who had won a National Spelling Bee, and I must be…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell defended the central bank’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic Sunday in a Princeton University speech in which he also praised government employees and U.S. universities, both of which have been targeted by the Trump administration. Powell and the central bank have been subject to extensive criticism in recent weeks by President Donald Trump and a potential successor, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh. Speaking at a baccalaureate service ahead of Tuesday’s commencement, Powell, who noted he graduated from Princeton 50 years ago, specifically defended the central bank’s decision to cut its key interest…

In what had long been celebrated every May 30 to honor America’s fallen soldiers, Memorial Day officially became a federal holiday in 1971, observed on the last Monday in May.Businesses increasingly have chosen to stay open, leading to what is now one of the biggest retail sales and travel weekends of the year. Here’s what is open and closed this year on Memorial Day:GOVERNMENT BUILDINGSGovernment offices, post offices, courts and schools are closed. BANKS AND MARKETSU.S. stock markets and banks are closed Monday.Most FedEx and UPS pickup and delivery services will also not be available on Memorial Day, though some…