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Proposals in several states would allow or require schools to deadname transgender students or out them to their parents without consent. Transgender kids and their families say the proposals could eliminate K-12 public schools as one of the last remaining havens to explore their identities. The stated aim of the bills is to give parents greater control over their childrens' education. Some parents and teachers argue they have a right to know. But others warn the proposals could jeopardize children's health and safety. And some teachers say the reporting requirements force educators to betray the trust of their students or risk losing their job.

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An agreement to expand Medicaid in North Carolina has reached the cusp of final legislative approval following a state House vote. The House chamber voted 95-21 on Wednesday for legislation that would direct state health officials to accept Medicaid coverage for potentially 600,000 low-income adults. One more affirmative House vote is needed Thursday before it goes to the desk of longtime expansion advocate Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The Senate voted last week for the agreement reached between Republican lawmakers three weeks ago. GOP lawmakers had been skeptical for nearly a decade about accepting expansion, which originated from the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act.

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North Carolina’s Republican-controlled House has advanced a previously vetoed proposal to restrict how teachers can discuss certain racial topics that some lawmakers equate to “critical race theory.” The House voted 68-49 along party lines Wednesday for legislation banning public school teachers from compelling students to believe they should feel guilty or responsible for past actions committed by people of the same race or sex. House Democrats challenged Republican claims that the bill would reduce discrimination and argued that a comprehensive history education should make students uncomfortable. Republicans are one seat short of a veto-proof supermajority and will likely need some Democratic support for the measure to become law.

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Authorities in South Carolina say a former soldier shot and killed three children as they slept in their home while their mother frantically sought help. The ex-soldier then killed himself. Sumter Police Chief Russell Roark says Charles Slacks Jr. also killed an Army solider who worked with the children’s mother and happened to be at the home. Slacks and the woman were divorced, but he still had a key and let himself in around 10 p.m. Tuesday. Slacks shot the co-worker in the backyard, pushed past the mother and shot the children upstairs. They were a 5-year-old, 6-year-old and an 11-year-old.

National & World AP Stories

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Their hands are blackened and grimy from the fight. Some are still wearing their combat boots, small flecks of black soil from the battlefield clinging to their torsos, bare under the emergency blanket. With bandaged heads and splinted limbs, the wounded soldiers are stretchered into the waiting medical evacuation bus by members of the Hospitallers, a Ukrainian organization of volunteer paramedics who work on the front lines in the war in Ukraine. The soldiers were all wounded recently in fierce fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have been pressing advances. The battle in Bakhmut, a city now encircled on three sides by Russian troops, has been particularly bloody, with soldiers describing endless days of combat, often at close quarters.

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The first daily fast of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has begun. The observance beginning Thursday in the Middle East comes at a time when numerous countries and governments across the region are taking tentative steps towards calming conflicts and crises, even as Mideast nations suffer from the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine. In Sudan, the holy season comes as the promise of a new political era approaches. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have pledged to lower tensions as Ramadan begins, after months of deadly, soaring violence. While in Yemen, diplomats and leaders have expressed new hope for peace efforts in recent days.

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A rocket made almost entirely of 3D-printed parts has finally taken flight, but didn't last long. The second stage failed three minutes after liftoff from Florida late Wednesday, and the mission failed to reach orbit. Relativity Space's rocket carried nothing on board except for the company's first metal 3D print from six years ago. Most of the 110-foot rocket, including its engines, came out of the startup's huge 3D printers in California. The rocket blasted off from an old missile pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Relativity Space says 3D-printed metal parts made up 85% of the rocket and larger versions of the rocket will have even more in the future.

Thousands of young Albanians have crossed the English Channel in recent years to seek a new life in the U.K. Their dangerous journey in small boats or inflatable dinghies reflects Albania's anemic economy and a younger generation’s longing for fresh opportunities. In 2018, only 300 people reached Britain by crossing the channel in small boats. The number rose to 45,000 in 2022, in part because of arrivals from Albania, a country in southern Europe that is negotiating for membership in the European Union. Britain is attractive to Albanians because it has a better economy and higher-paying jobs than neighboring countries such as Greece or Italy. Many Albanians also have family ties in the U.K.