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Obesity in the U.S. military surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent research shows that nearly 10,000 active duty Army soldiers became newly obese between February 2019 and June 2021, after restricted duty and limited exercise led to higher body mass scores. Increases were also seen in the U.S. Navy and the Marines, renewing concerns about the fitness of America’s fighting forces. The solutions are the same as for civilians, experts say: Recognize obesity is a chronic disease and provide targeted treatments that include diet and exercise and new medications.

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States are doling out more cash than ever to lure multibillion-dollar microchip, electric vehicle and battery factories, inspiring ever-more competition as they dig deeper into their pockets to attract big employers and capitalize on a wave of huge new projects. Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas have made billion-dollar pledges for a microchip or EV plant, with more state-subsidized plant announcements by profitable automakers and semiconductor giants surely to come. The projects come at a transformative time for the industries, with automakers investing heavily in electrification and chipmakers expanding production in the U.S. following pandemic-related supply chain disruptions that raised economic and national security concerns.

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The military says the service members who died in a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crash ranged in age from 23 to 36 and were from seven states. A military news release Friday says the service members came from Florida, Texas, Missouri, California, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey. Two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed near Fort Campbell on Wednesday night during a medical evacuation training exercise, killing all nine soldiers aboard the two aircrafts. The crash occurred in Trigg County, Kentucky, about 30 miles northwest of the Army post that is home to the 101st Airborne Division.

STATESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — As Len Strozier of Omega Mapping Services makes his way through the Green Street Cemetery to map it out in a ground-penetrating radar survey, the orange flags he places where there aren’t just signs of where someone is buried. He says it’s much more than that.

National & World AP Stories

A top Ukrainian official has outlined a series of steps the government in Kyiv would take after the country reclaims control of Crimea from Russia. The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, published the plan on Sunday. Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014, but most of the world does not recognize it as Russian territory. The Black Sea peninsula's status will be a key feature in any negotiations on ending the current fighting. The Kremlin has demanded recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledgement of other land gains during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv has ruled out any peace talks with Moscow until Russian troops leave all occupied territories, including Crimea.

  • Updated

Obesity in the U.S. military surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent research shows that nearly 10,000 active duty Army soldiers became newly obese between February 2019 and June 2021, after restricted duty and limited exercise led to higher body mass scores. Increases were also seen in the U.S. Navy and the Marines, renewing concerns about the fitness of America’s fighting forces. The solutions are the same as for civilians, experts say: Recognize obesity is a chronic disease and provide targeted treatments that include diet and exercise and new medications.

  • Updated

Voters in Montenegro are casting ballots in a runoff presidential election that is a contest between a long-serving pro-Western incumbent and a newcomer promising changes in the small NATO member nation located on Europe’s Balkan peninsula. Observers think President Milo Djukanovic could be defeated by Jakov Milatovic, a former economy minister. Milatovic has the backing of the country’s governing parties, which advocate closer ties with Serbia. The runoff vote was scheduled after none of the contenders won a majority in the first round of voting two weeks ago. Montenegro also has an early parliamentary election in June. That vote was scheduled because of a government deadlock that alarmed the West as war rages in Ukraine.

An international arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin raises the prospect of justice for the man whose country invaded Ukraine but complicates efforts to end that war in peace talks. Both justice and peace appear to be only remote possibilities today, but the conflicting relationship between the two is a quandary at the heart of the March 17 decision by the International Criminal Court. Judges in The Hague found “reasonable grounds to believe” that both Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights are responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation and unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.