Tour bus crash on highway leaves five dead, many injured

A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls with 54 people aboard crashed and rolled on its side Friday on an interstate highway, killing five passengers and injuring many others, authorities said.

The driver apparently became distracted, lost control and overcorrected before the bus went into the right shoulder and flipped over shortly before 12:30 p.m. on the eastbound side of Interstate 90 in Pembroke, N.Y., about 25 miles east of Buffalo, state police Maj. Andre Ray said. He did not say how the driver became distracted, adding that the cause remains under investigation.

Ray said the passengers ranged in age from 1 to 74. Multiple people were ejected from the bus during the crash, and five people — all adults — were pronounced dead at the scene, Ray said.

HHS moves to strip thousands of workers of union rights

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has moved to strip thousands of federal health agency employees of their collective bargaining rights, according to a union that called the effort illegal.

HHS officials confirmed Friday that the department is ending its recognition of unions for a number of employees, and is reclaiming office space and equipment that had been used for union activities.

It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to put an end to collective bargaining with unions that represent federal employees. Previously affected agencies include the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency.

In May, an appeals court said the administration could move forward with President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out.

Erin weakens to post-tropical cyclone, moves out to sea

Strong winds and waves battered Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and dangerous rip currents threatened from the Carolinas to New England as Hurricane Erin made its way farther out to sea.

The storm was forecast to cause possible coastal flooding into the weekend along the East Coast but also was expected to lose strength gradually. The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported Friday evening that Erin had weakened into a post-tropical cyclone.

Despite being twice the size of an average hurricane, Erin has managed to thread the needle through the Atlantic between the East Coast and several island nations, limiting its destructiveness.

Massachusetts-based meteorologist Caitlyn Mench said Friday that Erin’s high wind field caused it to be felt widely along the East Coast: “On a positive note, it passed all offshore,” she said, of the New England area, which experienced some minor coastal flooding because of the storm.

Ex-president arrested on allegations of misusing state funds

Police in Sri Lanka arrested former President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday over allegations that the senior opposition politician misused public funds during his presidency, police said.

Wickremesinghe, who was president from 2022 to 2024, is accused of using the funds to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony in London after an official visit to the United States, police spokesman Fredrick Wootler told The Associated Press.

Wickremesinghe appeared for a lengthy hearing before a magistrate court in the capital, Colombo, and was ordered to be kept in custody until Aug. 26. He didn’t comment during the hearing, and there was no immediate statement from his office. A large crowd of Wickremesinghe’s supporters gathered outside the court to protest his arrest.

Iran confers with European nations on its nuclear program

Iran said Friday its foreign minister spoke by phone with his French, German and British counterparts to avoid the reimposition of U.N. sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program, just days before a European deadline.

The call by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came as the three countries threatened to invoke the “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by month’s end, allowing any party to reimpose sanctions if they find Iran out of compliance with requirements such as international monitoring of its nuclear program.

The Europeans’ concern over the Iranian program, which had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June saw its atomic sites bombed, has only grown since Tehran cut off all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the conflict’s wake. That has left the international community further blinded to Iran’s program — as well as the status of its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity.

Massive fire at supply facility forces evacuations

An explosion and fire Friday at an automotive supply company in southeast Louisiana sent flames into the air, and a tower of thick black smoke billowed above rural communities, forcing nearby residents and an elementary school to evacuate.

Officials said no injuries have been reported in the fire at Smitty’s Supply just north of the town of Roseland but that everyone living within a 1-mile radius must evacuate. Roseland, which is home to about 1,100 people, is 50 miles northeast of Baton Rouge.

Tangipahoa Parish President Robby Miller said it’s “godsend” that no one has been injured.

Rapper Lil Nas X jailed on suspicion of charging at police

Rapper Lil Nas X was arrested and briefly taken to a hospital for a suspected overdose Thursday after Los Angeles police say he charged at officers responding to a report of a naked man walking on a busy boulevard.

Lil Nas X, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor obstructing an officer and was being held in jail.

After charging at arriving police, he was taken into custody, but the officers, suspecting a drug overdose, took him to a hospital first, a police spokesman said.

— Denver Post wire services