NEW YORK (AP) — The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to recruit others to commit violent attacks against Jews and racial minorities, including one plot that would have involved dressing as Santa Claus to hand out poisoned candy to children. Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 22-year-old from the country of Georgia who goes by the nickname “Commander Butcher,” was sentenced by a federal judge in Brooklyn on Wednesday. He pleaded in to...

President Donald Trump and several top administration officials are joining with a cast of mostly conservative Christian clergy this Sunday at the National Mall in Washington for a prayer gathering billed as a "rededication of our country as One Nation Under God” upon America’s 250th birthday. But some critics call the Rededicate 250 event an effort to “hijack” U. S. history with a false, Christian nationalist narrative — one they say fuses American and Christian identities and a of...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft chasing a rare metal asteroid swings past Mars this week for a gravity boost, snapping thousands of pictures as practice for the main encounter in 2029. Named Psyche like the asteroid it’s after, the robotic explorer will slingshot past the red planet at 12,333 mph (19,848 kph) on Friday. It will be an especially close flyby, with Psyche passing within 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) of Mars, equivalent to the distance between the U. S. east and...