WASHINGTON (AP) — When a draft of the opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito in the Mississippi abortion case was leaked late Monday, the potential outcome — the overruling of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey — was not a surprise. Even before oral arguments in the current case were heard, the justices had revealed themselves.

Police have erected a low metal fence outside of the Supreme Court blocking access to all but the lowest level of the building’s steps and separating demonstrators into separate pens. Pro-life protestors carried signs Tuesday that said “Ignore Roe” and “In God We Trust,” while abortion advocates held placards declaring “Bans off our Bodies” and “Impeach Kavanaugh.”

If the U.S. Supreme Court follows through on overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, it would split the country into states with abortion access and those that outlaw it. Democrats vowed to fight the possible removal of abortion rights that have been in place for nearly a half-century, while Republicans cheered the draft opinion and condemned the extremely rare leak that allowed it to be reported by Politico on Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is known for keeping secrets. Year after year, in major case after major case, there’s little beyond what the justices say during oral arguments that suggests how they will rule. That's what makes the leak of an apparent draft of an opinion in a major abortion case a shock to court watchers.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The caretakers of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh have big plans to transform the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. They announced plans on Tuesday for a center that will combat antisemitism and other forms of hate.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Wind-whipped flames raced across more of New Mexico’s pine-covered mountainsides on Monday, closing in on a town of 13,000 people where some residents hurried to pack their cars with belongings, others hustled to clear brush from around their homes, and police were called in to help evacuate the state's psychiatric hospital.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A draft opinion circulated among Supreme Court justices suggests that earlier this year a majority of them had thrown support behind overturning the 1973 case Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide, according to a report published Monday night in Politico. It’s unclear if the draft represents the court’s final word on the matter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is poised this week to accelerate its most drastic steps in three decades to attack inflation by making it costlier to borrow, which will compound Americans’ financial strains and likely weaken the economy. After the central bank’s latest rate-setting meeting ends Wednesday, the Fed is set to announce that it's raising its benchmark short-term interest rate by a half-percentage point — the sharpest rate hike since 2000.

Amazon warehouse workers overwhelmingly rejected a union bid on Monday, dealing a blow to organizers who last month pulled off the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant’s history. This time around, warehouse workers cast 618 votes — or about 62% — against the union, giving Amazon enough support to fend off a second union win. According to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the process, 380 workers — or 38% — voted in favor of the grassroots Amazon Labor Union.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that Boston violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist when it refused his request to fly a Christian flag on a flagpole outside City Hall. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court that the city discriminated against the activist, Harold Shurtleff, because of his “religious viewpoint,” even though it had routinely approved applications for the use of one of the three flagpoles outside City Hall that fly the U.S., Massachusetts and Boston flags.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ray Charles and The Judds joined the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday in a ceremony filled with tears, music and laughter, just a day after Naomi Judd died …

WASHINGTON (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday he is weighing a presidential run in 2024 and his decision won't be affected by whether former President Donald Trump decides to join the race.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former U.S. Marine was killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia, his relatives told news outlets in what's the first known death of a U.S. citizen fighting in Ukraine.

Thousands of firefighters have continued to slow the advance of destructive wildfires in the Southwest. But they're bracing for the return of the same dangerous conditions Friday that sparked and spread the wind-fueled blazes a week ago. At least 166 residences have been destroyed in one rural county in northeast New Mexico since the biggest U.S. fire started racing through small towns northeast of Santa Fe last Friday. Winds gusting up to 50 mph are forecast Friday in the drought-stricken region. Fire behavior experts say it's a recipe for disaster where timber the size of a 4-by-4 piece of lumber has a fuel moisture drier than kiln-dried wood.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have been double-billed for the funerals of hundreds of people who died of COVID-19, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report Wednesday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires. …

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia and the United States carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange on Wednesday, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, a senior U.S. official and the Russian foreign ministry said.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas’ oldest death row inmate was executed Thursday for killing a Houston police officer during a traffic stop nearly 32 years ago. Carl Wayne Buntion, 78, …

Charlie Duke is part of a tiny fraternity that’s getting even smaller: People who walked on the moon. Duke on Wednesday visited his Apollo 16 spaceship at a space museum in Huntsville, Alabama, to mark the 50th anniversary of his one and only trip to the moon. Only four of the 12 U.S. astronauts to who walked on the moon are still alive, and Duke stays busy with speaking engagements. Duke says he still has vivid memories from the journey, and he is looking forward to NASA’s upcoming return flight to the moon with its new Space Launch System rocket that’s at the core of the Artemis program.

Winds that are expected to intensify through the end of the week have been a major obstacle for firefighters battling blazes across the Southwest. Resources are tight, and fire managers are scrambling to get crews on board. Hundreds of residents have been evacuated because of multiple wildfires. One of the largest outside of Flagstaff, Arizona, more than tripled in size Wednesday. Firefighters haven't been able to get ahead of it because of erratic winds that have grounded air resources. One incident commander on a fire south of Prescott, Arizona, says conditions are some of the worst he's seen in nearly five decades of firefighting.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona wildfire doubled in size overnight into Wednesday, a day after heavy winds kicked up a towering wall of flames outside a northern Arizona tourist and college town, ripping through two dozen structures and sending residents of more than 700 homes scrambling to flee.

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Dede Robertson, the wife of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and a founding board member of the Christian Broadcasting Network, died Tuesday at her home in Virginia Beach, the network said in a statement. Robertson was 94. The statement did not provide her cause of death.

Three mass shootings in the U.S. over the Easter holiday weekend capped a monthlong spate of gun violence that has touched both big cities and small, rural communities across the nation.

HAMPTON, S.C. (AP) — Authorities in South Carolina say they are investigating shooting at a club in Hampton County early Sunday that left at least nine people injured. It was the third mass shooting in the U.S. over the Easter holiday weekend.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina prisoner scheduled to be the first man executed in the state in more than a decade has decided to die by firing squad rather than in the electric chair later this month, according to court documents filed Friday.