As conflicts rage abroad, a fractured Congress tries to rally support for historic global challenges
With support for Ukraine slipping in Congress, the United States is once again struggling to assert its role in the world
December 24, 2023With support for Ukraine slipping in Congress, the United States is once again struggling to assert its role in the world
December 24, 2023Christians around the world are striving on Christmas Eve to put aside worries and fears of an unsettled, war-torn world
December 24, 2023A charter plane sequestered in France while carrying 303 Indians to Nicaragua has been authorized to leave the airport where it has been grounded for a human trafficking investigation
December 24, 2023Iranian state TV says the country's navy has added domestically produced sophisticated cruise missiles to its arsenal
December 24, 2023The typically bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus looks like a ghost town on Christmas Eve, with celebrations in Bethlehem called off due to the Israel-Hamas war
December 24, 2023Atop many Christmas wish lists in economically troubled Zimbabwe is a travel document
December 24, 2023At least 68 people, including a baby, have been killed in Gaza
December 24, 2023Iran's state media says Tehran has summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires after Moscow and Arab countries released a joint statement earlier this week challenging Iran’s claim to disputed islands in the Persian Gulf
December 24, 2023Israel fought to wrest full control of northern Gaza from Hamas militants as the U.S. and Israeli leaders discussed the outlook for the
December 24, 2023A drone launched from Iran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian ocean early on Saturday, the U.S. Department of Defense said.
December 24, 2023Poland’s president says he intends to veto a spending bill which includes money for public media and raises for teachers, dealing a blow to the new pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk
December 23, 2023London police say they have arrested a man suspected of stealing a Banksy artwork of a stop sign decorated with military drones
December 23, 2023The State Department says some 300 U.S. citizens, green-card holders or close family members are trapped in Gaza by the fighting between Israel and Hamas militants
December 23, 2023Russian politician Yekaterina Duntsova hit a roadblock in her presidential campaign Saturday, when Russia’s Central Election Commission refused to accept her initial nomination by a group of supporters, citing errors in the documents submitted
December 23, 2023The Vatican next year will publish a collection of never-before-seen homilies delivered by the late Pope Benedict XVI
December 23, 2023American colleges have educated millions of Chinese students over the past four decades
December 23, 2023Chiese state media say the strong earthquake that hit northwest China this week, killing at least 148 people, has caused economic losses estimated to be worth tens of millions in the agricultural and fisheries industries
December 23, 2023Authorities in France say about 300 Indian citizens heading to Central America are sequestered in a French airport for a third day because of an investigation into suspected human trafficking
December 23, 2023The Czech Republic came to a standstill as people across the country observed a minute of silence for the victims of its worst mass killing that left 14 dead and questions about the shooter’s motive
December 23, 2023Rescuers and hospital officials say Israeli strikes flattened two Gaza homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family
December 23, 2023Tunisians head to vote in local elections on Sunday to populate a new second legislative chamber focused on economic development
December 23, 2023Legislatures returning to session in states across the U.S. early in 2024 will consider condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel — and some could take even bigger steps
December 23, 2023The Cuban government says it will have to either increase prices for fuel and electricity, or reduce rations for basic supplies
December 23, 2023At least two ships transporting oil or oil products between the U.S.
December 22, 2023Residents of the small fishing town in Iceland where a volcano erupted this week have been told they can return home
December 22, 2023A former Colombian soldier has pleaded guilty to conspiring in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, which plunged the Caribbean nation into violence and political turmoil
December 22, 2023Some Catholic bishops say they will not follow the Vatican’s new direction on allowing blessings for same-sex couples
December 22, 2023Even at age 80, Michael Mann has lost little of his velocity
December 22, 2023The United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to boost humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip that stopped short of a call for a
December 22, 2023The latest work by elusive artist Banksy was taken down less than an hour after he confirmed its installation on a London street corner
December 22, 2023The U.N. Security Council has adopted a watered-down resolution calling for immediate speeded-up aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza — but without the original call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas
December 22, 2023Mexico's president says he is willing to help with a crush of migrants that led to the closure of border crossings with the United States
December 22, 2023A spokesperson for Andrew Tate says a court in Romania has rejected the divisive influencer's request to leave the country to visit his mother in the U.K. after she had suffered a heart attack
December 22, 2023Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday his government will reinforce measures to contain migration as he seeks to help the United States cope with record
December 22, 2023Police say they've launched a criminal investigation into the alleged abduction of British teenager Alex Batty who was missing for six years
December 22, 2023The U.N. health agency says reported cases of dengue globally increased tenfold over the last generation
December 22, 2023France has completed the withdrawal of its troops from Niger after they were asked to leave by the country’s new military rulers, ending years of on-the-ground support
December 22, 2023The Biden administration released its highly anticipated proposal for doling out billions of dollars in tax credits to hydrogen producers Friday, in a massive effort to build out an industry that some hope can be a cleaner alternative to fossil fuel power
December 22, 2023The current Israel-Hamas war is by far the deadliest and most destructive of the five wars between Israel and Hamas since the militant group seized the Gaza Strip in 2007
December 22, 2023From Jesus' biblical birthplace of Bethlehem to New York City, many Palestinian Christians this Christmas season are gripped with helplessness, pain and worry amid the Israel-Hamas war
December 22, 2023A South Korean religious sect leader whose sex crimes were featured in the popular Netflix series “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” has been sentenced to 23 years in prison
December 22, 2023The U.N. atomic agency and outside experts say North Korea may have started operating a light-water reactor at its main nuclear complex in a possible attempt to establish a new facility to produce bomb fuels
December 22, 2023India has invited French President Emmanuel Macron to be the chief guest at the country’s national day celebrations next month
December 22, 2023One of the world’s largest electrical vehicle manufacturers, China’s BYD, will open its first European EV production factory in Hungary, the country’s foreign minister said on Friday
December 22, 2023Chinese automaker BYD plans to build a new electric vehicle plant in Hungary, its first car factory in Europe, as part of its rapid global expansion
December 22, 2023A storm has brought heavy rain and strong winds across northern Europe, bringing down trees and prompting warnings of flooding on the North Sea coast
December 22, 2023American electric automaker Tesla’s plans to produce energy-storage batteries in China are moving forward with a signing ceremony for the land acquisition for a new factory in Shanghai
December 22, 2023Japan’s defense spending would increase more than 16% next year under a record military budget that is intended to accelerate the deployment of long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea
December 22, 2023China has released draft guidelines aimed at curbing excessive spending on online gaming
December 22, 2023Czech police are investigating why a student went on a dayslong violent rampage culminating in a shooting at the university he attended in Prague that left 14 dead and dozens wounded
December 22, 2023The Vatican’s chief prosecutor has appealed a court verdict that largely dismantled his theory of a grand conspiracy to defraud the Holy See of millions of euros
December 22, 2023The U.N. Security Council has passed a new resolution that calls for speeding up aid deliveries into Gaza, but without the original call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas
December 22, 2023Wall Street closed its eighth straight winning week with a quiet finish following reports showing inflation on the way down and the economy potentially on the way up
December 22, 2023The U.S. has spent more than $7 billion on humanitarian aid and building infrastructure in the Palestinian territories in recent decades, while sending more than $3 billion a year to Israel for its military
December 22, 2023Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza say the Palestinian death toll there has surpassed 20,000
December 22, 2023North American military assets are keeping a sharp eye on Santa's travels
December 22, 2023Negotiations over how to control migration at the U.S. border with Mexico aren't just heating up on Capitol Hill
December 21, 2023A U.S. appeals court on Thursday revived a lawsuit accusing the rock band Nirvana of publishing child pornography by using a photograph of a naked four-month-old baby on
December 21, 2023After 11 weeks of war in Gaza, the Israeli military campaign against Hamas now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history
December 21, 2023Prosecutors say a defense contractor at the center of one of the biggest bribery scandals in U.S. military history is expected to face additional charges following his return to the United States from Venezuela as part of a broader prisoner swap between the two countries
December 21, 2023The “Barbie” power ballad “I’m Just Ken” and AP and Frontline’s documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” just got one step closer to an Oscar nomination
December 21, 2023Comedian and actor Jo Koy has been tapped to host the Golden Globes, picked by producers for his “infectious energy and relatable humor.”
December 21, 2023Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, just days after he was ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers he falsely accused of fraud
December 21, 2023The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that soccer’s governing bodies UEFA and FIFA acted contrary to EU competition law by blocking plans for a breakaway Super League
December 21, 2023A wildcat strike by staff at Eurotunnel, which links Britain and the European continent and paralyzed dozens of Eurostar trains, has ended
December 21, 2023A report from the United Nations finds that more than half a million people in Gaza are starving because there's not enough food entering the territory since the outbreak of war more than 10 weeks ago
December 21, 2023Workers using cranes have installed two more restored crosses on top of the domes of Kyiv’s 11th-century St. Sophia Cathedral as part of ongoing repair work at the landmark site
December 21, 2023Prague’s police chief says a lone gunman opened fire in a university, killing at least 14 people and injuring 25 more
December 21, 2023Ukraine’s parliament has voted to legalize medical marijuana after the war with Russia left thousands of people with post-traumatic stress disorder that many believe could be eased by the drug
December 21, 2023Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would speak to U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday morning and that he could discuss migration with his counterpart.
December 21, 2023In “Occupied City,” a young woman with an even voice narrates Nazi encounters and crimes throughout Amsterdam during World War II
December 21, 2023The World Bank says the ripple effects of the war in Gaza are likely to knock Lebanon’s fragile economy back into recession
December 21, 2023Women’s rights activists are criticizing French President Emmanuel Macron for appearing to side with actor Gérard Depardieu by saying the film star who is facing sexual misconduct allegations “makes France proud.”
December 21, 2023The chairman of the U.S.
December 21, 2023Israeli police say 19 Israeli prison guards are under investigation in the death of a 38-year-old Palestinian security prisoner
December 21, 2023The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has spoken with his Chinese counterpart
December 21, 2023The European Union has paid the final tranche of a multibillion-euro support package to Ukraine to help keep its war-ravaged economy afloat this year
December 21, 2023Martin Scorsese will be honored for his lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival in February
December 21, 2023Serbia’s main opposition group has urged the European Union to help open an international investigation into reported irregularities during last weekend's election
December 21, 2023Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and a Reuters camera crew witnessed rocket interceptions on Thursday as Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip said they launched a salvo at Israel's
December 21, 2023Turkey’s central bank has hiked its key interest rate by 2.5 percentage points as part of its efforts to combat high inflation that has left many households struggling to afford essential items
December 21, 2023A United Nations report finds that more than half a million people in Gaza are starving because not enough food has entered the territory since the outbreak of war 10 weeks ago
December 21, 2023Human rights activists say Pakistan’s police used water cannons, swung batons, and arrested dozens of activists overnight when they tried to enter Islamabad for a protest
December 21, 2023Pope Francis has urged Vatican bureaucrats to avoid “rigid ideological positions” that prevent them from understanding today’s reality
December 21, 2023Hundreds of temporary housing units are being set up in northwest China for survivors of an earthquake that destroyed more than 14,000 homes and killed at least 144 people
December 21, 2023The U.N. says fighting between Sudan's military and a notorious paramilitary group forced up to 300,000 people to flee their homes in a province that had been a safe haven for families displaced by the country's devastating conflict
December 21, 2023Congo is wrapping up its second day of voting after a chaotic rollout and lengthy delays forced election officials to extend voting hours
December 21, 2023Asian shares have slipped after Wall Street slammed the brakes on its big rally following disappointing corporate profit reports and warnings that the market had simply gone too far, too fast
December 21, 2023Dozens of opposition lawmakers suspended from Parliament by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for obstructing proceedings have held a protest accusing the government of throttling democracy in the country
December 21, 2023China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi says the country will maintain military pressure on the Philippines amid a dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea that could involve U.S. forces defending their treaty partner
December 21, 2023Officials say a wildfire burning out of control on the outskirts of the Australian west coast city of Perth has destroyed at least two homes and injured two men
December 21, 2023South Korea’s top court has ordered two Japanese companies to financially compensate more of their wartime Korean workers for forced labor
December 21, 2023Former U.S.
December 21, 2023The year started with high hopes for Ukrainian troops planning a counteroffensive against Russia
December 21, 2023Indonesian authorities have detected at least five boats packed tight with Rohingya refugees approaching the shores of Aceh province
December 21, 2023The U.N. Security Council has again delayed a vote on a watered-down resolution to deliver desperately needed aid to Gaza
December 21, 2023Amid grueling negotiations between senators and the White House, the contours of a bipartisan border security and immigration deal are beginning to take shape
December 21, 2023Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles says his government will send 11 military personnel to support a U.S.-led mission to protect cargo shipping in the Red Sea but won't send a warship or plane
December 21, 2023Three trafficked Sumatran orangutans have been sent back from Thailand to Indonesia as part of a joint effort between the countries to tackle the illegal wildlife trade
December 21, 2023Hundreds of migrants and other people have turned out for a vigil held for a 5-year-old migrant boy who died after becoming ill in a Chicago shelter
December 21, 2023Fighting in the Gaza Strip escalated on Thursday with some of the most intense Israeli bombardment of the war and
December 21, 2023North Korean state media is reporting that leader Kim Jong Un says his country has a policy of not hesitating to launch a nuclear strike on its rivals if provoked, as he praised troops involved in its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test
December 21, 2023The federal government has closed railroad crossings in two Texas border towns, raising concerns about the potential impact on cross-border trade
December 20, 2023The British filmmaker Andrew Haigh is accustomed to strong responses from his films
December 20, 2023Convicted defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis is being returned to U.S. custody as part of the Venezuelan prisoner swap
December 20, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he did not expect an Israel-Hamas deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza to be struck soon.
December 20, 2023The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on alleged violators of its price cap on Russian oil and tightened compliance rules for insurance firms and shippers that move it
December 20, 2023An Italian prosecutor has acknowledged that a stalking threat to a 26-year-old pregnant woman found stabbed to death in her home may have been underestimated by authorities who failed to take action against the man now suspected of killing her
December 20, 2023At least 46 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded after Israel bombarded the urban Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City
December 20, 2023A proposal for permanent deployment of U.S.
December 20, 2023Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that an artificial intelligence system can’t be registered as the inventor of a patent, denying machines the same status as humans
December 20, 2023Ireland’s government says it is taking legal action against British authorities over a controversial law that gives some immunity from prosecution for offenses committed during three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland
December 20, 2023A British military analysis says Ukraine’s armed forces are taking up a more defensive posture, after their summer counteroffensive failed to achieve a major breakthrough against Russia’s army and as winter weather sets in after almost 22 months of war
December 20, 2023The Bosnian capital of Sarajevo has been intermittently engulfed in a toxic haze since the start of December, with air quality so bad it was placed first on a list of the world’s most polluted cities for a second straight day
December 20, 2023In China's eyes all three Taiwan presidential candidates are separatists, the frontrunner to be the island's next leader said on Wednesday in a
December 20, 2023Like Christmas trees, Santa and reindeer, the poinsettia has long been a ubiquitous symbol of the holidays in the U.S. and Europe
December 20, 2023The United States has freed a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in exchange for the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in the South American country and the return of a fugitive defense contractor
December 20, 2023The family of an elder in a Chinese church says he has been detained and accused of fraud
December 20, 2023A top French television presenter has been handed a preliminary charge of rape by a person abusing his authority
December 20, 2023U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has flown out to the USS Gerald R
December 20, 2023Organizers of the Paris Olympics say work will continue on a new tower for judges and TV cameras at the surfing venue in Tahiti
December 20, 2023Poland’s new pro-European Union government has begun wrestling control of the country’s state media and some other state agencies from the conservative party that consolidated its grip on them during eight years in power
December 20, 2023Three of the world’s biggest porn websites face new requirements in the European Union that include verifying the ages of users
December 20, 2023Hidden inside the foundation of popular artificial intelligence image-generators are thousands of images of child sexual abuse, according to a new report that urges companies to take action to address a harmful flaw in the technology they built
December 20, 2023Low-cost airlines Ryanair and Malta Air have won a court case against the European Union’s decision to approve billions of euros in state aid by the French government to holding company Air France-KLM during the COVID-19 pandemic
December 20, 2023After a year that brought panic over spy balloons, a fight over semiconductors and an intensifying military rivalry, China and the
December 20, 2023Railroad companies and business groups are pressing the U.S. government to reopen trade routes on the Texas-Mexico border
December 20, 2023Germany’s federal prosecutor has filed a motion for asset forfeiture concerning more than 720 million euros or $789 million of frozen Russian money
December 20, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron says a contentious immigration bill backed by the far right is imperfect and needs some fixes but is “what the French wanted."
December 20, 2023A Rwandan doctor has been sentenced by a Paris court to 24 years in prison for his role in the 1994 genocide in his home country
December 20, 2023The Israeli military says it has uncovered a major Hamas command center in the heart of Gaza City, inflicting what it described as a serious blow to the Islamic militant group
December 20, 2023European Union negotiators have clinched a deal on the main parts of an overhaul of the bloc’s outdated asylum rules
December 20, 2023Inflation in the U.K. as measured by the consumer prices index has eased back to its lowest level in more than two years
December 20, 2023Tesla has found itself locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with union workers in Sweden and neighboring countries
December 20, 2023Shares are mostly higher in Asia after several strong profit reports helped Wall Street claw back most of its sharp loss from day before
December 20, 2023Argentine President Javier Milei has announced sweeping initiatives to transform the country’s struggling economy, including easing government regulation and allowing privatization of state-run industries as a way to boost exports and investment
December 20, 2023Lengthy delays at the polls have forced officials to extend voting in Congo’s presidential election to Thursday
December 20, 2023After blunting Ukraine’s counteroffensive from the summer, Russia is building up its resources for a new stage of the war over the winter, which could involve trying to extend its gains in the east and deal significant blows to the country’s vital infrastructure
December 20, 2023The U.N. Security Council has again delayed a vote on a new U.N. resolution on desperately needed aid to Gaza as the Biden administration struggles to change key wording in high-level negotiations seeking to avoid a U.S. veto
December 20, 2023Surrounded by destruction, the relatives of an earthquake victim are mourning her death in temporary shelters and frigid temperatures high in the mountains of northwest China
December 20, 2023Australia and New Zealand leaders have agreed to seek closer defense ties as New Zealand considers sharing advanced military technologies with the United States and Britain through the so-called AUKUS partnership
December 20, 2023China's Alibaba Group says its CEO Eddie Wu will head its core e-commerce business, as the company seeks to drive growth and fend off fast-growing online shopping rivals like Pinduoduo
December 20, 2023Naphat Krutthai and Rasithaya Jindasri have been in a committed relationship for eight years, but only now they can consider getting married
December 20, 2023Israeli troops and Hamas militants fought fierce gunbattles on the streets of Gaza's second-biggest city on Wednesday as the United
December 20, 2023North Korea and Russia have clashed with the United States, South Korea and their allies at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Pyongyang’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch, which it called “a warning counter-measure” to threats from the U.S. and other hostile forces
December 20, 2023Migrant families and their advocates marched outside New York City Hall on Tuesday to demand Mayor Eric Adams end his plan to limit the number of days newly arrived immigrants can remain in city-run shelters
December 20, 2023Survivors of a massacre in central Mexico told investigators that a group of people turned away from a holiday party returned later with gunmen who killed 11 and wounded 14
December 20, 2023Russia launched its fifth air attack this month targeting Kyiv and air defence systems destroyed all drones on approach to the capital, Ukrainian military officials said early on
December 19, 2023The Security Council has voted unanimously to start the withdrawal of the U.N. peacekeeping force from Congo before the end of the year as the conflict-ridden country prepares to elect its next president on Wednesday
December 19, 2023She was born amid war, in a hospital with no electricity in a southern Gaza city that has been bombarded daily
December 19, 2023A United Nations Security Council vote on a bid to boost aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip has been delayed by another day as talks continue to try and
December 19, 2023The death of a 5-year-old migrant boy and reported illnesses in other children has raised fresh concerns about the living conditions and medical care provided for asylum-seekers arriving in Chicago
December 19, 2023Former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph was on Tuesday sentenced in a Miami court to life in prison over his role in the July 2021 assassination of Haiti's last president, Jovenel Moise.
December 19, 2023The European Union and the United States urged Serbia to address concerns about its electoral process after independent observers found
December 19, 2023Authorities in a western Brazil state are taking aim at deforestation of the Amazon with a slew of lawsuits against slaughterhouses and farmers accused of illegally raising cattle in a protected area
December 19, 2023For decades, Christmas tree growers and breeders have been preparing for a future of hotter weather and warming soil
December 19, 2023Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday declared his country to be the foremost cultural power in the world, praising its ethnic and culinary diversity and
December 19, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's certain the United States will make good on its promise of further billions of dollars for Kyiv to continue its fight against Russia
December 19, 2023Heavy civilian casualties are the cost of Israel's intense campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza and the militants' urban warfare strategy,
December 19, 2023In an unusual series of legal actions, Brazilian prosecutors have sued multinational meatpacker JBS and three smaller slaughterhouses for allegedly buying cattle directly from illegal ranches in a protected area
December 19, 2023Members of a union representing German train drivers have voted overwhelmingly to stage open-ended strikes in a bitter dispute with the main national railway operator over working hours and pay
December 19, 2023U.N. Security Council members are in intense negotiations on an Arab-sponsored resolution to spur desperately needed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza during some kind of a halt in the fighting, trying to avoid another veto by the United States
December 19, 2023A meeting between Qatar’s prime minister and the heads of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the U.S.
December 19, 2023Pope Francis’ authorization for Catholic priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples is in many ways a recognition of what has been going on in some European parishes for years
December 19, 2023Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday said Mexico was preparing to challenge a new Texas law allowing state law enforcement to arrest suspected migrants,
December 19, 2023Scientists have been anticipating the eruption of a volcano in southwestern Iceland for several weeks
December 19, 2023Azerbaijan sees no major obstacles to securing a lasting peace treaty with its neighbour Armenia and believes the question of defining their borders can be
December 19, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that his country's military is well positioned to meet Moscow's goals in Ukraine
December 19, 2023President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would be prepared to talk to Ukraine, the United States and Europe about the future of Ukraine if they
December 19, 2023Serbia’s ruling populists are insisting that weekend snap elections were free and fair, but international observers have noted multiple irregularities
December 19, 2023Britain and France are reiterating their determination that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must end in failure
December 19, 2023Meta Platform's Oversight Board said on Tuesday that the social media company erred in removing two videos depicting hostages and injured people in the Israel-Hamas conflict
December 19, 2023Denmark has reached a defence agreement with the United States that will allow U.S. soldiers and military equipment to be based on Danish soil, the country's Prime Minister
December 19, 2023Russia summoned Finland's ambassador on Tuesday to object to a new defence agreement granting the United States broad access to the vicinity of the new NATO member's long border
December 19, 2023Israeli troops have launched more deadly strikes in Gaza and raided the last working hospital in Gaza City
December 19, 2023Germany’s main national railway operator Deutsche Bahn has launched an effort to sell logistics unit DB Schenker as the company seeks to concentrate on its core business at home
December 19, 2023U.N. officials voiced anger and disbelief on Tuesday about the situation in Gaza hospitals, where injured people do not have basic supplies and children recovering
December 19, 2023Germany’s highest court has ordered the 2021 national election to be partially repeated in Berlin because of severe glitches at many polling stations in the capital
December 19, 2023Israel bombarded towns across southern Gaza with airstrikes, killing at least 45 Palestinians and pressing ahead with its offensive against Hamas militants with renewed backing from the United States
December 19, 2023Asian shares have mostly advanced after Wall Street ticked higher amid hopes that Japan's moves to keep interest rates easy for investors could augur similar trends in the rest of the world
December 19, 2023A French court is expected to rule on charges against a Rwandan doctor for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in his home country
December 19, 2023The national security trial of Hong Kong’s famous activist publisher Jimmy Lai entered its second day with the expectation that judges will rule by the end of the week on his lawyers' bid to throw out a sedition charge that has been increasingly used to target dissidents
December 19, 2023Google has agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store — the same issue that went to trial in another case that could result in even bigger changes
December 19, 2023A man convicted on terrorism charges whom Australia had wanted to strip of his citizenship and deport has been released into the community under strict conditions
December 19, 2023North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has vowed “more offensive actions” to repel what he called United States-led threats after watching the third test of his country’s most advanced long-range missile
December 19, 2023The Western powers in the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran are accusing Tehran of developing and testing ballistic missiles, transferring hundreds of drones to Russia, and enriching uranium to an unprecedented 60% level for a country without a nuclear weapons program — all in violation of a U.N. resolution endorsing the deal
December 19, 2023U.S.
December 19, 2023President Joe Biden’s push to have Congress replenish wartime aid for Ukraine as part of a deal on border and immigration policy changes will almost certainly drag into next year
December 19, 2023A quasi-independent review board has ruled that Facebook parent company Meta should overturn two decisions it made this fall to remove posts “informing the world about human suffering on both sides” of the Israel-Hamas war
December 19, 2023A volcano has erupted in southwestern Iceland with a flash of light into the evening sky in the land known for fire and ice
December 19, 2023President Joe Biden is planning one more military aid package in December for Ukraine in its war against Russia, the White House said on Monday, then further assistance to Kyiv
December 19, 2023Israel kept pounding the shattered Gaza Strip on Tuesday while Yemen's pro-Palestinian Houthi movement vowed to defy a U.S.-led naval
December 18, 2023Chinese media say at least 131 people have been killed in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in the country’s northwest
December 18, 2023The United States on Tuesday launched a multinational operation to safeguard commerce in the Red Sea as attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni
December 18, 2023An expert witness paid nearly $1 million by Donald Trump to testify at his New York civil fraud trial "lost all credibility" by "doggedly" justifying the former U.S.
December 18, 2023The U.S. and a host of other nations are creating a new force to protect ships transiting the Red Sea that have come under attack by drones and ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen
December 18, 2023Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges has been denied entrance to Canada due to his past legal problems and will not be available to play Monday night in Toronto against the Raptors, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press
December 18, 2023San Francisco prosecutors have begun charging 80 protesters who last month snarled traffic for hours on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge while demanding a cease-fire in Gaza
December 18, 2023France’s foreign minister is urging Lebanese leaders to work on reducing tensions along the border with Israel, warning that the raging Israel-Hamas war, now in its third month, could spread to other parts of the region
December 18, 2023More than 40 former top U.S. and NATO diplomats and defense officials on Monday urged Congress to approve new aid for Ukraine, warning that losing its war with Russia would be
December 18, 2023The U.N. Security Council has delayed a vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for a halt to hostilities in Gaza to allow unhindered access to deliver humanitarian aid to the massive number of civilians in need of food, water and medicine until Tuesday morning, as members intensified negotiations to try to avoid another veto by the United States
December 18, 2023British media report that comedian Russell Brand has been questioned for a second time by police investigating allegations of sexual offenses
December 18, 2023Israel will gradually transition to the next phase of its operations in Gaza in which the local population would likely be able to first return to the north of the coastal strip,
December 18, 2023The Vatican document explicitly saying Catholic priests can bless same-sex unions lays out the conditions for how such blessings can and cannot involve
December 18, 2023Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to lead efforts to simultaneously achieve decarbonization, economic growth and energy security in Asia
December 18, 2023Trevor Milton, the convicted founder of electric- and hydrogen-powered truck maker Nikola, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday after a jury last year
December 18, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted documents to Russia’s Central Election Commission to register as a candidate in the 2024 presidential election
December 18, 2023Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples
December 18, 2023The attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have scared off some of the world’s top shipping companies and oil giants
December 18, 2023Germany's central bank says the country's economy is likely to shrink again slightly in the current fourth quarter
December 18, 2023Ukraine’s military chief says a covert listening device was found in one of the offices where he works and he is hinting that other bugs were detected in other locations
December 18, 2023The European Union has made Elon Musk’s online platform X the first tech company to face an investigation under Europe’s tough new regulations designed to clean up social media and protect people from toxic online content
December 18, 2023Baghdad’s streets are nearly empty on Monday, the main day of polling in the country’s first provincial elections in a decade
December 18, 2023CIA director Bill Burns is set to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency in Warsaw on Monday to discuss a potential new
December 18, 2023Frontline Ukrainian troops face shortages of artillery shells and have scaled back some military operations because of a shortfall of foreign
December 18, 2023An explosion and inferno at Guinea’s main fuel depot in the capital of Conakry has left at least 13 people dead and 178 injured
December 18, 2023The U.N. Security Council has delayed voting on a resolution to urgently cease hostilities in Gaza and release all Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants
December 18, 2023International monitors have said that Serbia’s tense weekend snap vote was held in “unjust conditions" and they urged the authorities to investigate reports of irregularities as opposition supporters took to the streets to protest
December 18, 2023Iran’s state TV says nearly 70% of the nation’s gas pumps are out of service after possible sabotage — a reference to cyberattacks
December 18, 2023German farmers are gathering in Berlin to protest against planned cuts to tax breaks for diesel used in agriculture, part of a deal reached by the government to plug a hole in the country’s budget
December 18, 2023United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed with Israeli leaders ways to scale back major combat operations in Gaza
December 18, 2023Congo’s president says he has confidence an upcoming vote will be rolled out credibly, as tensions mount that a severe lack of electoral preparation could throw the conflict-riddled nation into disarray
December 18, 2023Top Biden administration officials have ramped up their involvement in the recent border talks on Capitol Hill
December 18, 2023Israelis were left stunned and speechless when three hostages held by Hamas were killed by Israeli forces in the middle of an active war zone, after they waved a white flag and screamed out in Hebrew apparently to show they did not pose a threat
December 18, 2023Asian shares are mixed after a seven-week winning streak on Wall Street cooled
December 18, 2023A landmark national security trial has opened in Hong Kong for prominent activist publisher Jimmy Lai
December 18, 2023South Korea says North Korea has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the sea in a resumption of its weapons testing activities
December 17, 2023North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Monday that has a range to hit anywhere in the United States, said South Korea
December 17, 2023Two Egyptian security sources said on Sunday that Israel and Hamas are both open to a renewed ceasefire and hostage release, although disagreements remain on how it would be
December 17, 2023Luton says its captain Tom Lockyer is undergoing tests and scans at hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest during a Premier League game
December 17, 2023The Israeli military says it has excavated a large tunnel shaft in Gaza close to a major crossing with Israel
December 17, 2023Russian state new agencies have reported that delegates from Russia's ruling party have unanimously backed President Vladimir Putin's bid for reelection at a party conference in Moscow
December 17, 2023Immediately after Israel's war in Gaza ends, all Palestinian factions including Hamas must take a serious look at the failure of their policies to
December 17, 2023South Korea’s military says North Korea has fired a short-range ballistic missile in the sea in a possible display of defiance against the steps by Washington and Seoul to tighten nuclear deterrence against North Korean threats
December 17, 2023As Christmas approaches, Catholic nuns and monks are busy preparing the traditional delicacies they sell to a loyal fan base even in rapidly secularizing countries
December 17, 2023A member of Britain’s House of Lords has acknowledged that she repeatedly lied about her links to a company that was awarded lucrative contracts to supply protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic
December 17, 2023Some of Israel’s closest European allies have pressed for a cease-fire in the war with Hamas
December 17, 2023Russia and Ukraine have launched over a dozen drones at each other's territory for a second straight day
December 17, 2023An Israeli mother who was held in Hamas captivity for 49 days has described in an interview the trials of caring for two young children as a hostage
December 17, 2023As Russian forces press forward with an attempt to capture the town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, The Associated Press obtained aerial footage that indicates their staggering losses
December 17, 2023Serbia’s governing populists have claimed a sweeping victory in the country’s parliamentary election, which have been marred by reports of major irregularities both during a tense campaign and on voting day
December 17, 2023Israel’s government is facing calls for a cease-fire from some of its closest European allies
December 17, 2023The U.N. migration agency says a boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, including women and children
December 17, 2023The jungle between Colombia and Panama used to be impenetrable for migrants heading north from Latin America
December 17, 2023Chilean voters have rejected a conservative constitution to replace the country’s dictatorship-era charter, a little over a year after turning down a proposed leftist charter
December 17, 2023A human rights activist imprisoned for three years in Belarus accused authorities of holding political prisoners in conditions amounting to “torture.”
December 17, 2023A growing number of Black Americans see the struggle of Palestinians reflected in their own struggles for racial equality and civil rights
December 17, 2023Leaders from Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have adopted a joint vision at special summit in Tokyo
December 17, 2023An Israeli airstrike has killed a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor in Gaza
December 16, 2023British teenager Alex Batty has come back to the U
December 16, 2023A contractor for the U.S.
December 16, 2023Bethlehem is gearing up for a subdued Christmas without the festive lights and customary Christmas tree towering over Manger Square
December 16, 2023The Russian-American writer Masha Gessen has received a German literary prize in a ceremony that was delayed and scaled down in reaction to an article comparing Gaza to Nazi German ghettoes
December 16, 2023Brazil’s lower house has approved a major reform of the nation’s notoriously complicated tax system
December 16, 2023The leaders of Italy and the U.K. have agreed to tackle irregular migration to Europe
December 16, 2023The top two U.S. military leaders are traveling to Tel Aviv to advise the Israeli government on how to transition from major combat operations against Hamas in Gaza to a more limited and precise campaign
December 16, 2023Former South African President Jacob Zuma has denounced the governing African National Congress party and announced that he will vote for a newly-formed political formation in the country’s general election next year
December 16, 2023The United States has warned North Korea that any nuclear attack against the nation or its allies is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime, a joint US-South
December 16, 2023Russian state news agencies have reported that President Vladimir Putin's supporters have formally nominated him to run in the 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate
December 16, 2023In Mexico, activists from Catholics for the Right to Decide are helping women reconcile their faith and abortion rights
December 16, 2023The British and American militaries say that a U.S. warship has shot down 14 suspected attack drones over the Red Sea and a Royal Navy destroyer downed another drone that was targeting commercial ships
December 16, 2023Three Israeli hostages killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces had been holding up a white flag, according to an initial inquiry into the incident, a military official said
December 16, 2023Iraqis have begun voting for the first time in a decade to select new provincial council members, who in turn will appoint governors, with the outcome seen as a bellwether for the parliamentary elections due to take place in 2025
December 16, 2023Kuwait’s ruling emir has died at age 86
December 16, 2023Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah died on Saturday, aged 86, according to the royal court, just over three years after assuming power in the U.S.-allied
December 16, 2023Both Russia and Ukraine have reported dozens of attempted drone attacks in the past day
December 16, 2023Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages in Gaza by Israeli soldiers “broke my heart,” but there would be no change in Israel’s military approach
December 16, 2023A North Korean diplomatic delegation is visiting China for talks on strengthening cooperation, North Korean state media said on Saturday, as Pyongyang slowly opens its borders and
December 16, 2023Europe must race to ensure it can better defend itself as new military threats could emerge by the end of the decade even as the focus of security ally the United States shifts
December 16, 2023A Vatican tribunal has convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system
December 16, 2023So much for the women-and-children-first rule of rescues in crisis
December 16, 2023The United Nations peacekeeping chief says he was very satisfied with the strong support of many countries for its far-flung operations at a recent ministerial meeting, despite “headwinds and challenges and problems.”
December 15, 2023An Israeli strike killed a Palestinian cameraman for the TV network Al Jazeera and wounded its chief Gaza correspondent as they reported at a school in the south of the besieged territory
December 15, 2023The Israeli military says it is investigating the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after soldiers were caught on camera shooting down the men at close range when they did not appear to pose a threat
December 15, 2023U.S. officials say Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is ordering the USS Gerald R
December 15, 2023Hungary's Viktor Orban's veto of an aid package from Europe to war-torn Ukraine was the latest sign that Western support for the country's defense against Russia has become complicated
December 15, 2023The U.S. ambassador to China says the relationship between the two countries will be defined by strategic competition in the coming decades but most involve engagement when interests align
December 15, 2023Nigeria’s Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling dismissing terrorism charges against a popular separatist leader whose trial has been blamed for an outbreak of violence in the country’s southeast region
December 15, 2023Mexico’s president has inaugurated the first part of the pet project of his administration, a tourist train that runs in a rough loop around the Yucatan peninsula
December 15, 2023The Israeli army's death toll in Gaza is already almost twice as high as during a ground offensive in 2014, a
December 15, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron says he'd still consider talking with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin if it helps to forge a “sustainable peace” between Ukraine and Russia
December 15, 2023A senior Spanish official says the deployment of two Spanish surveillance planes to watch for migrant boats heading on the treacherous route from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands has enabled authorities to stop 59 canoes from Senegal and Gambia
December 15, 2023Moldova and Georgia celebrated after European Union leaders buoyed their aspirations to join the 27 member nation bloc by removing key hurdles on their long path toward membership
December 15, 2023A court of the West African regional bloc has ordered the release and reinstatement of Niger’s democratically elected president
December 15, 2023Guatemala violated Indigenous rights by permitting a huge nickel mine on tribal land almost two decades ago, according to a ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
December 15, 2023Prince Harry’s victory against Mirror Group Newspapers is a landmark moment in the long saga of lawbreaking by Britain’s tabloids
December 15, 2023With Israeli bombs pounding the length of the Gaza Strip, Gazans have been squeezed up against the border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula at the town of Rafah and
December 15, 2023A paradox at the heart of the Netherlands’ permissive pot policy has gone up in smoke in two Dutch cities as “coffeeshops” began selling the country’s first legally cultivated cannabis
December 15, 2023Dozens of migrants have crossed into Finland hours before the reclosure of two southern crossing points on the border with Russia as the Nordic country experiences an influx of asylum-seekers
December 15, 2023A number of European Union leaders are trying to use mounting concern about civilian deaths in Israel’s military offensive against Hamas to rally their partners around a united call for a ceasefire in Gaza
December 15, 2023U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says he has discussed with Israeli officials the volatile situation along the Lebanon-Israel border
December 15, 2023Germany's parliament has approved plans to raise the country’s levy on carbon dioxide emissions from fuel by more than previously planned next month
December 15, 2023The COP 28 climate deal reached with huge fanfare this week in Dubai is a stab in the back for the nations most affected by global warming and won't stop temperatures rising
December 15, 2023Spanish police say they have arrested 14 workers at one of the country’s main tourist airports on suspicion of stealing items from checked-in luggage
December 15, 2023High-profile British broadcaster Piers Morgan, the former editor of British tabloid the Daily Mirror, knew about phone hacking at the newspaper, a
December 15, 2023Short-term rental platform Airbnb has agreed to pay 576 million euros ($621 million) to settle a years-long dispute over unpaid taxes in Italy but won’t try to recover the money from its hosts
December 15, 2023The family of an Indian man in Czech custody, whom the U.S. accuses of involvement in an unsuccessful plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil, on
December 15, 2023Prince Harry has won his phone hacking lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and was awarded over 140,000 pounds in the first of his several lawsuits against the tabloids to go to trial
December 15, 2023Britain's Prince Harry was awarded 140,600 pounds ($180,743)after London's High Court ruled on Friday he had been a victim of "modest" phone-hacking and other unlawful information
December 15, 2023A Dutch court on Friday dismissed demands by human rights groups to block the Dutch government from exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, which
December 15, 2023A prosecutor in Denmark says authorities are holding two people in custody and four others are the target of a terrorism investigation
December 15, 2023Hungary's prime minister says he'll have plenty of opportunities in the future to interrupt Ukraine’s process of joining the European Union despite the latest, historic decision to move forward with bringing Kyiv into the bloc
December 15, 2023British and French authorities have confirmed that a teenager found wandering on a road in the rain at night in southwestern France is Alex Batty, who disappeared six years ago
December 15, 2023The son of leading China critic and Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai said on Friday he thought the outcome of his father's trial next week had already been decided but he was proud
December 15, 2023Washington is pushing Israel to focus the war in Gaza on precise targeting of Hamas leaders rather than widespread bombing and ground operations, the White House national
December 15, 2023Allies of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny said his lawyer was told in court that he had been moved from the penal colony east of Moscow where he has been serving time but was not told where he was taken
December 15, 2023The Israeli military says it has mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages during its ground operation in the Gaza Strip
December 15, 2023Israeli troops mistakenly shot three hostages to death in a battle-torn neighborhood of Gaza City, and an Israeli strike killed a Palestinian journalist in the south of the besieged territory
December 15, 2023A ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has slammed into a cargo ship in the Red Sea near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait
December 15, 2023Wall Street drifted through mixed trading to put a quiet end to another rocking week
December 15, 2023Two subway trains have collided in heavy snow in Beijing, sending 515 people to the hospital, including 102 with broken bones
December 15, 2023The White House says funding for Ukraine has run out and it has been increasing pressure on Congress to pass stalled legislation to support the war against Russia
December 15, 2023Verdicts are expected for a cardinal and nine defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican’s modern history
December 15, 2023Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is pushing to reassert his populist party’s dominance in this weekend's parliamentary and local election in the troubled eastern European country following a turbulent year that has shaken the government’s popularity
December 15, 2023China on Friday pressured Taiwan with a trade barrier probe and warplanes in the Taiwan Strait a month before the island holds key elections, as
December 15, 2023King Charles III has paid a light-hearted tribute to the late Barry Humphries, who was remembered at a state memorial service in Australia
December 15, 2023Israel opened a direct crossing for aid into Gaza for the first time in its more than two-month-old war on
December 15, 2023Britain's Prince Harry will on Friday find out the result of his phone-hacking lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday
December 15, 2023Prince Harry was the subject of phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by British publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over several years, a
December 15, 2023California-based Rocket Lab has launched a Japanese satellite from the space company's complex on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula
December 15, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser will visit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Friday, according to a U.S. official.
December 14, 2023Ukraine has received a green light to start sped-up talks on joining the European Union
December 14, 2023Brazil’s Congress has overturned a veto by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva so it can reinstate legislation that undoes protections of Indigenous peoples’ land rights
December 14, 2023Congress is departing Washington without a deal to pass wartime support for Ukraine
December 14, 2023“Poor Things” is a Frankenstein-esque fantasia about a young woman (Emma Stone) reanimated by a demented surgeon (Willem Dafoe)
December 14, 2023Israel’s president has joined the ranks of high-ranking Israeli officials to speak out against a two-state solution after the war in Gaza
December 14, 2023Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told President Joe Biden in a phone call that the United States has a historic responsibility to achieve a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza conflict
December 14, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made his first visit to the U.S. military headquarters in Germany where allied leaders coordinate the delivery of weapons and other aid to the war effort
December 14, 2023The COP28 climate summit in Dubai started with all the ingredients for spectacular failure: It proposed an end to the fossil-
December 14, 2023The Mexican government's controversial effort to look for people falsely listed as missing has turned up 16,681 who had returned to their homes but not notified the authorities
December 14, 2023The painful economic steps that Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, announced this week sound draconian: Slashing the currency’s value in half
December 14, 2023Hundreds of protesters angered by what they view as wasteful municipal spending by Kyiv officials have gathered outside the Ukrainian capital's city hall
December 14, 2023The climate negotiations that just finished in Dubai hit upon the essence of compromise, finding common language that everyone accepted, at times grudgingly
December 14, 2023The head of the U.N.
December 14, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has questioned the International Olympic Committee rules mandating Russian athletes compete at the Paris Olympics as neutral athletes
December 14, 2023Hong Kong police are offering rewards for information leading to the arrests of five activists based overseas, whom it accuses of breaching a harsh national security law imposed by Beijing
December 14, 2023Amazon won’t have to pay about $273 million in back taxes after European Union judges ruled in favor of the U.S. e-commerce giant
December 14, 2023A Navy officer jailed in Japan over a car crash that killed two Japanese citizens has been transferred into American custody and returned to the United States, where he was booked into a federal detention center
December 14, 2023International pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to overhaul its leadership and step up reforms are a distraction from the
December 14, 2023The U.S. military says a missile fired from territory controlled by Yemen’s Houthi rebels missed a container ship traveling through the crucial Bab el-Mandeb Strait
December 14, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged a summit of European Union leaders on Thursday to open membership talks with his country, warning that Europe would not understand if
December 14, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked on Thursday about a possible prisoner swap for the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and U.S.
December 14, 2023The Palestinian prime minister says Washington must take steps toward an elusive two-state solution, including applying pressure on Israel
December 14, 2023ChatGPT was the catalyst for a year that took artificial intelligence mainstream
December 14, 2023A former FBI official is set to be sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to working for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch under U.S. sanctions whom prosecutors
December 14, 2023The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza is prompting more European Union countries to support the idea of a humanitarian cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas
December 14, 2023Pope Francis called on Thursday for a legally binding international treaty to regulate artificial intelligence.
December 14, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is in dialogue with the United States on the issue of bringing home jailed Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich
December 14, 2023Pope Francis is calling for an international treaty to ensure artificial intelligence is developed and used ethically
December 14, 2023Hong Kong police on Thursday added five more overseas-based activists to a list of wanted people, offering bounties for information leading to their arrest in a
December 14, 2023Greta Gerwig, actor, writer and film director, notably for the blockbuster “Barbie,” will preside over the jury of the 77th Cannes Festival in May, the first American female film director to be named jury president, the festival announced Thursday
December 14, 2023Russia will press on with its war in Ukraine unless Kyiv does a deal that takes Moscow's security concerns into account, President
December 14, 2023Denmark and Germany have announced arrests of several terror suspects, including alleged Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jews in Europe over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war
December 14, 2023A Moscow сourt ruled on Thursday that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich must remain in custody until Jan. 30, 2024.
December 14, 2023A former member of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee has appeared in district court and pleaded not guilty to taking $1.4 million in bribes in exchange for contracts for the Games
December 14, 2023The attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have rerouted trade away from a crucial corridor for consumer goods and energy supplies
December 14, 2023South Korea’s Olympic chief has defended a decision to send hundreds of athletes to a military camp next week as part of preparations for the 2024 Games in Paris
December 14, 2023A U.N. report says Taliban officials are sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence
December 14, 2023Israel’s defense minister says it will take months to destroy Hamas, predicting a drawn-out war
December 14, 2023Asian shares have churned higher after the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to another record high
December 14, 2023The European Union has failed to agree on a $54 billion package in financial aid that Ukraine desperately needs to stay afloat, even as the bloc decided to open accession negotiations with the war-torn country
December 14, 2023Emboldened by battlefield gains and flagging Western support for Ukraine, a relaxed and confident President Vladimir Putin says there will be no peace until Moscow achieves its goals, which he says are unchanged after nearly two years of fighting
December 14, 2023The defense ministers of Japan, Britain and Italy have signed an agreement to establish a joint organization to develop a new advanced jet fighter, as the countries push to strengthen their cooperation in the face of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea
December 14, 2023The European Central Bank has decided to keep its key interest rate at a record high and will leave it there as long as needed to battle back inflation
December 14, 2023The Bank of England has kept borrowing rates unchanged despite mounting worries over the state of the British economy
December 14, 2023As U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine arrive at training centres in the United States and Europe, Kyiv’s allies hope the modern aircraft can push Russian planes farther
December 14, 2023Israel pounded the length of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing families in their homes even as Washington's envoy discussed how its ally
December 14, 2023The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela have promised in a tense meeting that neither side will use threats or force against the other, but failed to reach agreement on how to address a bitter dispute over a vast border region rich with oil and minerals
December 14, 2023A senior leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan's main opposition party, is in China for meetings with the Taiwanese community, his party said on
December 14, 2023An Australian appeals court has overturned all convictions against a woman 20 years after a jury found her guilty of killing her four children
December 14, 2023Russia is watching as U.S. military support for Ukraine declines and Kyiv suffers setbacks on the battlefield, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in interviews made public on
December 14, 2023With more than a full year past since China eased restrictions and let COVID-19 sweep its households, scientists are worried a unique opportunity may be slipping
December 14, 2023A congressional commission is asking the Justice Department to investigate the role of Beijing after protesters claimed they were beaten and harassed by Chinese government agents in November in San Francisco during an official visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping
December 13, 2023White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss the Gaza conflict
December 13, 2023Somalia has secured a $4.5 billion debt relief deal from its international creditors,
December 13, 2023BP says its former chief executive has been denied a payout of 32.4 million pounds, or $41 million, after he was found to have misled the company over his past relationships with colleagues
December 13, 2023An Israeli lawmaker said on Wednesday his government was seeking to use diplomatic channels to push Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters away from
December 13, 2023Testimony concluded on Wednesday in Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York, where the former U.S. president is accused of lying about his net worth to dupe lenders.
December 13, 2023In a bid to improve working conditions for people who deliver food and offer rides through smartphone apps, the European Union gave provisional approval to new rules for gig economy workers
December 13, 2023Two of Russia’s top swimmers who could be eligible for the next year’s Olympics have been drug tested by their country’s anti-doping agency only twice apiece in 2023
December 13, 2023At least 15 people who registered for Saudi Arabia’s delegation to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai appear to be undeclared employees of the Saudi state oil company, according to research by an environmental nonprofit
December 13, 2023The United States intends to resume security and development cooperation with Niger provided it takes steps to restore democracy, a U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday after meeting the
December 13, 2023A pair of small portraits by 17th-century Dutch Master Rembrandt van Rijn have gone on display after a long-term loan to the Netherlands’ national art and history museum
December 13, 2023Over 14 days of U.N. climate talks, delegates from nearly 200 countries debated, made proposals, lobbed criticisms and did their best to convince each other how best to stop the planet from warming at a dangerous pace
December 13, 2023The United States has announced new war-related of sanctions against Hamas, targeting eight officials and representatives who help manage the militant group’s financial network
December 13, 2023A wartime opinion poll among Palestinians shows a rise in support for Hamas, which appears to have ticked up even in the devastated Gaza Strip
December 13, 2023The United States and the United Kingdom on Wednesday imposed a fourth round of sanctions on individuals in Turkey and elsewhere linked to the Palestinian Hamas militant group, the U.S.
December 13, 2023Referee Halil Umut Meler desperately tried to shield himself from the kicks of angry fans
December 13, 2023A former soldier who won a sexual assault case against three of her former colleagues says she hopes Japan’s Self Defense Force makes it easier for others to speak up
December 13, 2023President Joe Biden has hosted family members of some of the eight Americans believed still held captive in Gaza, assuring them his administration won't stop working to get their loved ones home
December 13, 2023The International Monetary Fund executive board has approved the release of the second tranche of a bailout package to help Sri Lanka recover from the worst economic crisis in its history
December 13, 2023The head of the Turkish Football Federation says domestic soccer league matches will resume on Dec. 19
December 13, 2023The Israeli military says Palestinian militants ambushed troops in a dense Gaza City neighborhood, killing at least nine of them
December 13, 2023At least nine Israeli soldiers have been killed during an ambush that's one of the deadliest single attacks Palestinian militants have carried out since the ground invasion of Gaza began
December 13, 2023Pope Francis says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, not in the grottoes of the Vatican like other popes
December 13, 2023The new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Cabinet members have taken office after being sworn in by the country's president
December 13, 2023Shares are mostly higher in Asia after a powerful rally across Wall Street sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record high as the Federal Reserve indicated that interest rate cuts are likely next year
December 13, 2023Two missiles fired from territory held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have missed a commercial tanker carrying jet fuel near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait, That's according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters
December 13, 2023Chinese aerospace company COMAC has showcased its domestically-developed C919 passenger jet in Hong Kong, giving officials and media a close-up look at the narrow-bodied aircraft
December 13, 2023Germany’s governing coalition has reached a deal to resolve a budget crisis triggered by a court ruling last month
December 13, 2023Congo's presidential election is a week away, and the major issue is the deadly conflict in the nation's east that has forced millions of people to flee their homes
December 13, 2023President Joe Biden's pledge to restore American credibility around the globe is at risk during the congressional debate over support for Ukraine
December 13, 2023When Serbia began talks to join the European Union in 2014, pro-Western Serbs were hopeful the process would set their troubled country on an irreversible path to democratization
December 13, 2023Several viral videos of Israeli soldiers behaving maliciously in Gaza have emerged in recent days, creating a headache for the Israeli military as it faces an international outcry over its tactics and the rising civilian death toll in its war against Hamas
December 13, 2023Many sentiments are universal
December 13, 2023Dengue is sweeping across the Western Hemisphere in numbers not seen since record-keeping began in 1980 as experts warn that rising temperatures and rapid urbanization are accelerating the pace of infections
December 13, 2023The COP28 climate summit adopted a final deal on Wednesday that for the first time calls on nations to transition away from fossil fuels to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
December 13, 2023Negotiators at United Nations COP28 climate talks agreed Wednesday that the world must transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels
December 13, 2023Tropical Cyclone Jasper has crossed Australia’s northeast coast as a category 2 storm, lashing the sparsely populated region with winds of up to 87 miles an hour
December 13, 2023A barrage of Russian missiles has targeted Kyiv and wounded at least 53 people as Ukraine's president seeks more military support in Europe
December 13, 2023Israel announced its worst combat losses for more than a month on Wednesday after an ambush in the ruins of Gaza City, and faced
December 13, 2023The Spanish fashion brand Zara has pulled advertising images that appeared to some to reference Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza
December 13, 2023A special House committee focused on China is calling for altering the way the U.S. treats Chinese-made goods, possibly subjecting them to higher tariffs and risking increased economic tensions between the two economic superpowers
December 12, 2023The Biden administration is planning to construct a new U.S. embassy in Ireland
December 12, 2023The COP28 Presidency released a proposed text of a final climate deal on Wednesday that would, for the first time, push nations
December 12, 2023The U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to demand a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza in a strong demonstration of global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war
December 12, 2023The Israeli military has begun pumping seawater into Hamas' tunnel complex in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing unnamed U.S. officials, adding that the
December 12, 2023President Joe Biden is speaking out about the Israel-Hamas war and warning that Israel is losing international support because of what he calls “indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza
December 12, 2023Thousands have rallied in the capital and other major cities in Slovakia to denounce a plan by the new government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico to amend the country’s penal code
December 12, 2023For mothers and fathers in besieged Gaza, the devastating war has subverted all expectations of childbirth and parenthood
December 12, 2023Google lost an antitrust lawsuit over barriers to its Android app store, as a federal court jury has decided that the company’s payments system was anticompetitive and damaged smartphone consumers and software developers
December 12, 2023President Joe Biden will hold his first in-person meeting with the families of Americans taken hostage by Hamas during its brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7
December 12, 2023The South African government has announced plans to build new nuclear power stations to generate more electricity amid an energy crisis in the continent’s most advanced economy
December 12, 2023The head of Israel's main Holocaust memorial centre has welcomed criticism levelled at three top U.S. university presidents over their comments on campus antisemitism but said an
December 12, 2023Thousands of people sang the traditional Mexican birthday song “Las mañanitas” at Mexico City’s Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe to honor the virgin on the 492nd anniversary of her apparition in 1531
December 12, 2023The Biden administration is hitting hundreds of people and firms around the globe with new economic and diplomatic sanctions as the U.S. targets third-country contributors that are equipping Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
December 12, 2023The Dutch counterterrorism agency has lifted the country’s threat alert to its second-highest level and says the possibility of an attack in the country is now “substantial.”
December 12, 2023Spanish authorities say that they have confiscated 11 tons of cocaine and arrested 20 people in two different operations against the smuggling of the illegal drugs inside shipping containers
December 12, 2023Finland’s government says it will reopen two out of eight border crossing points with Russia later this week following a sudden influx of migrants in November
December 12, 2023Jon Rahm is the latest player to go back on his word by joining LIV Golf
December 12, 2023Local officials say Ukraine has came under heavy attack from the air and from cyberspace
December 12, 2023The head of Britain's foreign intelligence agency has thanked Russian state television for encouraging Russians to spy for the U.K. after it broadcast part of a speech he gave calling on Russians to join hands with British intelligence
December 12, 2023State media say Chinese leaders have wrapped up a two-day annual meeting to set economic priorities for the coming year
December 12, 2023With the United Nations climate talks wrapping up in Dubai, foundations and other funders pledged at least $2.1 billion in new financing to reduce climate impacts, especially from agriculture
December 12, 2023India has requested the United States to share intelligence on Sikh separatists living there amid investigations into an accusation that an Indian official was
December 12, 2023India has requested the United States to share intelligence on Sikh separatists living there amid investigations into an accusation that an Indian official was
December 12, 2023A spokeswoman for Alexei Navalny says the loss of contact with the imprisoned Russian opposition leader likely signals a Kremlin effort to tighten his isolation as President Vladimir Putin runs for reelection in March
December 12, 2023Interpol and the World Customs Organization say they seized 53 primates, four big cats and more than 1,300 birds in their sweeping annual crackdown on wildlife and timber trafficking
December 12, 2023Germany's culture minister has announced that Tricia Tuttle, a former director of the London Film Festival, will become the new director of the Berlin International Film Festival next year
December 12, 2023Officials from more than 20 countries including Israel but no Arab states will convene in Paris on Wednesday to define a strategy on how to curb financing of Hamas and
December 12, 2023The White House says Congo’s security forces and rebel groups have agreed on a 72-hour cease-fire to de-escalate tensions in the country’s east near the border with Rwanda
December 12, 2023A World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that only 11, or less than a third, of Gaza's hospitals remain partially functional and pleaded for them to remain intact.
December 12, 2023United Nations climate negotiators have declared the world must transition away from oil, gas and coal
December 12, 2023British lawmakers have voted in favor of the government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda
December 12, 2023Russia should help impose new sanctions against North Korea over its recent launch of a spy satellite and enforce existing bans on the isolated country's labour
December 12, 2023Poland’s newly elected prime minister, Donald Tusk, has vowed that his government will demand that the West keep helping neighboring Ukraine
December 12, 2023Israel is pressing ahead with an offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months, even as the United Nations voted to demand a humanitarian cease-fire
December 12, 2023Israel and the United States showed their sharpest public disagreement yet over the conduct and future of the war on Hamas as the two allies became increasingly isolated by global calls for a cease-fire
December 12, 2023A South African court has overturned President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to recognize Misuzulu kaZwelithini as the king of the country’s 15 million-strong Zulu nation in what may spark a lengthy battle for the throne
December 12, 2023A Japanese court has convicted three former soldiers in a sexual assault case that authorities had dropped until the victim came forward demanding a reinvestigation and prompting a military-wide harassment probe
December 12, 2023Asian shares are mixed after Wall Street rose to its highest level since early 2022, slightly below its record high, after a report showed inflation in the United States is behaving pretty much as expected
December 12, 2023Turkish authorities have arrested the president of a top-flight club after he punched a referee in the face at the end of a match, prompting the Turkish Football Federation to suspend all league games
December 12, 2023A Chinese C919 commercial passenger jet has arrived in Hong Kong in the Chinese-made aircraft's first foray outside of mainland China
December 12, 2023As this year's global climate talks reach a conclusion, activists are hoping that negotiators will listen to their stories as they weigh what to do about the fossil fuels that are warming the planet
December 12, 2023Australia says China has lifted import bans on three Australian meat suppliers in another sign of improving trade relations between the two countries
December 12, 2023Pakistani officials say a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle at a police station’s main gate in the country's northwest, killing at least 23 security forces and wounding 32
December 12, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Americans his country is fighting for “our freedom and yours” as he made an impassioned for Congress to approve more assistance to fight Russia’s invasion
December 12, 2023Hong Kong leader John Lee has praised the 27.5% voter turnout in the city’s weekend election, a record low since the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997
December 12, 2023The United Nations on Tuesday demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war after more than three-quarters of the 193-member
December 12, 2023Hopes for finishing a critical climate summit on time faded early Tuesday as countries were still far apart on key issues, including an agreement on what to do about the fossil fuels that are causing dangerous global warming
December 12, 2023Myanmar, already wracked by a brutal civil war, has regained the unenviable title of world’s biggest opium producer
December 12, 2023The Palestinians are hoping that a vote in the U.N. General Assembly on a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire will demonstrate widespread global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war
December 12, 2023A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels slammed into a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen near a key maritime chokepoint
December 12, 2023Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing dozens of Palestinians, and U.S.
December 12, 2023Chinese leader Xi Jinping has arrived in Vietnam seeking to deepen ties with the Southeast Asian neighbor
December 12, 2023The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies elected a U.S. candidate on Monday as its new president after an acrimonious meeting that nearly
December 11, 2023Taiwan's new de facto ambassador to the United States, Alexander Yui, arrived in Washington on Monday, according to a tweet from a U.S. official, taking up
December 11, 2023The World Health Organization says five countries in East and southern Africa are in the middle of outbreaks of the anthrax disease with more than 1,100 suspected cases and 20 deaths this year
December 11, 2023U.S.
December 11, 2023More than a hundred senior European lawmakers will send a joint letter to their counterparts in the United States on Tuesday, pleading for Congress to unlock further
December 11, 2023The mother of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has died in the northern state of Sinaloa
December 11, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a U.S. military audience on Monday that he hoped he can still count on the United States and urged
December 11, 2023Israel's orders to Gaza's residents to move ever further south towards the Egyptian border during its offensive and the dire humanitarian
December 11, 2023The International Union for Conservation of Nature, the leading tracker of global biodiversity, released their new Red List of Threatened Species on Monday at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai
December 11, 2023The United States is concerned about reports Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon, White House spokesperson
December 11, 2023An official leading preliminary coalition talks in the Netherlands says that the far-right party led by Dutch election winner Geert Wilders should open negotiations with three other parties on forming a new government
December 11, 2023Russia is increasing its missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and the White House expects Moscow to target energy
December 11, 2023European Union officials worked into the late hours last week hammering out an agreement on world-leading rules meant to govern the use of artificial intelligence in the 27-nation bloc
December 11, 2023The Air Force inspector general says the massive classified documents leak by a service member this year was made worse by the intentional failure of multiple officials to take required action on his suspicious behavior
December 11, 2023A judge has ordered Prince Harry to pay nearly 50,000 pounds or more than $60,000 in legal fees to the Daily Mail publisher for his failed court challenge in a libel lawsuit
December 11, 2023The United Nations has ended its 10-year peacekeeping mission in Mali following the government’s request that alleged the force was inadequate to respond to growing violent extremism in the West African nation
December 11, 2023Early awards in Hollywood’s unfurling awards season have gone to films like Celine Song’s tender relationship drama “Past Lives,” Jonathan Glazer’s piercing Holocaust film “The Zone of Interest” and Martin Scorsese’s sprawling Osage murders epic “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
December 11, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning that “when the free world hesitates, that’s when dictatorships celebrate.”
December 11, 2023The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela have expressed their intentions to cooperate ahead of their meeting this week meant to address an escalating dispute over a region rich in oil and minerals
December 11, 2023A man charged with terrorism and other offenses over a 2022 fire that badly damaged South Africa’s historic Parliament complex in Cape Town has been declared unfit to stand trial
December 11, 2023Organizers of the Paris Olympics say work will resume this week to prepare the surfing venue in Tahiti after an uproar over damage to a coral reef put efforts on hold
December 11, 2023Grammy Award-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar has drawn raves in South Africa as a headliner at a music festival there over the weekend
December 11, 2023An activist organization says the United Arab Emirates is conducting a mass trial of nearly 90 prisoners on terrorism charges as it hosts the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit
December 11, 2023Germany expects Israel to adapt its military strategy to better prevent suffering among Palestinian civilians, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday,
December 11, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has traveled to a shipyard to attend the commissioning of new nuclear submarines
December 11, 2023The whereabouts of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny are unknown and a spokeswoman says that officials at the penal colony where he was serving his sentence told a lawyer that he's no longer on the inmate roster
December 11, 2023Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o will head the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in February
December 11, 2023All top-flight soccer matches in Greece will be played without fans in the stadiums for the next two months, in the latest crackdown on supporter violence following a sport-related riot last week that left a police officer with life-threatening injuries
December 11, 2023Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza in telephone calls on Sunday and Monday with Hamas and other Palestinian factions, the
December 11, 2023Thousands of protesters are expected to gather in Brussels on Tuesday to protest what they perceive as new austerity measures as the 27 European Union countries discuss ways to overhaul rules on government spending
December 11, 2023Swedish authorities say that five people have been seriously injured after a construction site elevator plunged to the ground in Stockholm
December 11, 2023Pressure is mounting on Hungary not to veto the start of European Union membership talks and the supply of economic aid to Ukraine at a pivotal EU summit this week
December 11, 2023Renowned Chinese doctor and activist Gao Yaojie who exposed the AIDS virus epidemic in rural China in the 1990s, has died at the age of 95 at her home in the United States
December 11, 2023U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces one of the toughest weeks of his 13 months in office
December 11, 2023The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that hunger remains a chronic problem in Asia
December 11, 2023India’s top court has upheld a 2019 decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to strip disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as a semi-autonomous region with a separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs
December 11, 2023Israel’s defense minister pushed back against international calls to wrap up the country’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas militant group will “take time.”
December 11, 2023The management agency of the popular K-pop band BTS says two of the group members, RM and V, have begun their mandatory military duties under South Korean law
December 11, 2023Israel says it’s prepared to fight for months or longer to defeat Gaza’s Hamas rulers
December 11, 2023Indigenous women at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai are coming together to share some of their innovative ideas on how communities on the front lines of climate change can contend with it
December 11, 2023Overnight snowfall across much of northern China has prompted road closures and the suspension of classes and train service
December 11, 2023Countries at United Nations-led climate talks in Dubai moved closer to reaching a final deal on Monday, but critics condemned a draft agreement as a watered-down document that won't stop dangerous climate change
December 11, 2023Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” dominated the Golden Globe nominations with nine nods for the blockbuster film, including best picture musical or comedy as well as acting nominations for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and three of its original songs
December 11, 2023Holocaust survivors from around the globe will mark the start of the fifth day of Hanukkah together with a virtual ceremony as worries grow among Jews worldwide about the Israel-Hamas war and a spike of antisemitism in Europe, the United States and elsewhere
December 11, 2023Poland’s parliament has elected centrist party leader Donald Tusk as prime minister after eight years of stormy conservative rule
December 11, 2023A U.S. Air Force pilot has safely ejected before his F-16 fighter jet crashed into the sea off South Korea’s southwestern coast
December 11, 2023It’s the killer detail in international climate talks: Consensus
December 11, 2023Asia markets opened higher following a positive close on Wall Street
December 11, 2023Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital with eight long-range ballistic missiles before dawn on Monday and four people were wounded by debris
December 11, 2023A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s capital has destroyed several homes and left more than 100 households without electricity
December 11, 2023Israeli tanks were trying to push further west in their battle against Hamas in and around Khan Younis on Monday, as they met resistance
December 11, 2023Voter turnout plunged below 30% in Hong Kong’s first district council elections since new rules introduced under Beijing’s guidance effectively shut out all pro-democracy candidates
December 11, 2023The 193-member United Nations General Assembly is likely to vote Tuesday on a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian
December 10, 2023The government of Guyana, under pressure from neighboring Brazil and a Caribbean trading bloc, has agreed to join bilateral talks with Venezuela over an escalating territorial dispute
December 10, 2023A power blackout has hit Kenya, paralyzing large parts of the country, and the transport minister is calling for an investigation into “possible acts of sabotage and coverup” over the third nationwide outage in three months
December 10, 2023Several thousand people have demonstrated against antisemitism in Berlin as Germany grapples with a large increase in anti-Jewish incidents following Hamas’ attack on Israel two months ago
December 10, 2023A recent killing spree in the Mexican border city of Tijuana could have been lifted from a TV script: enraged drug lords hunting down corrupt police officers who stole a drug shipment
December 10, 2023Divers have recovered the remains of the seventh of the eight crew members from a U.S. military Osprey aircraft that crashed off southern Japan during a training mission
December 10, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday and voiced displeasure with "anti-Israel positions" taken by Moscow's envoys at the
December 10, 2023Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday that the West was trying to exhaust Russia in Ukraine and that if peace talks were to take place then Kyiv would have to change its
December 10, 2023Leaders from across West Africa say they now recognize the junta in power in Niger and are seeking a short transition period to civilian rule
December 10, 2023The children of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi have accepted this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf in a ceremony in the Norwegian capital
December 10, 2023Isralei Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed on Sunday international calls to end the Gaza war, describing them as inconsistent with supporting the war-aim of eliminating
December 10, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Buenos Aires to witness the swearing-in of Argentina's new president, Javier Milei
December 10, 2023Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones
December 10, 2023The European Union’s plan to impose a tax on the carbon pollution emitted to make goods imported from countries like India and China has sparked a debate at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, as poorer countries argue that the tax will harm livelihoods and economic growth
December 10, 2023Two boats carrying more than 300 Rohingya Muslims, including emaciated women and children, have arrived at Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh after being adrift for weeks
December 10, 2023Egyptians are voting in a presidential election in which President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi faces no serious challenger and is certain to win another term
December 10, 2023Battles are raging across Gaza as Israel indicates it is prepared to fight for months or longer to defeat the territory’s Hamas rulers
December 10, 2023Negotiators have been urged to narrow down their options and agree on how to save Earth from disastrous levels of warming as the clock runs down on United Nations climate talks and the summit’s president is determined to finish up talks by Tuesday
December 10, 2023President Vladimir Putin is likely to win another six-year term easily in an election expected in March, using his sweeping grip on Russia’s political scene to extend his tenure of over two decades in power
December 10, 2023The U.S. Border Patrol says it is overwhelmed by a shift in human smuggling routes, with hundreds of migrants from faraway countries like Senegal, Bangladesh and China being dropped in a remote desert area in Arizona
December 10, 2023Gregory Golodoff, the last survivor among 41 residents imprisoned in Japan after Japanese troops captured the remote Alaska island of Attu during World War II, has died
December 10, 2023Seventy-five years ago on Sunday, the U.N. General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a meeting in Paris
December 10, 2023Right-wing economist Javier Milei has been sworn in as Argentina’s president and has immediately moved to prepare the public for a painful shock adjustment with drastic public spending cuts
December 10, 2023Rights groups say Beijing’s crackdown on dissent is becoming increasingly harsh, both within China and beyond
December 10, 2023Visitors walking along the river that flows through downtown Rotterdam might be surprised to see a three-tiered structure moored in the water, with a top level occupied by brown and white cows grazing on hay dropped from a conveyor belt
December 10, 2023This year’s global climate summit in Dubai set aside Sunday to spotlight food and agriculture, a sector that accounts for about a third of the world’s emission
December 10, 2023Philippine officials say the Chinese coast guard has targeted Philippine vessels with water cannon blasts and rammed one of them, causing damage and endangering Filipino crew members off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea
December 10, 2023Residents went to the polls in Hong Kong’s first district council elections since an electoral overhaul was implemented under Beijing’s guidance of “patriots” administering the city, effectively shutting out all pro-democracy candidates
December 10, 2023Cuba said late on Saturday it had thwarted a terrorist plot hatched in neighboring south Florida, according to a report broadcast on state-run media, after a man allegedly arrived
December 10, 2023A North Korean senior official criticised the United States for blocking a U.N. resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, claiming the veto showed
December 10, 2023A British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks in the Gaza Strip during the current Israel-Hamas war as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team says he's given testimony to a British war crimes investigation unit
December 09, 2023Many women, young people and Indigenous voices say they feel they’re relegated to mere attendance, with limited opportunities to contribute substantially to the decisive meetings, despite promises to make the talks more inclusive
December 09, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used a speech on human rights to accuse the West of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia
December 09, 2023Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for the United Nations Security Council to be reformed, decrying the fact that the United States could veto a ceasefire
December 09, 2023Israel’s ground offensive throughout the Gaza Strip is advancing under airstrikes and artillery fire
December 09, 2023The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, have separately condemned a high-seas assault by the Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships that repeatedly blasted water cannons to block three Philippine fisheries vessels from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea
December 09, 2023Activists designated Saturday a day of protest at the COP28 summit in Dubai
December 09, 2023Israel’s military is pushing ahead with its punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza, bolstered by a U.S. veto derailing U.N. Security Council efforts to end the war
December 09, 2023An agreement at the United Nations-led climate conference to transition away from fossil fuels brought a measure of relief for climate activists, even as many said it doesn’t go far enough
December 09, 2023A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden
December 09, 2023Ukrainian charities and companies supplying the country’s military warn that problems are growing as Polish truck drivers show no sign of ending a monthlong border blockade
December 09, 2023Most Russian opposition figures are either in prison at home or are in exile abroad
December 09, 2023A century-old territorial dispute is boiling over between neighbors Guyana and Venezuela
December 09, 2023Veteran climate negotiation observers say the oil industry is starting to sweat as United Nations climate talks heat up and threaten to plug fossil fuel-belching wells for good
December 09, 2023The United Nations Security Council took no immediate action at a closed emergency meeting requested by Guyana following Venezuela’s recent referendum claiming the vast oil- and mineral-rich Essequibo region that makes up a large part of its neighbor
December 09, 2023Your Google search history for 2023 has arrived
December 09, 2023The national security advisers of the United States, South Korea and Japan are calling for a stronger international push to suppress North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles
December 09, 2023The United States kept up pressure on Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians during a fierce
December 08, 2023European Union negotiators have clinched a deal on the world’s first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules
December 08, 2023The United States has vetoed a United Nations resolution backed by almost all other Security Council members and many other nations demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza
December 08, 2023The United States is "eager" to resume stalled military-to-military talks with China, White House spokesperson John Kirby said
December 08, 2023Cuba published late on Thursday a list of foreign nationals and entities it accuses of involvement with terrorism, including influencers, many long-time dissidents who reside in the
December 08, 2023Russian police have put prominent Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army
December 08, 2023Scotland’s highest civil court has upheld the British government’s move to block a landmark gender-recognition law passed by the Scottish parliament
December 08, 2023French actor Gerard Depardieu’s behavior toward women has come under scrutiny in France after a documentary showed him repeatedly making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea
December 08, 2023Pope Francis has made his first public appearance outdoors since being stricken by bronchitis two weeks ago, which forced him to cancel a planned trip to the COP-28 climate conference in Dubai
December 08, 2023Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and an international peace conference to work out a lasting
December 08, 2023The bar was already high, but the security challenge ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games only grew with a knife attack last weekend that killed a tourist near the Eiffel Tower
December 08, 2023The United States on Friday vetoed a United Nations Security Council demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Israel and
December 08, 2023A bold, innovative project begun nearly a generation ago to erect a “green-city” in the United Arab Emirates has run into realities and largely missed its mark
December 08, 2023Social media users shared a range of false claims this week
December 08, 2023The International Olympic Committee says some Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics
December 08, 2023House lawmakers are demanding information on federal efforts to stop the influx of kid-appealing electronic cigarettes from China
December 08, 2023A man arrested for firing gunshots outside a Jewish temple in upstate New York been federally charged
December 08, 2023A senior Hamas official accused Israeli forces on Friday of carrying out a "heinous crime against innocent civilians" after images of Palestinian men stripped to
December 08, 2023The funeral of The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has taken place in Ireland, attended by family, neighbors and friends including Johnny Depp and Nick Cave
December 08, 2023Vladimir Putin has moved to prolong his repressive and unyielding grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election next March that he is all but certain to win
December 08, 2023Nintendo has canceled an upcoming video game event and postponed several others because of persistent threats to the company, its workers and players
December 08, 2023Prince Harry lost a preliminary round in his libel case against against the publisher of the Daily Mail tabloid over an article that said he tried to hide his efforts to retain publicly funded protection in the U.K. after walking away from his role as a working member of the royal family
December 08, 2023The CEO of chipmaker Nvidia views Malaysia as a potential hub for artificial intelligence “manufacturing.”
December 08, 2023South Korea’s defense minister has threatened massive retaliatory missile strikes on “the heart and head” of North Korea in the event of provocation, as the rivals escalate their rhetoric over their respective spy satellite launches in recent days
December 08, 2023Travelers in Germany are facing delays and disruptions as a union representing Germany’s train drivers conducts a 24-hour strike
December 08, 2023Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces stormed into a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank to arrest Palestinian militants and unleashed fighting with local gunmen in which six Palestinians were killed
December 08, 2023A French juvenile court has convicted six teenagers for their roles in the beheading of a teacher by an Islamic extremist that shocked the country
December 08, 2023As United Nations climate talks enter their second week, negotiators who are largely focused on how to curb climate change have another thing on their plates: how to adapt to the warming that’s already here
December 08, 2023The United States has vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza
December 08, 2023Taiwan's foreign minister on Friday said Guatemala's incoming government had "reassured" that it intends to maintain formal ties with the island, as China gradually whittles away at
December 08, 2023Desperate Palestinians fleeing Israel’s expanding ground offensive crowded into an ever-shrinking area of the Gaza Strip as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third month
December 08, 2023U.S. and Iraqi officials say a rocket attack at the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has caused minor damage but no casualties
December 08, 2023The Israeli military, responding on Friday to a Reuters investigation that determined its forces killed a Reuters journalist in southern Lebanon on Oct. 13, said the incident
December 08, 2023Jon Rahm is the biggest name yet to bolt to Saudi-funded LIV Golf
December 08, 2023Bodhi Day is a Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day Siddhartha Gautama attained awakening or enlightenment and became the Buddha 2,600 years ago
December 08, 2023Young people have been at the forefront of environmental and climate change movements in recent years: initiatives like school strikes for climate action, protests at United Nations climate talks and around the world, and local clean ups have often been youth-led
December 08, 2023Wall Street climbed to its highest level in 20 months following a stronger-than-expected report on the U.S. job market
December 08, 2023Taiwan's Defense Ministry says it has spotted a Chinese surveillance balloon in the Taiwan Strait along with a large-scale movement of military aircraft and ships
December 08, 2023Teams of veteran negotiators fanned out Friday at the United Nations climate conference with orders to get the strongest, most ambitious agreements possible, especially on the central issue of the fading future of fossil fuels in a dangerously warming planet
December 08, 2023Four investment banks have announced during a meeting of leaders of trade bloc Mercosur they will put $10 billion for infrastructure works aiming to better connect South America
December 08, 2023Taiwan's defence ministry said on Friday that a Chinese balloon had crossed the Taiwan Strait median line on Thursday, about a month before Taiwan's presidential election.
December 08, 2023Australia's government on Friday welcomed signs that a U.S. defense spending bill which would authorise the sale of nuclear submarines to Australia is set to pass
December 08, 2023It’s called “Article 99.”
December 08, 2023While Hong Kong's government is working to spotlight its upcoming local elections, some district council members are preparing for their exits under the sharply shifting political landscape
December 08, 2023Israel sharply increased strikes on the Gaza Strip, pounding the length of the Palestinian enclave and killing hundreds in a new, expanded
December 08, 2023The International Federation of Journalists says 2023 has been an unprecedented year for the number of media workers killed on the job
December 08, 2023U.S.
December 07, 2023The Biden administration is considering getting behind new restrictions on who can seek asylum and an expanded deportation processes to secure new aid for Ukraine
December 07, 2023Environmental watchdogs have accused a Mexico-based startup of violating international trade law that protects the endangered totoaba fish
December 07, 2023Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to exchange prisoners of war and work toward signing a peace treaty in what the European Union is hailing as a major step toward peace in the long-troubled region
December 07, 2023Officials say a man fired a shotgun twice outside a Jewish temple in upstate New York, then said “Free Palestine” as he was taken into custody
December 07, 2023U.S.
December 07, 2023Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” will get a theatrical release in Japan after all
December 07, 2023The United States and Mexico have agreed to monitor foreign investments and regularly share information about the screening process
December 07, 2023Associated Press film writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle have named their best movies of 2023
December 07, 2023London police have charged a deputy U.S. Marshal in the United Kingdom with entering an aircraft while drunk after he was arrested on allegations of misconduct aboard a flight from New York
December 07, 2023The United States on Thursday said it would conduct flight operations within Guyana that build on its routine engagement as Britain and Brazil expressed concerns about growing
December 07, 2023The son of Israeli cabinet minister and former military chief Gadi Eizenkot was killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, said on
December 07, 2023An international team of climate scientists says the ongoing catastrophic rains in East Africa have been made worse by human-induced climate change
December 07, 2023Reports from Myanmar say its military government has been freeing soldiers and police who had been jailed for desertion and absence without leave as authorities seek to get them to return to active duty
December 07, 2023British Foreign Secretary David Cameron used a visit to Washington on Thursday to urge politicians in the United States to approve a fresh package of military aid for Ukraine. U.S.
December 07, 2023Meta is rolling out end-to-end encryption for calls and messages across its Facebook and Messenger platforms, the company announced Thursday
December 07, 2023The White House is encouraging Mideast allies to join the Combined Maritime Forces, a partnership that exists to counter malign action by non-state actors in international waters
December 07, 2023A Sierra Leone government spokesman says that a former president has been called in for questioning by police over recent attacks that officials say was a failed coup
December 07, 2023Western states should enact policies to prevent asylum seekers embarking on dangerous routes, the U.N. refugee chief said on Thursday, as the number of migrants
December 07, 2023Israeli strikes have killed 17,177 Palestinians in Gaza since Oct. 7 and 350 people have died in the past 24 hours, Gaza's Health Ministry said on Thursday, adding health services
December 07, 2023Italian melodrama’s official recognition as a global cultural treasure is getting trumpeted with La Scala’s season premiere of Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”
December 07, 2023A new law has been passed in Denmark’s parliament that makes it illegal to desecrate any holy text in the country
December 07, 2023Tennis pro Nick Kyrgios is setting up a free-to-access OnlyFans page
December 07, 2023European Union talks on comprehensive artificial intelligence regulations were paused after 22 straight hours
December 07, 2023The United Nations’ top peacekeeping official has defended its missions worldwide even as many countries where peacekeepers operate are demanding their withdrawal
December 07, 2023The United States strongly supports Israel in its war against Hamas, but is increasingly at odds with its Middle East ally over what will happen to the Gaza Strip once the war winds down
December 07, 2023Two international human rights groups say two Israeli strikes that killed a Reuters videographer and wounded six other journalists in south Lebanon nearly two months ago were apparently deliberate and a direct attack on civilians
December 07, 2023The Kremlin on Thursday accused President Joe Biden of seeking to demonise Russia in order to wring more funds from Congress to keep the war in Ukraine going, something Moscow
December 07, 2023The U.K. government says that Russia’s intelligence services have targeted high-profile British politicians, civil servants and journalists with cyberespionage and “malicious cyberactivity” as part of sustained attempts to interfere in U.K. political processes
December 07, 2023British poet, political activist, musician and actor Benjamin Zephaniah has died at age 65
December 07, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence chief told the United States on Thursday that Western support for Ukraine would turn the conflict into a "second Vietnam"
December 07, 2023The president of Seychelles has declared an emergency after a huge blast at an explosives depot that followed deadly flooding on the country’s main island
December 07, 2023From Arkansas to Ukraine, from ceremonies to courtrooms, from neighborhood games to top-flight tennis matches, Reuters photographers were on the ground in 2023 to bring the world to the
December 07, 2023(This Dec. 7 story has been corrected to remove the reference to Human Rights Watch investigation into hospital explosion because it concerns a different hospital in Gaza, in paragraph 8) By Katie
December 07, 2023South Korea's Olympic committee is pushing to send hundreds of athletes to a navy training center to enhance their mental toughness ahead of the Paris Olympics
December 07, 2023The Israeli military hit Rafah in southern Gaza overnight, residents say, as United Nations officials warn there are no safe places left in the besieged territory
December 07, 2023Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in sometimes angry testimony to Britain’s inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic, on Thursday defended himself against suggestions that his indifference and failure to heed the advice of scientists led to thousands of unnecessary deaths
December 07, 2023Chinese naval vessels have become the first ships to dock at a new pier at a Cambodian naval base that the United States and some international security experts say is destined to serve as a strategic outpost for Beijing’s navy
December 07, 2023Israeli forces struck the southern Gaza town of Rafah twice overnight, sowing fear in one of the last places where civilians can seek refuge
December 07, 2023British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he will “do what is necessary” to revive a blocked deal to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda, even if it means ignoring human rights laws
December 07, 2023Longtime regional rivals Greece and Turkey have made a significant step in mending ties during a visit to Athens by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
December 07, 2023Polish Nobel Peace Prizer winner and former President Lech Walesa says he is improving after being hospitalized with COVID-19
December 07, 2023Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow says she still feels under the watch of the Chinese territory’s police after moving to Toronto
December 07, 2023Lawmaker's in Russia have set March 17 as the date for the country's 2024 presidential election
December 07, 2023Twitch, a popular video service, will shut down its struggling business in South Korea, a decision its chief executive blamed on allegedly “prohibitively expensive” costs for operating in the country
December 07, 2023The Australian government has signed a security pact with its nearest neighbor Papua New Guinea that strengthens Australia’s place as the preferred security partner in a region where China’s influence is growing
December 07, 2023Wall Street closed higher to break out of its first three-day losing streak since Halloween
December 07, 2023Some of the words tied to this year’s hottest topics were also among the most mangled when it came to saying them aloud
December 07, 2023The leaders of China and the European Union have held wide-ranging talks that included their disputes over trade and a deep divide over the war in Ukraine
December 07, 2023When Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched missiles and hit three commercial ships in the Red Sea, it triggered an immediate question: Will the U.S. military strike back
December 07, 2023The mood is about to shift, the hours grow longer and the already high sense of urgency somehow amp up even more as United Nations climate talks head into its final week
December 07, 2023President Joe Biden is getting slightly more support among Democrats for his handling of the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians
December 07, 2023J Balvin has released his latest single, “Amigos.”
December 07, 2023U.N. officials say intensifying Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities are worsening humanitarian conditions across the country, where heavy snow and freezing temperatures have already arrived
December 07, 2023A military helicopter carrying seven people has vanished near Guyana’s border with Venezuela
December 07, 2023Israel battled Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip's biggest cities on Thursday and said it had attacked dozens of targets, leaving 350
December 07, 2023U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged its members to demand an immediate cease-fire
December 07, 2023Amnesty investigation claims US-made weapon used in two Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that killed 43 civilians
December 07, 2023Indonesian authorities have ended the search for any more victims among climbers who were caught by a weekend eruption of the Mount Marapi volcano that killed 23 people and injured several others
December 07, 2023The U.S. military has announced it is grounding all of its Osprey V-22 helicopters, one week after eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members died in a crash off the coast of Japan
December 07, 2023Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori has been released from prison on humanitarian grounds, despite a request from a regional human rights court to delay his release
December 06, 2023Mexico's Supreme Court has overturned a 2022 ban on bullfighting in Mexico City, opening the way for events to resume, possibly as soon as this month
December 06, 2023A renegade Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia shortly after Moscow’s invasion has been found dead near Moscow
December 06, 2023Mexico's newest commercial airline, due to be run by the military, is set to launch later this month using military aircraft after a deal to lease planes fell
December 06, 2023Tensions between neighbors Venezuela and Guyana have ratcheted up in recent weeks over a long-running territorial dispute.
December 06, 2023The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says there's no safe haven in Gaza for civilians — not even U.N. shelters and “safe zones” designated by Israel
December 06, 2023The United States is monitoring reports of Chinese warships docking in Cambodia and has serious concerns about Beijing's plans to have exclusive control over parts of the main
December 06, 2023The Native American population in the United States has seen a remarkable growth rate of 85% in the last decade. The U.S. Census data report shows a spike from 5.2 million in 2010 to 9.6 million in 2020. This striking increase in the Native American population, surpassing the growth rates of other racial groups, has left experts perplexed as they struggle to attribute the surge solely to immigration or elevated birth rates. After a more thorough examination, census officials and scholars have proposed a theory suggesting that significant alterations in the categorization and counting of race data during the 2020
December 06, 2023A shooting on the main campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Wednesday left at least three people dead before the bloodshed ended with the suspect's own death,
December 06, 2023The United States is reviewing an Amnesty International report that said U.S.-made munitions have killed civilians in air strikes in Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew
December 06, 2023The Biden administration says it has determined that both sides in the ongoing conflict in Sudan have committed atrocities in the western region of Darfur
December 06, 2023The United States on Wednesday formally determined that warring parties in Sudan committed war crimes, Secretary of
December 06, 2023The U.K. government has published legislation that will let it ignore a part of the country's human rights laws in order to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda
December 06, 2023Prosecutors say a man accused of fatally stabbing a tourist and injuring two other people over the weekend near the Eiffel Tower has been placed under investigation on charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist organization
December 06, 2023Officials say a massive fire has swept through a multi-story commercial building in Pakistan’s largest southern port city of Karachi, killing at least three people and damaging several shops
December 06, 2023As Senate Republicans blocked the advance of tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance for Ukraine, President Joe Biden berated their tactics as “stunning” and dangerous
December 06, 2023After launching a record-shattering global tour and becoming the world's most-
December 06, 2023At the multiplex, “Barbenheimer” ruled
December 06, 2023The Biden administration is sending a new $175 million package of military aid to Ukraine
December 06, 2023The federal government will propose to require drug and alcohol testing for employees of foreign aircraft-repair shops outside the United States
December 06, 2023Guyana's president has told The Associated Press that his country is taking every necessary step to protect itself from Venezuela, which has ordered its state-owned companies to explore and exploit oil and minerals in Guyana’s vast Essequibo region that it considers its own
December 06, 2023The British government has apologized to the families of 97 Liverpool soccer fans killed in a stadium crush 34 years ago
December 06, 2023The Justice Department says four Russian men accused of torturing an American during the invasion of Ukraine have been charged with war crimes in a first-of-its-kind case
December 06, 2023The United States has charged four Russia-affiliated soldiers with war crimes for their actions toward an American during the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
December 06, 2023The Biden administration announced new sanctions and indictments against Mexican nationals on Wednesday as it seeks to deepen cooperation with the Mexican
December 06, 2023A conglomerate of unions in Norway says it will take action against Tesla in solidarity with its Swedish colleagues
December 06, 2023Serbia's president says Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak will be getting a Serbian passport
December 06, 2023A new lower house of the Dutch parliament has been sworn
December 06, 2023Authorities say dengue fever is on the rise in Mali, posing a new threat to the West African nation struggling with extremist attacks and political turbulence
December 06, 2023The Bank of England says it will make an assessment next year about the risks posed by artificial intelligence and machine learning
December 06, 2023This year’s United Nations climate talks may have seen record numbers registered to attend, but activists who have spent years demonstrating at the annual event say their space to voice their demands is shrinking year on year
December 06, 2023The European Commission on Wednesday pledged to step up its fight against hate crimes throughout Europe, as ongoing military conflicts have been fuelling antisemitic and anti-
December 06, 2023A Dubai-based British hedge fund trader sought by Danish authorities for allegedly orchestrating a $1.7 billion tax fraud, considered one of the largest in the Scandinavian country, has been extradited from the United Arab Emirates
December 06, 2023On the brink of joining NATO, Sweden has signed a defense cooperation agreement with Washington that will allow the United States access to all of the military bases across the Scandinavian country, saying the deal would bolster regional security
December 06, 2023Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that his government was too slow to grasp the scale of the COVID-19 crisis
December 06, 2023The generative AI boom has sent governments worldwide scrambling to regulate the emerging technology
December 06, 2023Rescuers say a man has been pulled alive out of a Zambian mine nearly a week after dozens of informal miners were trapped under landslides caused by heavy rain
December 06, 2023There's an unprecedented deadlock at this year's COP28 U.N. climate summit over who will host next year's event.
December 06, 2023Iran says it sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years
December 06, 2023Shares have fallen in Asia after a retreat on Wall Street as crude oil prices slipped on expectations that supply might outpace demand
December 06, 2023China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that promoting healthy, stable and sustainable China-U.S. relations is an important task, in a phone call with U.S.
December 06, 2023Israeli troops say they are battling Hamas militants in the center of the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city, Khan Younis
December 06, 2023The center of Gaza’s second-largest city has seen fighting amid Israel’s widening air and ground offensive in the southern part of the territory that has displaced tens of thousands more Palestinians and worsened dire humanitarian conditions
December 06, 2023Western officials say sanctions against Russia’s billionaires are meant to isolate President Vladimir Putin, choke off support for his war and turn powerful business allies against him
December 06, 2023Oleksii Tilnenko hoped this would be the year Ukraine drove Russian forces out of swathes of occupied land.
December 06, 2023When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed “Russian oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers
December 06, 2023After a first-day blur of rare quick action and agreement, negotiators at a critical United Nations climate conference Wednesday are finishing up their first week in a more familiar place for them: the murky middle where momentum and roadblocks intertwine
December 06, 2023Washington’s center of gravity on immigration has shifted demonstrably to the right
December 06, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in a one-day lightning tour intended to raise Russia’s profile as a Middle East power broker, even as his war Ukraine grinds on
December 06, 2023China has intensified a crackdown on online scams operated in border areas of Myanmar
December 06, 2023The United States and Sweden on Tuesday signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement, the U.S.
December 06, 2023A rights group says the Taliban’s education policies are harming boys as well as girls in Afghanistan
December 06, 2023Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is asking the country’s state-owned companies to “immediately” begin to explore and exploit the oil, gas and mines in Guyana’s Essequibo region, a territory larger than Greece and rich in oil and minerals that Venezuela claims as its own
December 06, 2023Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hamas in an expanding offensive into southern Gaza on Wednesday, forcing tens of thousands of
December 06, 2023New testimony and evidence gathered by a rights groups indicate that Hamas militants carried out widespread sexual and gender-based crimes during their Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel
December 05, 2023Denny Laine, a British singer, songwriter and guitarist who performed in an early, pop-oriented version of the Moody Blues and was later Paul McCartney’s longtime sideman in the ex-Beatle’s solo band Wings, has died at age 79
December 05, 2023Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai says the world needs to recognize and confront the Taliban's “gender apartheid” against women and girls in Afghanistan
December 05, 2023President Joe Biden is calling reports of sexual violence by Hamas militants against Israelis “appalling."
December 05, 2023NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he sees football becoming a global sport within the next decade and that his league is at the forefront of that effort
December 05, 2023Peru’s constitutional court has ordered an immediate humanitarian release for imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori
December 05, 2023The United States on Tuesday said Israel needed to do more to allow fuel and other aid into Gaza as its offensive against Hamas in the
December 05, 2023The Biden administration says it's made a new and significant offer aimed at securing the release of American detainees Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, but Russia has rejected the offer
December 05, 2023House Speaker Mike Johnson tells fellow Republicans that sweeping changes to U.S. border policy will be their “hill to die on” in negotiations over President Joe Biden’s nearly $106 billion package for the wars in Ukraine and Israel and other security needs
December 05, 2023A former confidential informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has pleaded guilty to conspiring to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, whose killing in 2021 caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation
December 05, 2023In a rare punitive move against Israel, the State Department says it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
December 05, 2023Air Force Special Operations Command has recovered the remains of six of the eight service members who were lost when their Osprey aircraft crashed off the coast of Japan last week
December 05, 2023Jordan's King Abdullah said on Tuesday the world should condemn any attempt by Israel to create conditions that would forcibly displace Palestinians within the
December 05, 2023Greece’s health ministry is seeking police help against hoaxers who tried to scare foreign tourists out of several Athens short-term rental apartments by inventing a bedbug crisis
December 05, 2023Like the “Paddington” movies, “Wonka” was dreamt up by Paul King, a lifetime Roald Dahl fan and a writer and director whom his collaborators somewhat universally agree may actually be Paddington in a human costume
December 05, 2023The father of a young woman whose murder galvanized Italian outrage against violence targeting women implored men to be agents of change to a culture that often “undervalues the lives of women.”
December 05, 2023Greece’s Acropolis Museum has launched an exhibition that includes a renowned ancient Greek water jug from 420 B.C. on loan from the British Museum
December 05, 2023Norway’s government has made a deal with two large opposition parties to open the Arctic Ocean to seabed mineral exploration, despite warnings by environmental groups that it would threaten biodiversity
December 05, 2023Officials in Nigeria say at least 85 civilians were killed when a military drone mistakenly targeted a religious gathering in the country's northwest
December 05, 2023Israel expects difficult fighting in the new phase of its war in Gaza but is open to "constructive feedback" on reducing harm to civilians as long as the advice is consistent
December 05, 2023Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskiy and top aides to U.S.
December 05, 2023The Dutch government says it has allocated 2.5 billion euros to support Ukraine in 2024
December 05, 2023The conflict against Tesla in Sweden is spreading to neighboring Denmark
December 05, 2023European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson is warning that Europe faces “a huge risk of terrorist attacks” over the Christmas holiday period
December 05, 2023The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a one-day trip to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia focused on the Israeli-Hamas war and also host the Iranian president in Moscow this week
December 05, 2023The interior ministers of Britain and Rwanda have signed a treaty that aims to revive a plan to send asylum-seekers to the East African country that has been blocked by U.K. courts
December 05, 2023Aid groups and the United Nations say an estimated 400 Rohingya Muslims believed to be aboard two boats adrift in the Andaman Sea could die if more is not done to rescue them
December 05, 2023Israel says its troops have entered Gaza’s second-largest city as intensified bombardment sends streams of ambulances and cars racing to hospitals with wounded and dead Palestinians
December 05, 2023Iran's U.N. envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, said his country has not been involved in any actions or attacks against U.S. military forces, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on
December 05, 2023Asian shares have advanced after most stocks slipped on Wall Street following a mixed set of reports on the U.S. economy
December 05, 2023The U.N. weather agency is reporting that glaciers shrank more than ever from 2011 and 2020 and the Antarctic ice sheet lost 75 percent more compared to the previous ten years, as it released its latest stark report about the fallout on the planet from climate change
December 05, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the military would have to retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after the war against Hamas ends
December 05, 2023Prince Harry is challenging the British government's decision to strip him of his security detail after he gave up his status as a working member of the royal family and moved to the United States
December 05, 2023For Lebanon’s Christians, the cedars are sacred, these tough evergreen trees that survive the mountain’s harsh snowy winters
December 05, 2023After days of shaving off the edges of key warming issues, climate negotiators Tuesday are zeroing in on the tough job of dealing with the main cause of what’s overheating the planet: fossil fuels
December 05, 2023Shifting to renewable energy is a key issue at the ongoing COP28 climate summit
December 05, 2023Rescuers searching the hazardous slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi volcano found the last body of climbers who were caught by a surprise weekend eruption, raising the number of confirmed dead to 23
December 05, 2023A powerful storm has made landfall along India’s southeast coast, unleashing torrential rains and strong winds
December 05, 2023The head of Mexico’s immigration agency has ordered the suspension of migrant deportations and transfers due to a lack of funds
December 05, 2023Thousands of protesters have rallied against the New Zealand government’s Indigenous policies as the Parliament convened for the first time since October elections
December 05, 2023Israeli forces stormed the main city in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and hospitals struggled to cope with scores of Palestinian dead
December 05, 2023Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are set to hit a record high this year, exacerbating climate change and fuelling more destructive extreme
December 05, 2023A team of scientists reported that the world this year pumped 1.1% more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air than last year because of increased pollution from China and India
December 05, 2023The influence of fossil fuels was a focal point Monday at the United Nations annual climate conference known as COP28
December 04, 2023A Southwest Airlines passenger who was reportedly experiencing a mental health crisis departed the plane last Sunday using the emergency exit at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Staff members apprehended the 38-year-old guy after he jumped from the wing at about 8pm. The shocking event happened while Flight 1525 waited at the gate, just before it was supposed to take off for Atlanta. A passenger “utilized an emergency exit door to exit a plane,” according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, which prompted airport police to hurry to the scene. The guy appeared confused and lost when he was
December 04, 2023Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has the victory he was seeking in a weekend referendum on whether to claim sovereignty over an oil-rich area of neighboring Guyana
December 04, 2023Nigerian government and military officials say an army attack that used drones to target rebels instead killed an unspecified number of civilians gathered for a religious celebration
December 04, 2023The International Ice Hockey Federation is making neck guards mandatory for all levels of competition in the tournaments it runs
December 04, 2023The U.N. World Food Program says it will end in January its main assistance program across war-torn Syria, where over 12 million people lack regular access to sufficient food
December 04, 2023Britain’s polar research ship has crossed paths with the largest iceberg in the world
December 04, 2023The French parliament is considering a ban on single-use, disposable electronic cigarettes that are popular with teenagers for their sweet flavors and are under scrutiny as a new source of trash
December 04, 2023Yosi Shnaider watched a home video on his phone from his apartment near Tel Aviv. In the video, a smiling, red-headed baby sits in a bouncy chair.
December 04, 2023The Justice Department says a former American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been charged with serving as a covert agent for Cuba’s intelligence services since at least 1981
December 04, 2023(Refiles to reword headline for clarity to "aircraft" from "jet" earlier.)
December 04, 2023Former Vice President Al Gore says don’t trust the oil and gas industry to report their actual carbon pollution and he adds that the man running United Nations climate talks runs one of the dirtiest oil companies out there
December 04, 2023A Spanish association representing more than 80 newspapers has filed a lawsuit against Facebook parent Meta accusing it of unfair competition in online advertising by allegedly ignoring European Union rules on data protection
December 04, 2023The U.N. refugee agency has raised the alarm for an estimated 400 Rohingya Muslims believed to be aboard two boats reported to be out of supplies and adrift in the Andaman Sea
December 04, 2023Guinea-Bissau’s president has issued a decree dissolving the West African nation’s opposition-controlled parliament
December 04, 2023Spotify says it’s axing 17% of its global workforce in the music streaming service’s third round of layoffs this year
December 04, 2023Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address U.S. senators by video during a classified meeting Tuesday
December 04, 2023The U.S. Air Force says divers have discovered wreckage and the remains of five crew members from a U.S. Air Force Osprey aircraft that crashed last week off southwestern Japan
December 04, 2023Israel’s military has called for more evacuations in southern Gaza as it widens its offensive aimed at eliminating the territory’s Hamas rulers
December 04, 2023Israel’s military has renewed calls for mass evacuations from the southern town of Khan Younis, as it widened its ground offensive and bombarded targets across the Gaza Strip
December 04, 2023Hailed as a world first, European Union artificial intelligence rules are facing a make-or-break moment
December 04, 2023Sen. Bernie Sanders and a robust group of Democratic senators say they're done “asking nicely" for Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties in its war against Hamas in Gaza
December 04, 2023The Chinese military said that an American naval ship had “illegally intruded” on Monday into waters near the Second Thomas Shoal, the site of a hot territorial dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea
December 04, 2023Asian shares have declined in cautious trading ahead of some key reports this week on the U.S. job market that might provide insight into the Federal Reserve’s thinking about interest rates
December 04, 2023At least 1,300 employees of organizations representing fossil fuel interests registered to attend this year’s United Nations climate talks in Dubai
December 04, 2023Indonesian authorities have halted the search for 12 climbers after Mount Marapi volcano erupted again, sending a burst of hot ash as high as 2,620 feet
December 04, 2023Israeli ground forces were confronting Hamas fighters across the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Sunday in its clearest
December 04, 2023The United States condemned the "horrific terrorist attack" during a Catholic Mass at a university in southern Philippines that killed at least four people and injured dozens, the
December 04, 2023The Associated Press has learned that a former American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested in a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation and is accused of secretly serving as an agent of the Cuban government
December 03, 2023An independent watchdog says many Western arms companies failed to ramp up production in 2022 despite a strong increase in demand for weapons and military equipment
December 03, 2023Vice President Kamala Harris flew to the Middle East to tackle climate change and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two challenges that have flummoxed White Houses for decades
December 03, 2023Thousands of people have marched through the center of Brussels in a boisterous rally highlighting the dangers of climate change, as the COP28 climate summit draws to an end in the United Arab Emirates
December 03, 2023The shooting death of an Israeli man who raced to confront Palestinian attackers has raised questions about the use of excessive force among Israeli security forces and the public
December 03, 2023The U.S. military says three commercial ships in the Red Sea were struck by ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen, and a U.S. warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hourslong assault
December 03, 2023Climate advocate and former U.S.
December 03, 2023France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor says he has opened an investigation into the fatal stabbing of a German-Filipino tourist near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, allegedly by a man who had been under surveillance for suspected Islamic radicalization
December 03, 2023Ukrainian officials have launched an investigation into allegations that Russian forces killed surrendering Ukrainian soldiers, after grainy footage on social media appeared to show two uniformed men being shot at close range
December 03, 2023Officials say heavy snow in northern England stranded motorists in their cars overnight and knocked out power to more than 2,500 customers
December 03, 2023An ailing Pope Francis has skipped his popular window appearance to the public in St. Peter's Square for a second Sunday but said in televised remarks that he's doing better
December 03, 2023Kyiv officials accused Moscow of committing a war crime after a grainy video on social media appeared to show several soldiers shooting two surrendering military personnel who emerged from
December 03, 2023With Planet Earth running a fever, U.N. climate talks have turned their focus on contagious effects on human health
December 03, 2023Pope Francis said on Sunday that it was essential for all world religions to unite in opposing the "rapacious" devastation of the environment.
December 03, 2023Israel’s ground offensive expanded to every part of the Gaza Strip, its military said Sunday, as it ordered more evacuations and vowed to hit south Gaza with “no less strength” than the fight that has reduced large parts of north Gaza to a moonscape
December 03, 2023A powerful earthquake that shook the southern Philippines has killed at least one villager and injured several others as thousands scrambled out of their homes in panic and jammed roads to higher grounds after a tsunami warning was issued
December 03, 2023As participants at the United Nations’ COP28 climate talks filed in for another day of talks, they found themselves greeted by a rare sight in the United Arab Emirates — a protest
December 03, 2023A Hong Kong court has postponed a court hearing on troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande’s winding-up petition to Jan. 29
December 03, 2023Leftists in Chile were tortured, tossed from helicopters and forced to watch relatives be raped during the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet
December 03, 2023Venezuela's election authority says voters approved a referendum called by the government of President Nicolás Maduro to claim sovereignty over an oil- and mineral-rich piece of neighboring Guyana
December 03, 2023The Philippine president has blamed what he called “foreign terrorists” for a bomb blast that killed four people, wounded dozens of other Catholic worshippers in the south and sparked a security alarm, including in the capital, Manila, where state forces were put on alert
December 03, 2023Israeli forces bombed wide areas of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, as civilians in the besieged
December 02, 2023France's interior minister says police have arrested a man who targeted passersby in Paris, killing a German tourist with a knife and injuring two others
December 02, 2023Japanese authorities say they have handed over pieces of the wreckage from an U.S. Air Force Osprey that crashed off southwestern Japan to the U.S. military, as the search continued for seven missing servicemembers
December 02, 2023A third-party candidate has announced he is leaving Mexico’s 2024 presidential race, practically ensuring the the country's next president will be a woman
December 02, 2023Muslim community leaders from several swing states are pledging to withdraw support for U.S. President Joe Biden, citing his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza
December 02, 2023Vice President Kamala Harris has engaged in a quick round of diplomacy with Arab leaders while attending the U.N. climate summit in the United Arab Emirates
December 02, 2023Ukraine's service says former President Petro Poroshenko has been denied permission to leave the country because he was planning to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
December 02, 2023A 71-year-old Romanian yoga guru and 14 others have been handed preliminary charges by a Paris magistrate on a raft of counts linked to an international ring that for years allegedly subjected followers seeking enlightenment to sexual exploitation
December 02, 2023U.S.
December 02, 2023Israel will seek a "security envelope" with special zones and arrangements that will prevent Hamas from being positioned on its border after the war in Gaza is over, a senior
December 02, 2023An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 has struck off the coast of the southern Philippines island of Mindanao
December 02, 2023Italian officials have secured the shorter of two 12th century towers in Bologna, fearing that its leaning could lead to collapse
December 02, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that France was "very concerned" by the resumption of violence in Gaza and that he was heading to Qatar to help "engage a new truce
December 02, 2023Unlike the fast-moving interpreters of samba, salsa and other Latin American dancing styles, Japanese traditional dancers move slowly, performing just a few moves that their bodies keep fully controlled
December 02, 2023Police and local authorities in Zambia say seven miners have been confirmed dead and more than 20 others are missing, presumed dead, after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine
December 02, 2023The first aid trucks since the collapse of the Gaza truce have entered through the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on Saturday, on their way to Awja crossing for inspection
December 02, 2023The United States is now committed to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit
December 02, 2023Russian security forces have raided gay clubs and bars across Moscow less than 48 hours after the country’s top court banned what it called the “global LGBTQ+ movement” as an extremist organization
December 02, 2023The Biden administration on Saturday unveiled final rules aimed at cracking down on U.S. oil and gas industry releases of methane, part of a global
December 02, 2023Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has welcomed the U.N. Security Council vote to lift an arms embargo imposed on the Horn of Africa nation more than 30 years ago
December 02, 2023Israel is pounding targets in southern Gaza and ordering more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, as the United States urges it to do more to protect civilians
December 02, 2023The United States will announce a $3 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund, sources familiar with matter said on Saturday.
December 02, 2023Henry Kissinger's legacy in the Mideast is the pursuit of what's possible, not necessarily peace, in one of the world's most intractable conflicts
December 02, 2023Nicaraguan police say they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government
December 02, 2023Dressed up in colorful, multilayered skirts, a group of 20 Indigenous Bolivian women have been climbing the Andes peaks for the past eight years, working as guides for tourists
December 02, 2023Leaders of developing nations launched into the second-day of a U.N. climate summit to press rich industrialized countries to share their knowhow to fight global warming and ease the financial burdens they face
December 02, 2023North Korea said it would respond to any U.S. interference in space by eliminating viability of U.S. spy satellites, state media KCNA reported on Saturday, citing a statement from
December 02, 2023The U.S. is expanding its high-tech military cooperation with Australia and the United Kingdom to include underwater drones and electronic warfare
December 02, 2023Cristiano Ronaldo walked off the field with the gleeful chants of “Messi
December 02, 2023The United Nations Security Council has voted to end its political mission of a few hundred people dedicated to ending the civil war in Sudan
December 01, 2023A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas must move a floating barrier on the Rio Grande that drew backlash from Mexico
December 01, 2023Friday was a day for speechmaking at the United Nations annual climate conference known as COP28, as heads of state each gave short speeches to deliver their views on the planet’s climate crisis, what their nation is doing and what they think others should do
December 01, 2023A protester is in critical condition after setting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta
December 01, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the Mideast this week looking to press for agreements to extend the Gaza cease-fire, step up the release of hostages held by Hamas and limit Palestinian civilian casualties if fighting with Israel resumed
December 01, 2023The United States is working on a plan with Israel to minimize harm to civilians in any military operation in southern Gaza, a senior U.S. official said on Friday as
December 01, 2023The White House said on Friday it believed Israel will allow humanitarian aid trucks to enter Gaza after a lull due to resumed fighting between Israel and Hamas militants, but
December 01, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to increase the number of troops by nearly 170,000 to a total of 1.32 million
December 01, 2023Israel and Hamas have resumed fighting after a weeklong cease-fire, and Israel says 136 hostages remain in Gaza
December 01, 2023South Korea has launched its first military spy satellite, a little over a week after rival North Korea claimed to put its own spy satellite into orbit for the first time
December 01, 2023Britain's King Charles III has caused some raised eyebrows by wearing a tie adorned with a pattern of Greek flags to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai
December 01, 2023Here are reactions to the death of retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the U.S.
December 01, 2023Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has attacked several Israeli army posts along the border
December 01, 2023The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should continue to function for another year as frequent holdout Russia joined others on Friday in approving Malta as
December 01, 2023Five Republican senators led by Marco Rubio on Friday asked President Joe Biden's administration to ban travel between the United States and China after a spike in Chinese
December 01, 2023The governing body of gymnastics in Europe voted against allowing Russian and Belarusian gymnasts to return to international competitions, calling into question how they could qualify for next year’s Olympics
December 01, 2023Gregorian Bivolaru was known by his followers as “Grieg” and their guide through tantra yoga toward enlightenment and a higher state of consciousness
December 01, 2023Matthew M
December 01, 2023The Russian government has named the renowned director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg to also lead Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre
December 01, 2023Dozens of young Israeli men and women who survived the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre at a rave party in southern Israel have been taking part in support sessions to help deal with their trauma at a retreat in Cyprus
December 01, 2023A former Associated Press correspondent who spent four decades covering the Cold War and the fall of communism has died at age 85
December 01, 2023An attorney for former Haitian rebel leader Guy Philippe says he is being held by Haitian authorities at a police station a day after the U.S. repatriated him to Haiti
December 01, 2023Ukrainian media are reporting that the country's spy agency staged two successive train explosions on a railroad line in Siberia that serves as a key conduit for trade between Russia and China
December 01, 2023Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has a poster hanging on a wall of his office in Tel Aviv, in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on
December 01, 2023Billionaire vacuum cleaner tycoon James Dyson has lost a libel lawsuit against the Daily Mirror
December 01, 2023The New York Times is reporting that Israel knew about Hamas battle plans to attack southern Israel over a year before the Oct_ 7 operation took place, but dismissed them as “aspirational.”
December 01, 2023The warm ties India and the United States have built are being tested after US prosecutors accused an Indian official of orchestrating an alleged assassination plot in New York City
December 01, 2023Vice President Kamala Harris will face two delicate tasks when she attends a climate summit this weekend in Dubai
December 01, 2023Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has delivered a blunt message to Western leaders and declared at an international security conference that his government was not prepared to “review its goals” in Ukraine
December 01, 2023Henry Kissinger is being remembered positively in China as an envoy who was willing to overlook ideological differences at the height of the Cold War and long after
December 01, 2023Gunfire in Guinea-Bissau’s capital erupted late Thursday night and continued through Friday morning in what local media reported as clashes between security forces
December 01, 2023Indicted Republican George Santos' brief career in the U.S.
December 01, 2023Russia is working on the assumption that sanctions against it by the United States and its allies will last for many years, but that U.S. influence on the world economy is waning,
December 01, 2023The U.N. top court has ordered Venezuela not to take any action that would alter Guyana’s control over a disputed territory, but did not specifically ban Venezuela from holding its planned referendum Sunday on the territory’s future
December 01, 2023Several sources have named Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as the crew member killed during an Osprey aircraft crash in southwestern Japan
December 01, 2023The Israeli army said on Friday that with the resumption of fighting it had published a map to advise Gazans of safe areas for their evacuation.
December 01, 2023The Philippine coast guard has opened a new monitoring base on a remote island occupied by Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea as Manila ramps up efforts to counter China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the strategic waterway
December 01, 2023Stocks gained ground on Wall Street as the market comes off its best month in more than a year
December 01, 2023Nearly two months after Hamas infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages, dozens of people are still unaccounted for
December 01, 2023Dozens of world leaders said they know the planet’s dangerously overheating and they are trying to keep it from getting worse
December 01, 2023The annual U.N. climate talks are nearly two weeks of delegates meeting
December 01, 2023Health officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people after fighting in the Gaza Strip resumed
December 01, 2023Israel’s war with Hamas resumed after a weeklong truce expired, with each side blaming the other for the resurgence of hostilities
December 01, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the war with Russia is in a new stage, with winter expected to complicate fighting after a summer counteroffensive that failed to produce desired results due to enduring shortages of weapons and ground forces
December 01, 2023Thousands of detainees swept up in El Salvador's gang crackdown over the past 1 1/2 years have been released from pre-trial detention
December 01, 2023A Kichwa tribal leader has been shot to death in an area of the Peruvian rainforest that’s seen high tension between Indigenous people and illegal loggers
December 01, 2023A Kichwa tribal leader has been shot to death in an area of the Peruvian rainforest that’s seen high tension between Indigenous people and illegal loggers
December 01, 2023Israel's military said it had resumed combat against Hamas in Gaza on Friday after accusing the Palestinian militant
December 01, 2023A major offensive against Myanmar's military-run government by an alliance of three militias of ethnic minorities has been moving at lightning speed, inspiring resistance forces around the country to attack
December 01, 2023The Israeli military has released 30 more Palestinian prisoners after eight more Israeli hostages were freed from captivity in the Gaza Strip under the temporary cease-fire
December 01, 2023The House has passed a measure that would permanently freeze the $6 billion recently transferred by the U.S. in a prisoner swap with Iran
November 30, 2023Law enforcement authorities say in court papers that the plot driven by a government official in India to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York City was meant to precede another killing in California and more assassinations in the U.S. and Canada
November 30, 2023When police officers arrived at Melinda Bettencourt’s door one morning last fall, she instantly feared the worst before they even spoke. Her youngest daughter, Amanda Bews, had battled addiction and homelessness for years after developing a painful nerve condition. With Amanda estranged and struggling on the streets, news from law enforcement felt ominous from the start. Bettencourt’s dread proved tragically founded: Bews had been arrested in Los Angeles County days earlier and died in custody at age 29. But neither the officers nor officials in the ensuing weeks offered Bettencourt answers about what happened. And what she eventually saw for
November 30, 2023A new study says that about half of Nicaragua's population of 6.2 million want to leave their homeland because of a mix of economic decline and repression from President Daniel Ortega's government
November 30, 2023President Joe Biden is hosting Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço in the Oval Office as he seeks to reaffirm his commitment to Africa
November 30, 2023The final member in a migrant smuggling ring that was responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese immigrants who suffocated in a shipping container in 2019 has been sentenced by a London judge to seven years in prison
November 30, 2023City lawmakers in Brazil passed what appears to be the nation’s first legislation written entirely by artificial intelligence — even if they didn’t know it at the time
November 30, 2023The U.S. has charged an Indian national in what prosecutors allege was a failed plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official
November 30, 2023Kosovo’s government has postponed a deadline by two weeks for ethnic Serbs living in the country to register their vehicles with Kosovo license plates instead of Serbian ones
November 30, 2023The annual meeting of members of the global chemical weapons watchdog has called on countries to prevent the sale or transfer to Syria of raw materials and equipment that could be used to create poison gas and nerve agents
November 30, 2023Notorious coup leader Guy Philippe has returned to Haiti after the U.S. government repatriated him
November 30, 2023An Iranian news website says a popular rapper has been sent back to jail less that two weeks after his release from prison on bail
November 30, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging Israeli leaders to respect international law as Israel wages its war against Hamas in Gaza
November 30, 2023British ex-Treasury chief Alistair Darling has died at age 70
November 30, 2023Indicted U.S.
November 30, 2023The world wants more nuclear energy as a means to fight climate change and supply an ever-growing demand for electricity, part of a generational shift in thinking on atomic power
November 30, 2023Almost three years after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan's interview with Oprah Winfrey sent shockwaves through the British monarchy, their most sensational claim
November 30, 2023Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has faced Western critics while attending international security talks in Northern Macedonia
November 30, 2023The pressure to phase out fossil fuels is mounting on the oil company chief who is leading fragile international climate negotiations in what some say are contradictory dual roles
November 30, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Thursday.
November 30, 2023Researchers in South Africa say they have rediscovered a mole species that has an iridescent golden coat and the ability to “swim” through sand dunes after it hadn't been seen for more than 80 years and was thought to be extinct
November 30, 2023Russia’s Supreme Court has effectively outlawed LGBTQ+ activism, in the most drastic step against advocates of gay, lesbian and transgender rights in the increasingly conservative country
November 30, 2023Four migrants have died yards from shore in southern Spain after being forced out of the boat they were traveling in
November 30, 2023The U.N. weather agency says 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future
November 30, 2023Dozens of South Korean dog farmers have scuffled with police during a rally near the presidential office to protest a recent push by authorities to outlaw dog meat consumption
November 30, 2023Ukrainian officials say Russian missiles tore through apartment buildings in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region during the night
November 30, 2023Europeans are again seeing some relief as inflation dropped to 2.4% in November, the lowest in more than two years
November 30, 2023China's President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials have sent messages of condolence to U.S.
November 30, 2023In the depths of captivity in Gaza, they formed an unlikely but prized friendship
November 30, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed his condolences over the death of former U.S.
November 30, 2023Elton John has urged British lawmakers to do more to fight HIV and AIDS
November 30, 2023Asian shares have slipped after Wall Street closed out its best month of the year with big gains in November
November 30, 2023Somalia’s maritime police force has intensified patrols in the Gulf of Aden following a failed pirate hijacking of a ship earlier this week
November 30, 2023Mediators are scrambling to extend an Israel-Hamas truce set to expire just after daybreak Friday
November 30, 2023A temporary cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war has been extended another day
November 30, 2023The Middle East plays host to its second straight U.N. climate conference over the next two weeks, with countries hoping to agree on new ways to keep the planet from catastrophic heating by the end of the century
November 30, 2023Taiwan again reported Chinese warplanes and warships around the island on Thursday, including aircraft crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing keeps up
November 30, 2023Until the bitter end, Henry Kissinger was one of the trusted few in the tight circle of a distrusting President Richard Nixon
November 30, 2023The OPEC oil cartel and allied producers have made another big swipe at propping up lagging crude prices
November 30, 2023The death on Wednesday of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has drawn admiration and scorn from political leaders around the world, highlighting the complicated legacy of Kissinger’s views about what it meant to serve America’s interests during the Cold War — and how the country should exert its influence
November 30, 2023Two suspects in the kidnapping of the parents of Liverpool soccer player Luis Díaz were ordered sent to prison by a judge, according to Colombia’s Prosecutor’s Office, which accused one of the men of being the link to a person close to the family who provided information about the victims
November 30, 2023Singapore and Zurich tied for the world's most expensive city this year, followed by Geneva, New York and Hong Kong, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said on Thursday as it
November 30, 2023Japan has suspended flights of its Osprey aircraft after a U.S. Air Force Osprey based in Japan crashed into the sea during a training mission
November 30, 2023Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died, his consulting firm says
November 30, 2023Japan said it has asked the U.S. to suspend all non-emergency V-22 Osprey flights over its territory after one fell into the sea on Wednesday in western Japan,
November 30, 2023The alliance with the United States has allowed South Korea to build a strong democracy with citizens confident Washington would protect them if North Korea ever acted on its dream of unifying the peninsula under its own rule
November 30, 2023Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement on Thursday to extend their ceasefire for a seventh day, while
November 30, 2023China's leadership is too "overwhelmed" with its internal problems to consider an invasion of Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen said in an interview with the New York Times.
November 30, 2023A man protesting against the Chinese government during the recent Asia-Pacific economic summit in San Francisco says he was attacked by supporters of the Chinese ruling party and is urging local police to take action
November 30, 2023National security adviser Jake Sullivan has told lawmakers that the White House is not seeking to place conditions on U.S. military assistance to Israel
November 29, 2023The United States is urging Israel to narrow the zone of combat and clarify where Palestinian civilians can seek safety during any Israeli operation in southern
November 29, 2023New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Thursday his country would seek to strengthen engagement with the United States on strategic and security
November 29, 2023Republican demands to stop the flow of migrants at the Mexico-U.S. border have left Congress scrambling
November 29, 2023(Note strong language in paragraphs 1 and 9-11) Billionaire Elon Musk told advertisers that have fled his social media platform X over antisemitic content to "Go fuck
November 29, 2023An Indiana county judge has dismissed a state lawsuit filed against TikTok that had accused the app of deceiving its users about the level of inappropriate content for children on its platform and the security of consumers’ personal information
November 29, 2023Panama’s Supreme Court unanimously declared that legislation granting a Canadian copper mine a 20-year concession was unconstitutional
November 29, 2023U.S. budget wrangling could further delay funding approval for new agreements with Pacific island nations meant to counter Chinese
November 29, 2023Vice President Kamala Harris will join the United States delegation at the upcoming United Nations conference on climate change in Dubai
November 29, 2023Families of American hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are describing their anguish and calling on the U.S. and Israeli governments to do all they can to bring home their loved ones home
November 29, 2023A South African company will make vaginal rings that protect against HIV, which AIDS experts say should eventually make them cheaper and more readily available
November 29, 2023A group of residents have sued a public utility company in the U.S. Virgin Islands after authorities there reported finding high levels of lead and copper in the tap water on St. Croix
November 29, 2023Stay and enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime show
November 29, 2023Canada’s government says it has reached a deal with Google for the company to contribute $100 million Canadian dollars annually to the country’s news industry
November 29, 2023Poland’s new parliament has reinstated government funding for in vitro fertilization, previously banned by the conservative party which lost control of the legislature in the country's recent general election
November 29, 2023Top diplomats from more than 50 countries have arrived in North Macedonia for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
November 29, 2023China has presented the United Nations Security Council with a four-point plan for Middle East peace in a demonstration of its ambitions to be a global superpower
November 29, 2023France said on Wednesday that the European Union should consider sanctions on Israeli settlers who have targeted Palestinians in the West Bank as an option and that
November 29, 2023The U.S. military says a U.S. Navy warship sailing near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait shot down a drone launched from Yemen
November 29, 2023A British foster child who killed the woman caring for him when he ran over her with her car has been sentenced to two years in custody
November 29, 2023United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said the Gaza Strip was in the midst of an "epic humanitarian catastrophe", urging the
November 29, 2023Ukraine's foreign minister insists that NATO allies are showing no sign of war fatigue and remain committed to helping his country defend itself against Russia
November 29, 2023An Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist, who is also a U.S. citizen, on U.S.
November 29, 2023An 85-year-old Israeli woman abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 and set free two weeks later said she met its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar while in captivity and asked him how he was not ashamed for
November 29, 2023Tighter water restrictions for drought-stricken northeast Spain have gone in effect as authorities in Catalonia say that Barcelona may need to have fresh water shipped in by boat in the coming months
November 29, 2023Congregants of an Anglican church in a sparsely populated rainforest village in Guyana are asking for peace for their community amid what they see as an existential threat
November 29, 2023Elton John has addressed Britain’s Parliament at an event honoring his dedication to fighting HIV in the U.K. and beyond
November 29, 2023(In first paragraph, corrects day to Wednesday from Tuesday. In paragraph 7, corrects reference to Blinken visiting Jordan this week to say he will visit the West Bank.)
November 29, 2023It has become an Israeli mantra throughout the latest war in Gaza: Hamas is ISIS
November 29, 2023British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has escalated his war of words with the leader of Greece
November 29, 2023Sri Lanka says it has reached an agreement in principle with a group of creditors including India and Japan on debt restructuring
November 29, 2023A gay couple in Nepal on Wednesday became the first in the nation to receive official same-sex marriage status
November 29, 2023Israeli women and children on their return from Hamas captivity in Gaza speak of being beaten and threatened with death, moved from place to place and forced to
November 29, 2023Mali’s military government has announced an investigation into the Tuareg rebel leaders who signed a peace agreement in 2015 and now accuse the government of failing to comply with it
November 29, 2023The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's annual foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday has split member
November 29, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration would like to see a new extension of the cease-fire agreement in Israel’s war with Hamas after the current one expires
November 29, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that there was "no sense of fatigue" among NATO allies when it came to helping Ukraine.
November 29, 2023Former U.S. marine Paul Whelan has been attacked by another inmate in a Russian prison while serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges, Russia's prison service
November 29, 2023The United Nations' rights office says at least 40 civilians were killed last weekend by al-Qaida-linked rebels trying to take control of a besieged town in Burkina Faso’s hard-hit northern region
November 29, 2023The Emirati president-designate for the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks has forcefully denied a report alleging his nation planned to use the summit to strike oil and gas deals, a day before the summit was due to begin
November 29, 2023Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday welcomed a pause in the Gaza war and the exchange of hostages and prisoners between Israel and militant group Hamas as a temporary "
November 29, 2023The global economy, which has proved surprisingly resilient this year, is expected to falter next year under the strain of wars, still-elevated inflation and continued high interest rates
November 29, 2023Sweden’s economy shrank in the third quarter of 2023 to mark the second time of contraction and signal that a recession may have hit the country
November 29, 2023Russia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it had received a lot of requests for one-on-one meetings with Sergei Lavrov, Moscow's top diplomat, on the sidelines of an OSCE meeting
November 29, 2023Toyota is selling a part of its stake in components maker Denso to raise cash for its drive toward electric vehicles and other innovations
November 29, 2023The Vatican says Pope Francis is stable but is still having trouble breathing as a result of a lung inflammation that forced him to cancel a weekend trip to Dubai
November 29, 2023Hamas and Israel have completed another exchange of hostages and prisoners on the sixth day of a temporary cease-fire in the war in Gaza
November 29, 2023India has set up a committee to look into security concerns raised by the United States, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
November 29, 2023Israel and Hamas agreed to extend a temporary truce by another day minutes before it was set to expire, said Qatar, which has been mediating between the two sides
November 29, 2023The Japanese coast guard says a U.S. Air Force Osprey based in Japan crashed during a training mission off of the country’s southern coast, killing at least one of the eight crew members
November 29, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher ahead of the release of U.S. consumer inflation data
November 29, 2023New Zealand’s new prime minister plans to ban cellphone use in schools and repeal tobacco controls in the agenda for his first three months in office
November 29, 2023A Hong Kong court has started hearing the final arguments of some of the city’s best-known pro-democracy activists tried under a law imposed by China’s ruling Communist Party to crush dissent
November 29, 2023Experts say the world is heading for considerably less warming than projected a decade ago, but that good news is overwhelmed by much more pain from current climate change than scientists anticipated
November 29, 2023A frigate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet launched an attack with four cruise missiles on Ukraine's military infrastructure, Russia's defence ministry said early on Wednesday.
November 29, 2023Pollution is causing respiratory illnesses and deaths to rise in Indonesia's island of Java, including the capital, Jakarta
November 29, 2023Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's teenage son, who was shown beating a prisoner in custody this year, has been named as an observer in a new battalion that is part of Russia's defence
November 29, 2023Survivors of the harmful morning sickness drug thalidomide were in the public gallery when Australia’s Parliament made a national apology for what was described as one of the darkest chapters in Australia’s medical history
November 29, 2023It’s her, hi — Taylor Swift is Spotify’s 2023 most-played artist
November 29, 2023If the United States expects to win the next arms race then Washington is mistaken, a senior Russian diplomat said in remarks published on Wednesday, adding that a military conflict
November 29, 2023Russia's Internal Affairs ministry is preparing a bill that would oblige foreigners entering the country to sign a "loyalty agreement" that would bar them from discrediting official
November 29, 2023Officials say that hundreds of stray cats that roam a historic seaside tourist area of Puerto Rico’s capital will be removed over the coming year
November 28, 2023Negotiations between Israel and Hamas to extend the Gaza truce were overshadowed at the last minute on Wednesday by an
November 28, 2023Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries support the further extension of the current pause in fighting in Gaza and future pauses to increase
November 28, 2023Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei met Tuesday with senior Biden administration officials at the White House
November 28, 2023Matteo Garrone's migration odyssey “Io Capitano” played at the Marrakech International Film Festival this weekend, returning to the country where pivotal scenes were shot
November 28, 2023Pope Francis has canceled his trip to Dubai for the U.N. climate conference on doctors’ orders
November 28, 2023Indian rescuers faced repeated and unexpected setbacks during the 17 days they dug through a mountain in the country's north to reach 41 construction workers trapped after a tunnel collapsed there earlier this month
November 28, 2023Britain and Greece were able to differ for decades over the world’s toughest cultural heritage dispute
November 28, 2023Veteran Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas was honored with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the 54th International Film Festival of India
November 28, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as an existential battle against purported attempts by the West to destroy Russia, a ranting speech ahead of a presidential election campaign
November 28, 2023A British government-ordered inquiry says it found serious failings at hospitals where an electrician who was later convicted of murder was able to have sex with more than 100 corpses over 15 years without being detected
November 28, 2023The war in Gaza is highlighting the latest advances in artificial intelligence as a way to spread fake images and disinformation
November 28, 2023President Vladimir Putin, whose picture was shown between two giant images of an ancient Orthodox icon on Tuesday, warned the West ahead of elections in March
November 28, 2023French authorities have arrested the leader of a multinational tantric yoga organization on suspicion of indoctrinating female followers for sexual exploitation
November 28, 2023A spokesperson for Ukraine's spy agency says the wife of Ukraine's intelligence chief has been diagnosed with heavy metals poisoning
November 28, 2023Pope Francis has decided to take measures to punish Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is one of his highest-ranking critics
November 28, 2023The attacks on Sierra Leone’s main military barracks and prisons are a failed coup attempt and have resulted in the arrest of 13 military officers, the government’s spokesman said Tuesday
November 28, 2023Finland says it will close its last remaining border crossing with Russia amid concerns that Moscow is using migrants as part of “hybrid warfare” to destabilize the Nordic country following its entry into NATO
November 28, 2023Hunter Biden has offered to testify publicly before Congress, striking a defiant note in response to a subpoena from Republicans
November 28, 2023Panama's Supreme Court has unanimously declared a 20-year concession for a Canadian copper mine that had sparked weeks of protests as unconstitutional
November 28, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Hungary’s capital next month
November 28, 2023The foreign ministers of the three Baltic states and of Ukraine say they will boycott a meeting by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe being held this week in North Macedonia
November 28, 2023Kfir Bibas has spent nearly a fifth of his life as a Hamas hostage
November 28, 2023Ten-month-old Kfir Bibas has spent more than 50 days of his young life in captivity in Gaza and, according to Israel, has been handed over by Hamas to another
November 28, 2023A German-Israeli singer who claimed he had been turned away from a hotel in the eastern German city of Leipzig because he was wearing a Star of David pendant has admitted during a defamation trial against him that he made up the story
November 28, 2023Latvia's foreign minister is staking a claim to the top job at NATO
November 28, 2023A group tracking antisemitism in Germany says that it has documented a drastic increase of antisemitic incidents in the country in the month after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7
November 28, 2023Greek officials say they will continue talks with the British Museum on bringing the Parthenon Marbles back to Athens
November 28, 2023France's government plans to ban smoking on all beaches, in public parks, forests and some other public areas
November 28, 2023The Kenyan High Court has struck out key clauses of a contentious finance law that has been blamed for significantly raising taxes and the cost of living in East Africa’s largest economy
November 28, 2023Tornadoes have been forecast for the Black Sea region after a storm left more than 2 million people without electricity in Crimea, Russia and Ukraine
November 28, 2023Dubai is preparing to host the COP28 climate talks as world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis have signaled they will not be attending the negotiations
November 28, 2023The U.S. is asking Israel to take greater care to protect civilians and limit damage to infrastructure if it launches an offensive in
November 28, 2023The Biden administration has told Israel it must operate with far greater precision in southern Gaza if it renews a ground campaign aimed at eradicating the Hamas militant group
November 28, 2023Elon Musk, on a visit to Israel after being assailed for an anti-Jewish post on his social media site X, received a symbolic dog-tag from the father of an Israeli taken captive by Hamas in
November 28, 2023The latest swap of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel started with the release of 10 Israeli hostages — nine women and a 17-year-old girl — as well as two Thais handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza
November 28, 2023Hamas has freed 12 hostages and Israel has released 30 Palestinian prisoners on the fifth day of a fragile cease-fire in the Gaza war
November 28, 2023South Korea says it has postponed the planned launch of its first military spy satellite set for this Thursday
November 28, 2023Forty-one construction workers have been rescued from a collapsed tunnel in northern India where they had been stranded the last 17 days
November 28, 2023A mine operator says an elevator suddenly dropped about 650 feet while carrying workers to the surface in South Africa, killing 11 and injuring 75
November 28, 2023Russian media say a court in Moscow has extended the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, until Jan. 30
November 28, 2023Asian shares are mixed after a strong report on U.S. consumer confidence and hopes the Federal Reserve is finished with its aggressive interest rate hikes sent shares higher on Wall Street
November 28, 2023SenseTime, a major Chinese artificial intelligence company known for its facial recognition technology, has rejected claims by a research company that it has inflated its revenue
November 28, 2023Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh has been chosen to host the 2030 World Expo following its bid focusing on how to shape a prosperous and sustainable future
November 28, 2023An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas has said in an interview that she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and captives became hungry
November 28, 2023Worries about future water supplies from ancient aquifers are bubbling up in western rural Arizona
November 28, 2023German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed that his government will work “as fast as possible” to solve a budget crisis
November 28, 2023Relatives and a friend of Israelis kidnapped and killed by Hamas are visiting Australia this week and sharing personal stories in an effort to lobby for international support for all hostages to be freed — and to support Israel’s war effort
November 28, 2023Country singer Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” tops Apple Music’s global song chart in 2023
November 28, 2023Oakland’s City Council has passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war after hours of hearing impassioned rhetoric about the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza
November 28, 2023A year ago, Li Houchen was on the streets of Shanghai, hollering “Freedom!”
November 28, 2023Hamas has freed 12 more hostages, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday, the fifth day
November 27, 2023Argentine President-elect Javier Milei is getting a meeting with a top Biden aide
November 27, 2023A diplomatic spat has erupted between Greece and Britain after the U.K. canceled a planned meeting between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis
November 27, 2023Mexico is celebrating national conservation day
November 27, 2023Kenya's government is urging people living in flood-prone areas to relocate to higher ground as heavy rains and flash floods continued to wreak havoc across East Africa
November 27, 2023The Pentagon says the five armed assailants captured by U.S. forces after seizing a commercial ship near Yemen over the weekend were likely Somali and not Iranian-backed Houthi rebels
November 27, 2023A documentary about Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass that depicts how four generations of women in her family were shaped by exile has premiered before an emotional audience in Marrakech
November 27, 2023Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says he plans to travel to NATO member North Macedonia later this week to attend a conference of a top trans-Atlantic security and rights group, a trip that would mark his first visit to a NATO country since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine
November 27, 2023The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office is halting its long-running investigation into deadly violence that followed Kenya’s 2007 presidential election
November 27, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return this week to the Middle East as the U.S. hopes to find a way to extend a cease-fire in Gaza and get more hostages released
November 27, 2023The mayor of future Olympic host city Paris says she is quitting X
November 27, 2023Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Monday announced she was quitting the X platform formerly known as Twitter, calling it a "gigantic global sewer" that was "destroying our democracies" by
November 27, 2023The hostage deal had seemed on the verge of unraveling
November 27, 2023A Sumatran rhino has given birth to a male calf in Indonesia, a welcome addition to a critically endangered species that numbers fewer than 50 animals
November 27, 2023Elon Musk has visited Israel, where he toured a kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants
November 27, 2023An Israeli hostage who was freed as part of a temporary truce in the Gaza Strip had previously mounted a brief escape from his Hamas captors after the building
November 27, 2023Labor unions have staged a day of protests and strikes across the Czech Republic to voice their opposition to the government’s package of cuts and austerity measures meant to keep the ballooning deficit under control
November 27, 2023The Vatican says Pope Francis is receiving antibiotics intravenously to treat a lung inflammation but that he doesn't have pneumonia
November 27, 2023A powerful weekend storm in the Black Sea region toppled trees, tore down power lines and caused coastal flooding, and government officials and media reports said more than half a million people were without power in southern Russia and Ukraine
November 27, 2023A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas has been extended for two more days
November 27, 2023The top Palestinian diplomat has made a plea during a meeting of European Union members and Arab nations for a definitive end to Israel’s retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip
November 27, 2023Rescuers in India have started digging manually in hopes of reaching 41 construction workers who have been trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel in the country’s north for over two weeks
November 27, 2023Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend their cease-fire for two more days past Monday
November 27, 2023Six teenagers go on trial in Paris for their alleged role in the beheading of a teacher who showed caricatures of the prophet of Islam to his class
November 27, 2023Sierra Leone’s president says most of the leaders of weekend attacks on the nation’s main military barracks and prisons have been arrested, but the capital remains tense
November 27, 2023A new front has emerged in Israel's fight against the funding of Iran-backed militant groups from Hamas to Hezbollah: A fast-growing crypto
November 27, 2023Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk lent support on Monday to Israel's campaign against Hamas, saying one challenge was stopping propaganda of a sort that led to the
November 27, 2023An international watchdog is urging the United Nations Security Council to consider all options to protect civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region
November 27, 2023South Korea says North Korea is restoring front-line guard posts that it had dismantled during a previous period of inter-Korean rapprochement
November 27, 2023Increasing numbers of ships are streaming toward Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and heading out loaded with grain, metals and other cargo despite the threat of attack and explosive mines
November 27, 2023Earth's climate is in trouble, and the signs could be seen around the world this summer
November 27, 2023Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”
November 27, 2023Shares are mixed in Asia after Wall Street benchmarks edged lower as investors looked ahead to updates on inflation and how American consumers are feeling about the economy
November 27, 2023A senior Egyptian official said on Monday that Egypt and Qatar were close to securing a deal to extend a truce between Israeli and Hamas
November 27, 2023Christopher Luxon has been sworn in as New Zealand’s prime minister and says his priority is to improve the economy
November 27, 2023Details about the conditions of the released hostages' captivity in Gaza are emerging through stories their family members are telling
November 26, 2023Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says his country wants a meeting of Mediterranean officials this week to help bridge a gap between Arab and European countries in calling for a humanitarian pause in Gaza to become a permanent cease-fire
November 26, 2023President Joe Biden has spoken by telephone with family of the 4-year-old girl who was released as part of the cease-fire deal in the Israel-Hamas war
November 26, 2023Russia's interior ministry has added the spokesman of U.S. technology company Meta to a wanted list according to its online database
November 26, 2023Elon Musk, the tech entrepreneur accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his X social media platform, will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
November 26, 2023Israel’s Foreign Ministry says it will summon the Irish ambassador over a tweet celebrating the release of a 9-year-old girl from Hamas captivity
November 26, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday met with security forces inside the Gaza Strip, his office said.
November 26, 2023Tens of thousands of people including former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson have gathered in London for a march against antisemitism
November 26, 2023A lawyer for the Italian man extradited from Germany for the kidnapping and slaying and his former girlfriend says he hasn't yet had the opportunity to speak with his client about the “merits” of the case that has gripped Italy
November 26, 2023Egypt received lists of 13 Israelis and 39 Palestinians scheduled for release on Sunday, the third batch in the four-day truce deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar, Diaa Rashwan, the
November 26, 2023A 4-year-old American girl captured after seeing her parents slain by Hamas fighters who stormed southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 was among 17
November 26, 2023Armed assailants seized and later let go a tanker linked to Israel off the coast of Yemen before being apprehended by the United States Navy
November 26, 2023Irish writer Paul Lynch has won the Booker Prize for fiction with his dystopian novel “Prophet Song.”
November 26, 2023China’s health ministry says a surge in respiratory illnesses across the country that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus
November 26, 2023Heavy snowfall and strong blizzards in Romania and Moldova have left one person dead and hundreds of localities without electricity as well as forcing the closure of some national roads
November 26, 2023More than 2,000 people have danced, sang and cheered in a gay pride parade in India’s capital, while also raising their concerns over India’s restrictive laws
November 26, 2023Russian authorities say that Ukraine tried to attack Moscow with dozens of drones
November 26, 2023Sierra Leone’s president has declared a nationwide curfew after gunmen attacked the West African country's main military barracks in the capital and then broke into detention centers and abducted or freed the occupants
November 26, 2023Health officials say Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank killed at least eight Palestinians, including at least one militant, in a 24-hour period
November 26, 2023The fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is back on track as the militant group freed 17 more hostages
November 26, 2023The top diplomats from South Korea, Japan and China have agreed to revive cooperation among the Asian neighbors and resume their leaders’ trilateral summit
November 26, 2023Antisemitism is spiking across Europe after Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre and Israel's bombardment of Gaza, worrying Jews from London to Geneva and Berlin
November 26, 2023Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals arrived in Israel on Sunday in the second release of hostages from Hamas captivity in
November 26, 2023A cautious calm has prevailed over the border area in south Lebanon
November 25, 2023News reports in India say that at least four students have died and 60 others have been injured in a stampede during a music festival at a university in southern India
November 25, 2023The British Antarctic Survey says that one of the world’s largest icebergs is drifting beyond Antarctic waters after being grounded for more than three decades
November 25, 2023Israeli media on Saturday quoted an unnamed security source as saying that unless hostages are released by midnight, the military will resume its offensive in Gaza, after Hamas
November 25, 2023Russia threatened retaliation against Finland after its Nordic neighbor joined NATO earlier this year
November 25, 2023Tens of thousands of people have turned out on central London’s streets Saturday for a pro-Palestinian march calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza
November 25, 2023Palestinian officials say militants in a northern West Bank refugee camp have shot and killed two suspected collaborators with Israel
November 25, 2023The energy used by cars and their CO2 emissions could have dropped by over 30% in the past decade if not for the world’s growing taste for SUVs, a new report from the Global Fuel Economy Initiative suggests
November 25, 2023President Joe Biden’s nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other needs is sitting idle in Congress
November 25, 2023Released with her mother and little sister after almost 50 days in captivity in Gaza, four-year-old Raz Asher sits in her father's arms on a hospital bed in Israel.
November 25, 2023Syrian opposition activists say government forces shelled a northwestern village killing at least 10 people, including seven children
November 25, 2023Egypt has received a list from Palestinian militant group Hamas of 14 hostages to be released on Saturday, security sources said.
November 25, 2023Pakistani police say a blaze has killed at least 10 people in a shopping mall
November 25, 2023Ukrainian military officials say Russia has launched its most intense drone attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion last year
November 25, 2023Officials say they have stopped digging to rescue 41 construction workers who have been trapped for nearly two weeks in a collapsed tunnel in northern India after the drilling machine broke down
November 25, 2023A container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire has come under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean as Israel wages war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip
November 25, 2023Hamas militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, from captivity in the Gaza Strip, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage of a four-day cease-fire that has delivered a brief respite from a devastating war between the two enemies
November 25, 2023Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd, has been stabbed in federal prison and was seriously injured, the Associated Press said, citing
November 25, 2023Hamas handed over 13 Israeli hostages and four foreigners to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Saturday night, Qatar's
November 24, 2023Academics in Mexico City are asking for donations to protect axolotls, an iconic fish-like type of salamander
November 24, 2023More than three dozen Palestinian prisoners have returned home to a hero’s welcome in the occupied West Bank following their release from Israeli prisons as part of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas
November 24, 2023Hamas freed 10 Thai nationals who were seized in the group’s surprise attack on southern Israel last month
November 24, 2023In the decade since Oscar Pistorius pulled the trigger four times on his 9mm pistol, firing into the head and body of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp as she stood inside a locked toilet cubicle in his home, the vital question has still never been answered: Did the world-famous Olympic runner know he was shooting at and killing his girlfriend that Valentine’s Day in 2013
November 24, 2023Russia’s Justice Ministry has added President Vladimir Putin’s first prime minister who later became an opponent to its register of “foreign agents.”
November 24, 2023The U.S. embassy in Lebanon on Friday said there had been 12 hours of calm along the Blue Line marking the border with Israel, where daily exchanges of fire had been taking place
November 24, 2023Ahead of international climate talks, U_N_ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited globally-important Antarctica, where ice that’s been frozen for millions of years is melting due to human-caused climate change, sending the message that “we absolutely need to act immediately.”
November 24, 2023A Russian lawmaker and staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin has denied media allegations that he adopted a 2-year-old girl who was seized from a Ukrainian children’s home and changed her name
November 24, 2023The two people killed when their car crashed into a border checkpoint in Niagara Falls have been identified as a western New York couple whose family owns a lumber business and several hardware stores
November 24, 2023The U.S. government has thanked Mexico for arresting a hyper violent, alleged Sinaloa cartel security chief this week
November 24, 2023German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised quick action to fix a budget crisis after a court decision blew a large hole in the almost-finished plan for next year
November 24, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin says that he will endorse a national strategy for the development of artificial intelligence
November 24, 2023Ringo Starr’s latest project is for fans of music and of fashion
November 24, 2023Activists wearing masks depicting President Emmanuel Macron have urged France to change its position and endorse a law proposed by the European Union that would define rape as sex without consent in the bloc’s 27 countries
November 24, 2023The cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas will bring relief to dozens whose relatives are being held captive
November 24, 2023A future Palestinian state could be demilitarised and have a temporary international security presence to provide guarantees to both it and to Israel, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
November 24, 2023The World Health Organization said it has confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in Congo for the first time as the country experiences its biggest-ever outbreak
November 24, 2023The first Israeli women and children to go free from Gaza on Friday under a truce with their Hamas captors will be flown home under military guard, with measures
November 24, 2023Russian officials say Ukraine has launched one of its biggest drone attacks on the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula since the full-scale war began
November 24, 2023The process of forming a new government for the Netherlands after a far-right party's election victory is underway
November 24, 2023European security officials are seeing a growing risk of attacks by Islamists radicalised by the Israel-Hamas war, with
November 24, 2023Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to update its factory in northeast England to make electric versions of its two best-selling cars
November 24, 2023Ireland’s prime minister has condemned anti-immigrant protesters who rampaged through central Dublin after three young children were stabbed, saying the rioters simply wanted to cause chaos, not protect the country’s way of life
November 24, 2023The Marrakech International Film Festival began on Friday, bringing American and international movie stars to the Arab world as war in the Middle East has led to the cancellation of other film festivals
November 24, 2023The shelves at Moscow supermarkets are full of fruit and vegetables, cheese and meat
November 24, 2023Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, announced on Friday that he had decided to withdraw from the race to be Taiwan's next president.
November 24, 2023A four-day cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza on Friday with an exchange of hostages and prisoners
November 24, 2023Anger has erupted in Italy over the slaying of a college student allegedly by an ex-boyfriend who resented her success and wouldn't accept their breakup
November 24, 2023In a series of moves experts say signal a shift in how developing countries deal with pharmaceuticals, South Africa, Colombia and others have recently adopted a more combative approach towards drugmakers, pushing back on policies that deny treatment to millions of people with tuberculosis and HIV
November 24, 2023Stocks drifted to a mixed finish after a half-day trading session capped a holiday shortened week that left the major indexes with their fourth straight winning week
November 24, 2023On the first day of a four-day Gaza cease-fire agreement, Hamas released 24 hostages abducted by militants from southern Israel seven weeks ago
November 24, 2023The Afghan Embassy says it is permanently closing in New Delhi over challenges from the Indian government and a lack of diplomatic support
November 24, 2023Taiwan's two main opposition parties on Friday named their vice presidential candidates after talks about running a joint ticket to take on the ruling party failed.
November 24, 2023Thousands of people led by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel have marched along Havana’s iconic boardwalk in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demanding an end to the war between Israel and Hamas
November 24, 2023Hamas fighters released 24 hostages on Friday during the first day of the war's first truce, the Red Cross said, including
November 24, 2023Double-amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius has been granted parole more than a decade after shooting his girlfriend through a toilet door at his home in South Africa in a killing that jolted the world
November 24, 2023Tens of thousands of Cubans on Thursday marched in front of the U.S. embassy in Havana charging Israel was committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
November 23, 2023Nicaragua’s increasingly isolated and repressive government thought it had scored a rare public relations victory last week when Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios won the Miss Universe competition
November 23, 2023Right-wing populist Javier Milei has been president-elect just four days and already Argentina’s unions and social organizations are vowing pushback and even protests if he makes good on his promises to slash the size of the state and privatize companies
November 23, 2023Authorities in several West African countries are trying to manage their huge diphtheria outbreaks
November 23, 2023A crane operator has played down tributes paid to him after he lifted a man to safety from a burning high-rise building in England
November 23, 2023A French army general involved in the preparations says France’s military is planning to contribute 15,000 soldiers to the massive security operation for next year’s Paris Olympics
November 23, 2023The FBI has ended its investigation of a fiery car wreck that killed two people at a border checkpoint in Niagara Falls after finding no evidence that it was a terror attack
November 23, 2023An inexperienced politician and heir to a fortune built on the banana trade has been sworn in as Ecuador’s president
November 23, 2023Former President Donald Trump has told Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei that he plans to travel to the South American country so the two can meet
November 23, 2023U.S. police said on Thursday they were still investigating a fiery crash on the bridge linking New York state and Ontario on Wednesday, which sparked a security scare that closed four U.S.
November 23, 2023Violent clashes have broken out in central Dublin after a 5-year-old girl was seriously injured in a knife attack that also saw a woman and two other young children hospitalized
November 23, 2023U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing heavy pressure from his own Conservatives to take swift action to bring down migration as new data showed net migration numbers were higher than previously thought
November 23, 2023Rose Rostom, Nahida Mashouz and Ammar Hajeh have had their lives uprooted many times - by Palestinian militants, Syrian warplanes, Islamic State, Western-backed
November 23, 2023German police have arrested two men following raids targeting organized migrant-smuggling in the country's capital and the northern state of Lower Saxony
November 23, 2023A Russia-dominated security grouping has held a summit in Belarus with the absence of one of its members, Armenia, which has been irked by what it sees as a lack of support over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
November 23, 2023Geert Wilders provided a major boost to Europe's far-right populists with his election win in the Netherlands
November 23, 2023A truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will start on Friday at 7 a.m., with a the first batch of hostages to be released at 4 p.m., a spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry said
November 23, 2023U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is visiting Antarctica just before the COP28 climate talks begin in Dubai
November 23, 2023Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape
November 23, 2023Venice authorities have rolled out a pilot program to charge day-trippers 5 euros ($5.45) apiece to enter the fragile lagoon city on peak weekends next year
November 23, 2023The European Union’s border agency says that it will send dozens of officers and equipment as reinforcements to Finland to help police its borders amid suspicion that Russia is behind an influx of migrants arriving to the country
November 23, 2023Hungary is set to receive 900 million euros ($981 million) in European Union money despite the Hungarian prime minister's attempts to scupper the bloc's support for Ukraine
November 23, 2023The militant Hezbollah group has fired more than 50 rockets at military posts in northern Israel
November 23, 2023Greece’s main left-wing opposition party, Syriza, has suffered a damaging setback as nine lawmakers quit the party in protest against its newly elected leadership
November 23, 2023Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina is on course for reelection in a vote boycotted by most opposition candidates
November 23, 2023Turkey’s central bank has delivered another huge interest rate hike as it tries to curb double-digit inflation that has left households struggling to afford food and other basic goods
November 23, 2023A Kyiv official says a Russian attack using cluster munitions has killed three people in a suburb of Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson
November 23, 2023Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday with heightened security measures in place and tensions running high over the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza,
November 23, 2023Riot police have used batons and tear gas to halt tens of thousands of supporters of Nepal’s former king who attempted to march to the center of the capital to demand the restoration of the monarchy
November 23, 2023New laws rushed through Australia’s Parliament last week to mandate curfews and electronic tracking bracelets on some foreigners with criminal records are facing their first High Court challenge
November 23, 2023The World Health Organization says it has made an official request to China for information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children
November 23, 2023He’s been called the Dutch Donald Trump
November 23, 2023South Korea's spy agency has told lawmakers that Russian support likely enabled North Korea to put a spy satellite into orbit for the first time this week
November 23, 2023The party of an anti-Islam, anti-migration politician is heading for a massive parliamentary election victory in the Netherlands
November 23, 2023Hundreds of police officers are searching the properties of Hamas members and followers in Germany with the majority of the raids taking place in Berlin
November 23, 2023Shares are mixed in Europe and Asia after a modest advance on Wall Street that kept the market on track for a fourth straight weekly gain
November 23, 2023A countrywide billboard campaign that flooded the streets of Hungary this week takes aim at the head of the European Union’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen
November 23, 2023A four-day cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will begin Friday morning, a day later than originally planned
November 23, 2023Australian authorities say dozens of residents have been evacuated and at least 10 homes have been destroyed by a wildfire that's burning out of control during heat wave spring conditions on the northern fringe of the west coast city of Perth
November 23, 2023In Zimbabwe, rains are finally bringing relief to its second-largest national park
November 23, 2023The oil and gas sector, one of the major emitters of planet-warming gases, will need a rapid and substantial overhaul for the world to avoid even worse extremes fueled by human-caused climate change
November 23, 2023North Korea received assistance from Russia for its successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite this week, South Korean lawmakers said on Thursday, citing the country's
November 23, 2023First, some families fled drought and violence
November 23, 2023Officials say the rescue of 41 construction workers who have been trapped for nearly two weeks in a collapsed tunnel in northern India ran into another delay during what was described as the final phase of digging to reach them
November 23, 2023The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday officially requested that China provide detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in
November 23, 2023Israeli military officials have shown a group of international journalists a small living quarters they found in a tunnel underneath Shifa Hospital, claiming that the space had been used by Hamas militants
November 23, 2023The release of hostages under a temporary truce between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants will not happen before Friday, Israel's
November 23, 2023Negotiations to free the hostages held by Hamas hardly ran smoothly
November 23, 2023Peruvian scientists say Peru has lost more than half of its glacier surface in the last six decades due to climate change
November 22, 2023He’s been called the Dutch Donald Trump
November 22, 2023Since Hamas fighters carried out the deadliest attack on Israel in decades, Israeli officials have vowed to crush the Palestinian militant group and its enigmatic leader in Gaza
November 22, 2023U.S.
November 22, 2023The Israeli army showed a reinforced tunnel beside Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Wednesday, complete with a bathroom, kitchen and an air conditioned meeting room that
November 22, 2023International aid groups that have lined up thousands of aid trucks for Gaza say they’re ready to move quickly to send in food, water and other supplies if a pause in the fighting between Hamas and Israel takes hold
November 22, 2023Lawyers for a once-powerful cardinal have accused Vatican prosecutors of being “prisoners to their completely shattered theory" in closing arguments of a trial that has raised fundamental questions about the rule of law in the city state
November 22, 2023Police swinging batons at panicking soccer fans. Children weeping in their mothers' arms between the stadium's stands.
November 22, 2023The Student Academy Awards may not be as glitzy or high profile as the Oscars, but in its 50 years it has proven to be a vital launching ground for emerging filmmakers
November 22, 2023Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and “Scream” star Melissa Barrera were each dropped by Hollywood companies after making comments on the Israel-Hamas war that some deemed antisemitic
November 22, 2023Less than two years after nearly being killed by a Russian bomb while reporting, Fox News' Benjamin Hall returned to Ukraine this week
November 22, 2023Finnish border guards and soldiers have begun erecting barriers including concrete obstacles topped with barbed-wire at some crossing points on the Nordic country’s lengthy border with Russia
November 22, 2023Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has urged NATO to further boost its military forces in Kosovo and secure the country’s borders with Serbia
November 22, 2023The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran’s decision in September to bar several experienced U_N_ inspectors from monitoring its disputed nuclear program is constituting “a very serious blow” to the agency’s ability to do its job “to the best possible level."
November 22, 2023Russia's parliament has approved a federal budget that increases spending by around 25% in 2024-2026 and devotes a record amount to defense
November 22, 2023President Joe Biden declared an emergency over lead-in-water contamination in the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this week after tests on St. Croix revealed levels more than 100 times the limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency – among the worst results a U.S. community has seen in decades
November 22, 2023King Charles III honored the K-pop band Blackpink
November 22, 2023Exhausted by weeks of worry and vigils, Gilad Korngold drew just a measure of comfort from the foreign-mediated deal between Israel and Hamas to
November 22, 2023Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will start a four-day truce on Friday morning with the first batch of Israeli hostages released later that day, mediators in Qatar said.
November 22, 2023Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged leaders of the world's 20 big economies on Wednesday to do whatever necessary to ensure the Israel-Hamas
November 22, 2023Poland’s new parliament has begun debating the reinstatement of government funding for in vitro fertilization
November 22, 2023Israel ordered people out of swathes of Gaza's main southern city on Monday as it pressed its ground campaign deep into the south of the enclave, sending desperate residents fleeing, after
November 22, 2023Arab foreign ministers welcomed an agreement for a temporary truce between Israel and Gaza militant group Hamas on Wednesday but said it should be extended and become a first step
November 22, 2023Germany will extradite an Italian man suspected in the killing of a 22-year-old woman to Italy
November 22, 2023An Indian foreign ministry official says that India has restored electronic visa services for Canadian nationals two months after Canada alleged the South Asian nation was involved in the assassination of a Sikh separatist in Canada
November 22, 2023Pope Francis has met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war and set off a firestorm by using words that Vatican diplomats usually avoid: “Terrorism” and according to the Palestinians “genocide.”
November 22, 2023Computer chip and software maker Broadcom says it has cleared all regulatory hurdles and plans to complete its $69 billion acquisition of cloud technology company VMware on Wednesday
November 22, 2023Israel’s national security adviser says cease-fire talks with the Hamas militant group are ongoing, and a hostage release will not take place before Friday
November 22, 2023A cease-fire to facilitate the release of dozens of people taken hostage during Hamas’ raid on Israel is expected to bring the first respite to war-weary Palestinians in Gaza and a glimmer of hope to the families of the captives
November 22, 2023A Malaysian minister said organizers of a Coldplay concert are able to stop Wednesday's show if the British rock band misbehaves
November 22, 2023Shares are mostly lower in Asia after a modest advance on Wall Street that kept the market on track for a fourth straight weekly gain
November 22, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser says a planned hostage-for-prisoner swap with Hamas has been delayed until at least Friday
November 22, 2023The United States and the Philippines are conducting joint air and maritime patrols in the South China Sea, which come as the two countries step up cooperation in the face of growingly aggressive Chinese activity in the area
November 22, 2023The ousted leader of ChatGPT maker OpenAI is returning to the company that fired him just days ago
November 22, 2023No fewer than 26 political parties are seeking a share of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament in the Netherlands' general election Wednesday
November 22, 2023The far-right and anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders is heading for a massive parliamentary election victory
November 22, 2023Britain’s Conservative government has sought to regain the political initiative with a series of tax cuts for businesses and individuals that it hopes will boost its chances in a national election next year that opinion polls suggest it will lose
November 22, 2023South Korea says North Korea has fired a ballistic missile toward the sea but the launch likely failed
November 22, 2023Holiday travelers are starting their final sprint
November 22, 2023Close to half of the U.S. public thinks the country is spending too much on aid to Ukraine
November 22, 2023Argentina's populist President-elect Javier Milei lacks a group of well-known political advisers but has surrounded himself with a group of women who are set to be influential players in his administration
November 22, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday welcomed the deal to secure the release of hostages taken by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas during the attack on Israel.
November 22, 2023Hamas said on Wednesday it agreed with Israel to a four-day ceasefire that will see the release of hostages in Gaza in exchange
November 22, 2023A fund to compensate developing nations for the impacts of climate change was the supposed big breakthrough at last year's United Nations-led climate talks in Egypt
November 22, 2023The Israeli government voted on Wednesday to back a deal to release some of roughly 240 Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza in exchange for a multi-day truce and the freeing
November 22, 2023A report by Human Rights Watch says the Chinese government has expanded its campaign of closing mosques to regions other than Xinjiang, where for years it has been blamed for persecuting Muslim minorities
November 22, 2023In an ambitious global experiment, scientists are unleashing millions of engineered mosquitoes carrying virus-blocking bacteria upon dense urban landscapes as an ecological solution to infectious diseases transmitted by the insects’ bites. Initial trials suppressing dengue spread by up to 80 percent bolster hopes of harnessing evolution to vanquish humankind’s most lethal animal foe, responsible for nearly a million annual deaths. But realizing lasting impacts across continents presents daunting financial and logistical hurdles. At dedicated factories in Colombia, technicians mass-produce Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia parasite, which largely prevents transmission of viruses like dengue. The ambitious aim: completely replace
November 21, 2023The release of hostages under a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas militants will not happen before Friday, Israel's national security
November 21, 2023Russia has clashed with the International Olympic Committee on the floor of the United Nations before 118 member states voted to adopt a traditional truce around the Paris Summer Games next year
November 21, 2023Four out of five people in Mexico who got influenza shots so far this year turned down the government's recommendation they get Russian or Cuban COVID-19 boosters at the same time
November 21, 2023The exchange rate is top of mind for millions of Argentines coping with triple-digit inflation
November 21, 2023Donald Trump has long praised a particular type of foreign leader — men he describes as tough and strong, even if they're accused of chipping away at democracy
November 21, 2023The White House says it's very concerned that Iran may provide ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine
November 21, 2023President Joe Biden promised to visit Africa this year, but 2023 is drawing to a close with no trip in sight so far
November 21, 2023Palestinian health officials in Gaza say they have lost the ability to count the dead because of the collapse of the enclave's health system and the difficulty of retrieving bodies from areas overrun by Israeli tanks and troops
November 21, 2023Prince Harry plans to appeal to the British government to release evidence that is key to his phone hacking lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail
November 21, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday said a deal is "very close" to free some of the more than 200 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
November 21, 2023A group of 27 U.S. lawmakers, all Democrats, wrote to X owner Elon Musk on Tuesday to express concern the platform seemed to be profiting from premium accounts
November 21, 2023The websites of two government ministries in Bahrain have briefly became inaccessible after a cyberattack took them down, purportedly over the island kingdom’s stance on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war
November 21, 2023Transgender women will not be allowed to compete in international women’s cricket
November 21, 2023The U.K.'s chief medical adviser has told a public inquiry that Britain’s government was too late in taking action against the coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020
November 21, 2023King Charles III has hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife at a glittering banquet at Buckingham Palace, as Britain rolled out the red carpet for a formal state visit aimed at strengthening trade and defense ties between the two countries
November 21, 2023Britain’s top court has ruled that riders for one of the country’s biggest meal delivery companies don’t have collective bargaining rights because they aren’t employees
November 21, 2023Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler will sell off a collection of guitars he considers “old friends” at a Christie’s auction in London next year
November 21, 2023A Beirut-based pan-Arab TV channel says an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed two of its journalists who were covering the violence along the Lebanon-Israel border
November 21, 2023Using fake names, sham LinkedIn profiles, counterfeit work papers and mock interview scripts, North Korean IT workers seeking employment in Western tech companies
November 21, 2023South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has accused Israel of war crimes and genocide in Gaza during a virtual meeting of leaders of developing countries including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping
November 21, 2023German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is vowing to keep supporting Ukraine’s efforts to win its war against Russia, pledging further military aid worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion)
November 21, 2023Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev accused France on Tuesday of creating conditions for a new war in the South Caucasus by supplying arms to Armenia.
November 21, 2023Israel’s Cabinet has approved a cease-fire agreement with the Hamas militant group that would bring a temporary halt to a devastating war that has continued for more than six weeks
November 21, 2023Russia is waiting for the outcome of an investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines before making any request for compensation, the RIA state news agency cited a
November 21, 2023A newly formed group made up of senior officials from several Muslim countries will visit the United Nations Security Council's five permanent members and others to urge an
November 21, 2023Joint maritime and air patrols in the South China Sea between the Philippines and the United States military were launched on Tuesday, Philippine
November 21, 2023A majority of South African lawmakers have voted in favor of a motion calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy and the cutting of diplomatic ties until Israel agrees to a cease-fire in Gaza
November 21, 2023Qatar has announced a truce-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas that would bring a four-day halt in fighting in a devastating six-week war
November 21, 2023Shares are mostly lower in Asia after Wall Street’s rally ran out of momentum
November 21, 2023France, backed by the United States, plans to seek a halt to private financing for coal-based
November 21, 2023The 41 construction workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for over a week are finally getting hot meals, provided through a newly installed steel pipe, as rescuers work on an alternate plan of digging toward them vertically
November 21, 2023The eruption of Papua New Guinea’s tallest volcano is subsiding but thick ash still billowed into the sky and coated roofs and palm trees nearby
November 21, 2023Ten years ago, Ukrainians took to the streets to protest a decision by their Moscow-friendly president to move the country away from the European Union and toward Russia
November 21, 2023With the annual U.N.-led climate summit known as COP to convene later this month in Dubai, activists are urging policymakers to respond to climate change’s disproportionate impact on women and girls
November 21, 2023North Korea says it has put a military spy satellite into orbit on its third attempt
November 21, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on
November 21, 2023The deaths of two people, muggings and a dangerous heat wave left legions of Taylor Swift's Brazilian fans angry and disappointed in the three-day Rio de Janeiro leg of the pop superstar’s Eras Tour
November 20, 2023Argentina’s president-elect has given the first signals of how he plans to shake up South America’s second-largest economy
November 20, 2023In a disturbing video, a young American boy wanders through ISIS territory wearing a suicide vest. This chilling footage launched journalist Josh Baker on an investigation that revealed the boy’s identity and his family’s harrowing path into the terrorist group’s inner circle. It became a journey that exposed difficult truths about coercion versus complicity in one mother’s story. Investigative reporter Josh Baker first encountered the video through an anonymous contact in 2019. Alarmed by the sight of a child outfitted for a suicide bombing, Baker traveled from London to the boy’s aunt in Indiana. She identified him as 10-year-old Matthew
November 20, 2023Deadly strikes hit the Gaza home of a news photographer days after an Israeli media advocacy group questioned his coverage of Hamas' Oct. 7, prompting death threats against him on social
November 20, 2023Nearly a month ago, the Israeli military unveiled a detailed 3D model of Gaza’s Shifa Hospital
November 20, 2023In a controversial ruling, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider the appeal of an Illinois inmate who has been kept in isolation and denied outside recreation for nearly three years. The court’s brief order rejecting the case gave no rationale, as is customary. But three dissenting liberal justices penned a forceful rebuttal, decrying the appalling mistreatment suffered by inmate Michael Johnson. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, described the harrowing conditions imposed on Johnson at Pontiac Correctional Center. “Throughout that period, Johnson spent almost every hour of his life in a cell
November 20, 2023North Korea said it successfully placed its first spy satellite in orbit on Tuesday and vowed to launch more in the near future, defying
November 20, 2023Oscar Pistorius will have a second chance at parole at a hearing on Friday after he was wrongly ruled ineligible for early release from prison in March
November 20, 2023In a move that may soon be replicated elsewhere, the Gila River Indian Community recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over a stretch of irrigation canal on their land south of Phoenix
November 20, 2023A new United Nations report calculates that the globe is speeding to 2.5 to 2.9 degrees Celsius (4.5 to 5.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming since pre-industrial times, set to blow well past the agreed upon international climate threshold
November 20, 2023While most Mexican politicians refrain from clarifying where they stand on religion, abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, former telenovela actor and right-wing activist Eduardo Verástegui prays on TikTok and claims that getting closer to God changed the course of his life
November 20, 2023A former chief scientific adviser says Boris Johnson struggled as British prime minister to come to grips with much of the science during the coronavirus pandemic
November 20, 2023Sotheby’s is set to auction off six shirts worn by Lionel Messi during Argentina’s winning run at last year’s soccer World Cup in Qatar
November 20, 2023Russia has placed a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on its wanted list
November 20, 2023A cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is suspected of killing more than 150 people and infecting more than 8,000
November 20, 2023British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the U.K. is setting up a new science initiative to help develop flood-tolerant rice, disease-resistant wheat and other crops that are more resilient to climate change
November 20, 2023Almost 1,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar have arrived by boat in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh in the last six days
November 20, 2023A top World Health Organization official described the hospital situation in Gaza as ‘catastrophic’ on Monday, saying most are no longer functioning and what remains will likely be overwhelmed by thousands of births expected in the next month
November 20, 2023Relatives of some of the 240 people held by Hamas in Gaza urged far-right Israeli lawmakers on Monday not to pursue proposed capital punishment for captured
November 20, 2023Albanian opposition lawmakers have disrupted the Parliament’s session again to protest what they say is increasingly authoritarian rule by the governing Socialists
November 20, 2023The Kremlin said on Monday it had taken note of statements about Russia from Argentina's President-elect Javier Milei, but wanted to maintain strong ties with Buenos Aires.
November 20, 2023The company that created ChatGPT is in turmoil after Microsoft hired its ousted CEO and many more employees threatened to follow him in a conflict that centered in part oin part on how to build artificial intelligence that’s smarter than humans
November 20, 2023China’s top diplomat welcomed four Arab foreign ministers and the Indonesian one to Beijing, saying his country would work with “our brothers and sisters” in the Arab and Islamic world to try to end the war in Gaza as soon as possible
November 20, 2023Hong Kong Disneyland has opened its first Frozen-themed attraction, with thousands of eager visitors turning up to experience the new rides
November 20, 2023The operator of Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant says the release of a third batch of treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean has ended safely as planned
November 20, 2023U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made an unannounced visit to Ukraine, traveling to Kyiv by train from Poland
November 20, 2023Australia's prime minister has criticized China for what he calls a “dangerous” encounter between Chinese and Australian warships but declined to say whether he raised the issue with President Xi Jinping
November 20, 2023Israeli tanks surrounded a hospital in north Gaza and at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by firing into the
November 20, 2023U.S.
November 20, 2023Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants around a hospital in northern Gaza where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks
November 20, 2023His legions of fans call him “the madman” and “the wig” due to his ferocity and unruly mop of hair
November 20, 2023Pop star Shakira has agreed to a deal with Spanish authorities on the first day of a tax fraud trial in Barcelona, avoiding the risk of a prison sentence
November 20, 2023An Italian tribunal has convicted 207 people and sentenced them to a combined 2,100 years in prison on charges related to their membership in Italy’s ’ndrangheta organized crime syndicate
November 20, 2023Rescuers blocked from reaching 41 workers trapped by a highway tunnel collapse are shifting to an attempt to reach them vertically
November 20, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher after a rally on Wall Street led by gains in Microsoft after it announced it was hiring Sam Altman, former CEO of OpenAI, the ChatGPT maker
November 20, 2023What many deemed impossible just months ago is reality: Right-wing populist Javier Milei resoundingly won Argentina’s presidency
November 20, 2023South African abalone, a curious fist-sized sea snail, is a highly prized morsel in East Asia and the unwitting instigator of 30 years of trouble for fishing communities along Africa’s southern coast
November 20, 2023Kyle Vogt has resigned as CEO of Cruise, General Motors' autonomous vehicle unit
November 20, 2023South Korea’s military has warned North Korea not to go ahead with its planned spy satellite launch
November 20, 2023Lai Ching-te, the frontrunner for Taiwan's presidency, named on Monday Taipei's former envoy to the United States as his running mate in January's election.
November 20, 2023Rights group Afghan Witness says online abuse and hate speech targeting politically active Afghan women significantly increased since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021
November 20, 2023Germany's Bayer has aborted a large late-stage trial testing a new anti-clotting drug due to lack of efficacy, dealing a fresh blow to the embattled drugmaker and throwing
November 20, 2023The head of a prominent media institution in Gaza and two other journalists were killed during the weekend in Israel's offensive in the territory, their relatives said on Sunday, adding to
November 19, 2023Notable quotes from former first lady Rosalynn Carter
November 19, 2023Rosalynn Carter drew the nickname “Steel Magnolia” when she arrived in Washington as first lady
November 19, 2023French performers from different religious and ethnic backgrounds have led thousands of people on a silent march through Paris to call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and unity in France
November 19, 2023Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has died at the age of 96
November 19, 2023Comedian Russell Brand has been interviewed by British police over three alleged sexual offenses
November 19, 2023A faded, cracked felt hat worn by Napoléon Bonaparte sold for $2.1 million at an auction Sunday of the French emperor’s belongings
November 19, 2023In the first two weeks of November, fires fueled by unusually dry and hot weather destroyed nearly 770,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) of the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands
November 19, 2023An orphaned Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Russia last year during the war in his country returned home on his 18th birthday
November 19, 2023Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized an Israeli-linked ship in a crucial Red Sea shipping route and taken the 25-member crew hostage
November 19, 2023Miss Nicaragua, Sheynnis Palacios, has won the Miss Universe competition in El Salvador, the first to wear the crown from her country
November 19, 2023Ambulance crews of the Palestinian Red Crescent evacuated 31 premature babies from Shifa Hospital on Sunday in coordination with the World Health Organization and the United Nations
November 19, 2023President Joe Biden and Congress are facing some unusually public challenges over their support for Israel’s offensive against Hamas
November 19, 2023Russian drones targeted the Ukrainian capital Sunday as the British Defense Ministry said there were “few immediate prospects” for change along the Ukrainian front line as the war enters its second winter
November 19, 2023Australia has won the Cricket World Cup for a record-extending sixth time
November 19, 2023Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr_ says the situation for his nation in the South China Sea “has become more dire.”
November 19, 2023The World Health Organization says 31 premature babies in “extremely critical condition” have been evacuated from Gaza’s largest hospital and will be transferred to Egypt for specialized care
November 19, 2023Officials trying to save 41 workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for eight days are contemplating alternative rescue plans after snags with a drilling machine caused them to halt digging
November 19, 2023Thousands of families are lining up for free handouts at food banks across the Netherlands
November 19, 2023Right-wing populist Javier Milei will become the next president of Argentina after promising a dramatic shake-up to the state in a fiercely polarized election campaign held amid deep discontent over soaring inflation and rising poverty
November 19, 2023Pope Francis is hosting a special lunch for more than 1,000 poor people to mark the Catholic Church's World Day of the Poor
November 19, 2023Israel and Hamas have not yet reached a deal on a temporary ceasefire, a White House spokesperson said on Saturday night.
November 19, 2023Israel prepared on Sunday to expand its offensive against Hamas militants to southern Gaza after air strikes killed
November 19, 2023President Joe Biden says that achieving a cease-fire amid Israel’s war with Hamas “is not peace” and that an important key to lasting stability is a reunited Gaza Strip and West Bank that can be governed under “a revitalized Palestinian Authority.”
November 18, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following the Israel-Hamas war.
November 18, 2023A California man’s family is pleading for his release after they say he was wrongfully arrested in Venezuela and held for ransom just days after President Joe Biden eased crippling oil sanctions on the socialist-run government
November 18, 2023Igor Girkin, a prominent ultranationalist in custody in Russia awaiting trial on charges of inciting extremism, nominated himself to run for president in 2024 in an announcement read on
November 18, 2023Survivors of Nazi atrocities have joined young Jewish activists in Paris to sound the alarm about resurgent antisemitic hate speech, graffiti and abuse linked to the Israel-Hamas war
November 18, 2023California Democratic Party leaders have canceled a portion of their state convention following a large demonstration calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war
November 18, 2023The English hockey team that American Adam Johnson played for has retired his No. 47 jersey as part of a memorial game in his honor
November 18, 2023Thousands of family members and supporters of some 240 hostages held in Gaza have streamed into Jerusalem on foot to castigate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war with Hamas
November 18, 2023A bottle of Scotch whisky billed as “the most sought-after” in the world has sold for almost 2.2 million pounds ($2.7 million)
November 18, 2023The families of Israeli hostages and thousands of their supporters arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday at the end of a five-day march to confront the government
November 18, 2023Both jeers and cheers for Argentina’s right-wing presidential candidate resounded with acoustic perfection inside the country’s legendary Colón Theater, laying bare the country’s polarization
November 18, 2023People in southwest Iceland are on edge, waiting to see whether a volcano rumbling under the Reykjanes peninsula will erupt
November 18, 2023Ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is welcome in France, France's digital minister said in a statement on X, a day after the board of the company behind ChatGPT fired Altman without giving
November 18, 2023Far off the Texas coast there is a beautiful surprise in the Gulf of Mexico that draws divers from around the world: a stunning amount of coral coverage on undersea mountains
November 18, 2023Ukraine's military says its troops are working to push back Russian forces positioned on the east bank of the Dnieper River
November 18, 2023Taylor Swift has postponed a concert in Rio de Janeiro after a 23-year-old fan died during her Friday night show
November 18, 2023Residents in the northern Mexican state of Sonora are battling a new train line that threatens to displace their homes and cut up the local ecosystem
November 18, 2023U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt says the government can afford to lower some taxes now that inflation is falling
November 18, 2023The first planeload of Palestinian children wounded in the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip has reached the United Arab Emirates, part of a pledged relief effort by the country to aid 1,000 children
November 18, 2023A United Nations team was briefly allowed into Gaza’s largest hospital after it was evacuated by Israeli troops
November 18, 2023X Corp will be filing a lawsuit against Media Matters and those who attacked social media platform X, Elon Musk said on Saturday in a post on the social media platform, soon after major
November 18, 2023Jordan’s foreign minister has offered blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, describing it as “blatant aggression” against Palestinian civilians that threaten to engulf the wider Middle East
November 18, 2023With the onset of the war between Israel and Hamas, the world’s attention has swung away from the nearly 2-year-old conflict in Ukraine
November 18, 2023A new museum in Barcelona is offering a second chance to controversial artworks that have suffered censorship for religious, sexual, political or commercial reasons
November 18, 2023The Biden administration is balancing efforts to deter militants in the Middle East without triggering a broader regional conflict
November 18, 2023The Miss Universe competition hosted by El Salvador is the latest spectacle touted by President Nayib Bukele in his efforts to change the reputation of his historically violence-torn nation
November 18, 2023Forty-one workers remain trapped in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India for a seventh day as a new drilling matching arrived on site to replace the damaged one
November 18, 2023The 92-year-old businessman who represented Taiwan at this week’s summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in San Francisco says he's hopeful that a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping will help reduce tensions between the two superpowers and in the region
November 18, 2023Guatemala’s Attorney General’s office has formally requested that President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and his vice president be stripped of their immunity so it can investigate them for allegedly encouraging the student occupation of the country’s only public university
November 17, 2023Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue was illuminated with a welcome to Brazil message for Taylor Swift
November 17, 2023Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians, including three militants, across the West Bank, deepening a surge of violence in the occupied territory that has accompanied Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip
November 17, 2023K-pop superstar Rosé has joined U.S. first lady Jill Biden at a mental health event to talk about how even famous people grapple with emotional struggles
November 17, 2023Senegal’s highest court has effectively barred detained opposition leader Ousmane Sonko from running for president early next year
November 17, 2023The former president of the Spanish soccer federation has been ruled unfit to work in the sport in Spain for three years after he kissed a player on the lips without her consent at the Women’s World Cup final
November 17, 2023The U.S. has imposed sanctions on six people affiliated with the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataeb Hezbollah, which is accused of being behind a spate of recent attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel
November 17, 2023One of the signature broad, black bicorne hats that Napoleon Bonaparte wore when he ruled 19th-century France and waged war in Europe is expected to fetch more than half a million euros (dollars) at auction
November 17, 2023More than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6-17 have been taken to Belarus from four regions of Ukraine that are partially occupied by Russian forces, a study by Yale University has found
November 17, 2023The visceral documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” about Russia’s early assault on the Ukrainian city will soon reach its widest audience yet
November 17, 2023The British author of the Booker Prize-winning novel “Possession” has died at the age of 87
November 17, 2023Advertisers are fleeing social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content, hate speech on the site in general or billionaire owner Elon Musk’s own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory
November 17, 2023About 1.3 million Afghans are expected to return to their country of origin from Pakistan, the U.N. health agency warned, weeks after authorities began expelling foreigners living in the country illegally
November 17, 2023Emily Tony Korenberg Hand celebrated her eighth birthday last year romping with friends and family at her circus-themed party on Kibbutz Be’eri
November 17, 2023Hundreds of patients desperately needed his help, but now there was nothing he could do.
November 17, 2023Madagascar’s incumbent President Andry Rajoelina has taken a commanding lead in the island nation’s presidential election, which is being boycotted by the majority of candidates and is marked by low turnout
November 17, 2023The Russian Justice Ministry says it has filed a lawsuit with the country’s Supreme Court to outlaw the LGBTQ “international public movement” as extremist
November 17, 2023Ukraine’s marine corps says it has secured multiple bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region in fighting it described as having caused thousands of Russian casualties and destroyed dozens of ammunition warehouses, armored vehicles and other weaponry
November 17, 2023Pope Francis will meet next week with relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza, a source said on Friday.
November 17, 2023Israel risks facing a long and bloody insurgency if it defeats Hamas and occupies Gaza without a credible post-war plan to withdraw its
November 17, 2023China offered to buy more goods from Brunei and to encourage investment in the Islamic sultanate as President Xi Jinping lauded relations with the tiny nation that have centred
November 17, 2023A powerful undersea earthquake has shaken the southern Philippines, causing ceilings in shopping malls to plunge to the ground as shoppers screamed
November 17, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin waited three days before commenting on Hamas' massacre of Israelis, which happened to take place on his 71st birthday.
November 17, 2023The United States and the Philippines have signed a nuclear cooperation pact under which U.S. investment and technologies are to help the Southeast Asian nation transition to cleaner energy and bolster its power supply
November 17, 2023The United Nations was forced to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza and warned of the growing possibility of widespread starvation after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel
November 17, 2023Wall Street edged higher in quiet trading, closing out a third straight winning week and keeping November on track to be its best month in a year
November 17, 2023China's narcotics control agency has warned against the manufacture and sale of substances that can be used to make illegal drugs, a day after President Xi Jinping said China would
November 17, 2023Limited phone and internet services began working again Friday across Gaza after fuel was delivered to restart generators that power the networks
November 17, 2023Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged leaders of developing nations to unite in the face of growing challenges due to the Israel-Hamas war
November 17, 2023With wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, it can be hard for President Joe Biden to focus on Asia, even though that was his original foreign policy goal
November 17, 2023Abbey Onn lost her aunt and a young cousin when Hamas attackers rampaged through Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7
November 17, 2023Karol G, Bizzarap, Shakira and Natalia Lafourcade, won big at the Latin Grammy Awards held Thursday
November 17, 2023One of Haiti's most vulnerable and impoverished communities is recovering from a gang attack that targeted a hospital serving as a lifeline for many
November 17, 2023When Chinese President Xi Jinping met executives for dinner on Wednesday night in San Francisco, he was greeted with not one, but
November 17, 2023As Argentina heads for a presidential runoff election on Sunday, the decades-old populist movement known as Peronism is on shaky ground
November 17, 2023The Las Vegas Grand Prix had a bumpy opening when the first practice of the $500 million Formula One race was halted nine minutes into the session Thursday night because Carlos Sainz Jr. ran over a water valve cover that badly damaged his Ferrari
November 17, 2023President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have pledged to work side-by-side to confront illicit fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. and to manage a growing number of migrants traveling to the border between their nations
November 17, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have aired deep differences over the war between Israel and Hamas as the Turkish leader makes a brief and tensely anticipated visit to Berlin
November 17, 2023Rescuers drilled deeper into the rubble of a collapsed road tunnel in northern India to fix wide pipes for 40 workers trapped underground for a sixth day to crawl to their freedom
November 17, 2023Chinese President Xi Jinping is expanding his diplomatic efforts to build more partnerships with Indo-Pacific leaders after his meeting with President Joe Biden at a time of intensifying competition with the United States
November 17, 2023Israeli air strikes on residential blocks in south Gaza killed at least 47 people on Saturday, medics said, while the
November 16, 2023A book about an inferno that ravaged a Canadian city and has been called a portent of climate chaos has won Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize
November 16, 2023Panda lovers in America have received a much-needed injection of hope as Chinese President Xi Jinping says his government is “ready to continue” lending the black and white icons to American zoos
November 16, 2023TikTok will prohibit content that promotes Osama bin Laden's 2002 letter detailing the former al Qaeda leader's justifications for attacks against
November 16, 2023Delegates at a reparations summit in Ghana have agreed to establish a Global Reparation Fund to push for overdue compensation for millions of Africans enslaved centuries ago during the trans-Atlantic slave trade
November 16, 2023Major League Baseball has canceled plans to play regular-season games in Paris in 2025 after failing to find a promoter, two people familiar with the decision told The Associated Press
November 16, 2023A Canadian man has been found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder for deliberately using his pickup to kill four members of a Muslim family two years ago
November 16, 2023China has agreed to curtail shipments of the chemicals used to make fentanyl, the drug at the heart of the U.S. overdose epidemic
November 16, 2023Russia under President Vladimir Putin has been closing in on those who challenge the Kremlin
November 16, 2023Thousands of Bulgarian soccer supporters have taken to the streets of the capital, Sofia, in protest over the management of the national soccer union, a demonstration that eventually turned violent
November 16, 2023Rafael Nadal says he is sure he’ll be returning to competition after missing nearly all of 2023 with a hip injury that required surgery
November 16, 2023The U.S. Treasury has levied a new round of sanctions on firms and ships that used U.S. service providers to carry Russian crude oil in violation of the multinational price cap — and imposed another set of sanctions on a group of Balkan people and firms tied to Kremlin influence in the region
November 16, 2023The United States on Thursday targeted 10 individuals in a new round of sanctions aimed at containing Russian influence in the Western Balkans, the U.S.
November 16, 2023The United States will not share any Israeli intelligence or elaborate on its own intelligence assessment that Hamas used Gaza's Al Shifa hospital as a command center and
November 16, 2023France on Thursday condemned violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling it a "policy of terror" aimed at displacing Palestinians and urging Israeli authorities
November 16, 2023The United Nations’ top court has ordered the Syrian government to “take all measures within its powers” to prevent torture
November 16, 2023Efforts to provide medical relief for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip should be concentrated within the besieged coastal enclave, Egypt's foreign minister said on Thursday.
November 16, 2023Britain’s interior minister says the U.K. government can revive its blocked plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda without breaching international law
November 16, 2023Finland’s government says it will close four crossing points on its long border with Russia to stop the flow of migrants that it accuses Moscow of ushering to the border in recent months
November 16, 2023Demonstrators seeking a cease-fire in Gaza blocked bridges on both sides of the U.S., including a major span into San Francisco during a global trade summit with President Joe Biden and other world leaders
November 16, 2023For the auxiliary bishop of Managua, fellow priests and many in the pews who have had to flee or were exiled from Nicaragua recently, the Sunday afternoon Mass at a Miami parish is not only a way to find solace in community
November 16, 2023After locating what they described as the entrance to a Hamas tunnel under an evacuated hospital in northern Gaza, Israeli army engineers
November 16, 2023A Russian court has convicted an artist and musician for replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans and sentenced her to seven years in prison
November 16, 2023One year after Qatar hosted the men’s World Cup, the gas-rich emirate and soccer body FIFA have been urged by human rights group Amnesty International to do more for migrant workers
November 16, 2023By Krishna N.
November 16, 2023TikTok and Meta are filing legal challenges against new European Union rules designed to counter the dominance of digital giants and make online competition fairer by giving consumers more choice
November 16, 2023When Bingo first stepped foot in the airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after months of arrangements ahead of his departure from Cuba, he did
November 16, 2023Britain’s medicines regulator has authorized the world’s first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling illness in the U.K. In a statement on Thursday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it had approved Casgevy, the first medicine licensed using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which won its makers a Nobel prize in 2020
November 16, 2023Spain’s acting Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has won a parliamentary vote to form a new leftist coalition government
November 16, 2023The European Commission will continue the use of the controversial chemical herbicide glyphosate in the European Union for 10 more years after the 27 member countries again failed to find a common position
November 16, 2023Developed nations may have achieved their overdue promise of $100 billion to help poorer countries cope with climate change in 2022, the OECD said on Thursday, an
November 16, 2023The airline Emirates says it will purchase 15 additional Airbus A350-900s worth $6 billion after a spat between it and the European manufacturer went unusually public during this week’s Dubai Air Show
November 16, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping haven't resolved any of the vital geopolitical issues dividing the world’s two largest economies
November 16, 2023A dire fuel shortage in the Gaza Strip has shut down all internet and phone networks
November 16, 2023Germany’s national railway operator is running a drastically reduced schedule after a union called a 20-hour strike aimed at increasing the pressure in a bitter dispute over pay and working hours
November 16, 2023David Cameron has traveled to the Ukrainian port of Odesa in his first overseas trip as Britain’s new foreign minister
November 16, 2023Asian stocks are mostly lower after Wall Street drifted to a mixed finish as momentum slowed following a strong rally in the first half of November
November 16, 2023Internet and telephone services have collapsed across the Gaza Strip for lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider says, bringing a potentially long-term communications blackout
November 16, 2023Chinese President Xi Jinping is signaling that China will send new pandas to the United States
November 16, 2023China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States, and there is plenty of room for bilateral cooperation, President Xi Jinping told American
November 16, 2023A fire in a coal company building in a northern Chinese city has killed 26 people and injured at least 38
November 16, 2023President Joe Biden has made America's case to CEOs attending the Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco that the United States is committed to high standards in trade that will benefit economies across the Pacific
November 16, 2023Police in Japan say they have arrested a driver after a vehicle crashed into a temporary barricade near the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo, injuring one police officer
November 16, 2023Rescuers in northern India are supplying food and medicine to 40 construction workers as officials started drilling through the rubble to reach the men who have been buried since a portion of the tunnel they were working on collapsed over the weekend
November 16, 2023Police and protesters have clashed outside Democratic National Committee headquarters during a demonstration for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas
November 16, 2023President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for hours on Wednesday in a widely anticipated encounter intended to recalibrate tensions between the two countries
November 16, 2023Hotels in Argentina and Uruguay have reportedly rejected reservations for Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters over accusations of antisemitism leveled at the British singer known for his pro-Palestinian views
November 15, 2023Israel said its forces were operating in and around Gaza's biggest hospital, a chief objective in its campaign to destroy Palestinian
November 15, 2023A European Championship qualifying game between Switzerland and Israel ended with a 1-1 draw on Wednesday
November 15, 2023Formula One has arrived in Las Vegas for a week of parties, concerts, celebrity-packed events and eventually Saturday night's race
November 15, 2023After raiding the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, Israel appears close to completing its takeover of the besieged territory’s northern sector
November 15, 2023U.S. officials say a Navy warship shot down a drone that was heading toward the ship as it sailed in the southern Red Sea
November 15, 2023A heavily armed gang surrounded a hospital in Haiti, trapping women, children and newborns inside until police rescued them
November 15, 2023A day after Palestinian authorities called for an evacuation of Gaza’s biggest hospital, Israeli soldiers have raided it and say they were accompanied by medical teams bringing baby food, incubators and other equipment
November 15, 2023It's still spring in Brazil, but a dangerous heat wave is sweeping the country, prompting health alerts and driving up energy demand as people turn to air conditioning and fans to stay cool
November 15, 2023The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip” after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war
November 15, 2023Protesters took to the streets of San Francisco early on Wednesday morning ahead of a meeting between U.S.
November 15, 2023President Joe Biden is welcoming leaders gathered for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative conference by noting that San Francisco is where “America reaches out all across the Pacific” and “a place where many left their hearts.”
November 15, 2023Britain’s Supreme Court has ruled that the government's flagship policy to send migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda is unlawful
November 15, 2023Russia’s State Duma passed a record federal budget in its second reading which aims to increase spending by around 25% in 2024, with record amounts going on defense
November 15, 2023Italian police have arrested six people in a crackdown on a network that allegedly played go-between for fentanyl trafficking from China to the United States,
November 15, 2023The United Nations Security Council is due to vote later on Wednesday on a call for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the
November 15, 2023The European Union’s executive has proposed to the member states a new package of sanctions targeting Russia
November 15, 2023Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is signaling that she's willing to put her name forward for NATO’s top job when it falls vacant next year
November 15, 2023Édgar Barrera is one of the most in-demand people in music
November 15, 2023For years, the Houthi rebels controlling northern Yemen have chanted slogans at their mass rallies calling for the destruction of Israel
November 15, 2023A woman has gone on trial in St. Petersburg in the bombing at a cafe that killed a prominent Russian military blogger after he was given a bust of himself that then exploded
November 15, 2023Over one desperate and blood-soaked Saturday, Hadar Bachar was transformed from an ordinary 13-year-old girl into the coordinator of her family's fight
November 15, 2023A top Ukrainian official says its troops have established a beachhead on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River near Kherson, an important advance in overcoming one of Russia’s most significant strategic barriers in the war
November 15, 2023Taiwan will take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco this week, a rare opportunity for the self-governing island democracy of 23 million people and its high-tech economy to break the diplomatic embargo on it imposed by authoritarian China
November 15, 2023The European Union proposes to make labor migration easier for specific jobs where the 27 nations can no longer find a local talent pool
November 15, 2023Officials from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban welcomed the resumption of FlyDubai flights to Kabul international airport
November 15, 2023Japanese actor-director Takeshi Kitano says he wanted his new film “Kubi” to show the world of samurai in ways that mainstream movies have rarely done before, by portraying the homosexual, love-hate relationship of warlords in one of Japan’s best known historical episodes
November 15, 2023Qatari mediators on Wednesday sought to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that included the release of around 50 civilian
November 15, 2023More than 200 conservative Muslims marched in Indonesia’s capital, calling for the cancellation of Coldplay’s concert on Wednesday night over the British band’s support for the LGBTQ+ community
November 15, 2023A man who was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in the death of American ice hockey player Adam Johnson, whose neck was cut by a skate during a game, has been released on bail
November 15, 2023U.S. public support for Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza is eroding and most Americans think Israel should call a ceasefire to a
November 15, 2023Ahead of the highly anticipated meeting on Wednesday between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Chinese state media have taken a new tone toward the U.S. with less negative coverage, calls for a return to warmer ties and stories of Americans with positive connections to the country
November 15, 2023A Myanmar army battalion based near the Chinese border has reportedly surrendered to an alliance of ethnic armed groups that launched a surprise offensive last month in the country’s northeast
November 15, 2023The European Union’s executive commission has lowered growth its expectations for this year and next, saying the economy “has lost momentum” as inflation discourages consumers and higher interest rates deter borrowing for purchases and investment
November 15, 2023Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has defended his controversial amnesty deal for Catalonia’s separatists in parliament
November 15, 2023Iran's supreme leader delivered a clear message to the head of Hamas when they met in Tehran in early November, according to three
November 15, 2023A doctor in Gaza's Al Shifa hospital told Reuters on Wednesday that gunfire forced staff to stay away from windows for their safety as Israeli forces began raiding the
November 15, 2023European Union negotiators have reached a deal to reduce highly polluting methane gas emissions from the energy sector across the 27-nation bloc
November 15, 2023Two and a half weeks after sending tanks and ground troops into northern Gaza, Israeli forces have entered a hospital that they claim Hamas operates out of
November 15, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping have emerged from their first face-to-face meeting in a year vowing to stabilize their fraught relationship and showcasing modest agreements to combat illegal fentanyl and re-establish military communications
November 15, 2023Inflation in the U.K. dropped sharply in October to its lowest level in two years largely because last year's steep rise in domestic energy bills dropped out of the annual comparison
November 15, 2023China and the U.S. have pledged to accelerate their efforts to address climate change ahead of a major U.N. meeting on the issue
November 15, 2023Asian shares have retreated after Wall Street added a bit more to its big rally from a day before
November 15, 2023Israeli troops stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital, searching for traces of Hamas inside and beneath the facility filled with hundreds of patients, including newborns, who have gone for days without electricity and with little food
November 15, 2023The United States Agency for International Development says it plans to restart food aid deliveries for millions of people across Ethiopia in December, five months after it halted its nationwide program over a massive corruption scheme by local officials
November 15, 2023The British government says it will still try to send some migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda, despite the U.K. Supreme Court ruling that the contentious plan is illegal
November 15, 2023A German thinktank has reported that to prevent global warming from surpassing the critical threshold of 1.5 Celsius, major Asian economies must ensure they can get half of their total electricity from renewables by 2030
November 15, 2023China has reported its economic growth showed more signs of rekindling in October as retail sales and factory output picked up even though the property sector remained sluggish
November 15, 2023Dozens of tiny grocery stores have sprung up around Cuba in recent months
November 15, 2023Batman and the Joker, a man decked out in a full-body lion costume, another whose head and arms have been replaced by chainsaws
November 15, 2023President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to restore some military-to-military communications between their armed forces
November 15, 2023Madagascar police have imposed a night-time curfew in the capital after the torching of some polling stations ahead of a presidential election set for Thursday
November 15, 2023A new report has identified nearly 500 industrial fishing vessels where workers face hazardous, forced conditions sometimes akin to slavery
November 15, 2023Some of the 40 workers trapped for days in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India are getting sick, while falling debris and technical glitches delay the work to free them
November 15, 2023After four failed attempts, the U.N. Security Council is trying for a fifth time to come up with a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war
November 15, 2023The leader of the United Arab Emirates has toured the Dubai Air Show as a sanctioned arms supplier displayed an attack helicopter used in Russia's war on Ukraine
November 15, 2023The latest honor for Salman Rushdie was a prize kept secret until minutes before he rose from his seat to accept it
November 15, 2023Japan has reported that its economy contracted at a 2.1% annual pace in July-September as consumption and investment weakened
November 15, 2023The company run by Mexican TV, retail and banking magnate Ricardo Salinas Pliego says it has failed to reach agreement with bondholders in the United States who are owed tens of millions of dollars in past-due payments
November 15, 2023North Korea says it has successfully tested new solid-fuel engines designed for intermediate-range ballistic missiles
November 15, 2023Israeli troops found a command centre and weapons and combat gear belonging to Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza's biggest hospital on Wednesday, Israel's
November 15, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold their long anticipated meeting at Filoli, a historic country house and museum with lavish gardens just south of San Francisco
November 14, 2023Colombia has begun the sterilization of hippopotamuses, descendants of animals illegally brought to the country by late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the 1980s
November 14, 2023The chairman of the U.S.
November 14, 2023Taika Waititi would really rather just go to the beach
November 14, 2023Police in El Salvador have arrested 10 people accused of operating a migrant smuggling ring
November 14, 2023The Biden administration has extended by four months a sanctions waiver that will allow Iraq to continue to purchase electricity from Iran
November 14, 2023The captain of Israel’s soccer team displayed the shoe of a young boy that he said was kidnapped by Hamas militants during their deadly Oct. 7 raid, an act of solidarity with those Israelis still being held captive in the Gaza Strip ahead of the team’s Wednesday game in Hungary
November 14, 2023The White House on Tuesday said it had its own intelligence that Hamas was using Gaza's largest hospital Al Shifa to run its military operations,
November 14, 2023Supporters of Israel have rallied by the tens of thousands on Washington's National Mall, voicing solidarity in the fight against Hamas and crying “never again.”
November 14, 2023Does Paris have too many SUVs
November 14, 2023A lawyer for a man convicted in the 2006 killing of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya received a presidential pardon after a stint fighting in Ukraine
November 14, 2023Cuba wants to tap its fast-growing overseas population for fresh investment to lift its economy,
November 14, 2023Police in England have arrested a man on suspicion of manslaughter in the death of American ice hockey player Adam Johnson whose neck was cut by a skate during a game
November 14, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he is engaged in daily discussions to secure a release of hostages being held by Hamas and he believes it is going to happen.
November 14, 2023A well-known doctor at Gaza’s largest hospital was killed along with three relatives in an airstrike on the home where they were sheltering
November 14, 2023U.S.
November 14, 2023British Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch signed a memorandum of understanding with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday to
November 14, 2023Beyond the engineering, the athleticism, the speed, the luxury, fans love the sound of Formula One
November 14, 2023The Dutch government on Tuesday gave up on a provisional plan to cut the number of flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to reduce noise pollution, the Transportation Ministry
November 14, 2023The BBC says two more people have come forward to complain about Russell Brand since the broadcaster launched a review into the actor and comedian’s behavior
November 14, 2023The United States says it has imposed a third round of sanctions on a group of Hamas officials, members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who work to transfer money from Iran to Gaza, and a Lebanese money exchange service that facilitates the transfers
November 14, 2023Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born Israeli activist who devoted her life to seeking peace with the Palestinians, was confirmed killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel
November 14, 2023European Union nations have acknowledged they may fail to fulfill a promise for ammunition Ukraine needs to stave off Russia's invasion and win back occupied territory
November 14, 2023An expert scientific committee advising the British government recommended for the first time Tuesday that children should be immunized with the chickenpox vaccine — decades after the shots were made widely available in other countries, including the U.S., Canada and Australia
November 14, 2023Flagship EU legislation that's meant to force European companies to screen out climate harms from their business operations faces being dramatically watered down
November 14, 2023European Union lawmakers have adopted a series of amendments to a draft law that is intended to keep sexually explicit photos and videos of minors from circulating online
November 14, 2023Long-haul carrier Emirates has signaled it will hold off on a major purchase of Airbus A350 aircraft over concerns about their Rolls Royce engines, marking a major blow for the European manufacturer during the Dubai Air Show
November 14, 2023A Moscow court has fined Google for failing to store personal data on its Russian users
November 14, 2023Two global reports say humanity’s fight to curb climate change is failing in dozens of ways with people getting sicker and dying as the world warms and the fossil fuels causing it get more subsidies
November 14, 2023Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, has collected three times the amount of signatures needed to qualify to run in Taiwan's presidential elections,
November 14, 2023The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs commission will debate a bill approving Sweden's NATO membership on Thursday, according to the official agenda of the commission.
November 14, 2023Liberian President George Weah's quest for a second term faces a close runoff vote on Tuesday
November 14, 2023The Israeli military says its forces are raiding Gaza’s largest hospital, the site of a lengthy standoff with the Hamas militant group
November 14, 2023Australia's immigration minister says three murderers are among 81 foreigners recently released after the High Court ruled their indefinite detention in migrant centers was unconstitutional
November 14, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher, cheered by a rally on Wall Street that was one of the best days of the year following a surprisingly encouraging report on inflation
November 14, 2023Comedian John Oliver has succeeded in his campaign to have what he describes as a weird, puking bird with a colorful mullet win New Zealand’s Bird of the Century contest
November 14, 2023At an age when many of his contemporaries have long since retired, King Charles III is not one to put his feet up
November 14, 2023Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the World Health Organization has paid $250 each to at least 104 women in Congo who say they were sexually abused or exploited by Ebola outbreak responders
November 14, 2023The Israeli army says its forces are carrying out “a precise and targeted operation” against Hamas militants in a specific area of Shifa hospital, the largest in the besieged territory of Gaza
November 14, 2023The head of the Catholic church in China has begun a trip to Hong Kong at the invitation of the city’s pope-appointed Roman Catholic cardinal, marking the first official visit by a Beijing bishop in history
November 14, 2023When Hurricane Otis roared into Acapulco Bay on Oct 25 with 165 mile per hour winds, sailor Ruben Torres recorded a 10-second audio message from a yacht called the Sereno
November 14, 2023President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping have swept into San Francisco and are making their final preparations for their first engagement in a year
November 14, 2023Thousands have marched in Mexico’s capital demanding justice for an influential LGBTQ+ figure who was found dead at home in the city of Aguascalientes after receiving death threats
November 14, 2023Author Sarah Bernstein has won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel “Study for Obedience.”
November 14, 2023Taiwan is working on securing a one-on-one meeting with U.S.
November 14, 2023North Korea criticised the Group of Seven countries as a "remnant of the Cold War" that causes conflicts for their own interests and violates other countries' sovereignty, its state
November 14, 2023South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol says he will discuss international response to the purported North Korean-Russian weapons deal during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco this week
November 14, 2023The White House said on Tuesday its independent intelligence supported Israel's claim that Hamas was using Gaza's
November 14, 2023Satellite imagery shows progress in the construction in Russia of a plant that will mass produce Iranian-designed kamikaze drones that Moscow is expected to target against
November 13, 2023U.S. officials are expressing hope that this week's highly anticipated face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will produce some concrete results
November 13, 2023Santa Anita Park, a renowned Southern California horse racing venue, has built a reputation for having stringent safety measures to protect its equine athletes. However, recent revelations have raised serious concerns within the horse racing community regarding hypocrisy and favoritism at the track. The issues center around trainer Dan Blacker, who was cited for a staggering 527 violations by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) for failing to schedule veterinary examinations within 72 hours of racehorses’ workouts. This violation was uncovered following the tragic breakdown and subsequent euthanization of Blacker’s unraced 2-year-old filly, Animae, after a workout. Investigators found that
November 13, 2023Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a dayslong stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas
November 13, 2023The White House said on Monday
November 13, 2023Hundreds of Jewish peace activists and allies from across the Midwest have called for a cease-fire in Gaza at a major Chicago train station
November 13, 2023The flowed facade of fraternity life has long obscured a troubling underbelly of secretive wrongdoing. This was never more apparent than in the unraveling of a sprawling fraternity crime ring that recently sent shockwaves across the southern United States. Led by an ambitious college student named Mikey Schmidt, this clandestine criminal enterprise exploited the loyalty and resources of fraternity networks to facilitate an array of illicit activities. Over time, the seemingly innocuous traditions and rituals of fraternity life became breeding grounds for increasingly serious criminal transgressions. The eventual downfall of this crime ring would expose unsettling truths about the capacity
November 13, 2023Mexican migration authorities said on Monday they had rounded up 246 migrants from around a major bus terminal in the north of the capital city, including more than 50 children
November 13, 2023Many remember David Cameron as the man who took Britain out of the European Union
November 13, 2023An associate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed by a court in the Siberian city of Tomsk pending trial
November 13, 2023Nepal’s government has decided to ban the popular social media app TikTok, saying it was disrupting “social harmony” in the country
November 13, 2023El Salvador’s government has begun slapping a $1,130 fee on travelers from dozens of countries connecting through the nation’s main airport
November 13, 2023The tiny Caribbean island of Dominica is creating the world’s first marine protected area for one of earth’s largest animals: the endangered sperm whale
November 13, 2023The U.S. Army Special Operations Command says the five soldiers killed when their helicopter crashed in the Eastern Mediterranean over the weekend were national treasures whose loss cut deeply
November 13, 2023Olympic sports bodies want urgent talks with the IOC about the risk of cuts in their revenue shares and athlete quotas at the 2028 Los Angeles Games because cricket and other newcomers have been added to the program
November 13, 2023Yemeni officials say a migrant boat capsized off the coast of war-torn Yemen, leaving dozens of people, mostly from the Horn of Africa, missing
November 13, 2023Donald Trump Jr. is set to testify again on Monday in his father's civil fraud trial, this time called by the defense to field questions about the former U.S. president's
November 13, 2023Fledgling U.S.
November 13, 2023Leaders from the United States and the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia will meet on Monday for talks that will set the stage for U.S.
November 13, 2023President Joe Biden and Indonesian President Joko Widodo have formalized closer ties between their countries at the White House
November 13, 2023The 27 European Union nations have jointly condemned Hamas for what they described as the use of hospitals and civilians as “human shields” in the war against Israel
November 13, 2023The United States and South Korea have updated a bilateral security agreement to more effectively counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats
November 13, 2023Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has made an unexpected return to high office
November 13, 2023A terminally ill baby at the center of a legal battle involving her parents, British health officials and the Italian government has died
November 13, 2023Israel signalled on Monday it would hold off on a threatened closure of the local bureau of Al Jazeera, leaving the powerful Qatar-owned satellite station
November 13, 2023Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants outside Gaza’s largest hospital has prompted thousands of people to flee from the medical facility
November 13, 2023A Philippine court has freed on bail of a former senator jailed more than six years ago on drug charges she said were fabricated to silence her investigation of then-President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs
November 13, 2023Health officials say battles between Israel and Hamas around hospitals forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from some of the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza
November 13, 2023Efforts to create a landmark treaty to end global plastic pollution are advancing at a meeting where participants are discussing the treaty's draft language for the first time
November 13, 2023The United States is hosting the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference this week for the first time since 2011
November 13, 2023President Joe Biden has said the Israel-Palestinian conflict can’t go back to the “status quo” before Hamas’ brutal surprise attack on Oct. 7 and Israel’s devastating response in Gaza
November 13, 2023In a war where journalist access is limited, there's a flood of video available online from the Israel-Hamas war
November 13, 2023Rescuers are digging through dirt and parts of a collapsed road tunnel to reach 40 workers trapped by a landslide in northern India
November 13, 2023Long-haul carrier Emirates says it will buy Boeing Co. aircraft in a deal worth $52 billion
November 13, 2023South Korea and the United States have revised a bilateral security agreement aimed at deterring North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats
November 13, 2023Australia's immigration minister says 80 people including convicted criminals who are considered dangerous have been released from Australian migrant detention centers since the High Court ruled last week that their indefinite detention wis unconstitutional
November 13, 2023Asian shares are trading mostly higher ahead of potentially market-moving developments, including a U.S.-China summit and data releases in the U.S., Japan and China
November 13, 2023Combat training programs provided by Ukraine’s allies are hitting major milestones even as global attention shifts to the Israel-Hamas war
November 13, 2023Nearly three dozen Brazilians who had been trapped inside Gaza for weeks, and whose predicament had driven a diplomatic wedge between Brasilia and Israel,
November 12, 2023Greece’s main opposition party has suffered a split after a left-wing faction announced it was breaking away, accusing the party’s recently elected leader of abandoning its core ideology for a sort of “right-wing populism.”
November 12, 2023Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been found guilty of four counts of sexual assault in a Canadian court but was acquitted of a fifth count plus a charge of forcible confinement
November 12, 2023Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has dismissed the prime minister and replaced him with the head of his cabinet ahead of national elections next year and at a time when economic anxieties are running high
November 12, 2023Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie is visiting Israel on a mission to express solidarity in its war against Hamas
November 12, 2023U.S. officials say five U.S. service members were killed when a military helicopter crashed during training over the eastern Mediterranean Sea
November 12, 2023Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had offered fuel to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, which suspended operations after running out of fuel, but that the militants had
November 12, 2023Israel’s military and rescue services say attacks by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group have wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 other people
November 12, 2023Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been briefly interrupted by a man who approached her on stage after she invited a Palestinian and an Afghan woman to speak at a climate protest in the Dutch capital
November 12, 2023Somali authorities say floods caused by torrential rainfall have killed at least 31 people in various parts of the country
November 12, 2023President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping’s have no shortage of difficult issues to discuss when they meet Wednesday in the San Francisco area
November 12, 2023Ukraine says Russian forces have ramped up attacks in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to gain ground near two key frontline cities
November 12, 2023More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, have marched peacefully to protest against rising antisemitism in the wake of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza
November 12, 2023Israel said it was poised to impose quiet
November 12, 2023As Israel unleashes one of the most-intense aerial bombing campaigns the Middle East has ever seen, leaders from the world’s top air forces are meeting in the United Arab Emirates to talk about almost anything that isn’t an airstrike
November 12, 2023English soldier Ken Hay was trapped behind German lines and captured while on night patrol in 1944, days after joining the Allied invasion of Normandy, a turning point in
November 12, 2023Water taps flow just one day out of three in Mayotte, a French territory off Africa’s eastern coast
November 12, 2023Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital are rejecting Israel's claims that it is helping babies and others evacuate, saying fighting continues just outside the facility where incubators lay idle without electricity and critical supplies are running out
November 12, 2023Millions of Indians are celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, with a Guinness World Record number of bright earthen oil lamps as concerns about air pollution soared in the South Asian country
November 12, 2023Candidates in a Nov. 22 general election in the Netherlands are making migration a major issue in the campaign
November 12, 2023Thousands of children in South Africa's poorest and most remote rural communities still face a miles-long walk to school, nearly 30 years after the country ushered in democratic change
November 12, 2023Activists protesting environmental abuses, poor working conditions and the Israel-Hamas war are protesting a global trade summit
November 12, 2023The United States and China are the two global economic heavyweights
November 12, 2023Latvia’s president says Russia is planning for a long war in Ukraine and he warns that countries need to keep supplying weapons to Kyiv to discourage Moscow from threatening other nations in the future
November 12, 2023Israel's military said it was ready to evacuate babies from Gaza's largest hospital on Sunday, where Palestinian officials
November 11, 2023Hospitals have been caught in the crossfire during the Israel-Hamas war — both literally and in the clashing narratives of the conflict
November 11, 2023Mexico's ruling party has named its candidates for eight governorships and the mayorship of Mexico City
November 11, 2023Volunteers are taking part in an effort to extend the habitat of the most emblematic and endangered species of Rio de Janeiro’s rural interior — the golden lion tamarin
November 11, 2023Tens of thousands of people have marched through Warsaw in an event organized by nationalist groups as Poland celebrates its Independence Day holiday
November 11, 2023As a U.S. Navy surveillance plane flew in circles, dozens of Chinese coast guard and accompanying ships chased and encircled Philippine vessels in the latest confrontation in the South China Sea
November 11, 2023Residents of a fishing town in southwestern Iceland have left their homes after increasing concern about a potential volcanic eruption caused civil defense authorities to declare a state of emergency in the region
November 11, 2023People around the globe are remembering the slaughter and losses from four years of fighting during World War I just over a century ago that was supposed to amount to “the war to end all wars.”
November 11, 2023The husband of a Russian-American journalist working for a U.S. government-funded media company who is detained in Russia has called for her speedy release
November 11, 2023Japan's navy on Saturday announced the start of a joint annual military exercise, with the Philippines observing the operations for the first time
November 11, 2023Supporters of the Palestinians have marched peacefully through central London as right-wing counter-protesters clashed with police after a week of angry debate over whether to permit the demonstration on a day when Britain honored its war dead
November 11, 2023One year since Ukraine retook the city of Kherson from occupying Russian forces, residents have grown accustomed to the sounds of bombs reminding them that the war is far from over
November 11, 2023A military court in Myanmar has sentenced a general who until recently was a senior member of the country’s ruling council to five years in prison for abusing his authority and taking bribes
November 11, 2023Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing back against growing international calls for a cease-fire, saying Israel’s battle to crush Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants would continue with “full force.”
November 11, 2023Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s chances of forming a new coalition minority government following an inconclusive election in July have been greatly boosted by a deal with a tiny party he surely hoped he would never have to rely on
November 11, 2023President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are preparing to meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this coming week in San Francisco
November 11, 2023Mexican officials have imposed severe, monthslong cuts to Mexico City’s water supply just a month after initial restrictions were ordered as drought dries the capital’s reservoirs
November 11, 2023Almost seven months of war between Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary group have left a wave of destruction
November 11, 2023Shoppers in China have been tightening their purse strings, raising questions over how faltering consumer confidence may affect the annual Singles’ Day online retail extravaganza
November 11, 2023Israel faced mounting international pressure, including from its main ally the United States, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death
November 11, 2023The former wife of a Microsoft executive who was killed in Florida last year has been arrested for allegedly conspiring with her new spouse to commit the murder. According to prosecutors, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez allegedly planned for several months to have her former spouse, Jared Bridegan, murdered in the presence of their young child. Gardner-Fernandez was indicted by a grand jury for the killing that took place in February 2022. The charges include first-degree murder and child abuse. She was taken into custody in Washington state and will be sent to Florida. Prosecutors are also seeking capital punishment against her and
November 10, 2023A child is killed on average every 10 minutes in the Gaza Strip, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the United
November 10, 2023Scientists in China are constructing the biggest detector on Earth to capture elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos, by anchoring thousands of sensors over a mile deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. Named the Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope (TRIDENT), the massive project will be online by 2030. By leveraging the ocean’s depth, TRIDENT will observe cosmic neutrinos in unprecedented detail as they briefly interact with water molecules. Neutrinos are nicknamed “ghost particles” because they pass through matter unaffected, including our entire planet. But TRIDENT’s enormous scale increases the chance to detect neutrinos when they rarely collide with water particles, producing telltale flashes
November 10, 2023U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she and her Chinese counterpart have agreed to work toward a “healthy economic relationship,” during two days of talks that she said helped lay the groundwork for a productive meeting next week between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping
November 10, 2023More than two weeks ago Otis went from tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane in a record 12 hours
November 10, 2023A British judge has expressed profound concerns about the tactics of the parents of a terminally ill infant as he refused to allow them to take her home from the hospital to die
November 10, 2023Israel’s national soccer team has arrived in Kosovo amid tight security measures at the airport ahead of a postponed European Championship qualifier
November 10, 2023With new categories, “Barbie” and SZA — there’s a lot to discuss regarding the 2024 Grammy Award nominations
November 10, 2023In a groundbreaking procedure at NYU Langone Health, surgeons successfully completed a full-eye transplant on a living human, requiring approximately 21 hours. Aaron James, aged 46, now holds renewed optimism following this remarkable surgery. The operation came in the aftermath of a tragic electrical accident that inflicted extensive damage to his left eye and facial features. In June 2021, James, a former soldier from Arkansas, suffered profound facial injuries during his military service. His face made contact with a live electrical wire, delivering a powerful 7,200-volt shock. The aftermath of this incident led to the loss of his left eye,
November 10, 2023Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has been increasingly isolated on foreign policy among his GOP colleagues, a growing number of whom have distanced themselves as a matter of course from U.S. involvement abroad -- and particularly on Ukraine
November 10, 2023A Palestinian envoy on Friday criticised Western states for supporting Ukraine by calling out Russia's violations of international law while stopping short of naming
November 10, 2023Niger fashion designer Alia Bare took center stage at the Joburg Fashion Week with a collection that she hopes will spread a positive image of her troubled country, suffering from instability and economic sanctions that followed a military coup earlier this year
November 10, 2023U.S.
November 10, 2023Pressure is growing on Tesla in Sweden, where a trade union is demanding that the Texas-based automaker sign a collective bargaining agreement, which most employees in the Scandinavian country have
November 10, 2023The Jordan River winds for 200-plus miles to the east of Israel and the occupied West Bank, while the Mediterranean glitters to the west
November 10, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron says melting glaciers pose “an unprecedented challenge for humanity.”
November 10, 2023A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran has been charged with aggravated terrorism over a deadly shooting in June 2022 ahead of an LGBTQ festival in the nightlife district of the capital, Oslo
November 10, 2023Dozens of conservative Muslims are calling for the cancellation of Coldplay’s concert this month in Indonesia
November 10, 2023President Joe Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping face-to-face for the first time in a year on Wednesday, according to senior U.S. officials, high-
November 10, 2023The White House says President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss trade, Taiwan and fraught U.S.-Chinese relations when they meet next week in the San Francisco Bay area
November 10, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says “far too many” Palestinians have died and suffered as Israel wages a relentless war against the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip
November 10, 2023Turkey's president has backpedaled after siding with a top appeals court that defied a Constitutional Court ruling calling for the release of an imprisoned opposition lawmaker
November 10, 2023In recent years, koi have become hugely popular in Asia, with exports doubling over the past decade
November 10, 2023Prince Harry's lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, can go to trial, London's High Court ruled on Friday.
November 10, 2023France says it has been the target of a Russian online destabilization campaign that used bots to whip up controversy and confusion about spray-painted Stars of David that appeared on Paris streets
November 10, 2023A British judge has ruled that a lawsuit by Prince Harry, Elton John and five other public figures accusing a tabloid publisher of unlawful information-gathering should go to a full trial
November 10, 2023Spirits and beer giant Diageo saw billions wiped off its market value on Friday after it warned that a sharp slowdown in its business in Latin America and the Caribbean was hitting sales and potential profits
November 10, 2023Prince Harry, singer Elton John and five other high-profile British figures can have their lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail paper alleging widespread unlawful
November 10, 2023Fans of Philip Pullman have been waiting almost five years for the final instalment in the author’s sextet of books about his intrepid heroine Lyra and her adventures in multiple worlds
November 10, 2023A government official from China’s Tibetan region has rejected allegations of forced assimilation and curbs on religious freedom, while stressing that Tibetan Buddhism should adapt to the Chinese context
November 10, 2023Thousands of Palestinians sheltering from the Israel-Hamas war at Gaza City’s main hospital are fleeing south after several reported strikes in and around the compound overnight
November 10, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited his southern military headquarters as he assesses the state of his country's forces in Ukraine as the war drags on toward winter
November 10, 2023Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing northern Gaza as Israel’s military pushes deeper into dense urban neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas militants
November 10, 2023The British economy flatlined in the third quarter of the year
November 10, 2023Australia is offering the island nation of Tuvalu a lifeline to help residents escape the rising seas and increased storms that climate change is bringing
November 10, 2023Nearly two decades ago, Catholic priest Guilherme Peixoto started mixing up rock music at karaoke fundraisers for his debt-ridden parish in a small Portuguese village
November 10, 2023Wall Street rose sharply to add to an already strong November, which is on track to be one of the market's best months of the year
November 10, 2023The top diplomats and defense chiefs from India and the United States have met in New Delhi to discuss security issues in the Indo-Pacific, China and the Israel-Hamas war
November 10, 2023Jewish refugees from the war between Israel and Hamas are finding safety in an unused lakeside resort in the Hungarian countryside
November 10, 2023French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has set off a cacophony of criticism over her plans to attend a weekend march to protest rising antisemitism in France
November 10, 2023World leaders, CEOS, protesters and thousands of others will soon descend on San Francisco for a high-profile trade summit that could give the battered city a chance to reverse its image as a powerhouse in decline
November 10, 2023The Oct. 7 Hamas raid on Israel — and Israel's response — have led to demonstrations on college campuses that have sometimes turned violent
November 10, 2023Makram Daboub may be struggling to prepare his Palestinian team for the start of 2026 World Cup qualification but he takes some comfort — for now at least — that his players stuck in Gaza are safe
November 10, 2023The Grammy nominations have been announced and SZA leads the way with nine nominations
November 10, 2023U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is suggesting that a ransomware attack that forced China’s biggest bank to take some systems offline only minimally disrupted the U.S. Treasury market
November 10, 2023Internet access across the war-torn nation of Yemen collapsed Friday and stayed down for hours, with officials later blaming unannounced “maintenance work” for the outage
November 10, 2023A new U.N. report paints a stark picture of the collapsing Palestinian economy after a month of war and Israel’s near-total siege of Gaza
November 10, 2023More than 60 countries have said they back a deal spearheaded by the European Union, United States and United Arab Emirates to
November 10, 2023The United States on Friday expressed growing concern about the rising Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip where health officials said the
November 10, 2023China's ambassador to the United states, Xie Feng, said the most important thing is to find the right way for China and the United States to get along.
November 09, 2023U.S.
November 09, 2023Politics was suddenly a topic of conversation as thousands of Taylor Swift fans eagerly lined up for the superstar’s first-ever concert in Argentina
November 09, 2023The Dominican Republic is accusing Haiti of multiple border violations in the latest dispute involving their shared frontier on the island of Hispaniola
November 09, 2023Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has announced he's dissolving the nation’s parliament and calling an early election two days after Prime Minister António Costa resigned with his government tainted by a corruption scandal
November 09, 2023Two-way star and coveted free agent Shohei Ohtani is donating about 60,000 baseball gloves to Japanese elementary schools
November 09, 2023A global "peace summit" for Ukraine may now take place in February 2024, a top Kyiv official said on Thursday amid concerns in the West that the war in Gaza is making it
November 09, 2023Any halt to fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip for humanitarian purposes would need to be coordinated with the United Nations and need
November 09, 2023Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has told ABC News that he suffered a minor stroke while attending a business conference in Mexico City
November 09, 2023The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions, has closed temporarily as a swarm of earthquakes put the island nation’s most populated region on alert for a possible volcanic eruption
November 09, 2023Kenya says it won't deploy its police officers to Haiti until all conditions on training and funding are met in line with last month’s approval from the U
November 09, 2023Fistfights break out in bread lines
November 09, 2023Russian-installed health officials in Crimea say private clinics on the Moscow-annexed peninsula have “voluntarily” stopped providing abortions, which means that the procedure is now only available there in state-run medical facilities
November 09, 2023Colombia’s government has announced that the father of Liverpool striker Luis Díaz has been released by members of a guerrilla group who kidnapped him in northern Colombia
November 09, 2023Israel will begin four-hour pauses in northern Gaza starting on Thursday to allow people to flee hostilities, the White House said in what it
November 09, 2023The White House says Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza
November 09, 2023Posters of the people being held hostage by Hamas after its attack on Israel last month have become visible all over the world
November 09, 2023An economic grouping that includes several ex-Soviet nations along with Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey has held a summit in Uzbekistan, and leaders of member countries have vowed to further expand trade and economic ties
November 09, 2023A Spanish right-wing politician is recovering in a hospital after being shot in the face on a street in central Madrid
November 09, 2023Analysts say that Pakistan’s crackdown on undocumented migrants risks radicalizing Afghans who have been forced out of the country
November 09, 2023Davyd Booth believes strongly that people everywhere are the same and that music touches the heart of everyone
November 09, 2023German police say a student with a handgun is suspected of having killed another student at a high school in the country’s southwest
November 09, 2023Diwali is the most important festival of the year in India and for Hindus in particular
November 09, 2023Nigeria's president has signed a controversial bill that earmarks $6.1 million for a presidential yacht and millions more for sport utility vehicles for his wife and other top government officials
November 09, 2023A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port of Odesa has hit a Liberian-flagged freighter, killing a port worker and wounding another, as well as three citizens of the Philippines, crew members on the ship
November 09, 2023Spain’s Socialist Party has struck a deal with a fringe Catalan separatist party to grant an amnesty for potentially thousands of people involved in the region’s failed secession bid in exchange for its key backing of acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new government
November 09, 2023Cuban Idalberto Echavarria maneuvered his wife Olga in a wheelchair to the front of the line at Terminal 2 of Havana's airport, dodging luggage and a sea of people
November 09, 2023Steve Bannon, who was a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, is set to ask a federal appeals court on Thursday to overturn his criminal
November 09, 2023The 12 months ending in October were the hottest ever recorded on Earth and likely the planet’s hottest 12-month period ever recorded, according to a report from the nonprofit science research group Climate Central
November 09, 2023People have come together across Germany to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht or the “Night of Broken Glass” in 1938 during which the Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria
November 09, 2023A faster resolution to the fighting in Gaza could help limit civilian strife that might spur people to join the ranks of Palestinian militants, U.S.
November 09, 2023International news organisation Reuters denied on Thursday any suggestion it had prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, in a statement
November 09, 2023Britain’s interior minister has accused the country’s largest police force of being more lenient toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators than other groups
November 09, 2023Toxic gray smog has sickened tens of thousands of people in Pakistan’s cultural capital of Lahore, forcing authorities to shut schools, markets and parks for four days
November 09, 2023Japanese technology company SoftBank Group has reported it racked up a huge loss in the July-September quarter, as some of its investments soured
November 09, 2023Crowds of Palestinian families stretching as far as the eye could see walked out of Gaza City and surrounding areas toward the south Thursday
November 09, 2023An undersea volcano's eruption off Japan three weeks ago has provided a rare view of the birth of a tiny new island, but experts say it may not last long
November 09, 2023As China's navy grows and its land-based missile systems expand, the United States is reworking its strategy in the Indo-Pacific, particularly as it relates to the defense of Taiwan
November 09, 2023The Biden administration is aiming to show that its key Asian economic initiative is making progress as Pacific Rim leaders gather in San Francisco next week,
November 09, 2023Sony has reported that its profit in the July-September quarter slipped 29% from a year earlier, as damage from a strike in the movie sector offset boosts from a favorable exchange rate
November 09, 2023Asian shares have retreated after rising bond market yields once again weighed on Wall Street
November 09, 2023In the two years before the war in Ukraine, a private Boeing 737 linked to Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov criss-crossed the globe, taking in the French Riviera,
November 09, 2023Police say an industrial robot crushed a worker to death at a vegetable packaging plant in South Korea
November 09, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration says Israel will allow a four-hour humanitarian pause each day in its combat operations in northern Gaza to allow civilians to flee to the south
November 09, 2023Western and Arab nations, international agencies and nongovernmental groups appealed for urgent aid for Gaza civilians at a Paris conference
November 09, 2023Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the United States has no desire to break economic ties with China
November 09, 2023Charlotte Knobloch was 6 years old when she saw the synagogues of Munich burning and watched helplessly as two Nazi officers marched away a beloved friend of her father who was beaten up and bleeding on the forehead
November 09, 2023Nearly half of Democrats disapprove of how President Joe Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas conflict
November 09, 2023The United States and South Korea closed ranks behind common approaches to North Korea, Russia and China, vowing to continue to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and boosting humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza caught in Israel’s war against Hamas
November 09, 2023South Pacific leaders are heading to the stunning island of Aitutaki to discuss climate change and other regional concerns
November 09, 2023International journalists escorted by the Israeli military got a glimpse of the devastation wrought by nearly two weeks of heavy fighting in the northern Gaza Strip
November 09, 2023In the United States, the national conference of Catholic bishops rejects the concept of gender transition, leaving many transgender Catholics feeling excluded
November 08, 2023A Michigan man recounted the fear and desperation he and his wife faced while trying to flee Gaza amid the war between Israel and Hamas
November 08, 2023Debate over proposed regulations for deep-sea mining will stretch into next year as a U.N. agency that presides over the international seabed has concluded its last meeting of the year
November 08, 2023Microsoft Japan recently tested a radical perk for its workers: a four-day workweek with pay for five days of work. Employees took off entire Fridays in August while receiving their normal salaries. Microsoft says this compressed schedule boosted productivity by 40% compared to August 2018. The company also cut meeting times from 60 to 30 minutes, capping attendance at five people per session. Microsoft urged using chat instead of wasteful emails and meetings. The news excited workers in Japan and globally, with many hoping for four-day weeks at their own jobs. Microsoft isn’t alone in experimenting with abbreviated schedules. In
November 08, 2023The United States, for the second time in recent weeks, carried out strikes on Wednesday against a weapon storage facility in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said
November 08, 2023A Washington man is suing a Seattle hospital and two doctors for medical malpractice after he claims they removed the wrong organ during emergency surgery last December. George Piano and his wife Elizabeth filed the lawsuit November 2 against the University of Washington Medical Center and surgeons Nidhi Udyavar and Paul Herman. The 13-page complaint alleges botched surgery and serious complications resulting from the doctors’ failure to remove Piano’s appendix as intended. The lawsuit states that on December 6th, Piano experienced stomach pain and went to the UW Medical Center emergency department, where he was diagnosed with appendicitis. His inflamed
November 08, 2023The Pentagon says the U.S. has carried out an airstrike on a weapons warehouse in eastern Syria
November 08, 2023A federal court jury has found a man not guilty of assaulting a woman at a U.S. research station in Antarctica
November 08, 2023Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not elaborate when he said that Israel would maintain indefinite “overall security responsibility” in Gaza once it removes Hamas from power in response to the Islamic militant group's cross-border raid
November 08, 2023Newsman Bob Woodruff has returned to the Iraqi roadside where a bomb nearly killed him while on assignment for ABC News in 2006
November 08, 2023The family of a prominent Palestinian activist is fighting Israel's arrest of the young woman, saying she is being punished for an online post she didn't write
November 08, 2023Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to take steps to protect Palestinians in the United States as the Israel-Hamas war continues
November 08, 2023Two giant pandas and their cub are headed from the National Zoo in Washington to China
November 08, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken is calling for a united and Palestinian-led government for Gaza and the West Bank after the war ends, as a step toward Palestinian statehood
November 08, 2023A Russian news agency is reporting that the country is preparing to send a battalion of Ukrainian prisoners of war to the front lines in their homeland to fight on Moscow’s side in the war
November 08, 2023Hundreds of Azerbaijani soldiers have paraded through the capital city of the Karabakh region that came under full control of Azerbaijan in September after a lightning rout of ethnic Armenian forces
November 08, 2023A federal jury convicted two longtime U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration supervisors Wednesday of leaking confidential information to defense attorneys as part of a bribery conspiracy that prosecutors said imperiled high-profile cases and the lives of overseas drug informants
November 08, 2023About 3,000 migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti have blocked traffic on one of Mexico’s main southern highways to demand transit or exit visas to reach the U.S. border
November 08, 2023A judge at Britain’s High Court has ruled that life support for a terminally ill 8-month-old baby should be withdrawn at a hospice or hospital
November 08, 2023Ukraine’s intelligence agency has claimed responsibility for a car bombing that killed a member of the Russia-backed authority in the illegally annexed Luhansk region
November 08, 2023Russian authorities are seeking an eight-year prison term for an artist and musician who was jailed after protesting the war in Ukraine
November 08, 2023United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip shows that there is something "
November 08, 2023Arabs see the United States as complicit in Israel's war on Gaza for refusing to enforce a ceasefire until Hamas is crushed, an outcome that is far off and may not be
November 08, 2023Even before last month’s Hamas attacks in Israel, the leader of Hungary had long promoted his country as the safest in Europe for Jews
November 08, 2023President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday lauded what he described as important "high-tech" Russian military cooperation with China at a meeting in Moscow with a
November 08, 2023King Charles III has immersed himself in London’s vibrant Korean scene before the state visit later this month of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol
November 08, 2023Some insurers are excluding Israel, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries from their event cancellation policies after the Israel-Hamas
November 08, 2023Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are moving forward in their quests to join the European Union
November 08, 2023Authorities in Croatia have recommended that people drink only tap water as they investigate reports of several people getting sick or suffering throat injuries allegedly after consuming bottled beverages
November 08, 2023A new study says the three-year drought that has left millions of people in Syria, Iraq and Iran with little water wouldn’t have happened without human-caused climate change
November 08, 2023GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is recalling all 950 of its cars to update its software after one dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street last month
November 08, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has told a senior Chinese military official that Moscow and Beijing should expand their cooperation on military satellites and other prospective defense technologies
November 08, 2023Pakistan’s prime minister has sought to reassure at least 25,000 Afghans waiting in Pakistan for resettlement in the United States that they won’t be deported as part of his government’s widely criticized crackdown on undocumented migrants in the country
November 08, 2023The International Monetary Fund says the European Central Bank and other policymakers across Europe need to keep interest rates at current elevated levels until they’re sure inflation is under control despite sluggish growth
November 08, 2023Chinese President Xi Jinping says potential risks associated with artificial intelligence are challenges that countries should deal with together
November 08, 2023Shares are meandering in Asia after a another mixed close as Wall Street recalibrates following recent big swings
November 08, 2023Thousands of Palestinians are streaming out of northern Gaza on foot in an accelerating exodus
November 08, 2023The pace of Palestinian civilians fleeing the combat zone in northern Gaza has picked up as Israel’s air and ground campaign there intensifies
November 08, 2023The U.S. plans to launch a $553 million project to build a deep-water shipping container terminal in Sri Lanka as it competes with China in development financing
November 08, 2023The Republican presidential candidates at Wednesday's debate all say they support Israel, but they are squabbling over China and Ukraine
November 08, 2023From Western capitals to Muslim states, protest rallies over the Israel-Hamas war have made headlines
November 08, 2023Americans are divided over Israel's response to Hamas' attack one month ago
November 08, 2023The lower chamber of Mexico’s congress has once again turned to spectacle, giving hours of its time to a controversial character pressing the case for “non-human beings” he said were found in Peru
November 08, 2023In the Mediterranean's olive-growing countries, the extreme weather caused by climate change is taking a toll
November 08, 2023Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says 40 Filipinos have fled from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Rafah crossing after Filipino diplomats negotiated for their safe passage and Qatar mediated for the border to be opened
November 08, 2023Nintendo is developing a live-action film based on its hit video game “The Legend of Zelda.”
November 08, 2023Top diplomats from the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies have called for “urgent action” to help civilians trapped in an increasingly dire situation in Gaza, including pauses in the fighting to allow aid in and people out, in announcing a unified stance on the Israel-Hamas war
November 08, 2023October was the fifth straight month that Earth set a record for the hottest month in recorded history
November 08, 2023North Korea has criticized rival South Korea for removing a law that banned private activists from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to the North, insisting that such activities amount to psychological warfare and threatening to respond with a “shower of shells.”
November 08, 2023Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping remain on track to meet during next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit
November 08, 2023Ukraine's military said on Tuesday its troops had repelled Russian assaults in widely separated sectors of the war and braced for a fresh
November 08, 2023At least 19 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house near a hospital in north Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp on Wednesday,
November 08, 2023For over five agonizing months, Bettersten Wade searched in vain for her missing 37-year-old son Dexter after he disappeared from their Mississippi home. Unbeknownst to her, Jackson police had known since the night he vanished that Dexter died after being struck by one of their vehicles on a highway. Yet they failed to identify him or notify his mother, leaving his body unclaimed in the morgue for months. Bettersten filed a missing persons report two weeks after Dexter left home on March 5 and called police repeatedly seeking updates. But investigators told her nothing even as the county coroner buried
November 07, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a pause in fighting in Gaza during a call on Monday.
November 07, 2023A former CIA officer accused of drugging and sexually assaulting at least two dozen women has pleaded guilty to federal sex abuse charges
November 07, 2023President Joe Biden will host Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, for a meeting at the White House on Nov. 13
November 07, 2023U.S.
November 07, 2023Israel's military is starting the next phase of its war against Hamas, targeting the Islamist group's labyrinth of tunnels and command structures in northern
November 07, 2023Chile’s National Forestry Corporation has permanently closed a popular glacier, sparking outrage from adventurers and local guides
November 07, 2023Cyprus’ energy minister says the political and economic ramifications from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war may provide an impetus to regional energy projects involving his country
November 07, 2023Mexico's government has laid out hurricane reconstruction plans for the resort of Acapulco that seem to give as much priority to building military barracks as re-opening hotels
November 07, 2023The Lebanese militia Hezbollah has traded fire with Israeli troops along the border since the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip
November 07, 2023Israeli soldiers are operating in the heart of Gaza City, the stronghold of the Palestinian group Hamas, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday.
November 07, 2023An exiled Belarus activist has presented a second dossier of evidence to the International Criminal Court that he says proves the personal involvement of President Alexander Lukashenko in the illegal transfer of children to Belarus from Russian-occupied towns in Ukraine
November 07, 2023The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on 13 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel and four Mexico-based firms accused of trafficking fentanyl into the United States
November 07, 2023An ethics council dismissed the chief justice of Indonesia’s top court from the post after finding him guilty of making last-minute changes to election candidacy requirements
November 07, 2023World powers meet in Paris on Thursday to coordinate aid and help for the wounded in the Palestinian enclave of
November 07, 2023State media in Myanmar says the military-run Southeast Asian nation is holding its first joint naval exercise with Russia
November 07, 2023Authorities in Bangladesh have announced a new minimum wage for garment factory workers after weeks of violent protests
November 07, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ruled out a presidential vote next spring and is urging his countrymen to avoid political divides, saying the country must concentrate all its resources on fighting Russian aggression
November 07, 2023Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has resigned while his government is involved in a widespread corruption probe
November 07, 2023UBS has reported a $255 million pre-tax loss, shed some 4,000 jobs globally, cut costs faster than expected, and reaped billions in asset inflows in the third quarter
November 07, 2023U.S.
November 07, 2023Clashes have erupted in Spain for a second night between police and protesters who oppose the acting government's negotiations with Catalan separatist parties over a possible amnesty for thousands of secessionists in the northeastern region
November 07, 2023A top U.S. envoy said in Beirut that Washington doesn’t want the ongoing war in Gaza to expand to Lebanon after a Lebanese woman and her three granddaughters were killed in an Israeli strike two days ago
November 07, 2023Masks are back on the New Delhi streets as residents grapple with the annual surge in air pollution that has engulfed the Indian capital region
November 07, 2023NATO allies have frozen their participation in a key Cold War-era security treaty in response to Russia’s withdrawal from the pact
November 07, 2023Britain’s Conservative government is setting out a pre-election policy slate including tougher sentences for criminals and measures to boost economic growth
November 07, 2023Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s 16 state governors have agreed on new, stricter measures in an effort to curb the large number of migrants coming to the country
November 07, 2023Nintendo is reporting an 18% rise in its net profit for the first fiscal half, as sales were boosted by its hit Super Mario movie
November 07, 2023Fresh from a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has shifted his intense diplomacy on the Israel-Hamas war to Asia
November 07, 2023The Israeli army says its forces are battling Hamas fighters inside Gaza’s largest city, signaling a major new stage a month into a war that has claimed thousands of lives and leveled swaths of the territory
November 07, 2023The Philadelphia Orchestra has returned to Beijing for a tour that will mark 50 years since its historic performance in China, the latest sign of improving ties between the two countries ahead of a highly anticipated meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping
November 07, 2023Israel’s military said it was advancing deep into Gaza City after encircling the northern part of the besieged Palestinian enclave
November 07, 2023Asian shares are mixed in muted trading as attention focuses on prospects for improved China-U.S. relations from meetings next week on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim summit
November 07, 2023What was once Gaza’s busiest thoroughfare has become a terrifying escape route for Palestinian civilians running for their lives from heavy combat
November 07, 2023Two Indian states are casting ballots in local elections in a test of strength for India’s opposition, which is pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party ahead of a crucial national vote scheduled for next year
November 07, 2023An Indian maker of solar-powered dryers, a soil carbon marketplace and groups that work to make electric car batteries cleaner, restore Andean forests and deter illegal fishing were awarded the Earthshot Prize at a ceremony in Singapore
November 07, 2023WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
November 07, 2023Indonesia's President Joko Widodo is expected to meet U.S.
November 07, 2023Israel said on Tuesday its forces were operating deep in Gaza City in their battle to wipe out Hamas in the Palestinian enclave and
November 07, 2023The U.N. Security Council has once again failed to agree on a resolution about the Israel-Hamas war
November 07, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would consider "tactical little pauses" in Gaza fighting to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid or
November 07, 2023Senate Republicans have released a sweeping set of U.S. border security proposals as a condition for sending more aid to Ukraine, laying out a draft plan to resume construction on parts of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, curtail humanitarian parole for people who cross into the United States and make it more difficult for migrants to qualify for asylum
November 06, 2023Backstage at the second Los Angeles show of Lauryn Hill and the Fugees' anniversary tour, Pras Michel was optimistic
November 06, 2023It took four failed attempts before Suzan Beseiso was able to get through the Rafah crossing into Egypt and escape the bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
November 06, 2023President Joe Biden's administration has informed the U.S.
November 06, 2023The Zapatista rebel movement in southern Mexico says it is dissolving the “autonomous municipalities” it declared in the years following the group’s 1994 armed uprising
November 06, 2023U.S.
November 06, 2023An 8-month-old terminally ill British girl has been granted Italian citizenship after a court in Britain authorized the withdrawal of life-supporting invasive treatment
November 06, 2023U.S.
November 06, 2023United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that the protection of civilians "must be paramount" in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian
November 06, 2023Jordan said on Monday it was leaving "all options" open in its response to what it called Israel's failure to discriminate between military and civilian
November 06, 2023Four men have been charged over the theft of an 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, the sprawling English mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born
November 06, 2023A new poll finds public opinions in 24 countries growing more favorable of the United States than of China
November 06, 2023Radio Free Europe fears Russia has taken one of its journalists "hostage" for a potential prisoner swap with the United States and is appealing to
November 06, 2023King Charles III is preparing to deliver the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament
November 06, 2023Two climate change protesters have been arrested after they smashed a protective glass panel covering a famous Diego Velázquez oil painting at London’s National Gallery
November 06, 2023South Africa’s government has recalled Monday its ambassador and diplomatic mission to Israel in condemnation of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, calling it a “genocide”
November 06, 2023Hungary’s cultural minister has fired the director of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest and accused him of failing to comply with a contentious law that bans the display of LGBTQ+ content to minors
November 06, 2023A record number of migrants have made the treacherous boat journey on the Atlantic Ocean to Spain’s Canary Islands this year, and most of the 32,000 people are coming from Senegal
November 06, 2023Poland’s president has tapped the outgoing prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki of the Law and Justice party, to try to form the country’s next government
November 06, 2023U.S.
November 06, 2023Donald Trump returns to a New York courtroom on Monday, where he will take the witness stand in a civil fraud trial that threatens to diminish the real-estate empire
November 06, 2023A campaign urging Iran to free Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says the activist has begun a hunger strike over the conditions of her imprisonment and the country’s requirement that women wear headscarves
November 06, 2023Travelers are canceling or postponing planned vacations to the Middle East and North Africa due to fears of the Israel-Hamas
November 06, 2023Pope Francis has met with European rabbis and decried antisemitism, war and terrorism in a written speech
November 06, 2023A criminal investigation has been launched into Ukrainian military officers who organized a ceremony to honor troops that was struck by a Russian missile, killing 19 soldiers
November 06, 2023Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on Monday Oslo was exploring ways to revive a diplomatic channel between Israel and the Palestinians to find a political solution to
November 06, 2023After more than a week of public pressure from the U.S. for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is allowing that his government might be open to only “little pauses” in its assault on Hamas
November 06, 2023The Group of Seven (G7) bloc of wealthy democracies risks eroding its relevance as a force to tackle major geopolitical crises
November 06, 2023Survivors of an earthquake that flattened villages in Nepal’s northwest mountains have been searching through the debris of their collapsed homes for any salvageable belongings as aid trickles into the remote area
November 06, 2023Israeli forces have severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with intense airstrikes overnight, setting the stage for an expected push into the dense confines of Gaza City and an even bloodier phase of the month-old war
November 06, 2023South Korea says it plans to launch its first domestically built spy satellite at the end of this month as part of its efforts to better monitor rival North Korea
November 06, 2023Israeli troops have divided the northern and southern parts of Gaza, as communications across the besieged territory were temporarily cut Monday for a third time since the war started
November 06, 2023A man who was accused of physically assaulting a woman in Antarctica was then assigned to look after the safety of a professor and three young graduate students on a remote icefield, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press
November 06, 2023Shares are mostly lower in Asia after a mixed close on Wall Street
November 06, 2023The leaders of Australia and China have welcomed the improvement in relations between their two countries in the past year and emphasized the importance of engaging with each other despite differences on issues such as defense
November 06, 2023Britain’s Prince William says seven countries _ Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Britain and the United States _ have committed at a wildlife summit to deepen their intelligence-sharing and other cooperation to combat money laundering by international gangs engaged in the illegal wildlife trade
November 06, 2023A car has crashed into an Australian pub’s outdoor dining area, killing five people and injuring six others including the driver
November 06, 2023Gaza is becoming a "graveyard for children", U.N.
November 06, 2023Luis Diaz lifted his Liverpool jersey to reveal a T-shirt with the words “Libertad Para Papa” (“Freedom for Papa”) after scoring a late equalizer in his first appearance for the team since his parents were kidnapped in his native Colombia
November 05, 2023A civil defense official and Lebanese state-run media say four civilians have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon, three of them children
November 05, 2023Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia has set a course record to win the New York City Marathon men’s race
November 05, 2023French power network operator Enedis says one of its technicians was killed as it battles to restore electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes in the wake of major storms
November 05, 2023Families of hostages seized during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack fear the world’s focus on them is fading, as is the impetus to free some 240 people held
November 05, 2023Climate change is increasing billion-dollar disasters, many of them from intensifying hurricanes
November 05, 2023Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says he plans to bow out and hand over power to his deputy Lawrence Wong next year before the 2025 general election
November 05, 2023Aid groups say Afghans fleeing a deportation drive in Pakistan lack shelter, food, and warmth once they cross the border
November 05, 2023Evacuations of injured Gazans and foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing to Egypt have been suspended since Saturday, but Egyptian, U.S. and Qatari officials said there
November 05, 2023The Russian military has reported a successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to carry nuclear warheads from a new nuclear submarine
November 05, 2023Prince William has arrived in Singapore for the Earthshot Prize awards, the first to be held in Asia, to support environmental innovators with solutions to battle climate change and save the planet
November 05, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank and then to Iraq
November 05, 2023Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disciplined on Sunday a junior member of his cabinet who appeared to voice openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear
November 05, 2023A radio anchor has been fatally shot by a man inside his southern Philippine station in a brazen attack that was witnessed by people watching the program live on Facebook
November 05, 2023The hostage situation at Hamburg Airport has ended around 18 hours after a man drove his vehicle through the gates of the airport with his 4-year-old daughter as a passenger
November 05, 2023The Russian military says a Ukrainian missile strike on a shipyard in annexed Crimea had damaged a Russian ship
November 05, 2023Moldovans cast ballots in nationwide local elections amid claims by Moldovan authorities that Russia has been conducting “hybrid warfare” to undermine the vote in the European Union candidate country
November 05, 2023Seeking to generate excitement around a largely lackluster economy, Chinese Premier Li Qiang is pledging to continue deepening reforms, expand free trade zones and relax market access for foreign investment
November 05, 2023Negotiators on a climate-related loss and damages fund have agreed the World Bank will temporarily oversee the international fund to help poor countries hit hard by a warming planet
November 05, 2023More than 20,000 people in Ukraine have lost limbs because of injuries since the start of Russia’s brutal war there, many of them soldiers
November 05, 2023A report from the U.N. drugs agency says Afghan farmers lost more than $1 billion of cash income from opium sales after the Taliban banned poppy cultivation
November 05, 2023Gaza has lost communications in its third total outage of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel’s military says it has encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two
November 05, 2023Health officials say Israeli airstrikes have hit two refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing scores of people
November 05, 2023Health officials say Israeli airstrikes have hit two refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing scores of people
November 05, 2023Israel rebuffed growing international pressure for a ceasefire and continued intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Sunday
November 05, 2023Israel on Sunday rebuffed growing international pressure for a ceasefire and said its forces had encircled Gaza City as the
November 05, 2023German news agency dpa has reported that the airport in the northern city of Hamburg has been closed to passengers and flights have been canceled after a vehicle broke through security and entered the premises
November 04, 2023Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators calling for a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza have marched in Washington, Paris, Berlin and other European cities
November 04, 2023The Kansas City Chiefs say Sunday's game in Frankfurt against the Miami Dolphins is a big step in the organization's plan to become the “world’s team.”
November 04, 2023A diver who spotted something metallic not far from Sardinia’s coast has led to the discovery of tens of thousands of ancient bronze coins
November 04, 2023U.S. Soccer is closing in on naming Chelsea’s Emma Hayes as the new coach of the women’s national team, a source familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press
November 04, 2023Estonia's government says it will allow Taiwan to open a nondiplomatic representative office of Taipei in the Baltic country to boost economic and cultural ties with the self-governing island
November 04, 2023The United States needs to push for a quick end to the Israel-Hamas war and a new process to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian issue or Washington
November 04, 2023Israeli air strikes devastated parts of the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza this week, flattening
November 04, 2023Israeli warplanes have conducted airstrikes along the border with Lebanon as the militant Hezbollah group attacked several Israeli army posts, including one that was struck with two large rockets
November 04, 2023Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Gaza must be part of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state once the Israel-Hamas war is over, and Ankara will not support any plans "
November 04, 2023Thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran
November 04, 2023Thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran
November 04, 2023Ukraine's newly appointed head of defense industry says he wants to turn the country into a weapons hub for the West
November 04, 2023Russian attacks in Ukraine have wounded at least 14 civilians as the president of the European Union's executive returned to the Ukrainian capital to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
November 04, 2023Russian attacks in Ukraine have wounded at least 14 civilians as the president of the European Union's executive returned to the Ukrainian capital to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
November 04, 2023The Taliban are appealing to Afghanistan's private sector to help those fleeing Pakistan's mass deportation drive
November 04, 2023Arab leaders who met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jordan are pushing for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war
November 04, 2023Arab leaders who met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jordan are pushing for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war
November 04, 2023Villagers in the mountains of northwest Nepal have cremated the bodies of some who perished in an earthquake that shook the area Friday night
November 04, 2023The United States and Arab partners are disagreeing on the need for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as the Israeli military says the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers are “encountering the full force” of its troops
November 04, 2023The United States and Arab partners are disagreeing on the need for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as the Israeli military says the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers are “encountering the full force” of its troops
November 04, 2023The U.S. is trying to persuade Israel to take a humanitarian pause from airstrikes on Gaza, where Palestinians reported multiple fatalities across the besieged enclave
November 04, 2023Hours after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, the country’s new fortified, subterranean blood bank kicked into action
November 04, 2023Hours after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, the country’s new fortified, subterranean blood bank kicked into action
November 04, 2023Panama's president has signed into law an indefinite moratorium on new mining concessions
November 04, 2023The Gaza director for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says the average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour that the U.N. had stockpiled in the region
November 03, 2023Israel has deported thousands of workers to the besieged Gaza Strip, capping what many described as harrowing weeks trapped in legal limbo since their detention when the Israel-Hamas war erupted
November 03, 2023Israel has deported thousands of workers to the besieged Gaza Strip, capping what many described as harrowing weeks trapped in legal limbo since their detention when the Israel-Hamas war erupted
November 03, 2023Former Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo has received two life sentences after being found guilty in the grisly killing of his 27-year-old pregnant lover
November 03, 2023A strong earthquake has shaken northwestern Nepal, and officials say at least 128 people are dead and dozens more injured as rescuers search mountain villages
November 03, 2023Japanese Princess Kako on Friday arrived in Peru on an official visit to commemorate 150 years of diplomatic relations between both countries
November 03, 2023Tensions are high in Rio de Janeiro on the eve of the Copa Libertadores soccer final following a brawl between fan clubs and a fierce police response on the Copacabana beach
November 03, 2023The on-air outburst of grief by Salman al-Bashir seemed to channel the mood of all Gaza
November 03, 2023Travis Kelce has declined to discuss Taylor Swift’s status for Sunday’s game in Germany — and their status as a couple
November 03, 2023Serbia’s intelligence chief has resigned after less than a year in the post saying he wanted to avoid possible further embargos against the Balkan nation
November 03, 2023The United States will provide additional arms and equipment to Ukraine for its ongoing fight against Russia's invasion, U.S.
November 03, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is warning Israel that it risks destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acts swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas
November 03, 2023Weeks after ordering northern Gaza’s 1.1 million inhabitants to evacuate south, the Israeli army is intensifying its bombing of the area that stretches to the wetlands of Wadi Gaza, in the central strip
November 03, 2023Archaeologists have unearthed more ancient ruins of what they believe was once a bustling port city near the capital of modern-day Morocco
November 03, 2023The Russian Orthodox Church has called for an apology from Russia's most renowned pop singer who returned home this week over her criticism of the war in Ukraine
November 03, 2023King Charles III has met with religious leaders about promoting peace and security during the last day of his four-day trip to Kenya
November 03, 2023A wildfire abetted by winds from Storm Ciarán has burned some 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of land in eastern Spain and forced the evacuation of 850 people from four towns
November 03, 2023Ukrainian authorities say Russia unleashed a wave of nighttime drone and missile attacks across 10 of Ukraine’s 24 regions
November 03, 2023Police in Pakistan say a bomb hidden in a parked motorcycle exploded near a police vehicle in the country's northwest and killed at least five people
November 03, 2023Eric Trump is expected to face a second day of questions on the witness stand on Friday in a fraud trial that threatens to hobble the real-estate empire that vaulted
November 03, 2023New Delhi’s government has shut primary schools and banned polluting vehicles and construction work in an attempt to reduce the worst haze and smog of the season
November 03, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected U.S. calls for a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war, telling U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday “we are going full steam ahead,” unless the hostages held by Hamas are released
November 03, 2023Record-breaking rain provoked floods in a vast swath of Tuscany as storm Ciarán pushed into Italy overnight
November 03, 2023Wall Street steamrolled even higher to add more gains to its best week in nearly a year
November 03, 2023The leaders of Japan and the Philippines have agreed to start negotiations for a key defense pact that will allow their troops to enter each other’s territory for joint military exercises
November 03, 2023The watchdog office overseeing the National Science Foundation is sending investigators to Antarctica’s McMurdo Station after hearing concerns about the prevalence of sexual violence at the U.S. research base
November 03, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against growing pressure for a humanitarian pause in the nearly month-old war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza
November 03, 2023A woman accused of serving her ex-husband’s parents and an aunt poisonous mushrooms with lunch has appeared in an Australian court
November 03, 2023North Korea has confirmed that it’s closing some of its diplomatic missions abroad, a move that rival South Korea suspects is a sign of the North’s economic troubles amid persistent international sanctions
November 03, 2023International authorities say there's growing evidence that shows Beijing is helping cash-strapped North Korea evade a range of international sanctions designed to hamper Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program
November 03, 2023Long before “Friends” made its official debut in China, the show was a word-of-mouth phenomenon in the country
November 03, 2023President Joe Biden on Friday welcomed leaders from countries across the Americas to an economic summit by pledging to increase U.S. investment in the region in part to counter China’s influence
November 03, 2023Anthony Albanese will soon become the first Australian prime minister in seven years to visit China in recognition of improving bilateral relations
November 03, 2023Fishing communities in Fukushima feared devastating damage to their businesses from the tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant’s ongoing discharge of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea
November 03, 2023Godzilla, the nightmarish radiation spewing monster born out of nuclear weapons, has stomped through many movies, including several Hollywood remakes
November 02, 2023Misinformation about the latest Israel-Hamas war is thriving on social media platforms, where misrepresented video footage, mistranslations and outright falsehoods often crowd out real reporting from the conflict
November 02, 2023Airstrikes in the Gaza Strip's Bureij refugee camp have flattened entire apartment buildings, sending scores of injured Palestinians into a hospital unable to grant them bed space
November 02, 2023One of modern climate science’s pioneers is warning that the world isn’t just steadily warming, but is dangerously accelerating
November 02, 2023It’s been a whirlwind last few months for newly crowned Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí with memorable victories on and off the field
November 02, 2023Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says Washington wants to build an economic relationship with Beijing that takes into account national security and human rights and is fair to both sides
November 02, 2023The White House is exploring the idea of pauses in the Israel-Hamas conflict to help civilians in Gaza and any such temporary pause will not stop Israel from defending itself,
November 02, 2023U.S.
November 02, 2023The United States has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of the Gaza Strip, President Joe Biden said at the White House on Thursday, one
November 02, 2023The House has approved a nearly $14.5 billion military aid package for Israel, but without humanitarian assistance for Gaza
November 02, 2023Colombia’s government says the guerrilla group National Liberation Army, known as ELN, has kidnapped the father of Liverpool and Colombian national soccerteam striker Luis Díaz
November 02, 2023Olive oil is continuing its staggering rise in prices in Europe
November 02, 2023Dozens of Palestinians with foreign passports crossed through the war-torn Gaza Strip’s only exit for the second straight day, escaping the suffocating siege into the empty Egyptian desert
November 02, 2023A growing list of Israeli officials have accepted responsibility for failing to prevent Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli communities
November 02, 2023The United States on Thursday imposed sweeping new measures against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, targeting Russia's future energy
November 02, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. has imposed a new round of sanctions targeting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine
November 02, 2023American Ballet Theatre has returned to China for the first time in a decade, the latest sign that strained U.S.-China relations are beginning to improve
November 02, 2023Rights groups say in new reports that security forces and armed groups are committing alleged war crimes against civilians in Africa’s Sahel region where extremists and rebels are increasingly fighting to exert dominance and control resources in communities
November 02, 2023The final Beatles recording featuring John, Paul, George and Ringo is here
November 02, 2023Russian shelling has killed an 81-year-old woman in the yard of her home and a 60-year-old man in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region
November 02, 2023The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at the 15-year high of 5.25% and indicated that borrowing costs will likely remain at these sort of elevated levels for a while yet especially if oil and gas prices increase sharply because of the Israel-Hamas war
November 02, 2023President Joe Biden is trying to increase trade with Latin America
November 02, 2023Thai agricultural workers in Israel have shared the fate those killed, kidnapped or forced to run for their lives when Hamas militants stormed into Israel last month in the assault that started the latest Gaza war
November 02, 2023President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill revoking Russia's ratification of a global nuclear test ban
November 02, 2023Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. is due to testify for a second day on Thursday about the family company's financial statements that a New York judge has ruled
November 02, 2023British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says achievements at the first international AI Safety Summit will “tip the balance in favor of humanity” in the race to contain the risks from rapid advances in cutting-edge artificial intelligence
November 02, 2023Record-breaking winds in France and across much of western Europe left at least seven people dead and injured others
November 02, 2023Major international aid agencies are warning of chaotic and desperate scenes among Afghans who have returned from Pakistan, where security forces are detaining and deporting undocumented or unregistered foreigners
November 02, 2023Israel ground troops are advancing toward Gaza City as diplomatic efforts intensify for at least a brief pause in the fighting in Gaza’s deadliest war
November 02, 2023Israeli troops have encircled Gaza City in heavy fighting with Hamas militants, the miiltary says, as the Palestinian death toll rises above 9,000
November 02, 2023Nippon Steel has dropped its lawsuit against Toyota over a patent for a technology used in electric motors, saying wrangling among Japanese companies was not beneficial to keep the nation competitive
November 02, 2023Asian shares have advanced after Wall Street roared higher on hopes that market-rattling hikes to interest rates are coming to an end
November 02, 2023South Korea says North Korea has likely supplied several types of missiles to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, along with its widely reported shipments of ammunition and shells
November 02, 2023Vladimir Putin is expected to seek another term in the Kremlin when Russia holds presidential elections next March
November 02, 2023Hong Kong is set to launch Asia's first Gay Games on Friday, fostering hopes for wider LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Asian financial hub
November 02, 2023The tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began its third release of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the sea after Japanese officials said the two earlier releases ended smoothly
November 02, 2023A new report from the United Nations says Iran is carrying out executions “at an alarming rate,” putting to death at least 419 people in the first seven months of the year
November 02, 2023A lie detector test conducted by FBI agents determined with the “highest level of confidence” that Joran van der Sloot was telling the truth about killing Natalee Holloway
November 02, 2023Michigan Democrats have warned the White House that President Joe Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war could put his reelection campaign in jeopardy in the key swing state next year
November 02, 2023President Joe Biden says that 74 more U.S. citizens have left the Gaza Strip He announced the development as he dispatched his top diplomat to the Mideast for talks with Israeli and Jordanian officials as the nearly four-week old Israel-Hamas war rages on with no end in sight
November 02, 2023The host of a weekend family lunch at her Australian country home has been charged with murdering her ex-husband's parents and aunt with poisonous mushrooms and attempting to murder a fourth guest
November 02, 2023European privacy officials have widened a ban on Meta's “behavioral advertising” practices to most of Europe
November 02, 2023Panama's government has nearly approved a new bill revoking a controversial mining contract
November 02, 2023Uruguay’s foreign minister has resigned shortly after audio messages were published in which he appears to ask a former official to not hand over evidence in an investigation over a passport issued to an accused drug trafficker
November 02, 2023President Joe Biden says he thinks there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war
November 02, 2023Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people have gathered near a state funeral home in Beijing as China's former second-ranking leader, Li Keqiang, was put to rest
November 01, 2023Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says armed forces will boost security at some of the country's most important airports, ports and along its international borders to tackle organized crime
November 01, 2023Hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports and dozens of seriously wounded patients desperate to escape the war in Gaza have crowded at the black metal gate on the Egyptian border, hoping to pass through the enclave’s only portal to the outside world for the first time since the war began
November 01, 2023Countries in the Middle East that have normalized or are considering normalizing relations with Israel are coming under growing public pressure to cut those ties because of Israel’s war with Hamas
November 01, 2023Israel has criticized Bolivia, Chile and Colombia after the South American countries undertook a series of diplomatic moves to protest Israel's military operations against Hamas in Gaza
November 01, 2023Volunteers, churches and advocacy groups are scrambling to find indoor shelter for migrants in Chicago as the temperatures drop
November 01, 2023Pope Francis says he will go to Dubai for three days during the COP28 climate conference hosted there
November 01, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and Jordan this week as Israel's war in Gaza and international criticism of it intensify
November 01, 2023When Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked who would govern the Gaza Strip following Israel’s war against Hamas, he said a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority made “the most sense.”
November 01, 2023Cyprus has offered more detail about its initiative to create a sea corridor for the steady flow of humanitarian assistance from Cyprus to Gaza, saying that aid-laden ships would sail directly to the enclave, where United Nations personnel would receive it for eventual distribution
November 01, 2023The Mexican government says it will pay half of interest rates on bank loans to rebuild the 377 hotels destroyed or heavily damaged by Hurricane Otis
November 01, 2023Mexicans in the state of Oaxaca are celebrating the Day of the Dead
November 01, 2023Police in England say two more men have been arrested in the investigation into who cut down the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree
November 01, 2023The U.K.'s national forecaster says Storm Ciarán has begun arriving on England's southwestern coast as that country, France and others in western Europe brace for what could be some of the highest wind speeds in the region for decades
November 01, 2023Israel’s ambassador to Moscow gave new details of the weekend riot at an airport in southern Russia when a flight from Tel Aviv landed there, saying some of the passengers had to hide in the terminal before being flown by helicopter to safety
November 01, 2023A renowned glass artist in Mexico played a key role in the creation of a gigantic church window in the U.S. The 81-year-old Narcissus Quagliata is the master of the glass-fusion technique that made the Kansas church’s colossal stained-glass artwork possible
November 01, 2023An international media freedom group says 34 journalists have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas
November 01, 2023A senior Microsoft Israel official expressed concern for the future of Israel's high tech sector due to the country's war with Islamist group Hamas, warning multinational
November 01, 2023A ferry that had ran aground last month off southeastern Sweden and started leaking oil into the Baltic Sea has been pulled free and anchored nearby
November 01, 2023Huge ash columns have erupted from Eurasia’s tallest active volcano and forced authorities to close schools in two towns on Russia’s sparsely populated Kamchatka Peninsula
November 01, 2023Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. is set to testify on Wednesday afternoon in a New York civil fraud trial accusing the former U.S. president and his family
November 01, 2023King Charles III has held a private meeting with the family of the executed leader of the Kenyan rebellion against British colonial rule
November 01, 2023A group of human rights researchers has officially launched a website they hope will facilitate the task of obtaining justice for victims of state violence in Myanmar
November 01, 2023Pakistani security forces have launched sweeps to arrest and deport Afghans who are in the country illegally, sending dozens back after a government-set deadline for them to leave expired
November 01, 2023Delegates from 28 nations, including the U.S. and China, have agreed to work together to contain the potential “catastrophic” risks posed by galloping advances in artificial intelligence
November 01, 2023Asian shares are surging after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated it may not need to pump the brakes any harder on Wall Street and the economy
November 01, 2023Australia’s highest court has overturned a government decision to strip citizenship from a man convicted of terrorism
November 01, 2023Taiwan says China has sent another 43 military aircraft and seven ships near the self-ruled island, the latest sign that Beijing plans no let-up in its campaign of harassment, threats and intimidation
November 01, 2023Israel's military says its ground troops have advanced to “the gates of Gaza City” amid heavy fighting
November 01, 2023The AI Safety Summit is bringing politicians, computer scientists and tech executives to Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom, a site that's synonymous with codebreaking and the birth of computing during World War II
November 01, 2023Toyota’s profit in the latest quarter jumped nearly threefold from a year ago as vehicle sales grew around the world and a cheap yen boosted the Japanese automaker’s overseas earnings
November 01, 2023Hundreds of foreign nationals and several seriously injured Palestinians are being allowed to leave Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began more than three weeks ago
November 01, 2023Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who fled repression in their homeland face the prospect of having invalid documents after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree halting passport renewals abroad
November 01, 2023People younger than 18 have been barred from visiting the World Press Photo exhibition in Hungary after the government determined some of its photos violate a contentious law restricting LGBTQ+ content
November 01, 2023Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will raise the plight of a detained Australian democracy blogger with Chinese leaders during his visit to China
November 01, 2023Mexicans are celebrating Day of the Dead, an intangible tradition borne down from pre-Hispanic cultures that is also a celebration for all the senses
October 31, 2023A Dutchman who recently confessed to killing American high school student Natalee Holloway in 2005 in Aruba has been returned from the U.S. to Peru to serve the remainder of his prison sentence for murdering a Peruvian woman
October 31, 2023The United States and other countries are looking at "a variety of possible permutations" for the future of the Gaza Strip if Hamas militants
October 31, 2023A senior U.N. official says Russian strikes are inflicting unimaginable suffering on the people of Ukraine and that more than 40% of them need humanitarian assistance
October 31, 2023Bolivia’s government has severed diplomatic relations with Israel, accusing it of carrying out “crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip
October 31, 2023The human rights group Amnesty International says civilians in southern Lebanon were injured this month when Israeli forces hit a border village with shells containing white phosphorus
October 31, 2023The Senate has confirmed Jacob Lew as ambassador to Israel, filling the key diplomatic post as the country is fighting a war with Hamas
October 31, 2023Over the past five days, Israeli ground troops have pushed deeper and deeper into Gaza in their war against Hamas, launched in response to a bloody Oct. 7 cross-border raid by the Islamic militant group
October 31, 2023FBI Director Christopher Wray is warning that Hamas’ rampage inside Israel could inspire violence in the U.S. He told lawmakers on Tuesday that multiple foreign extremist groups have called for attacks against Americans and the West in recent weeks
October 31, 2023A girl who had celebrated her eighth birthday last year romping with jugglers, acrobats and stilt walkers for her circus-themed party
October 31, 2023Yemen’s Houthi rebels have for the first time claimed missile and drone attacks targeting Israel
October 31, 2023Tropical Storm Pilar is lashing Central America with heavy rains that have already been blamed for two deaths in El Salvador as it meanders off the Pacific coast
October 31, 2023The Israel-Hamas war has plunged Israel’s agricultural heartlands into crisis
October 31, 2023Cyprus is working out with partners in the European Union and the Middle East the logistics to establish a sea corridor to deliver a stream of vital humanitarian aid to Gaza from the island’s main port of Limassol once the situation on the ground permits it
October 31, 2023Spain's Catholic bishops have apologized again for sex abuses committed by members following a report by the national ombudsman that accused the church of widespread negligence
October 31, 2023U
October 31, 2023Three energy companies including U.S. Westinghouse, France’s EdF and Korea’s KHNP, have submitted their final bids to build the Czech Republic’s newest reactor at the Dukovany nuclear power station as the country strives to become more energy-independent and wean itself off fossil fuels
October 31, 2023The former top aide to ex-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has painted a picture of widespread chaos and dysfunction in government during the coronavirus pandemic
October 31, 2023The inflation that has been wearing on European consumers fell sharply to 2.9% in October, its lowest in more than two years as fuel prices fell and rapid interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank took hold
October 31, 2023The heir to the Spanish throne has sworn allegiance to the Constitution on her 18th birthday, laying the groundwork for her to become queen when the time comes
October 31, 2023Muslim Americans and some Democratic Party activists say they will work to mobilize millions of Muslim voters to withhold donations and votes
October 31, 2023Singapore’s defense minister has urged China as a dominant power in Asia to take the lead in reducing tensions in the region, warning that a military conflict like the one in Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas war would be devastating for the continent and its future
October 31, 2023French police have opened fire on a woman who threatened to blow herself up and allegedly made death threats and spoke in support of terrorism on a train heading into Paris
October 31, 2023Afghans are piling into trucks and buses and leaving Pakistan to avoid arrest and deportation
October 31, 2023Anheuser-Busch InBev says revenue growth in most of its global regions was offset by a drop in North American sales in the third quarter
October 31, 2023A deluge of Israeli airstrikes Tuesday on a refugee camp near Gaza City has demolished apartment buildings, leaving craters where they once stood, while ground troops battle Hamas militants across northern Gaza
October 31, 2023Saudi Arabia is all but certain to host the men’s 2034 World Cup after the Australian soccer federation declined to enter the bidding contest
October 31, 2023A barrage of Israeli airstrikes leveled apartment buildings in a refugee camp near Gaza City, and footage showed rescuers pulling men, women and children out of the rubble
October 31, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher after Wall Street advanced to claim back some of the ground it gave up in another losing month
October 31, 2023Chatbots like ChatGPT wowed with their ability to do tasks as good as or better than humans, thanks to cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems
October 31, 2023King Charles III has expressed “greatest sorrow and the deepest regret” for the “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence” committed against Kenyans as they sought independence
October 31, 2023A trial of New Zealand tourism operators accused of safety breaches after 22 people died in a 2019 volcanic eruption has ended with the last remaining defendant found guilty on one count
October 31, 2023The United Nations special envoy for Syria is warning that the Israel-Hamas war is spilling into the neighboring country
October 31, 2023Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are urging an increasingly divided Congress to immediately send major aid to both Israel and Ukraine
October 31, 2023State media report the remains of former Chinese premier Li Keqiang are to be cremated on Thursday, with flags around the country to be flown at half-staff to mourn the official who helped guide the world's second-largest economy for a decade
October 31, 2023Three astronauts have returned to Earth after six months aboard China's orbiting space station
October 31, 2023The head of the U_N_ agency for Palestinian refugees is telling a U_N_ emergency meeting “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions.”
October 30, 2023About 5,000 migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti have set out on foot to reach the U.S., walking north from Mexico's southern border
October 30, 2023Haiti’s government has banned all charter flights to Nicaragua that migrants fleeing poverty and violence had been increasingly using in their quest to reach the United States
October 30, 2023Saleemul Huq, a pioneering climate scientist from Bangladesh who pushed to get the world to understand, pay for and adapt to worsening warming impacts on poorer nations, has died
October 30, 2023Long lines have formed at gas stations throughout Argentina as surging demand outstrips supply, becoming a campaign issue just weeks ahead of the second round of the country’s presidential race
October 30, 2023A watchdog group advocating for press freedom has said that the strikes that hit a group of journalists in southern Lebanon earlier this month, killing one, were targeted rather than accidental and that the journalists were clearly identified as press
October 30, 2023Hurricane Otis shredded Acapulco, Mexico, last week and tore apart the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
October 30, 2023Israel’s Intelligence Ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula
October 30, 2023South Yorkshire Police are investigating the death of American ice hockey player Adam Johnson after his neck was cut by a skate blade in an English game
October 30, 2023A Dutchman who recently confessed to killing American high school student Natalee Holloway in 2005 in Aruba has been returned from the U.S. to Peru to serve the remainder of his prison sentence for murdering a Peruvian woman
October 30, 2023Venezuela’s high court has suspended of the opposition’s entire primary election process, including its result
October 30, 2023Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Pilar has already caused two deaths in El Salvador as it meanders off the Pacific coast
October 30, 2023Three foreign residents have been confirmed among the 47 dead from Hurricane Otis as the search for the missing focused on submerged boats that sunk in the storm
October 30, 2023A new study says that in a little more than five years the world will likely be unable to stay below the internationally agreed temperature limit for global warming if it continues to burn fossil fuels at its current rate
October 30, 2023A former British cyberespionage agency employee who viciously stabbed an American intelligence worker has been sentenced to life in prison for attempted murder
October 30, 2023A Japanese high court on Monday said the North Korean government was responsible for the human rights abuses of plaintiffs who said they were lured to the North by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in the “paradise on Earth."
October 30, 2023A German-Israeli woman who was snatched by Hamas from a music festival on Oct. 7 and paraded around Gaza by the Palestinian militant group is dead, the Israeli government said on Monday.
October 30, 2023The Spanish soccer official who provoked a players’ rebellion and a reckoning on gender when he kissed an unwilling star player on the lips is banned for three years by the sport’s global governing body
October 30, 2023The World Bank says oil prices could be pushed into “uncharted waters” if the violence between Israel and Hamas widens
October 30, 2023China has honored two American veterans of World War II as Beijing and Washington look to past collaboration for inspiration to deal with today's strained ties
October 30, 2023China’s leaders are expected to search for ways to mend the country's fractured property market, create jobs for millions of unemployed youths and spur faster growth in a meeting that reportedly began Monday in Beijing
October 30, 2023Israel has expanded its military assault deeper into northern Gaza as the U.N. and medical staff expressed fears over airstrikes hitting closer to hospitals
October 30, 2023Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into Gaza, advancing in tanks and other armored vehicles on the territory’s main city and freeing a soldier held captive by Hamas militants
October 30, 2023Authorities say a former Jehovah’s Witness has been detained on suspicion of setting off an explosive device that killed three people and wounded 50 others at a denomination gathering in southern India
October 30, 2023Asian shares are trading mostly lower as investors look ahead to a week that could see more swings in financial markets, including key reports on U.S. consumer confidence and the job market
October 30, 2023A major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route through Panama's Darién Gap jungle has become increasingly popular thanks to social media
October 30, 2023The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing through Panama's Darién Gap jungle has risen this year as more people from the world's most populous country look to immigrate to the U.S. The number has risen from 913 in January to 2,588 in September
October 30, 2023Democrat Brandon Presley is trying to block Republican Gov. Tate Reeves from winning a second term in Mississippi
October 30, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to deflect blame from the Kremlin for a riot in the southern region of Dagestan that targeted a flight from Israel, charging without evidence that Ukrainian agents of Western spy agencies were behind the rampage
October 29, 2023A former high-profile Myanmar army officer who had served as information minister and presidential spokesperson in a previous military-backed government has been arrested and charged with spreading false or inflammatory news
October 29, 2023Israeli media have espoused a dual role following Hamas’ devastating attack on southern Israeli communities and the war that it set off
October 29, 2023Colombian police are continuing their search for the father of Liverpool striker Luis Díaz, one day after he was kidnapped with his wife near the country’s border with Venezuela
October 29, 2023Russians commemorated the victims of Soviet state terror on Sunday, while the Russian government continues its crackdown on dissent in the country
October 29, 2023Kentucky Derby winner Mage won't run in the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic
October 29, 2023Around 2,000 Ukrainians have taken part in a one-kilometer race in Kyiv, wearing bibs displaying the name of a person instead of a number
October 29, 2023Thousands of supporters from Pakistan’s main religious political party have rallied in the capital, Islamabad, against Israel’s bombing of Palestinians in Gaza
October 29, 2023Authorities in Bangladesh have arrested a key opposition figure from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and sent him to prison after hours of detention
October 29, 2023As the Israel-Hamas war enters a new phase, President Joe Biden is pressing Israeli and Arab leaders to think hard about their eventual postwar reality
October 29, 2023Bereaved relatives of victims of last year’s devastating Halloween crush in Seoul and their supporters have demanded an independent investigation of the disaster as they marked the anniversary with a massive memorial service
October 29, 2023China’s foreign minister says the road to an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and U_S_ President Joe Biden would not be “smooth sailing."
October 29, 2023Trade and economy officials from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies have strengthened their pledge to work together to ensure smooth supply chains for essentials like energy and food despite global uncertainties
October 29, 2023Police in southern India have detained a man for his alleged involvement in setting off explosives that killed at least three people and wounded 50 more at a Jehovah's Witness gathering
October 29, 2023Nearly three dozen trucks entered Gaza in the largest aid convoy since the war between Israel and Hamas began, but humanitarian workers say the assistance still falls desperately short of needs after thousands of people broke into warehouses seeking food
October 29, 2023The Israeli military has intensified airstrikes in Gaza including near its largest hospital
October 29, 2023King Charles III wants to look to the future when his four-day state visit to Kenya starts on Tuesday
October 29, 2023Mexican authorities have raised the toll to 48 dead from Hurricane Otis, days after the fierce Category 5 storm struck the country’s southern Pacific coast and the tourist city of Acapulco
October 29, 2023Turkey has marked the 100th anniversary of the creation of the modern, secular republic from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire with little pageantry and no gala reception to commemorate the important milestone
October 29, 2023Actor Matthew Perry, who gained fame in the 1990s for his starring role in the hit U.S. television comedy "Friends," was found dead at age 54 on Saturday in a hot tub at a Los
October 29, 2023Israel says it has two main objectives in Gaza: destroy Hamas and rescue some 230 hostages being held by the militant group
October 28, 2023Two days after cellular and internet service abruptly vanished for most of Gaza amid a heavy Israeli bombardment, the crowded enclave came back online as communications systems were gradually restored
October 28, 2023Palestinians say the devastating war between Israel and Hamas is robbing them not only of their loved ones but also of the funeral rites that long have offered mourners some dignity and closure in the midst of grief
October 28, 2023As an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip looms in its war with Hamas, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and all those trapped in the seaside enclave is hidden underground
October 28, 2023Israel has entered a new phase of its war on Hamas, expanding its ground attacks with tanks rolling into the Palestinian enclave and stepped-up bombardment from the air, land and sea
October 28, 2023An Iranian teenage girl injured weeks ago in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s Metro while not wearing a headscarf has died
October 28, 2023French Jewish groups have set up a helpline for people in the community traumatized by Israel-Hamas war
October 28, 2023A beauty pageant held this month in Zimbabwe is seen by its contestants and organizer as a way to push back against prejudice and promote understanding of people living with albinism
October 28, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the nation that the military has opened a “second stage” in the war against Hamas by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea
October 28, 2023Mexico’s security authorities have raised the death toll from the Category 5 Hurricane Otis that struck the country’s southern Pacific coast early Wednesday to 39
October 28, 2023Hundreds of protesters have filled the main concourse of New York City’s famed Grand Central Terminal to demand a cease-fire as Israel intensifies its bombardment of the Gaza Strip
October 28, 2023The latest Israel-Hamas war has quickly become the deadliest and most destructive in the long history of the bitter enemies
October 27, 2023Arizona defenseman Travis Dermott recently defied an NHL edict on supporting social causes before games
October 27, 2023The U.N. General Assembly has approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers
October 27, 2023A federal judge in Miami has sentenced a retired Colombian army officer to life in prison for his role in plotting to kill Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse in 2021
October 27, 2023Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's first finance minister has issued a stern verdict on his former boss's energy policies, describing them
October 27, 2023An alliance of ethnic rebel groups has launched a coordinated offensive in northeastern Myanmar to seize military targets in areas near the Chinese border
October 27, 2023The European Union summit showed that Ukraine will be facing tougher times to get all the attention and political, economic and military aid that it wants
October 27, 2023The GOP presidential candidates are expected to woo donors and offer a staunch defense for Israel as they address at the annual gathering of a Republican Jewish group this weekend
October 27, 2023Scores of protesters have gathered in the streets of Ukrainian cities to demand a cap of 18 months on mandatory military service
October 27, 2023The families of children held captive by Hamas say they are adrift in a unique agony among the tragedies of Israel's bloodiest day
October 27, 2023Pope Francis has ordered the Vatican to reopen the case of a well-known priest-artist accused of sexually, psychologically and spiritually abusing adult women
October 27, 2023China's chief epidemiologist, who helped drive anti-COVID-19 measures that suspended access to cities and confined millions to their homes, has died
October 27, 2023European Union leaders believe it's time to lay the foundations for a future relationship between Israel and the Palestinians where the militant group Hamas does not control Gaza
October 27, 2023A senior Iranian envoy has met with Hamas representatives in Moscow following talks with Russian diplomats that underscored Moscow’s efforts to expand its clout as a power broker in the latest Israel-Hamas war
October 27, 2023The United States on Friday expanded its effort to cut off funding for Hamas, announcing a second round of sanctions against people and organizations linked to the group since it launched an attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people
October 27, 2023The U.S. on Friday issued a second round of sanctions on the Palestinian group Hamas following its attack this month on Israeli communities, including by
October 27, 2023Malaysia’s royal families have elected the powerful and wealthy ruler of southern Johor state as the country’s new king under a unique rotating monarchy system
October 27, 2023Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies has reported its profit inched higher in the first three quarters of this year despite persisting U.S. sanctions that have hindered both its sales and its purchases of advanced technology
October 27, 2023Just three weeks into the deadliest war between Israel and Hamas, it is already clear that the bloodshed has shaken the region for years to come and flipped long-standing Israeli assumptions upside down
October 27, 2023Israel has knocked out communications in the Gaza Strip with bombardment and artillery fire
October 27, 2023Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, bringing the S&P 500 index 10% below the peak it reached in July
October 27, 2023The Israeli army says its ground forces are “expanding their activity” in the Gaza Strip, as it moves closer to a full-on ground invasion of the besieged territory
October 27, 2023Rights groups and lawyers in Nigeria say the West African nation's law enforcement authorities are using the country’s same-sex prohibition law to target the LGBTQ+ community while ignoring abuses against them
October 27, 2023Abortion has had a complicated history in the Soviet Union and Russia
October 27, 2023Recent proposals by authorities to restrict access to abortion have touched a nerve across Russia, which has embraced increasingly conservative values
October 27, 2023South Korean and U.S. troops have been conducting live-fire exercises to hone their ability to respond to potential “Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks” by North Korea
October 27, 2023South Korean and U.S. troops have been conducting live-fire exercises to hone their ability to respond to potential “Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks” by North Korea
October 27, 2023Desperate families are making missing posters and joining online groups to find loved ones out of touch since Hurricane Otis devastated the Mexican Pacific coast city of Acapulco
October 27, 2023Survivors of the Category 5 storm that killed at least 27 people and devastated Mexico’s resort city of Acapulco are getting desperate amid a slow government assistance response
October 27, 2023The Turkish Republic, founded from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire by the national independence hero Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turns 100 on Oct. 29
October 27, 2023A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military says, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region
October 27, 2023The sudden death of China’s former No. 2 leader Li Keqiang has shocked many people in the country
October 27, 2023President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to meet on the sidelines of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco
October 27, 2023China’s top diplomat is meeting high-level U.S. officials, possibly including President Joe Biden, on a highly watched visit to Washington
October 27, 2023China’s top diplomat is meeting high-level U.S. officials, possibly including President Joe Biden, on a highly watched visit to Washington
October 27, 2023The Pentagon says U.S. fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps
October 27, 2023Former Premier Li Keqiang, China’s top economic official for a decade, has died of a heart attack at 68
October 26, 2023The National Zoo’s three three celebrity pandas will be heading home a little earlier than expected
October 26, 2023“Stop the bombs and save lives!”
October 26, 2023The United States has information that the Russian military is executing soldiers who do not follow orders related to the war with Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday.
October 26, 2023The White House says that Russia is executing soldiers who have failed to follow orders and threatening entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire
October 26, 2023A UNESCO report released during Lagos Fashion Week notes Africa’s fashion industry is growing rapidly to meet demand but that inadequate investment still limits its potential
October 26, 2023As the Israel-Hamas war rages, international and local monitoring groups in Gaza have been unable to keep up
October 26, 2023Sweden has reportedly withdrawn the residence permit of an Iraqi man who staged a series of public desecrations of the Quran this year but has put his deportation on hold, saying his life would be in danger if he were returned to Iraq
October 26, 2023An unverified claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suffered a heart attack is being amplified by news outlets and social media around the globe this week
October 26, 2023More than two weeks after Hamas' attack, many Israelis are furious at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, not just for failing to prevent the initial attack, but for failing to come to their aid afterward
October 26, 2023A strike has shut down all shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway, interrupting exports of grain and other goods from Canada and the United States via the Great Lakes to the rest the world
October 26, 2023Two workers at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been hospitalized after accidentally being sprayed with radioactive liquid waste
October 26, 2023Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's office says the state has arranged to send drones, weapons and ammunition to Israel as it prepares for an incursion of Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack
October 26, 2023A federal court in Pakistan’s capital has restored the appeals of the country’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against his 2018 convictions in graft cases
October 26, 2023An inquiry has opened into an apartment building fire that killed at least 76 people in South Africa in August and laid bare the deep problems of poverty and neglect in parts of Africa’s richest city
October 26, 2023European Union leaders are grappling with ways to use their combined leverage to ensure that more aid reaches Palestinians in need in Gaza
October 26, 2023The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister says the authority would not interfere with an International Criminal Court investigation into Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel
October 26, 2023A nonprofit organization in Afghanistan says the Taliban have freed an activist who campaigned for the education of girls
October 26, 2023Nigeria’s Supreme Court has refused to void the election of President Bola Tinubu and dismissed the challenges brought by two losing candidates
October 26, 2023Leaders from Brazil, Indonesia, Republic of Congo and other countries with the three largest tropical forest basins are meeting to form a coalition to protect tropical forests from deforestation and destruction
October 26, 2023Prosecutors say an American man has been charged with murder and other offenses for attacking two women from the U.S. near Neuschwanstein castle in Germany in June and pushing them into a ravine
October 26, 2023Asian shares have risen after the latest tumble on Wall Street
October 26, 2023Families in Niger say they are struggling after economic sanctions imposed in response to a military coup three months ago
October 26, 2023More airstrikes have ravaged parts of the Gaza Strip, leaving it looking like a wasteland from space
October 26, 2023The European Central Bank has taken a break from interest rate increases
October 26, 2023Maine police on Thursday were searching for a U.S.
October 26, 2023Israeli troops and tanks launched an hourslong ground raid into northern Gaza overnight
October 26, 2023China’s Environment Minister Huang Runqiu says his country wants to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. to combat climate change
October 26, 2023Survivors of a Category 5 storm that killed at least 27 people as it devastated Mexico’s resort city of Acapulco are searching for acquaintances and necessities and hoping aid will come quickly in the wake of Hurricane Otis
October 26, 2023Stellantis says it plans to invest about 1.5 billion euros, or about $1.6 billion, in Leapmotor, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer
October 26, 2023South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have strongly condemned what they call North Korea’s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia
October 26, 2023China’s top diplomat says dialogue between Beijing and Washington should not only be resumed but deepened
October 26, 2023Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has joined an EU summit saying that he was right to meet the EU’s foremost enemy, Russian President Vladimir Putin
October 26, 2023Economic crises are rippling through the countries bordering Israel
October 26, 2023Many top Michigan Democrats, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, took part in a huge pro-Israel rally near Detroit after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on the country
October 26, 2023Russia's deadly attack on a beloved pizzeria in eastern Ukraine in June was painful for residents
October 26, 2023China has launched its youngest-ever crew for its orbiting space station as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon before 2030
October 26, 2023The U.N. Security Council has failed again to address the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, rejecting rival United States and Russian resolutions
October 26, 2023Al Jazeera says its chief correspondent in Gaza has lost four members of his family in an Israeli airstrike
October 25, 2023Hurricane Otis unexpectedly turned from mild to monster in record time, and scientists are struggling to figure out what happened
October 25, 2023Venezuela’s chief prosecutor has announced a criminal investigation into organizers of a presidential primary election held over the weekend
October 25, 2023The White House has turned down the pizazz for Wednesday’s state dinner
October 25, 2023President Joe Biden has spoken out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel
October 25, 2023Billions of dollars for a global HIV/AIDS program that's saved millions of lives are in limbo and now the George W
October 25, 2023The estranged son of Nashville's police chief, who was wanted for shooting two police officers, died from a self-inflicted gun wound as authorities closed in on him, state investigators
October 25, 2023Major corporations in water-guzzling industries such as apparel, food and beverage, and tech want to be better stewards of the freshwater resources they use
October 25, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron is promoting — with little success so far — the creation of an international coalition to fight the armed Palestinian group Hamas
October 25, 2023Pope Francis’ big meeting on the future of the Catholic Church is heading into its final stretch
October 25, 2023Environmental groups are urging a moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of an international meeting in Jamaica where an obscure U.N. body will debate the issue amid fears it could soon authorize the world’s first license to harvest minerals from the ocean floor
October 25, 2023Former Argentine presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich has endorsed right-wing populist Javier Milei for next month’s runoff
October 25, 2023The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved Jacob Lew to be ambassador to Israel, moving quickly to get him in place during Israel's war with Hamas
October 25, 2023Russia has successfully tested its ability to deliver a massive retaliatory nuclear strike by land, sea and air, a Kremlin statement said on Wednesday, a display of force
October 25, 2023Two Metropolitan Police officers have been dismissed from the force after a disciplinary panel concluded that they committed gross misconduct over the stop and search of two Black athletes
October 25, 2023As the Amazon drought rages on, public authorities in Brazil are scrambling to deliver food and water to thousands of isolated communities throughout a vast and roadless territory, where boats are the only means of transportation
October 25, 2023Soprano legend Maria Callas has been honored in Greece a century after her birth to Greek parents in New York with a new museum in Athens
October 25, 2023Israeli officials are outraged over U_N_ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ comment that the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel “did not happen in a vacuum.”
October 25, 2023Officials say Russia fired almost a dozen Shahed drones against Ukrainian targets, and falling debris from an intercepted drone damaged power lines near a nuclear plant in the country’s west
October 25, 2023The United Nations Security Council will vote later on Wednesday on rival proposals by the United States and Russia for action on the conflict between Israel and Palestinian
October 25, 2023Analysts say the removal of China’s foreign and defense ministers appears to enforce leader Xi Jinping’s demand for total obedience and the elimination of any potential rivals within the ruling Communist Party
October 25, 2023A former British police officer has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 12 years after he pleaded guilty to over 100 child sex offenses
October 25, 2023Hundreds of miners who spent three days underground because of a union dispute have left a gold mine in South Africa
October 25, 2023World shares are mixed after China pledged more spending to counter its economic slowdown
October 25, 2023China has announced plans to send a new telescope to probe deep into the universe as it prepared to launch the country's next three-member crew for its orbiting space station
October 25, 2023The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply cut back relief operations across the Gaza Strip
October 25, 2023President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese say they are working to deepen the alliance between their two countries during a state visit to Washington
October 25, 2023Russia’s military has simulated a nuclear strike in a drill overseen by President Vladimir Putin
October 25, 2023The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has met with top Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials
October 25, 2023Hong Kong’s leader has cut taxes for some homebuyers and stock traders to boost markets as the city seeks to maintain its reputation as a global financial hub
October 25, 2023Environmentalists have slammed Malaysia's move to let Australian miner Lynas import and process rare earths until March 2026
October 25, 2023Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been displaced over the past year in eastern Congo amid fighting by more than 130 armed groups
October 25, 2023Hurricane Otis ripped through Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a powerful Category 5 storm, unleashing massive flooding in the resort city of Acapulco, ravaging roads and leaving large swaths of the southwestern state of Guerrero without power or cellphone service
October 25, 2023A cruise operator that failed to cancel a voyage from Sydney that led to a COVID-19 outbreak has been ruled negligent in an Australian class-action case
October 25, 2023Increased Israeli airstrikes are devastating parts of the Gaza Strip, jeopardizing relief operations and leaving neighborhoods in shambles
October 25, 2023Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled that a law requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization surgery in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional
October 25, 2023Taiwan hopes to reach a long-mooted tax agreement with the United States next year, Finance Minister Chuang Tsui-yun said on Wednesday, which both sides have said will foster more
October 25, 2023Russia has issued carefully calibrated criticism of both sides in the war between Israel and Hamas
October 25, 2023Toyota, Honda, Nissan and other Japanese automakers are serious about rolling out battery electric vehicles to catch up with the world's frontrunners like Tesla and BYD
October 25, 2023China said the United States is the “biggest disruptor of regional peace and stability” in the world in a scathing response to a Pentagon report on China’s growing military buildup
October 25, 2023U.S. intelligence officials have "high confidence" that an explosion at a Gaza hospital last week was caused by a Palestinian rocket that broke up mid-flight, and not by Israel,
October 25, 2023A team of scientists has unveiled the possible living face of Peru’s most famous mummy, a teenage Inca girl sacrificed in a ritual more than 500 years ago atop the Andes
October 25, 2023The White House has scrapped plans to have the B-52s perform at a state dinner for Australia’s prime minister
October 24, 2023The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza’s dense urban neighborhoods is bringing back searing memories of the deadly battles the U.S.-led coalition fought against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria
October 24, 2023The Israeli military is gearing up to target an elaborate network of tunnels built by Hamas underneath Gaza City, known as the “Gaza metro,” as part of its ground offensive into the Palestinian territory. Hamas utilizes the underground passages to move fighters and weapons covertly. But given Gaza’s extreme population density, the subterranean system dangerously hides military assets below civilian areas, according to Israel. While tunnels have long offered asymmetric warfare advantages, Hamas has taken the concept to another level by constructing such an extensive tunnel network under one of the most crowded urban areas on Earth. Nearly 2 million
October 24, 2023Flight data shows that more than 260 charter flights believed to be carrying migrants from Haiti have touched down in Nicaragua in recent months
October 24, 2023The White House is developing “prudent contingency planning” to evacuate Americans from the Middle East in case the Israel-Hamas war spreads into a broad regional conflict
October 24, 2023A powerful Haitian gang leader has been charged by U.S. prosecutors with ordering the kidnapping of an American couple, which left a woman dead
October 24, 2023The head of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria says that fighting there has reached its worst point in years, with devastating consequences for civilians
October 24, 2023Military-ruled Myanmar is allowing prisoners to have family visitors from outside
October 24, 2023The Hungarian parliament has refused a proposal to hold a vote on Sweden’s bid to join NATO, further delaying the Nordic country’s inclusion in the military alliance
October 24, 2023The devastating Israel-Hamas war has trapped hundreds of foreign nationals in the Gaza Strip
October 24, 2023After Hamas militants attacked Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, killing more than 100 of its 1,100 residents, the Israeli government evacuated many survivors to a hotel near the Dead Sea
October 24, 2023Israel is vowing again to destroy Hamas, rejecting calls for a cease-fire at a high-level U_N_ meeting from the U_N_ chief, the Palestinians and many countries and declaring that its war against the extremist group in Gaza is also “the war of the free world.”
October 24, 2023Some U.S. lawmakers are demanding that seafood processed in two Chinese provinces be banned from entering the U.S. market because of concerns about rights abuses
October 24, 2023Prosecutors in Berlin say they have closed their investigation into the spectacular collapse of a huge aquarium last December after an expert report failed to pin down a reason why the tank burst
October 24, 2023Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has visited troops deployed near the border with Israel, and Saudi Arabia is evacuating families of diplomatic staff because of clashes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops
October 24, 2023The parties forming Spain’s acting government say they will push for a 37½-hour workweek
October 24, 2023Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson says the damage done to an undersea telecoms cable between Sweden and Estonia was “purposeful,” but has declined to give any details
October 24, 2023Hurricane Otis has strengthened from a tropical storm to a dangerous Category 5 storm in a matter of hours as it approaches Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, where it is forecast to make landfall near the resort of Acapulco early Wednesday
October 24, 2023The pope has accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop whose diocese has been rocked for weeks by reports of a sex party in a priest’s apartment involving a male prostitute
October 24, 2023The gas-rich nation of Qatar has become a key intermediary over the fate of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas militants after their unprecedented attack on Israel over two weeks ago
October 24, 2023Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims that recent Ukrainian attacks have denied the Russian fleet safe bases and secure maritime corridors in the western part of the Black Sea
October 24, 2023Eighty-five year-old Yocheved Lifshitz spoke of a “hell that we never knew before and never thought we would experience” as she described the harrowing assault on her kibbutz by Hamas militants and the terror of being taken hostage into the Gaza Strip
October 24, 2023Police in South Africa say a group of gold miners from an unregistered, rival union are holding hundreds of colleagues underground for the second day over a union dispute
October 24, 2023Chinese state media are reporting that the country has replaced Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu
October 24, 2023Palestinian artist Nida Sinnokrot, one of 18 artists receiving the 2023 Soros Arts Fellowships from the Open Society Foundations on Tuesday, says that art provides hope and resilience, even in the midst of war
October 24, 2023Malaysia’s government says it will allow Lynas Rare Earths to continue to import and process rare earths until March 2026
October 24, 2023Women across Iceland, including the prime minister, went on strike Tuesday to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence
October 24, 2023An inquiry into New Zealand’s worst mass shooting will examine — among other issues — the response times of police and medics and whether any of the 51 people who were killed could have been saved
October 24, 2023Israel has ramped up airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, reducing residential buildings to rubble and crushing families
October 24, 2023German authorities say two cargo ships have collided in the North Sea off the German coast and one vessel sank
October 24, 2023The Health Ministry in Gaza says hundreds of people were killed in the past day as a result of Israeli airstrikes
October 24, 2023Shares have skidded in Asia after Wall Street tumbled as bond yields tightened their chokehold
October 24, 2023Officials say the bodies of at least 17 people were recovered from a train crash outside the Bangladesh capital that may have occurred after one of the trains disregarded a red signal
October 24, 2023Oil prices are up and markets are tense after the outbreak of war in Gaza
October 24, 2023Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system enjoys a near-mythical status among Israelis
October 24, 2023South Korean officials say four suspected North Korean defectors were found in a small wooden boat near the two Koreas’ sea border
October 24, 2023Protesters marched across Panama against a contract extension for copper mining in a biodiverse region
October 24, 2023Prince William will travel to Singapore next month to name the winners of his Earthshot Prize, a global competition to find solutions to the challenges of climate change
October 23, 2023Photos of iconic celebrities and historic moments from the collection of Elton John and David Furnish are set to go on display in London next year
October 23, 2023Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Washington for a three-day visit starting on Thursday
October 23, 2023The Canadian government said on Monday it detected a China-linked "Spamouflage" campaign that involved bots posting disinformation and propaganda on the social media accounts of
October 23, 2023It's Ohad Munder-Zichri's 9th birthday
October 23, 2023A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado has pleaded guilty to trying to sell classified information to Russia
October 23, 2023The Pentagon has sent advisers, including a Marine Corps general versed in urban warfare, to Israel to assist in its plans to conduct a ground assault in Gaza
October 23, 2023Authorities in Aruba have requested documents from the U.S. Department of Justice in the extortion case against Joran van der Sloot, including his description of killing Natalee Holloway on the island nearly 20 years ago
October 23, 2023Forty years after the bombing that killed 241 U.S. troops in Beirut, the United States is again sending troops to the eastern Mediterranean as tension between Israel and Iran increases over the Israel-Hamas war
October 23, 2023Yousra Abu Sharekh's life was turned upside down within days after Israel declared war on Gaza days after Hamas' bloody rampage over two weeks ago
October 23, 2023A 31-year-old dog in Portugal that had been ranked as the world's oldest dog ever, has died
October 23, 2023Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has compared Hungary’s membership in the European Union to more than four decades of Soviet occupation
October 23, 2023A new study says no matter how much the world cuts back on carbon emissions, a key and sizable chunk of Antarctica is essentially doomed to an unavoidable melt
October 23, 2023The office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he has submitted a protocol for Sweden’s admission into NATO to Turkey’s parliament for ratification
October 23, 2023California Gov. Gavin Newsom opened a weeklong trip to China with an assurance that his state will always be a partner on climate issues no matter how the U.S. presidential election turns out next year
October 23, 2023A cargo train has hit a passenger train outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka in a crash that killed 15 people and injured scores
October 23, 2023A Sydney court has postponed an extradition hearing for a former U.S. military pilot accused of illegally training Chinese aviators until May as his lawyers attempt to further build their case
October 23, 2023Official results in Switzerland election show that the anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party has rebounded from searing losses four years ago to cement and expand its hold as the largest faction after the parliamentary election
October 23, 2023A Pakistani court has indicted the country's former Prime Minister Imran Khan on charges of revealing official secrets after his 2022 ouster from office
October 23, 2023The United States has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels in the South China Sea
October 23, 2023Israeli warplanes are striking targets across Gaza as the U.S. says a delay in Israel's expected ground offensive in the besieged Hamas-ruled territory would allow more time to negotiate the release of hostages
October 23, 2023The International Committee of the Red Cross says Hamas militants have released two hostages they had been holding captive in the Gaza Strip
October 23, 2023Prices for Russian oil have risen well above a price cap imposed by Western allies as part of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine
October 23, 2023Former Venezuelan lawmaker María Corina Machado, a longtime critic of Venezuela’s government, has dominated the opposition’s presidential primary election, getting more than 1.4 million votes, according to the latest partial results
October 23, 2023Asian shares are mixed after Wall Street wobbled to a mixed close as yields on U.S. Treasury bonds fell back after jumping above 5%
October 23, 2023Argentina’s economy minister and the anti-establishment upstart he faces in a presidential runoff next month have begun competing to shore up the moderate voters they need
October 23, 2023Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says he is preparing to take bold economic measures, including an income tax cut for households hit by inflation and tax breaks for companies to promote investment
October 23, 2023Indigenous campaigners who wanted Australia to create an advisory body representing its most disadvantaged ethnic minority say its rejection in a constitutional referendum was a “shameful act.”
October 23, 2023Doctors in the Gaza Strip say dwindling fuel supplies are putting dozens of premature babies hooked up to incubators at risk of imminent death
October 22, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin say the United States is ready to protect American forces or personnel in the Middle East should the Israel-Hamas war escalate as they expect
October 22, 2023Polish officials and media are reporting that an American basketball player with a professional Polish women's club has been badly beaten, sustaining a head injury
October 22, 2023Hezbollah has announced the deaths of five more militants as clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border intensify
October 22, 2023Thousands of people have gathered in Berlin and London to oppose antisemitism and support Israel, while in Paris and other European cities, thousands demanded relief for Palestinians in besieged Gaza
October 22, 2023Author Salman Rushdie called for the unconditional defense of freedom of expression as he received a prestigious German prize
October 22, 2023The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries have held their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats
October 22, 2023President Joe Biden is facing anew the balancing act of demonstrating full-throated support for America’s closest ally in the Middle East while trying to press the Israelis to act with enough restraint to keep their war with Hamas from metastasizing
October 22, 2023German leaders are strongly denouncing a rise in antisemitism in Germany in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war
October 22, 2023A fourth person has died in Britain during a storm that pounded the U.K. and northern Europe with gale-force winds and torrential rain
October 22, 2023Norma has gained a bit of strength after being downgraded to a tropical storm as it moves into mainland Mexico
October 22, 2023A court in Iran has sentenced two female journalists to up to seven years in prison for collaborating with the U.S. government and other charges
October 22, 2023Deadly violence has been surging in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as the Israeli military pursues Palestinian militants in the aftermath of the Hamas attack
October 22, 2023A Nigerian action thriller that tells a gripping story of corruption and police brutality in Africa’s most populous country has reached record viewership numbers on Netflix charts globally
October 22, 2023The second aid convoy destined for desperate Palestinian civilians reached Gaza as Israel widened its attacks to include targets in Syria and the occupied West Bank
October 22, 2023Israeli warplanes have struck targets across Gaza as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants
October 22, 2023Venezuelans have chosen the candidate they think can end the decade-long, crisis-ridden presidency of Nicolás Maduro
October 22, 2023Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa is leading right-wing populist Javier Milei in early returns from Sunday’s presidential election
October 22, 2023Russian strikes on power plants in the Ukraine war impacted almost half the country’s energy capacity last winter
October 22, 2023Chinese state media report that Foxconn, a Fortune 500 company known globally for making Apple iPhones, was recently subjected to searches by Chinese tax authorities
October 22, 2023Philippine officials say a Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat near a contested shoal
October 22, 2023Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will visit China in early November to meet President Xi Jinping
October 22, 2023Fears that the Israel-Hamas war could mushroom into a wider Middle East conflict rose on Sunday with Washington warning of a
October 21, 2023In the besieged Gaza Strip, hospitals are nearing collapse as doctors work under the most trying conditions
October 21, 2023Sevilla ejected a fan from its Spanish league match against Real Madrid and filed a complaint with police after the spectator allegedly displayed “xenophobic and racist behavior,” with Vinícius Júnior once again the target
October 21, 2023Paddy Cosgrave, the chief executive officer of a prominent European tech conference called Web Summit, resigned from his role on Saturday amid backlash for his public statements that suggested Israel was committing war crimes
October 21, 2023A top official with Hezbollah has vowed that Israel will pay a high price whenever it starts a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip
October 21, 2023Egypt and Jordan have harshly criticized Israel over its actions in Gaza at a summit in Cairo
October 21, 2023Manchester United and England soccer great Bobby Charlton has died at the age of 86
October 21, 2023Jehad Adwan scribbles the names and ages of his wife’s relatives in blue ink on a scrap of white paper
October 21, 2023Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators are marching in London and other cities to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza
October 21, 2023Among the thousands of migrants reach the U.S. border each day are many Mexican victims of organized crime who are fleeing violence and asking for protection
October 21, 2023President Joe Biden is trying to sweeten his pitch for more money for Ukraine by mixing in billions of dollars for securing the U.S.-Mexico border
October 21, 2023The fallout from the Israel-Hamas war has spilled into workplaces everywhere, with corporate leaders from the highest ranks of prominent companies weighing in with their views while workers complain their voices are not being heard
October 21, 2023Ukrainian officials say at least two civilians were killed and others wounded across Ukraine in the past 24 hours as Russian forces continued to shell areas across the country and pushed forward near an embattled eastern city
October 21, 2023A storm battered Britain, northern Germany and southern Scandinavia for a third day with powerful winds, heavy rain and storm surges that caused floods, power outages, evacuations, and traffic disruptions
October 21, 2023Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has returned home on a chartered plane from Dubai, ending four years of self-imposed exile in London as he seeks to win the support of voters in parliamentary elections due in January
October 21, 2023The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has opened to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory
October 21, 2023Aid deliveries have begun moving into the besieged Gaza Strip, two weeks after the militant group Hamas rampaged through southern Israel and Israel responded with airstrikes
October 21, 2023Hurricane Norma made landfall near the resorts of Los Cabos at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Saturday and has weakened to a tropical storm while moving over land
October 21, 2023A faction of Venezuela’s opposition is set to pick its candidate for next year’s presidential election
October 21, 2023President Joe Biden says he thinks Hamas was motivated to attack Israel in part by a desire to stop that country from normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia
October 20, 2023Hundreds of Palestinians have crowded into a squalid tent camp in southern Gaza, an image that has brought back memories of their greatest trauma
October 20, 2023An assessment by French military intelligence indicates the most likely cause of the explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital was a Palestinian rocket, according to a senior French military official
October 20, 2023Gaza has long been a powder keg, and it exploded after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7 and began killing and abducting people
October 20, 2023Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, says the U.S. is welcomed in the Indo-Pacific and should do more to counter China's influence there
October 20, 2023The father of freed American teenage hostage Natalie Raanan says she's doing well after her release Friday by Hamas
October 20, 2023Belgium’s justice minister has resigned after it was discovered that Tunisia was seeking the extradition last year of an Islamic extremist who shot dead two Swedes and wounded a third this week
October 20, 2023Spain's royal family have presided over the presentation of this year's Princess of Asturias awards that are among the most important in the Spanish-speaking world
October 20, 2023Scientists from the U.N. nuclear agency have watched Japanese lab workers prepare samples of fish collected at a seafood market near the Fukushima nuclear plant to test the safety of treated radioactive wastewater released from the damaged plant into the sea
October 20, 2023Congressional chaos and opposition will be a hurdle for President Joe Biden as he pushes for $105 billion in funding for Israel, Ukraine, border security, humanitarian assistance and countering China
October 20, 2023Hurricane Norma is heading for the resorts of Los Cabos at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, while Tammy grew into a hurricane in the Atlantic
October 20, 2023Russian media report a Russian-American journalist was ordered detained for another three days on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent
October 20, 2023Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany needs to start deporting “on a large scale” migrants who don’t have the right to stay in the country, adding to increasingly tough talk on migration since his coalition performed badly in two state elections earlier this month
October 20, 2023A top Chinese envoy says that China and Russia share the same position on the Palestinian issue and plan to try to work together to cool the situation and help establish a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians
October 20, 2023Cuts to U.N. funding for refugees living in Rwanda is threatening the right to education for children in more than 100,000 households who have fled conflict from different East African countries to live in five camps
October 20, 2023Thousands of people in Muslim countries and beyond have held demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, calling for an end to Israel’s blockade and Israeli airstrikes
October 20, 2023The Australian government has decided against canceling a Chinese company’s 99-year lease on strategically important Darwin Port despite U.S. concerns that foreign control could be used to spy on its military
October 20, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he spoke by phone with President Joe Biden about future U.S. support for Ukraine
October 20, 2023Many Palestinians in Gaza who heeded the Israeli military’s warning last week to head south thought they were fleeing to a safer place
October 20, 2023Japanese author Haruki Murakami says he is torn by the conflict in Israel since he has Jewish friends but understands that the situation of the Palestinians is dire
October 20, 2023Gale-force winds and floods have struck several countries in northern Europe as the region endures more heavy rain that forecasters say will continue into the weekend
October 20, 2023The Philippine defense chief has ordered all defense personnel and the 163,000-member military to refrain from using digital applications that harness artificial intelligence to generate personal portraits, saying they could pose security risks
October 20, 2023Wall Street closed out its worst week in a month with more losses
October 20, 2023The Israeli government said Hamas militants on Friday freed two Americans
October 20, 2023Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has decisively won two special elections
October 20, 2023Israel says Hamas has freed two American hostages who had been held in Gaza since militants rampaged through southern Israel Oct. 7
October 20, 2023President Joe Biden has welcomed European Union leaders to the White House
October 20, 2023Escalating tensions between Colombia and Israel over the Gaza war could undo decades of close military ties between them
October 20, 2023Nir Oz is one of more than 20 towns and villages in southern Israel that were ambushed in the sweeping assault by Hamas on Oct. 7
October 20, 2023An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month has been detained by the U.S. military
October 20, 2023The U.S.
October 20, 2023Haiti's national police say a former justice official considered one of the main suspects in the killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 has been arrested
October 20, 2023Lawyers for Niger’s ousted president have called for his immediate release
October 19, 2023After going missing nearly 80 years ago, a baroque landscape painting was returned to Germany on Thursday
October 19, 2023As the Israel-Hamas war intensifies, the United States is now allowing Israelis wishing to visit the United States for 90 days or less to come visa-free
October 19, 2023Last week, the life of Gina Bryant, a promising young nursing student at the University of Michigan-Flint, was tragically cut short. The 25-year-old was shot and killed on October 12 by her former boyfriend, Justin Wendling, who then took his own life at a rest stop in Iowa. The murder-suicide spanned three states and appeared to be linked to a history of domestic violence in their relationship, police said. Bryant was killed after family members believe she was abducted from her home in Macomb Township, Michigan where she lived. Her mother and sister had helped her move out just weeks
October 19, 2023Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have sheltered with their families far from their homes and struggled to survive since the Israeli military decided to cut off the water and fuel and prevent aid convoys from entering
October 19, 2023Canada's foreign minister says the country has recalled 41 of its diplomats from India after the Indian government said it would revoke their diplomatic immunity, escalating a spat over the slaying of a Sikh separatist in Canada
October 19, 2023After nearly two decades, Joran van der Sloot has finally confessed in chilling detail to the brutal murder of Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005. In a newly released 3 minute and 45 second audio recording, van der Sloot calmly describes to investigators how he killed the 18-year-old Alabama high school student after she rejected his sexual advances on a beach. The fresh evidence comes as shocking evidence in the mysterious high-profile cold case. Although he was never legally indicted, Van der Sloot was long suspected of being behind Holloway’s abduction. N Now 36 years old, he was convicted of
October 19, 2023French police have arrested a man climbing on the Eiffel Tower, temporarily stranding a crowd at the top
October 19, 2023Ukraine’s parliament has overwhelmingly voted to advance legislation seen as effectively banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its ties to Moscow
October 19, 2023U.S. forces in the Middle East are facing increasing threats
October 19, 2023U.N. officials and their partners are ramping up efforts to take advantage of a possible window for Israel and Egypt to allow humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza, whose people have been stripped of deliveries of fuel, food, water and medical supplies from the outside as Israeli forces strike at Hamas militants who led a deadly incursion in Israel on Oct. 7
October 19, 2023More than 300 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating and three people were charged with assaulting police after protesters descended on Capitol Hill to call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas
October 19, 2023Journalists reporting in Gaza need to worry about basic survival for themselves and their families in addition to getting out the story of a besieged population
October 19, 2023Two U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that a military base in southern Syria where U.S. troops have maintained a presence to train forces as part of a broad campaign against the Islamic State group was attacked by drones on Thursday
October 19, 2023Addressing the nation from the Oval Office, President Joe Biden has made his case for major U.S. backing of Ukraine and Israel in a time of war
October 19, 2023The MTV Europe Music Awards canceled its ceremony next month, citing the Israel-Hamas War
October 19, 2023Hurricane Norma has weakened slightly but remains a major storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast
October 19, 2023Former President Donald Trump and other top Republicans are issuing increasingly urgent calls for the U.S. to seal its borders against a potential mass exodus of Palestinians fleeing war in the Gaza Strip
October 19, 2023A study says Atlantic hurricanes are now more than twice as likely as before to rapidly intensify from wimpy minor hurricanes to powerful and catastrophic in just 24 hours
October 19, 2023A group of former U.S. diplomats and representatives of resettlement organizations has asked Pakistan not to deport thousands of Afghans who have been waiting for U.S. visas under an American program that relocates at-risk Afghan refugees fleeing Taliban rule
October 19, 2023China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon said in its annual report on
October 19, 2023A Pentagon report on China’s military power says Beijing is on track to significantly increase its nuclear weapons arsenal by 2030 and is “almost certainly” learning lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine about what a conflict over Taiwan might look like
October 19, 2023Federal authorities say that thousands of information technology workers contracting with U.S. companies secretly sent millions of dollars of their wages to North Korea for use in its ballistic missile program
October 19, 2023Organizers of next year’s Paris Olympics say their headquarters have again been visited by French financial prosecutors who are investigating suspicions of favoritism, conflicts of interest and misuse of funds in the awarding of contracts
October 19, 2023The Biden administration may soon begin shipping to Ukraine several variants of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), a long-range missile system that often carries varying
October 19, 2023Slovenia says it will introduce border checks with neighboring Hungary and Croatia following Italy’s decision to do the same with Slovenia because of security concerns due to violence in the Middle East
October 19, 2023Millions of disaffected voters in Argentina are planning to cast their ballots Sunday for right-wing populist and self-described anarcho-capitalist, Javier Milei
October 19, 2023Abdesalem Lassoued had been denied residency in four European countries by the time he shot three Swedish men this week, killing two of them
October 19, 2023The European Union has demanded Meta and TikTok detail their efforts to curb illegal content and disinformation during the Israel-Hamas war
October 19, 2023A bottle of what is being called “the most-sought after Scotch whisky” is set to be auctioned next month at Sotheby's in London
October 19, 2023Hundreds of people are being evacuated from their homes and schools have closed in parts of Scotland, as much of northern Europe braces for stormy weather, heavy rain and gale-force winds from the east
October 19, 2023Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy, has been awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize
October 19, 2023An International Atomic Energy Agency team is in Fukushima for the agency's first marine sampling since treated radioactive wastewater started being released from the area's damaged nuclear plant into the sea
October 19, 2023The Palace of Versailles was forced to evacuate visitors for the fourth time in less than a week for a security check after a bomb alert
October 19, 2023Telecom gear maker Nokia says it's planning to cut up to 14,000 jobs worldwide, or 16% of its workforce, as part of a push to reduce costs following a plunge in third-quarter sales and profit
October 19, 2023Israel’s defense minister has told ground troops to be ready to enter the Gaza Strip, though he didn’t say when the invasion will start
October 19, 2023A Russian-American journalist working for a U_S_ government-funded media company has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent.”
October 19, 2023The European Union is taking steps to limit the impact of the war between Israel and Hamas on the bloc
October 19, 2023Asian shares have retreated as the prospect of a 5% yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury for the first time since 2007 added to pressure on Wall Street
October 19, 2023Thousands of ordinary citizens got into legal trouble for their parts in Catalonia’s illegal independence bid that brought Spain to the brink of rupture six years ago
October 19, 2023Two Vatican trials are coming to a head this week
October 19, 2023The reservoirs that provide Mexico City with much of its water are distressingly low after persistent drought through the summer
October 19, 2023Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continue and Israel’s defense minister has told troops to be ready for a ground assault on the Palestinian territory, although he has not said when that will begin
October 19, 2023Russia’s foreign minister has proposed regular security talks with North Korea and China to deal with what he described as increasing U.S.-led regional military threats
October 19, 2023Australia's failed referendum on the Indigenous Voice has set back the government’s plans to cut the nation's constitutional ties to Britain’s King Charles III
October 19, 2023The United States has agreed to temporarily suspend some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil, gas and gold sectors
October 18, 2023Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday that they would soon see the Palestinian
October 18, 2023A Brazilian congressional panel has accused former President Jair Bolsonaro of instigating the country’s Jan. 8 riots and recommended that he be charged with attempting to stage a coup
October 18, 2023Authorities say the Detroit Tigers complex in the Dominican Republic has been targeted in the latest robbery of a Major League Baseball facility in the country
October 18, 2023A flight of Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. under new measures by the Biden administration has landed outside the South American country's capital
October 18, 2023A tale of quick-witted survival during the Israel-Hamas war has turned a 65-year old woman into an unlikely folk hero in Israel
October 18, 2023Liberia’s presidential election appears headed for a run-off, with the top candidates neck and neck and the votes nearly fully counted
October 18, 2023The Streets' Mike Skinner acts as director, writer and leading man in his film project “The Darker the Shadow, the Brighter the Light.”
October 18, 2023Because of the fracture in her leg, Karin Journo had talked herself out of going to the Tribe of Nova music festival and sold her ticket
October 18, 2023An Israeli family of five whose bodies were discovered in each other’s arms after being killed by Hamas militants were buried side by side in a funeral attended by hundreds of mourners
October 18, 2023Hundreds of protesters have clashed with Lebanese security forces in the Beirut suburb of Aukar near the United States Embassy
October 18, 2023Lionel Messi’s annualized compensation from his Major League Soccer contract with Inter Miami is just over $20.4 million
October 18, 2023Neymar left the soccer field in tears after yet another injury in what has become an all-too familiar sight
October 18, 2023Coalition forces were slightly injured in Iraq in a spate of drone attacks over the last 24 hours at U.S. bases in Iraq as regional tensions flare following the deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza
October 18, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken says new U.S. sanctions are “directed at Hamas terrorists and their support network," not at Palestinians
October 18, 2023The suspected attacker who killed two Swedish soccer fans in Brussels this week before he was shot dead by police resided in Belgium illegally and had been ordered to leave Belgium years ago
October 18, 2023The Palace of Versailles and three airports in cities across France were evacuated for security reasons and temporarily closed Wednesday
October 18, 2023Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has thanked North Korea for its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine as he arrived in Pyongyang
October 18, 2023The United Nations’ World Food Program is appealing for $19 million to provide emergency assistance to tens of thousands of people affected by a series of devastating earthquakes and aftershocks that has rocked western Afghanistan
October 18, 2023Within hours of a blast said to have killed hundreds at a Gaza hospital, protesters hurled stones at Palestinian security forces in the occupied West Bank and at riot police in neighboring Jordan
October 18, 2023The lower house of Russia’s parliament has approved a bill revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban treaty, a move Moscow described as putting it on par with the United States
October 18, 2023Elon Musk’s social media platform X is charging a $1 fee to new users in the Philippines and New Zealand
October 18, 2023Rare footage was shown on Wednesday of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing accompanied by officers carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase which can be used to order a
October 18, 2023Shares have tumbled in Asia following a retreat on Wall Street after big U.S. companies delivered mixed profit reports and Treasury yields added pressure on stocks
October 18, 2023The leaders of Russia and China have met in Beijing and called for close foreign policy coordination
October 18, 2023Beijing has vigorously protested the U.S. Commerce Department's latest update of export controls to prevent exports to China of advanced computer chips and the equipment to make them
October 18, 2023German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has strongly condemned a firebomb assault on a synagogue in Berlin
October 18, 2023Israel says will allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the first crack in a 10-day seal on the territory
October 18, 2023Inflation in the U.K. held steady at 6.7% in September as easing food and drink price rises were offset by higher fuel costs for motorists
October 18, 2023President Joe Biden visited Israel on an urgent mission to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader regional conflict
October 18, 2023Australian journalist Cheng Lei says she spent more than three years in detention in China for breaking an embargo with a television broadcast
October 18, 2023Chinese automakers are winning over drivers as they make major inroads into Europe’s electric vehicle market
October 18, 2023Economy Minister Sergio Massa and former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich adapted shrewdly over their combined seven decades in Argentine politics
October 18, 2023The United States has vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have condemned all violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and urged humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza
October 18, 2023When Giorgia Meloni took office a year ago as the first far-right premier in Italy’s post-war history, many in Europe worried about the prospect of the country’s democratic backsliding and resistance to European Union rules
October 18, 2023President Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel has told senators he will “ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself” and will work with the U.S. ally to end the attacks by Hamas if he's confirmed
October 18, 2023President Joe Biden swept into wartime Israel for a 7 1/2-hour visit Wednesday that offered support for the Israeli people and produced a deal to get limited humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt, potentially by the end of the week
October 18, 2023Chinese President Xi Jinping is promising foreign companies more access to China’s huge market and more than $100 billion in new financing for other developing economies
October 18, 2023China’s economy slowed in the summer as global demand for its exports faltered and the ailing property sector sank deeper into crisis
October 18, 2023A massive blast Tuesday rocked a Gaza City hospital that was packed with wounded and displaced Palestinians amid an Israeli offensive on Gaza
October 18, 2023Within hours of the horrific attack by Hamas, the U.S. began moving warships and aircraft to the region to be ready to provide Israel with whatever it needed to respond
October 17, 2023Tropical Storm Norma has formed off Mexico's western Pacific coast
October 17, 2023The Pentagon has released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft that have occurred in the last two years — more than the total amount over the previous decade and part of a trend U.S. military officials called concerning
October 17, 2023Former Associated Press videojournalist Yaniv Zohar was killed in his home along with his wife and two daughters during Hamas’ bloody cross-border rampage on Oct. 7
October 17, 2023President Joe Biden’s efforts to tamp down tensions in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas faced major setbacks even before he departed for the Middle East on Tuesday
October 17, 2023The families of Israel's missing after Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre say they're stuck in a limbo of pain and numbness, and without much information
October 17, 2023A draft congressional report on Brazil’s Jan. 8 riots has accused ex-President Jair Bolsonaro of being the insurrection’s mastermind
October 17, 2023Stellantis has said it will be canceling its participation in next year’s CES technology show in Las Vegas due to the “mounting” costs of the ongoing auto workers strike in North America
October 17, 2023Even the safe zones of Gaza aren’t safe for Palestinians
October 17, 2023The war between Israel and Hamas is raising fears about rising hostility across the United States
October 17, 2023The United Nations says it is collecting evidence of war crimes by both sides in the Israel-Hamas war, which began with the militant group’s brutal Oct. 7 cross-border attack and was followed by Israel’s relentless bombardment and a siege of Gaza
October 17, 2023The United Nations says its peacekeepers have started departing from two bases in northern Mali as part of a forced withdrawal from the country and amid increasing insecurity
October 17, 2023Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has held talks with Vladimir Putin in a rare in-person meeting for the Russian president with a leader of a European Union country
October 17, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed that the United States quietly delivered a small number of the long-range ballistic missiles Ukraine said it urgently needed, and Ukraine has started using them on the battlefield against Russia
October 17, 2023The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is the sole route for aid to enter Gaza directly from outside Israel and the only exit that does not lead to Israeli territory.
October 17, 2023Poland’s voters delivered a clear verdict
October 17, 2023European Union leaders are struggling to paper over their differences as a cacophony of opinions and reactions mar the bloc’s response to the Israel-Hamas war
October 17, 2023The Commerce Department has updated and broadened its export controls to stop China from acquiring advanced computer chips and the equipment to manufacture them
October 17, 2023France’s anti-terror prosecutor says a suspected Islamic extremist declared allegiance to the Islamic State group before fatally stabbing a teacher in a school attack last week
October 17, 2023The mother of a young Israeli woman held by Hamas has appealed for her release
October 17, 2023The Palace of Versailles, one of France’s most visited tourist attractions, has reopened after being evacuated because of a security scare
October 17, 2023Jet engine maker Rolls-Royce says it’s cutting up to 2,500 jobs globally as part of a corporate overhaul that its new CEO is carrying out
October 17, 2023The lower house of the Russian parliament has given preliminary approval to a bill revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban
October 17, 2023Ukraine claims to have carried out one of the most destructive attacks on Russian air assets since the beginning of the war
October 17, 2023Clashes have flared along the Lebanon-Israel border, killing five Hezbollah fighters
October 17, 2023Gaza's health ministry says that an estimated 1,200 people are still trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings awaiting rescue, or recovery
October 17, 2023Oscar-winning actor Michelle Yeoh has been elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee
October 17, 2023The leader of opposition that won Poland’s parliamentary election, Donald Tusk, appealed to the nation’s president Tuesday for “energetic and fast decisions” so that a new government could be formed quickly
October 17, 2023Fans of Sweden’s soccer teams will be advised against wearing clothing in national colors when they travel abroad in the wake of the killing of two Swedish supporters before a European Championship qualifying match in Belgium
October 17, 2023India’s top court has refused to legalize same-sex marriages passing the responsibility back to Parliament
October 17, 2023Shares have fallen in Asia after China reported that its economy grew at a 4.9% annual pace in July-September, down from 6.3% in the previous quarter
October 17, 2023Trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip arrived on Tuesday at the only border crossing into the territory not controlled by Israel, a witness and Egyptian security sources said, after
October 17, 2023Authorities in the Belgian capital shot and killed a Tunisian national hours after they say he gunned down three Swedish soccer fans, killing two of them
October 17, 2023China is hosting its third international forum centered around President Xi Jinping’s signature policy, the Belt and Road Initiative, which over the past 10 years has built infrastructure across continents, burdening some smaller countries with debt
October 17, 2023The Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm Baidu has launched the latest version of its artificial intelligence model Ernie 4.0
October 17, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing on a visit that underscores China’s support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine as well as Russian backing for China’s bid to expand its economic and diplomatic influence abroad through its decade-old “Belt and Road” initiative
October 17, 2023Stalled spending on electrical grids worldwide is slowing the rollout of renewable energy and could put efforts to limit climate change at risk if millions of miles of power lines aren't added or refurbished in the next few years
October 17, 2023The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says a massive blast hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds of people
October 17, 2023Hamas says hundreds have been killed in an airstrike on Gaza City hospital, after intensifying bombardments near towns in southern Gaza rattled civilians where Israel ordered them to take refuge
October 17, 2023The explosion of Israeli-Palestinian violence has Arab leaders faulting a Biden administration policy that moved away from big U.S. pushes for a broad Israeli-Palestinian peace deal
October 17, 2023Israel's military brought together a group of foreign correspondents to screen a 40-minute reel of gruesome footage compiled from the Hamas attack last week
October 17, 2023China’s Belt and Road Initiative looks to become smaller and greener after a decade of big projects that boosted trade but left big debts and raised environmental concerns
October 17, 2023North Korea's nuclear programme is a self-defensive move to head off a nuclear war in the face of the U.S. pursuit of "nuclear supremacy," state media KCNA said on
October 16, 2023President Joe Biden will travel to Israel and Jordan Wednesday to meet with both Israeli and Arab leadership, as concerns increase that the raging Israel-Hamas war could expand into a larger regional conflict
October 16, 2023The release of two more hostages is offering some hope to the families of the more than 200 people the Israeli military says were seized by Hamas militants
October 16, 2023The U.N. Security Council has rejected a Russian resolution on Gaza that condemned violence and terrorism against civilians but made no mention of Hamas, whose surprise attack killed 1,300 Israelis
October 16, 2023The Negro River, the Amazon's second largest tributary, has reached its lowest level since official measurements began near Manaus 121 years ago
October 16, 2023Thousands of soccer fans were kept inside Belgium’s national stadium for about 2 1/2 hours after a game between Belgium and Sweden was suspended at halftime following the fatal shooting of two Swedes in Brussels before kickoff
October 16, 2023Israel has suspended security exports to Colombia in an escalating diplomatic spat over online messages by Colombia’s president comparing Israel’s siege of Gaza to the actions of Nazi Germany
October 16, 2023Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare has been awarded the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor title by French President Emmanuel Macron
October 16, 2023France’s main Jewish students union has plastered walls around Paris with posters bearing the faces of French citizens believed to be held hostage by Hamas in their war with Israel
October 16, 2023Limited water supplies are posing a growing threat to human health in the Gaza Strip
October 16, 2023Police in Belgium are searching for a gunman with suspected extremist motives who killed two Swedes with stunning viciousness in Brussels before disappearing into the night
October 16, 2023The Israeli public is in a state of shock and grief a week after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing scores of people in border communities and kidnapping roughly 150 civilians
October 16, 2023Italian lawmakers have marked the 80th anniversary of the Nazi roundup of more than 1,200 Roman Jews in the Holocaust with a debate on a measure to partially fund a long-delayed Holocaust Museum in the capital
October 16, 2023Venezuela’s government and opposition have reached an agreement on new electoral conditions that once signed Tuesday in Barbados will trigger relief from the U.S. government on energy sanctions it imposed on President Nicolás Maduro’s government
October 16, 2023Hersh Goldberg-Polin's mother describes him as like a lot of other young people
October 16, 2023A financial analyst who was fired by Citibank after claiming a two-sandwich lunch on expenses has lost a legal battle for wrongful dismissal
October 16, 2023Mexico will help Cuba, including providing it with oil, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday.
October 16, 2023Japan has criticized Russia’s announcement that it’s joining China in banning the imports of Japanese seafood in response to the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant
October 16, 2023Commercial operations have begun at Cambodia’s newest and biggest airport, designed to serve as an upgraded gateway to the country’s major tourist attraction, the centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex in the northwestern province of Siem Reap
October 16, 2023The lawyer representing 184 former Facebook content moderators based in Kenya who have sued the site's parent company, Meta, over working conditions and pay has told the judge that Meta was not sincere in trying to reach an out-of-court settlement as agreed in the last court session
October 16, 2023A populist former prime minister of Slovakia who plans to end the country’s military support for Ukraine has signed a coalition agreement with the leaders of two other parties to form a new government
October 16, 2023Filipino officials say Canada will help the Philippines detect illegal fishing with its satellite surveillance system under a new agreement
October 16, 2023Seven of the activists who repeatedly have demonstrated against a wind farm in in central Norway that they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer have met with the Norwegian king
October 16, 2023Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Monday it has started destroying surveillance cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border as tension rose following the Israel-Hamas war that began Oct.7
October 16, 2023A lawyer for Donald Trump has told a London judge that the ex-president plans to prove that a “shocking and scandalous” report by a former British spy was wrong and harmed his reputation
October 16, 2023Ukrainian officials say a dayslong attempt by Russian forces to storm a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine appears to be running out of steam
October 16, 2023President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are meeting with national security officials as the Israel-Hamas conflict intensifies, according to the White House
October 16, 2023A top European Union official says the bloc's leaders will hold an emergency summit on Tuesday as concerns grow that the war between Israel and Hamas could fuel inter-communal tensions in Europe
October 16, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron has held a special security meeting amid heightened alert against feared terror threats
October 16, 2023Martti Ahtisaari, Finland's former president and a global peace broker who was awarded the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to resolve international conflicts, has died
October 16, 2023Nearly complete results show the majority of voters in Poland’s general election supported opposition parties that promise to reverse democratic backsliding and repair the nation’s relationship with allies
October 16, 2023Asian shares have advanced after U.S. stocks rallied as investors unwound some of last week’s moves driven by worries about war in the Middle East
October 16, 2023Australia’s online safety watchdog has fined X — the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — 610,500 Australian dollars ($385,000) for failing to fully explain how it tackled child sexual exploitation content
October 16, 2023More than a million people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected Israel invasion that seeks to eliminate Hamas’ leadership after its deadly incursion
October 16, 2023The Owino Market in Uganda's capital has long been a go-to enclave for rich and poor people alike looking for affordable but quality-made used clothes, underscoring perceptions that Western fashion is superior to what is made at home
October 16, 2023Ecuador’s youngest elected president faces a practically impossible task
October 16, 2023European Union leaders have offered a new growth plan to the six Western Balkans countries that opens parts of the EU single market to them in return for deep reforms, ahead of their full membership in the bloc
October 16, 2023Hospitals in Gaza faced collapse Monday as water, power and medicine neared depletion, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians searched for dwindling food supplies while Israel maintained punishing airstrikes in retaliation for last week’s deadly rampage by Hamas
October 16, 2023Leaders of emerging market countries are arriving in Beijing for a meeting organized by the Chinese government that will mark the 10th anniversary of its Belt and Road Initiative
October 16, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with Chinese leaders in Beijing on a visit that underscores China’s support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine
October 16, 2023The United Nations humanitarian chief says Sudan's war between the military and a powerful paramilitary group has killed up to 9,000 people and created “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history."
October 15, 2023Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis says the United States shouldn't take in any Palestinian refugees if they flee the Gaza Strip because they are “all antisemitic.”
October 15, 2023Israeli rabbis have been working around the clock, even on the Jewish Sabbath, to identify and count the dead civilians and soldiers gunned down in the Hamas attack a week ago
October 15, 2023Najla Shawa and her family are safe for now after fleeing their home in Gaza City
October 15, 2023Myanmar’s military government has hosted representatives from ethnic rebel groups to mark the eighth anniversary of the signing of a multilateral cease-fire agreement
October 15, 2023A 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier assured her mother that she was busy but OK in a text message roughly three hours after the Hamas attack started lasted Saturday morning
October 15, 2023The Hamas attack on Israel has put China's ambitions in the Middle East to the test
October 15, 2023Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has raised his nation’s flag over the capital city of a former breakaway region in a ceremony reaffirming Baku’s control over it
October 15, 2023President Joe Biden is considering a trip to Israel in the coming days, but nothing has been finalized
October 15, 2023Water has run out at U.N. shelters across Gaza
October 15, 2023The Republican Party’s White House hopefuls are offering conflicting messages on the growing foreign policy challenges that include the Israel-Hamas war
October 15, 2023When Hamas unleashed its attack on thousands of Jews attending a music festival in southern Israel earlier this month, an Israeli Arab paramedic insisted on staying at the scene to try to save lives
October 15, 2023Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk is declaring the beginning of a new era after three opposition parties appeared to have won enough votes in Sunday’s parliamentary election to oust the governig party
October 15, 2023Hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents are seeking to heed Israel’s order to evacuate roughly the northern half of the territory, while others are huddled at hospitals in the north
October 15, 2023Medics in Gaza are warning that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people run desperately low on fuel and basic supplies
October 15, 2023Another 6.3 magnitude earthquake has struck part of western Afghanistan where thousands of people died and entire villages were flattened by devastating quakes a week earlier
October 15, 2023Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says his government will look for new ways to lift Indigenous living standards after voters soundly rejected a proposal to create a new advocacy committee
October 15, 2023The sudden capitulation of ethnic Armenian forces in a separatist region of Azerbaijan raises hopes for the return of thousands of people who fled the territory decades ago
October 15, 2023An inexperienced politician and an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade has won Ecuador’s presidential runoff election
October 15, 2023For many Israelis and Jews around the world, the horrors committed by Hamas militants during their stunning onslaught on southern Israeli communities is triggering painful memories of a calamity of a far greater scale: the Holocaust
October 15, 2023The carnage began with a violent cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Israeli civilians
October 14, 2023In the besieged Gaza Strip, 2.3 million people don’t have access to clean, running water because of Israel’s decision to cut off water and electricity to the enclave while pounding it with airstrikes
October 14, 2023Some left home with suitcases jammed with clothes
October 14, 2023Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie were excited to celebrate a family member's birthday and the Jewish holiday season in Israel
October 14, 2023Qatar's Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani is withdrawing his offer to buy Manchester United, a person with knowledge of the process told The Associated Press
October 14, 2023French police say the Louvre Museum and Versailles Palace evacuated visitors and staff after receiving bomb threats
October 14, 2023Jews in communities far from Israel gathered at synagogues this weekend for their Shabbat services, held in the aftermath of Hamas militants' attack on Israel that ignited an ongoing war
October 14, 2023Ada Sagi was getting ready to travel to London to celebrate her 75th birthday with family when Hamas militants attacked her kibbutz and took her hostage
October 14, 2023Ukrainian officials have reported intense combat as Russian forces relentlessly assault the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka
October 14, 2023Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah, who was killed in Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon, has been laid to rest in his hometown in a funeral procession attended by hundreds of people
October 14, 2023The Louvre Museum says it is closing for the day and evacuating all visitors and staff after it received a written threat
October 14, 2023President Joe Biden has spoken with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging the leaders to allow humanitarian aid to the region and affirmed his support for efforts to protect civilians
October 14, 2023Iran’s foreign minister has called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle
October 14, 2023France will mobilize up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded in a school attack
October 14, 2023Israel’s military ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City to evacuate ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive
October 14, 2023Conservative former businessman Christopher Luxon will be New Zealand’s next prime minister after winning a decisive election victory
October 14, 2023Venezuelans have come to feel the decade-long crisis that undid their country as one numbingly featureless expanse of struggles
October 14, 2023Australians have resoundingly rejected a referendum proposal to create an advocacy committee to offer advice to Parliament on policies that affect Indigenous people — the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority
October 14, 2023Palestinians are struggling to flee from areas of Gaza targeted by the Israeli military ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody attack into Israel
October 14, 2023Poland is holding an election Sunday that many view as its most important one since the 1989 vote that toppled communism
October 14, 2023Court records filed Friday indicate the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance intends to plead guilty in an extortion case
October 13, 2023Former President Donald Trump is stepping back from his pointed criticism of Israel
October 13, 2023Palestinians are struggling to figure out what to do in the face of Israel's demand that they leave northern Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli invasion
October 13, 2023Ravens outside linebacker Odafe Oweh will miss his fourth straight game because of an ankle injury when Baltimore plays the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
October 13, 2023The deadly attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians and the devastating Israeli airstrikes and blockade of Gaza have raised accusations among international legal experts that both sides were violating international law
October 13, 2023Police in New York, Los Angeles, and other U.S. cities have increased patrols, authorities put up fencing around the U.S. Capitol and some schools closed amid fears of violence inspired by the Israel-Hamas war
October 13, 2023Because of the fracture in her leg, Karin Journo had talked herself out of going to the Tribe of Nova music festival and sold her ticket
October 13, 2023The IOC says Russian athletes can be directly invited to next year's Paris Games despite the suspension of their country's Olympic committee
October 13, 2023The White House says that North Korea has delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for its ongoing war in Ukraine
October 13, 2023An Israeli shell has landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon, killing a Reuters videographer and leaving six other journalists injured
October 13, 2023A person with knowledge of the move says Haley Cavinder has entered the transfer portal
October 13, 2023Authorities are seeking at least five people in an armed robbery of the St. Louis Cardinals complex in the Dominican Republic on Friday
October 13, 2023European Union leader Charles Michel has warned in The AP Interview that the Israel-Hamas war could create a surge in refugees heading for Europe, raising the risk of spurring on anti-migrant forces, deepening divisions and inflaming tensions between supporters of Israel and the Palestinians
October 13, 2023Adina Moshe's Israeli family is hoping to get her heart medication to her in Gaza, despite her captivity by Hamas
October 13, 2023Flag football and cricket were among five sports that took their next step toward inevitably being added to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
October 13, 2023Israel’s call for half of the Gaza Strip’s population to evacuate south is hiking Egypt’s fears of a massive influx of refugees across the border into its territory
October 13, 2023Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is headed to Israel this weekend to discuss what resources the United States can provide for its war against Hamas
October 13, 2023Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says subsidies will be progressively cut and new taxes launched next year as part of the 2024 federal budget
October 13, 2023A recent ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court ending federal criminal penalties for abortion will eventually expand access to the procedure
October 13, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has commended the growing cooperation within a Moscow-dominated alliance of several ex-Soviet nations despite Western sanctions against his country
October 13, 2023The European Union’s top foreign policy official has warned that public sentiment in Europe could turn more protectionist if the bloc's trade deficit with China is not reduced
October 13, 2023France’s interior minister says the suspect in a deadly school stabbing had been detained for questioning the day before on suspicion of radicalism
October 13, 2023The International Olympic Committee has cited concerns about the effects of climate change for its plan to pick two Winter Olympic host cities in July
October 13, 2023Tens of thousands of Muslims are demonstrating across the Middle East in support of the Palestinians and to protest against the Israeli airstrikes pounding the Gaza Strip
October 13, 2023Allies of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny say Russian authorities have detained three of his lawyers after raiding their homes
October 13, 2023In Muslim communities across the world, worshippers gathered at mosques for their first Friday prayers since Hamas militants attacked Israel, igniting the ongoing Israel-Hamas war
October 13, 2023Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is assuring Israel that “we have your back” as he and America’s top diplomat met with Israeli and Arab leaders
October 13, 2023Microsoft has completed its purchase of video game-maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, closing one of the most expensive tech acquisitions in history that could have repercussions across the video game industry
October 13, 2023Opposing campaigners have made their final pitches over changing the Australia’s constitution to acknowledge a place for Indigenous Australians on the eve of the nation’s first referendum in a generation
October 13, 2023U.S. stocks mostly fell after getting pulled in opposite directions by competing waves of optimism and fear
October 13, 2023Palestinians began a mass exodus Friday from northern Gaza after Israel’s military told some 1 million people to evacuate toward the southern part of the besieged territory
October 13, 2023Israel’s military has ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City to evacuate ahead of a feared Israel ground offensive
October 13, 2023Japan’s government has asked a court to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church after an Education Ministry investigation concluded the group systematically manipulated its followers into donating money, sowing fear and harming their families
October 13, 2023A buyer from Argentina has paid $42,120 for a manuscript of works, including seven unpublished stories, by legendary Argentine writer Julio Cortázar at an auction in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo
October 12, 2023With tattoo-covered faces, wearing white shirts and shorts, gang members captured during El Salvador’s state of exception are gradually filling the country’s new mega prison
October 12, 2023Smoke from forest fires covered large swaths of the Brazilian Amazon as the region endures one of the worst droughts on record, with many rivers at historically low levels
October 12, 2023Will Lebanon’s heavily armed Hezbollah militia join the Israel-Hamas war
October 12, 2023As Israel escalates its war on Hamas, it will confront many of the same dilemmas it has grappled with over decades of conflict with the Palestinians
October 12, 2023French prosecutors are investigating a suspected poisoning of a Russian journalist who fled Russia after denouncing the war in Ukraine on live TV
October 12, 2023A new study finds that four dozen Antarctic ice shelves have shrunk by at least 30% since 1997 and 28 of those have lost more than half of their ice in that time
October 12, 2023The Pentagon calls it FrankenSAM
October 12, 2023An Israeli ground offensive in Gaza would further escalate the war raging since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack days ago
October 12, 2023The U.S. and Qatar have reached an agreement that the Qataris will not act on any request from Tehran for the time being to access $6 billion in Iranian funds that were unblocked as part of a prisoner swap last month
October 12, 2023The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital, Shifa in Gaza City, is overflowing on the sixth day of heavy aerial bombardment on the territory of 2.3 million people
October 12, 2023President Joe Biden has spent decades as a stalwart supporter of Israel, a connection rooted in long-ago dinner table conversations with his father about the Holocaust
October 12, 2023The International Monetary Fund says Middle East economies are gradually recovering as external shocks from the war in Ukraine and global inflation fade
October 12, 2023Moran Stela Yanai's family is speaking about the Israeli woman who loved making jewelry and protecting animals
October 12, 2023An official says a ban on gasoline and diesel-fueled cars from a commercial district of Stockholm’s downtown in 2025 will be the first for a European capital
October 12, 2023The Israel-Hamas war has forced Russia into a delicate balancing act, with Moscow urging a quick end to the fighting without apportioning blame
October 12, 2023South African authorities say they have conducted raids across five provinces to break up a coal-smuggling syndicate blamed for stealing more than $26 million in coal, degrading state-owned power plants and contributing to an electricity crisis
October 12, 2023The chief of NATO says the alliance will hold a major nuclear exercise next week
October 12, 2023The first group of Thai workers evacuated from Israel after the past few days’ bloody events in southern Israel and Gaza have arrived in Bangkok, greeted by anxious relatives and senior officials
October 12, 2023Since Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the Palme d’Or, Sandra Hüller has been dogged by a question: Did she do it
October 12, 2023The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended by the IOC for breaching the Olympic Charter by incorporating sports bodies in four regions in eastern Ukraine
October 12, 2023The Treasury Department has imposed its first set of sanctions on two companies that shipped Russian oil in violation of a multinational price cap
October 12, 2023Eviatar Moshe Kipnis and Lilach Lea Havron are among the estimated 150 people believed held by Hamas in Gaza
October 12, 2023U.N. officials say more than 90% of the people killed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Afghanistan were women and children
October 12, 2023Several of former President Donald Trump’s Republican rivals are denouncing him for lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days after Hamas’ deadly attack
October 12, 2023Britain’s financial regulator has fined the American former chief executive of Barclays, Jes Staley, 1.8 million pounds — about $2.2 million — and banned him from holding senior financial roles for misleading it over the nature of his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
October 12, 2023NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is pressing Turkey to quickly ratify Sweden’s membership in the military organization
October 12, 2023The European Union is ordering U.S. biotech giant Illumina to undo its $7.1 billion purchase of cancer-screening company Grail because it closed the deal without approval of regulators
October 12, 2023Authorities in Romania found a crater on their territory near the border with Ukraine that they say was likely caused by a crashed drone that exploded on impact
October 12, 2023The Grand National is implementing a series of significant changes that will take effect from next year in an effort to make the world’s most famous steeplechase safer for horses and jockeys
October 12, 2023Former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been given a suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to a fraud charge over his failure to declare millions of dollars held in a trust in Singapore
October 12, 2023The European Commission has made a formal, legally binding request for information from Elon Musk’s social media platform X over its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the Israel-Hamas war
October 12, 2023UEFA has postponed Israel’s European Championship qualifying game against host Kosovo on Sunday
October 12, 2023The Malaysian government has questioned a move by Goldman Sachs to file for arbitration in a dispute connected with the multibillion-dollar looting of a sovereign wealth fund
October 12, 2023Germany is offering military help to Israel and promising to crack down on support for the militant Hamas group at home following its attack on Israel
October 12, 2023President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kyrgyzstan on a rare trip abroad for the Russian leader who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine
October 12, 2023Shares have fallen in Asia after a retreat on Wall Street as the vise tightened from rising yields in the bond market
October 12, 2023A Chinese-born journalist has thanked the Australian government for her return to Australia “in one piece” after her three-year detention in China in an espionage case that strained bilateral ties
October 12, 2023Japan’s government says it will ask a court to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination raised questions about the group’s fundraising and recruitment tactics
October 12, 2023Israel’s military has directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people, within 24 hours
October 12, 2023Most of the population in conflict-affected countries like Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and northern Nigeria depends on climate-vulnerable agriculture
October 12, 2023The Israeli military is preparing for a possible ground invasion in Gaza as it pounds the tiny coastal strip in retaliation for the unprecedented weekend attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas
October 12, 2023Within hours of the horrific attack by Hamas, the U.S. began moving warships and aircraft to the region to be ready to provide Israel with whatever it needs to respond
October 12, 2023A U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has arrived in South Korea in a demonstration of strength against North Korea
October 12, 2023The U.S.
October 11, 2023Over the last five days, Israeli warplanes have pummeled Gaza with an intensity that its war-weary residents had never experienced
October 11, 2023The Israeli military led a group of journalists, including an Associated Press reporter, on a tour of Kibbutz Be'eri, a village a few miles from Israel’s fortified border with Gaza
October 11, 2023An Israeli-American teenager survived a siege by Hamas attackers over the weekend after his parents shielded him from the gunfire but were killed themselves
October 11, 2023One of those taken hostage is a grandmother who learned Arabic in hopes of building bridges with her neighbors
October 11, 2023The Hamas-run Gaza Strip is a tiny enclave, measuring 25 miles long and no more than 7 miles wide
October 11, 2023While Twitter has always struggled with combating misinformation about major news events, it was still the go-to place to find out what’s happening in the world
October 11, 2023Finnish police say they have launched a criminal investigation into possible sabotage of an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia that was shut down over the weekend following a leak
October 11, 2023President Joe Biden says the weekend attack by Hamas militants on Israel was the deadliest against Jews since the Holocaust and called it a “campaign of pure cruelty.”
October 11, 2023Lidia has dissipated after hitting land as a Category 4 hurricane near the resort of Puerto Vallarta
October 11, 2023The Dominican Republic has partially reopened its border with Haiti to limited commercial activity nearly a month after shuttering the frontier amid an ongoing spat over construction of a canal targeting water from a shared river
October 11, 2023France’s highest administrative authority has rejected an effort by rights campaigners to end what they allege is a generalized practice by French police of targeting Black people and people of Arab descent for stops and checks
October 11, 2023Soccer officials in Australia and Indonesia have floated the idea of teaming up in a bid to rival Saudi Arabia for the hosting rights to the men’s World Cup in 2034
October 11, 2023Germany's government says it expects the country’s economy to shrink by 0.4% this year
October 11, 2023Buckingham Palace says King Charles III will travel to Kenya later this month
October 11, 2023Salman Rushdie has written a memoir about the horrifying attempt on his life that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand
October 11, 2023Russian authorities imposed a fine of about $1,500 on a prominent human rights advocate for criticizing the war in Ukraine, the latest step in a relentless crackdown
October 11, 2023The “Mona Lisa” has given up a secret
October 11, 2023Volunteers helped gravediggers at Israel's main military cemetery on Wednesday as burials began for soldiers slain in the assault on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip.
October 11, 2023London’s Luton Airport has reopened after a vehicle fire spread through a newly built parking garage and caused the partial collapse of the structure
October 11, 2023The French military says it's begun withdrawing from Niger following the July coup when mutinous soldiers toppled the country’s democratically elected president
October 11, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has joined a meeting of more than 50 defense leaders from around the world to make a personal pitch for military aid in the war against Russia
October 11, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher as investors await the release of U.S. consumer price data and keep a cautious watch on the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas
October 11, 2023Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says a Chinese Australian journalist who was jailed for three years in China on a murky espionage conviction has returned to Australia
October 11, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas after its unprecedented attack on Israel
October 11, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Wednesday with a top political rival to create a wartime Cabinet overseeing the fight to avenge a gruesome weekend attack by Hamas militants
October 11, 2023New Zealand’s immigration numbers have hit an all-time high
October 11, 2023The war provoked by Hamas’ attack on Israel has shaken American politics and put the Republican presidential primary race in Nikki Haley's wheelhouse
October 11, 2023Another strong earthquake has shaken western Afghanistan days after one of the most destructive quakes in the country's recent history
October 11, 2023An Israeli village that was attacked by militants lies in ruin, not far from the border with Gaza
October 10, 2023A massive fire has torn through a newly built parking garage at one of London’s international airports
October 10, 2023How to help civilians impacted by the Israel-Gaza conflict
October 10, 2023The Coast Guard says it has recovered remaining debris, including presumed human remains, from a submersible that imploded in June on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five onboard
October 10, 2023Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel and the war it launched has raised new questions about the influence of its main sponsor, Iran, and whether it had anything to do with the assault
October 10, 2023Argentina’s firebrand populist presidential candidate Javier Milei is coming under fire from his rivals who are blaming him for a sharp depreciation of the local currency in the parallel market
October 10, 2023A U_S_ official says the government believes the driver who crashed into the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco the day before did so “with malign intent."
October 10, 2023Mexico's president says he rejected a U.S. request to set up migrant transit centers in Mexico
October 10, 2023President Joe Biden is confirming that U.S. citizens are among the hostages captured by Hamas in this weekend’s attack on Israel
October 10, 2023Following a night of intense bombardment, residents were struggling Tuesday to grasp the sheer scale of damage inflicted on the upscale Rimal neighborhood in central Gaza City
October 10, 2023The U.S. has officially declared the ouster of Niger’s democratically-elected president a coup d’etat
October 10, 2023Algeria is rebuffing accusations that efforts to crack down on French private schools constituted hostility toward the langauge
October 10, 2023The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, says it is struggling with a flood of posts sharing graphic media, violent speech and hateful conduct about the latest war between Israel and Hamas
October 10, 2023A group of U.S. senators visiting Beijing are expressing hope that they had opened the door ever so slightly to government talks with China on its role in the fentanyl crisis ravaging America
October 10, 2023Finland’s president says damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia appears to have been caused by “external activity.”
October 10, 2023Lidia has dissipated after hitting land as a Category 4 hurricane near the resort of Puerta Vallarta, where one person was killed by a falling tree and two others were injured
October 10, 2023A senior Russian diplomat says that Moscow will move to revoke the ratification of a global nuclear test ban to put itself on par with the United States but will only resume nuclear tests if Washington does it first
October 10, 2023Russia will not be allowed to take part in qualifying for the Under-17 European Championship this month after all
October 10, 2023The trend of reaching friendly agreements to pick hosts of the Olympics or major soccer tournaments without a contested vote has continued in Europe
October 10, 2023Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia on espionage charges, has lost an appeal to be released from jail, meaning he will stay behind bars at least until Nov. 30
October 10, 2023China is touting its 10-year-old Belt and Road Initiative as an alternative model for economic growth as it seeks to win friends and strengthen its leadership of the developing world
October 10, 2023Poland's President Andrzej Duda has appointed two senior military officers after predecessors resigned over an apparent spat with the defense minister just days before the country holds a general election
October 10, 2023Liberian President George Weah is seeking a second term in office, facing a rematch against his main challenger from the 2017 election
October 10, 2023Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into U.N. shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people after their Hamas militant rulers launched an unprecedented attack on Israel
October 10, 2023The International Monetary Fund warns that the world economy has lost momentum from the impact of higher interest rates, the invasion in Ukraine and widening geopolitical rifts
October 10, 2023Afghan rescuers and villagers are still digging through rubble in western Herat province, three days after one of the deadliest earthquakes in the region left more than 2,000 dead
October 10, 2023An executive at Japanese publishing house Kadokawa has been found guilty of bribing a former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee member
October 10, 2023Shares are higher in Asia, tracking Wall Street gains following an easing of pressure from the bond market
October 10, 2023Myanmar’s military is accused of launching an airstrike on a camp for displaced persons in the northern state of Kachin that killed about 30 people, including about a dozen children
October 10, 2023Chinese property developer Country Garden has warned it cannot meet deadlines to repay its loans as the company struggles to restructure its debts
October 10, 2023Russia has been defeated in its bid to regain a seat in the United Nations premiere human rights body by a significant majority in an election in the General Assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine
October 10, 2023Syria has boycotted a hearing at the UN's highest court, where the Netherlands and Canada are accusing Damascus of “institutionalized” use of torture
October 10, 2023For many Catholic Poles, their country’s heart beats in Czestochowa
October 10, 2023General Motors and the union representing Canadian auto workers have reached a tentative contract agreement, ending a strike that began just after midnight
October 10, 2023Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has said peace with China is the “only option,” while strongly asserting the self-governing island's defenses
October 10, 2023Israeli warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip neighborhood by neighborhood on Tuesday, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory now suffering severe retaliation for the deadly weekend attack by Hamas militants
October 10, 2023South Korea’s new defense minister says he would push to suspend a 2018 military agreement with North Korea on reducing tensions between the rivals, insisting that it hampers the South’s surveillance activities along their heavily armed border when the North’s nuclear threats are increasing
October 10, 2023Israel has stepped up its offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to an unprecedented attack by Hamas
October 10, 2023The families of some 130 Israelis kidnapped by Hamas are anxiously waiting to find out if their loved ones are safe
October 10, 2023The outbreak of war between Israel and the Palestinians is threatening to delay or derail a country-by-country diplomatic push by the United States to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors
October 10, 2023Humanitarian groups are scrambling to assist civilians caught in the war between Israel and Hamas and determine what aid operations are still safe to continue, efforts that are being complicated by an intensified blockade of Gaza and the ongoing fighting
October 10, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called Niger's deposed President Mohamed Bazoum ahead of an expected decision by the Biden administration to declare his overthrow a coup d'etat
October 10, 2023Officials say a car rammed into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, coming to a stop in the lobby and creating a chaotic scene that ended with police shooting the driver, who later died at the hospital
October 09, 2023Russia’s U.N. ambassador is alleging that “neo-Nazis” and military-age men were at the wake for a Ukrainian soldier in a village café where a missile last week killed 52 people
October 09, 2023The Dominican Republic government says it will temporarily allow the trade of essential Dominican products, including food and medications, on the border with Haiti
October 09, 2023Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007
October 09, 2023A senior official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas says only a small number of top commanders in Gaza knew about the surprise attack against Israel in advance
October 09, 2023The United Nations is expressing growing concerns about humanitarian needs in Palestinian areas as Israel ratchets up a muscular military riposte and lockdown of Gaza after the weekend attack by Hamas militants who killed and kidnapped hundreds of civilians in Israel
October 09, 2023Most Israelis thought it was an ironclad social contract
October 09, 2023Guatemala’s attorney general is calling for the government to act against largely peaceful protesters, which have taken to the streets for weeks demanding her resignation for what they say are clear attempts to undermine their nation’s democracy
October 09, 2023The NFL’s ongoing push for worldwide exposure got another boost when organizers for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics delivered a proposal to put flag football on the program when the Summer Games return to the United States for the first time in 32 years
October 09, 2023The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in ethnically split Cyprus says Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have reached an “understanding” over a contentious road inside a U.N.-controlled buffer zone whose construction had stirred up tensions not seen in years
October 09, 2023An independent inquiry has opened in the U.K. to examine claims that British special forces murdered dozens of Afghan men during counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan a decade ago
October 09, 2023The European Union has reversed an earlier announcement that it was “immediately” suspending aid for Palestinian authorities and instead said it would urgently review such assistance in the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas
October 09, 2023Rio de Janeiro’s state government has deployed hundreds of police officers to three of the city’s sprawling and low-income neighborhoods
October 09, 2023The U.S. has already begun delivering critically needed munitions and military equipment to Israel, the White House said Monday, as the Pentagon reviews its inventories to see what else can be sent quickly to boost its ally in the three-day-old war with Hamas
October 09, 2023Major airlines are suspending flights to Israel after it formally declared war following a massive attack by Hamas
October 09, 2023A lawyer tried to assure the U.K. Supreme Court that the British government analyzed the risks of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda and would have people there to make sure it was safe
October 09, 2023Saudi Arabia has formally informed FIFA of its wish to host the men’s World Cup in 2034 in a bidding contest that increasingly looks designed for the oil-rich kingdom to win
October 09, 2023The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is announcing $40 million in funding to help develop messenger RNA vaccines in Africa
October 09, 2023Flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Myanmar’s southern areas has displaced more than 14,000 people and disrupted traffic on the rail lines that connect the country’s biggest cities
October 09, 2023Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East have prompted international airlines to suspend flights to the region or to avoid affected air space.
October 09, 2023People have been moved to shelters and nearly 2,000 boats recalled to port as the remnants of Typhoon Koinu hit southern China after leaving one dead and over 300 injured in Taiwan
October 09, 2023People are digging through the rubble from the quake in western Afghanistan
October 09, 2023Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University professor, was awarded the Nobel economics prize for research that helps explain why women around the world are less likely than men to work and to earn less money when they do
October 09, 2023Asian shares are higher after Wall Street advanced on potentially encouraging news about interest rates, which have been dragging markets lower since the summer
October 09, 2023Air force helicopters have rescued scores of stranded tourists in India’s Himalayan northeast after a 6-year-old hydroelectric dam cracked open last week in intense rain, flooding a valley and killing at least 74 people
October 09, 2023U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he is grateful for a stronger statement from China condemning the deadly Hamas attack on Israel issued during his visit to Beijing that included a lengthy meeting with President Xi Jinping
October 09, 2023Share prices have opened little changed after the the Israeli government declared war following deadly attacks by Hamas from the Gaza Strip
October 09, 2023The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are holding their annual meetings in Morocco, one month after an earthquake killed nearly 3,000 people in the North African country
October 09, 2023Israel increased airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and sealed it off from food, fuel, and other supplies in retaliation for a bloody incursion by Hamas militants, as the war’s death toll rose to nearly 1,600 on both sides
October 09, 2023Israel’s intelligence agencies have gained an aura of invincibility over the decades because of a string of intelligence achievements against its enemies both near and far
October 09, 2023For some Republicans in Congress, Taiwan and Ukraine are effectively rivals for a limited pool of U.S. military assistance
October 09, 2023Australians appear likely to reject a proposal that would create an advocate for the Indigenous population in a referendum outcome that some see as a victory for racism
October 09, 2023The open-air Tribe of Nova music festival will go down in Israeli history as the country’s worst civilian massacre
October 09, 2023Israel has declared war, bombarding the Gaza strip with airstrikes in retaliation for a major surprise attack by the militant group Hamas
October 08, 2023Nasser Abu Quta lost 19 members of his family in an instant when an Israeli airstrike blew up his home in a crowded refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip
October 08, 2023The capture of dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians by Hamas militants has stirred Israeli emotions more viscerally than any crisis in the country’s recent memory
October 08, 2023Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala said on Sunday that his faction was holding captive more than 30 of the Israelis who were abducted in the Gaza Strip since Saturday after Hamas
October 08, 2023Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he's ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel after the surprise attack by Hamas that has left more than 1,000 dead and thousands wounded on both sides
October 08, 2023A U.S. think tank says recent satellite photos show a sharp increase in rail traffic along the North Korea-Russia border, indicating the North is supplying munitions to Russia
October 08, 2023The U.K. Supreme Court will start hearing arguments over whether the British government’s contentious policy to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda is lawful
October 08, 2023The extreme drought sweeping across Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is already impacting hundreds of thousands of people and killing local wildlife
October 08, 2023Many of the Republican candidates running for president say they'd use military force against Mexico in response to the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids
October 08, 2023British filmmaker Terence Davies has died at the age of 77
October 08, 2023Finland and Estonia say the undersea Balticconnector gas pipeline running between the two countries across the Baltic Sea has been temporarily taken out of service due to a suspected leak
October 08, 2023Egyptian authorities say a policeman opened fire on Israeli tourists in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, killing at least two Israelis and one Egyptian
October 08, 2023Men dug through rubble with their bare hands and shovels in western Afghanistan on Sunday in desperate attempts to pull victims from the wreckage of earthquakes that killed at least 2,000 people
October 08, 2023Projections show Germany’s center-right opposition winning two state elections at the halfway mark of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular national government, and a far-right party that has been riding high in national polls making gains
October 08, 2023The Israeli government has formally declared war and given the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack from the Gaza Strip
October 08, 2023Greece has become a late but enthusiastic convert to new technology as a way of displaying its famous archaeological monuments and deepening visitors' knowledge of ancient history
October 08, 2023A decapitated banana plant is almost useless, an inconvenience to the farmer who must uproot it and lay its dismembered parts as mulch
October 08, 2023President Joe Biden has been thrust into a Middle East crisis that risks expanding into a broader conflict and has left him fending off criticism from GOP presidential rivals that his administration’s policies led to this moment
October 08, 2023Members of Britain’s opposition Labour Party are gathering for their annual conference with an unfamiliar feeling: optimism
October 08, 2023Ecuadorian authorities say a seventh man accused in the assassination of a presidential candidate in August has been killed inside a prison
October 07, 2023The Jewish diaspora is trying to make sense of an attack that killed hundreds and wounded many more during a holiday season that is supposed to be among the most festive times on the Jewish holiday calendar
October 07, 2023Former President Donald Trump and other GOP contenders tried to lay blame on the Biden administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack on Israel in decades, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare the country at war
October 07, 2023Israelis huddled in bomb shelters pleading for help as Hamas fighters broke into their houses and shot at anyone they saw
October 07, 2023U.N. and local investigators are searching for answers at the site of a Russian missile strike on a small Ukrainian village
October 07, 2023President Joe Biden has condemned what he says is the “unconscionable” assault by Hamas militants and his administration is pledging to ensure Israel has “what it needs to defend itself.”
October 07, 2023More than a million people in northern Gaza have been ordered to evacuate to the south as Israel appeared to be preparing a ground offensive in the latest Israel-Hamas war
October 07, 2023The recent collapse of Ukraine aid in Congress was months in the making
October 07, 2023After 12 years of planning and construction, the largest Hindu temple outside India in the modern era is ready to open to the public in Robbinsville, New Jersey
October 07, 2023A Taliban government spokesperson says the death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan has jumped to more than 2,000
October 07, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel’s fierce offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has “only started.”
October 07, 2023Rescuers in India have found more bodies as they dug through slushy debris and ice-cold water in a hunt for survivors after a glacial lake burst through a dam
October 07, 2023A senior American lawmaker says the U.S. does not want to cut economic ties with the world’s second-largest economy but seeks a level playing field so that American companies can compete freely
October 07, 2023The Biden administration is nervously watching an ongoing dispute between Canada and India
October 07, 2023Ecuadorian officials say six Colombians arrested as the alleged assassins of a candidate in Ecuador's August presidential election have been slain inside a prison in Guayaquil
October 07, 2023Hamas militants have fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of fighters into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday
October 07, 2023In the middle of an ordinary April evening in 2022, crime scene investigator Nicki Lenway found herself in a unique and potentially life-threatening situation. Someone approached her as she was walking to pick up her kid from a parenting program and shot him many times. Lenway was horribly injured in the horrific incident that took place in a public parking lot, yet he amazingly survived. This event is a horrifying illustration of real-life crime and intrigue, with all the markings of a film thriller. Lenway had just picked up Callahan, then five, from the FamilyWise parenting center at about 7:30
October 07, 2023A U.N. independent investigator says Iranian authorities are cracking down on protesters, unlawfully detaining human rights activists, including new Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, and carrying out an “alarming” number of executions
October 06, 2023The Ukrainian village of Hroza has been plunged into mourning by a missile strike that killed more than 50 people
October 06, 2023Lionel Messi’s absence from Inter Miami’s lineup may be over
October 06, 2023Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce says he has to keep “living and enjoying the moments” while his budding relationship with Taylor Swift has thrown the latest celebrity power couple into the spotlight
October 06, 2023Some migrants say the U.S. government’s plan to restart deportation flights to Venezuela in the coming days won't stop them from continuing their journeys
October 06, 2023Police in Nigeria have identified a nurse as the “principal suspect” in the mysterious death of a Nigerian Afrobeat star which triggered dayslong protests demanding justice
October 06, 2023President Joe Biden says that he could potentially meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco
October 06, 2023Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has removed the country’s prime minister and dissolved the government, according to a senior public official
October 06, 2023Authorities say 16 migrants from Venezuela and Haiti are dead following a bus crash in southern Mexico
October 06, 2023The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee urged Iran to release imprisoned peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi and let her accept the award at the annual prize ceremony in December
October 06, 2023German news agency dpa is reporting that prosecutors have said that testimony from witnesses hasn’t revealed any indication so far that a co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party was assaulted at an election rally
October 06, 2023French investigative judges have filed preliminary charges against former President Nicolas Sarkozy
October 06, 2023A 36-year-old man has been ordered to remain in custody in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and murder one of Britain’s most high-profile television personalities
October 06, 2023A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to four months in prison after he pleaded guilty to importing children’s books deemed to be “seditious publications.”
October 06, 2023The NATO-led peacekeeping force has called on both Kosovo and Serbia to return to the negotiating table to resolve their issues to prevent violence like the recent shootout between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region
October 06, 2023Shares in the troubled British lender Metro Bank have bounced back by a third on reports that it has been sounding out bigger rivals to buy a chunk of its assets
October 06, 2023The leaders of the European Union are once again taking up the divisive issue of migration as they met in the Spanish city of Granada
October 06, 2023An aid group says heavy artillery fire killed at least 11 people and wounded 90 in a major city in conflict-torn Sudan
October 06, 2023Indonesia has denied that forest and peat fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands are causing the haze in neighboring Malaysia
October 06, 2023Taiwan's economy minister has confirmed that regulators are investigating four Taiwanese companies suspected of helping China’s Huawei Technologies to build semiconductor facilities
October 06, 2023Breakdancing is part of a minor sports revolution going on in Mongolia
October 06, 2023Wall Street rallied in a whipsaw Friday and erased its morning losses after looking deeper into the nuances of a surprisingly strong report on the U.S. job market
October 06, 2023Russia is seeking re-election to the United Nations' top human rights body next week in what is seen as a crucial test of Western
October 06, 2023The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has accused the country’s National Security Service of threatening media and civil society and undermining prospects for a democratic transition before next year's election
October 06, 2023A Russian missile attack in Ukraine has killed a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother
October 06, 2023The speaker of the Russian parliament says lawmakers will consider revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban
October 06, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher in cautious trading after Wall Street drifted to a quiet close on worries about a too-hot U.S. job market
October 06, 2023Three bears that snuck into a tatami mat factory and were holed up inside for nearly a day have been captured
October 06, 2023Imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi has won the Nobel Peace Prize
October 06, 2023Family members of some of the victims of a deadly drone attack on a crowded military graduation ceremony that killed scores have gathered outside a military hospital in the central Syrian city of Homs to collect the bodies of their loved ones
October 06, 2023Turkish warplanes have carried out airstrikes on sites believed to be used by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria
October 06, 2023A quiet ceremony has been attended by about 200 people in a small town in northeastern Thailand marking the one-year anniversary of the country's deadliest mass killing
October 06, 2023A former High Court chief justice and dozens of legal academics are rebutting key arguments used in the public campaign against Australians creating an advocacy body for the Indigenous population
October 06, 2023A Chinese coast guard ship came within a meter (3 feet) of colliding with a Philippine patrol ship it was trying to block in the South China Sea, in an alarming incident that intensified fears that territorial disputes in the waters could spark a larger crisis
October 06, 2023Hundreds of rescuers dug through slushy debris and fast-flowing, icy water Friday in a search for survivors after a glacial lake burst through a dam in India’s Himalayan northeast, a disaster that many had warned was possible for years
October 06, 2023Rain-swollen rivers only briefly slowed the otherwise uninterrupted flow of migrants through this jungle-covered border of Colombia and Panama and by midweek another 2,000 bedraggled migrants stumbled out of the Darien jungle
October 06, 2023European Union leaders are acknowledging that just as aspiring members must meet exacting criteria to join the bloc, the 27 member nations also must work hard to reform the EU to make sure it can work smoothly with 30-plus nations
October 06, 2023A typhoon is heading toward southern China and Hong Kong after bringing record-breaking winds and leaving one dead in Taiwan
October 06, 2023The mayor of New York City is in Puebla, Mexico, thanking migrants for their contributions to his city, but telling them it is already full
October 05, 2023The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be soon be revealed and the annual guessing game is reaching its climax
October 05, 2023If Saudi Arabia could have designed a process for choosing future World Cup hosts, it might look similar to what FIFA has unveiled for the 2030 and 2034 men’s soccer tournaments
October 05, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin says that hand grenade fragments have been found in the bodies of people who died in an August crash of a plane carrying Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin
October 05, 2023Since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military has repeatedly used missiles to blast civilian targets across the country, with devastating consequences
October 05, 2023The global economy has shown remarkable resilience but still bears deep scars from the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates
October 05, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country has successfully tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile and declared that lawmakers could revoke its ratification of a global nuclear test ban
October 05, 2023The Pentagon says the U.S. military shot down an armed Turkish drone that came within 500 meters of American troops in northeastern Syria
October 05, 2023Reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid has told USA Basketball that he intends to play for them at the Paris Olympics
October 05, 2023A Star Wars fanatic who was encouraged by a chatbot girlfriend to slay Queen Elizabeth II has been sentenced to nine years in prison for taking his plot to Windsor Castle
October 05, 2023Italy’s transport minister is questioning the spread of electric vehicle technology following the fiery crash of a fully electric shuttle bus that killed 21 people in mainland Venice
October 05, 2023German prosecutors say they have launched an investigation into the alleged assault of a co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party at an election rally
October 05, 2023Amnesty International is urging Pakistan to maintain its support for Afghan refugees by enabling them to live with dignity and be free from the fear of deportation to Afghanistan where they face persecution by the Taliban
October 05, 2023Tropical Storm Philippe is aiming for Bermuda on a path that would eventually take it to Atlantic Canada and eastern New England
October 05, 2023A lawyer says five Israelis accused of gang raping a British woman in a Cyprus hotel room won’t plead to charges including rape, sexual assault and abduction until prosecutors hand over key material including DNA tests, fingerprints and eyewitness testimony
October 05, 2023A mysterious injury suffered by a 16-year-old girl not wearing a headscarf while boarding a Metro train in Iran’s capital has reignited anger just after the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini and the nationwide protests it sparked
October 05, 2023In a simply built concrete house a few yards off a dirt road in the rural town of Uthai Sawan in northeastern Thailand, Tawee Lasopha wakes up before sunrise to catch fish from his pond, then moves onto household chores with his wife, cooking breakfast and preparing his grandchildren for school
October 05, 2023Vikings had windows — usually only associated with medieval churches and castles — meaning Norsemen dignitaries sat in rooms lit up by apertures with glass
October 05, 2023Zimbabwe has recorded 100 suspected deaths from cholera and more than 5,000 possible cases since late last month
October 05, 2023Scottish authorities have signed an extradition order for an American fugitive accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah
October 05, 2023Family members of imprisoned dissidents in Tunisia want the International Criminal Court to investigate claims of political persecution and human rights violations in their country
October 05, 2023Concerns from regulators about the dominance of Amazon and Microsoft in Britain’s cloud computing market have triggered an investigation into the competitiveness of the key industry
October 05, 2023Ukrainian officials say at least 51 civilians were killed in a Russian rocket strike on a village store and cafe in the eastern part of the country in one of the deadliest attacks in recent months
October 05, 2023Almost 50 European leaders are using a summit in southern Spain’s Granada to stress that they stand by Ukraine at a time when Western resolve appears somewhat weakened
October 05, 2023The Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Norwegian author Jon Fosse
October 05, 2023Syria’s health minister says a drone attack that hit a packed military graduation ceremony in the central city of Homs has killed 80 people and wounded 240
October 05, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher in cautious trading after Wall Street drifted to a quiet close on worries about a too-hot U.S. job market
October 05, 2023Fighting to win an unprecedented third term in office, Poland's nationalist government has seized on a target close to home
October 05, 2023Rescue workers are searching for nearly 100 people after flash floods triggered by a sudden heavy rainfall swamped several towns in northeastern India, killing at least 31 people
October 05, 2023A radio, batteries and a trap door on the side for stretching are some of the things pilots are relying on to endure what's been called the world's oldest gas balloon race
October 05, 2023Bedbugs go wherever people go, and they have become a nightmare haunting France for weeks
October 05, 2023Typhoon Koinu is sweeping southern Taiwan
October 05, 2023In parts of the world, religiously unaffiliated people are increasing in numbers, and can safely and publicly be an atheist or agnostic
October 05, 2023In the Middle East and North Africa, where religion is often ingrained in daily life’s very fabric, rejecting faith can come with consequences
October 05, 2023In the pope’s homeland of Argentina, Catholics have been renouncing the faith and joining the growing ranks of the religiously unaffiliated
October 05, 2023In Italy, centuries-old churches dot the landscape, sanctuaries and processions draw crowds, and nearly 80% of the population profess themselves Catholic
October 05, 2023Momo Nomura, a graphic artist and entrepreneur, visits a shrine near her business meetings or trips almost weekly
October 05, 2023Nones, or those unaffiliated with religion in India, account for less than 1% in a nation of 1.4 billion
October 05, 2023Israel is a nation perennially swept up in religious fervor and conflict
October 05, 2023In the Middle East and North Africa, where religion is often ingrained in daily life's very fabric, rejecting faith can come with repercussions
October 05, 2023In parts of the world, religiously unaffiliated people are increasing in numbers, and can safely and publicly be an atheist or agnostic
October 05, 2023In Italy, centuries-old churches dot the landscape, sanctuaries and processions draw crowds, and nearly 80% of the population profess themselves Catholic
October 05, 2023In the pope’s homeland of Argentina, Catholics have been renouncing the faith and joining the growing ranks of the religiously unaffiliated
October 05, 2023In small towns across Italy, life has changed over the last generation as the Catholic faith loses relevance in people’s routines and choices
October 05, 2023In Uruguay, a small nation of some 3.3 million people, more than half identify as “nones” – atheist, agnostic or other religiously unaffiliated – the highest portion in Latin America
October 05, 2023Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant says it has begun releasing a second batch of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea after the first round of discharges ended smoothly
October 05, 2023After a record-smashing hot summer, Earth's warming somehow got even worse in September
October 05, 2023The Department of Homeland Security announced that the Biden administration leveraged sweeping executive power to waive 26 federal laws in South Texas
October 04, 2023The first leopard cubs born in captivity in Peru are climbing trees and greeting visitors as they make their debut at a local zoo
October 04, 2023German police say a leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party was given medical treatment and then taken to a hospital shortly before he was due to speak at an election rally in Bavaria
October 04, 2023Facing a likely roadblock from House Republicans on aid for Ukraine, President Joe Biden said Wednesday he’s planning to give a major speech on the issue and hinted there may be “another means” to support Kyiv if Congress balks
October 04, 2023The Biden administration is going to resume deporting migrants to Venezuela
October 04, 2023South Africa’s overall mining profits slipped by more than $5 billion in the last financial year
October 04, 2023Russia has long turned to Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine
October 04, 2023The International Monetary Fund says it expects the U.S. to continue playing its key role in amassing multinational support that has helped keep Ukraine’s economy afloat during Russia’s invasion
October 04, 2023Armless archer Matt Stutzman is reshaping thinking about people with disabilities one arrow at a time
October 04, 2023Kenyan lawmakers say that parliamentary approval is required before the deployment of police to the Kenya-led peacekeeping mission in Haiti to combat gang violence that was approved by the U.N. Security Council this week
October 04, 2023Three decades ago, the world held its breath as tanks blasted the Russian parliament building in central Moscow while the Kremlin moved to flush out rebellious lawmakers in a crisis that shaped the country’s post-Soviet history
October 04, 2023Two Philippine supply boats have breached a Chinese coast guard blockade in the South China Sea in a recurring confrontation near a disputed shoal some fear could spark a larger security crisis that could draw in the United States
October 04, 2023A new study finds that far more people are in harm's way as they move into high flood zones around the world
October 04, 2023A unique 2030 World Cup is set to be played in Europe and Africa with the surprising addition of South America
October 04, 2023Tropical Storm Philippe is drenching the U.S. and British Virgin Islands as it spins away from the northeast Caribbean on a path that would take it toward Bermuda and later New England and Atlantic Canada
October 04, 2023Turkish warplanes have launched a new round of airstrikes against Kurdish militant targets in Iraq
October 04, 2023U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has proposed raising the legal age that people in England can buy cigarettes until it applies to the whole population
October 04, 2023In a first for Canada, the voters of Manitoba have elected a First Nations member to be premier of one of the country’s provinces
October 04, 2023Israeli police say they have arrested several people suspected of spitting in the direction of Christian pilgrims and churches in Jerusalem
October 04, 2023British police have opened an investigation into corporate manslaughter at a northern England hospital after a neonatal nurse was convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others when she worked there
October 04, 2023Sirens wailed across Russia and TV stations interrupted regular programming to broadcast warnings as part of sweeping drills intended to test the readiness of the emergency services amid the fighting in Ukraine
October 04, 2023Four Western countries have floated a proposal for the United Nations' top human rights body to appoint a team of experts to monitor and report on abuses and rights violations in war-wracked Sudan
October 04, 2023Japanese Agriculture Minister Ichiro Miyashita says Tokyo hopes to resolve the issue of Chinese ban on its seafood within the World Trade Organization's scope
October 04, 2023FIFA has approved the possible reintegration of Russian youth teams into its competitions and eased a total ban on the country in international soccer amid the war in Ukraine
October 04, 2023A court in Moscow has sentenced a former state TV journalist to 8 1/2 years in prison in absentia for protesting Russia’s war in Ukraine, the latest example of a crackdown on dissent that has intensified since Moscow’s invasion nearly 20 months ago
October 04, 2023Pope Francis is shaming and challenging world leaders to take concrete action to slow climate change before it’s too late
October 04, 2023Saudi Arabia says it will maintain a production cut of 1 million barrels of oil a day through the end of the year
October 04, 2023The international Red Cross is calling for the ouster of the head of the Belarus Red Cross, who stirred international outrage for boasting that it was actively ferrying Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled areas to Belarus
October 04, 2023Russia says its air defenses shot down 31 Ukrainian drones in a nighttime attack on border regions
October 04, 2023Italy has launched an investigation after a fully electric-powered bus with foreign tourists veered off a busy overpass on the Venetian mainland during rush hour
October 04, 2023Three scientists in the United States have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on quantum dots
October 04, 2023U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has told his Conservative Party he's not afraid to make tough decisions for long-term change
October 04, 2023Police in New Delhi have arrested the editor of a news website and one of its administrators after raiding the homes of journalists working for the site
October 04, 2023Three homes were destroyed by a forest fire and a man was injured by a falling tree in the Bega Valley region of southeastern Australia, prompting a government leader to warn that a “horror” wildfire season is approaching
October 04, 2023Chinese-owned video platform TikTok says it will halt its online retail operation in Indonesia to comply with the country’s decision to ban e-commerce transactions on social media platforms
October 04, 2023Asian shares are mostly higher as a plunge in oil prices aided a recovery on Wall Street
October 04, 2023Police say a teenage boy who allegedly shot two people dead and wounded five others inside a major shopping mall in Thailand's capital used a blank-firing handgun that had been modified to fire real bullets
October 04, 2023Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted two leaders of the island's tiny Taiwan People's Communist Party on accusations they colluded with China in an effort to influence next year's elections for president and members of the legislative assembly
October 04, 2023A lockdown has been imposed and security heightened in a city in southwest Nepal to prevent clashes between Hindus and Muslims
October 04, 2023The State Department in a first-of-its-kind report has laid out Beijing’s growing efforts to reshape the global narrative on China, while spending billions of dollars to do so
October 04, 2023Pope Francis has opened a big meeting on the future of the Catholic Church
October 04, 2023Colombia’s government has issued a long awaited public apology for the extrajudicial killings of 19 civilians who were slain by the military and registered as rebel fighters during one of the most violent periods of the nation’s civil war
October 04, 2023North Korea has slammed the United States over a Pentagon report that labeled it a “persistent" threat because of weapons of mass destruction, saying it will strongly counter what it called U.S. plans for aggression
October 04, 2023New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he's traveling to Latin America to discourage people from seeking asylum in the city as it struggles to handle a massive influx of migrants
October 03, 2023Italian authorities say at least 21 people have been killed and 18 injured in a bus crash in Venice
October 03, 2023A video that shows ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground beside a procession of foreign Christian worshipers carrying a wooden cross in the holy city of Jerusalem has ignited intense outrage and a flurry of condemnation in the Holy Land
October 03, 2023The Biden administration is taking aim at the fentanyl trafficking threat, announcing a series of indictments and sanctions against Chinese companies and executives blamed for importing the chemicals used to make the deadly drug
October 03, 2023Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to China next week, traveling to the country amid heightened tensions and after several members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet visited
October 03, 2023Foreigners with guns are met with hostility in most countries in the world
October 03, 2023Hundreds of small tremors have shaken a densely populated volcanic area west of the Italian city of Naples in recent weeks, pushing the government to quickly redraft mass evacuation plans, even though experts don’t see an imminent risk of eruption
October 03, 2023U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has railed against unauthorized migrants, human-rights laws and “woke” critics of her hardline policies at the Conservative Party's annual conference
October 03, 2023Plans for the first “open category” swimming races to accommodate transgender competitors at a World Cup this weekend have been scrapped because of a lack of entries
October 03, 2023The European Union has announced plans to better protect its cutting-edge technologies from foreign snooping that might threaten its economy and security
October 03, 2023The White House says President Joe Biden has been in touch with U.S. allies and partners to discuss continued support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia
October 03, 2023At Chanel’s Paris show models were inspired by the villa Noailles
October 03, 2023The NBA returns to Abu Dhabi this week
October 03, 2023Serbian police have detained an ethnic Serb leader from Kosovo who was the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region
October 03, 2023FIFA moved to block potential witness tampering by Luis Rubiales when its disciplinary committee suspended the now-ousted Spanish soccer president
October 03, 2023Meta plans to give Facebook and Instagram users in Europe the option of paying for ad-free versions of the social media platforms as a way to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules
October 03, 2023Tunisia has announced it would reject an installment of funds sent by Europe to help the debt-ridden country patrol the Mediterranean Sea as migrant boat crossings spike to levels not seen in several years
October 03, 2023Officials say Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have agreed on a plan they hope will help expedite Ukrainian grain exports
October 03, 2023Nigerian government workers are continuing their work after last-minute efforts by authorities averted a nationwide strike to protest growing hardship which could have shut down government services in Africa’s most populous country
October 03, 2023Britain's inquiry into the response to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the nation has entered the second phase with political decision-making taking center stage
October 03, 2023An official says India has told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, ramping up a confrontation over Canadian accusations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver
October 03, 2023The World Bank says South Asia is expected to grow by 5.8% this year, making it the fastest-growing region in the world even as the pace remains below pre-pandemic levels
October 03, 2023Residents say an explosion and fire at at an illegal oil refinery site in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region has killed at least 15 people
October 03, 2023Authorities in Thailand's capital say two people were killed when a teenage boy with a handgun opened fire in a major shopping mall in the center of Bangkok
October 03, 2023The Armenian parliament has voted to join International Criminal Court, which earlier this year indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine
October 03, 2023Indian police raided the offices of a news website that’s under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China, as well as the homes of several of its journalists, the latest in a series of investigations into the finances of independent media in India
October 03, 2023Turkish warplanes have carried out new airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq days after a suicide bomb attack in the Turkish capital
October 03, 2023Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on how electrons zip around the atom during the tiniest fractions of seconds
October 03, 2023The president-elect of the Maldives says he's sticking to his campaign promise to remove Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago state, promising he will initiate the process
October 03, 2023Asian markets are trading sharply lower after Wall Street tumbled as it focused on the downside of a surprisingly strong job market: the likelihood that interest rates will stay high
October 03, 2023Shares of debt-laden property developer China Evergrande Group have soared after they resumed trading in Hong Kong following a suspension last week
October 03, 2023Students have marched through downtown Mexico City to mark 55 years since the military massacred hundreds of students in Tlatelolco plaza
October 03, 2023More than 100 dolphins have died in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in the past week due to a severe drought, and many more could be affected if water temperatures remain high
October 02, 2023Eleven members of Monica Segura’s family were gathered inside the Santa Cruz church in northeast Mexico for the baptism of her 1-year-old nephew when the roof collapsed killing at least 11 other people
October 02, 2023When U.S. lawmakers approved a spending bill Saturday that averted a widely expected government shutdown, the measure didn’t include the $6 billion in military assistance that Ukraine said it urgently needed
October 02, 2023The U.N. Security Council has voted to send a multinational force led by Kenya to Haiti to help combat violent gangs in the troubled country
October 02, 2023Mexico’s president says that about 10,000 migrants per day are heading to the U.S. border, and he blames U.S. economic sanctions on countries like Cuba and Venezuela for the influx
October 02, 2023Louis Vuitton dazzled Paris as the latest collection from women's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière swirled epochs and emotions
October 02, 2023The Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to two scientists whose work led to mRNA vaccines against COVID-19
October 02, 2023The Pentagon is warning Congress that it is running low on funding to replace weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine and has already been forced to slow down resupplying some troops
October 02, 2023Clergy sexual abuse survivors have unveiled a proposed new church law calling for the permanent removal of abusive priests and superiors who covered for them
October 02, 2023The World Health Organization has authorized a second malaria vaccine in a decision that could offer countries a cheaper and a more readily available option than the world’s first shot against the parasitic disease
October 02, 2023Slovakia’s president has asked the leader of the winning party in the country’s parliamentary election to try to form a coalition government
October 02, 2023Serbia's top military officials say the army has reduced its troop presence near the border with Kosovo by nearly half, following follows reports from the U.S. and other governments of a mass military buildup
October 02, 2023Work has started on turning the house in Austria where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 into a police station
October 02, 2023A new museum exhibition in Paris focuses on the last months of Dutch master Vincent van Gogh before he shot himself in 1890
October 02, 2023Two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and two of her teammates on Spain’s women’s national team have appeared before a judge as witnesses in the investigation of former soccer federation president Luis Rubiales for kissing a player on the lips
October 02, 2023The new head of the U.N.’s migration agency says the private sector is “desperate” for their countries to take in migrants to mop up labor shortages, especially in the West
October 02, 2023Pakistan has launched its second nationwide anti-polio campaign of the year Monday in an effort to inoculate 44 million children under the age of 5
October 02, 2023The last bus carrying ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh has left the region, completing a weeklong, grueling exodus in which more than 80% of its residents have fled after Azerbaijan reclaimed the area in a lightning military operation last month
October 02, 2023Authorities in the southern Spanish city of Murcia say two people believed to have been in a nightclub where 13 others died in a fire are still missing
October 02, 2023The Japanese entertainment company that has acknowledged its founder sexually assaulted hundreds of boys over the span of five decades has taken a new name: Smile-Up
October 02, 2023The European Union’s foreign policy chief led a delegation of top diplomats on an unannounced visit to Kyiv and dismissed concerns about political tension in the bloc over its long-term support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia
October 02, 2023European captain Luke Donald was delivering his Ryder Cup victory speech at Marco Simone when his celebrating players standing beside him started a chant that quickly swept through the grandstands
October 02, 2023Britain’s Treasury chief has announced a hike in the national minimum wage
October 02, 2023Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and that could be used to develop other shots in the future
October 02, 2023Tropical Storm Philippe has made landfall in the tiny island of Barbuda as it unleashes heavy rains and flash floods in the northeast Caribbean
October 02, 2023The Emirati president-designate of the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks has called on oil and gas companies to be “central to the solution” to fighting climate change as the industry boosts its production to enjoy rising energy prices
October 02, 2023Pope Francis has suggested there might be ways to bless same-sex unions
October 02, 2023Indonesian President Joko Widodo has inaugurated Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway, which begins its commercial operations on Monday, a key project under China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative that will drastically cut the travel time between two key cities
October 02, 2023Asian markets have declined following a mixed session on Wall Street, where buying was pressured by rising bond yields
October 02, 2023Egyptian authorities say a huge fire that broke out in a police headquarters in northeastern Egypt has injured at least 38 people
October 02, 2023Pope Francis will open this week a global gathering of Catholic bishops and laypeople to discuss the future of the church
October 02, 2023Business sentiment among big Japanese manufacturers improved in July-September for the second straight quarter, according to a central bank survey
October 02, 2023Ten years after retiring from the game, David Beckham reflects on his soccer career and life for a new four-part documentary series
October 01, 2023Authorities in northern Mexico say the collapse of a church roof has killed at least 11 people and injured about 60
October 01, 2023Valentino took a contemporary stride down memory lane this Sunday, returning to Les Beaux-Arts, the prestigious art school where founder Valentino Garavani once studied
October 01, 2023The Ryder Cup is staying in Europe, just like always
October 01, 2023At least 13 people have been killed when a fire broke out in a nightclub in the southeastern Spanish city of Murcia
October 01, 2023A reputation built over decades that European soccer body UEFA is the good guy compared to FIFA as a cartoon caricature villain is being tested in this tough season for off-field politics
October 01, 2023Jailed former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen has been transferred from prison to house arrest, fulfilling the campaign promise of his party candidate who won the presidential election runoff
October 01, 2023Azerbaijan's prosecutor general says the country has issued an arrest warrant for former Nagorno-Karabakh separatist leader Arayik Harutyunyan
October 01, 2023The European Union’s foreign policy chief has called on U.S. lawmakers to reconsider their decision to omit financial support for Ukraine from a stop-gap budget created to halt a federal government shutdown
October 01, 2023Nigeria’s leader has increased the wages of some government workers in last-minute efforts to appease labor unions whose planned strike this week could shut down government offices in all sectors of Africa’s largest economy
October 01, 2023Serbia’s president has denied reports of a military buildup along the border with Kosovo
October 01, 2023The Turkish defense ministry says its warplanes have carried out raids on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq following a suicide attack on a government building in the Turkish capital
October 01, 2023The devastation of this year’s monsoon season in India has been significant, with over 400 deaths and more property damage in the Himayalan state of Himachal Pradesh in a single season than the last five years combined
October 01, 2023Britain's governing Conservative Party is gathering for its annual conference
October 01, 2023Armenia finds itself facing multiple challenges after being suddenly thrust into one of the worst political crises in its decades of independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union
October 01, 2023President Joe Biden says American aid to Ukraine will keep flowing for now as he tries to reassure allies of continued U.S. financial support for the war effort
October 01, 2023A populist former prime minister and his leftist party have won parliamentary elections in Slovakia, staging a political comeback after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-American message
October 01, 2023Top U.S.
October 01, 2023The chairman of the U.S.
September 30, 2023At Paris Fashion Week, Andreas Kronthaler rejuvenated Vivienne Westwood’s legacy, intertwining it with his unique style
September 30, 2023A European governmental body has condemned the decision by Turkey’s Supreme Court to confirm the aggravated life sentence for activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala
September 30, 2023Several people have been injured after the Flying Scotsman steam locomotive was involved in a low-speed crash with another heritage train in the Scottish Highlands
September 30, 2023Germany’s government has rebuked X owner Elon Musk after he criticized the recent work of migrant rescue ships that German humanitarian groups operate in the Mediterranean Sea
September 30, 2023Cuban seamstress Yamidely Cervantes has bought a new sewing machine for the first time in years, plus a refrigerator and a cellphone - all on Russia's
September 30, 2023Armenia's government says an ethnic Armenian exodus has nearly emptied Nagorno-Karabakh of residents since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the breakaway region’s militants to disarm
September 30, 2023The death toll from a bombing in southwestern Pakistan as people celebrated the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday has risen to 54 after two wounded patients died in hospitals overnight
September 30, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has released an address marking the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s unilateral annexation of four Ukrainian regions
September 30, 2023Pope Francis has presided over a ceremony to create 21 new cardinals
September 30, 2023A populist former prime minister who campaigned on a pro-Russian and anti-American message looks to be heading for victory in the early parliamentary election in Slovakia, according to preliminary results
September 30, 2023The Emirati president-designate for the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate conference has offered a full-throated defense of his nation hosting the talks
September 30, 2023Ukraine has hosted an international defense industry conference as part of a government effort to ramp up weapons production within the country to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion
September 30, 2023Poland’s opposition leader Donald Tusk is leading a march in Warsaw on Sunday aimed at energizing supporters and winning new hearts in his against-the-odds battle to unseat the right-wing government in the nation’s upcoming parliamentary election
September 30, 2023Media in the Maldives say opposition candidate Mohamed Muiz, who supports closer ties between the Indian Ocean archipelago and China, won the presidential runoff on Saturday with more than 53% of the vote
September 30, 2023An official Chinese survey says the country's factory activity has recorded its first expansion in six months
September 30, 2023The annual Nobel Prize announcements are over with the final award, for economics, going to Harvard professor Claudia Goldin for advancing the understanding of women’s labor market outcomes
September 30, 2023Former Polish President Lech Walesa says he is supporting opposition leader Donald Tusk’s effort to oust Poland’s conservative government in the country’s parliamentary election next month
September 29, 2023The small southern African nation of Eswatini is holding elections to decide part of the makeup of its parliament while its extremely wealthy king retains absolute power
September 29, 2023Russians and Belarusians will be allowed to compete as neutral athletes at next year’s Paralympics in Paris after avoiding a full ban from the event following the invasion of Ukraine
September 29, 2023Europe has taken a big step toward a small measure of revenge in the Ryder Cup
September 29, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered one of the top commanders of the Wagner military contractor to take charge of “volunteer units” fighting in Ukraine
September 29, 2023Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has hosted a ghost story reading event in Tokyo amid growing attention before the announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature
September 29, 2023South Korea’s League of Legends team beat Taiwan at the Asian Games despite being without its star player
September 29, 2023Inflation has dropped sharply in Europe
September 29, 2023Armenian officials say more than 80% of Nagorno-Karabakh's original population have fled the ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan for neighboring Armenia
September 29, 2023NATO is reinforcing its troop presence in Kosovo in response to a weekend shootout that left four people dead
September 29, 2023Authorities in Pakistan say at least 52 people were killed and nearly 70 wounded after a suspected bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in the southwest of the country
September 29, 2023The United States has quietly acknowledged that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard successfully put an imaging satellite into orbit this week in a launch that resembled others previously criticized by Washington as helping Tehran’s ballistic missile program
September 29, 2023Wall Street closed out its worst month of the year with more losses
September 29, 2023A 75-year-old Japanese feminist scholar who’s not married and does not have children is not the kind of person you'd expect to get famous in China
September 29, 2023An Associated Press reporter traveled with Gen. Mark Milley as he made his last trip to Normandy to honor those who fought on D-Day and celebrate with the young American soldiers in the French town that welcomes them every year
September 29, 2023The Armenian diaspora has been stunned by the swift fall of the Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani troops and the exodus of much of its population
September 29, 2023Algeria is among many countries in Africa to take steps to transition parts of its education system away from French and toward English
September 29, 2023A doctor says that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is recovering in a hospital following successful hip replacement surgery
September 29, 2023Slovakia holds an early parliamentary election on Saturday that pits populist former Prime Minister Robert Fico who campaigned on a clear pro-Russia and anti-American message against a liberal pro-West newcomer
September 29, 2023An American soldier who sprinted into North Korea and was held there for two months before being returned to the U.S. is now set to undergo medical testing and extensive questioning about his time in the isolated country before potentially facing charges under the military justice system
September 28, 2023The new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says he's considering policy changes toward Egypt, Turkey and other countries as he took over the powerful leadership of the panel
September 28, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with India's foreign minister amid a simmering row between New Delhi and Ottawa over allegations of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada
September 28, 2023A Senate hearing on the nomination of the official to be the Pentagon’s top policy adviser was dominated by Republicans expressing their frustrations with the Biden administration’s foreign policies
September 28, 2023Countries in the Americas are reeling as the flow of migrants reaches historic levels, but a U.N. officials says international “funds simply aren’t there” for humanitarian needs
September 28, 2023There was no mention of the conflict in Ukraine during the elaborate opening ceremony of the Ryder Cup even though Team Europe represents the war-torn country
September 28, 2023A judge for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma has ruled in favor of two descendants of Black slaves once owned by tribal members
September 28, 2023The exodus of more than 78,000 ethnic Armenians this week from Nagorno-Karabakh in the southern Caucasus Mountains has been a vivid and shocking tableau of fear and misery
September 28, 2023Designer Gabriela Hearst marked her farewell from Chloé with a jubilant dance alongside Rio’s samba school Mangueira, showcasing a collection emphasizing modernity and femininity
September 28, 2023European Union governments are struggling to overcome obstacles to put a new asylum system in place three years after unveiling a plan to reform the bloc's outdated asylum rules
September 28, 2023A court in Romania’s capital on Thursday has eased geographical restrictions on Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer who is charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women
September 28, 2023Tropical Storm Rina has formed in the Atlantic Ocean on the heels of Tropical Storm Philippe
September 28, 2023A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in northern England in connection with what authorities described as the “deliberate” felling of a famous tree that had stood for nearly 200 years next to the Roman landmark Hadrian’s Wall
September 28, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron is proposing granting limited autonomy for Corsica in a modest step toward nationalist sentiment on the Mediterranean island
September 28, 2023Police in the Netherlands say a lone gunman wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire in an apartment and a hospital in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, killing three people, including a 14-year-old girl
September 28, 2023Kosovo’s interior minister has accused Serbia of direct involvement in weekend clashes and was investigating the possibility of Russian involvement in the violence that left four people dead and further strained relations between the former wartime foes
September 28, 2023There are rock stars, and then there is Ringo Starr
September 28, 2023NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the status of the war and needs of troops
September 28, 2023In the middle of the Atacama Desert, in northern Chile, the colors and patterns of Aymara textiles are inspired by the land that is considered sacred
September 28, 2023The award-winning U.S. guitarist Al Di Meola has suffered a heart attack while performing in Romania’s capital
September 28, 2023The Chinese defense ministry has given its first public statement on the disappearance of the minister from public view about a month ago
September 28, 2023Republicans leading an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden detailed foreign payments to members of his family in their first hearing on
September 28, 2023An explosion in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, has killed a teenage boy and injured at least 162 people
September 28, 2023A second powerful storm in less than a month has hammered parts of central Greece, sweeping away roads, smashing bridges and flooding thousands of homes
September 28, 2023Spanish police have raided offices of the country's soccer federation as part of an investigation into the payment of millions of dollars over several years by Barcelona to a former vice president of Spain’s refereeing committee
September 28, 2023The three letters Brooks Koepka represents in the Ryder Cup are USA
September 28, 2023The Pentagon says that the American soldier who sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas more than two months ago was whisked to a Texas Army base for medical checks and interviews after his return to the U.S. North Korea abruptly announced a day earlier that it would expel Pvt. Travis King
September 28, 2023Sweden’s prime minister has summoned the head of the military to discuss how the armed forces can help police deal with an unprecedented crime wave that has shocked the country with almost daily shootings and bombings
September 28, 2023Israel has reopened the main crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing thousands of Palestinian laborers to enter the country for the first time since it was sealed earlier this month
September 28, 2023Asian markets are mixed, with only a few open due to public holidays across the region
September 28, 2023The centuries-old card game of bridge is being played at the Asian Games
September 28, 2023Israel’s Supreme Court spent eight hours Thursday hearing a challenge to a law that makes it harder to remove a sitting prime minister
September 28, 2023A Swiss Academy of Sciences panel is reporting a dramatic acceleration of glacier melt in the Alpine country, which has lost 10% of its ice volume in just two years after high summer heat and low snow volumes in winter
September 28, 2023The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh says it will dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by the end of the year
September 28, 2023Officials across Germany are sounding the alarm that they are no longer able to accommodate migrants who are applying for asylum
September 28, 2023Miguel Cabrera's career will end with the Detroit Tigers on Sunday against Cleveland at Comerica Park, where a sold-out crowd will include a few thousands fans paying for standing-room only tickets to cheer for him one more time
September 28, 2023Restrictions on food exports are spilling over from rice and wheat to other essentials
September 28, 2023Taiwan’s president has launched the island’s first domestically made submarine for testing
September 28, 2023From Sunday, workers at the main United States base in Antarctica will no longer be able to walk into a bar and order a beer, after the federal agency overseeing the research program decided to stop serving alcohol
September 28, 2023Chinese-owned app TikTok says it regrets the Indonesian government’s decision to ban e-commerce transactions on social media platforms and particularly the impact it would have on the millions of sellers who use TikTok Shop
September 28, 2023The Hong Kong stock exchange says trading of shares of heavily indebted Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group has been suspended
September 28, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in what he described as a “new Cold War.”
September 28, 2023Burkina Faso's junta says the country’s intelligence and security services have foiled a coup attempt
September 27, 2023Homeless shelters in Argentina's capital are seeing demand soar as more people are struggling to make ends meet amid an annual inflation rate above 100% that is pushing more people into poverty
September 27, 2023Tenor Jonas Kaufmann, recovered from a multi-drug resistant germ infection, is appearing in “Doppleganger,” a staged version of Schubert's final songs
September 27, 2023Shai Reshef, president and founder of the online, tuition-free University of the People, and Arizona State University professor and researcher Michelene Chi, who has developed a framework to improve how students learn, are the 2023 winners of The Yidan Prize, the biggest award in education
September 27, 2023On Tuesday night, the elusive pop producer Jai Paul opened his tour leg at the Los Angeles' Mayan Theater
September 27, 2023Paris Fashion Week spring-summer 2024 saw a resonating ’70s influence, mingled with contemporary flair
September 27, 2023The Czech government has approved a Defense Ministry plan to acquire two dozen U.S. F-35 fighter jets in a deal worth around 150 billion Czech koruna ($6.5 billion)
September 27, 2023Police in Canada say they will not pursue a criminal investigation into a recent case in which a doctor sterilized an Inuit woman without her consent
September 27, 2023Polish and U.S. officials have signed an agreement in Warsaw to move forward with the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant
September 27, 2023A Japanese court has ordered the central government, the Kumamoto prefecture and a chemical company to recognize more than 120 plaintiffs as patients of the decades-old Minamata mercury poisoning and pay compensation they have been denied because they developed symptoms after moving away from the region
September 27, 2023The Biden administration has admitted Israel into a select group of countries whose citizens are allowed to travel to the United States without getting a visa in advance
September 27, 2023Scottish authorities have approved a multimillion pound drug consumption room
September 27, 2023When Brazilian soccer player Paulinho scored a goal at the Tokyo Olympics, he celebrated by pointing an imaginary arrow at the flashing cameras as homage to a deity in his persecuted Afro-Brazilian faith
September 27, 2023Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa says they are seeking to double the number of tourists in the next five years, to reach 30 million visitors by 2028
September 27, 2023The Ryder Cup’s food scene is decidedly local at the Marco Simone club outside Rome
September 27, 2023A Danish artist who was given a pile of cash by a museum in northern Denmark to create a piece for its exhibition on labor conditions two years ago submitted two empty canvases, causing an uproar
September 27, 2023A 13-year-old girl from China has won a gold medal in stakeboarding at the Asian Games
September 27, 2023British police say that a 15-year-old girl has been stabbed to death while on her way to school and a 17-year-old male suspect has been arrested in connection with her death
September 27, 2023Berlin's city government says Christian Thielemann has been chosen as the new general music director of the city's Staatsoper, months after Daniel Barenboim ended his three-decade reign
September 27, 2023Russia has accused Ukraine’s Western allies of helping plan and conduct last week’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Crimea
September 27, 2023The White House says the American soldier who sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified border between the Koreas two months ago has been released into U.S. custody
September 27, 2023Europe is missing a lot of its Ryder Cup stalwarts at Marco Simone because of their defections to join LIV Golf
September 27, 2023The leader of Spain’s conservatives has failed in his long-shot first bid to become the country’s next prime minister, falling short of the votes he needed in the Spanish parliament to form a government
September 27, 2023Britain has given the go-ahead for a major oil and gas project in the North Sea, ignoring warnings from scientists and the United Nations that countries must stop developing new fossil fuel resources if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change
September 27, 2023The French troops who are being forced out of Niger were seen as a key line of defense in efforts led by the West, particularly the U.S. and France, to fight against jihadi violence in Africa’s hard-hit Sahel region
September 27, 2023Azerbaijan has detained the former head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government as he tried to cross into Armenia following Azerbaijan’s 24-hour blitz last week to reclaim control of the enclave
September 27, 2023Iran is claiming that it has successfully launched an imaging satellite into space
September 27, 2023Asian shares were mostly lower Thursday in subdued trading on looming worries about China property woes
September 27, 2023Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey will address his Democratic colleagues on Thursday as calls grow for Menendez to resign over federal bribery charges
September 27, 2023Six Portuguese young adults and children between 11 and 24 years of age were at the European Court of Human Rights Wednesday, accusing 32 European governments of violating their human rights for what they say is a failure to adequately address climate change
September 27, 2023Counting upwards in chant, bereaved families marched through Mexico City in remembrance of 43 students abducted by the government nine years ago
September 27, 2023The Biden administration has suspended most non-humanitarian aid to Gabon after a military takeover in the country last month that was at least the second this year in an African nation
September 26, 2023A South Korean judge has denied an arrest warrant for the country’s opposition leader on broad corruption allegations, saying there wasn’t a clear threat that he would destroy evidence
September 26, 2023A suspended New York City police officer who had been accused of spying for China — and later cleared — is fighting to be reinstated
September 26, 2023A fire that raced through a hall hosting a Christian wedding in northern Iraq has killed around 100 people and injured at least 100 others and authorities warn the death toll could rise
September 26, 2023Nearly all the world’s on stage, and all the men and but 20 women merely players
September 26, 2023Togo’s foreign minister wasn’t having any of it
September 26, 2023Cuba's ambassador to the United States says an incident in which at least one incendiary device was thrown into the Cuban embassy compound was a “terrorist attack.”
September 26, 2023Officials say the Amazon rainforest in Brazil is facing a severe drought that may affect around 500,000 people by the end of the year
September 26, 2023The U_N_’s most powerful body is being asked to support governments seeking to legally declare the crackdown by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on women and girls “gender apartheid."
September 26, 2023Luzineide Marques da Silva knows the location of each of the 748 rubber trees in the Brazilian Amazon that she and her family have rights to tap for latex
September 26, 2023Nelson Mandela's granddaughter Zoleka has died at age 43
September 26, 2023A court in Moscow has upheld a 19-year prison sentence for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was convicted on charges of extremism in August
September 26, 2023Donatella Versace slammed the Italian government for what she described as anti-gay policies in a heartfelt and personal speech that referenced her late brother, Gianni Versace, while receiving a fashion award this weekend
September 26, 2023North Korea is accusing the United States of making 2023 an “extremely dangerous year."
September 26, 2023Amid the electric ambiance of strobe lights and an usually sweltering Parisian fall, Dior presented its spring/summer 2024 womenswear collection
September 26, 2023Thousands of Nagorno-Karabakh residents are fleeing their homes after Azerbaijan's swift military operation to reclaim control of the breakaway region
September 26, 2023Britain’s immigration minister has argued Tuesday that international refugee rules must be rewritten to reduce the number of people entitled to protection
September 26, 2023The foreign minister of Belarus says he can't envision a situation where his country would enter the war in Ukraine alongside Russian forces
September 26, 2023Swiss federal prosecutors say they have indicted a former employee of the Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor over bribes paid to obtain access to the Republic of Congo’s petroleum market more than a decade ago
September 26, 2023The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons is resigning for inviting a man who fought for a Nazi military unit during World War II to attend a speech by the Ukrainian president
September 26, 2023Indian and Canadian diplomats steered clear of their countries’ row over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader when they addressed the U.N. General Assembly
September 26, 2023A rights group says Egyptian authorities have detained at least 73 people campaigning for a challenger to incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in the December election
September 26, 2023A top European Union official says the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, is the biggest source of fake news and urged owner Elon Musk to comply with the bloc’s laws aimed at combating disinformation
September 26, 2023Serbia’s president has demanded that a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo take over for the national law enforcement agency in northern Kosovo
September 26, 2023Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) is becoming harder but a narrow window remains because clean energy infrastructure has grown around the world, a new report said Tuesday
September 26, 2023Saudi Arabia’s newly appointed envoy to the Palestinian Authority has presented his credentials to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
September 26, 2023Ukrainian officials say Russia struck the Black Sea region of Odesa in a drone barrage that damaged a warehouse, charred dozens of trucks and injured two drivers in fiery explosions
September 26, 2023Gatwick Airport, London’s second-busiest, is limiting flights this week, partly because of an outbreak of COVID-19 within air traffic control
September 26, 2023Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba says it will spin off its logistics arm, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, in an initial public offering in Hong Kong
September 26, 2023Spanish prosecutors have charged pop star Shakira with failing to pay 6.7 million euros ($7.1 million) in tax on her 2018 income, in Spain’s latest fiscal allegations against the Colombian singer
September 26, 2023The leader of Spain’s conservatives is trying to win the endorsement of the nation’s parliament to form a new government
September 26, 2023South Korea’s Constitutional Court has struck down a 2020 law that criminalized the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech
September 26, 2023The U.N. health agency says cholera and dengue outbreaks have been reported in eastern Sudan, where thousands of people are sheltering in crowded camps as deadly fighting grinds on between the country’s military and a rival paramilitary force
September 26, 2023Two powerful explosions have ripped through dwellings in central Sweden, injuring at least three people and damaging buildings
September 26, 2023The Americans have won more majors
September 26, 2023Outward aggression has taken a backseat to unctuous charm at the Asian Games as China seeks to win the hearts of more than 40 participating Asian nations and regions
September 26, 2023India’s army chief says the country is committed to maintaining a free and stable Indo-Pacific, where the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations is respected
September 26, 2023An explosion at a crowded gas station in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region has killed and injured scores of people as thousands of ethnic Armenians have rushed to flee to Armenia
September 26, 2023Researchers say they have verified 1,329 deaths from hunger in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region since a cease-fire ended a two-year conflict there in November
September 26, 2023Shares in Asia are mostly lower after Wall Street’s ugly September got even worse, with benchmarks dropping back to where they were in June
September 26, 2023The doping case involving teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva that marred the 2022 Beijing Olympics has returned to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
September 26, 2023Japan’s health ministry has approved Leqembi, a drug for Alzheimer’s decease that was jointly developed by Japanese and U.S. pharmaceutical companies
September 26, 2023South Korea has paraded thousands of troops and an array of weapons capable of striking North Korea through its capital as part of its biggest Armed Forces Day ceremony in 10 years, as its president vowed to build a stronger military to thwart any provocation by the North
September 26, 2023As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley has spent the better part of the last two years rallying allies to provide weapons for the Ukrainians as they defend their country against the Russian forces
September 26, 2023Actor David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series “The Man From U.N.C
September 25, 2023Opposition parties in Canada have called on the speaker of the House of Commons to resign for inviting a man who fought for a Nazi military unit during World War II to attend a speech by the Ukrainian president
September 25, 2023Canadian auto workers say General Motors will be their next target after members ratified a new three-year labor contract with Ford
September 25, 2023The U.S. military says it has captured an operator for the Islamic State extremist group during a helicopter raid in northern Syria
September 25, 2023U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says nuclear fusion is a pioneering technology and the Biden administration wants to harness it as part of the transition to clean energy
September 25, 2023If another pandemic happens, the world will again be unprepared
September 25, 2023The Biden administration says it is offering $2 billion in loans to Poland to support the defense modernization of the ally which has been a hub for weapons going into Ukraine
September 25, 2023President Joe Biden has informed leaders from the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum that he has heard their warnings about the impact of climate change on their region
September 25, 2023The head of the European Central Bank says interest rates will stay high long enough to restrict business activity for “as long as necessary” to beat back inflation because upward pressure on prices “remains strong.”
September 25, 2023Egypt says it will hold a presidential election over three days in December with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi highly likely to prolong his stay in power until 2030
September 25, 2023At least one Molotov cocktail has been thrown at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, but there was no significant damage and no one was injured
September 25, 2023Homophobic chanting by sections of Paris Saint-Germain fans targeting Marseille players has again marred the biggest game in French soccer and prompted calls for sanctions
September 25, 2023Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew over the weekend when some 30 heavily armed Serbs barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery in northern Kosovo, setting off a daylong gunbattle with police that left one officer and three attackers dead
September 25, 2023The Asian Games offer a preview of what could soon be coming to the Olympics
September 25, 2023An agent for film legend Sophia Loren says the Italian actor is recovering from successful surgery for a leg fracture after she fell in her home in Switzerland
September 25, 2023Amazon is investing up to $4 billion in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic and taking a minority stake in the company
September 25, 2023Ukrainian officials say the missile that blasted the Crimean headquarters of Russia’s navy last week killed 34 officers, including the fleet commander, though it provided no evidence to support its claim
September 25, 2023New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is facing an uphill battle to woo voters less than three weeks before an election
September 25, 2023Denmark’s Lego says it remains committed to its quest to find sustainable materials to reduce carbon emissions, even after an experiment by the world’s largest toymaker to use recycled bottles did not work
September 25, 2023A powerful blast has rocked Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region as ethnic Armenians are streaming out of the breakaway territory following its retaking by the Azerbaijani military
September 25, 2023A trial is opening in a French counterterrorism court over the killing of two police officers in their home in 2016, in front of their 3-year-old son
September 25, 2023The European Union’s executive arm is blocking leading U.S. online travel agency Booking from acquiring Sweden’s flight booking provider Etraveli Group
September 25, 2023Oil prices are up, and that affects people far and wide
September 25, 2023First came the castle
September 25, 2023Taiwan authorities have fined a golf ball manufacturer $75,000 and warned of criminal charges after a major factory fire killed nine people and left one other missing
September 25, 2023Libya’s chief prosecutor says he has ordered the detention of eight current and former officials pending his investigation into the collapse of two dams
September 25, 2023Kosovo is observing a day of mourning for the Kosovar Albanian police officer killed by Serb gunmen in the north of the country in one of the worst confrontations since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008
September 25, 2023Top Thai officials have welcomed hundreds of Chinese tourists at Bangkok’s international airport on the first day of a new visa-free entry program that officials say will boost tourism
September 25, 2023The European Union’s trade commissioner has called for a more balanced relationship with China, noting an EU trade deficit of nearly 400 billion euros ($425 billion)
September 25, 2023The Ukrainian government wants to spend more than $1 billion to build an army of drones
September 25, 2023Just a few years ago, artificial intelligence got barely a mention at the U.N. General Assembly’s convocation of world leaders
September 25, 2023This fall, the United Nations is to convene an advisory group on artificial intelligence
September 25, 2023Asian shares are mostly sinking over worries about a possible U.S. government shutdown and the troubled Chinese economy
September 25, 2023Lithuanian teenager Dominika Banevič and American Victor Montalvo have qualified for next year’s Paris Olympics after winning the World Breaking Championship on Sunday
September 24, 2023Canadian autoworkers have ratified a new labor agreement with Ford Motor Co., averting a threatened strike
September 24, 2023Europe has retained the Solheim Cup after securing a first-ever tie with the United States
September 24, 2023The Biden administration is poised to allow Israeli citizens to travel to the United States without a U.S. visa
September 24, 2023Early next month, the Vatican will open an unprecedented gathering of Catholic clergy and laypeople from around the world
September 24, 2023London’s police force says some officers are refusing to conduct armed patrols after a colleague was charged with murder in the shooting of an unarmed Black man
September 24, 2023The governor of southern Ukraine's Kherson region says Russian airstrikes have killed two people and wounded eight others
September 24, 2023The recent G20 Summit hosted by India couldn't have gone better for Prime Minister Narendra Modi
September 24, 2023A space capsule carrying NASA’s first asteroid samples has landed in the Utah desert
September 24, 2023The British government is considering scrapping a big chunk of an overdue and over-budget high-speed rail line once touted as a way to attract jobs and investment to northern England
September 24, 2023The death toll from a bombing attack at a government checkpoint in central Somalia has reached 21
September 24, 2023President Joe Biden is set to establish diplomatic relations Monday with two South Pacific nations, the Cook Islands and Niue, as his administration aims to show to Pacific Island leaders that's committed to increasing American presence in the region
September 24, 2023At least 30 Serb gunmen have killed a Kosovar Albanian police officer then stormed an Orthodox monastery in Kosovo near its border with Serbia, setting off ongoing gunbattles that have left three assailants dead and raised tensions between the two former wartime foes as they seek to normalize ties
September 24, 2023Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions
September 24, 2023The Israeli military said it struck militant sites in Gaza for the third day in a row, after Palestinian militants near the border fence launched incendiary balloons into Israel and threw an explosive at soldiers
September 24, 2023The science of human evolution has made big leaps in recent years, and it’s painting a new picture of our origins
September 24, 2023Nearly a day after being downgraded from a tropical storm, Ophelia is still threatening much of the Northeast with coastal flooding, life-threatening waves and heavy rain from Washington to New York City
September 24, 2023The train that runs from Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, to the city of Kramatorsk in the east stands apart from others in Ukraine
September 24, 2023A group of about 5,000 mostly Venezuelan migrants hoping to make it to the U.S. spent three days in the Mexican town of Irapuato waiting for a train that many in the group worried would never come
September 24, 2023The six-day United Nations General Assembly formally wrapping Tuesday shows how in-person diplomacy has fully come back
September 24, 2023It’s Day 6 of the U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting that brings world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York
September 23, 2023Pope Francis is labeling the weapons industry as being a key driver of the “martyrdom” of Ukraine’s people in Russia’s war
September 23, 2023More badly needed humanitarian aid was on its way to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh via both Azerbaijan and Armenia
September 23, 2023The U.S. ambassador to Canada has said that information shared from members of an intelligence-sharing alliance was part of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used to make public allegations of the Indian government's possible involvement in the assassination a Sikh Canadian
September 23, 2023Every look in Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis’ latest collection, shown on the fourth day of Milan Fashion Week, offered a little mystery to unravel, some detail to marvel
September 23, 2023Security researchers say a leading Egyptian opposition politician was targeted with Predator spyware after announcing a president bid
September 23, 2023Israel says it has unleashed airstrikes targeting a militant site in Gaza for the second time in as many days
September 23, 2023At the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, African leaders are relaying a unanimous message, that their continent of more than 1.3 billion people is done being a “victim” of a post-world war order and must be recognized and partnered with as a global power in itself
September 23, 2023Russia’s top diplomat is lashing out at the U.S. and the West as self-interested defenders of a fading international power structure
September 23, 2023Inside, those who administer the world look for peace
September 23, 2023An explosives-laden vehicle has detonated at a security checkpoint in the central Somalia city of Beledweyne
September 23, 2023It probably wasn’t how President Joe Biden envisioned his big foreign policy week ending
September 23, 2023Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced several support measures for Ukraine including military, economic and humanitarian assistance
September 23, 2023The opening ceremony of the Asian Games in China offered all the staples of a major international sports event
September 23, 2023Russia says Ukraine has launched another missile attack on Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean Peninsula
September 23, 2023Pope Francis is challenging French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders to open their ports to people fleeing hardship and poverty
September 23, 2023Pakistan’s interim prime minister says he expects elections to take place in the new year, dismissing the possibility that the country’s powerful military would manipulate the results to ensure that jailed former premier Imran Khan’s party doesn’t win
September 23, 2023A human rights foundation says a prominent Uyghur scholar specializing in the study of her people’s folklore and traditions has been sentenced to life in prison in China
September 23, 2023The shocking allegation that India may have been behind the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada is shining the light on various layers of activism as well as diverse views on a separate Sikh state or Khalistan within the North American diaspora
September 23, 2023Residents in parts of coastal North Carolina and Virginia have experienced flooding after Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall near a North Carolina barrier island, bringing rain, damaging winds and dangerous surges
September 23, 2023A 23-year-old Venezuela man is preparing to say goodbye to a pet squirrel he says he brought from his home country on a journey to Mexico
September 23, 2023The Biden administration's grant of temporary legal status to nearly 500,000 Venezuelans already in the United States may complicate its messaging abroad
September 23, 2023At the annual meeting of world leaders last year, the United Nations chief sounded a global alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet
September 23, 2023A month after Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a suspicious plane crash, the Kremlin seems to be succeeding in keeping the demise of the profane and outspoken Wagner chief as low-key as possible
September 23, 2023For Lachlan Murdoch, this has been a long time coming — assuming, that is, his moment has actually arrived
September 23, 2023Britain is pitching itself to the world as a ready leader in shaping an international response to the rise of artificial intelligence
September 22, 2023It’s Day 5 of the U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting that brings world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York
September 22, 2023Mexico’s top diplomat, Alicia Bárcena, says President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to travel to Washington D
September 22, 2023Some archaeologists describe Peru’s capital as an onion with many layers of history, others consider it a box of surprises
September 22, 2023The Colombian government manipulated a video to alter the applause received by President Gustavo Petro received during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York
September 22, 2023A government official says that Germany is considering establishing short-term border controls with Poland and the Czech Republic to keep irregular migrants from entering the country
September 22, 2023Spain’s World Cup-winning women’s team have gotten back to being soccer players
September 22, 2023The president of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council said in an interview that he will prioritize the creation of a separate country in negotiations with their rivals, the Houthi rebels
September 22, 2023Sabato De Sarno wants people to fall in love with Gucci again, titling his debut collection “Gucci Ancora,” Italian for “Gucci Again.”
September 22, 2023Animals at a zoo in Rio de Janeiro have been getting cold treats to cool them down during a rare winter heat wave
September 22, 2023Rupert Murdoch stirs mixed feelings in Britain, where he transformed the media over half a century
September 22, 2023A military judge at Guantanamo Bay has ruled one of the 9/11 defendants too mentally ill to stand trial
September 22, 2023Poland's right-wing leaders are denouncing a new feature film by Polish director Agnieszka Holland as it opens in the country
September 22, 2023Brazil’s top court is deciding whether abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy will be decriminalized nationwide
September 22, 2023The Biden administration is pledging $100 million to support a proposed Kenyan-led multinational force to restore security to conflict-ravaged Haiti and urged other nations to make similar contributions
September 22, 2023The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Ophelia has formed off the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast and was producing winds just below hurricane force
September 22, 2023Catholic church officials in Germany say a statue of late Cardinal Franz Hengsbach will be removed from outside a cathedral after allegations of sexual abuse against him surfaced
September 22, 2023Across New York City, civil society groups and large philanthropies meet on the sidelines of the United Nations while world leaders gather at the annual General Assembly
September 22, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is "at the cusp” of a historic breakthrough leading to a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia
September 22, 2023A Chinese dissident known for regularly commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square has fled to Taiwan and is pleading for help in seeking asylum in the United States or Canada
September 22, 2023The U.S. Treasury Department and China’s Ministry of Finance have launched a pair of economic working groups in an effort to ease tensions and deepen ties between the nations
September 22, 2023European Union antitrust enforcers have slapped Intel with a fresh $400 million fine in a long-running legal fight that the chipmaker appeared to have won last year
September 22, 2023A Ukrainian missile struck the headquarters of Russia's navy in Crimea
September 22, 2023Another member of K-pop supergroup BTS has begun his mandatory military service in South Korea
September 22, 2023In the first Asian Games since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, two teams of athletes are arriving in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, looking very different
September 22, 2023China and Syria have announced the formation of a strategic partnership as Chinese leader Xi Jinping kicked off a series of diplomatic meetings ahead of the upcoming Asian Games
September 22, 2023Russia's Defense Ministry says that ethnic Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh are surrendering their arms to Russian peacekeepers
September 22, 2023British competition regulators has signaled that Microsoft’s restructured $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard is likely to receive antitrust approval
September 22, 2023King Charles III has traveled to the southwestern French city of Bordeaux to focus on climate and the environment
September 22, 2023Mali’s military junta is struggling to fight growing violence in the West African nation's hard-hit northern region
September 22, 2023U.S. breaking pros who hope to compete in the Paris Olympics next year have a challenge
September 22, 2023Pope Francis has blasted what he calls the “fanaticism of indifference” that greets migrants seeking a better life in Europe
September 22, 2023Wall Street wheezed to more losses as it limped to the finish of its worst week in six months
September 22, 2023It’s one of the United Nations’ more obscure bodies, with no space to call its own within the riverside headquarters
September 22, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Canada to stay with his country to victory as he went to the Canadian Parliament seeking to bolster support from Western allies for Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion
September 22, 2023A top official of upcoming international climate negotiations hopes to prove critics wrong and surprise them with a “course correction” for an ever-warming world
September 22, 2023India’s Parliament has approved landmark legislation that reserves one-third of the seats in its powerful lower house and in state legislatures for women to ensure more equal representation, ending a 27-year impasse over the bill amid a lack of consensus among political parties
September 22, 2023It’s Day 4 of the U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting that brings world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York
September 22, 2023North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has ordered unspecified steps to further develop his nation's relations with Russia after his recent visit
September 22, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the Canadian Parliament on Friday as he continues his efforts to shore up support from Western allies for Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion
September 21, 2023Indigenous people in Brazil are celebrating after the country's Supreme Court ruled to enshrine their land rights
September 21, 2023Brazil's firefighters in the northeastern state of Bahia are battling wildfires, fanned by strong winds and abnormally high temperatures for the season
September 21, 2023The Biden administration is giving temporary legal status to Afghan migrants who have already been living in the country for a little over a year
September 21, 2023Thousands have marched across Nigeria over the mysterious death of an Afrobeat star whose body has been exhumed for an autopsy as authorities investigate the cause of his demise
September 21, 2023Media magnate Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as the leader of both Fox News’ parent company and his News Corp media holdings, with his son, Lachlan, set to take his place
September 21, 2023The Justice Department says a contractor for the U.S. government who is originally from Ethiopia has been arrested on espionage charges, accused of providing a foreign country classified information that he downloaded and printed from his work computer system
September 21, 2023Designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons have achieved an unbearable lightness in a series of translucent chiffon dresses that gently cosseted the form, trailed by wispy strands of the finest organza
September 21, 2023Haiti’s government is doubling down on the construction of a canal on Haitian soil that prompted the neighboring Dominican Republic last week to shutter land, air and sea borders that both countries share
September 21, 2023The head of the junta in Guinea has defended the recent coups in Africa
September 21, 2023It’s not every day that VIP visitors venture out to the town of Saint-Denis, one of the poorest and toughest parts of the Paris region
September 21, 2023Migrants have always come to the U.S., but the immigration system now seems strained nationwide more than ever
September 21, 2023Spain’s women players say a turning point has been reached in their fight for equality
September 21, 2023The National Hurricane Center says a storm off the eastern U.S. will deliver tropical storm conditions to the coast of North Carolina
September 21, 2023A lion cub, only a few months old, has been taken to a zoo in northern Serbia after it was found wandering on a local road
September 21, 2023Police say banned New Zealand Olympic runner Zane Robertson has been arrested at his home in Kenya over allegations of sexual assault and possession of an unlicensed AK-47 assault rifle
September 21, 2023Tourists in Rome can now enjoy a “new” ancient attraction
September 21, 2023A serial killer in Rwanda has pleaded guilty at a court saying he killed 14 people
September 21, 2023Turkey's central bank has raised its key interest rate by 5 percentage points to 30%
September 21, 2023Poland’s prime minister says his country is no longer sending arms to Ukraine
September 21, 2023The Bank of England has paused nearly two years of interest rate increases after a surprising fall in U.K. inflation eased concerns about the pace of price rises
September 21, 2023Congo’s president wants the world’s second largest United Nations peacekeeping mission to move up its departure from the country, starting this December, saying it has failed
September 21, 2023Sweden’s central bank has raised its key interest rate, saying the “inflationary pressures in the Swedish economy are still too high.”
September 21, 2023Azerbaijan regained control of its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a deadly two-day military offensive and held initial talks with representatives of its ethnic Armenian population on reintegrating the area into the mainly Muslim country
September 21, 2023A Canadian official says the allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of a Sikh Canadian is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally
September 21, 2023Three South African navy personnel have died and a senior officer is in critical condition after seven crew members of a submarine were swept off its deck and out to sea by big waves
September 21, 2023Singapore police say they have uncovered more luxury watches, gold bars and other assets from a massive money laundering scheme that was busted last month, bringing the total amount of assets seized or frozen to $1.75 billion
September 21, 2023Kenya’s president is committing his country to lead a multinational force in Haiti to combat gang warfare, even as residents of both countries question the plan being pushed by Washington
September 21, 2023King Charles III has made an emotional stop in front of Paris' fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral on the second day of his state visit to France
September 21, 2023Israeli authorities are trying to figure out how a tank was stolen from a military training zone in northern Israel
September 21, 2023Lebanese authorities are investigating a late-night shooting outside the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy just outside Beirut
September 21, 2023Asian shares are mixed after another slump on Wall Street driven by expectations for U.S. interest rates to stay high well into next year
September 21, 2023Syrian President Bashar Assad has arrived in China on his first visit to the country since the start of Syria’s 12-year conflict
September 21, 2023If you are bored with day-in, day-out sports like basketball or swimming or volleyball, then check out the Asian Games when they open in Hangzhou, China
September 21, 2023Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi says that relations with the United States can move forward if the Biden administration demonstrates it wants to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, and a first step should be easing sanctions
September 21, 2023Ukrainian authorities say Russian missiles pounded cities across Ukraine, starting fires, killing at least five people and trapping others under rubble
September 21, 2023Protests by thousands of Guatemalans this week supporting President-elect Bernardo Arévalo suggest that the efforts by some officials to derail his presidency have awakened a new will among many citizens to defend democracy
September 21, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has delivered an upbeat message to U.S. lawmakers and President Joe Biden in a whirlwind visit to Washington
September 21, 2023Canada is making an explosive allegation that India may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, but thus far Canada’s allies are voicing measured concern about what happened
September 21, 2023Toshiba says a 2 trillion yen ($14 billion) tender offer for the troubled electronics and energy giant by a Japanese consortium has been completed, clearing the way for it to be delisted
September 21, 2023The Biden administration says it’s granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans already in the country
September 20, 2023It’s Day 3 of the U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting that brings world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York
September 20, 2023The son of jailed Hong Kong media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai says he doesn't want to see his father die in detention, as his lawyers raised the prospect that his long-delayed trial may be pushed back indefinitely
September 20, 2023Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said he doubts that Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, “meant what he said” when he made a series of antisemitic and offensive remarks last year
September 20, 2023At the United Nations, “multilateralism” is always the goal, however fragmented and complex
September 20, 2023Seven valuable art pieces plundered by the Nazis more than 80 years ago are being returned to the heirs of a cabaret performer, who was killed during the Holocaust and whose massive art collection was stolen by the Third Reich
September 20, 2023Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says in an interview with Fox News that aired Wednesday that ongoing negotiations over Israel means the prospects of normalized relations between both countries “get closer” every day but that treatment of Palestinians is “very important.”
September 20, 2023South Korea’s president sounded a warning to fellow world leaders about the recent communication and possible cooperation between North Korea and Russia
September 20, 2023Tenor Stephen Gould, who announced earlier this month that he had been diagnosed with incurable bile duct cancer, has died
September 20, 2023A military medical panel has concluded that one of the five 9/11 defendants held at Guantanamo Bay has been rendered delusional and psychotic by the torture he underwent years ago while in CIA custody
September 20, 2023A day-long communication outage in a flood-stricken city in eastern Libya has further complicated the work of teams searching for bodies under the rubble and at sea
September 20, 2023Several Catholic priests have held a ceremony blessing same-sex couples outside Cologne cathedral in a protest against the city’s conservative archbishop Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki
September 20, 2023It was a moment the diplomatic world was watching for — but didn’t get
September 20, 2023The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $200 million to help save the lives of mothers and children during childbirth
September 20, 2023New court documents show Oscar Pistorius was eligible for parole in March under South African law
September 20, 2023Iran’s supplying of bomb-carrying drones to Russia could see Moscow help Tehran’s program become more lethal, raising risks across the wider Middle East
September 20, 2023India’s Parliament has taken a major step toward reserving 33% of the seats in its powerful lower house and in state legislatures for women to ensure more equal representation, an issue that languished for nearly three decades because of a lack of consensus among political parties
September 20, 2023UNESCO has added World War I funerary and memorial locations across the Western Front to its prestigious World Heritage registry, expanding its list of landmarks of monumental importance
September 20, 2023Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he’s delaying by five years a ban on new gas and diesel cars that had been due to take effect in 2030
September 20, 2023A dispute about whether Ukrainian grain should be allowed to enter the domestic markets of Poland and other European Union countries has pushed the tight relationship between Kyiv and Warsaw to its lowest point since Russia invaded Ukraine last year
September 20, 2023A new exhibition is opening in London to chart for the first time the contributions Black British culture made to U.K. fashion and design history and to celebrate Black designers who haven't received public recognition
September 20, 2023Forecasters in Bermuda are warning of dangerous swells and rip currents as Hurricane Nigel spun through open waters in the northern Atlantic
September 20, 2023The United Nations chief says Earth is facing a hellish problem in climate change and its leaders still aren’t doing nearly enough to curb carbon emissions that’s causing it
September 20, 2023Iran’s parliament has approved a bill to impose heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear the mandatory Islamic headscarf in public and those who support them
September 20, 2023Ukraine’s president is accusing Russia of undermining all norms of war and the United Nations Charter
September 20, 2023British lawmakers have approved an ambitious but controversial new internet safety law with wide-ranging powers to crack down on digital and social media companies like TikTok, Google and Facebook and Instagram parent Meta
September 20, 2023A U.N.-backed panel investigating human rights violations in Venezuela says the South American country’s government has intensified efforts to curtail democratic freedoms with use of threats, surveillance and harassment as President Nicolás Maduro faces a re-election contest next year
September 20, 2023Britain’s state-owned health service is operating on holiday-level staffing in England as doctors in the early stages of their careers joined their more senior colleagues in their first-ever joint strike action
September 20, 2023Relations between Canada and India have sunk to their lowest point in years as the two countries swap accusations and expel each other’s diplomats over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader
September 20, 2023India has advised its citizens to be careful when traveling to Canada as a rift between the two nations widens further in the wake of Ottawa’s allegations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver
September 20, 2023President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, focused on workers’ rights as the leaders of the Western Hemisphere’s largest democracies met Wednesday in New York
September 20, 2023Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is preparing to water down some of Britain’s environmental commitments, saying the country must fight climate change without penalizing workers and consumers
September 20, 2023Azerbaijan claimed full control of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region after local Armenian forces there agreed to lay down their weapons following the latest outbreak of fighting in the decades-long separatist conflict
September 20, 2023Most of Spain’s World Cup-winning players have ended their boycott of the women’s national team after the government intervened to help shape an agreement to make immediate structural changes at the country’s soccer federation
September 20, 2023The United Nations says it has documented more than 1,600 cases of human rights violations committed by Afghanistan's Taliban authorities during arrests and detentions of people
September 20, 2023Inflation in Britain fell unexpectedly in August to its lowest level since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
September 20, 2023Pope Francis is travelling to the French port city of Marseille to join Catholic bishops in a meeting focusing on the Mediterranean and migration
September 20, 2023Asian shares are lower, tracking a slump on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve said it may not cut interest rates next year by as much as it earlier thought
September 20, 2023King Charles III has praised France’s “wonderful welcome” at a grand dinner held in his honor in the sumptuous Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles
September 20, 2023Palestinian health officials say the death toll from a day of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip has risen to six
September 20, 2023Thousands of Libyans have lost family members, friends and neighbors in the devastating floods that engulfed the country's east
September 20, 2023Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi says that his country will never give up its right “to have peaceful nuclear energy” and urged the United States “to demonstrate in a verifiable fashion” that it wants to return to the 2015 nuclear deal
September 20, 2023President Joe Biden raised “hard issues,” including protecting the “checks and balances” in a democracy, in a Wednesday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York
September 20, 2023A clergy sex abuse scandal involving Chile’s most notorious pedophile, the priest Fernando Karadima, shook the South American country in 2010 in a way never seen in Latin America
September 20, 2023Saudi Arabia has praised the “positive results” of negotiations with Yemen’s Houthi rebels after they visited the kingdom for peace talks
September 20, 2023It’s Day 2 of the U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting that brings world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York
September 19, 2023Britain’s Prince William and wealthy entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg promise hope to a warming world
September 19, 2023A Mexican railway operator has announced it is suspending train runs in the northern part of the country because so many migrants are climbing aboard freight cars and getting hurt in the process
September 19, 2023Tunisian President Kais Saied’s remarks that have been denounced as antisemitic have prompted an uproar on social media across the world
September 19, 2023Women who say they were abused by a once-prominent Jesuit artist say they are now being revictimized by his superiors
September 19, 2023Colombian President Gustavo Petro has delivered an ominous prophecy with grandiose language
September 19, 2023Argentina is celebrating a decision by a United Nations conference to include a former clandestine detention and torture center as a World Heritage site
September 19, 2023Scientists say climate change made the devastating storm along the Libyan coast up to 50 times more likely and 50% more intense
September 19, 2023The news of a cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, a day after Azerbaijan shelled Armenian forces, toned down fears of a third full-scale war over the region, But it also left significant unresolved questions
September 19, 2023The U.N.’s refugee agency says that more than 1,200 children under age 5 have died in nine camps in war-scarred Sudan in the past five months because of a deadly combination of measles and malnutrition
September 19, 2023The U.S. has imposed sanctions on seven people and four companies in China, Russia and Turkey who officials allege are connected with the development of Iran’s drone program
September 19, 2023German government officials have held talks with their Polish counterparts asking them to clarify how many visas were issued in an illegal program in which some Polish consulates issued visas in Africa and Asia in exchange for bribes
September 19, 2023Palestinian health officials say the Israeli military has killed a 25-year-old Palestinian along the volatile border with the Gaza Strip during a violent protest along the separation fence
September 19, 2023A joint report from three U.N. agencies says the mental health of Afghan women, who have suffered under harsh measures imposed by the Taliban since taking power two years ago, has deteriorated across the country
September 19, 2023Ukraine is filing a complaint at the World Trade Organization against Hungary, Poland and Slovakia after they banned grain and other food products coming from the war-torn country
September 19, 2023The International Criminal Court says it responded urgently to “anomalous activity affecting its information systems” last week
September 19, 2023The 2023 Latin Grammy nominations are here
September 19, 2023The European Union is urging Serbia and Kosovo to respect an agreement meant to end tensions between them and set their relations on a more normal path
September 19, 2023The tiny Pacific island nation of Niue has come up with a novel plan to protect its vast and pristine territorial waters — it will get sponsors to pay
September 19, 2023Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appeared in a Moscow court, seeking release from jail on espionage charges, but it declined to hear his appeal and returned the case to a lower court due to unspecified procedural violations
September 19, 2023A Sikh independence advocate who was killed two months ago in western Canada is at the center of a widening breach between the Indian and Canadian governments
September 19, 2023The Americans released by Iran after being detained for years have arrived back home and declared, “Freedom!”
September 19, 2023A network of ancient American Indian ceremonial and burial mounds in Ohio noted for their good condition, distinct style and cultural significance has been added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites
September 19, 2023A Ukrainian governor says Russia launched a massive drone attack on the western city of Lviv, burning down a warehouse said to house humanitarian supplies and killing one man
September 19, 2023Azerbaijan’s forces fired artillery at Armenian positions in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh
September 19, 2023Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is urging defense leaders to “dig deep” and provide more air defense systems for Ukraine, to help the country block increasing barrages of Russian missiles
September 19, 2023The prime minister of Libyan’s eastern administration says authorities have divided the flood-stricken city of Derna into four sections to create buffers in case of disease outbreaks
September 19, 2023Victor Wembanyama will be aiming for the gold medal at the Paris Olympics
September 19, 2023President Joe Biden has made his case before the U.N. General Assembly that the world must remain united in defending Ukraine against Russian aggression
September 19, 2023Some of Spain’s World Cup-winning players have started reporting to training camp despite not wanting to be called up for the national team while fighting for changes in the soccer federation
September 19, 2023Ukraine is insisting that the United Nations’ highest court has jurisdiction to hear a case alleging that Moscow abused the genocide convention to justify launching its devastating invasion last year
September 19, 2023Hundreds of London police officers are facing dismissal as the department steps up efforts to get rid of police officers accused of corruption and other misconduct
September 19, 2023Tensions between Canada and India have reached new heights with dueling diplomatic expulsions and an allegation of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist on Canadian soil
September 19, 2023YouTube says Russell Brand will no longer make money from the video streaming site after several women made allegations of sexual assault against the comedian-turned influencer
September 19, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he trusts Russia as much he trusts the West
September 19, 2023France is rolling out the red carpet for King Charles III’s state visit at one of its most magnificent and emblematic monuments: The Palace of Versailles, which is celebrating its 400th anniversary
September 19, 2023Germany racked up one economic success after another for most of this century
September 19, 2023English Heritage has unveiled its 1,000th blue plaque, the famous discs that dot the walls of buildings throughout London to mark the places where scientists, artists, politicians and activists have made history
September 19, 2023Asian shares are mostly lower as markets await a decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates
September 19, 2023Hong Kong’s leader says the territory will scrutinize the regulation of digital assets after police arrested eight people over allegations of fraud at an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange that impacted more than 1,600 investors and over $150 million in assets
September 19, 2023The United Nations chief delivered a dire warning to leaders from across the world
September 19, 2023“Brazil is back."
September 19, 2023North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has returned home from a trip to Russia where he deepened a “comradely fellowship and friendly ties” with President Vladimir Putin
September 19, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington this week comes at a critical time as Republican leadership in the House and Senate diverge on the best way to get more military and humanitarian aid over the finish line
September 19, 2023A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that while Americans generally view Israel as a partner or ally, many question whether its far-right government shares American values
September 19, 2023Foreign companies operating in China say tensions with Washington over technology, trade and other issues and uncertainty over Chinese policies are damaging the business environment and causing some to reassess their plans for investing in the giant market
September 19, 2023More than 30 Atlantic countries on four continents have committed to bolster coordination on economic development, environmental protection, maritime issues and more
September 19, 2023India has expelled a senior Canadian diplomat and is accusing Canada of interfering in its internal affairs
September 19, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is “weaponizing” everything from food and energy to abducted children in its war against Ukraine
September 18, 2023The U.N. General Assembly’s yearly meeting of world leaders is here
September 18, 2023It’s Day 1 of the U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting that brings world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York
September 18, 2023The U.N. nuclear chief says he asked to meet Iran’s president on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting, His goal is to reverse Tehran’s ban on many of the agency’s inspectors
September 18, 2023Experts hope the sputtering global public health system and efforts to curb global warming through collaboration can combine to create a better system for handling the problem
September 18, 2023Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with China's Vice President Han Zheng on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly as the Biden administration and Beijing step up high-level contacts ahead of what could be a leader-level summit this fall
September 18, 2023Canada has expelled a top Indian diplomat as it investigates what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called credible allegations of ties to the assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada
September 18, 2023Iran’s president is denying his country sent drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine
September 18, 2023Farmers across Bulgaria protested Monday after the government lifted a ban on food products from Ukraine, complaining that the move will cause an influx that drives down prices for local growers
September 18, 2023Mexico's president is defending the participation of a contingent of Russian soldiers in a military parade over the weekend
September 18, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off a U.S. trip in California to talk to billionaire businessman Elon Musk about antisemitism on his social media platform X — while Musk asked him to address his judicial overhaul in Israel
September 18, 2023The Italian Cabinet has approved new measures to crack down on migration
September 18, 2023Hundreds of soccer fans have stormed into a hotel in Tehran, hoping for a glimpse of star player Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrived along with his Saudi teammates ahead of a game
September 18, 2023Officials are warning that a disease outbreak in Libya’s northeast, where floods have killed thousands, could create “a second devastating crisis” as adults and children fell ill from contaminated water
September 18, 2023Just playing is a small victory for Shakhtar Donetsk but the Ukrainian champions won’t stop there
September 18, 2023Six Ukrainian deputy defense ministers have been fired following the dismissal two weeks ago of the defense minister in a corruption scandal, as heavy fighting against Russian forces continues in the east
September 18, 2023An expert commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body says in her first report on Russia that the rights situation in the country has “significantly deteriorated” since President Vladimir Putin launched his war against Ukraine last February
September 18, 2023British police say they received a sexual assault allegation after media outlets published claims against comedian Russell Brand
September 18, 2023Americans held for years in Iranian custody walked arm-in-arm off a plane into freedom
September 18, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Elon Musk, the head of electric carmaker Tesla, to establish a factory in Turkey
September 18, 2023Russia is calling a Ukrainian case alleging that Moscow abused the Genocide Convention to justify its invasion last year an “abuse of process.”
September 18, 2023China’s top diplomat is in Russia for security talks after two days of meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser over the weekend in Malta
September 18, 2023A populist former prime minister whose party is favored to win Slovakia’s early parliamentary election plans to reverse the country’s military and political support for neighboring Ukraine if he returns to power
September 18, 2023The commitments were far-reaching and ambitious
September 18, 2023For two years, it was the coronavirus pandemic
September 18, 2023Pope Francis urged all people to do their part to address the world’s problems, especially climate change and the care of children, to open The Clinton Global Initiative Monday in New York in a talk with former President Bill Clinton
September 18, 2023Asian shares are mostly weaker in cautious trading ahead of the Federal Reserve’s looming decision on interest rates
September 18, 2023Australia’s government is telling the online dating industry to improve safety standards or be forced to make changes through legislation
September 18, 2023China has flown 103 military planes toward Taiwan in a new daily high for the activity the island considers harassment
September 18, 2023The president of the Dominican Republic is defending his decision to close air, sea and land traffic with neighboring Haiti in a dispute over construction of a canal targeting a river that runs through both countries
September 17, 2023Libya' health minister says four Greek rescue workers dispatched to Libya following devastating flooding in the eastern city of Derna were killed in a road collision
September 17, 2023A federal jury in Mississippi has rejected a civil lawsuit seeking money damages from two police officers who fatally shot a man while serving a warrant at the wrong house
September 17, 2023The war in Ukraine and its visiting president take center stage at the United Nations this week
September 17, 2023Tens of thousands of people in New York City have kicked off a week of demonstrations seeking to end the use of coal, oil and natural gas blamed for climate change
September 17, 2023President Joe Biden’s national security adviser met with China’s foreign minister over the past two days on the Mediterranean island nation of Malta
September 17, 2023Two cargo ships have arrived in one of Ukraine’s ports this weekend, using a temporary Black Sea corridor established by the government
September 17, 2023Dozens of demonstrators against a divisive plan to redevelop a beloved Tokyo park are forming a human chain outside the Japanese Education Ministry to demand a revision
September 17, 2023French President Emmanuel Macron is extending an olive branch to video gamers after previously linking computer games to rioting that rocked France earlier this year
September 17, 2023EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged the swift return of “irregular” migrants and a crackdown on smugglers Sunday during a visit with Italy’s premier to a tiny fishing island overwhelmed with nearly 7,000 migrant arrivals in a single day this week
September 17, 2023Police in a southern Chinese city say they have detained some staff at China Evergrande Group’s wealth management unit in the latest trouble for the heavily indebted developer
September 17, 2023A U.N. committee has voted to list prehistoric ruins near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine
September 17, 2023Lawyers for an opposition party councilor in Zimbabwe say he and a relative were abducted, beaten and whipped by unknown men amid a post-election crackdown on criticism of recently reelected President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling ZANU-PF party
September 17, 2023South Korea’s president says the international community “will unite more tightly” to cope with deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, as he plans to raise the issue with world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this week
September 17, 2023The disastrous flooding that killed more than 11,000 people has fostered national solidarity among Libyans, long governed by opposing powers
September 17, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is on his way home from Russia at the end of a six-day trip that raised concerns about weapons transfer deals between two countries locked in standoffs with the West
September 17, 2023The U.N. nuclear watchdog has harshly criticized Iran for effectively barring several of its most experienced inspectors from monitoring the country’s disputed atomic program
September 16, 2023Three British news organizations are reporting that comedian and social influencer Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse based on allegations from four women who knew him over a seven-year period at the height of his fame
September 16, 2023An aircraft of the Italian acrobatic air team the Frecce Tricolori has crashed during a practice run in the northern Turin province
September 16, 2023European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to travel on Sunday to the Italian island of Lampedusa amid an influx of migrants who arrived this week
September 16, 2023Hundreds of people have gathered in central London to mark the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini
September 16, 2023The heat is about to be turned up on fossil fuels, the United States and President Joe Biden
September 16, 2023The top American military officer says North Korea may be able to boost Russia’s supply of artillery munitions for the war in Ukraine
September 16, 2023Hundreds of people have rallied in the Malaysian capital accusing Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of helping his key ally to escape prosecution in exchange for political support
September 16, 2023President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Turkey may part ways with the European Union
September 16, 2023Thousands of South Korean school teachers are calling for tighter legal protections from bullying by parents, a rising problem in a country known for its brutally competitive school environments
September 16, 2023Libya’s top prosecutor says he has opened an investigation into the collapse of two dams that caused a devastating flood in a coastal city
September 16, 2023Newly discovered correspondence in the Vatican archives suggests that Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland
September 16, 2023A war monitoring group says that dozens of Syrians who fled war at home are among the thousands killed and missing in the deadly flooding in Libya
September 16, 2023Mexico has extradited Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the United States to face drug trafficking charges
September 15, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected Russia’s nuclear-capable bombers, hypersonic missiles and an advanced warship on a trip to Russia’s Far East that has sparked concerns about an arms alliance that could fuel President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine
September 15, 2023The Brazilian government is reinstating a stricter greenhouse gas emissions target first announced in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement
September 15, 2023A former top U.S. ambassador has been sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $93,350 fine for improperly helping a wealthy Persian Gulf country influence U.S. policy and for not disclosing gifts he received from a disgraced political fundraiser
September 15, 2023President Joe Biden has a busy foreign policy agenda next week
September 15, 2023Kenya’s president is wooing American tech companies, promising a business-friendly environment — even though he has raised taxes on businesses at home
September 15, 2023Guatemala's President-elect Bernardo Arévalo says he plans to call people into the streets next week to protest efforts to derail his presidency before he can take office
September 15, 2023The Pentagon’s Central Command has ordered interviews of roughly two dozen more service members who were at the Kabul airport when suicide bombers attacked during U.S. forces’ chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as criticism persists that the deadly assault could have been stopped
September 15, 2023Thousand of migrants reached the Italian island of Lampedusa on more than 100 boats this week
September 15, 2023The International Monetary Fund has warned that Lebanon is still facing enormous economic challenges, four years after the country's historic meltdown began
September 15, 2023As the Biden administration heralds the forthcoming release of five U.S. citizens detained by Iran, it’s also confronting questions about the price being paid to bring them home
September 15, 2023An Egyptian village is mourning dozens of its men killed in the horrific floodwaters that tore through the city of Derna in neighboring Libya
September 15, 2023President Joe Biden has announced new U.S. sanctions on “some of Iran’s most egregious human rights abusers” as he marks the anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini
September 15, 2023Renowned Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero, whose depictions of people and objects in plump, exaggerated forms became emblems of Colombian art around the world, has died
September 15, 2023The U.N.’s World Heritage Committee has placed two major historical sites in Ukraine on its list of such sites that it considers to be in danger
September 15, 2023A red sweater adorned with a flock of sheep worn by the young Princess Diana has sold at auction for $1.1 million
September 15, 2023U.S.-based pharmaceuticals company Johnson & Johnson is being investigated in South Africa for allegedly charging “excessive” prices for a key tuberculosis drug
September 15, 2023British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has described American XL Bully dogs as a “danger to our communities” and announced plans to ban them following a public outcry after a series of recent attacks
September 15, 2023European regulators have slapped TikTok with a $368 million fine for failing to protect children's privacy
September 15, 2023Finland is joining its three Baltic neighbors in banning vehicles with Russian license plates from entering their territory, a joint move in line with a recent interpretation of the European Union’s sanctions against Moscow over its war on Ukraine
September 15, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted a meeting with his Belarusian ally, who referred to this week’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and suggested that Minsk could join Moscow’s efforts to revive an old alliance with Pyongyang
September 15, 2023Around 3,000 workers at Britain’s biggest steelworks face the prospect of losing their jobs as part of a government-backed package to make the plant “greener.”
September 15, 2023Belgium authorities are getting worried by a series of school arsons believed to be connected to newly mandatory school sessions in some parts of the country
September 15, 2023Russia's central bank has raised its key lending rate by one percentage point to 13%, a month after imposing an even larger hike
September 15, 2023Prague’s High Court has cancelled a lower court ruling that acquitted former Prime Minister Andrej Babis of fraud charges in a $2 million case involving European Union subsidies
September 15, 2023Apple has agreed to install updates for iPhone 12 smartphones in France after French regulators ordered the company to stop selling the model
September 15, 2023A daughter of a long-detained human rights activist in Bahrain has tried to return to the island kingdom to press for her father's release but was turned away from her flight in London
September 15, 2023The European Union has decided not to renew a ban on Ukrainian food imports heading to nearby countries
September 15, 2023The new coach of Spain’s women’s team has had to delay the announcement of her first squad after nearly all of the country’s World Cup-winning players maintained their boycott of the national team
September 15, 2023Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni is vowing to take “extraordinary measures” to deal with an influx of migrants
September 15, 2023Bangladesh is struggling with a record outbreak of dengue fever, with experts saying a lack of a coordinated response is causing more deaths from the mosquito-transmitted disease
September 15, 2023Spain's National Court says the former president of the country's soccer federation has been given a restraining order and is prohibited from contacting the player he kissed on the lips last month at the Women’s World Cup
September 15, 2023The Nobel Foundation has decided to raise the award amount for this year’s Nobel Prizes by 1 million kronor ($90,000) to 11 million kronor ($986,270) as the Swedish currency has plummeted recently
September 15, 2023A human rights lawyer who was arrested in Laos has been deported back to China despite pleas from rights groups and United Nations experts for his release
September 15, 2023Barry Steenkamp, the father of Reeva Steenkamp, the woman who was fatally shot by Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius, has died
September 15, 2023Libyan authorities have limited access to the flooded coastal city of Derna to dig through the mud and hollowed-out buildings for the more than 10,000 people still missing and presumed dead following a disaster that has already claimed more than 11,000 lives
September 15, 2023Ukrainian officials say their forces recaptured a war-ravaged settlement in the country’s embattled east — a small territorial win in a churning counteroffensive marked so far by small victories but no major breakthroughs
September 15, 2023Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, giving the S&P 500 its second losing week in a row
September 15, 2023Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf celebrates his golden jubilee on Friday, marking 50 years since he ascended the throne on Sept. 15, 1973
September 15, 2023Germany’s city of Munich is getting ready to tap the kegs for Oktoberfest
September 15, 2023Iraq is stepping up repatriation of its citizens from a camp in northeastern Syria housing tens of thousands of people, mostly wives and children of Islamic State fighters but also supporters of the militant group
September 15, 2023The head of the United Nations food agency says a global hunger crisis has left more than 700 million people not knowing when or if they will eat again
September 15, 2023A delegation from Yemen’s Houthi rebels has flown into Saudi Arabia for talks with the kingdom on potentially ending the yearslong war tearing at the Arab world’s poorest nation
September 15, 2023The leaders of China and Zambia have announced an upgrading of their ties as the world’s second-largest economy forges deeper ties with the Global South
September 15, 2023From Europe to Africa to southeast Asia, tens of thousands of climate activists around the world launched protests Friday to call for an end to the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels as Earth suffers from dramatic weather extremes
September 15, 2023Nearly one in 10 of America’s unionized auto workers went on strike Friday at Detroit’s three automakers
September 15, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected Russia’s most advanced fighter jet at an aircraft factory on his extended visit to the country
September 15, 2023Mexican transgender rights activists Kenya Cuevas and Andrea Luna sat in front of their longtime friend Paola Buenrostro’s pink grave in Mexico City
September 15, 2023The Biden administration will withhold less military aid from Egypt over its human rights abuses this year
September 14, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected on Capitol Hill and at the White House next week
September 14, 2023Britain, France and Germany have announced that they will keep their sanctions on Iran related to the Mideast country’s atomic program and its development of ballistic missiles
September 14, 2023As the Toronto International Film Festival winds down after a week of wall-to-wall premieres, there has been no more fraught turf than the land that families try to eke out a life on, amid geopolitical storms knocking on the front door
September 14, 2023The Biden administration has tapped former Commerce Secretary and major Democratic donor Penny Pritzker to coordinate U.S. efforts to channel private sector reconstruction assistance to Ukraine
September 14, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says he will meet billionaire businessman Elon Musk during a trip to the United States next week
September 14, 2023Poland's President Andrzej Duda says he is awaiting results of an investigation into allegations that Polish consulates sold a quarter of a million work visas to migrants from Asia and Africa for thousands of dollars
September 14, 2023By meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Russia’s Far East spaceport, President Vladimir Putin signaled his readiness to share rocket technology with Pyongyang
September 14, 2023The United States Federal Aviation Administration has returned Mexico’s aviation safety rating to the highest level two years after downgrading it
September 14, 2023The players who won the Women's World Cup for Spain are still in revolt one day before their new coach announces her first squad
September 14, 2023Montenegro’s president says whoever dug an underground tunnel into a court storage area in the capital attacked the country and its justice system
September 14, 2023Russia’s Foreign Ministry has declared two U_S_ diplomats “persona non grata” and is ordering them to leave the country within seven days for alleged involvement in “illegal activity.”
September 14, 2023Regional health officials in France say a 32-year-old woman is dead and a dozen people have been hospitalized after an apparent botulism outbreak
September 14, 2023The United States is sanctioning more than 150 businesses and individuals as it tries to crack down on evasion and deny Russia access to technology, money and financial channels that fuel Moscow's war in Ukraine
September 14, 2023A migrant reception center in Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa is overwhelmed as authorities work to transfer to transfer thousands of newly arrived migrants to the mainland
September 14, 2023France is sending military forces to distribute water on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte
September 14, 2023The storied Italian lagoon city of Venice escaped inclusion on UNESCO’s list of world heritage in danger during a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Saudia Arabia on Thursday, as member states commended efforts to preserve both the storied and fragile city and its lagoon
September 14, 2023Spain has recorded its third hottest summer since official records began 62 years ago
September 14, 2023The players in Spain’s women’s soccer league have called off a strike after reaching a deal to increase minimum wage
September 14, 2023Moroccan families whose homes were destroyed by last week's earthquake face difficult decisions about whether to relocate
September 14, 2023An American researcher says he thought he would die after falling ill while exploring a Turkish cave system
September 14, 2023China's Commerce Ministry has protested a decision by the European Union to investigate exports of Chinese electric vehicles, saying it is a protectionist action aimed at distorting the supply chain
September 14, 2023Police in Vietnam say that 10 children are among the 56 people killed in a blaze in a Hanoi high-rise
September 14, 2023The Libyan Red Crescent says that the death toll from floods in the eastern Libyan city of Derna has soared to 11,300
September 14, 2023The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have failed again to make progress in talks meant to improve their testy ties
September 14, 2023Authorities says the luxury cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer has been successfully pulled free three days after running aground in Greenland with 206 people on board
September 14, 2023The wall of water several stories high smashed into apartment buildings, drowning entire families in minutes
September 14, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far eastern Russia where he is expected to tour a Russian aircraft plant that builds fighter jets
September 14, 2023Asian shares are trading mostly higher, with solid gains for Chinese markets after the central bank eased the reserve requirements for banks
September 14, 2023The European Central Bank has hiked its key interest rate to a record high
September 14, 2023The rapid depreciation of the Argentine currency and one of the world’s highest inflation rates has made it difficult for Argentines to make ends meet
September 14, 2023Cambodia's new prime minister, Hun Manet, has arrived in Beijing on his first official trip abroad since taking office last month
September 14, 2023The father of imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is calling on world leaders meeting at the United Nations next week to stand up for freedom of the press and urge Russia to release him
September 14, 2023Consumer prices in Argentina have soared 12.4% in August, compared to the previous month, a number that puts the government on the defensive a little more than a month before presidential elections in which a right-wing populist who admires Donald Trump appears the favorite to win
September 13, 2023The top Air Force commander for Europe and Africa says the U.S. military has resumed counterterrorism missions in Niger, flying drones and other aircraft out of Niger air bases more than a month after a coup temporarily halted all those activities there
September 13, 2023The sister of a Russian-Israeli academic at Princeton University who went missing in Iraq nearly six months ago says the United States should use its influence to help win her freedom
September 13, 2023Argentina’s Federal Police have shut down a publisher that sold books that praised Nazi ideology, seized hundreds of texts and arrested one person as part of what authorities characterized as a “historic seizure” of Nazi propaganda
September 13, 2023A group of two dozen officers posed for a photo with escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante, minutes after his capture
September 13, 2023The chairman of a Senate investigations subcommittee is subpoenaing Saudi officials for documents on the kingdom’s new golf partnership with the PGA Tour
September 13, 2023Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip say at least five people have been killed and 20 others wounded in an explosion next to the separation fence along the Israeli frontier with Gaza
September 13, 2023Law Roach collaborated with luxury Indian husband and wife designers Falguni Shane Peacock as creative director for their “2.0” collection that debuted at New York Fashion Week Monday
September 13, 2023A new study of Earth's health says the planet is outside its “safe operating space for humanity” on six out of nine key measurements
September 13, 2023Pennsylvania authorities say they were able to capture escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante thanks to thermal imaging equipment in the air, search teams working through a stormy night, a search dog and the element of surprise
September 13, 2023Indigenous women in Brazil’s capital Brasilia showcased their creations during a fashion event as part of the Third March of Indigenous Women to claim women’s rights and the demarcation of Indigenous lands
September 13, 2023The famous stopwatch will still announce the show as “60 Minutes.”
September 13, 2023The son of ousted Myanmar leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi says he has always avoided talking to the media, but this time is different
September 13, 2023A major new exhibition is opening at London’s V&A Museum to honor and celebrate the life and iconic designs, as well as many more lesser-known creations by famed French designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel
September 13, 2023The world is largely relying on North Korean and Russian media for information about the meeting between the nations' leaders Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin at a space facility in Russia's Far East
September 13, 2023Apple is ditching its in-house iPhone charging plug and falling in line with the rest of the tech industry by adopting USB-C, a more widely used connection standard
September 13, 2023The Taliban have hailed China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan with fanfare, saying his arrival is a sign for other nations to come forward and establish relations with them
September 13, 2023Defense officials in NATO member Romania say they have found new fragments of drones similar to those used by the Russian army near its border with war-torn Ukraine, in the third such finding in the past week
September 13, 2023In the small town of Lamego in Portugal's Douro River Valley, where harvesting grapes for wine is in full swing in early September, one of Portugal’s largest and oldest religious festivals draws thousands
September 13, 2023The Russian space launch facility where President Vladimir Putin has hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reflects an ambitious attempt by Moscow to burnish its scientific glory that faded after the Soviet collapse
September 13, 2023Hurricane Lee is starting to spin away from the northern Caribbean as the Category 2 storm leaves big waves in its wake and aims for New England and Atlantic Canada
September 13, 2023Moroccan rescuers have been joined by crews from Spain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as they dig through rubble for bodies still buried in devastated communities in the Atlas Mountains
September 13, 2023Some analysts are questioning whether Russia would be willing to share secret weapons technologies with North Korea
September 13, 2023A flotilla of flimsy boats, crowded with migrants and launched from Tunisia, is overwhelming a tiny Italian island south of Sicily
September 13, 2023French regulators have ordered Apple to stop selling the iPhone 12, saying it emits electromagnetic radiation levels that are above European Union standards for exposure
September 13, 2023Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings and even the sea to look for bodies in a coastal Libyan city where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed at least 5,100 people
September 13, 2023Shares are mostly higher in Asia after a highly anticipated report showed inflation accelerated across the U.S. in August, but not by much more than expected
September 13, 2023Authorities say a fire in a nine-story apartment building in Vietnam’s capital has killed at least 56 people, including at least four children, while an additional 37 people are being treated for injuries
September 13, 2023Russian authorities say a Ukrainian attack on a strategic shipyard in Crimea wounded 24 people, damaged two ships undergoing repairs and caused a fire at the facility
September 13, 2023Preventing dengue fever has long meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites
September 13, 2023North Korea’s Kim Jong Un vowed “full and unconditional support” on Wednesday for Russia’s Vladimir Putin
September 13, 2023Preventing dengue fever has long meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites
September 13, 2023The United Auto Workers union says it will go on strike at three factories as it presses Detroit companies to come up with better wage and benefit offers
September 12, 2023Scientists say the Mediterranean storm that dumped torrential rain on the Libyan coast is just the latest extreme weather event to carry some hallmarks of climate change
September 12, 2023The U.S. could have the first Ukrainian pilots trained on F-16 fighter jets before the end of the year, though it will be longer than that before they are flying combat missions
September 12, 2023Melinda French Gates says she takes personally the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women and babies during child birth each year and believes more people should get involved in the fight for improving maternal health care. French Gates, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder and co-chair told The Associated Press that when her daughter, Jennifer, gave birth to Leila — Jennifer’s first child and the Gateses’ first grandchild — earlier this year, she couldn’t help but think of her own experience giving birth. “That’s a terrifying day whether you’re in a great hospital in
September 12, 2023Customers filed in and out of Mark Abramson’s gun shop on the outskirts of Albuquerque as outrage grew over the governor’s order to suspend the right to carry firearms to address what she said is an epidemic of gun violence. Abramson agreed that a debate is long overdue on how to tackle irresponsible, unjustified shootings such as the ones in Albuquerque that led to the deaths of an 11-year-old and a teen. “But to ban the largest city and the most populous county in the state simply because bad people engaged in bad behavior seems overkill,”
September 12, 2023The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday slapped terrorism sanctions on a family network of seven individuals and businesses in Lebanon and South America accused of financing the militant group Hezbollah, including a Lebanese man who officials say was involved in two deadly attacks in Argentina in the 1990s. Amer Mohamed Akil Rada was described as “one of the operational members” who carried out the attack on the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. A 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina killed 29 people. “Today’s action underscores the
September 12, 2023The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday slapped terrorism sanctions on a family network of seven individuals and businesses in Lebanon and South America accused of financing the militant group Hezbollah, including a Lebanese man who officials say was involved in two deadly attacks in Argentina in the 1990s. Amer Mohamed Akil Rada was described as “one of the operational members” who carried out the attack on the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. A 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina killed 29 people. “Today’s action underscores the
September 12, 2023The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday slapped terrorism sanctions on a family network of seven individuals and businesses in Lebanon and South America accused of financing the militant group Hezbollah, including a Lebanese man who officials say was involved in two deadly attacks in Argentina in the 1990s. Amer Mohamed Akil Rada was described as “one of the operational members” who carried out the attack on the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. A 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina killed 29 people. “Today’s action underscores the
September 12, 2023Rescue teams in Europe are frustrated that Morocco did not throw open its doors to more outside assistance after last week's deadly earthquake
September 12, 2023Community leaders along the Mississippi River worried that dry southwestern states will someday try to take the river’s water may soon take their first step toward blocking such a diversion. Mayors from cities along the river are expected to vote on whether to support a new compact among the river’s 10 states at this week’s annual meeting of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, according to its executive director Colin Wellenkamp. Supporters of a compact hope it will strengthen the region’s collective power around shared goals like stopping water from leaving the corridor. “It is
September 12, 2023A painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh has been recovered more than three years after it was stolen from a museum that was shut to prevent the spread of the coronavirus
September 12, 2023Iran on Tuesday identified the five prisoners it hopes to see freed in the United States in exchange for five Iranian-Americans now held in Tehran and billions in assets once held by South Korea. The acknowledgment by the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York comes as the Biden administration has issued a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions. The moves by both Tehran and Washington appear to signal the prisoner swap is progressing as
September 12, 2023The mining of minerals critical to electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies in Congo has led to human rights abuses, including forced evictions and physical assault, according to a new report from Amnesty International and another rights group. Congo is by far the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other products, and it is also Africa’s top producer of copper, which is used in EVs, renewable energy systems and more. Rights groups and U.S. officials have long criticized the trade of Congo’s cobalt, copper and
September 12, 2023Ahead of the High Holidays that begin this week, a network of Jewish security experts and religious leaders hosted several webinars to help prepare for the season. Among the topics: How to respond to an “active threat” targeting the Jewish community, and how to stop severe bleeding. The holidays, encompassing Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, are meant to be a period of joy and reflection. Over recent years — in the face of increased antisemitic threats and violence — the season also is a time of heightened vigilance. “The High Holidays are about renewal — about trying to build a
September 12, 2023Thousands of Israeli academics and artists have urged U.S. President Joe Biden and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to shun Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the United States next week, underlining the divide between Israel’s far-right government and segments of the country’s population. In an open letter published Wednesday, over 3,500 signers, including well-known Israeli writer David Grossman and painter Tamar Getter, called on Biden and Guterres not to meet with Netanyahu or invite him to speak at the U.N. General Assembly’s yearly meeting of world leaders. The prime minister’s office has said
September 12, 2023A sweeping, year-long study of sex abuse by Catholic priests and others in Switzerland published Tuesday has turned up more than 1,000 cases since the mid-20th century, as the Swiss church becomes the latest in Europe to reckon with the abuse scandal. With few exceptions, those accused of wrongdoing were all male. Nearly three-fourths of the documents examined showed the sexual abuse involved minors. The report, commissioned by the Swiss Conference of Bishops and led by two University of Zurich historians, offers a deep look at sexual abuse and harassment that has confounded the Catholic Church across
September 12, 2023An American researcher was “doing well” at a Turkish hospital, officials said Tuesday, after rescuers pulled him out of a cave where he fell seriously ill and became trapped 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) below its entrance for over a week. Rescuers from Turkey and across Europe cheered and clapped as Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old experienced caver, emerged from Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains strapped to a stretcher at 12:37 a.m. local time Tuesday. He was whisked to the hospital in the nearby city of Mersin in a helicopter. Dickey fell ill on Sept.
September 12, 2023Authorities warned that an escaped murderer who has evaded capture in southeastern Pennsylvania for nearly two weeks was armed and urged residents Tuesday in the area where he was being pursued to lock up, secure vehicles and remain indoors. Pennsylvania State Police posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the department was pursuing Danelo Souza Cavalcante in South Coventry Township. Police also asked that the public call 911 if Cavalcante is seen and not to approach him. At least one nearby school district announced early Tuesday that it would close all schools and offices for the day
September 12, 2023Heavy rainfall has flooded parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with one city declaring a state of emergency as water poured into homes, created sinkholes and stranded drivers. Mayor Dean Mazzarella in Leominster, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Boston, urged people not to venture outside as roads flooded Monday night, but some residents were evacuated as water came into their basements. All schools were closed Tuesday and two shelters were set up. “Everything’s just one big lake,” Mazzarella said in a recording posted online Monday night. “Find a high spot somewhere. Find a high
September 12, 2023Turkish officials say an American researcher who was pulled out of a deep Turkish cave after becoming too sick to climb out on his own is doing well in a Turkish hospital
September 12, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia to see President Vladimir Putin. It will be the two isolated leaders’ second meeting. Their governments have not confirmed an agenda, but U.S. officials say Putin may ask for artillery and other ammunition for his war in Ukraine. Such a request would mark a reversal of roles from the 1950-53 Korean War, when the Soviet Union provided ammunition, warplanes and pilots to support communist North Korea’s invasion of the South, and the decades of Soviet sponsorship of the North that followed. Despite their often aligning
September 12, 2023Rescue teams in eastern Libya have retrieved hundreds of bodies from the rubble in a coastal city that has been inundated by devastating floods, a humanitarian agency said Tuesday. Authorities estimated that as many as 2,000 people are believed dead in the city of Derna. Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods in many towns in eastern Libya. But the worst destruction was in Derna, where heavy rainfall and floods broke dams and washed away entire neighborhoods, authorities said. Ossama Hamad, prime minister of the east Libya government, said that several thousands of people were missing in the
September 12, 2023Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa was acquitted of a final tax evasion charge Tuesday though she still faces two remaining legal cases she believes the former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte used to muzzle her critical reporting. Ressa and her online news organization Rappler had faced five tax evasion charges but a court acquitted her of four of the charges in January. A different court heard the fifth charge and acquitted her Tuesday. “Facts wins, truth wins, justice wins,” she told reporters outside the courthouse. Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the 2021 Nobel
September 12, 2023Asian shares were trading mixed Tuesday following a Big Tech rally on Wall Street, as investors awaited an update on U.S. consumer prices set for later in the week. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 1.0% to 32,776.37. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2% to 7,206.90. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.8% to 2,536.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.2% to 18,056.17, while the Shanghai Composite fell nearly 0.2% to 3,137.73. The Federal Reserve is weighing whether to keep raising interest rates steady in its effort to get inflation back to 2%. On Wednesday, the U.S. government will offer the
September 12, 2023Emergency workers uncovered more than 1,500 bodies in the wreckage of Libya’s eastern city of Derna, and it was feared the toll could surpass 5,000 after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighborhoods of the city
September 12, 2023Several major Japanese companies have decided to stop using stars who are represented by Johnny & Associates, an entertainment company at the center of a sexual assault scandal. Beverage maker Asahi Group Holdings — known for its Super Dry beer — will no longer air its ads featuring Junichi Okada, Toma Ikuta and Sho Sakurai, the company said Tuesday, and there are no plans to sign singers, dancers or actors affiliated with Johnny’s. Other companies, including Japan’s flagship carrier Japan Airlines and major insurer Nippon Life Insurance Co., are following suit in distancing themselves from the scandal.
September 12, 2023Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday opened the first case to look at the legality of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul — deepening a showdown with the far-right government that has bitterly divided the nation and put the country on the brink of a constitutional crisis. In a sign of the case’s significance, all 15 of Israel’s Supreme Court justices are hearing appeals to the law together for the first time in Israel’s history. A regular panel is made up of three justices, though they sometimes sit on expanded panels. The proceedings were also being livestreamed.
September 12, 2023A slide for technology stocks weighed on Wall Street as it prepped for a highly anticipated report on inflation due the next day
September 12, 2023How much does an extramarital affair matter to whether Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton keeps his job? An answer may arrive soon. The question hangs over the Republican’s impeachment trial that resumes Tuesday and is approaching the final stretch of testimony before a jury of state senators decides whether Paxton should be removed from office on charges of corruption and bribery. Most of the senators are Republicans and one is his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, although she will not have a vote in the verdict. But she has attended the entire trial so far, including
September 12, 2023Israel’s Supreme Court has heard the first challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul
September 12, 2023It took four and a half months for Shannon Ross’ life to unravel. Ross, who describes himself as Indigenous and a person of color, was arrested in Chicago in October 2019 on weapons charges and ultimately found not guilty. But that came only after he spent months in jail awaiting trial, lost his home, car, job and countless moments with his children. Ross couldn’t afford the $75,000 bond set during a hearing that he recalls lasted only a few minutes. “I had to lose everything to prove that I wasn’t guilty,” he told The Associated Press. “It
September 12, 2023Rainstorms battering southern China have killed at least seven people and allowed dozens of crocodiles to escape from a farm. Nearby residents were advised to stay at home after more than 70 crocodiles escaped in Maoming, a city near the coast in western Guangdong province, according to Chinese media reports. An emergency official was quoted as saying that 69 adult crocodiles and six juveniles had escaped. Some have been captured, but the operation was difficult because of the depth of a lake they are in, the media reports said. No injuries have been reported. Further west, seven
September 12, 2023Joined by his top military officials handling his nuclear-capable weapons and munitions factories, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Tuesday before an expected meeting with President Vladimir Putin that has sparked concerns about a potential arms deal for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim boarded his personal train Sunday afternoon accompanied by unspecified members of the country’s ruling party, government and military. South Korea’s military assessed the train crossed into Russia sometime early Tuesday, Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said
September 12, 2023New Zealand’s economy is expected to remain sluggish for another two years, although the overall picture is rosier than many observers had feared, new figures released Tuesday indicate. The nation’s Treasury released the projections ahead of an election next month. They showed a slight deterioration from earlier predictions, with tax takes lower than expected and high inflation causing ongoing headaches. Unemployment is expected to jump from a current rate of 3.6% to 5.4% in 2025 before falling again, while economic growth is expected to fall from 3.1% this year to 1.3% next year, before bouncing
September 12, 2023North Korea’s Kim Jong Un rolled into Russia on an armored train to see President Vladimir Putin
September 12, 2023Major corporations from oil and gas companies to retail giants would have to disclose their direct greenhouse gas emissions as well as those that come from activities like employee business travel under legislation passed Monday by California lawmakers, the most sweeping mandate of its kind in the nation. The legislation would require thousands of public and private businesses that operate in California and make more than $1 billion annually report their direct and indirect emissions. The goal is to increase transparency and nudge companies to evaluate how they can cut their emissions. “We are out of
September 12, 2023Apple is expected to take the wraps off its next iPhone on Tuesday during what has become an annual late summer rite aimed at giving more people more reasons to buy the technology trendsetter’s marquee product. The showcase at Apple’s Cupertino California, headquarters comes as the company is mired in a mild slump that has seen its sales drop from last year in three consecutive quarters — with management signaling another downturn is likely during the current quarter that will be capped with the release of its iPhone 15 lineup. The malaise is a key reason Apple’s stock price has
September 11, 2023California may soon lift a ban on state-funded travel to states with anti-LGBTQ+ laws and instead focus on an advertising campaign to bring anti-discrimination messages to red states. California started banning official travel to states with laws it deemed discriminatory against LGBTQ+ people in 2017, starting with Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee. Since then, the list has grown to include a total of 26 states, most of them Republican-led, following a surge of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation these past few years. The prohibition has prevented elected officials, state workers and university scholars from traveling to more than
September 11, 2023SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s refusal to allow Ukraine to use Starlink internet services to launch a surprise attack on Russian forces in Crimea last September has raised questions for the Pentagon
September 11, 2023Nearly 1 million California workers are poised to win major salary increases after labor unions flexed their collective muscle in the state’s Democratic-led Legislature on Monday following a summer of high-profile strikes in the entertainment and hospitality industries. Most of the state’s 500,000 fast food workers would be paid at least $20 per hour next year under a new bill aimed at ending a standoff between the industry and labor unions over wages and working conditions. About 455,000 health care workers — not doctors and nurses, but the people who do everything else at hospitals, dialysis
September 11, 2023Alabama on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let it keep Republican-drawn congressional lines in place as the state continues to fight a court order to create a second district where Black voters constitute a majority or close to it. Despite losing at the Supreme Court earlier this year in the long-running redistricting case, Alabama is pursuing another appeal, hoping for a different result with the most recent GOP version of the map. Alabama asked the justices to stay a ruling issued last week by a three-judge panel that that blocked the use of the
September 11, 2023The Biden administration has cleared the way for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions. In addition, as part of the deal, the administration has agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the United States. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the sanctions waivers late last week, a month after U.S. and Iranian officials said an agreement in principle was in place. Congress was not informed
September 11, 2023South Dakota regulators on Monday rejected a permit application for a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline through the state, dealing a fresh setback to the company behind the multistate project after North Dakota refused a siting permit for another leg there. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to turn down Summit Carbon Solutions’ application to build a 469-mile (755-kilometer) in-state route — part of an intended $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile (3,220-kilometer) pipeline network through five states. The decision complicates an already complex process for Summit Carbon Solutions as it seeks similar authorization in other states amid opposition from landowners and
September 11, 2023A “cybersecurity issue” led to the shutdown of some casino and hotel computer systems at MGM Resorts International properties across the U.S., a company official reported Monday. The incident began Sunday and the extent of its effect on reservation systems and casino floors in Las Vegas and states including Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York and Ohio was not immediately known, company spokesman Brian Ahern said. “MGM Resorts recently identified a cybersecurity issue affecting some of the company’s systems,” the company said in a statement that pointed to an investigation involving external cybersecurity experts
September 11, 2023The sheriff in New Mexico’s largest metro area vowed Monday not to enforce an emergency order by the governor to temporarily suspend the right to carry firearms in public in and around the city of Albuquerque. “It’s unconstitutional, so there’s no way we can enforce that order,” Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said during a news conference. “This ban does nothing to curb gun violence.” Reaction has been swift after Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the order Friday, telling reporters that she expected legal challenges and that state police would handle enforcement. “I welcome the
September 11, 2023The deadly firestorm in Hawaii and Hurricane Idalia’s watery storm surge helped push the United States to a record for the number of weather disasters that cost $1 billion or more. And there’s still four months to go on what’s looking more like a calendar of calamities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that there have been 23 weather extreme events in America that cost at least $1 billion this year through August, eclipsing the year-long record total of 22 set in 2020. So far this year’s disasters have cost more than $57.6 billion and claimed at least
September 11, 2023The United States and Britain have invited ambassadors, journalists and representatives of a broad spectrum of society to a U.N. screening of the award-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” which follows a trio of Associated Press journalists during Russia’s relentless siege of the Ukrainian port city in the early days of the war. UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said the Monday evening screening at U.N. headquarters is important because “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens what the U.N. stands for: an international order where the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries is fundamental.” The screening comes at
September 11, 2023The United States and Britain have invited ambassadors, journalists and representatives of a broad spectrum of society to a U.N. screening of the award-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” which follows a trio of Associated Press journalists during Russia’s relentless siege of the Ukrainian port city in the early days of the war. UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said the Monday evening screening at U.N. headquarters is important because “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens what the U.N. stands for: an international order where the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries is fundamental.” The screening comes at
September 11, 2023A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart head into the playoffs this week as the top contenders to become the WNBA’s most valuable player. That’s no surprise. They are the two superstars on the league’s two “super teams” — the Las Vegas Aces (34-6) and the New York Liberty (32-8). But there is a third contender for MVP as well. Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas has played her way into the conversation, recording a league-record six triple-doubles in leading the Sun (27-13) to the No. 3 seed. Thomas is the first player in league history to record at least 600
September 11, 2023An American literary historian, a French paleoanthropologist, a Danish evolutionary geneticist and a German-Dutch astrophysicist have been named the winners of this year’s Balzan Prize. Their work in the humanities and natural sciences advances the study of comparative literature, human evolution and black holes. David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s comparative literature department, was recognized for “his creative approach to world literature as a translational circulation of works that remain alive because they are embraced and changed,’’ the Balzan Foundation said in its citation. Frenchman Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max-Planck-Institute for evolutionary anthropology in Leipzig was cited
September 11, 2023An American literary historian, a French paleoanthropologist, a Danish evolutionary geneticist and a German-Dutch astrophysicist have been named the winners of this year’s Balzan Prize. Their work in the humanities and natural sciences advances the study of comparative literature, human evolution and black holes. David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s comparative literature department, was recognized for “his creative approach to world literature as a translational circulation of works that remain alive because they are embraced and changed,’’ the Balzan Foundation said in its citation. Frenchman Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max-Planck-Institute for evolutionary anthropology in Leipzig was cited
September 11, 2023The president of Chile issued a fervent defense of democracy on Monday, the 50th anniversary of the coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that ushered in a brutal military dictatorship for almost two decades. The problems of democracy must be addressed through more democracy, President Gabriel Boric said at the La Moneda presidential palace, which was bombed by warplanes at the start of the coup half a century ago. “A coup d’état or the violation of the human rights of those who think differently is never justifiable,” Boric said in his address to a nation where
September 11, 2023The president of Chile issued a fervent defense of democracy on Monday, the 50th anniversary of the coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that ushered in a brutal military dictatorship for almost two decades. The problems of democracy must be addressed through more democracy, President Gabriel Boric said at the La Moneda presidential palace, which was bombed by warplanes at the start of the coup half a century ago. “A coup d’état or the violation of the human rights of those who think differently is never justifiable,” Boric said in his address to a nation where
September 11, 2023Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s impeachment trial on abuse of power charges could be in the hands of the jury as soon as this week, the presiding officer said Monday. The second week of the historic proceedings began with testimony from another of Paxton’s former aides who reported him to the FBI in 2020 and accused the Republican of misusing his office to help a donor. Paxton, who has pleaded not guilty, was again not in the Texas Senate for the testimony. The trial may not reach a third week. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick,
September 11, 2023The U.S. government is taking aim at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway. The legal attack will swing into full force Tuesday in a Washington D.C. federal courtroom that will serve as the battleground for the biggest U.S. antitrust trial since regulators went after Microsoft and its dominance of personal computer software a quarter century ago. The 10-week trial before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is expected to include potentially revelatory testimony from top executives at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet, as well as other powerful technology companies.
September 11, 2023The Swedish government said Monday it wants to increase its defense budget by 28%, putting it on track to reach the military spending target 2% of gross domestic product set by the NATO alliance, which the Scandinavian country is preparing to join. “We are in the most serious security policy situation since the end of World War II, which requires Sweden to have a defense that is ready to protect Swedish territory,” defense minister Pål Jonson said. Unveiling a defense bill for 2024, Sweden’s center-right coalition government said military spending would increase by a total of 27
September 11, 2023The Ukrainian military said Monday that it recaptured strategic gas and oil drilling platforms from Russia in the Black Sea and claimed gains in occupied areas near Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine left in ruins after the war’s longest and deadliest fighting. The recapture of the so-called Boyko Towers platforms provides an energy source and takes back an asset that Russia seized in 2015 and used to launch helicopters, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said. “Russia has been deprived of the ability to fully control the waters of the Black Sea, and this makes Ukraine many
September 11, 2023Stellantis is reporting progress in talks with the United Auto Workers union with just three days left before contracts expire with Detroit’s three automakers. Tobin Williams, head of human resources for North America, told employees in an email that the union made counteroffer to its economic proposal on Sunday. Stellantis released no details of its offer Monday. He also says both sides have reached agreement in a number of areas including health and safety. “There was good energy among both teams and great momentum to reach an agreement as we head into the final days before the
September 11, 2023NATO Deputy-General Secretary Mircea Geoana said on Monday there is “no risk” that Alliance member Romania will be dragged into a war following the recent discovery of drone fragments on its territory near the border with war-torn Ukraine. “The most important thing is to re-confirm the fact that there is no indication of a deliberate action (by Russia) to strike Romanian territory and therefore NATO territory,” Geoana told journalists during a visit to a school near Romania’s capital, Bucharest. The NATO deputy chief’s comments come days after Romanian authorities have twice confirmed the discovery of drone
September 11, 2023Hostess, the maker of snack classics like Twinkies and HoHos, is being sold to J.M. Smucker in a cash-and-stock deal worth about $5.6 billion. Smucker, which makes everything from coffee to peanut butter and jelly, will pay $34.25 per share in cash and stock, and it will also pick up approximately $900 million in net debt. Hostess Brands Inc. shareholders will receive $30 in cash and 0.03002 shares of The J.M. Smucker Co. stock for each share of stock that they own. “We believe this is the right partnership to accelerate growth and create meaningful value for consumers, customers and
September 11, 2023A major rescue operation is underway in Turkey’s Taurus Mountains to bring out an American researcher who fell seriously ill nine days ago at a depth of some 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) from the entrance of one of the world’s deepest caves. An experienced cave rescuer himself, Mark Dickey is being assisted by teams of international rescuers who by Monday had brought him to 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) from the surface. Here’s what to know about the caver and the rescue operation: WHAT HAPPENED? Dickey, a 40-year-old accomplished cave explorer from Croton-on-Hudson, New York, was
September 11, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan has plunged the country into nine months of unrest and exposed bitter divisions within Israeli society. On Tuesday, the country’s gaze shifts from the streets to the courtroom, where a panel of Supreme Court judges will deliberate over the very laws meant to curtail their power. Israel’s High Court is to hear the first of three flashpoint cases in the coming weeks, all dealing with the legality of the overhaul. Netanyahu unveiled the plan early this year, saying the country’s unelected judges hold too much power over parliament. He
September 11, 2023The British scientist who led the team that cloned Dolly the Sheep in 1996 has died at age 79
September 11, 2023The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant says it has safely completed the first release of treated radioactive water from the plant into the sea and will inspect and clean the facility before starting the second round in a few weeks
September 11, 2023A major rescue operation in Turkey’s Taurus Mountains has brought out an American researcher who fell seriously ill nine days ago, about 3,000 feet from the entrance of one of world’s deepest caves
September 11, 2023Russia’s Central Election Commission said Monday that the country’s ruling party won the most votes in elections held in occupied Ukrainian regions as Russian authorities attempt to tighten their grip on territories Moscow illegally annexed a year ago and still does not fully control. Voting for Russia-installed legislatures began last week . According to the Central Election Commission, lawmakers from the ruling party, United Russia, came out on top in the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed illegally in 2022 — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — and on the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. Balloting in the
September 11, 2023Hurricane Lee whipped up waves of more than 15 feet (5 meters) on Monday as the Category 3 storm cranked through open waters just north of the Caribbean region. The storm is not expected to make landfall this week, although forecasters said those in New England and nearby areas should keep a close eye on Lee, whose future path is uncertain. It was located some 340 miles (545 kilometers) north of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 120 mph (195 kph) and was moving northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).
September 11, 2023Authorities searched Monday for an escaped murderer who has eluded capture since breaking out of a southeastern Pennsylvania prison a week and a half ago after they said over the weekend he slipped out of the search area, changed his appearance, stole a dairy delivery van and tried to contact acquaintances. Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police said Sunday that Danelo Souza Cavalcante stole the unlocked van, which had the keys inside, sometime Saturday night about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) from the northern perimeter of the search area where hundreds of
September 11, 2023Moroccan soldiers and aid teams in trucks and helicopters battled Monday to reach remote mountain towns devastated by a monstrous earthquake that killed more than 2,400 people, with survivors desperate for help to find loved ones feared trapped under the rubble. Moroccan officials have so far accepted government-offered aid from just four countries — Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates — and some foreign aid teams said they were awaiting permission to deploy. Morocco’s Interior Ministry says officials want to avoid a lack of coordination that “would be counterproductive.” The United Nations estimates that
September 11, 2023Authorities in eastern Libya declared the city of Derna a disaster zone Monday after the Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods over the weekend in different parts of the North African nation. At least seven people were reported dead Monday in an initial tally in the coastal town of Susa in northeastern Libya, according to the Ambulance and Emergency Authority, and one other person was confirmed dead Sunday. The man was stuck in his car and surrounded by floods in the eastern town of Marj, according to Walid al-Arfi, spokesperson for the government-run emergency response agency in
September 11, 2023India and Saudi Arabia agreed Monday to expand trade and security ties, two days after their leaders and others attending a Group of 20 summit announced a new railways and port corridor deal that will link India, Middle East and Europe. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in New Delhi and chaired a meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council. The two leaders discussed issues ranging from energy security, trade and investment to defense, health care and food security, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. The
September 11, 2023The European Union has lowered its forecast for economic growth this year and next, saying inflation is taking a heavy toll on people’s willingness to spend in shops — while higher interest rates are sharply restricting the credit needed for investment and purchases. The revised forecast Monday from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, comes as fears of recession grow and as the European Central Bank faces a key decision this week on whether to keep raising rates, which are aimed at getting inflation under control. The 20 countries that use the euro currency are
September 11, 2023A North Korean train presumably carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has departed for Russia for a possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korean media said Monday. Citing unidentified South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the train likely left the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Sunday evening and that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as Tuesday. The Yonhap news agency and some other media published similar reports. Japan’s Kyodo news agency cited Russian officials as saying that Kim was possibly heading for Russia in his
September 11, 2023The former CEO of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang, resigned as head of its cloud computing unit Monday in a surprise move as the Chinese e-commerce empire wraps up a leadership reshuffle. Alibaba said it will invest $1 billion in a technology fund Zhang will establish to support the firm’s strategies for future growth. Zhang stepped down on the same day he gave up his roles as Alibaba’s CEO and chairman. In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Alibaba said that Eddie Wu, its new CEO, will also head its cloud unit. Wu and Alibaba’s new
September 11, 2023An explosion and fire at an Archer Daniels Midland facility in Illinois injured eight employees and sent a tower of smoke into the air Sunday evening, officials said Monday. The explosion occurred shortly after 7 p.m. at the east plant in the ADM processing complex in Decatur, Illinois. Several employees were injured and transported to a hospital, the agricultural company said in a statement on its website Sunday. Battalion Chief Wade Watson with the Decatur Fire Department said in a statement Monday morning that eight ADM workers were injured, and six of them were taken from
September 11, 2023Thailand’s new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin vowed to act quickly to relieve the country’s economic problems in his inaugural speech to Parliament on Monday, following four months of political uncertainty while parliamentarians were unable to agree on a government. Srettha entered politics after a career as a major real estate develope r, and his government is facing high expectations and pressing demands to address a range of economic, political, social and environmental problems in its four-year term. Thailand’s economy has slumped after the COVID-19 pandemic all but crippled its lucrative tourism industry. Public debt rose to more
September 11, 2023Stock prices were mostly higher in Asia on Monday as investors awaited U.S. inflation figures and China’s latest economic data. Benchmarks fell in Hong Kong and Tokyo but rose in Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul. A surge in oil prices has added to worries that inflation may not be waning as hoped in the U.S and other major economies. That could lead the Federal Reserve and other central banks to keep interest rates higher for longer, which would hurt prices for shares and other investments. Over the weekend, China reported a slight increase in its own inflation data, suggesting deflationary pressures
September 11, 2023Ambulance and fire truck sirens wailed outside as Elsie Rosales stripped linens from king-sized mattresses at a beachfront resort in Lahaina. She tried to focus on the work, but was beset by dread: Had a wildfire taken the home she scrimped to buy on a housekeeper’s wages? It had. And now Rosales, like many other Filipino housekeepers used to cleaning hotels, is living in one with her family, a poignant example of how the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century has afflicted Maui’s heavily Filipino population. “All our hard work burned,” Rosales told The
September 11, 2023Americans are looking back on the horror and legacy of 9/11, gathering Monday at memorials, firehouses, city halls and elsewhere to observe the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil. Commemorations stretch from the attack sites — at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania — to Alaska and beyond. President Joe Biden is due at a ceremony on a military base in Anchorage. His visit, en route to Washington, D.C., from a trip to India and Vietnam, is a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every
September 11, 2023An earthquake has sown destruction and devastation in Morocco
September 11, 2023Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, began erupting Sunday after a two-month pause, displaying glowing lava that is a safe distance from people and structures in a national park on the Big Island. The Hawaii Volcano Observatory said the eruption was observed in the afternoon at the summit of Kilauea. The observatory said gases released by the eruption will cause volcanic smog downwind of Kilauea. People living near the park should try to avoid volcanic particles spewed into the air by the eruption, the observatory said. The volcano’s alert level was raised to
September 11, 2023Xinyu Wen traveled to Thailand in June, planning a two-week vacation around Bangkok’s Pride parade. Instead, the 28-year-old stayed a month and a half, as her experience at the parade gave rise to discussions and discoveries in the Thai capital’s thriving LBGTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ people from China, frequently scorned and ostracized at home, are coming to Thailand in droves, drawn by the freedom to be themselves. When Wen walked along the parade on the streets in Bangkok, “I felt like I was in a big party or a huge amusement park. We could forget all upsetting things
September 11, 2023A Southern California school district will pay $2.25 million to settle the latest lawsuit involving a teacher who became pregnant by one of at least two students she was accused of sexually abusing. The settlement brings to $8.25 million the amount paid by Redlands Unified School District to Laura Whitehurst’s victims since her 2013 arrest, the Southern California News Group reported Sunday. In August 2016, the district agreed to pay $6 million to a former student who impregnated Whitehust while she was his teacher. The latest lawsuit was filed in 2021 by another former student who
September 10, 2023A pit bull puppy that California police believe got into its owners’ fentanyl stash was administered an overdose-reversing drug and is recovering, officials said. The dog’s owners, a man and a woman, were arrested and could face charges including drug possession and animal cruelty, according to the Irvine Police Department. The incident began with a “consensual” encounter between the couple and police on Wednesday outside a Walmart, department spokesman Kyle Oldoerp said. After officers discovered fentanyl in their car, the two were arrested, he said. “Then the female said, ‘Oh, I think my dog is overdosing,’
September 10, 2023Federal inspectors said they found an alarming number of defects in the locomotives and railcars Union Pacific was using at the world’s largest railyard in western Nebraska this summer, and the railroad was reluctant to fix the problems. Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose wrote a letter to UP’s top three executives Friday expressing his concern that the defects represent a “significant risk to rail safety ” on the Union Pacific railroad. Bose said the 19.93% defect rate on rail cars and the 72.69% rate for locomotives that inspectors found in July and August are both twice
September 10, 2023A historic heat wave continues to stifle Phoenix — but the end may finally be in sight for residents of Arizona’s largest city. The high temperature in Phoenix on Sunday was expected to hit 111 degrees Fahrenheit (43.8 degrees Celsius), tying the record for that date set in 1990. It also would be the 55th day this year that the official reading at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport reached at least 110 F (43.3 C). However, an excessive heat warning was expected to expire at 8 p.m. Sunday, and meteorologists were forecasting a high of 106 F (41.1
September 10, 2023It’s lunchtime at the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District and a colony of sabethes cyaneus — also known as the paddle-legged beauty for its feathery appendages and iridescent coloring — find their way to Ella Branham. “They’re not very aggressive and they’re kind of picky eaters,” said Branham, a technician, as she exhaled into a glass tank to attract the insects to the carbon dioxide in her breath. “So I’ll be feeding them with my arm.” Branham had volunteered to let the South American mosquitoes feed on her blood so they can produce eggs
September 10, 2023Eleven lighthouse enthusiasts were hurt when a walkway collapsed, sending people tumbling into mudflats below during an annual event that encourages tours of Maine’s beloved beacons. The wooden walkway collapsed at Doubling Point Lighthouse in Arrowsic on Saturday afternoon. The lighthouse was open to the public as part of Maine Open Lighthouse Day, which is a day when the state’s scenic lighthouses are open to the public. Five of the 11 injured people were taken to hospitals, said Bath Fire Department Deputy Chief Chris Cummings. The collapse of the bridge happened at low tide and caused
September 10, 2023Authorities say an escaped murderer who has eluded capture since breaking out of a southeastern Pennsylvania prison a week and a half ago has apparently slipped out of the search area, changed his appearance and is now being sought in a stolen vehicle. Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement on Sunday that Danelo Souza Cavalcante was seen overnight near Phoenixville in northern Chester County, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of the area that until now has been the focus of the search. Cavalcante is now clean-shaven and wearing a yellow or green hooded
September 10, 2023Niger’s new military leaders accused France of amassing forces for a possible military intervention in the country following the coup in July. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that he would only take action at the demand of deposed Nigerien leader Mohamed Bazoum. Niger’s junta spokesman, Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said that France is also considering collaborating in such an intervention with the Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc known as ECOWAS. “France continues to deploy its forces in several ECOWAS countries as part of preparations for an aggression against Niger,” Abdramane said late
September 10, 2023Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chastised China’s premier on Sunday for “unacceptable” interference in British democracy, after a newspaper reported that a researcher in Parliament was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of spying for Beijing. Sunak said he raised the issue with Premier LI Qiang when the two met at a Group of 20 summit in India. He told British broadcasters in New Delhi that he’d expressed “my very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable.” The two men met after the Metropolitan Police force confirmed that a man in his
September 10, 2023Sri Lanka’s president said Sunday he will appoint a committee chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate allegations made in a British television report that the South Asian country’s intelligence was complicit in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people. The attacks, which included simultaneous suicide bombings, targeted three churches and three tourist hotels. The dead included 42 foreigners from 14 countries. President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision to appoint a committee headed by a judge to investigate claims that Sri Lankan intelligence had a hand in the bombings that were carried out
September 10, 2023Rescue teams on Sunday in Turkey successfully carried an American researcher up from the depth of a cave at 1,040 meters (3,410 feet) to the 700-meter (2,297 feet) mark where he will rest at a base camp before they continue the taxing journey to the surface. An experienced caver, Mark Dickey, 40, started vomiting on Sept. 2 because of stomach bleeding while on an expedition with a handful of others in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains, one of the deepest in the world, according to experts. A rescue operation began Saturday afternoon
September 10, 2023Two foreign aid workers were reportedly killed in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as Russian shelling hit a van carrying a team of four working with a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization, while dozens of Russian drones targeted Kyiv and wounded at least one civilian. The four volunteers from the Road to Relief group, which helps evacuate wounded people from front-line areas, were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar, the organization said on its Instagram page. Road to Relief said that Anthony Ihnat
September 10, 2023Local elections kicked off in Russia this weekend in 79 regions, with voters are casting their ballots for governors, regional legislatures, city and municipal councils. Russian authorities are also holding local elections in the four regions of Ukraine that Moscow annexed illegally last year — the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia provinces. Voting for federal and local legislators is also underway on the Crimean peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. Balloting in the occupied areas of Ukraine has been denounced by Kyiv and the West as a sham and a violation of international law. In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s
September 10, 2023India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted his country as well-placed to bridge gaps in the Group of 20 top economies and solve global problems, but many were skeptical ahead of the weekend’s summit given grave divisions within the bloc over the Russia’s war in Ukraine. He was able to dispel those doubts, announcing a unanimous final agreement a day before the G20 summit ended Sunday that included language on the European war which both Russia and China signed off on. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the group agreed to a “very strong” message. German Chancellor
September 10, 2023Thousands of soldiers from the United States, Indonesia, Australia and other allied forces demonstrated their armor capabilities on Sunday in combat drills on the Indonesian island of Java at a time of increased Chinese aggression in the region. President Joe Biden’s administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to reassure allies alarmed by Beijing’s increasingly provocative actions in the disputed South China Sea, which has become a battleground for U.S-Chinese rivalries. During the drills, Australian forces deployed five M1A1 Abrams battle tanks and the Indonesian military, deployed two Leopard-2 tanks for
September 10, 2023A drone attack Sunday on an open market south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, killed at least 23 people, activists and medical workers said, as the military and a powerful paramilitary group battle for control of the country. At least three dozen others were injured in the attack in Khartoum’s May neighborhood, according to an activist group known as the Resistance Committees and two health care workers at the Bashair University Hospital, where the casualties were treated. The activist group posted footage on social media showing bodies wrapped in white sheets in an open yard at the
September 10, 2023Morocco worked Sunday to rescue survivors and prayed for victims of the country’s strongest earthquake in more than a century, while soldiers and aid workers brought water and supplies to mountain villages in ruins. More than 2,000 people are dead — a number that is expected to rise. Those left homeless by the destruction of Friday night’s earthquake slept outside Saturday, in the streets of the ancient city of Marrakech or under makeshift canopies in Atlas Mountain towns like Moulay Brahim, among the hardest-hit. The worst destruction is in small, rural communities that are hard for
September 10, 2023In an unprecedented move, the Vatican on Sunday is beatifying a Polish family of nine — a married couple and their small children — who were executed by the Nazis during World War II for sheltering Jews. Last year, Pope Francis pronounced the deeply Catholic Ulma family, including the child that Wiktoria Ulma was pregnant with, martyrs for the faith, paving the way for the beatification Mass that is taking place in their home village of Markowa, in southeastern Poland. The Ulmas were killed at home by German Nazi troops and by Nazi-controlled local police in
September 10, 2023Voters in a southern Swiss region on Sunday rejected a plan to allow large solar parks on their sun-baked Alpine mountainsides as part of the federal government’s push to develop renewable energy sources. The referendum in the Valais canton centered on economic and environmental interests at a time of high and rising concerns about climate change. The canton wrote on its official website that 53.94% voted against the proposal. Turnout was 35.72%. The vote was a noteworthy test of public opinion. “Not-in-my-backyard”-style opposition to the plan over a presumed blight on bucolic Swiss mountain vistas had made
September 10, 2023As young children went back to school across Sweden last month, many of their teachers were putting a new emphasis on printed books, quiet reading time and handwriting practice and devoting less time to tablets, independent online research and keyboarding skills. The return to more traditional ways of learning is a response to politicians and experts questioning whether the country’s hyper-digitalized approach to education, including the introduction of tablets in nursery schools, had led to a decline in basic skills. Swedish Minister for Schools Lotta Edholm, who took office 11 months ago as part of a new
September 10, 2023Afghanistan is the world’s fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, a report from the United Nations drug agency said Sunday. The country is also a major opium producer and heroin source, even though the Taliban declared a war on narcotics after they returned to power in August 2021. The United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crimes, which published the report, said meth in Afghanistan is mostly made from legally available substances or extracted from the ephedra plant, which grows in the wild. The report called Afghanistan’s meth manufacturing a growing threat to national and regional health and security because
September 10, 2023The ground shook with a force few had ever felt, thundering through the remote Moroccan village in the dark of night. When the earthquake was over late Friday, the town carved into the Atlas Mountains lay in devastation — possibly dozens dead, scores of homes crumpled and walls reduced to rubble. Soon crews were listening for desperate sounds of life within the ruins of Moulay Brahim. A village of fewer than 3,000 people, Moulay Brahim attracts tourists and outdoor enthusiasts with its stunning vistas and proximity to Marrakech. Streets brimmed with small hotels and cafes
September 10, 2023G20 leaders paid their respects at a memorial site dedicated to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi on Sunday — a day after the forum added a new member and reached agreements on a range of issues but softened their language on Russia’s war in Ukraine. India, this year’s Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations host, ended the first day of the summit with diplomatic wins. As the first session began, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the group was adding the African Union as a member — part of the Indian leader’s drive
September 10, 2023After a year and a half of fighting in Ukraine, Russia needs to replenish its supplies of ammunition for what could be a long war of attrition. Along with ramping up its domestic arms production, Moscow is turning to an old ally with a vast arsenal — North Korea. Estimates say the reclusive and isolated Asian country has tens of millions of artillery shells and rockets that could give a huge boost to the Russian army. United States officials expect North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit Russia in the coming days to seal a possible deal on munitions
September 10, 2023Redshirt freshman Hudson Clement caught three of Garrett Greene’s career-high four touchdown passes in his first college game and West Virginia withstood a nearly two-hour weather delay and its own early mistakes to beat Duquesne 56-17 Saturday night. West Virginia (1-1) bounced back from a blowout loss at Penn State with multiple long offensive plays that were lacking in the opener. In 2021, Clement set a West Virginia high school record at Martinsburg High when he scored eight touchdowns in the state title game. He never saw the field at West Virginia in 2022. On Saturday,
September 10, 2023How hot is it in Phoenix? In what has been the hottest summer ever measured, the sizzling city in the Sonoran Desert broke yet another record Saturday when temperatures topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius). It was the 54th day this year that the official reading at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport made the mark, eclipsing the previous record of 53 days set in 2020. Matt Salerno, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the hot streak could reach 55 days. “We do have one more day,” he said. An extreme heat warning remained in effect, with temperatures forecast
September 09, 2023Israeli security forces on Saturday killed a 16-year-old Palestinian in a confrontation in the southern occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest violence to roil the territory during one of the most violent stretches of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in nearly two decades. The death of Milad al-Rai brings to 185 the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far this year by Israeli fire, including over 30 youths under the age of 18. This year’s death toll in the West Bank and east Jerusalem has already overtaken that of 2022, which had been
September 09, 2023New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque will spur a legal fight but might also raise public awareness about gun violence, legal scholars and advocates said. “It’s going to be challenged. But she’s trying to move the debate,” Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount’s Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said after Lujan Grisham announced Friday that she was temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in her state’s largest city and surrounding Bernalillo County. The 30-day suspension, enacted as an emergency public health measure,
September 09, 2023Most of West Maui will officially reopen to travelers Oct. 8 under a new wildfire emergency proclamation signed on Friday by Hawaii Gov. Josh Green. Nonessential travel to much of the island’s western coastline has been strongly discouraged since devastating wildfires killed at least 115 people in the historic town of Lahaina last month. State tourism officials initially urged travelers to stay away from Maui so residents and agencies could focus on emergency response efforts and supporting those displaced by the fires. In mid-August, officials began encouraging tourists to return to other parts of Maui, avoiding the
September 09, 2023“Poor Things,” a film about Victorian-era female empowerment, won the Golden Lion on Saturday at a Venice Film Festival largely deprived of Hollywood glamour because of the writers and actors strikes. The film, starring Emma Stone, won the top prize at the 80th edition of the festival, which is often a predictor of Oscar glory. Receiving the award, director Yorgos Lanthimos said the film wouldn’t exist without Stone, who was also a producer but was not on the Lido for the festival. “This film is her, in front and behind the camera,” Lanthimos said. The film, based
September 09, 2023Hundreds of Pride activists gathered in the Serbian capital Saturday amid a heavy police presence and anti-gay messages sent by the country’s conservative leadership and far-right groups. Last year, the LGBTQ+ event was marred by skirmishes between the police and anti-Pride groups who believe the event goes against traditional Serbian Christian Orthodox values and should be banned. The participants of the march on Saturday held banners reading “We Are Not Even Close” — referring to the current status of the gay population is Serbia — as well as “Marriage” and “Queer Liberation not Rainbow Capitalism.” A
September 09, 2023Poland’s conservative governing party and the opposition showered potential voters with promises on Saturday as the country’s political parties revealed their campaign programs before the Oct. 15 parliamentary election. The nationalist ruling Law and Justice party, which took power in 2015, wants to win an unprecedented third term. The government’s tenure, however, has been marred with bitter clashes with the European Union over the government’s rule of law record and democratic backsliding. At a party convention, leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is Poland’s most powerful politician, made promises of new spending on social and military causes for
September 09, 2023Paris has rescinded a special honor it bestowed on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas because of his recent antisemitic comments minimizing the Holocaust. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo published a letter Friday saying that “your remarks run counter to universal values and the historical truth of the Holocaust.” Noting that tens of thousands of Jews were rounded up in Paris under the Nazi occupation and deported to death camps, Hidalgo said, “We condemn your comments with the utmost firmness. No cause can justify revisionism and negationism.” Hidalgo awarded Abbas the city’s highest honor, the Grand Bronze of Paris, in
September 09, 2023Rescue teams began the arduous process Saturday of extricating an American researcher who became seriously ill while he was 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) below the entrance of a cave in Turkey, an official from Turkey’s disaster management agency said. It could take days to bring Mark Dickey to the surface since rescuers anticipate he will have to stop and rest frequently at camps set up along the way as they pull his stretcher through the narrow passages. “This afternoon, the operation to move him from his camp at 1040 meters to the camp at 700 meters began,” the official from
September 09, 2023Police on Saturday reported two more confirmed sightings of an escaped murderer on the run for more than a week in southeast Pennsylvania amid a search by hundreds of law enforcement officers. Danelo Souza Cavalcante, 34, escaped from the Chester County Prison while awaiting transfer to state prison on Aug. 31 after being sentenced to life for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend in 2021. Prosecutors say he wanted to stop her from telling police that he’s wanted in a killing in his home country of Brazil. Authorities, who have described Cavalcante as extremely dangerous, didn’t release
September 09, 2023Another village near a major Greek city was ordered evacuated Saturday afternoon as authorities frantically shored up flood defenses against a rising river following torrential rain earlier in the week. Rescue crews were evacuating stranded residents from already flooded areas in the central region of Thessaly. The death toll still stood at 10, with four people missing. The village of Omorfochori, about 8 kilometers (5 kilometers) by road from the city of Larissa, Thessaly’s capital and largest city, was ordered evacuated by SMS alert due to the rising water of the Pineios river. Residents were directed
September 09, 2023Group of 20 leaders have agreed to triple renewable energy and try to increase the funds for climate change-related disasters but maintained the status quo with regards to phasing out carbon spewing coal
September 09, 2023Follow live updates of a deadly, powerful earthquake that struck Morocco: ALGERIA OFFERS TO OPEN ITS AIRSPACE Algeria has offered humanitarian aid to neighboring Morocco after a powerful earthquake in the kingdom on Friday night left more than 1,000 people dead. In an exceptional move, Algeria offered to open its airspace to allow eventual humanitarian aid or medical evacuation flights to travel to and from Morocco. Algeria closed the airspace when its government severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 over a series of issues. The countries have a decades-long dispute involving the territory of Western
September 09, 2023The racist motivations of the white shooter who targeted and fatally shot Black people in Jacksonville, Florida, two weeks ago have revived concerns about the threat of hate violence and domestic terrorism against African Americans. Most hate crime victims in the U.S. are Black, and that has been the case since the federal government began tracking such crimes decades ago. But national attention on the rate of Black victimization is heightened in the wake of mass casualty racist attacks, like those in recent years at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
September 09, 2023About 146,000 U.S. auto workers are set to go on strike this week if General Motors, Ford and Stellantis fail to meet their demands for big pay raises and the restoration of concessions the workers made years ago when the companies were in financial trouble. Shawn Fain, the combative president of the United Auto Workers union, has threatened to strike any of the three companies that hasn’t reached an agreement by the time its contract with the union expires at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. Both sides began exchanging wage and benefit proposals last week. Though some
September 09, 2023Lawmakers in Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway Armenian-populated region of Azerbaijan, voted to elect a new separatist president on Saturday in a move that was strongly condemned by the Azerbaijani authorities. Samvel Shakhramanyan’s election as the new president of Nagorno-Karabakh follows the resignation of Arayik Harutyunyan, who stepped down on Sept. 1 as president of the region — which the Armenians call Artsakh. It comes amid soaring tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry denounced the vote as a “gross violation” of the country’s constitution and a “serious blow to the efforts of normalization in the region.”
September 09, 2023The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure. But one thing Microsoft-backed OpenAI needed for its technology was plenty of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to cool a powerful supercomputer as it helped teach its AI systems how to mimic human writing. As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, leading tech developers including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an
September 09, 2023A former soldier who escaped from a London prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges was captured Saturday, police said. Daniel Abed Khalife was on the run four days before a massive search managed to nab him in Chiswick in west London. Khalife escaped on the bottom of a food delivery truck from Wandsworth Prison on Wednesday. The breakout ignited a storm of criticism as political opponents blamed the ruling Conservative party for incompetence. Khalife, 21, is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act by gathering information “that
September 09, 2023Several thousand climate activists blocked a Dutch highway on Saturday in anger at billions of euros in government subsidies for industries that use oil, coal and gas revealed in a report earlier this week. The protesters — from Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace and other organizations — broke through a police barrier and sat on a main road in The Hague heading to the temporary venue for the lower house of parliament. They threatened to stay until the subsidies are lifted, and to come back every day if the police remove them. The activists brandished signs with
September 09, 2023The United Nations atomic watchdog warned of a potential threat to nuclear safety due to a spike in fighting near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, whose forces continued pressing their counteroffensive on Saturday. The International Atomic Energy Agency said its experts deployed at the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant reported hearing numerous explosions over the past week, in a possible indication of increased military activity in the region. There was no damage to the plant. “I remain deeply concerned about the possible dangers facing the plant at this time of heightened military tension in
September 09, 2023The group of the world’s 20 leading economies is welcoming the African Union as a permanent member, a powerful acknowledgement of Africa as its more than 50 countries seek a more important role on the global stage. U.S. President Joe Biden called last year for the AU’s permanent membership in the G20, saying it’s been “a long time in coming.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the bloc was invited to join during the G20 summit his country is hosting this week. The African Union has advocated for full membership for seven years, spokesperson Ebba
September 09, 2023At the Ivangorod-Narva border crossing, the last glimpse of Russia is of a sprawling fortress and the first sight of Estonia is another fortress on the other bank of a slender river. They’re almost comically close: People with strong arms could have a game of catch between the ramparts. But the proximity is deceptive — the psychological distance between Estonia and Russia is immense and only widening. The countries that once were part of the Soviet Union took radically different paths after the USSR’s collapse. Estonia largely fulfilled the wish of its former President Toomas Hendrik
September 09, 2023During the 2020 census, Native American leaders across the U.S. invested time and resources to make sure their members were tallied during the head count, which determines political power and federal funding. But the detailed data sets from the 2020 census they will receive this month are more limited and less accurate than they were in the previous census — and it isn’t because the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited outreach efforts. Rather, it’s due to new privacy methods implemented by the U.S. Census Bureau in order to protect the confidentiality of participants, one of which
September 09, 2023North Korea invited visiting Chinese delegates and Russian artists to a paramilitary parade featuring rocket launchers pulled by trucks and tractors, state media said Saturday, in leader Kim Jong Un’s latest effort to display his ties with Moscow and Beijing in the face of deepening confrontations with Washington. The midnight parade in the capital, Pyongyang, which was to celebrate North Korea’s 75th founding anniversary, came amid expectations that Kim will travel to Russia soon for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that could focus on North Korean arm sales to refill reserves drained by the
September 09, 2023The African Union has been granted permanent member status in the Group of 20 top world economies, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday, adding momentum to his drive to give a greater voice to the Global South as host of this year’s annual summit. Modi addressed the delegates from behind a nameplate that listed his country not as India but as “Bharat,” an ancient Sanskrit name championed by his Hindu nationalist supporters. The announcement came as Modi opened the weekend summit of the G20, one that comes as growing global rifts and the absence of
September 09, 2023Delta Air Lines has learned that summer is a good time to prepare for winter — and how to de-ice planes so they can keep flying safely in freezing temperatures. Every summer, Delta brings about 400 workers to Minneapolis to a three-day summer de-ice “boot camp.” They go through computer-based training, watch demonstrations by instructors, and then practice spraying down a plane — using water instead of the chemicals found in de-icing fluid. The boot campers, who rotate through in groups of 10 or so, return to their home bases and train 6,000 co-workers before October, says
September 09, 2023The Trump Organization has sold its right to operate a public golf course in the Bronx, city officials confirmed, offloading control of the publicly-owned property to a company that is seeking to build a casino in New York City. Bally’s Corporation, a gaming and entertainment company, will take over the job of running the 18-hole course, known as Trump Golf Links Ferry Point, according to a spokesperson for the city’s comptroller. The terms of the lease transfer were not immediately available. The deal appeared to mark a resolution in the city’s battle to rid the course
September 08, 2023New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days in the midst of a spate of gun violence. The Democratic governor said she is expecting legal challenges but felt compelled to act in response to gun deaths, including the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy outside a minor league baseball stadium this week. The firearms suspension is tied to a threshold for violent crime rates that only the Albuquerque area currently meets. Police
September 08, 2023Phoenix is on the cusp of yet another heat record this summer after an additional day of 110-degree weather. The National Weather Service said the desert city on Friday saw 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) for the 53rd day this year, tying it with the record set in 2020. If Phoenix reaches 110 degrees or more as expected Saturday, it would mark a record 54 days in one year. An extreme heat warning is in effect for the entire weekend, with temperatures forecast as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 Celsius) on Saturday and 111 degrees Fahrenheit
September 08, 2023A powerful earthquake struck Morocco late Friday, damaging buildings in major cities and sending panicked people pouring into streets and alleyways from Rabat to Marrakech. There was no immediate word on any casualties, nor any reports from government officials on the tremor’s impact. Moroccans posted videos showing some buildings turned to rubble. Tourists and others posted videos of people evacuating restaurants in Marrakech as throbbing club music played. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m. Morocco’s National Seismic Monitoring and Alert Network measured it
September 08, 2023The number of people still missing following wildfires that destroyed the historic community of Lahaina a month ago has dropped to 66, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Friday, while the number of confirmed deaths remained at 115. The tally of the missing is now significantly lower than a week earlier, when authorities said 385 remained unaccounted for. The deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through Lahaina on Aug. 8, causing dozens of people to flee to the ocean to escape the flames, destroying more than 2,000 structures and doing an estimated $5.5 billion in
September 08, 2023After months of complaints from the Authors Guild and other groups, Amazon.com has started requiring writers who want to sell books through its e-book program to tell the company in advance that their work includes artificial intelligence material. The Authors Guild praised the new regulations, which were posted Wednesday, as a “welcome first step” toward deterring the proliferation of computer-generated books on the online retailer’s site. Many writers feared computer-generated books could crowd out traditional works and would be unfair to consumers who didn’t know they were buying AI content. In a statement posted on its
September 08, 2023California lawmakers on Friday voted to limit when local governments can count election ballots by hand, a move aimed at a rural Northern California county that canceled its contract with Dominion Voting Systems amid unfounded allegations of fraud pushed by former Republican President Donald Trump and his allies. Shasta County’s board of supervisors, which is controlled by a conservative majority, voted in January to get rid of the voting machines it used to tabulate hand-marked ballots for its roughly 111,000 registered voters. County supervisors said there was a loss of public confidence in the machines from
September 08, 2023Texas’ power grid has been under tremendous stress during this summer’s sweltering heat, with the state setting 10 new records for electricity demand. The grid’s reliability has been questioned by residents and lawmakers since a deadly winter blackout in 2021 knocked out power to millions of customers for days and resulted in hundreds of deaths. Concerns were renewed this week after Texas’ power grid manager issued an emergency alert due to low reserves and high demand. Following the alert, the U.S. Department of Energy granted an emergency order allowing Texas to temporarily suspend emissions rules so power
September 08, 2023Elon Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter has sued the state of California over a law requiring social media companies to publish their policies for removing offending material such as hate speech, misinformation and harassment. The first-of-its-kind legislation was signed into law a year ago by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In a lawsuit filed Friday against state Attorney General Robert Bonta, X Corp. challenged the “constitutionality and legal validity” of the law, saying it violates the First Amendment. Assembly bill 587 requires social media platforms to post their content moderation policies — which they already do — and
September 08, 2023As Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial neared the halfway point Friday, a former state lawman said he warned the Republican in 2020 that he was risking indictment by helping a donor under FBI investigation. Four days into the historic proceedings, Paxton continued to stay away from the trial in the Texas Senate that has put his embattled career on the line after being shadowed for years by criminal charges and allegations of corruption. He has pleaded not guilty to the articles of impeachment and his defense team has not yet had its turn to
September 08, 2023An engine on a United Airlines jet broke up over Denver in 2021 because of wear and tear on a fan blade that was not adequately inspected for signs of cracking, federal investigators said Friday. The National Transportation Safety Board said manufacturer Pratt & Whitney did not call for inspections to be done frequently enough, which allowed tiny cracks to grow undetected, until the fan blade broke. The NTSB said the design and testing of the engine inlet contributed to the severity of the situation, and other factors made the engine fire worse than it should have
September 08, 2023Ohio authorities on Friday released additional bodycam and surveillance footage of the events leading up to the death of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black mother fatally shot by police in a grocery store parking lot late last month. Young, who was suspected of shoplifting, was killed by a Blendon Township police officer who fired a single bullet into her windshield after she refused to leave her car and it started rolling toward him. Her unborn daughter did not survive. Young’s family members held a funeral for her on Thursday. They have called for the officer,
September 08, 2023The United Nations doubled down on its pledge to revive stalled negotiations over the disputed Western Sahara during a visit to the region this week in which its top negotiator met with officials on all sides before the release of a highly anticipated U.N. report next month. The visit was Staffan de Mistura’s first to the Western Sahara since he was appointed in 2021 to oversee U.N. efforts to guide negotiations that date back more than three decades. Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony in 1975, sparking a conflict with the pro-independence Polisario Front.
September 08, 2023The Federal Aviation Administration indicated Friday that it is moving toward requiring that planes be equipped with technology designed to prevent close calls around airports. Many new airline jets are equipped with some of this technology, but older ones are not, and neither are many private planes. The FAA asked an internal advisory panel to make recommendations on how to require systems that would alert pilots if they are lined up to land on the wrong runway or a taxiway, or when the runway they have chosen is too short. The FAA said the move is part of its effort
September 08, 2023The United Auto Workers union on Friday rejected wage and benefit offers from all three Detroit automakers, raising tensions just six days before a strike deadline for 146,000 employees. Union President Shawn Fain told workers in a Facebook Live appearance that he filed proposals from Ford, General Motors and Stellantis in a wastebasket. “The automakers have yet to offer our members a fair contract,” he said. Negotiations are continuing through the weekend, but Fain warned that if there aren’t agreements by 11:59 p.m. Thursday “there will be a strike at all three if need be.” On Friday,
September 08, 2023If you have watched a telecast involving basketball superstar LeBron James during the past 20 years, you probably have heard an announcer declare: “You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.” That sentiment sums up how Inflection.ai CEO Mustafa Suleyman feels about artificial intelligence — a technology that he helped advance as a co-founder of DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014. After leaving Google last year, Suleyman started Inflection with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman in an effort to create artificial intelligence, or AI, that won’t veer into racist, sexist or violent behavior. Inflection’s first proof point is
September 08, 2023Tunes from Dan & Shay and Vic Mensa plus a genre-blending Hulu series “The Other Black Girl” set inside the world of publishing are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a joyous season two of “Welcome to Wrexham,” “Barbie” can be bought for $30 and Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon return for season three of “The Morning Show.” NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — “Barbie” is finally coming to the small screen, giving audiences everywhere the freedom
September 08, 2023Travelers to Greece’s popular island destinations will face disruptions next week because of a 24-hour strike on Sept. 13 by ferry crews who cite safety and labor concerns. The PNO union said the decision was made Friday “on the occasion of the repulsive incident” this week in Greece’s main port of Piraeus, in which a tardy passenger drowned after being pushed into the sea by a ferry crew member. The union didn’t directly link the reasons for the strike with Tuesday’s drowning, which sparked anger and condemnation across Greece. A PNO statement deplored what it called
September 08, 2023A U.S.-backed Syrian force declared its operations in eastern Syria completed Friday after almost two weeks of fighting with local tribesmen left dozens of people dead. The Syrian Democratic Forces said the fighting ended with its recapture of areas in Deir el-Zour province that the Kurdish-led force had lost during the battles triggered by the militia’s arrest of a rival U.S.-backed commander. The clashes were among the worst in recent years in the region along the border with Iraq where hundreds of U.S. troops have been based since 2015 to help in the fight against the Islamic
September 08, 2023A former Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a driver who was sitting in his car turned himself in Friday morning and will now face murder charges in the fatal shooting. Former Officer Mark Dial surrendered on a criminal warrant and was scheduled to be arraigned later Friday. The district attorney said the charges against Dial include murder, official oppression and other counts. His attorney said the shooting was justified. The district attorney’s office also released police bodycam footage of the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry. It showed Dial firing his weapon through the driver’s
September 08, 2023U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged the Group of 20 top economic powers, which are responsible for more than 80% of the emissions that cause global warming, to use their weekend summit to send a strong message on climate change. Guterres said all licensing or funding for new fossil fuel projects should be stopped and that the G20 must keep the “1.5-degree goal alive,” referring to the 2015 Paris climate agreement that set 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as a global guardrail in atmospheric warming, with countries pledging to try to prevent that much
September 08, 2023Cuban authorities have arrested 17 people in connection with what they described as a network to recruit Cuban nationals to fight for Russia in Ukraine. The head of criminal investigations for Cuba’s Interior Ministry, César Rodríguez, said late Thursday on state media that at least three of the 17 arrested are part of recruitment efforts inside the island country. He did not identify the alleged members of the network but said they had previous criminal records. Some families started speaking up about the case on Friday, and at least one mother said that her son was promised
September 08, 2023Sanitation workers Thomas Noatak and Joseph Moses start every workday riding a four-wheeler along the muddy roads of this small Yup’ik village on southwestern Alaska’s vast Kuskokwim River, looking for human waste. They’re checking honey bucket bins — large steel containers where residents dump their waste at neighborhood collection points. When they find a bin full enough to warrant a trip to the dump site just outside town, they load it up and haul it nearly a mile over deeply potholed and rutted streets, hoping to do it without splashing. Many Alaska villages don’t have running
September 08, 2023One of the country’s top botanical gardens has been closed indefinitely after reports that an escaped murderer on the run in southeast Pennsylvania may have once again been spotted on the property. When Longwood Gardens closed Thursday night, people who remained on the property were told to shelter in place as law officers searched part of the site for fugitive Danelo Souza Cavalcante. The 34-year-old Brazilian man escaped from the Chester County Prison on Aug. 31 by scaling a wall, climbing over razor wire and jumping from a roof. There was a possible sighting of
September 08, 2023An employee of Germany’s foreign intelligence service and an acquaintance have been charged with treason for allegedly passing secret documents to Russia, prosecutors said Friday. The intelligence officer, who has been identified only as Carsten L. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in Berlin on Dec. 21 last year. The second suspect, a self-employed German businessman identified as Arthur E., was arrested at Munich airport on Jan. 22 as he arrived from the United States. Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said at the time of the first arrest that it brought in prosecutors immediately
September 08, 2023Lebanese judicial authorities have questioned two people at the request of Turkey on suspicion of being involved in the 2019 escape of auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon, officials said Friday. The recent questioning of the two men in Beirut came a week before a hearing in Lebanon about the $1 billion lawsuit that Ghosn, formerly the president of Nissan, filed against the company and about a dozen people in Beirut over his imprisonment in Japan and what he says is Fmisinformation spread against him. The officials said one of the two men who were
September 08, 2023A man who fatally shot a former girlfriend and her grandmother outside an Indiana automotive seating plant was sentenced to 110 years in prison by a judge who called the killings “brutal and heinous.” Gary Ferrell II, 28, had avoided a possible death sentence when he pleaded guilty in April to two counts of murder in the 2021 killings of Promise Mays, 21, and Pamela Sledd, 62. He was sentenced Thursday. The Rossville women had driven to NHK Seating of America in Frankfort together and were about to start their shift on Aug. 18, 2021, when
September 08, 2023The European Union’s executive branch strongly criticized the bloc’s representative in Austria for accusing the country of paying “blood money” to Russia for gas supplies and said Friday he has been ordered back to Brussels. EU representative Martin Selmayr said during an event on Wednesday that Austria continues to get 55% of its gas from Russia — but no one, he noted, is out on Vienna’s central Ringstrasse boulevard to protest that, the Austria Press Agency reported. “That surprises me, because blood money is being sent to Russia every day with the gas bill,” Selmayr said, according
September 08, 2023A series of fires hit railway infrastructure in the German city of Hamburg overnight, causing widespread disruption to trains between Hamburg and Berlin and between the port city and the Baltic Sea coast. Police said they suspect that the damage was politically motivated. Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said that trains on the main high-speed route between Hamburg and Berlin were canceled because of vandalism. It said it was running some trains on an alternative route that takes up to an hour longer. Long-distance trains between Hamburg and Rostock also were canceled. Deutsche Bahn said it likely would
September 08, 2023With gun salutes and tolling bells, Britain is marking the first anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the ascension of King Charles III, who remembered his mother as a symbol of stability during her 70-year reign. Charles and Queen Camilla are observing the anniversary at the family estate in Scotland and attended a service of remembrance at a small church nearby, where the late queen worshipped. “In marking the first anniversary of her late majesty’s death and my accession, we recall with great affection her long life, devoted service and all she meant to
September 08, 2023Severe rainstorms eased but floodwaters were still rising in parts of central Greece Friday, while fire department and military helicopters were plucking people from villages inundated by tons of water and mud that have left six dead, six missing and many people clinging to the roofs of their homes. Flooding triggered by rainstorms also hit neighboring Bulgaria and Turkey, killing a total of 18 people in all three countries since the rains began Tuesday. In Greece, severe rainstorms that lashed the country turned streams into raging torrents that burst dams, washed away roads and bridges and
September 08, 2023An American researcher who fell ill almost 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) below the entrance of a cave in Turkey, has recovered sufficiently enough to be extracted in an operation that could last three or four days, a Turkish official was quoted as saying on Friday. Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old experienced caver, became suddenly ill with stomach bleeding during an expedition with a handful of others in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains. Rescuers from across Europe have rushed to the cave for an operation to save him, including a Hungarian doctor, who
September 08, 2023A Russian missile attack Friday on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown in central Ukraine killed one policeman and injured at least 44 others, emergency officials said. It was among multiple Russian attacks across the country overnight, officials said. Ten buildings were damaged in the attack on Kryvyi Rih. Three of the people who were pulled out of the rubble were in serious condition, according to Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s minister of Internal Affairs. Photos posted by Klymenko on Telegram showed a building on fire and emergency services evacuating the injured. Three people were also injured in a Russian
September 08, 2023British police scoured a huge London park on Friday for an ex-soldier who escaped from prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges. The Metropolitan Police confirmed the search of Richmond Park in the city’s southwest, which involved two helicopters and officers on the ground, was connected to the hunt for Daniel Abed Khalife. The 21-year-old slipped out of Wandsworth Prison on Wednesday morning while working in the kitchen, apparently by clinging to the underside of a food-delivery truck, police said. Khalife is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets
September 08, 2023The discovery of drone debris on Romanian territory this week has left some local residents fearing that the war in neighboring Ukraine could spread into their country, as Russian forces bombard Ukrainian ports just across the Danube River from NATO-member Romania. Moscow aims to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to export grain to world markets with a sustained campaign of attacks targeting Ukrainian Danube ports, and has attacked the port of Izmail four times this week, Ukrainian officials say. Across from Izmail, pieces apparently from a drone were found near the Romanian village of Plauru, Romanian Defense Minister
September 08, 2023Clashes resumed in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, with heavy gunfire and shelling wounding several people and prompting residents of the camp and the surrounding area to flee on Friday. Several days of street battles had broken out in the camp, Ein el-Hilweh, between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and Islamist groups after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down one of their military generals on July 30. Those street battles left at least 13 dead and dozens wounded, and forced hundreds to flee from their homes. An uneasy truce had been in place since Aug.
September 08, 2023Shares fell Friday in Asia after Japan reported its economy grew less than earlier estimated in the last quarter. Oil prices declined, while U.S. futures edged higher. Japan, the world’s third largest economy, grew at a 4.8% annual pace in the April-June quarter, below the earlier estimate of 6% growth, according to data released Friday. Much of that growth was driven by exports, which rose nearly 13%, while private consumption fell 2.2% on weak investment spending. A separate report showed that wages declined in July for the 16th straight month, falling 2.5% from a year earlier. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index
September 08, 2023Rain pouring onto Hong Kong and southern China overnight flooded city streets and some subway stations, halting transportation and forcing schools to close Friday. Videos circulating on social media show flooded streets in Hong Kong and nearby Guangdong province, with vehicles driving through the water and rescue teams using rafts to navigate the streets. Water rushed down the stairs and escalators of a flooded underground subway station in Hong Kong, and cars were caught in muddy water on flooded streets, including in the cross-harbor tunnel that connects Hong Kong Island with Kowloon. The heavy downpours led
September 08, 2023It began with a dinner invitation. How it ends could affect more than a billion people. State-issued invites sent to guests of this week’s G20 meeting referred to India’s president, Droupadi Murmu, as “President of Bharat.” Suddenly, in many circles, the question was everywhere: Would the country of more than 1.4 billion now be called by its ancient Sanskrit name? Since then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s ministers, his Hindu nationalist supporters, Bollywood stars and cricketers have made similar public proclamations: India should officially be rebranded as Bharat. India is known by two names: India, used
September 08, 2023The maker of an extremely spicy tortilla chip said Thursday it is working to remove the product from stores as Massachusetts authorities investigate the death of a teen whose family pointed to the One Chip Challenge popularized as a dare on social media as a contributing factor. The cause of Harris Wolobah’s death on Sept. 1 has yet to be determined and an autopsy is pending, but the 14-year-old’s family blamed the challenge. Since his death, Texas-based manufacturer Paqui has asked retailers to stop selling the individually wrapped chips, a step 7-Eleven has already taken. A
September 08, 2023The impeachment trial that could remove Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from office over corruption allegations is near the halfway point. The historic proceedings, which continued Friday, began this week with testimony about an extramarital affair and the Republican’s former top aides testifying they felt compelled to report him to the FBI. Paxton, who is accused of bribery and abuse of office, skipped all of the early testimony. His wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, sat and listened to it all. The articles of impeachment center on allegations that Paxton improperly used the powers of his office
September 08, 2023It’s never been easy for the leaders of the world’s largest economies to find common ground, but the global ramifications of Russia’s war on Ukraine mean even greater challenges for meaningful agreement at the Group of 20 meeting this year. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this year’s host, has pledged not to let Ukraine overshadow the needs of the mostly developing nations in the so-called “ Global South,” but many of those issues are closely affected by the war. “New Delhi will not want to distract from the main agenda, which is to address issues of
September 08, 2023Russian authorities are holding local elections this weekend in occupied parts of Ukraine in an effort to tighten their grip on territories Moscow illegally annexed a year ago and still does not fully control. The voting for Russian-installed legislatures in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions begins Friday and concludes Sunday. It has already been denounced by Kyiv and the West. “It constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, which Russia continues to disregard,” the Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights body, said this week. Kyiv echoed that sentiment, with the parliament saying
September 08, 2023Women’s rights activists in Latin America have long looked to the United States as a model in their decades-long struggle to chip away at abortion restrictions in their highly religious countries. But after a historic Mexican Supreme Court ruling decriminalizing abortion on the federal level, some think U.S. activists should now turn to their counterparts south of the border as they navigate a post-Roe v. Wade reality. “In Mexico we have a lot of experience,” said Rebeca Ramos, a lawyer and director of GIRE, the organization behind the Mexican court case. “And given the current situation
September 08, 2023A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed Texas’ floating barrier on a section of the Rio Grande to stay in place for now, a day after a judge called the buoys a threat to the safety of migrants and relations between the U.S. and Mexico. The order by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts on hold a ruling that would have required Texas to move the wrecking-ball sized buoys on the river by next week. The barrier is near the Texas border city of Eagle Pass, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has authorized a
September 08, 2023Hong Kong on Friday closed schools and halted trading on the stock exchange as torrential rain lashed the city overnight, flooding streets in parts of the city as well as an underground subway station. Heavy rains poured down on the city from Thursday night, with the government warning that the weather would last till noon Friday. The Hong Kong Observatory said it recorded 158.1 mm (6.2 inches) of rain in the hour between 11 p.m. Thursday and midnight, the highest recording since records began in 1884. The highest “black” rainstorm warning, the first in nearly two
September 08, 2023Apple released a significant security update for iPhones and iPads Thursday to patch newly discovered security vulnerabilities in the devices’ system software. The issue was discovered by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who said the software flaw was being “actively exploited” to deliver commercial spyware called Pegasus developed and sold by the Israeli company NSO Group. Pegasus is an expensive tool typically used to target dissidents, journalists and political opponents, so ordinary users likely have little to fear. Still, Citizen Lab recommends that all users should “immediately” update their devices. To install the update, open Settings on
September 08, 2023An autopsy shows a bacterial infection and other factors caused the death of a 3-year-old girl on a bus carrying immigrants from Texas to Chicago last month, an Illinois coroner said Thursday. The bacterial infection and aspiration pneumonia along with diarrhea and vomiting led to electrolyte problems, swelling of the brain and eventually the Aug. 10 death of Jismary Alejandra Barboza González, Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon said. Her extremely low weight and length for her age were contributing factors in her death, he said. The child reportedly began experiencing mild symptoms and feeling ill as
September 08, 2023North Korea said Friday it has launched a purported nuclear attack submarine it has been developing for years, a step leader Kim Jong Un described as crucial in his efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy to counter the United States and its Asian allies. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the vessel – named “Hero Kim Kun Ok” – is designed to launch tactical nuclear weapons from underwater but did not specify the number of missiles it could carry and fire. In his speeches at the vessel’s launching ceremony on Wednesday and an
September 07, 2023Two attacks by Islamist insurgents in the restive north of Mali on Thursday killed 49 civilians and 15 government soldiers, according to a provisional death toll given by the country’s military junta read on state television. A passenger boat near the city of Timbuktu on the Niger river and a Malian military position in Bamba further downstream in the Gao region were targeted, according to the statement, which said the attacks have been claimed by Islamist extremist insurgent group JNIM, an umbrella coalition of armed groups aligned with al-Qaida. The Malian government announcement said its forces,
September 07, 2023Nearly 1,600 migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. will be relocated from Chicago police stations to winterized camps with massive tents under a plan by Mayor Brandon Johnson, according to a report released Thursday. The relocations will occur “before the weather begins to shift and change,” Johnson said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. The tents could hold up to 1,000 migrants, he said, and the camps would provide meals and recreational and educational programming. Sixteen city shelters now house 13,500 migrants, with more arriving every day, at a cost to the city of about $30
September 07, 2023Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has long denied corruption accusations that have dogged him for years. But as his impeachment trial gets underway, another defense is emerging: that fellow Republicans plotted to oust him. His attorneys have so far presented no evidence in the trial, which continued Thursday, that Paxton was the victim of an attempt to replace him. But as former aides give testimony about how Paxton pressured them to help a political donor who was under FBI investigation, Paxton’s attorneys have raised questions about lobbyists and a meeting at Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, and
September 07, 2023A town in Virginia has agreed to independent reviews of misconduct allegations against its police force to settle a lawsuit filed after a Black and Latino Army lieutenant was pepper sprayed during a traffic stop. The town of Windsor also agreed to more officer training as part of a settlement agreement signed Thursday. In exchange, the state Attorney General’s Office will drop its argument that Windsor police broke a new law by depriving Caron Nazario of his rights. Windsor agreed to keep working toward accreditation by the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission. Police also will
September 07, 2023The maker of an extremely spicy tortilla chip sold as the One Chip Challenge and popularized as a dare on social media is pulling the product after the family of a Massachusetts teenager blamed the stunt for his death. The cause of Harris Wolobah’s death last Friday hasn’t been determined and an autopsy was still pending as of Thursday, but the 14-year-old’s family blames the challenge. Since his death, the Texas-based manufacturer, Paqui, has asked retailers to stop selling the individually wrapped chips — a step 7-Eleven has already taken. The One Chip Challenge chip sells
September 07, 2023A state grand jury has charged a now-91-year-old disgraced priest with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1975, an extraordinary prosecution that could shed new light on what Roman Catholic Church leaders knew about a child sex abuse crisis that persisted for decades and claimed hundreds of victims. The priest, Lawrence Hecker, has been at the center of state and federal investigations of clergy sex abuse and a deepening scandal over why church leaders failed to report his admissions to law enforcement even as they permitted him to work around children until he quietly left the
September 07, 2023The construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border under former President Donald Trump toppled untold numbers of saguaro cactuses in Arizona, put endangered ocelots at risk in Texas and disturbed Native American burial grounds, the official congressional watchdog said Thursday. A report released by the Government Accountability Office offers the first independent assessment of damage caused by the building of more than 450 miles ( 724 km) of wall while in-depth environmental reviews were waived and the concerns of Native American tribes went largely ignored in the rush to finish the barrier. Now, U.S. Customs and
September 07, 2023Texas’ power grid manager on Thursday again asked residents to cut their electricity use as the state endures another stretch of sizzling summer heat. The request carried fresh urgency, coming the day after the system was pushed to the brink of outages for the first time since a deadly winter blackout in 2021. The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which serves most of the state’s 30 million residents, came a day after low energy reserves prompted the grid operator to issue a level 2 energy emergency alert. Operating reserves fell as demand surged amid
September 07, 2023Several thousand protesters supporting the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul rallied in front of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Thursday, before a pivotal hearing next week on the legality of the first major bill of the overhaul. The bill, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition passed in July, bans the Supreme Court from striking down government decisions it deems unreasonable. With leading politicians signaling they won’t respect a court decision striking down the law, the stage could be set for a constitutional crisis. The hearing is set for Tuesday, though a ruling is likely months away.
September 07, 2023A former top executive at the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange pleaded guilty Thursday to making tens of millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to U.S. politicians and engaging in a criminal conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business. Ryan Salame, the former co-chief executive of FTX Digital Markets, is the fourth high-ranking official at the company or its affiliates to plead guilty to criminal charges. Under a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to forfeit up to $1.55 billion in assets. He could also be called as a witness to testify at the trial of
September 07, 2023Belgium acknowledged Thursday that its major rail gateway, the Brussels Midi Station, has become a festering sore of drug abuse, poverty and violence that is a major stain on a nation preparing to take on the presidency of the European Union. The government vowed to tackle the problem, but some critics say action is coming way too late, while others say that any cleanup operation will only push the big-city problems to other neighborhoods. Belgium, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, with a major tourism industry, has neglected the once-stately Midi Station for decades. It
September 07, 2023Kosovo’s president on Thursday accused Serbian investigators of dragging their feet over an inquiry into attacks on NATO peacekeepers earlier this year in which dozens of troops and police officers were injured, some of them seriously. President Vjosa Osmani also called on European Union officials to refrain from showing any favoritism in talks next week aimed at improving Kosovo’s tense relations with Serbia. “Those who attacked NATO on the 29th of May are clearly known to law enforcement agencies,” she told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels after talks with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Video footage, Osmani said,
September 07, 2023Descendants of enslaved people who populate a tiny island community are once again fighting local officials who have proposed eliminating protections that for decades helped shield the Gullah-Geechee residents from high taxes and pressure to sell their land to developers. Residents of Hogg Hummock say they were stunned last month when McIntosh County commissioners unveiled a proposal to cast aside zoning ordinances that limit homes to modest sizes in the enclave of 30 to 50 Black residents on Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia. The rules were enacted in 1994 for the sole purpose of
September 07, 2023Richie Olsten has been in Maui’s helicopter tour business for a half century, so long he’s developed a barometer for the tourism-dependent economy: rental cars parked at the island’s airport. There are so many since wildfires killed 115 people in the historic town of Lahaina that Olsten is worried about a full-blown economic catastrophe. Restaurants and tour companies are laying off workers and unemployment is surging. State tourism officials, after initially urging travelers to stay away, are now asking them to come back, avoid the burn zone and help Maui recover by spending their money. Airlines
September 07, 2023One of three men accused of assisting a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer testified in his own defense Thursday, telling jurors that government-imposed restrictions during the pandemic were excessive. Eric Molitor, 39, and twin brothers William Null and Michael Null are charged with providing material support for terrorist acts and gun crimes in a 2020 scheme to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home in northern Michigan’s Antrim County. Molitor’s decision to testify was a rare move: In four trials so far in state and federal courts, only one other defendant has taken the witness stand. He was acquitted.
September 07, 2023Canada announced Wednesday that a judge would lead a public inquiry into whether China, Russia and other countries interfered in Canadian federal elections in 2019 and 2021 that re-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. Opposition Conservative lawmakers have demanded a full public inquiry into alleged Chinese interference since reports surfaced earlier this year citing intelligence sources saying China worked to support the Liberals and to defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing. The opposition New Democrat party later pushed to expand any inquiry to include Russia, Iran and India. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday that
September 07, 2023General Motors’ first wage-and-benefit offer to the United Auto Workers on Thursday fell far short of the union’s initial demands. The offer comes just a week before the UAW’s national contracts with GM, Stellantis and Ford expire, and even though both sides are far apart, it’s a sign of movement on economic issues. Still, union President Shawn Fain called the offer “insulting.” He is threatening to strike against any automaker that hasn’t reached a tentative agreement by the time contracts expire at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14. A strike against one or more automakers by up to
September 07, 2023Myanmar’s imprisoned former leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is suffering from symptoms of low blood pressure including dizziness and loss of appetite, but has been denied treatment at qualified facilities outside the prison system, a medical worker said Thursday. Suu Kyi, 78, who was arrested in February 2021 when the army seized power from her elected government, fell ill late last month, said the medical worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being punished by the military authorities. Separately, a military officer who also insisted on anonymity confirmed a report by the BBC’s
September 07, 2023Damien, age 5, was giddy with excitement as he left a Manhattan homeless shelter, sometimes running and skipping along the sidewalk accompanied by his wistful mother, a migrant from Ecuador. “What I want for him is a future,” Kimberly Carchipulla said in Spanish of her son, one of nearly 800,000 New York City public school students who headed off to class Thursday for their first day of the new school year. That is what school officials want, too, as the city’s classrooms work to accommodate nearly 20,000 migrant children newly arrived in the U.S. — a
September 07, 2023President Joe Biden will nominate a former Obama administration official to lead the Federal Aviation Administration after his first choice withdrew March after running into opposition from Republican senators. The White House said Thursday that Biden will nominate Michael G. Whitaker, a former deputy administrator at the FAA. He is currently the chief operating officer of a Hyundai affiliate working to develop an air taxi aircraft. Whitaker’s nomination had been expected for months, and Biden’s announcement was praised by several industry and labor groups. The FAA, which regulates airline safety and manages the nation’s airspace, has been run by back-to-back
September 07, 2023A wealthy Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for his role in a nearly $100 million stock market cheating scheme that relied on secret earnings information stolen through the hacking of U.S. computer networks. Vladislav Klyushin, who ran a Moscow-based information technology company that did work for the highest levels of the Russian government, was convicted in February of charges including wire fraud and securities fraud after a two-week trial in federal court in Boston. Authorities say he personally pocketed more than $33 million in the scheme, which
September 07, 2023A murderer who made a brazen escape from a suburban Philadelphia jail yard last week was still on the lam Thursday, but some schools that had closed due to the extensive manhunt planned to reopen, along with a tourist attraction that was shuttered when the escapee was spotted on its property. Danilo Souza Cavalcante, 34, escaped from the Chester County prison on Aug. 31. He scaled a wall, climbed over razor wire and jumped from a roof in a breakout that wasn’t detected by guards for a full hour, authorities have said. He has since
September 07, 2023Ta’Kiya Young treated her two little boys like kings, dressing them sharply, letting them have too many sweets, cooking them big gourmet meals of T-bone steak with broccoli, cheese and rice. The royal life also awaited her unborn daughter. When Young found out she was pregnant with her third child — a girl — she was thrilled. The 21-year-old Ohio mom and aspiring social worker bought a stack of adorable onesies in anticipation of the baby’s arrival. She scheduled a photo shoot to show off her baby bump. She applied for public housing and looked forward to the day when
September 07, 2023Japan’s prime minister said that China’s blanket ban on Japanese seafood in reaction to the release of treated radioactive water from a tsunami-ravaged nuclear power plant contrasts starkly with broad understanding shown by many other members of the international community. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s northeastern coast started releasing treated and diluted radioactive wastewater in late August into the Pacific Ocean. The release has been opposed by the Japanese fishing community, which is worried about the reputation of the fish it catches. China immediately banned all Japanese seafood. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told
September 07, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, long a proponent of cutting interest rates, now supports his advisers’ economic plan that includes raising rates, a member of his economic team said Thursday. In a theory that runs contrary to traditional economic thinking, Erdogan has long pressured Turkey’s central bank governors to lower rates. The move was blamed for inflaming a cost-of-living crisis in the country. After winning reelection in May, however, Erdogan appointed a new economic team, including two accomplished bankers, signaling a turn to more conventional policies. But questions have lingered over whether the team would retain
September 07, 2023A daughter of a long-detained human rights activist in Bahrain said Thursday she would return to the island nation to press for his release while he and hundreds of other inmates are on a major hunger strike and even though she could be imprisoned as well. The trip by Maryam al-Khawaja draws renewed attention to the plight of her 62-year-old ailing father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a dual Danish-Bahraini national convicted of internationally criticized terrorism charges and held in what a United Nations panel calls an “arbitrary” imprisonment ever since. It also raises the stakes of
September 07, 2023Online gig work is growing globally, particularly in the developing world, creating an important source of employment for women and young people in poorer countries where jobs are scarce, according to a World Bank report released Thursday. The report estimates the number of global online gig workers at as many as 435 million people and says demand for gig work increased 41% between 2016 and the first quarter of 2023. That boost is generating concern, though, among worker rights advocates about the lack of strong job protections in the gig economy, where people work job to job
September 07, 2023Online gig work is growing globally, particularly in the developing world, creating an important source of employment for women and young people in poorer countries where jobs are scarce, according to a World Bank report released Thursday. The report estimates the number of global online gig workers at as many as 435 million people and says demand for gig work increased 41% between 2016 and the first quarter of 2023. That boost is generating concern, though, among worker rights advocates about the lack of strong job protections in the gig economy, where people work job to job
September 07, 2023Online gig work is growing globally, particularly in the developing world, creating an important source of employment for women and young people in poorer countries where jobs are scarce, according to a World Bank report released Thursday. The report estimates the number of global online gig workers at as many as 435 million people and says demand for gig work increased 41% between 2016 and the first quarter of 2023. That boost is generating concern, though, among worker rights advocates about the lack of strong job protections in the gig economy, where people work job to job
September 07, 2023A Norwegian man using a metal detector has found nine pendants, three rings and 10 gold pearls someone might have worn as showy jewelry 1,500 years ago
September 07, 2023Google will soon require that political ads using artificial intelligence be accompanied by a prominent disclosure if imagery or sounds have been synthetically altered. Starting in November, just under a year before Election Day, Google said in an update to its political content policy that disclosure of AI to alter images must be clear and conspicuous and be located somewhere that users are likely to notice it. Though fake images, videos or audio clips are not new to political advertising, generative AI tools are making it easier to do, and more realistic. Some presidential campaigns in the 2024 race —
September 07, 2023Google will soon require that political ads using artificial intelligence be accompanied by a prominent disclosure if imagery or sounds have been synthetically altered. Starting in November, just under a year before Election Day, Google said in an update to its political content policy that disclosure of AI to alter images must be clear and conspicuous and be located somewhere that users are likely to notice it. Though fake images, videos or audio clips are not new to political advertising, generative AI tools are making it easier to do, and more realistic. Some presidential campaigns in the 2024 race —
September 07, 2023Google will soon require that political ads using artificial intelligence be accompanied by a prominent disclosure if imagery or sounds have been synthetically altered. Starting in November, just under a year before Election Day, Google said in an update to its political content policy that disclosure of AI to alter images must be clear and conspicuous and be located somewhere that users are likely to notice it. Though fake images, videos or audio clips are not new to political advertising, generative AI tools are making it easier to do, and more realistic. Some presidential campaigns in the 2024 race —
September 07, 2023Don’t rock the boat. A year after the death of Queen Elizabeth II triggered questions about the future of the British monarchy, King Charles III’s reign has been marked more by continuity than transformation, by changes in style rather than substance. Charles, who waited more than 70 years to ascend the throne, moved seamlessly into his new role, avoiding controversy and sidestepping major reforms despite questions about whether an unelected king can still represent the people of modern Britain. Most people seem to have shrugged off Charles’ occasional faux pas — most publicly when he threw a
September 07, 2023Over a thousand Syrian refugees each week fleeing to Lebanon from their country’s worsening economic and financial conditions “could create harsh imbalances” in the small Mediterranean nation, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned Thursday. Over the past months, thousands of Syrian citizens made it to Lebanon through illegal crossing points seeking a better life. But Lebanon is going through its own four-year meltdown, with a drowning economy pinning its hopes on tourism and crumbling infrastructure where electricity and water cuts are widespread. In the early years after conflict broke out in Syria in March 2011, Lebanon received
September 07, 2023Film director Agnieszka Holland demanded an apology from Poland’s justice minister after he compared her latest film, which explores the migration crisis at the Poland-Belarus border, to Nazi propaganda. Holland said Wednesday that she planned to bring defamation charges against Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro unless she receives an apology within seven days. She also demanded that he make a charitable donation of 50,000 Polish zlotys ($11,600) to an association that helps Holocaust survivors. Holland’s feature film, “Green Border,” explores a migration crisis that has played out along Poland’s border with Belarus over the past two years.
September 07, 2023Pets provide joy and companionship, but costs can add up quickly, especially if you’re a first-time owner and don’t know what to expect. Many prospective dog or cat owners only focus on the positive aspects of bringing a furry friend into their lives. And there are countless reasons why pets are great. But it’s also important to have realistic expectations so you don’t face sudden expenses that could hurt your financial stability. “It’s important to be able to choose a pet that is going to fit your budget and your lifestyle the best,” said Dr. Wendy
September 07, 2023Hurricane Lee whirled through open waters on Thursday as forecasters warned it could become the first Category 5 storm of the Atlantic season. Lee was not expected to make landfall while on a projected path that will take it near the northeast Caribbean, although forecasters said tropical storm conditions are possible on some islands. Meteorologists said it was too early to provide details on potential rainfall and wind gusts. The storm was located some 965 miles (1,555 kilometers) from the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 80 miles per hour (130
September 07, 2023Gabon’s ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who has been under house arrest since he was deposed last week, is free Thursday and can embark on a medical trip, the country’s new military leaders said. Ondimba is “free to move given his state of health,” Col. Ulrich Manfoumbi, spokesman for the transition committee, said on state television a day earlier. “He can, if he wishes, go abroad to carry out his medical checks.” The ousted president’s health was not immediately clear. He had suffered a stroke in late 2018 that kept him from his duties for months.
September 07, 2023More than 800 people have been rescued over the past two days from floods in Greece, the fire department said Thursday, after severe rainstorms turned streets into raging torrents, hurling cars into the sea and washing away roads. The rainstorms have also hit neighboring Bulgaria and Turkey, leaving 14 people dead in the three countries, including three people in Greece. Fire department spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis said swift water rescue specialists and divers from the department’s disaster response units, as well as the army, were participating in rescue efforts and were trying to reach remote areas despite
September 07, 2023A powerful Japanese entertainment company tarnished by sexual assault allegations against its late founder appointed one of its stars as its new president Thursday after the previous chief resigned and apologized for the abuse young clients suffered over decades. Julie Keiko Fujishima announced she was stepping down as president of Johnny & Associates, the talent agency founded by her late uncle, Johnny Kitagawa. She said the alleged sex abuse had really happened and that she would stay on the company’s board to see through a victim compensation program. “This is what my uncle committed, and as a
September 07, 2023Researchers have discovered new documentation that substantiates reports that Catholic convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered Jews during World War II, providing names of at least 3,200 Jews whose identities have been corroborated by the city’s Jewish community, officials said Thursday. Researchers from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust research institute and Rome’s Jewish community released the findings at an academic conference Thursday held at the Museum of the Shoah, part of Rome’s main synagogue. The documentation doesn’t appear to shed any new light on the role of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi occupation
September 07, 2023British police hunted across the country on Thursday and put ports and airports on alert for a former soldier who escaped from a London prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges. Opposition politicians demanded to know how Daniel Abed Khalife managed to slip out of medium-security Wandsworth Prison and why he was not being held at a maximum-security facility. Khalife, 21, is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act by gathering information “that could be useful to an enemy.” He was discharged from the British army after his
September 07, 2023Five drones were shot down over three Russian regions overnight, with one targeting the capital, officials said Thursday. There were reports of no casualties. Meanwhile, Russia launched a fourth day of air attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Izmail, located on the Danube river. Oleh Kiper, regional Governor of Odesa, said infrastructure was damaged in the attack, including grain silos, and one person was injured. The attack came one day after a Russian missile struck a busy market in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk, killing 17 and wounding at least 32. The attack overshadowed a two-day visit
September 07, 2023The United Nations chief renewed an urgent call to the international community Thursday to seek a unified strategy to end the worsening crisis in Myanmar. Secretary-General António Guterres said declining financial aid should be boosted to previous levels to enable the world body to respond to an “enormous tragedy.” He said the situation in Myanmar has further deteriorated since he met with ASEAN leaders in a 2022 summit, and again called on the crisis-wracked country’s military-installed government to immediately free all political prisoners and “open the door to a return to democratic rule.” Myanmar’s army seized
September 07, 2023Australia and China opened their first high-level dialogue in three years Thursday in a sign of a slight thaw to relations between countries that have clashed on everything from human rights to COVID-19 origins to trade. “I welcome the recent positive developments in the bilateral relationship, but we know that there is more work to do,” said Craig Emerson, the head of the Australian delegation and a former trade minister. The dialogue being held in Beijing will focus on trade, people-to-people links and security. China’s former Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said the two countries should work
September 07, 2023Three round-the-world sailors reached land safely Thursday after sharks nearly sank their catamaran in the Coral Sea. Both of the inflatable hulls on their 9-meter (30-foot) boat were damaged in several attacks by what were thought to be cookiecutter sharks — a small species not considered dangerous to people. Aerial photos of the men’s rescue showed major damage to the boat, which was nearly submerged and a front section of one hull was completely missing. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority coordinated the rescue of the two Russian and one French sailor after they activated an emergency
September 07, 2023Shares slipped Thursday in Asia as China reported weaker global demand hit its trade in August, adding to pressures on its economy. Oil prices and U.S. futures also fell. Hong Kong’s benchmark fell more than 1% and most other major regional markets also declined. China said its exports fell 8.8% in August from a year earlier, while imports were down 7.3%. The declines were smaller than the double-digit drops in July, however, and were better than most forecasts. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which has yoyoed this week on news about Chinese policy changes for the property sector, declined on selling
September 07, 2023A Mexican Supreme Court ruling that invalidated all federal criminal penalties for abortion continued a regional trend of widening access to the procedure, but left in place a patchwork of varying state restrictions. The high court ordered Wednesday that abortion be removed from the federal penal code, and will require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it. That will mean access for millions of Mexicans. The social security service and other federal institutions provide health care to most people who work in the formal economy.
September 07, 2023With the selection of former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum as the candidate of the country’s ruling party in next June’s election, Mexico will for the first time have time two women from its main political movements competing for the presidency. Sheinbaum, as well as the opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, have insisted that Mexico is ready to be led by a woman, but it will not be an easy path. On Wednesday night, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party announced that Sheinbaum had defeated five internal party rivals – all men. López Obrador has put
September 07, 2023India, the current president of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations, has proposed a global biofuel alliance that seeks to accelerate the development of sustainable biofuels to support the global energy transition. The alliance is likely to get an official announcement at the G-20 summit that opens this week in New Delhi, and it’s expected that more than 15 countries will sign up to be part of the alliance. The United States, Canada and Brazil are among a few of the countries expected to join India in such an alliance. WHAT ARE BIOFUELS? Any
September 07, 2023Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says his country is “becoming the voice of the Global South,” and that at the upcoming Group of 20 meetings being held in New Delhi, that voice will be heard. At the August summit of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — current chair South Africa declared its goal was to “advance the agenda of the Global South.” And ahead of this May’s summit of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies in Hiroshima, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stressed that the guest nations he had invited
September 07, 2023Ahead of India’s hosting of the G20 summit of leading economies, its prime minister invited 125 mostly developing countries to a virtual meeting in January to signal New Delhi’s intention to be their champion on the world stage. As the leaders logged onto Zoom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi listed major challenges he said could be better addressed if developing countries had a bigger share in the emerging global order: the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, terrorism, the war in Ukraine. “The world is in a state of crisis,” Modi said. “Most of the global challenges have not
September 07, 2023China’s exports declined at a slower pace in August, even as the world’s second-biggest economy remains under pressure from weaker demand both domestically and abroad. Exports for August slumped 8.8% from the same time last year, totaling $284.87 billion, and were slower than the 14.5% last month, according to customs data Thursday. Imports slid 7.3% from a year ago to $216.51 billion, but beat consensus estimates of a 9% decline. China’s trade surplus contracted 13.2% to $68.36 billion, lower than the $80.6 billion in July. Chinese leaders have in recent months rolled out several policy measures
September 07, 2023Lined up like soldiers guarding a nation’s treasures, dozens of shelves preserve an archive that gives account of a painful episode in Chile’s history: 47,000 instances of human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The documents were gathered between 1976 and 1992 by workers of the Vicariate of Solidarity, a human rights organization founded by Chilean Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez. Led by social workers, lawyers, archivists and physicians, it provided support to those harmed by the regime. “The archive gives an account of how the repression occurred,” said María Paz Vergara, executive secretary at
September 07, 2023The former mayor of Mexico City will be the dominant ruling party’s presidential candidate, moving the country closer to electing its first female president next year. The decision driven by polls of Morena party members means that Claudia Sheinbaum will run as the party’s candidate in the June election. Mexico’s constitution bars outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador from a second six-year term. Morena national council president Alfonso Durazo said Sheinbaum beat former Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard by double figures in five party surveys. Sheinbaum is a close ally of the popular López Obrador and
September 07, 2023Japan launched a rocket Thursday carrying an X-ray telescope that will explore the origins of the universe as well as a small lunar lander. The launch of the HII-A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan was shown on live video by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA. “We have a liftoff,” the narrator at JAXA said as the rocket flew up in a burst of smoke then flew over the Pacific. Thirteen minutes after the launch, the rocket put into orbit around Earth a satellite called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or
September 06, 2023South Dakota regulators on Wednesday denied a construction permit for a carbon dioxide pipeline project, one month after a North Dakota panel did the same to a similar project by another company. Navigator CO2 Ventures wants to build a 1,300-mile (2,092 kilometers) pipeline network across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, to carry planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 industrial plants to be buried over a mile underground in Illinois. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to deny Navigator’s application for its Heartland Greenway pipeline. Chair Kristie Fiegen cited myriad reasons in her motion to
September 06, 2023Phoenix, already the hottest large city in America, is poised to set yet another heat record this weekend while confirmed heat-associated deaths are on track for a record of their own. The National Weather Service says after a brief respite from the heat over the Labor Day holiday, the city is expected to break its previous record of 53 days of 110-degree Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) weather in a single year, set in 2020. Afternoon weekend highs will range between 108 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit (42.2-45 Celsius) across Arizona’s lower deserts. “Remember to stay hydrated and avoid sun
September 06, 2023The felony convictions of four Navy officers in one of the worst bribery cases in the maritime branch’s history were vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct Wednesday, the latest misstep in the government’s yearslong efforts in going after dozens of military officials tied to a defense contractor nicknamed Fat Leonard. U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino called the misconduct “outrageous” and agreed to allow the four men to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 fine each. The surprising turn of events occurred at a sentencing hearing in federal court in San Diego for the former
September 06, 2023Texas must move a large floating barrier that Gov. Greg Abbott placed on the river between the U.S. and Mexico this summer as part of the Republican’s escalating attempts to stop migrants from crossing America’s southern border, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge David Ezra stopped short of ordering Texas to dismantle the wrecking-ball sized buoys on the Rio Grande but called them a threat to safety and relationships between the neighboring countries. His preliminary injunction instructs Texas, for now, to move the barrier out of the water and onto the riverbank by Sept.
September 06, 2023Families perched atop houses pleading for help to escape the deadly flooding after a cyclone hammered southern Brazil, with the region’s governor calling it “an absolutely out of the ordinary event.” The world’s latest extreme weather disaster killed at least 31 people and left at least 1,600 homeless, authorities said Wednesday. The scope of the damage was enormous: Rio Grande do Sol Gov. Eduardo Leite said it was his state’s highest death toll from a climate event, with “entire cities that were completely compromised.” The toll included at least 15 bodies in a single house. Flooding also wracked Greece, Turkey
September 06, 2023Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide Wednesday, two years after ruling that abortion was not a crime in one northern state. That earlier ruling had set off a grinding process of decriminalizing abortion state by state. Last week, the central state of Aguascalientes became the 12th state to decriminalize the procedure. Judges in states that still criminalize abortion will have to take account of the top court’s ruling. The court’s sweeping decision Wednesday comes amid a trend in Latin America of loosening restrictions on abortion, even as access has been limited in parts of the United
September 06, 2023The U.S. on Wednesday announced it was sending depleted uranium anti-tank rounds to Ukraine, following Britain’s lead in sending the controversial munitions to help Kyiv push through Russian lines in its grueling counteroffensive. The 120 mm rounds will be used to arm the 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks the U.S. plans to deliver to Ukraine in the fall. Such armor-piercing rounds were developed by the U.S. during the Cold War to destroy Soviet tanks, including the same T-72 tanks that Ukraine now faces in its counteroffensive. Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process needed to
September 06, 2023Alex Murdaugh’s double murder case has been full of twists and turns: How did a dog crack the case? Where are the bloody clothes and weapons? And where did all the money Murdaugh is accused of stealing go? But one of the biggest surprises came on Tuesday, six months after Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and son. Murdaugh’s lawyers filed court papers saying he deserves a new trial because elected Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill allegedly tampered with the jury that found him guilty earlier this year. Prosecutors have 10 days to
September 06, 2023A high school football coach in Washington state who won his job back after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he could pray on the field resigned Wednesday after just one game back. Assistant Bremerton High School coach Joe Kennedy made the announcement on his website, citing several reasons, including that he needed to care for an ailing family member out of state. He had been living full-time in Florida, and before the first game last Friday he said he didn’t know if he’d continue coaching. “I believe I can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and
September 06, 2023A blast of late summer heat caused disruptions Wednesday for schools from Michigan to Virginia, with some districts dismissing students early and others holding classes online just days into the new academic year. While temperatures weren’t as high as last month’s triple-digit deadly heat wave, schools in states including Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey cited inadequate air conditioning in cutting days short. One Massachusetts district canceled two days of classes because of hot classrooms. Temperatures in the mid-90s also led to online learning in Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Only 20% of public schools in Detroit, where the temperature reached 89
September 06, 2023A Victorian-style silver snake bangle Freddie Mercury wore with an ivory satin catsuit in the “Bohemian Rhapsody” video sold for the highest price ever paid for a piece of jewelry owned by a rock star, Sotheby’s said Wednesday. The bracelet went for 698,500 pounds ($881,000) — 100 times its estimated low price — as the late Queen star’s most prized possessions, including flamboyant stage costumes, handwritten drafts to hits such as “We are the Champions” and the baby grand piano he composed Queen’s greatest hits on went up for sale. It broke a record set when John
September 06, 2023West Virginia University faculty approved a symbolic motion on Wednesday expressing no confidence in President E. Gordon Gee as the university addresses a $45 million budget shortfall. The university is struggling with the financial toll of dwindling enrollment, revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing debt load for new building projects. The budget shortfall is projected to grow as high as $75 million in five years. The faculty resolution on Gee said what it called his administration’s poor planning, faulty decision making and financial mismanagement has significantly contributed to the crisis. It called into
September 06, 2023Thirty-six states and the District of Colombia have reached an agreement in principle with Google to settle a lawsuit filed in 2021 over the tech giant’s alleged monopolistic control of app distribution for the software that runs most of the world’s cellphones. The agreement, cited in a court filing late Tuesday by both sides, is subject to approval by the state attorneys general and the board of directors of Google’s parent company, the execution of an agreement and court approval. Terms of the temporary agreement bar the parties from disclosing its details for now, according to the Utah attorney general’s
September 06, 2023The Russian missile that struck Wednesday in eastern Ukraine turned an outdoor market into a fiery, blackened ruin where weeping civilians looked for loved ones among the mangled, burned bodies scattered across the ground. The blast in the town of Kostiantynivka killed 17 people and wounded at least 32 in one of Russia’s deadliest strikes in months, Ukrainian officials said. “There was no military target here. This is a peaceful neighborhood in the city center,” Stefan Slovak, who lives in Kostiantynivka, said in a trembling voice. Behind him were the remnants of the market, where charred
September 06, 2023The head of the United Auto Workers warned Wednesday that the union plans to go on strike against any Detroit automaker that hasn’t reached a new agreement by the time contracts expire next week. “That’s the plan,” President Shawn Fain responded when asked if the union would strike any of the companies that haven’t reached a tentative deal by the time their national contracts end. A strike against all three major automakers — General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — could cause damage not only to the industry as a whole but also to the Midwest economy, and
September 06, 2023Delta Air Lines says it’s bringing former star quarterback Tom Brady on board as a “long-term strategic adviser.” Brady is a seven-time Super Bowl winner for the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “Bringing a leader like Tom onto the Delta team furthers our mission to connect the world while accelerating our drive to continuously improve for our colleagues, customers and communities,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a news release announcing the partnership. Delta did not disclose how much it is paying Brady. Delta said Brady will play a role in marketing and help the
September 06, 2023WeWork said Wednesday it will attempt to renegotiate nearly all of its leases and may exit some properties, an announcement coming just weeks after the workspace-sharing company sounded the alarm over its ability to remain in business. The New York company must reduce its operating costs — notably its current lease liabilities, which “remain too high and are dramatically out of step with current market conditions,” WeWork Interim CEO David Tolley said in a statement published on the company’s website. WeWork’s lease liabilities accounted for more than two-thirds of its operating expenses for the second quarter
September 06, 2023Meta lost a legal battle Wednesday to halt a Norwegian ban on its advertising practices that came with hefty daily fines, in a blow to the U.S. social media giant’s business model. Norwegian regulator Datatilsynet in July announced a “temporary ban” on Facebook and Instagram’s behavioral advertising — a common marketing practice that tech giants like Meta use at the heart of their business models to sell targeted ads based on user data ranging from personal interests to places they’ve been. Such practices without adequate consent violate user privacy and are illegal, Datatilsynet said, adding that
September 06, 2023Members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is committing genocide in Ukraine. Their comments came a day before they were scheduled to meet with the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The ICC in March issued an international arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. However, it has not yet charged him with any other offenses committed by Russian forces since their invasion of Ukraine more than 18 months ago. The committee’s chairman, Rep.
September 06, 2023A two-day summit in Romania began on Wednesday that brings together 12 European Union member states situated between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas, as the grouping of mostly formerly communist countries aim to boost ties and connectivity amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Three Seas Initiative, which is being held in the capital, Bucharest, brings together high-ranking officials from EU countries as well as representatives from partner countries and aims to improve interconnectivity in the transportation, energy, and the digital fields. Before the event, the office of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that he would
September 06, 2023An extratropical cyclone in southern Brazil caused floods in several cities, killing at least 27 people and leaving more than 1,600 homeless, authorities said Wednesday. More than 60 cities have been battered by the storm since Monday night, and Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Eduardo Leite said that the death toll was the state’s highest due to a climate event. Rescue efforts expanded farther west on Wednesday with helicopters headed to the Rio Pardo Valley. Search and rescue teams had been focusing around the Taquari Valley, about 150 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of the state
September 06, 2023Two suburban Philadelphia school districts remained shuttered and one of the nation’s premier botanical gardens was closed Wednesday as authorities worked to flush out a convicted murderer who escaped from prison last week. Danelo Cavalcante, 34, has been spotted five times since he escaped Thursday from the Chester State Prison. The most recent sighting came Monday night at Longwood Gardens, where trail surveillance video captured him walking through the area with a duffel bag, backpack and hooded sweatshirt he apparently stole while on the run. That sighting led officials to move the search area farther
September 06, 2023Gabriel Prout worked four seasons on his father’s crab boat, the Silver Spray, before joining his two brothers in 2020 to buy a half-interest plus access rights for a snow crab fishery that’s typically the largest and richest in the Bering Sea. Then in 2021, disaster: an annual survey found crabs crashing to an all-time low. The red king crab fishery was closed; the snow crab fishery cut to a tenth of the previous year’s take. After another bad survey last year, the red king crab fishery closed again and the snow crab fishery closed for
September 06, 2023The British government has been accused of “cutting corners” as it published Wednesday a list of 147 schools in England that are potentially at risk of collapse from crumbling concrete. The list from the Department for Education, which oversees schools in England, shows that 19 schools have had to delay the start of the new academic year because of the concrete crisis and that students at 24 others will receive some remote learning, with four having switched to fully remote learning at the weekend. Other educational establishments could be added to the list over the coming days
September 06, 2023Ukraine’s Greek Catholic bishops told Pope Francis on Wednesday that his words praising Russia’s imperial past had pained the Ukrainian people, bringing complaints about the Vatican’s diplomatic neutrality in Moscow’s war on their country to the heart of the Holy See. The bishops were in Rome for a periodic meeting and met with the pope in person for nearly two hours. While thanking Francis for his prayers, the bishops said certain statements and gestures from the pope and the Vatican “are painful and difficult for the Ukrainian people, who are currently bleeding in the struggle for their
September 06, 2023Romania’s defense minister said Wednesday that pieces apparently of a drone from Russia’s recent attacks on Ukraine’s port on the Danube River have been found on the territory of his country. Romania is a NATO member. Angel Tilvar, the minister, told local news channel Antena 3 CNN that parts of what was most likely a drone were discovered in the eastern Tulcea county, an area of the Danube that forms a natural border between Romania and war-torn Ukraine. “I confirm that in this area, pieces that may be of a drone were found,” he said, adding
September 06, 2023A former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Israel is enforcing an apartheid system in the West Bank, joining a tiny but growing list of retired officials to endorse an idea that remains largely on the fringes of Israeli discourse and international diplomacy. Tamir Pardo becomes the latest former senior official to have concluded that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank amounts to apartheid, a reference to the system of racial separation in South Africa that ended in 1994. Leading rights groups in Israel and abroad and
September 06, 2023A Greek prosecutor brought criminal charges Wednesday against an island ferry captain and three of his crew over the death of a tardy passenger whom a crew member pushed into the sea as he tried to board the departing vessel in Greece’s main port of Piraeus. One crew member was charged with homicide with possible intent, and the other two with complicity, while the captain was charged with severe breaches of shipping regulations, state-run ERT television reported. Greece’s minister for merchant marine, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, expressed “shock, horror and sorrow” at the incident, and identified the victim
September 06, 2023South African officials did not know a sanctioned Russian ship was assigned to deliver military equipment to the country until the vessel was nearing national waters, according to an inquiry into an incident that caused diplomatic tensions between South Africa and the U.S. U.S. Ambassador Reuben Brigety accused South Africa in May of having weapons intended for Russia loaded on to the Lady R when the container ship docked near Cape Town in December. The ship is under U.S. sanctions for ties to a company that transported arms for Russia’s war on Ukraine. South Africa denied there
September 06, 2023Interpol is turning 100 with a mixed legacy — as a misconstrued crime-fighting organization, a network that merges police data from authoritarian states and democracies, and a global adviser on how to handle criminal trends. Secretary-General Jürgen Stock, a German who took office in 2014, has said he believes all police officers ultimately have the same goal: stopping criminals. The challenge, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, is that Interpol brings 195 very different countries into a network of databases of crimes and wanted fugitives. Interpol has no police force of its own,
September 06, 2023The Danish defense said Wednesday that they are abolishing the height requirements for people serving with the Danish Royal Life Guards, mainly known for being a ceremonial unit outside Denmark’s royal palaces. Joining the Danish defense “is not about whether you are male or female or tall or short. It is about the ability to solve the task,” the armed forces said. Until now, it was required for men had to be at least 175 centimeters tall (5-foot-9) and women 169 centimeters (5-foot-6) to serve in the unit. The Danish Royal Life Guards is a mechanized
September 06, 2023There’s often a point when car enthusiasts are looking to purchase their first new performance car or sports car. Inflation and price creep have pushed many desirable models out of reach, but fortunately, a handful of automakers remain committed to offering thrill-making machines with wallet-friendly price tags. Edmunds’ car experts have rounded up six of the best with starting prices under $33,000. These vehicles have a high Edmunds rating and are listed by the manufacturer’s suggested retail price and include the destination charge. MAZDA MX-5 MIATA The Miata has long been the quintessential affordable convertible sports car thanks to its
September 06, 2023A walk through the busy business district of Mombasa Road in Nairobi, or even a rural community in Kisii County, Kenya, highlights something that’s getting attention at the African Climate Summit in Nairobi this week — solar power that is not connected to the grid. With or without the encouragement of government policy, families and businesses are choosing off-grid solar in the face of an unreliable grid. According to the World Bank, the number of so-called minigrids, meaning solar systems that support a cluster of homes or businesses, has grown from 500 in Africa in 2000 to
September 06, 2023The European Union is targeting Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance under new digital rules aimed at reining in the market power of online companies. The six companies were classified Wednesday as online “gatekeepers” that must face the highest level of scrutiny under the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Markets Act. The act amounts to a list of do’s and don’ts that seeks to prevent tech giants from cornering digital markets, with the threat of whopping fines or even forcing Big Tech companies to sell of parts of their business to operate
September 06, 2023The United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on a Sudanese paramilitary commander Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo for acts of violence and human rights abuses committed by his troops in their monthslong conflict with Sudan’s army. In a lengthy statement, the U.S. Treasury said it had sanctioned Abdelrahim — a senior military commander and brother of Mohammed Hamdan Daglo who is the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces— accusing him of leading a group of soldiers responsible for “the massacre of civilians, ethnic killings, and use of sexual violence.” Sudan plunged into chaos almost five months ago when long-simmering
September 06, 2023A Nigerian environmental activist declared Wednesday at the first African Climate Summit that carbon markets are “bogus solutions,” providing a sharp reminder that not all of Africa’s 1.3 billion people support richer countries using the continent’s green spaces to offset continued polluting at home. The summit has sought to reframe the African continent, which has enormous amounts of clean energy minerals and renewable energy sources, as less of a victim of climate change driven by the world’s biggest economies and more of the solution. But investment in the continent in exchange for the ability to keep
September 06, 2023In talks with Southeast Asian leaders Wednesday in the Indonesian capital, Chinese Premier Li Qiang underscored his country’s importance as the world’s second-biggest economy and as the top trading partner of the region. Countering renewed alarm over Beijing’s aggression in the disputed South China Sea, Li cited China’s long history of friendship with Southeast Asia, including joint efforts to confront the coronavirus pandemic and how both sides have settled differences through dialogue. “As long as we keep to the right path, no matter what storm may come, China-ASEAN cooperation will be as firm as ever and
September 06, 2023The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria increased to eight Wednesday after rescue teams located the body of a missing vacation who was swept away by flood waters that raged through a campsite in northwest Turkey. A flash flood at the campsite near the border with Bulgaria carried away bungalow homes. Hundreds of homes and workplaces in several neighborhoods in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, also were inundated during Tuesday’s storms. At least five people died, three at the campsite and two in Istanbu, authorities said. Rescuers were still searching for
September 06, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit Wednesday, hours after Russia launched its first missile attack in a week against the Ukrainian capital. Blinken’s trip aimed to assess Ukraine’s 3-month-old counteroffensive and signal continued U.S. support for Kyiv’s efforts to drive out the Kremlin’s forces after 19 months of war amid concerns among some Western allies over the pace of progress, according to U.S. officials. Those Washington officials said possible alternative export routes for Ukrainian grain will also be discussed following Russia’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and
September 06, 2023Earth has sweltered through its hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever measured, with a record warm August capping a season of brutal and deadly temperatures, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Last month was not only the hottest August scientists ever recorded by far with modern equipment, it was also the second hottest month measured, behind only July 2023, WMO and the European climate service Copernicus announced Wednesday. August was about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial averages, which is the warming threshold that the world is trying not to pass. But the 1.5 C
September 06, 2023An appeals court in Nigeria convened Wednesday to rule on whether President Bola Tinubu’s February election victory was legitimate, a decision that has put Africa’s most populous country on edge. The opposition challenged the election results, arguing that Tinubu was not qualified to run for president because he was a citizen of Guinea and allegedly did not have the required academic credentials. The opposition has hinted at possible protests if the court rules in his favor. Tinubu has denied all the allegations. Security was tight in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where five judges at the
September 06, 2023The U.K. announced Wednesday it will declare Russia’s Wagner mercenary group a banned terrorist organization, saying it remains a threat to global security even after the death of leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. The government said an order will be introduced in Parliament to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act. The designation, once approved by lawmakers, will bar membership in or support for Wagner, which has played a major fighting role during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It also has operated in Syria and several African nations. The move, expected to take effect within days, puts Wagner in the
September 06, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s possible trip to Russia might be like his first one in 2019 — a rattling, 20-hour ride aboard a green-and-yellow armored train that is a quirky symbol of his family’s dynastic leadership. In what would be his first foreign travel since the start of the pandemic, United States officials say Kim may visit Russia this month for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly to advance talks on North Korean arms sales to refill Russian reserves drained by its war on Ukraine. According to U.S. reports, a potential
September 06, 2023The weeklong clashes between rival U.S.-backed militias in eastern Syria, where hundreds of American troops are deployed, point to dangerous seams in the coalition that has kept a lid on the defeated Islamic State group for years. That could be an opportunity for the radical group to reemerge. The violence also points to rising tensions between Kurds who dominate the region and the mainly Arab population, opening the door for Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies, Russia and Iran, to try to make inroads in an oil-rich territory where they seek to drive out U.S. troops
September 06, 2023Nearly a month after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century killed at least 115 people, authorities on Maui are working their way through a list of the missing that has grown almost as quickly as names have been removed. Lawsuits are piling up in court over liability for the inferno, and businesses across the island are fretting about the loss of tourism. Government officials from Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen to President Joe Biden have pledged support, and thousands of people have been put up in hotels and elsewhere as they await clearance to
September 06, 2023Lawyers for a former Michigan police officer are asking the state appeals court to throw out a murder charge in the killing of a Black motorist in 2022. The court is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday in the case against Christopher Schurr, who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head after a morning traffic stop in Grand Rapids turned into a short foot chase and vigorous struggle. In a filing, Schurr’s attorneys said lower courts wrongly applied the law to the circumstances of Lyoya’s death. “Officer Schurr reasonably believed a felony had occurred
September 06, 2023Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Wednesday after a decline on Wall Street as traders returned from a long holiday weekend. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index advanced but most other regional markets fell. Crude oil prices pushed higher, adding to inflationary pressures at a time when investors are hoping to see central banks back away from interest rate hikes. “While oil bulls are dancing in the street, the notable price uptick could prove challenging for central banks and financial markets, which were embellishing the current lower inflation groove,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. Coming off
September 06, 2023Sri Lanka’s government will appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate allegations made in a British television report that Sri Lankan intelligence had complicity in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people. Labor Minister Manusha Nanayakkara told Parliament on Tuesday that details on the investigation will be announced soon. A man interviewed in the Channel 4 videos released Tuesday said he arranged a meeting between a local Islamic State-inspired group and a top state intelligence official to hatch a plot to create insecurity in Sri Lanka and enable Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential
September 06, 2023Major roads in New Delhi are teeming with giant posters and billboards announcing India’s presidency of this week’s summit of the Group of 20 nations. And one leader’s picture — smiling benignly from every traffic circle — stands out from the rest: Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi is also on the front page of major newspapers, and Indian TV channels are flashing his picture, accompanied by the Hindi word “Vishwaguru” — a leader of the world. In public speeches, his ministers are touting him as a steward of a surging India. It is an unabashed homage
September 06, 2023After a visit to a warehouse where Hawaiian Electric Company is housing power poles and electrical equipment that may be key to the investigation of last month’s devastating fires on Maui, lawyers for Lahaina residents and business owners told a court Tuesday that cable TV and telephone companies share responsibility for the disaster because they allegedly overloaded and destabilized some of the poles. The lawyers said the cables were attached in a way that put too much tension on the poles, causing them to lean and break in the winds on Aug. 8 when flames burned down
September 06, 2023China’s Great Wall has been pierced by Genghis Khan, the Manchus, and now, allegedly, a couple of construction workers named Zheng and Wang who wanted a shortcut. Authorities in China arrested the two men for smashing a path through a section of the ancient wall, a cultural icon and United Nations protected heritage site. The area of the breach was a broken-down section far from the restored segments most Chinese and foreign tourists are familiar with. State media showed a dirt road cut through a the wall against a rural landscape in Youyu County, hundreds of kilometers (miles) west of
September 06, 2023China’s Great Wall has been pierced by Genghis Khan, the Manchus, and now, allegedly, a couple of construction workers named Zheng and Wang who wanted a shortcut
September 06, 2023Prosecutors in Japan indicted a 24-year-old man Wednesday on attempted murder and other charges in the explosive attack on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April, Japanese media reported. Kishida was campaigning for elections in Wakayama in western Japan when a man threw a homemade pipe bomb at him. Kishida was unhurt, but two others had minor injuries. After a three-month psychiatric evaluation of the suspect, prosecutors determined that Ryuji Kimura, 24, is mentally fit for trial and that the bomb used in the attack was lethal, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. Kyodo reported that court records show
September 06, 2023The humanitarian situation in conflict-wracked eastern Congo has deteriorated alarmingly in the past 18 months with 8 million people in urgent need of assistance and women and girls subjected to sexual violence on a massive scale — just in three provinces, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday. Edem Wosornu, the U.N. humanitarian office’s operations director who just returned from a trip to Congo with emergency directors from U.N. agencies and humanitarian organizations, said that what they saw and heard “was shocking, heartbreaking and sobering.” She said the situation in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces
September 06, 2023Green hydrogen is being touted around the world as a clean energy solution to take the carbon out of high-emitting sectors like transport and industrial manufacturing. The India-led International Solar Alliance launched the Green Hydrogen Innovation Centre earlier this year, and India itself approved $2.3 billion for the production, use and export of green hydrogen. Global cooperation on green hydrogen manufacturing and supply is expected to be discussed by G-20 leaders at this week’s summit in New Delhi. WHAT IS GREEN HYDROGEN? Hydrogen is produced by separating that element from others in molecules where hydrogen occurs.
September 06, 2023California lawmakers on Tuesday voted to outlaw discrimination based on caste, adding protections for people of South Asian descent who say they have been left out of traditional American safeguards for fairness in employment and housing. The bill — the first of its kind in the U.S. — now heads to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who must decide whether to sign it into law. Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the bill. Caste is an ancient, complex system that regulates people’s social status based on their birth. It’s primarily associated with
September 05, 2023Cars are getting an “F” in data privacy. Most major manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information, a new study finds, with half also saying they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order. The proliferation of sensors in automobiles — from telematics to fully digitized control consoles — has made them prodigious data-collection hubs. But drivers are given little or no control over the personal data their vehicles collect, researchers for the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation researchers said Wednesday in their latest “Privacy Not Included” survey Security standards are also
September 05, 2023Air Canada says it has apologized to two passengers who were escorted off a plane by security after protesting that their seats were smeared in vomit. The airline said Tuesday that the passengers “clearly did not receive the standard of care to which they were entitled.” The incident during boarding for an Aug. 26 flight from Las Vegas to Montreal was described in graphic detail by another passenger, Susan Benson of New Brunswick, who said she was in the row behind two women and a man. “There was a bit of a foul smell but we didn’t know at first
September 05, 2023At least 21 people died in southern Brazil due to a fierce storm that caused floods in several cities, authorities said Tuesday. Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Eduardo Leite said the death toll is the state’s highest due to a climate event. He said about 60 cities had been battered by the storm, which was classified as an extratropical cyclone. Leite said 15 of the deaths occurred in one house in Mucum, a city of about 50,000 residents. The Rio Grande do Sul state government said it had recorded 1,650 people made homeless since Monday night.
September 05, 2023In a bid to slow deforestation in the Amazon, Brazil announced Tuesday that it will provide financial support to municipalities that have reduced deforestation rates the most. During the country´s Amazon Day, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also signed the creation of two Indigenous territories that total 207,000 hectares (511,000 acres) — over two times the size of New York City — and of a network of conservation areas next to the Yanonami Indigenous Territory to act as a buffer against invaders, mostly illegal gold miners. “The Amazon is in a hurry to survive
September 05, 2023A pair of Alaska teachers needed good news after they lost nearly all their possessions when their house collapsed into a river swollen by a glacial-outburst flood and their cat went missing. Elizabeth Wilkins was holding onto hope that if any animal would survive the house falling into the Mendenhall River on Aug. 5, it would be Leo, the couple’s resilient big-eyed, black-and-white cat who shows no fear of bears. “I knew that he’s pretty smart, and so I felt pretty confident that he would escape and be OK somewhere,” she said. That faith paid off
September 05, 2023The United Nations released $125 million from its emergency relief fund Tuesdat to boost underfunded humanitarian operations in 14 countries around the world, saying needs are skyrocketing. Afghanistan and Yemen top the list of recipients, with each getting $20 million, followed by Burkina Faso and Myanmar at $9 million each and Mali, Haiti and Venezuela at $8 million each. The U.N. Central Emergency Relief Fund known will also provide $6.5 million to both Central African Republic and Mozambique, $6 million to both Cameroon and the Palestinian territories and $4 million to Malawi. The fund will also
September 05, 2023The permanent memorial to the victims and survivors of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history will feature 58 candle-like beams under a plan officials in Las Vegas approved Tuesday. With the design officially in place, Clark County commissioners will shift their focus to selecting a nonprofit that will oversee fundraising and the construction and maintenance of the project. It took years to get to this point in the process and could take years more before the memorial is unveiled at the site of the attack on the Las Vegas Strip. The commissioners voted unanimously
September 05, 2023A state commission went to work Tuesday on designing a new state flag and seal for Minnesota to replace a current emblem in both that’s considered offensive to Native Americans. One of the main elements of Minnesota’s state flag includes a prominent state seal against a blue background. The seal depicts a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plows his field with his rifle leaning on a nearby stump. The imagery suggests to many that the Indigenous people were defeated and going away, while whites won and were staying. Not only do
September 05, 2023Fierce rainstorms battered neighboring Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria on Tuesday, triggering flooding that caused at least seven deaths, including two holidaymakers swept away by a torrent that raged through a campsite in northwestern Turkey. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said four other people were missing after the flash flood swept over the campsite in Kirklareli province, near the border with Bulgaria. He said about 12 vacationers were at the site when the waters hit. Search teams had located two bodies, he said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “The search and rescue
September 05, 2023A major aid group is concerned that there is not enough international attention given to Ukraine and is bracing for fewer donations used to finance operations in the battle-scarred country, its president warned on Tuesday. The head of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband said, his central concern is that the 19-month war and the resulting humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s invasion and continued attacks on civilian infrastructure are becoming “normalized” by the international community while the needs brought about by the war show no signs of diminishing, he said. “We know that the 2022 figures
September 05, 2023Open Society Foundations said Tuesday that it will spin off its support for Europe’s Roma communities into a new foundation and pledged €100 million, around $107 million, for that work. The Roma Foundation for Europe, which will be independent of OSF, launches in January and will be based in Brussels, said the foundations. Zeljko Jovanovic, director of OSF’s Roma Initiatives Office, will lead the new foundation. “This is a true European project because we are the biggest European minority, the most neglected and disadvantaged,” Jovanovic told The Associated Press, referring to the Roma community. “So when you support the most
September 05, 2023Sixty-one people have been indicted in Georgia on racketeering charges following a long-running state investigation into protests against a proposed police and firefighter training facility in the Atlanta area that critics call “Cop City.” In the sweeping indictment, prosecutors allege the defendants are “militant anarchists” who have supported a violent movement that prosecutors trace to the widespread 2020 racial justice protests. The Aug. 29 indictment under the state’s racketeering law, also known as a RICO law, was released by Fulton County officials on Tuesday and was brought by Republican Attorney General Chris Carr. The “Stop Cop City”
September 05, 2023United Airlines departures have resumed after being halted nationwide for a brief time Tuesday because of a technology outage. Federal officials said that United crews had been unable to contact airline dispatchers through normal means. “United asked the FAA to pause the airline’s departures nationwide,” the Federal Aviation Administration said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. The FAA said the issue was limited to United and its subsidiaries. It announced before 2 p.m. Eastern time that the ground stop on United flights had been lifted. Before flights resumed, United said in a statement that it and
September 05, 2023Wait times for tens of thousands of Burning Man partygoers trying to exit the mud-caked northern Nevada desert are beginning to decrease after flooded roads left them stranded there for days. Event organizers said they started to let traffic flow out on the main road around 2 p.m. local time Monday — even as they urged attendees to delay their exit to help ease traffic. About two hours after the mass departure began, organizers estimated a wait time of about five hours. By Tuesday morning, wait times had dropped to between two and three
September 05, 2023The U.S. government is taking a big step toward forcing a defiant Tennessee company to recall 52 million air bag inflators that could explode, hurl shrapnel and injure or kill people. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday said it has made an initial decision that the inflators made by ARC Automotive Inc., and under license by another company, are defective. The agency scheduled a public hearing for Oct. 5, a required step before seeking a court-ordered recall. In May the agency asked ARC to recall the inflators, which it says are responsible for at least
September 05, 2023Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday delayed the first of three pivotal hearings on the legality of the judicial overhaul, spearheaded by the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, after the country’s attorney general expressed staunch opposition to the plan. For the eight months since the coalition took power, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a Netanyahu ally, has refused to convene the committee that selects the nation’s judges, leaving numerous judgeships open across the country. Lawyers for Attorney General Gail Baharav-Miara, will now argue against the justice minister’s counsel in court, a situation which experts said is highly exceptional. Levin,
September 05, 2023Attorneys for convicted murder Alex Murdaugh want a new trial, accusing the court clerk of improperly influencing the jury. They’re accusing the court clerk at his double murder trial of telling jurors not to trust him when he testified in his own defense. They say she also had private conversations with the jury foreperson, and pressured jurors to come to a quick verdict. The request filed by Murdaugh’s lawyers on Tuesday also accuses Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of giving jury members business cards from reporters. After the verdict, she traveled to New York
September 05, 2023Belarus’ authoritarian president on Tuesday banned citizens from renewing their passports while staying abroad, which could force those who fled the country amid growing repression to return to maintain their travel documents. An estimated 200-300,000 Belarusians have left the country in the last three years since massive protests against an election that returned President Alexander Lukashenko to office led to a harsh crackdown on the political opposition. The election results were widely regarded as manipulated. Lukashenko’s decree stated that a Belarusian passport can only be renewed where the holder was a registered resident before leaving the
September 05, 2023Information theft is on the rise. Over 1.1 million people in the U.S. alone reported the crime to the Federal Trade Commission in 2022. When a thief opens accounts in your name or otherwise uses your data, you might feel powerless. But there are steps you can take to prevent the worst outcomes. Colleen Tressler, a senior project manager for the FTC, has tracked consumer issues including identity theft for more than three decades. She said frauds and scams often emerge during specific emergencies such as the COVID pandemic, and in the wake of climate-related catastrophes.
September 05, 2023The Zaporizhzhia region of southeast Ukraine has become the most recent hot spot for battles in the 18-month war, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday, as Kyiv’s forces press ahead with their counteroffensive. Shoigu told Russian military officers that Ukraine has brought up reserve brigades there that were trained by Kyiv’s Western allies. He offered no evidence for his claim, which could not be independently verified. Fighting in the southeast could be one of the keys to the war. If Russian defenses there collapse, Ukrainian forces could push southward toward the coast and potentially split
September 05, 2023Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw will step down this month, the mayor said Tuesday, ending a turbulent three years in which she guided one of the country’s largest police forces through pandemic lockdowns and Black Lives Matter protests to take a leadership position with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Outlaw, the first Black woman to run the 6,000-member department, came aboard just before the pandemic shutdown and quickly had to oversee the city’s safety as intense protests broke out in Philadelphia and across the country in the summer of 2020 over the police
September 05, 2023Authorities have moved and expanded the search area for a convicted murderer who escaped from a suburban Philadelphia prison last week, after he was spotted on a trail camera at one of the nation’s premier botanical gardens. Danelo Cavalcante, 34, has been spotted five time since he escaped Thursday from the Chester State Prison. The most recent siting came Monday night at Longwood Gardens, where surveillance video captured him walking through the area with a duffel bag, backpack and hooded sweatshirt. That sighting led officials to move the search area farther south after they determined
September 05, 2023Federal judges said Tuesday that they will draft new congressional lines for Alabama after lawmakers refused to create a second district where Black voters at least came close to comprising a majority, as suggested by the court. In blocking the newly drawn congressional map, the three-judge panel wrote that they are “deeply troubled” that Alabama lawmakers flouted their instruction to create a second majority-Black district or something close to it. A designated special master will be tapped to draw new districts for the state, the judges ordered. “This is a significant step toward equal representation for
September 05, 2023Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed Tuesday to extend their voluntary oil production cuts through the end of this year, trimming 1.3 million barrels of crude out of the global market and boosting energy prices. The dual announcements from Riyadh and Moscow pushed benchmark Brent crude above $90 a barrel in trading Tuesday afternoon, a price unseen in the market since last November. The countries’ moves likely will increase the cost for motorists filling up at the pump and put new pressure on Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States. President Joe Biden last year
September 05, 2023It’s a transaction that would be commonplace for a corporation or a sports team, but it’s the kind of deal that is practically unheard of in the nonprofit sector. The philanthropy research organization Candid will send control of its CF Insights website and the staff that gathered information about community foundations to the Council on Foundations, the association of nearly 900 nonprofit members, on Friday. Candid CEO Ann Mei Chang says the shift will allow her nonprofit to focus more sharply on priority areas – including diversity, transparency and effectiveness in the sector – while providing
September 05, 2023In July, in a packed classroom in downtown Chicago, a group composed mostly of early elementary teachers and child care workers read a story about “Wendi,” a fictional preschool teacher who loves reading but struggles in math. Even though Wendi was drawn to early education, where “math was so easy,” she still felt unsure of her skills. In the story, she decided to skip math concepts, leaving them for the teachers her students would have next year. Across the room, people nodded their heads as they listened. “I am Wendi. Wendi is me,” said Ivory McCormick, a
September 05, 2023Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has replaced the name India with a Sanskrit word in dinner invitations sent to guests attending this week’s Group of 20 summit, in a move that reflects his Hindu nationalist party’s efforts to eliminate what it sees as colonial-era names. Indian President Droupadi Murmu is referred to as “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India” in the invitation sent to G20 attendees. The nation of more than 1.4 billion people is officially known by two names, India and Bharat, but the former is most commonly used, both domestically and internationally.
September 05, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may travel to Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, a U.S. official said, in a trip that would underscore deepening cooperation as the two isolated leaders are locked in separate confrontations with the U.S. U.S. officials also said that Russia is seeking to buy ammunition from North Korea to refill reserves drained by its war in Ukraine. In return, experts said, North Korea will likely want food and energy shipments and transfers of sophisticated weapons technologies. A meeting with Putin would be Kim’s first summit with a
September 05, 2023As Goodhue Police Chief Josh Smith struggled this summer to fill vacancies in his small department, he warned the town’s City Council that unless pay and benefits improved, finding new officers would never happen. When nothing changed, Smith quit. So did his few remaining officers, leading the Minnesota town of 1,300 residents to shutter its police force in late August. America is in the midst of a police officer shortage that many in law enforcement blame on the two-fold morale hit of 2020 — the coronavirus pandemic and criticism of police that boiled over with the
September 05, 2023The U.N. food agency said Tuesday it must drop another 2 million hungry people from food assistance in Afghanistan this month due to a massive funding shortfall. The action means that 10 million people will be cut off from the agency’s support this year in the country, the World Food Programme said in a statement. The new cuts mean the agency will be able to provide food assistance to about a fifth of the 15 million people who need it in Afghanistan, the agency said. “Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are obliged to
September 05, 2023Southeast Asian leaders decided that Myanmar won’t take over the rotating leadership of their regional bloc as scheduled in 2026, Asian diplomats and a leader said Tuesday, in the latest blow to efforts by its ruling generals to gain international recognition after violently seizing power in 2021. Western governments led by the United States have condemned the Myanmar army’s ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in 2021 and have demanded her immediate release from yearslong detention along with other officials. The Philippines agreed to take over the regional bloc’s chairmanship in 2026 at
September 05, 2023After parents in a rural and staunchly conservative Wyoming county joined nationwide pressure on librarians to pull books they considered harmful to youngsters, the local library board obliged with new policies making such books a higher priority for removal — and keeping out of collections. But that’s not all the library board has done. Campbell County also withdrew from the American Library Association, in what’s become a movement against the professional organization that has fought against book bans. This summer, the state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas and the local library in Midland, Texas, announced
September 05, 2023A leading member of Poland’s conservative government has sharply criticized a film that explores the humanitarian disaster affecting migrants along the Poland-Belarus border which premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival. “Green Border,” by Polish director Agnieszka Holland, puts a spotlight on the refugee crisis that emerged two years ago at Belarus’ borders with the European Union nations of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The film is in competition at the festival. Poland’s hard-right justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, slammed the film, comparing it to Nazi propaganda. “In the Third Reich, the Germans produced propaganda films showing Poles
September 05, 2023A trial started Tuesday in Stockholm of two executives of a Swedish oil exploration and production company accused of complicity in war crimes in Sudan 20 years ago by securing the company’s oil operations in the African nation. Prosecutors claim that Ian Lundin, former chairman of Lundin Oil, and Alex Schneiter, its former CEO, supported the Sudanese government of former dictator Omar al-Bashir. They said the two executives created “the necessary conditions for the subsidiary’s operations by conducting warfare in a way that entailed the Sudanese military and regime allied militia systematically attacking civilians or at least
September 05, 2023Asylum applications in the European Union continued to rise in the first half of 2023 following a major hike last year, pressuring limited hosting capacities and moving the issue up the political agenda in many nations. The European Union Agency for Asylum said applications in the 27-nation bloc plus Switzerland and Norway rose 28% in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. In all of 2022, applications increased 53%. “Based on current trends, applications could exceed 1 million by the end of 2023” in the region of about 460 million people,
September 05, 2023Backers of an international agreement that bans cluster munitions, which harm and kill many more civilians than combatants, are striving to prevent erosion in support for the deal after what one leading human rights group calls an “unconscionable” U.S. decision to ship such weapons to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. Advocacy groups in the Cluster Munitions Coalition released their latest annual report on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting next week of envoys from the 112 countries that have acceded to or ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the explosives and calls for clearing areas
September 05, 2023More than 300 people were killed and over 600 wounded by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, according to an international watchdog, surpassing Syria as the country with the highest number of casualties from the controversial weapons for the first time in a decade. Russia’s widespread use of the bombs, which open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets or submunitions as they are called, in its invasion of Ukraine — and, to a lesser extent, their use by Ukrainian forces — helped make 2022 the deadliest year on record globally, according to
September 05, 2023Indonesian President Joko Widodo will welcome fellow Asian and world leaders with a captivating jungle scene of a two-story waterfall, wild orchids and even an orangutan perched up a tree. The make-believe wilderness set up in elaborate detail in the huge lobby of the Jakarta Convention Center in the capital includes a widescreen video of a yellow beak hornbill gliding across an azure sky, swaying leaves and piped-in bird chirps. It’s a pleasant icebreaker for Widodo and his guests in Jakarta for a week of Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit talks starting Tuesday. “Indonesia wants
September 05, 2023Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton faces an impeachment trial in the state Senate starting Tuesday on articles overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives. Paxton, a Republican and star of the conservatives legal movement, was suspended from office in May when the GOP-controlled House voted 121-23 to impeach him on 20 articles ranging from bribery to abuse of public trust. Most of the articles deal with Paxton using his office to benefit a wealthy donor, Nate Paul, prompting eight of the attorney general’s top deputies to report him to the FBI in 2020. Three other charges date back to Paxton’s
September 05, 2023The Texas Senate is set to gavel in Tuesday for the impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a political reckoning of years of alleged corruption that could lead to his permanent ouster from office. The fate of Paxton, a 60-year-old Republican, is in the hands of GOP senators with whom he served before winning a statewide race to take charge of the attorney general’s office in 2015. In an era of bitter partisanship, the historic proceeding is a rare instance of a political party seeking to hold one of its own to account for allegations
September 05, 2023Shares fell back Tuesday in Asia after U.S. markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday. U.S. futures also were lower and oil prices were mixed. Hong Kong fell more than 1% as Chinese property stocks declined as investors sold to lock in gains fueled by recent efforts to support the ailing industry. China Vanke lost 1.2%, while Country Garden Holdings gave up 2%. Hong Kong-based Sun Hung Kai Properties shed 2.4%. Chinese services data came in weaker than expected, dulling hopes for a rebound in China’s lackluster growth. A survey showed business activity in China’s services sector increased at
September 05, 2023President Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor on Tuesday to a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who risked his life by flying into heavy enemy fire to save four members of a reconnaissance team from almost certain death as they were about to be overrun. Biden is recognizing retired Capt. Larry Taylor of Tennessee at the White House. On the night of June 18, 1968, then-1st Lt. Taylor flew his Cobra attack helicopter to rescue the men after they had become surrounded by the enemy. Taylor, now 81, recalled in an interview last week that
September 05, 2023The boss of Australian airline Qantas said Tuesday he would leave his job immediately — two months earlier than planned — following a series of embarrassing revelations about the company, including allegations it sold tickets for flights that had already been canceled. Chief Executive Alan Joyce said that after 15 years running the national carrier he was bringing forward his planned retirement date. The airline said Vanessa Hudson would take over as managing director and group chief executive from Wednesday. The announcement came after a difficult few weeks for Qantas and Joyce. He was grilled by
September 05, 2023A fancy-looking French angelfish that was found one day with a funny float has its buoyancy back after taking some time out of its tropical trappings to get a CT scan at the Denver Zoo. A zoo worker recently noticed the blue and yellow fish was swimming with a tilt, prompting a visit last week to the facility’s on-site hospital for an ultrasound and the CT scan. The CT scan took place in a machine large enough to fit a 700-pound grizzly bear, so some special accommodations were required, zoo spokesperson Jake Kubie said. The seven-inch fish
September 04, 2023A U.S. official said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may travel to Russia soon to meet with President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin tries to acquire military equipment for use in its war in Ukraine. The official, who was not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. expects Kim will make the trip within the month. The official said the U.S. isn’t sure exactly where or when the meeting would take place, but the Pacific port city of Vladivostok would be a
September 04, 2023A driver plowed through a wall of a busy East Texas restaurant, injuring 23 people. Police in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg, Texas said a man crashed his SUV into a Denny’s restaurant just off the highway late Monday morning. The vehicle slammed into the restaurant’s south wall leaving patrons with injuries ranging from minor cuts to “severe injuries” that don’t appear to be life-threatening, police said in a statement. Victims ranged in age from 12 to 60 years old. The driver of the SUV was not injured, police said. The cause of the crash was
September 04, 2023Two high-ranking military officers in northeast Congo were arrested Monday for taking part in a crackdown on protests last week that left 43 people dead and another 56 severely injured, authorities said. Interior Minister Peter Kazadi said police arrested Commanders Mike Mikombe and Donat Bawili, who respectively headed the Republican Guard unit and the Congolese armed forces regiment in Goma, the eastern city where the violence unfolded. Defense and security forces in the Central African nation used lethal force last Wednesday to repress planned anti-U.N. protests in the city. A government delegation arrived in Goma on
September 04, 2023A member of Panama’s national soccer team was hanging out with friends in front of the building where his mother lives, when gunmen in a taxi opened fire, killing Gilberto Hernández and wounding seven others in the country’s violent port city of Colon, police and witnesses said Monday. Hernández, a 26-year-old defender, was the second member of the national team killed in Colon in the past six years. Authorities on Monday announced the arrest of one suspect in Sunday’s killing. Colon sits 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Panama City, where ships enter or exit the
September 04, 2023Tens of thousands of partygoers were still stranded Monday morning in the northern Nevada desert after a late-summer storm turned a week-long counterculture fest into a mud pit. Burning Man organizers said the main road leading out of the festival was still too muddy for a mass exodus of RVs and vehicles to safely exit but hoped traffic could begin flowing around noon Monday. Organizers closed the festival to vehicles after more than a half an inch (1.3 centimeters) of rain on Friday drenched the Black Rock Desert about 110 miles (177 kilometers) north
September 04, 2023Pope Francis defended the decision to keep the discussions of a big Vatican meeting on the future of the Catholic Church behind closed doors, saying Monday the three-week conference was a religious moment for the church and “not a television program” that was open to scrutiny. Francis was asked repeatedly on his way home from Mongolia about the Oct. 4-29 meeting, or synod of bishops, which is opening after an unprecedented two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics around the globe about their hopes for the church. Many Vatican watchers consider the synod to be a
September 04, 2023On the same day that dejected students pleaded with the board of West Virginia’s flagship university not to eliminate its entire foreign languages department and dozens of other programs, Gov. Jim Justice said he was feeling hopeful about the future of education in the state. “We’ve had tough times — there will be more tough times — but absolutely we are rising from the ashes,” Justice said Aug. 22, while signing a bill allocating $45 million for another state school, Marshall University, to open a new cybersecurity center 200 miles from West Virginia University. Lawmakers approved
September 04, 2023Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday hailed recent elections as a sign of the country’s “mature democracy” and a victory over Western adversaries, as he took an oath of office following a vote whose credibility was questioned by both Western and African observers. Mnangagwa, 80, won disputed polls held on Aug. 26, garnering 52.6% of the vote ahead of main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s 44%. His ZANU-PF party, which has ruled the tiny nation of 15 million people since independence from white minority rule in 1980, also retained a parliamentary majority. “There are no losers but
September 04, 2023British lawmakers headed back to Parliament on Monday after their summer break. But thousands of U.K. children won’t be returning to their classrooms this week, because their schools are at risk of collapse from crumbling concrete. The news is a start-of-term headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he scrambles to shore up flagging support for the governing Conservative Party ahead of a national election next year. Sunak insists it’s not his fault that more than 150 schools were told last week — days before the start of the new school year — to shut some or
September 04, 2023The Federal Reserve has reached a delicate stage in its fight against inflation. Its policymakers have raised their key interest rate to about 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years, to try to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation pressures. They now are considering whether to raise the rate even higher — a move that would heighten the risk of a recession — or leave it at its current level for an extended period. Though inflation has slowed for the past year, it’s showing signs of stickiness at its current levels. A recent uptick in gas
September 04, 2023Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov submitted a letter of resignation on Monday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be replaced and named his successor. Oleksii Reznikov’s removal follows a scandal around the defense ministry’s procurement of military jackets. It was not the first similar case during the ongoing war. Zelenskyy made the announcement on his official Telegram account, writing that new leadership was needed after Reznikov went through “more than 550 days of full-scale war.” He named Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker, as the new defense minister. “Reznikov was a good and prominent international
September 04, 2023The fate of the mounted lion, tiger, polar bear and gorilla that have long greeted visitors entering South Dakota’s largest zoo is grim after arsenic was found to be widespread in the taxidermy collection, creating a raging debate about whether the more than 150 animals should be destroyed. Some locals who grew up around the menagerie, which used to fill a hardware store, are fighting the mayor and zoo officials to keep the collection, marshaling activism online and in the Sioux Falls City Council. They are buoyed by experts who say the arsenic risk is overblown, the mounts nothing short
September 04, 2023Gabon ‘s new military leader was sworn in as the head of state Monday less than a week after ousting the president whose family had ruled the Central African nation for more than five decades. Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, took the oath in the presidential palace in front of a packed, boisterous room of government officials, military and local leaders in Gabon’s capital, Libreville. Oligui is a cousin of the ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, served as a bodyguard to his late father and is head of the republican guard, an elite military unit. Speaking
September 04, 2023A massive wildfire that destroyed vast tracts of forest in northeastern Greece over 17 days was in abeyance on Monday, although hundreds of firefighters were still tackling pockets that continued to burn, the fire department said. Authorities also warned that parts of the country were at risk of flooding due to heavy rainstorms forecast overnight and on Tuesday that could pose a particular threat to fire-ravaged areas. Reinforcements were sent over the weekend to battle the wildfire burning in the Evros region near the border with Turkey, bringing the total number of firefighters on Monday to
September 04, 2023German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday tweeted a pirate-style picture of himself with a black eye patch and dark-red bruises on the right side of his face — the result of a jogging accident on the weekend. “Am excited to see the memes,” the chancellor wrote in the caption. To deflect any possible worries about his health, on the photo, which appears to have been taken at the chancellery, Scholz smiled slightly and also wrote: “Thanks for the well wishes, it looks worse than it is!” Scholz fell while jogging on Saturday and sustained bruises to his face, prompting him
September 04, 2023Iran has slowed its enrichment of uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels, a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press said Monday. The confidential report comes as Iran and the United States are negotiating a prisoner swap and the release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korea. Slowing its enrichment of uranium could serve as another sign that Tehran seeks to lower tensions between it and America after years of tensions since the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The report by the International Atomic Energy
September 04, 2023Japan’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Okinawa’s rejection of a central government plan to build U.S. Marine Corps runways on the island and ordered the prefecture to approve it despite protests by locals who oppose the American troops’ presence. Monday’s ruling upheld a high court ruling in March that the central government’s plan and its instruction for Okinawa’s approval are valid. It will move forward the suspended construction at a time Okinawa’s strategic role is seen increasingly important for the Japan-U.S. military alliance in the face of growing tensions with China. Japan’s central government began the reclamation
September 04, 2023The presidents of Russia and Turkey meet on Monday, with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking to persuade Russia to revive an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grain and other commodities from three Black Sea ports despite the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin in July refused to extend the agreement, which was brokered by Turkey and the United Nations a year earlier. Russia complained that a parallel deal promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored. It said restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade, even though it has shipped record
September 04, 2023Chinese President Xi Jinping is apparently skipping this week’s Group of 20 summit in India as bilateral relations remain icy. Instead, Premier Li Qiang will represent China at the Sept. 9-10 gathering, the Foreign Ministry said Monday in a one sentence notice on its website. Relations between China and India have grown frosty over their disputed border, and three years ago the tensions resulted in a clash in the Ladakh region that killed 20 Indian and four soldiers. It turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, where each side has stationed tens of thousands
September 04, 2023When Gabon’s longtime leader was detained in the latest coup in Africa last week, France condemned the takeover but did little to intervene — despite having hundreds of troops in the country. It was a striking break from the past. African and French observers say that France, under pressure, is finally shedding its postcolonial tradition of “Françafrique” — an unflattering term that smacks of paternalistic influence and quiet deal-making among elites — as its economic and political powers wane and an increasingly self-confident Africa looks elsewhere. After repeated military interventions in its former colonies in recent
September 04, 2023The first African Climate Summit is opening as heads of state and others assert a stronger voice on a global issue that affects the continent of 1.3 billion people the most, even as they contribute to it the least. Kenyan President William Ruto’s government is launching the ministerial session on Monday while more than a dozen heads of state begin to arrive, determined to wield more global influence and bring in far more financing and support. The first speakers included youth, who demanded a bigger voice in the process. There is some frustration on the continent
September 04, 2023A Malaysian court on Monday dismissed 47 corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at an advanced stage of his trial. Zahid told a news conference afterward that the High Court discharged him but refused to grant him a full acquittal, which means he can still be recharged. But he said he was grateful that the “political-motivated accusations against me have ended.” Zahid heads the United Malays National Organization, and his support has been pivotal in helping Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim form a unity government. Zahid’s dismissal could further hurt the anti-corruption stance
September 04, 2023The small band of soldiers gather outside to share cigarettes and war stories, sometimes casually and sometimes with a degree of testiness over recollections made unreliable by their last day fighting, the day the war took away their limbs. Some clearly remember the moment they were hit by anti-tank mines, aerial bombs, a missile, a shell. For others, the gaps in their memories loom large. Vitaliy Bilyak’s skinny body is a web of scars that end with an amputation above the knee. During six weeks in a coma, Bilyak underwent over 10 surgeries, including his jaw,
September 04, 2023The United Arab Emirates has created a federal authority to potentially run a national lottery and what it describes as “commercial gaming,” likely a sign that it is on the verge of allowing gambling as major casino operators flock to the Gulf Arab nation. The state-run WAM news agency carried an announcement late Sunday on the creation of the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority, without offering many details about its structure or operations. It named Kevin Mullally as its CEO. Mullally once served as the executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission, which oversaw
September 04, 2023Stocks were higher in Asia on Monday after Wall Street was boosted by a report that signaled the US jobs market, while still healthy, is showing some signs of cooling. That supported investors’ hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon ease up on its campaign to slow the U.S. economy by raising interest rates. “It appears that global markets are primed to be smitten with the idea of a ‘Nirvana’ Fed tightening outcome, entailing the ‘immaculate dis-inflation’ that does not cause employment pain,” Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. Fresh stimulus from China’s financial regulators for
September 04, 2023Pope Francis wrapped up the first-ever papal visit to Mongolia on Monday by inaugurating a church-run homeless clinic and shelter, insisting that such initiatives aren’t aimed at winning converts but are simply exercises in Christian charity. Francis toured the House of Mercy, a three-story structure housed in an old school, which the local church has opened as an expression of the roots that it has taken in the three decades that the Catholic Church has had an official presence in Mongolia. It was the final event of an historic four-day visit to a region where the
September 04, 2023Southeast Asian leaders led by Indonesian host President Joko Widodo are gathering in their final summit this year, besieged by divisive issues with no solutions in sight: Myanmar’s deadly civil strife, new flare-ups in the disputed South China Sea, and the longstanding United States-China rivalry. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings will open Tuesday in the Indonesian capital Jakarta under tight security. The absence of U.S. President Joe Biden, who typically attends, adds to the already somber backdrop of the 10-state bloc’s traditional show of unity and group handshakes. After discussions Tuesday, the ASEAN heads
September 04, 2023South Korea’s president says he’ll tell world leaders about the need to faithfully enforce U.N. sanctions on North Korea and block the country’s illicit activities to fund its weapons programs when they converge in Indonesia and India for annual summits this week. President Yoon Suk Yeol is to visit Jakarta for four days starting Tuesday to attend a series of summits scheduled on the margins of a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders. On Friday, he’ll travel on to New Delhi for a summit of the leading rich and developing nations. “At
September 04, 2023A 46% pay raise. A 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay. A restoration of traditional pensions. The demands that a more combative United Auto Workers union has pressed on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — demands that even the UAW’s own president calls “audacious” — are edging it closer to a strike when its contract ends Sept. 14. The automakers, which are making billions in profits, have dismissed the UAW’s wish list. They argue that its demands are unrealistic at a time of fierce competition from Tesla and lower-wage foreign automakers as the world shifts from
September 03, 2023Israel’s prime minister on Sunday floated the idea of building infrastructure projects such as a fiber optic cable linking countries in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula with Europe through Israel and Cyprus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s “quite confident” such an infrastructure “corridor” linking Asia to Europe through Israel and Cyprus is feasible. He said such projects could happen if Israel normalizes relations with other countries in the region. The 2020 U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and the Biden administration is trying to establish official ties
September 03, 2023A Minnesota prison has “resolved without incident” a situation involving about 100 inmates in one housing unit who would not return to their cells Sunday in what one former inmate there called an act of “self-preservation” amid dangerously high temperatures in the region. The situation was “calm, peaceful and stable throughout the day,” a Department of Corrections spokesperson said in a statement, adding that “incarcerated individuals in the unit indicated dissatisfaction” because the understaffed facility had to limit inmates’ time out of their cells. But advocates positioned outside of the Stillwater prison, some of whom have
September 03, 2023Jimmy Buffett, whose sun-drenched songs celebrated life by the shore, died of a rare, aggressive skin cancer, according to a statement on his website. Buffett, 76, had Merkel cell cancer, according to the statement, which was posted after initial news of his death emerged Saturday. The statement also disclosed where the “Margaritaville” singer died: at his home in Sag Harbor, New York, near the Hamptons. He had been fighting the cancer for four years while continuing to perform, the last time making a surprise appearance in Rhode Island in early July, the statement said. Merkel
September 03, 2023Guatemala’s top electoral authority said Sunday it blocked the suspension of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo’s Seed Movement, at least temporarily giving the party back its legal status and cutting off an attempt by opposing political forces to weaken Arévalo. The decision by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal came days after the electoral registry suspended the party on a judge’s order. The Attorney General’s office is investigating whether there was wrongdoing in the gathering of required signatures for the party’s formation years earlier. The tribunal said the suspension could not stand because it did not come from an electoral
September 03, 2023Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature is talking about impeaching a newly elected liberal state Supreme Court justice even before she has heard a case. The unprecedented attempt to impeach and remove Justice Janet Protasiewicz from office comes as the court is being asked to throw out legislative electoral maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011 that cemented the party’s majorities, which now stand at 65-34 in the Assembly and a 22-11 supermajority in the Senate. Here is a closer look at where things stand: HOW DID THE STATE GET HERE? Protasiewicz won election in April to a
September 03, 2023One of the few things that survived the fire and smoke that caused at least 76 horrific deaths in a rundown apartment block in Johannesburg is a circular plaque hanging on the brown brick exterior. It has a five-sentence inscription outlining the building’s history. No. 80 Albert Street – the scene of one of South Africa’s worst inner-city tragedies – was a central pass office during the apartheid era of racial segregation, a checkpoint for enforcing a despised law that controlled the movement of Black people nearly everywhere in the country. Without a pass from the apartheid
September 03, 2023The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace may draw tourists from far and wide, but on Sunday visitors to the landmark were treated to a different sort of spectacle: a parade of corgis dressed up in crowns, tiaras and royal outfits. Around 20 royal fans and their pet corgis gathered to walk their dogs outside the palace in central London to remember Queen Elizabeth II a year since her death. Corgis were the late queen’s constant companions since she was a child, and Elizabeth owned around 30 throughout her life. Generations of the dogs descended from
September 03, 2023For small businesses that rely on summer tourism to keep afloat, extreme weather is replacing the pandemic as the determining factor in how well a summer will go. The pandemic had its ups and downs for tourism, with a total shutdown followed by a rush of vacations due to pent-up demand. This year, small businesses say vacation cadences are returning to normal. But now, they have extreme weather to deal with — many say it’s hurting business, but more temperate spots are seeing a surge. Tourism-related businesses have always been at the mercy of the weather.
September 03, 2023Two people were hospitalized following a 3½-hour Russian drone barrage against port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Sunday, officials said. The attack comes a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the resumption of food shipments from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain agreement that Moscow broke off from in July. Russian forces fired 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones along the Danube River in the early hours of Sunday, 22 of which were shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air force said on
September 03, 2023The governor of the German state of Bavaria said Sunday that he will let his deputy stay in office despite a furor that started with allegations he was responsible for an antisemitic flyer when he was a high school student 35 years ago. Governor Markus Soeder, a leading figure in Germany’s center-right opposition, said he had concluded that it would be “disproportionate” to fire Hubert Aiwanger, his deputy and coalition partner, but Aiwanger needs to rebuild confidence with Jewish groups and others. A state election is due in Bavaria within weeks. In August, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung
September 03, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he wants Eritrean migrants involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv to be deported immediately and has ordered a plan to remove all of the country’s African migrants. The remarks came a day after bloody protests by rival groups of Eritreans in south Tel Aviv left dozens of people injured. Eritreans, supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government, faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal and rocks, smashing shop windows and police cars. Israeli police in riot gear shot tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds while
September 03, 2023Much of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be both deadly and expensive, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens Monday in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. Significant investment in Africa’s adaptation to climate change, including better forecasting, will be an urgent goal. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to
September 03, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with Vladimir Putin on Monday, hoping to persuade the Russian leader to rejoin the Black Sea grain deal that Moscow broke off from in July. Here are some key things to know and what’s at stake: WHERE WILL THE TALKS BE HELD? The meeting in Sochi on Russia’s southern coast comes after weeks of speculation about when and where the two leaders might meet. Erdogan previously said that Putin would travel to Turkey in August. WHY DID RUSSIA LEAVE THE GRAIN DEAL? The Kremlin refused to renew the grain agreement
September 03, 2023Aspiring Taiwanese independent presidential candidate Terry Gou has resigned from the board of Foxconn, the Apple supplier he founded nearly a half-century ago. The company, officially registered as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., issued a news release late Saturday saying Gou, its former chair, had resigned for personal reasons. It wasn’t clear what, if any, immediate effect Gou’s decision would have on the operations of Foxconn, ranked 20th in the 2023 Fortune Global 500 and considered one of the world’s largest technology companies. It is headquartered in Taiwan, but does the vast majority of its manufacturing
September 03, 2023If a baby was taken from their parents four decades ago during Argentina’s military dictatorship, what would that person look like today? Argentine publicist Santiago Barros has been trying to answer that question using artificial intelligence to create images of what the children of parents who disappeared during the dictatorship might look like as adults. Almost every day, Barros uploads these images to an Instagram account called iabuelas, which is a portmanteau in Spanish for artificial intelligence, or IA, and grandmother, or abuela — taken from the well-known activist group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo
September 03, 2023Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back. The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in U.S. history. “It’s a place of holocaust. Our people starved to death there,”
September 03, 2023As sirens blared across the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and cell phones lit up with alerts of an active shooter, Micah Baldonado cried quietly at his desk while his teacher proceeded with the lecture. “I know there’s no right way to react, but I just lost it,” he said. “I couldn’t hold back tears. My teacher actually kept teaching for maybe 30 minutes even after receiving alerts of an active shooter.” The senior from Charlotte said rumors spread quickly across campus during a three-hour lockdown and police manhunt on Aug. 28 resulting
September 03, 2023Body camera video of the fatal police shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant mother in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, has raised questions about how an allegation of shoplifting led to a bullet being fired through her windshield. It was unclear Saturday whether the Blendon Township Police Department has adopted a use-of-force continuum policy, which would outline measures that must be exhausted before lethal force can be used. The video of the Aug. 24 shooting, released Friday, shows Young in her car in a parking space as a police officer orders her to exit the vehicle. A second officer
September 03, 2023Seven weeks after catastrophic flooding in Vermont destroyed their mobile home, Sara Morris and her family don’t yet know what they will do for housing long-term. She and her husband, their three kids and his mother have been staying with Morris’ mother since the flooding mangled their home, boring a hole through the side and leaving it tilted in layers of mud. With winter fast approaching, some Vermonters hit by the July flooding are still deep in the throes of flood recovery, whether finding a place to live or repairing their homes or businesses. So far,
September 03, 2023With China’s crackdown on religious minorities as a backdrop, Pope Francis joined Mongolian shamans, Buddhist monks and a Russian Orthodox priest Sunday to highlight the role that religions can play in forging world peace, as he presided over an interfaith meeting highlighting Mongolia’s tradition of religious tolerance. Francis listened intently as a dozen faith leaders — Jewish, Muslim, Bahai, Hindu, Shinto and evangelical Christian among them — described their beliefs and their relationship with heaven. Several said the traditional Mongolian ger, or round-shaped yurt, was a potent symbol of harmony with the divine — a warm
September 03, 2023Taiwan suspended flights, rail transport and ferry services along with classes, outdoor events, and officials urged workers to stay home as the island prepared for the arrival of Typhoon Haikui later Sunday. The storm’s approach came as Typhoon Saola continued to weaken while moving along the Chinese coast, where 900,000 people and 80,000 fishing vessels had been moved to safety and most of Hong Kong and parts of the coastal mainland closed down businesses, transport and schools. Damage appeared to be minimal, however, and restrictions had largely been lifted by Sunday. Parts of Taiwan were already feeling
September 03, 2023A Florida redistricting plan pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution and is prohibited from being used for any future U.S. congressional elections since it diminishes the ability of Black voters in north Florida to pick a representative of their choice, a state judge ruled Saturday. Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh sent the plan back to the Florida Legislature with instructions that lawmakers should draw a new congressional map that complies with the Florida Constitution. The voting rights groups that challenged the plan in court “have shown that the enacted plan results in the diminishment of Black
September 02, 2023Thousands of Burning Man attendees trudged in sloppy mud on Saturday — many barefoot or wearing plastic bags on their feet — as flooding from storms swept through the Nevada desert, forcing organizers to close vehicular access to the counterculture festival. Revelers were urged to shelter in place and conserve food, water and other supplies. Vehicular gates will be closed for the remainder of the event, which began on Aug. 27 and was scheduled to end on Monday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert where the festival is
September 02, 2023Some central Florida lawmakers said they were considering “all legislative, legal and executive options available” to stop business owners in a small town from voluntarily displaying rainbow decals in their windows indicating that they are “safe place” for LGBTQ+ people who feel threatened. Four Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to officials in Mount Dora two weeks ago warning that the new, optional city-sponsored program could put the central Florida community outside Orlando “in the crosshairs of potentially detrimental and absolutely unnecessary economic harm.” The lawmakers cited boycotts of Bud Light and Target, which followed the
September 02, 2023Two people were charged with looting a home damaged by Hurricane Idalia in Florida’s Big Bend region, as residents’ concerns grew that burglars could be tempted to hit other hurricane-ravaged homes since law enforcement is stretched thin in the remote, wooded area along the Gulf Coast. Some residents of Horseshoe Beach, Florida, one of the communities hardest hit after Idalia made landfall Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane, urged law enforcement to set up checkpoints where people would have to show identification in order to get into the town. Marina worker Kerry Ford had high
September 02, 2023A recently convicted murderer who’s been on the run for days after escaping a suburban Philadelphia prison was spotted shortly after midnight Saturday by residential security cameras in an area not far from the prison, authorities said. Authorities haven’t disclosed the circumstances of how Danelo Cavalcante, 34, managed to escape Thursday morning from Chester State Prison, and say the episode is under investigation. He was sentenced to life in prison last month for killing his ex-girlfriend in front of her children, and escaped while awaiting transfer to state prison. Cavalcante was seen on cameras at
September 02, 2023The artistic director of the Berlin International Film Festival, Carlo Chatrian, said on Saturday that he will step down next year after Germany’s culture minister announced a new management structure for the event. Chatrian joined the “Berlinale,” which along with its peers in Cannes and Venice is one of Europe’s major annual film festivals, as one of two leaders in 2019 alongside executive director Mariette Rissenbeek. The duo replaced long-serving festival director Dieter Kosslick. Earlier this year, officials said that Rissenbeek had decided not to extend her contract and would leave when it expires in March 2024.
September 02, 2023A former Italian premier, in an interview published on Saturday, contended that a French air force missile accidentally brought down a passenger jet over the Mediterranean Sea in 1980 in a failed bid to assassinate Libya’s then-leader Moammar Gadhafi. Former two-time Premier Giuliano Amato appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to either refute or confirm his assertion about the cause of the crash on June 27, 1980, which killed all 81 persons aboard the Italian domestic flight. In an interview with Rome daily La Repubblica, Amato said he is convinced that France hit the plane while targeting
September 02, 2023The Nobel Foundation on Saturday retracted its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the controversial decision “provoked strong reactions”. Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its position from a year earlier and invited representatives of the three countries to attend. Some of the lawmakers cited Russia’s war on Ukraine and the crackdown on human rights in Iran as reasons for their boycott. The
September 02, 2023Violent protests have erupted between hundreds of Eritrean asylum-seekers and Israeli police in Tel Aviv on Saturday during a protest against an event organized by the Eritrean Embassy. The Israeli police said 27 officers were injured in the clashes, and at least three protesters were shot by police firing live rounds after they felt “real danger to their lives.” Israeli police in riot gear and on horses tried to corral the protesters, who broke through barricades and hurled chunks of sidewalk, batteries and rocks at the police. Similarly violent protests have popped up all over
September 02, 2023Pakistani traders on Saturday went on strike against the soaring cost of living, including higher fuel and utility bills and record depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, which has led to widespread discontent among the public. The traders pulled their shutters down across the country, while protesters burned tires on roads to express their ange. The strike was called by ex-senator Sirajul Haq, who heads the religious political party Jamaat-e-Islami, and it was largely endorsed by trade and business bodies, market associations, lawyers associations and transporters. The country’s commercial and economic hub, Karachi, was almost completely
September 02, 2023A bus carrying pilgrims to the Iraqi city of Karbala overturned north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 18 people, medical officials said. Millions of believers converge on the city each year for the Shiite pilgrimage of Arbaeen, regarded as the largest annual public gathering in the world. Pilgrims come from various parts of Iraq as well as from Iran and the Gulf countries, with many making their way to Karbala on foot. Two Iraqi medical officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media said that the bus overturned near
September 02, 2023Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Saturday that its forces destroyed three Ukrainian naval drones being used in an attempt to attack a key bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea, forcing its temporary closure for a third time in less than a year. One naval drone was destroyed late Friday and two others early Saturday morning, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials. A key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, the Kerch bridge has come under repeated attack since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. An explosion
September 02, 2023K.C. Hwang, whose six-decade-long journalism career included 30 years chronicling South Korea’s tumultuous modern history for The Associated Press, latterly as Seoul bureau chief, has died at age 99. Hwang died Thursday of chronic ailments after undergoing kidney dialysis for two years, his son, Yoon Chul Hwang, said. From joining the AP in 1957, Hwang witnessed and reported on some of South Korea’s most dramatic and turbulent moments in its postwar history, from a public uprising that toppled the country’s first president, military coups and a presidential assassination to pro-democracy movements. “It was rare luck
September 02, 2023After consulting with several doctors in the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aayat Hameed was advised to seek help from a mental health expert for her bouts of unspecified anxiety, random palpitation attacks and occasional but strong suicidal thoughts. A psychiatrist diagnosed her with acute depression. On a recent hot summer day, Hameed was among scores of other patients visiting a mental health clinic in Srinagar, where she had been undergoing rounds of counselling along with prescription medication. “I realized seeing a psychiatrist or reaching out to someone you trust really helps to deal with suicidal
September 02, 2023They were the kids most disrupted by the pandemic, the ones who were still learning to write their names and tie their shoes when schools shut down in the spring of 2020. Now, they’re the big kids at elementary schools across the United States. Many still need profound help overcoming the effects of the pandemic. To catch up, schools have deployed a wide range of strategies. And among some incoming fourth-graders, there are encouraging signs of gains. But as this generation progresses, many will need extra reading support that schools are not as accustomed to providing for older students. Beyond
September 02, 2023Pope Francis on Saturday praised Mongolia’s tradition of religious freedom dating to the times of its founder, Genghis Khan, as he opened the first-ever papal visit to the Asian nation with a plea for peace and an end to the “insidious threat of corruption.” Francis met with President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh inside a traditional Mongolian ger, or round yurt, set up inside the state palace, and wrote a message in the guest book that he was visiting Mongolia, “a country young and ancient, modern and rich of tradition,” as a pilgrim of peace. Francis is visiting Mongolia
September 02, 2023Typhoon Saola made landfall in southern China before dawn Saturday after nearly 900,000 people were moved to safety and most of Hong Kong and other parts of coastal southern China suspended business, transport and classes. Guangdong province’s meteorological bureau said the powerful storm churned into an outlying district of the city of Zhuhai, just south of Hong Kong at 3:30 a.m. It was forecast to move in a southwesterly direction along the Guangdong coast at a speed of around 17 kph (10 mph), gradually weakening before heading out to sea. On Friday, 780,000 people in Guangdong were
September 02, 2023North Korea launched several cruise missiles into the sea Saturday, South Korea’s military said, extending its weapons testing activities in response to the United States-South Korea summer military drills. South Korea’s military detected the launches early Saturday morning off the North’s west coast, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The statement said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities were analyzing details of the launches. It said South Korea has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a firm military readiness in close coordination with the United States. The launches came two days
September 02, 2023A Louisiana company will receive $2.6 million to relinquish the last remaining oil and gas lease on U.S. forest land near Montana’s Glacier National Park that’s sacred to Native Americans, government officials and attorneys involved in the deal said Friday. The deal would resolve a decades-long dispute over the 10-square-mile (25-square-kilometer) oil and gas lease in the mountainous Badger-Two Medicine area of northwestern Montana. The lease was issued in 1982 but has not been developed. It’s on the site of the creation story for the Blackfoot tribes of southern Canada and Montana’s Blackfeet Nation. Tribal members
September 01, 2023Police in New Mexico’s capital city on Friday were investigating the partial destruction of a public monument to a 19th century frontiersman and U.S. soldier who had a leading role in the death of hundreds of Native Americans during Anglo-American settlement of the American West. The monument to Christopher “Kit” Carson has been encircled by a plywood barrier for its own protection since 2020, when Santa Fe was swept by the movement to remove depictions of historical figures who mistreated Native Americans amid a national reckoning over racial injustice. The monument’s upper spire was toppled
September 01, 2023Mohamed Al Fayed, former owner of the famed Harrods department store in London whose son was killed in a car crash with Princess Diana, has died, his family said. He was 94. Al Fayed, a self-made Egyptian businessman who was also a former owner of Fulham Football Club, was devastated by the death of son Dodi Fayed in the car crash in Paris with Princess Diana 26 years ago. He spent the rest of his life mourning the loss and fighting the British Establishment he blamed for their deaths. “Mrs Mohamed Al Fayed, her children and grandchildren
September 01, 2023The United Nations chief is going globetrotting to four major meetings before the biggest meeting of all – the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly starting Sept. 18. Secretary-General António Guterres heads first to Nairobi on Saturday for the Africa Climate Summit on Sept. 4-5, then to Jakarta for a U.N. summit with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations known as ASEAN on Sept. 6-7. From there, he flies to New Delhi for the G20 summit of the world’s 20 major economies on Sept. 8-10 and then briefly returns to New
September 01, 2023A man charged with attempted murder who escaped from a psychiatric hospital in Oregon while fully shackled was arrested Friday after he was found floundering in a muddy pond. Christopher Pray was found buried up to the armpits in the pond in Portland, the Oregon State Police said. Portland Fire & Rescue personnel extricated the man using ropes and he was taken to the hospital. Police said he gave a false name, but a hospital employee recognized Pray and police were called. The Oregon State Police are investigating how Pray managed to escape on Wednesday as
September 01, 2023Criminal groups in Ecuador used explosives Friday to damage a bridge, authorities said, demonstrating their grip on the South American country where prison inmates took dozens of law enforcement officers hostage less than two days earlier. Government officials described the violent acts as the work of criminal groups with members in prisons responding to efforts by authorities to regain control of several large correctional facilities by relocating inmates, seizing weapons and other steps. Four car bombs and three explosive devices went off across the country in less than 48 hours. The latest explosion with dynamite happened
September 01, 2023Olivia Rodrigo’s much-anticipated sophomore album and LaKeith Stanfield starring in the eight-part horror fantasy series “The Changeling” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” starring Halle Bailey, the video game NBA 2K14 pays tribute to Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and the popular comfort show “Virgin River” returns for its fifth season on Netflix. NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — The latest Disney live-action remake, “The Little Mermaid,” lands on
September 01, 2023French students won’t get past the door if they show up for school wearing long robes, President Emmanuel Macron made clear Friday, saying authorities would be “intractable” in enforcing a new rule when classes resume next week. French Education Minister Gabriel Attal announced at a news conference four days ago that robes worn mainly by Muslims, known as abayas for girls and women and khamis for boys and men, would be banned with the start of the new school year on Monday. Macron addressed the dress code for the first publicly after visiting a professional school in
September 01, 2023A Minnesota man who was a teenager when he was sent to prison for life in a high-profile murder case — then released 18 years later when his sentence was commuted — was charged Friday with gun and drug felonies after police said they found a handgun and drugs in his SUV during a traffic stop. Myon Burrell, now 37, made his first court appearance Friday, where bail was set at $50,000. His attorney said Burrell denies the allegations. “As in so many criminal prosecutions, things may not be as they first appear,” said his attorney, Paul
September 01, 2023Silicon Valley billionaires behind a secretive $800 million land-buying spree in Northern California have finally released some details about their plans for a new green city, but they still must win over skeptical voters and local leaders. After years of ducking scrutiny, Jan Sramek, the former Goldman Sachs trader spearheading the effort, launched a website Thursday about “California Forever.” The site billed the project as “a chance for a new community, good paying local jobs, solar farms, and open space” in Solano, a rural county between San Francisco and Sacramento that is now home to 450,000
September 01, 2023Clad in white shirts and carrying bouquets, children across Russia flocked back to school Friday, where the Kremlin’s narratives about the war in Ukraine and its confrontation with the West were taking an even more prominent spot than before. Students are expected each week to listen to Russia’s national anthem and watch the country’s tricolor flag being raised. There’s a weekly subject loosely translated as “Conversations about Important Things,” which was introduced last year with the goal of boosting patriotism. A new high school history textbook has a chapter on the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula
September 01, 2023An energy infrastructure project bigger than the Hoover Dam is how Hunter Armistead describes the $10 billion venture his company will be overseeing during the next three years. As the chief executive of one of the world’s largest wind and solar development companies, Armistead said breaking ground on Pattern Energy’s SunZia transmission line marks a major milestone as the United States looks to make good on promises to address climate change and bolster the nation’s already overwhelmed power grids as demand increases and weather events become more extreme. It is also a cautionary tale, he told
September 01, 2023A federal judge has struck down a Texas law requiring age verification and health warnings to view pornographic websites and blocked the state attorney general’s office from enforcing it. In a ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Ezra agreed with claims that House Bill 1181, which was signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June, violates free speech rights and is overbroad and vague. The state attorney general’s office, which is defending the law, immediately filed notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The lawsuit was filed Aug. 4 by the
September 01, 2023Hundreds of law enforcement agents searched Friday for a man recently convicted of murder in Pennsylvania for the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend, a day after he escaped from a county jail. Danelo Cavalcante, 34, is also wanted in his native Brazil in a separate slaying and is considered an extremely dangerous person, authorities said. The search dragged through a second day, with authorities using drones, helicopters and dogs. Searchers were focusing on railways, waterways and routes out of the area, Chester County’s district attorney, Deb Ryan, said at a news conference Friday. Ryan said
September 01, 2023In a small courtyard at a school in Bucha, scene of some of the worst atrocities committed by Russian soldiers during the war, Ukrainian children gathered Friday to celebrate the first day of the new school year. First graders dressed in Ukrainian embroidered costume shirts known as vyshyvankas, with neat hairstyles and holding bouquets of flowers, line up hesitantly along an improvised stage. Parents, many struggling to contain their emotions, smile and wave from the crowd, constantly taking photos. But the festive ambiance quickly shifts as the Ukrainian national anthem is played, followed by a solemn
September 01, 2023Maggie T. Sutrov showered, drank treated tap water and watered her garden before she learned that she shouldn’t be using the water in her home on Maui after wildfires devastated the island. Concerned about others making the same mistake, she quickly created a flier on water contamination from guidance she’d found on the county’s website and worked with a pop-up community center to get the word out. “Every day, people were showing up there going ‘What, I can’t drink the water? I didn’t know that,’” Sutrov said. Three weeks after the fire, Sutrov and others are anxious to know when
September 01, 2023The CEO of Walgreens Boots has stepped down after less than three years at the helm of the drug store chain that is undergoing a sizeable transformation, one that has come at a cost. Walgreens Boots Alliance confirmed Rosalind Brewer’s exit Friday. According to the Illinois company, the board of directors and Brewer “mutually agreed” to her resignation effective Thursday. Ginger Graham, who currently serves as Walgreen Boots Alliance’s lead independent director, has been named interim CEO. “I am grateful to have had the opportunity to lead Walgreens Boots Alliance and to work alongside such talented
September 01, 2023Greek firefighters rescued a group of 25 migrants trapped in a forest in northeastern Greece Friday as flames from a massive wildfire burning for two weeks approached, authorities said. The fire department said the group became trapped in the forest between two villages in the Evros region, near the border with Turkey. No injuries were reported. There was no immediate information on their nationalities. The blaze, burning for the 14th day Friday, has already been blamed for the deaths of 20 people whose bodies were found last week. All are believed to have been migrants who
September 01, 2023India’s fractured opposition parties decided Friday to jointly contest the 2024 national elections in their bid to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and prevent his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party from achieving a third straight win. The 26 opposition parties decided to work out seat-sharing arrangements in different states in “a collaborative spirit of give-and-take″ to avoid splitting votes in favor of Modi’s party. India’s national elections are scheduled to be held around May next year. Congress party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi joined other key opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Arvind Kejriwal, Sitaram Yechury
September 01, 2023Gabon’s opposition leader accused the family of the recently ousted president of engineering his removal from power in order to retain their control in the oil-rich Central African nation. Speaking to French media outlet TV5 Monde Thursday, Albert Ondo Ossa said the junta who ousted Gabon’s president on Wednesday did not engage in a coup but rather a “palace revolution” in order to continue their family’s reign. Soldiers toppled President Ali Bongo Ondimba and put him under house arrest, accusing him of irresponsible governance that risked leading the country into chaos. They then put Bongo’s cousin
September 01, 2023The slaying of an endangered brown bear near an Italian national park left her two young cubs motherless and sparked outrage on Friday in Italy. Voicing anger and dismay over the killing of the bear in the mountainous Abruzzo region were Italy’s environment minister and animal rights advocates. Locals, including families with small children, would stop and watch the bear and her cubs on the animal family’s frequent evening excursions through streets of towns near the park. The National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise described the slain animal, nicknamed Amarena — or Black Cherry in Italian
September 01, 2023Emergency services teams have left the scene of one of South Africa’s deadliest inner-city fires and pathologists faced the grisly task Friday of identifying dozens of charred bodies and some body parts that have been transported to several mortuaries across the city of Johannesburg. That will establish whether the death toll of 74 rises following Thursday’s predawn blaze at a derelict downtown apartment building that was inhabited by mainly homeless people and others who found themselves marginalized in one of Africa’s biggest cities. Emergency services personnel conducted three searches through all five stories of the building and
September 01, 2023The Israeli military on Friday raided a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, besieging an apartment and sparking a gunfight with local militants that killed an apparently uninvolved Palestinian teacher, Palestinian health officials and the man’s family said. The raid was the latest in a series of Israeli army actions in the occupied territory that have resulted in a high Palestinian death toll. Israeli security forces stormed into a town near Tubas, northeast of the Palestinian city of Nablus, and surrounded a house where militants were believed to be holed up. Israeli soldiers called on the
September 01, 2023Thailand’s king on Friday reduced the prison term of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from eight years to one year following the divisive politician’s return from 15 years of self-imposed exile. The decision by King Maha Vajiralongkorn was published Friday in the Royal Gazette, making ii effective immediately. Thaksin was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, when he was ousted by a military coup. He fled Thailand in 2008 when he faced prison time on charges he described as politically motivated. He returned to Thailand last week and was immediately sent to prison, but was quickly transferred
September 01, 2023A 98-year-old man has been charged in Germany with being an accessory to murder as a guard at the Nazis’ Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1943 and 1945, prosecutors said Friday. The German citizen, a resident of Main-Kinzig county near Frankfurt, is accused of having “supported the cruel and malicious killing of thousands of prisoners as a member of the SS guard detail,” prosecutors in Giessen said in a statement. They did not release the suspect’s name. He is charged with more than 3,300 counts of being an accessory to murder between July 1943 and February 1945. The
September 01, 2023Russian officials said Friday that air defenses intercepted drones heading toward three of the country’s western regions, while satellite images indicated that a major drone barrage earlier in the week destroyed at least two Ilyushin Il-76 military transport planes at a Russian air base. Regional governors said defense systems stopped three drones in the Kursk, Belgorod and Moscow regions. Moscow airports briefly halted flights but no major damage or injuries were reported, according to Russian authorities. Drones aimed at targets inside Russia — and blamed by Moscow on Ukraine — have become almost a daily occurrence as the war has
September 01, 2023The Nobel Foundation that administers the prestigious awards, has reversed its invitation policy and invited Russia, Belarus and Iran, as well as the leader of a far-right Swedish party, who had previously been banned. Vidar Helgesen, the executive director of the private foundation said in a statement that there was a global trend in which “dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced.” To counter that, he said, “we are now broadening our invitations to celebrate and understand the Nobel Prize and the importance of free science, free culture and free, peaceful societies.” The foundation said
September 01, 2023Asian shares were trading mixed Friday as investors looked toward a U.S. jobs report being released later in the day. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to finish at 32,710.62. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 7,278.30. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3% to 2,563.71. The Shanghai Composite added 0.4% to 3,133.25. Trading was halted in Hong Kong because of an approaching typhoon. Schools and businesses were shut as an official warning was issued about Super Typhoon Saola. Later Friday, the U.S. government will report employment data for August. The strong job market, along with consumer spending, has
September 01, 2023Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida staged a televised disaster drill Friday based on a fictional earthquake in the capital region, as his country marked the centennial of the real-life 1923 Great Kanto Quake that killed more than 100,000 people. The 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck the Sagamihara area southwest of Tokyo on Sept. 1, 1923, just before noon triggered a widespread inferno in the region, causing most of the victims to perish in the fire. The blaze destroyed nearly 300,000 Japanese paper-and-wood homes as the country suffered major social and economic damage just as it was seeking to
September 01, 2023Border Patrol agents ordered the young Senegalese men to wait in the scant shade of desert scrub brush while they loaded a more vulnerable group of migrants — a family with three young children from India — into a white van for the short trip in triple-degree heat to a canopied field intake center. The migrants were among hundreds who have been trudging this summer in the scorching sun and through open storm gates in the border wall to U.S. soil, following a remote corridor in the sprawling Organ Pipe Cactus National
September 01, 2023Body camera footage showing the final moments of a pregnant Black woman who was shot and killed by police in an Ohio parking lot last week is expected to be released to the public on Friday. Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old from Columbus, was pronounced dead shortly after the Aug. 24 shooting outside a grocery store in the suburb of Blendon Township. Her unborn daughter did not survive. Suspected of shoplifting, police say Young was killed after she accelerated her car toward an officer. The family’s lawyer, Sean Walton, claims the police department has waited to release
September 01, 2023Hurricanes and tropical storms are nothing new in the South, but the sheer magnitude of damage from Idalia shocked Desmond Roberson as he toured what as left of his Georgia neighborhood. Roberson took a drive through Valdosta on Thursday with a friend to check out damage after the storm, which first hit Florida as a hurricane and then weakened into a tropical storm as it made its way north, ripped through the town of 55,000. On one street, he said, a tree had fallen on nearly every house. Roads remained blocked by tree trunks and
September 01, 2023A vision of armed officers at every school in Texas is crashing into the reality of not enough money or police as a new mandate took effect Friday, showing how a goal more states are embracing in response to America’s cycle of mass killings is proving unworkable in many communities. Dozens of Texas’ largest school districts, which educate many of the state’s 5 million students, are reopening classrooms without meeting the state’s new requirements of armed officers on every campus. The mandate is a pillar of a safety bill signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who
September 01, 2023Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Thursday his administration has opened several investigations into people who have allegedly made unsolicited offers for property in the fire-stricken Maui town of Lahaina in violation of a new emergency order. Green prohibited such offers by signing an emergency proclamation earlier this week aimed at preventing land in the historic coastal community from flowing into the hands of outside buyers. The order aims to give residents some “breathing room” as they decide what to do next, Green said in an interview with The Associated Press. Even before the Aug. 8 fire, Lahaina
September 01, 2023America’s employers added 187,000 jobs in August, evidence of a slowing but still-resilient labor market despite the high interest rates the Federal Reserve has imposed. Last month’s job growth marked an increase from July’s revised gain of 157,000 but still pointed to a moderating pace of hiring compared with the sizzling gains of last year and earlier this year. From June through August, the economy added 449,000 jobs, the lowest three-month total in three years. In addition, the government revised down the gains for June and July by a combined 110,000. Friday’s report from the Labor Department
September 01, 2023Most of Hong Kong and some other areas in southern China ground to a near standstill Friday with classes and flights canceled as Super Typhoon Saola edged closer to the region. The typhoon could make a landfall in parts of southern China and many workers were forced to stay at home. Pupils in various cities had the start of their school year postponed to next week. Hong Kong’s stock market trading was suspended and nearly 200 outbound flights for Friday were canceled in the key center for regional business and travel. China Railway Guangzhou Group said
September 01, 2023A founder of the classified site Backpage.com and four employees carefully strategized how to bring in ads for prostitution to maintain their top-earning platform, a prosecutor said Thursday at a federal trial in Phoenix. Attorneys for Michael Lacey and the other four defendants countered that their clients had nothing to do with the daily operations of classified ads. The clash over culpability was at the center of opening statements in the second trial of all five on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money in what authorities say was a scheme to knowingly sell ads for sex
September 01, 2023Labor Day is right around the corner, along with the big sales and barbecues that come with it. But the activist roots of the holiday are especially visible this year as unions challenge how workers are treated — from Hollywood to the auto production lines of Detroit. The early-September tribute to workers has been an official holiday for almost 130 years — but an emboldened labor movement has created an environment closer to the era from which Labor Day was born. Like the late 1800s, workers are facing rapid economic transformation — and a growing gap
September 01, 2023The stepsister of a Colorado woman who was found dead along with her sister and teenage son at a remote Rocky Mountain campsite says the women fled into the wilderness after struggling to cope with societal changes in recent years, but they were unequipped to survive off the grid. Exposed to several feet of snow, chills below zero and with no food found at their camp, Christine Vance, Rebecca Vance and Rebecca’s son likely died of malnutrition and hypothermia, according to the autopsies released this week. Authorities haven’t released the boy’s name. Those reports contained another chilling
September 01, 2023A member of the violent MS-13 street gang pleaded guilty Thursday for his part in the murders of four people, including two teenage girls who were attacked with a machete and baseball bats as they walked through their suburban Long Island neighborhood seven years ago. Enrique Portillo, 26, was among several gang members accused of ambushing best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, in retaliation for a dispute among high school students in 2016. The murders in Brentwood, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of New York City, shook parents and local officials
September 01, 2023Prosecutors have asked Indiana State Police to investigate the recent deaths of at least eight dogs from heat-related injuries while being transported in the back of an uncooled box truck. The dead dogs were discovered July 27 in Lake Station while the truck traveled from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to a training facility in Michigan. The animal rights group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals had called for a state police investigation, and the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office formally requested one Wednesday. The dogs that died were among 18 shepherds in the truck. The
August 31, 2023The United Auto Workers union says it has filed unfair labor practice complaints against Stellantis and General Motors for failing to make counteroffers to the union’s economic demands. Ford was the only company of the Detroit Three to make a counteroffer, but it rejected most of the union’s proposals, President Shawn Fain told workers Thursday in a Facebook Live meeting. Contracts between 146,000 auto workers and the Detroit companies expire at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14, and Fain is once again threatening to strike. He told members that the companies have been warned not to wait until the
August 31, 2023Police in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where a professor was fatally shot on a college campus this week, received information on the suspect’s identity within minutes of the gunfire, according to a recording of the 911 call. Some portions of the audio sound redacted, but what was released describes the first moments after Monday’s shooting of Associate Professor Zijie Yan inside a science building in the heart of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Police said they arrested Tailei Qi, 34, of Chapel Hill, without force off campus less than two hours after the
August 31, 2023A Trump-era rule allowing railroads to haul highly flammable liquefied natural gas will now be formally put on hold to allow more time to study the safety concerns related to transporting that fuel and other substances like hydrogen that must be kept at extremely low temperatures when they are shipped, regulators announced Thursday. Right after it was announced in the summer of 2020, the rule was challenged in court by a number of environmental groups and 14 states. The uncertainty about the rule on transporting the fuel known as LNG kept railroads from shipping it. The
August 31, 2023A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a new law that would have required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts, preventing the state from becoming the first to impose such a restriction. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks granted a preliminary injunction that NetChoice — a tech industry trade group whose members include TikTok, Facebook parent Meta, and X, formerly known as Twitter — had requested against the law. The measure, which Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law in April, was set to take effect Friday.
August 31, 2023Mexico’s broad opposition coalition announced Thursday it has chosen Senator Xóchitl Gálvez as its candidate in the June 2, 2024 presidential elections. The de-facto nomination — which will be formalized later when candidates are registered — suggests that Mexico’s next president will likely be a woman, as former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum leads most polls on the primary race for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party. Mexico has never had a woman president, though there have been several female candidates in the past. The opposition coalition — known as the Broad Front for Mexico
August 31, 2023A federal judge ruled Thursday that Kansas officials are no longer required to keep changing transgender people’s birth certificates so the documents reflect their gender identities. U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree approved Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach’s request to block the changes because of a new state law rolling back trans rights. Kansas joins Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee in barring such birth certificate changes. Kansas is for now also among a few states that don’t let trans people change their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identities. That’s because of a separate state-court lawsuit Kobach
August 31, 2023Those attending outdoor parties or barbecues in New York City this weekend may notice an uninvited guest looming over their festivities: a police surveillance drone. The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday. “If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” Kaz Daughtry, the assistant NYPD Commissioner, said at a press conference. The
August 31, 2023A Utah woman who gave online parenting advice via a once popular YouTube channel has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated child abuse after her malnourished son escaped out a window and ran to a nearby house for help, authorities said. Ruby Franke, whose now defunct channel “8 Passengers” followed her family, was arrested Wednesday night in the southern Utah city of Ivins. She was taken into custody at the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, who owns a counseling business that she says teaches people to improve their lives by being honest, responsible and humble. Franke has recently appeared in YouTube
August 31, 2023Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution said Thursday they will spend an additional $2 billion and hire an extra 400 workers to make batteries at the automaker’s sprawling U.S. electrical vehicle plant that’s under construction in Georgia. The announcement by the South Korea-based companies — one a major automaker, the other a leading producer of lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles — expands on a partnership they launched three months ago to produce batteries at the same site west of Savannah, where Hyundai plans to start EV production in 2025. The news Thursday brings
August 31, 2023A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a new Texas law that drag show artists fear will be used to shut them down or put them in jail. The law, approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature, would expand the legal definition in the Texas criminal code of what is considered to be an illegal public performance of sexual conduct in front of children. It is part of a broader effort in Texas and other conservative states to crack down on drag shows and limit LGBTQ rights. Critics argued that the definition is so broad, it could include the
August 31, 2023Yale University President Peter Salovey, who has led the Ivy League school for the past decade, announced Thursday that he will step down from his post next year and plans to return to Yale’s faculty. Salovey, 65, has been president since 2013 after having served just over four years as Yale’s provost, following stints as dean of both Yale College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences as well as chairperson of the Psychology Department. He also earned master’s degrees and a doctorate in psychology at Yale in the 1980s before joining the Yale
August 31, 2023Two more teenagers have been arrested in a mass shooting that left two people dead and 28 others injured during a Baltimore block party earlier this summer, authorities announced Thursday afternoon. Police arrested Aaron Brown, 18, and a 14-year-old. Both face multiple charges, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, authorities said. Police had already arrested a teen charged with possessing a firearm during the shooting and another who they say shot into a crowd alongside Brown. City leaders on Wednesday released a lengthy report detailing shortcomings in the police response to the shooting, which is
August 31, 2023A judge on Thursday granted a request by a teachers union in Texas’ largest school district to temporarily block a new system to evaluate educators that’s being implemented following a state takeover. The order comes days after the Houston school district began its first school year under a contentious takeover that replaced its superintendent and board of trustees. It also follows rare public comments on the takeover by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath since he announced it in March. One of the changes being put in place by new superintendent Mike Miles is a new teacher evaluation
August 31, 2023The United States military called for an end to days of fighting between rival U.S.-backed groups in east Syria Thursday, warning it may help the resurgence of the Islamic State group. The fighting that broke out Monday — and left at least 40 people dead and dozens wounded in the eastern oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour — was the worst in years. East Syria is where hundreds of U.S. troops have been based since 2015 to help battle IS militants. The clashes pitted members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces against its former ally the Arab-led Deir
August 31, 2023A federal judge in Delaware ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys on Thursday to provide a status report regarding a felony gun charge against Hunter Biden. Judge Maryellen Noreika directed lawyers to provide the report by next Wednesday, including any steps they believe the court needs to take. Attorneys for Biden have argued that a “diversion agreement” sparing him from prosecution on the gun charge is still in place, even though it was inextricably linked to a plea deal on misdemeanor tax offenses that imploded during a court appearance in July. Noreika dismissed the tax case, and
August 31, 2023Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law placing strict limits on drag shows is once again facing a legal challenge after a local district attorney warned Pride organizers that he intends to enforce the new statute despite a federal judge ruling the ban was unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed the lawsuit late Wednesday on behalf of a organization planning a Blount County Pride festival on Sept. 2. The ACLU is also representing drag performer Flamy Grant, who was hired to perform at the event. The plaintiffs are asking the federal court in eastern Tennessee to block
August 31, 2023A Missouri judge ruled Thursday that the 84-year-old white homeowner who shot a Black teenager after he mistakenly went to the man’s house must stand trial. Clay County Judge Louis Angles issued the ruling after hearing from several witnesses at a preliminary hearing, including Ralph Yarl, the teenager who was shot by Andrew Lester on April 13 when Yarl went to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers. Lester, a retired aircraft mechanic, is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He previously pleaded not guilty in the shooting that shocked the
August 31, 2023Canada this week updated its travel advisory to the U.S., warning members of the LGBTQ+ community that some American states have enacted laws that may affect them. The country’s Global Affairs department did not specify which states, but is advising travelers to check the local laws for their destination before traveling. “Since the beginning of 2023, certain states in the U.S. have passed laws banning drag shows and restricting the transgender community from access to gender-affirming care and from participation in sporting events,” Global Affairs spokesman Jérémie Bérubé said Thursday in an emailed statement. “Outside Canada, laws
August 31, 2023Pope Francis is travelling to Mongolia to encourage one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities, the first papal visit to the Asian country at a time when the Vatican’s relations with Mongolia’s two powerful neighbors Russia and China are once again strained. Francis arrives in the Mongol capital Ulaanbaatar on Friday morning after an overnight flight passing through Chinese airspace, which will give him a rare opportunity to send a note of greetings to President Xi Jinping. Vatican protocol calls for the pope to send such greetings whenever he flies over a foreign country. After
August 31, 2023Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson have committed $10 million to make direct payments to people on Maui who are unable to return to their homes because of the wildfires, through a new fund they announced Thursday. The People’s Fund of Maui will give $1,200 a month to adults who are not able to return to their primary residences because of the recent wildfires, including people who owned and rented their homes, according to the fund’s website. The fund will also seek donations to extend the length of time it can provide the support. “How do we help?” the “Young Rock”
August 31, 2023Ecuador’s fragile security situation was underscored Thursday by a series of car bombings and the hostage-taking of more than 50 law enforcement officers inside various prisons, just weeks after the country was shaken by the assassination of a presidential candidate. Ecuador’s National Police reported no injuries resulting from the four explosions in Quito, the capital, and in a province that borders Peru, while Interior Minister Juan Zapata said none of the law enforcement officers taken hostage in six different prisons had been injured. Authorities said the brazen actions were the response of criminal groups to the
August 31, 2023Commercial hunting of fin whales can resume in Iceland but with stricter requirements on hunting methods and increased supervision, the North Atlantic island nation’s government said Thursday. Animal rights groups responded to the decision with dismay and called it “shameful.” The temporary ban that Icelandic authorities imposed in June, on animal welfare grounds, ends Thursday. Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority estimated in a May report that 67% of the 58 whales caught by boats it monitored died or lost consciousness quickly or immediately. But it said 14 whales were shot more than once, and two were shot
August 31, 2023India’s economy registered impressive growth of 7.8% in the first quarter of the current financial year (April-June), attributed to good performance by the agriculture and financial sectors, according to official data released on Thursday. The World Bank says India is one of the fastest-growing economies of the world and is poised to continue on this path. India’s agriculture sector recorded growth of 3.5% in three months, up from 2.4% in the April-June quarter last year, according to the data released by the government-run National Statistical Office. The rise in financial, real estate and professional services was
August 31, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday his country has developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers (400 miles) away, in an apparent reference to the previous day’s strike on an airport in western Russia. Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel the weapon was produced by Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries but gave no other details. On Wednesday, a four-hour wave of drones that Moscow blamed on Ukraine hit an airport near Russia’s border with Estonia and Latvia, damaging four Il-76 military transport planes, according to local reports. The airport is in Russia’s Pskov region,
August 31, 2023U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week as companies held on to employees in an economy that has largely withstood rapidly rising interest rates, intended to cool hiring and spending, for more than a year. The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits last fell week by 4,000, to 228,000 the week ending August 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 250 to 237,500. Jobless claim applications are seen as representative of the number of layoffs in a given week. The Federal Reserve,
August 31, 2023An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained low last month, adding to signs of cooling price increases and raising the likelihood that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged when it next meets in late September. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose just 0.2% from June to July, the third straight modest increase. Compared with a year earlier, prices rose 3.3% in July, up from a 3% annual increase in June. The year-over-year figure, though, is down sharply from the 7% peak it reached a year ago, though still above
August 31, 2023Niger’s military junta has revoked the diplomatic immunity of France’s ambassador and ordered police to expel him from the country, according to a statement from the military regime. The mutinous soldiers who ousted Niger’s president more than a month ago gave French Ambassador Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country last week. The deadline expired on August 28 without France recalling Itte. The French government says it doesn’t recognize the coup-plotters as the country’s legitimate leaders. The communique sent by Niger’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier this week and seen by The Associated Press on
August 31, 2023As the sun rose on an unusually steamy opening day of the Minnesota State Fair, Jeff Knott and his two daughters joined the already long breakfast line outside the Hamline Church Dining Hall. The Lutheran family, at the fair to show the teen girls’ pigs Billy and Lil’ Red, favor this Methodist all-volunteer diner for its early opening, variety of foods including the signature “hamloaf” sandwich, and religious mission. “They use their proceeds for mission work, which I think is important,” Knott said before the family bowed their heads to say grace at the hall’s
August 31, 2023The head of Sudan’s army warned Thursday that the northeast African country will be divided if the conflict between the military and rival paramilitary force is not resolved. Sudan was plunged into chaos after monthslong tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting on April 15. “We are facing a war, and if it is not resolved quickly Sudan will be fragmented,” Burhan said in a speech addressed to the country’s police force in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.
August 31, 2023Iran accused Israel on Thursday of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used. Israel did not immediately acknowledge the accusation, made in a report aired on Iranian state television. The report described the alleged Israeli operation as “one of the biggest attempts at sabotage” it had ever seen. It accused Israeli Mossad agents of supplying the faulty parts, which the state TV report described as low-price “connectors.” Footage aired by state TV showed the alleged parts, some of them
August 31, 2023After mutinous soldiers in Gabon announced they had deposed the country’s president, many residents danced in the streets and declared themselves free from the presidential family’s 55-year rule. It’s becoming a familiar scene in West and Central Africa, which has recorded eight coups since 2020. “It is an expression of the popular dissatisfaction,” said Hermann Ngoulou in the Gabonese capital of Libreville. “The country has been experiencing a deep crisis on all levels due to bad governance, the rising cost of food (and) the high cost of living.” There have been about 100 documented coups across
August 31, 2023Batteries in older Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are getting a new life as portable power sources that can be used to run gadgets on the go or deliver emergency power in disasters. Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. has sold more than 650,000 Leaf EVs. Their batteries often retain a charging capacity longer than the car’s life span. Nissan says it is using the old batteries in portable power sources it developed with electronics maker JVCKenwood Corp. and 4R Energy Corp., a company co-owned by Nissan and Sumitomo Corp. which works on ecological vehicles and power storage
August 31, 2023North Korea said Thursday its latest missile launches simulated “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korea and that it’s also been rehearsing an occupation of its rival’s territory in the event of conflict. Pyongyang has previously tested nuclear-capable missiles and described how it would use them in potential wars with South Korea and the U.S. But the North’s disclosure of detailed war plans reaffirmed its aggressive nuclear doctrine to intimidate its opponents, as it escalates its protest of the ongoing South Korean-U.S. military exercises that it views as a major security threat, observers say. North
August 31, 2023European Union ministers expressed deep concern Thursday at the growing number of military coups across Africa as the bloc draws up sanctions targeting the junta in Niger which overthrew an elected government a month ago. On Wednesday, the oil-rich nation of Gabon became the eighth Central or West African country to be hit by a military takeover in the last three years. The EU has not been training Gabon’s armed forces -– although French troops have -– but it has funded and taught troops in Mali and Niger. The military training has focused mainly on the volatile
August 31, 2023Five people have been shot in an Illinois neighborhood and two of them were in critical condition, police said. The wounded, as well as a sixth person who suffered a laceration, were taken to a hospital following the shooting, which happened about 9 p.m. Wednesday, the Peoria Police Department said in a news release, saying 29 rounds were fired. The wounded were men and juvenile males, police said. With the exception of those in critical condition, police described the injuries as non-life-threatening. “When we arrived here, obviously there was chaos,” Police Chief Eric Echevarria told WEEK-TV.
August 31, 2023The first giant pandas born in Germany celebrated their fourth birthday Thursday as the Berlin Zoo prepares to send them to China, a journey that was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pit and Paule, who also are known by the Chinese names Meng Xiang und Meng Yuan, have been a star attraction at the zoo since their birth in 2019. On Thursday, keepers presented them with an ice cake made with apples, carrots and beetroot, and a side serving of snow. While China for decades gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot as part of a policy
August 31, 2023Two people closely linked to India’s Adani Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, secretly purchased millions of dollars of stocks in the group’s companies, possibly violating Indian law, according to a report Thursday by a network of investigative journalists. Market rules require that at least 25% of a company’s shares be available for public purchase. The report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project said the two men used “opaque investment funds based in the island nation of Mauritius” to obscure their involvement in controlling up to nearly 14% of the public shares. The
August 31, 2023Annual inflation held steady in Europe in August as food prices raced ahead of falling fuel costs, but there was no clarity about whether the European Central Bank can pause its record series of interest rate hikes. The consumer price index for the 20 countries that use the euro currency was unchanged at 5.3% from the July reading, supported by food, alcohol and tobacco prices that increased a painful 9.8%, according to official figures Thursday from EU statistics agency Eurostat. Another key inflation number — so-called core inflation that leaves out volatile fuel and food —
August 31, 2023Greek authorities further reinforced firefighting forces in the country’s northeast Thursday, where a massive blaze in its thirteenth day has flared up once more, triggering authorities to issue alerts to residents in the area to be on standby for possible evacuation. More than 100 extra firefighters were deployed, bringing the total to 582, backed by a fleet of 10 planes and seven helicopters from nine European countries, the fire department said. The fire that started Aug. 19 has decimated homes and vast tracts of forest in the Alexandroupolis and Evros region, near Greece’s border with Turkey.
August 31, 2023Japanese retailer Seven & i Holdings Co. is selling department store chain Sogo & Seibu Co. to a U.S. investment fund, even as the labor union went on strike ahead of the announcement Thursday. The transfer to Fortress Investment Group will be completed Friday, according to Seven & i Holdings. The decision came at a board of directors meeting. The proposed sales price is 220 billion yen ($1.5 billion) but won’t be final until the transfer’s completion set for Friday. Separately, some of Sogo & Seibu’s debts, or nearly 92 billion yen ($630 million), will be forgiven,
August 31, 2023U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace formally submitted his resignation on Thursday amid speculation that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will name his successor later in the day. Wallace, who said last month he would resign before the next Cabinet reshuffle, ended four years in the post in which he oversaw the military response to the war in Ukraine. He used his resignation letter to press for increased funding for the military, long his primary issue. “I genuinely believe that over the next decade the world will get more insecure and more unstable,’’ Wallace wrote in his letter to
August 31, 2023Gabonese awoke Thursday to a new military leader after mutinous soldiers ousted a president whose family had ruled the oil-rich Central African nation for more than five decades. The new leader is Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, head of the elite republican guard unit, who soldiers announced on state TV Wednesday, hours after President Ali Bongo Ondimba was declared winner of last week’s presidential election, which Gabonese and observers say was marred with irregularities and a lack of transparency. The soldiers accused Bongo of irresponsible governance that risked leading the country into chaos and have put
August 31, 2023A Palestinian driver slammed his truck into pedestrians at a busy checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, wounding three people in the latest bloodshed in a relentless cycle of violence to roil the region. The violence came a day after Israeli police shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who stabbed a man in a Jerusalem light-rail station and after Palestinian militants detonated a bomb near a convoy of Israeli troops escorting Jewish worshippers to a holy site in the West Bank, wounding four Israeli troops. The unrest is part of more than
August 31, 2023Swiss bank UBS announced Thursday plans to save $10 billion in costs as it moves ahead with “full integration” of longtime rival Credit Suisse’s domestic operations, as UBS released its first earnings report since the government-orchestrated merger to help stave off a possible global financial meltdown. The announcement came as the Zurich-based bank reported a whopping $29 billion in pre-tax profit in the second quarter. But underlying profit before taxes came in at $1.1 billion, which excludes some $29 billion in negative goodwill, integration costs and other impacts of the Credit Suisse takeover. In a separate statement,
August 31, 2023Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday after Japanese factory activity and Chinese service industry growth weakened. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul declined. Tokyo gained. Oil prices edged lower. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.4% on Wednesday after the U.S. government cut its estimate of economic growth for the second quarter to a still-robust level. Traders hope that and this week’s updates on hiring and consumer inflation will convince the Federal Reserve prices are under control and no more interest rate hikes are needed. Official data showed Japanese factory activity shrank by 2% from the
August 31, 2023Tropical Storm Idalia descended on the Carolinas on its way out to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction throughout the Southeast that stretched back to its landfall as a hurricane in Florida. Rescue and repair efforts continued in the areas the storm passed Wednesday and there was no immediate word on the toll from the ferocious winds and inundating waters, but authorities counted at least one death. The storm left as many as a half-million customers without power in Florida and other states at one point as it ripped down
August 31, 2023At least 58 people died when a fire ripped through a multi-story building in Johannesburg that had been overtaken by homeless people, emergency services said Thursday. Spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said another 43 people were injured in the blaze that broke out in the predawn hours. He said the death toll was likely to still increase in what he described as effectively “an informal settlement.” “Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” Mulaudzi said. A search and recovery operation was underway and firefighters were moving through the building, Mulaudzi said. The team
August 31, 2023Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm Baidu made its ChatGPT-equivalent language model fully available to the public Thursday, raising the company’s stock price by over 3% following the announcement. Beijing sees artificial intelligence as a key industry to rival the United States and aims to become a global leader by 2030. Chinese technology firms have also raced to unveil their generative AI models — in which algorithms allow the technology to produce and create new content — after U.S. firm OpenAI launched the widely popular ChatGPT. Baidu said Thursday that Ernie Bot would be fully
August 31, 2023A fire killed 15 people Thursday in a small apparel factory in a Philippine residential area, where firefighters were delayed by flooding, traffic and a wrong address, a fire protection official. Most of the victims appeared to be factory workers and carpenters who were sleeping in rooms when the fire broke out Thursday morning. Some were found dead on an aisle outside the rooms and the factory owner and his child were among the dead, Chief Superintendent Nahum Tarroza of the Bureau of Fire Protection said. Three people survived with injuries by jumping off the second
August 31, 2023Diego Fonseca looked at the computer and took a breath. It was his final attempt at the math placement test for his first year of college. His first three tries put him in pre-calculus, a blow for a student who aced honors physics and computer science in high school. Functions and trigonometry came easily, but the basics gave him trouble. He struggled to understand algebra, a subject he studied only during a year of remote learning in high school. “I didn’t have a hands-on, in-person class, and the information wasn’t really there,” said Fonseca, 19, of
August 31, 2023Last year it was Hurricane Ian that drew a bead on Tampa Bay before abruptly shifting east to strike southwest Florida more than 130 miles (210 kilometers) away. This time it was Hurricane Idalia, which caused some serious flooding as it sideswiped the area but packed much more punch at landfall Wednesday, miles to the north. In fact, the Tampa Bay area hasn’t been hit directly by a major hurricane for more than a century. The last time it happened, there were just a few hundred thousand people living in the region, compared with more than 3 million today. “Tampa
August 31, 2023North Korea said Thursday its latest missile launches simulated “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korea and that it’s also been rehearsing an occupation of its rivals’ territory in the event of conflict. Pyongyang has previously tested nuclear-capable missiles and described how it would use them in potential wars with South Korea and the U.S. But the North’s disclosure of detailed war plans reaffirmed its aggressive nuclear doctrine to intimidate its opponents, as it escalates its protest of the ongoing South Korean-U.S. military exercises that it views as a major security threat, observers say. North
August 31, 2023Before the fatal shootings of three Black residents in Jacksonville, Florida, over the weekend, the gunman, a young white man with swastikas painted on his rifle, pulled into a parking lot at Edward Waters University and began putting on tactical gear. Students reported him, a campus police officer approached and he sped off in his vehicle having never identified himself. The shootings dredged up memories of another infamous racist attack in the city nearly 60 years ago known as Ax Handle Saturday. In that incident, a mob of Ku Klux Klan members armed with ax handles chased and beat 17-year-old
August 31, 2023The National Weather Service on Wednesday warned gusty winds and low humidity have increased the risk that fires could spread rapidly in the western parts of each Hawaiian island, three weeks after a deadly blaze tore through a coastal Maui town during a similar alert. But the agency said winds would not be as powerful compared to Aug. 8 when flames burned down much of Lahaina, killing at least 115 people and destroying more than 2,000 structures. The fire was the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. Lahaina’s flames were fanned by wind gusts
August 31, 2023Groceries stashed in the back of an electric delivery scooter are an increasingly familiar sight in the Indian city of Bengaluru. In crowded markets, electric rickshaws drop off and pick up passengers. And the number of tech startups focused on electric transport has shot up as the city — and country — embrace electric vehicles. India is one of the fastest-growing electric vehicle markets in the world and now has millions of EV owners. More than 90% of its 2.3 million electric vehicles are the cheaper and more popular two- or three-wheelers — that’s motorbikes, scooters
August 31, 2023When Preethi moved to Bengaluru in southern India 10 years ago after being kicked out of her family home for being transgender, she hoped for a better future. But 38-year-old Preethi, who only uses her first name, couldn’t get consistent work. For most of the decade, her main way of making money was begging on the city’s streets, making her susceptible to abuse and violent crime. “I just didn’t want that kind of life anymore,” she recalls. Then in March last year, she got a chance to turn things around. She got the keys to her
August 31, 2023By some measures, air travelers have enjoyed a less stressful summer than last year, but canceled flights remain elevated as airlines face their last big test of the prime vacation season: Labor Day weekend. The Federal Aviation Administration predicts that this will be the third busiest holiday weekend of the year so far, behind only the Juneteenth weekend, which included Father’s Day, and the Presidents Day break. Hurricane Idalia weakened and headed out to sea Thursday. While the storm left damage and power outages, its impact on travel eased. Airlines canceled several dozen flights in Florida and
August 30, 2023JCPenney said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion by the end of 2025 in a bid to revive the storied but troubled 121-year-old department store chain. The money is going toward remodeling JCPenney stores, upgrading its online shopping site and app, and making its supply network more efficient so that online orders are delivered more quickly. JCPenney’s CEO Marc Rosen, who took the company’s helm in November 2021 and has served as an executive at Levi Strauss and Walmart, is renewing the chain’s focus on its core middle-income shoppers with affordable fashion and
August 30, 2023Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has lost his phone privileges and his prison tablet computer after his lawyer recorded him reading his journal entries on a call for a documentary about his case, South Carolina Corrections Department officials said Wednesday. Prison policy prohibits inmates from talking to the media without permission because the agency “believes that victims of crime should not have to see or hear the person who victimized them or their family member on the news,” state prisons spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said in a statement. The media interview violation, along with another violation for using
August 30, 2023Guatemala’s Congress, which is controlled by the currently governing party, on Wednesday refused to recognize the seven lawmakers from the Seed Movement party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo, following the suspension of his party earlier this week. Lawmakers declared their Seed Movement colleagues independents in the latest move against the party since Arévalo’s landslide win Aug. 20. Prosecutors have accused the Seed Movement of wrongdoing in gathering signatures for the party’s registration years earlier. The case was announced in July after Arévalo won a surprise place in the presidential runoff against former first lady Sandra Torres. Anti-corruption
August 30, 2023A shooting that left a faculty member dead and frightened students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has galvanized gun safety advocates and local Democrats, who rallied the grieving campus community Wednesday to fight for stricter state gun laws. About 600 students held protest signs on a large lawn in the heart of campus and bowed their heads during a moment of silence as the iconic campus Bell Tower rang in honor of the deceased associate professor, Zijie Yan. Yan, who led a research group in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences,
August 30, 2023Three people were arrested Wednesday in the Dominican Republic as part of an ongoing investigation into a powerful explosion at a plastics company that killed at least 34 people earlier this month. Those arrested include the owner of the company and his wife, a government official who was not authorized to speak to the media told The Associated Press. The explosion was caused by an accumulation of highly flammable gases that could have been generated by the plastics and organic peroxide material stored at the company, according to a preliminary report by the firefighting
August 30, 2023Residential customers of Georgia’s largest electrical utility could see their bills rise another $9 a month to pay for a new nuclear power plant under a deal announced Wednesday. Georgia Power Co. said customers would pay $7.56 billion more for Plant Vogtle construction costs under the agreement with utility regulatory staff. The Georgia Public Service Commission’s five elected commissioners must approve any deal, but such agreements are typically persuasive. With the commission’s Public Interest Advocacy staff and three leading ratepayer groups signing on, the agreement is likely to avert contentious hearings over how much blame the company
August 30, 2023Police west of Toronto on Wednesday warned drivers to keep their car windows closed after a truck spilled crates carrying five million bees onto a road. Halton Regional Police said they received a call around 6:15 a.m. reporting the bee crates had come loose from a truck and spilled onto Guelph Line, north of Dundas Street, in Burlington, Ontario, just west of Toronto. It was “quite the scene,” Const. Ryan Anderson said. “Crates were literally on the road and swarms of bees were flying around,” he said. “The initial beekeeper that was on scene was apparently stung
August 30, 2023The once-powerful Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick will not stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted a teenage boy decades ago, as a Massachusetts judge dismissed the case against the 93-year-old on Wednesday because both prosecutors and defense attorneys agree he suffers from dementia. McCarrick, the ex-archbishop of Washington, D.C., was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after an internal Vatican investigation determined he sexually molested adults as well as children. The McCarrick scandal created a crisis of credibility for the church, primarily because there was evidence Vatican and U.S. church leaders knew he slept with
August 30, 2023A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old at an Oklahoma high school football game, the authorities said Wednesday. Deputies working with other law enforcement agencies took the boy into custody without incident early Wednesday in the Oklahoma City suburb of Spencer, Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III said. The boy’s name was not released because he is a juvenile, Johnson said. Johnson referred other questions to Choctaw police, who are leading the investigation into the shooting. The sheriff’s office is investigating a shot fired during the gunfire by an off-duty
August 30, 2023Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland said Wednesday he will have surgery to remove a lesion found on his brain. Woodland, a four-time PGA Tour winner, announced on social media he was diagnosed with the lesion a few months ago and has been trying to treat the symptoms with medication. “After consulting with multiple specialists and discussing with my family, we’ve made the decision that surgery to remove the lesion is the best course of action,” Woodland wrote. “I’m in good spirits with my family and team by my side and so thankful for the love and support of everyone.”
August 30, 2023When Patricia Otero watched the president of Spain’s soccer federation tarnish the greatest victory in the history of women’s sports in Spain by forcibly kissing a player on the lips during the Women’s World Cup medal ceremony, she was saddened — but not surprised. For this amateur soccer player, the kiss that Luis Rubiales pressed on Spain forward Jenni Hermoso was simply the most public and notorious example of the treatment she and her teammates received as girls and young women. “We have seen that all our lives,” the 30-year-old told The Associated Press from the southern
August 30, 2023North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, hours after the U.S. flew at least one long-range bomber to the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against the North. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the launch occurred Wednesday but gave no further details, such as how far the missile flew. Earlier Wednesday, the United States flew a B-1B bomber to the Korean Peninsula as part of field exercises with South Korea. The field training has been held on the sidelines
August 30, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son must compensate a woman who sued him after he implied she was having an affair with his father’s chief political opponent, a court ruled Wednesday. The court ordered Netanyahu’s eldest son, Yair Netanyahu, to pay over $34,000 in compensation and $6,000 in legal costs to Dana Cassidy. Cassidy sued him for defamation in 2020 after he insinuated on social media that she was romantically involved with Benny Gantz, who was running against his father for prime minister at the time. Over the course of the election, which ultimately returned Benjamin Netanyahu
August 30, 2023A Saudi court has sentenced a man to death over his posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and his activity on YouTube, the latest in a widening crackdown on dissent in the kingdom that has drawn international criticism. The judgement against Mohammed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, seen Wednesday by The Associated Press, comes against the backdrop of doctoral student Salma al-Shehab and others facing decadeslong prison sentences over their comments online. The sentences appear part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s wider effort to stamp out any defiance in the kingdom as he pursues
August 30, 2023The president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, knew well the threat of military coups in his part of the world. But he swore one wouldn’t happen to him. “While our continent has been shaken in recent weeks by violent crises, rest assured that I will never allow you and our country Gabon to be hostages to attempts at destabilization. Never,” Bongo declared this month as the central African nation marked 60 years of independence from France, almost all of that time with his family in power. Now, according to a group of mutinous Gabonese security forces
August 30, 2023Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and three Cabinet ministers ate Fukushima fish sashimi at a lunch meeting Wednesday, in an apparent effort to show that fish is safe following the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that began last week. Kishida and the three ministers had sashimi of flounder, octopus and sea bass, caught off the Fukushima coast after the water release, along with vegetables, fruits and a bowl of rice that were harvested in the prefecture, Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who was at the meeting, told reporters. The
August 30, 2023The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.1% annual pace from April through June, showing continued resilience in the face of higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, the government said Wednesday in a downgrade from its initial estimate. The government had previously estimated that the economy expanded at a 2.4% annual rate last quarter. The Commerce Department’s second estimate of growth last quarter marked a slight acceleration from a 2% annual growth rate from January through March. Though the economy has been slowed by the Federal Reserve’s strenuous drive to tame inflation with interest rate hikes, it
August 30, 2023Fighting erupted in a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank Wednesday between Palestinians and their own security forces, Palestinian authorities said, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian dead. The unrest underscored the challenges facing Palestinian police trying to impose order in the restive territory. Elsewhere in the occupied territory, Israeli security forces shot a Palestinian man who they said tried to ram his car into soldiers at a military checkpoint, hitting and lightly wounding a soldier, authorities said. It was the latest incident in one of the West Bank’s most violent phases in years. Palestinian police entered
August 30, 2023Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet on Wednesday classified Moldova and Georgia as so-called “safe countries of origin” meaning asylum seekers from there can be rejected and deported faster than in the past. The move, once parliament has approved the new regulation, is a further step in efforts to curb migration to Germany as the country struggles to house and integrate more than 1 million refugees who fled the war from Ukraine last year. Different from others fleeing to Germany, Ukrainians do not need to apply for asylum but get a right of residency immediately. In addition to Ukrainian
August 30, 2023Tesla is allowing some drivers use its Autopilot driver-assist system for extended periods without making them put their hands on the steering wheel, a development that has drawn concern from U.S. safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered Tesla to tell the agency how many vehicles have received a software update making that possible and it’s seeking more information on what the electric vehicle maker’s plans are for wider distribution. “NHTSA is concerned that this feature was introduced to consumer vehicles, and now that the existence of this feature is known to the public,
August 30, 2023Pricing for new electric vehicles can be daunting for many shoppers. But more and more EVs are becoming available on the used vehicle market, and that’s creating greater opportunities for buying a lower-priced used EV. There’s also a further incentive to purchase a used EV that costs less than $25,000 thanks to an available federal tax credit of up to $4,000. To qualify for the federal tax credit, the EV you’re interested in must meet these criteria: 1) It must be purchased from a licensed dealership; 2) the sale price must be $25,000 or less; and 3) it must be
August 30, 2023The Kremlin said Wednesday that “deliberate wrongdoing” is among the possible causes of the plane crash that killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last week. Speaking to reporters during his daily conference call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted that “different versions” of what happened exist and “are being considered,” including “let’s put this way, deliberate wrongdoing.” He urged reporters to wait until the probe by the Russian Investigative Committee is concluded, and said there can’t be an international investigation into it. The committee said last week it has opened a criminal case on charges of flight safety violations,
August 30, 2023More than 170 global leaders and Nobel laureates have urged Bangladesh’s prime minister to suspend legal proceedings against Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people. In an open letter, the leaders, including former U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and more than 100 Nobel laureates, said they were deeply concerned by recent threats to democracy and human rights in Bangladesh. “One of the threats to human rights that concerns us in the present context is the case of Nobel
August 30, 2023Another game, another blowout for the U.S. at the Basketball World Cup. And now the competition figures to get considerably tougher. Anthony Edwards scored 22 points and the Americans completed an easy march through the group stage Wednesday, beating Jordan 110-62 to improve to 3-0 and finish atop Group C. Second-round play for the U.S. starts Friday against Montenegro. Bobby Portis scored 13 for the U.S., which led by 19 after one quarter and 62-33 at the half. Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 12 and Jalen Brunson added 10. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson — the only player with any
August 30, 2023A former member of Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko’s special security forces is to face trial in Switzerland next month for the forced disappearances of political opponents in the late 1990s, rights groups said Wednesday. Activists called it a “watershed moment” in international justice that could trigger prosecutions abroad of other Belarus officials — including Lukashenko, whose regime has come under renewed criticism over a crackdown against opposition leaders that began in August 2020 and support for Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine last year, among other things. The case against Yuri Harauski, a former member of a military
August 30, 2023The governing body of European soccer heads to its annual awards gala on Thursday in Monaco amid turmoil created by its vice president from Spain. Luis Rubiales won’t be at the high-end ceremony in Monte Carlo where the awards for best player and coach will be made because he has been suspended by FIFA, the sport’s ultimate governing body. Spain could sweep the prizes for women’s soccer. FIFA suspended Rubiales, who is both the president of the Spanish soccer federation and a vice president at European soccer body UEFA, for at least 90 days while it investigates the kiss he
August 30, 2023Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan will remain in a high-security prison for at least another two weeks despite being granted bail the previous day, as an anti-terrorism court extended his detention Wednesday in a case involving the revealing of an official secret document, a defense lawyer said. The anti-terrorism court announced the decision after a brief closed-door hearing that was held at a high-security Attock prison in the eastern Punjab province, lawyer Intazar Hussain Panjutha said. The next court hearing will be on Sept. 2, he said. Khan’s other lawyer, Salman Safdar, told reporters that he
August 30, 2023When Pope Francis travels to Mongolia this week, he will in some ways be completing a mission begun by the 13th-century Pope Innocent IV, who dispatched emissaries east to ascertain the intentions of the rapidly expanding Mongol Empire and beseech its leaders to halt the bloodshed and convert. Those medieval exchanges between Roman pope and Mongolian khan were full of bellicose demands for submission and conversion, with each side claiming to be acting in the name of God, according to texts of the letters that survive. But the exchanges also showed mutual respect at a time
August 30, 2023The Russian ruble’s wobble in value has exposed a crack in President Vladimir Putin’s fortress economy, a vulnerability quickly plastered over by the Kremlin’s economic team in a move that allowed the currency to regain its footing, at least for now. Yet the patch — an emergency interest rate increase — cannot hide the dilemma at the heart of the Russian economy: how to fund the military while not undermining the national currency and overheating the economy with corrosive and politically embarrassing inflation. Life in Moscow presents a facade of normality despite sweeping sanctions tied to the war in Ukraine
August 30, 2023Asian shares rose Wednesday, boosted by a Wall Street rally that came on positive reports on consumer confidence and job openings. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.3% in afternoon trading to 32,312.75. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4% to 2,563.37. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5% to 18,574.12, while the Shanghai Composite inched up 0.1% to 3,139.28. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.2% to 7,297.70, after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the monthly Consumer Price Index indicator rose 4.9% in the 12 months to July. That was lower than the expected 5.2%, marking the first time since February
August 30, 2023Britain’s top diplomat, James Cleverly, began a long-awaited visit to China on Wednesday as the two countries attempt to stabilize bilateral ties that have frayed badly in recent years. The trip is the first by a United Kingdom foreign secretary to China in more than five years, underscoring the downturn in relations over Beijing’s curbing of civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony, abuses against Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, China’s support for Russia and Britain’s close security ties with the United States. Cleverly met first with Vice President Han Zheng, who said the
August 30, 2023India is protesting a new Chinese map that lays claim to India’s territory ahead of next week’s Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, a foreign ministry official said, exacerbating tensions during a three-year military standoff between the two nations. The timing of the protest is key, as Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the summit of industrialized and developing countries. “We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” the External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a
August 30, 2023Roaring chainsaws sent trees crashing to the ground, and bare-chested men hacked away at the branches beside a muddy road. Others heaved logs onto a truck, where they were tied in place with wire. The work was similar on the other side of the road, with a timber-laden truck coughing dark plumes of smoke as it pulled away. This was miles into the conservation zone of Omo Forest Reserve in southern Nigeria, a protected area where logging is prohibited because it’s home to threatened species like African elephants, pangolins and white-throated monkeys. But forest
August 30, 2023Mutinous soldiers in Gabon said Wednesday they were overturning the results of a presidential election that was to extend the Bongo family’s 55-year hold on power. The central African country’s election committee announced that President Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, had won the election with 64% of the vote early Wednesday morning. Within minutes, gunfire was heard in the center of the capital, Libreville. A dozen uniformed soldiers appeared on state television later the same morning and announced that they had seized power. The soldiers intended to “dissolve all institutions of the republic,” said a spokesman for
August 30, 2023Florida residents living in vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to pack up and leave as Hurricane Idalia gained steam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and authorities warned of a “catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds” when the storm moves ashore Wednesday morning. Idalia grew into a Category 2 system on Tuesday afternoon, with sustained winds of 110 mph (177 kph) by Tuesday night. It was projected to make landfall early Wednesday as a Category 4 storm with winds of at least 130 mph (209 kph) in the lightly populated Big Bend
August 30, 2023San Francisco right-hander Alex Cobb carried a no-hit bid through seven innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night with the help of a scoring change. Nick Senzel was credited with a single in the third inning on a two-hopper that third baseman Casey Schmitt snagged with a backhand grab. The rookie’s throw from foul territory was high and pulled a leaping J.D. Davis off the first-base bag. Official scorer Chris Thoms originally called the play a hit, then changed it to an errore. That was the only runner to reach through seven innings off Cobb,
August 30, 2023Lucas Giolito found out on X he could become an ex-Angel. ESPN reported Tuesday that Los Angeles has placed Giolito, relievers Dominic Leone, Matt Moore and Reynaldo Lopez, and outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers. Teams have until 2 p.m. EDT Thursday to claim the players. Giolito said he read the news on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “I’d say, surprised,” Giolito said after a 12-7 loss to Philadelphia. “But at the end of the day, it’s a business. It can be a very strange business sometimes. You just roll with
August 30, 2023Australians will vote on Oct. 14 in a referendum that would enshrine in the nation’s constitution a mechanism for Indigenous people to advise Parliament on policies that effect their lives known as the Voice. Proponents say embedding the Voice in the constitution would recognize the special place that Indigenous people have in Australian history while giving them input in government policies. Opponents argue it would be the biggest change to Australia’s democracy in the nation’s history and divide Australians along racial lines without reducing Indigenous disadvantage. As Australia’s first referendum in a generation approaches, the bipartisan
August 30, 2023Australians will vote on Oct. 14 on a proposed law to create a so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the nation’s first referendum in a generation. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday announced the referendum date, triggering just over six weeks of intensifying campaigning by both sides of the argument. The referendum would enshrine in the constitution an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a collection of advocates aimed at giving the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority more say on government policy. Albanese urged people to vote “yes” as polls showed more than 80% of Australia’s Indigenous population
August 30, 2023Russian officials accused Ukraine of targeting six Russian regions early Wednesday in what appeared to be the biggest drone attack on Russian soil since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine 18 months ago. Drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region and started a massive fire there, the governor and local media reported. More drones were shot down over Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan, Kaluga and the Moscow region surrounding the Russian capital, according to the Defense Ministry. The strike in Pskov, which was first reported minutes before midnight, hit an airport in the region’s namesake capital and damaged
August 30, 2023Crews in Hawaii have all but finished searching for victims of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, authorities said Tuesday, and it is unclear how many people perished. Three weeks after the fire devastated Maui’s historic seaside community of Lahaina, the count of the dead stands at 115. But an unknown number of people are still missing. Officials suggested that responders likely have already recovered any remains that are recognizable as such, and they are shifting the response to focus on removing hazardous waste and making the area safe for residents to begin returning.
August 30, 2023The Biden administration will propose a new rule Tuesday that would make 3.6 million more U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay, reviving an Obama-era policy effort that was ultimately scuttled in court. The new rule, shared with The Associated Press ahead of the announcement, would require employers to pay overtime to so-called white collar workers who make less than $55,000 a year. That’s up from the current threshold of $35,568 which has been in place since 2019 when Trump administration raised it from $23,660. In another significant change, the rule proposes automatic increases to the salary
August 30, 2023Upon further review, the U.S. Open’s new video replay system needs a little work. The new setup allowing players to challenge certain calls, such as double bounces, was used for the first time Tuesday when Corentin Moutet hoped to get a crucial call overturned in his match against Andy Murray. Unfortunately for the French player, the chair umpire’s tablet malfunctioned, preventing her from watching video footage and forcing the original call of a point for Murray to stand. “It obviously didn’t go to plan in a pretty important moment of the match,” Murray said. The video
August 29, 2023Kansas authorities must destroy all electronic copies they made of a small newspaper’s files when police raided its office this month, a judge ordered Tuesday, nearly two weeks after computers and cellphones seized in the search were returned. The Aug. 11 searches of the Marion County Record’s office and the homes of its publisher and a City Council member have been sharply criticized, putting Marion, a central Kansas town of about 1,900 people, at the center of a debate over the press protections offered by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Attorney Bernie Rhodes, who represents the newspaper, said
August 29, 2023It’s become a stink at the U.S. Open: a pungent marijuana smell that wafted over an outer court, clouded the concentration of one of the world’s top players and left the impression there’s no place left to escape the unofficial scent of the city. While the exact source of the smell remained a mystery Tuesday, one thing was clear: Court 17, where eighth-seeded Maria Sakkari complained about an overwhelming whiff of pot during her first-round loss, has become notorious among players in recent years for its distinctive, unmistakable odor. “Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s
August 29, 2023A group of hunters have captured the longest alligator ever to be recorded in Mississippi, according to the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. Four state residents — Donald Woods, Will Thomas, Joey Clark and Tanner White — harvested a male alligator Saturday in west Mississippi’s Sunflower River. It weighed 802.5 pounds (364 kilograms) and measured 14 feet, 3 inches (4.3 meters) long, breaking the previous record by over 2 inches, the department said. After capturing the animal, the hunters hoisted it with a forklift and posed for a picture at Red Antler Processing
August 29, 2023A tribal ranger’s conduct is under review after he pointed a weapon Sunday at environmental activists and plowed his patrol vehicle through their blockade on the road leading to the annual Burning Man counter-culture festival in the Nevada desert. The incident unfolded on a rural stretch of highway on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe reservation in northwestern Nevada. The protest calling attention to climate change stopped traffic as attendees were headed to the festival venue in the Black Rock Desert north of the reservation for opening day of Burning Man. More than 70,000 people are expected
August 29, 2023An attendance record of global proportions could be set Wednesday night when the University of Nebraska hosts a celebration of volleyball at Memorial Stadium. The event will feature an exhibition between in-state Division II powers Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State and a regular-season match between Omaha and the fourth-ranked Cornhuskers. Country artist Scotty McCreery will perform afterward. Nebraska athletic department officials have taken aim at the women’s sporting event attendance record of 91,648, set during a Champions League soccer match as Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 5-2 at the Camp Nou Stadium in 2022. “If any place can
August 29, 2023Dalvin Cook stepped into the practice huddle for the New York Jets for the first time and finally settled into his new backfield. “Now I feel like I’m part of the Jets,” a smiling Cook said Tuesday. “Now I feel like I’m part of the team.” It has been a whirlwind past several months for the star running back, who had offseason shoulder surgery, was released by Minnesota for salary cap reasons, visited the Jets during training camp, considered his options before signing with New York and then recently witnessed the birth of his first
August 29, 2023Feeding on some of the hottest water on the planet, Hurricane Idalia is expected to rapidly strengthen as it bears down on Florida and the rest of the Gulf Coast, scientists said. It’s been happening a lot lately. “It’s 88, 89 degrees (31, 32 degrees Celsius) over where the storm’s going to be tracking, so that’s effectively rocket fuel for the storm,” said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. “It’s basically all systems go for the storm to intensify.” That water “is absurdly warm and to see those values over the entire northeast Gulf is surreal,” said University of
August 29, 2023Florida’s Big Bend is one of the last truly natural places in the state. It’s not Disney World, it’s not South Beach. This is where people go to hunt alligators, fish for tarpon and search for scallops in the shallow waters. Now it’s in the bull’s-eye of a major hurricane. The Big Bend is where the peninsula merges into the Panhandle, just southeast of the capital, Tallahassee, and well north of the Tampa metro area. Hurricane Idalia would be the first major storm to hit there since Hurricane Easy in 1950, according to the National Hurricane
August 29, 2023A slew of trades highlighted roster cutdown day in the NFL on Tuesday. Kicker Wil Lutz is reuniting with coach Sean Payton in Denver. The Eagles got tight end Albert Okwuegbunam from the Broncos. Veteran kicker Nick Folk went from New England to Tennessee. Defensive end Boogie Bashum, defensive tackle Neil Farrell Jr., cornerbacks Noah Igbinoghene and Kelvin Joseph, offensive lineman Dan Feeney and Kendrick Green and wide receiver/returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette were among the players on the move in trades. Jonathan Taylor isn’t going anywhere, however. The Indianapolis Colts didn’t trade the disgruntled star running back, but they’re keeping Taylor
August 29, 2023One airline plans to find out if solitude-seeking travelers will pay a hefty extra charge to avoid sitting near babies and little kids. Corendon Airlines says that it will sell an adults-only zone — no one under 16 — on flights between Amsterdam and Curacao starting in November. The Turkish carrier says people traveling without children will get quiet surroundings, and parents won’t have to worry that their crying or fidgeting kids will annoy fellow passengers. Corendon announced last week that it will set aside 93 regular seats and nine extra-legroom seats in the adult zone in
August 29, 2023A shooting that likely happened inside of Guaranteed Rate Field, followed by a scary moment for Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. in Colorado. Both in a span of four days. While Major League Baseball is on track for a marked increase in attendance this year, the pair of high-profile incidents raised questions about the safety of players and fans inside and outside of big league ballparks. A spokeswoman for the Major League Baseball Players Association said Tuesday that the union takes player safety “very seriously” and that it reviews club and stadium protocols throughout every season
August 29, 2023U.S. officials said Tuesday that the FBI and its European partners infiltrated and seized control of a major malware network used for more than 15 years to commit a gamut of online crimes including crippling ransomware attacks. They then remotely removed the malicious software agent — known as Qakbot — from thousands of infected computers. Cybersecurity experts said they were impressed by the deft dismantling of the network but cautioned that any setback to cybercrime would likely be temporary. “Nearly ever sector of the economy has been victimized by Qakbot,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney in
August 29, 2023One of the largest wildfires in Louisiana history continues to burn through land and threaten rural communities, which are used to flooding and hurricanes this time of year rather than drought and blazes. Louisiana has had an unprecedented wildfire season as dry conditions and extreme heat persist. The rapid spread of fires has been made worse by pine plantation forests, blown down by recent hurricanes, fueling the blazes. This month alone, there have been about 600 wildfires across the state, and officials say there will likely be more in the weeks ahead. “This is not
August 29, 2023Guatemala’s Aug. 20 presidential election has been bogged down in court and legal challenges despite the fact the results were clear: Progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo won about 61% of the vote to conservative Sandra Torres’ 39%. After weeks of uncertainty, the top electoral court finally certified Arévalo as the winner Monday. But federal prosecutors are seeking to suspend his party, throwing into doubt whether he will have any support in congress. And Torres has filed court challenges seeking to overturn the election result, alleging fraud in the vote count — something none of the independent election
August 29, 2023Amazon employees have been pushing back against the company’s return-to-office policy for months — and it seems CEO Andy Jassy has had enough. During a pre-recorded internal Q&A session earlier this month, Jassy told employees it was “past the time to disagree and commit” with the policy, which requires corporate employees to be in the office three days a week. The phrase “disagree and commit” is one of Amazon’s leadership principles, and was used often by the company’s founder and current executive chairman, Jeff Bezos. “If you can’t disagree and commit, it’s probably not going work
August 29, 2023Daniil Medvedev sent an early message that this U.S. Open might be more than a two-man race between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. The 2021 champion rolled into the second round Tuesday, beating Attila Balázs 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 in just 1 hour, 14 minutes. About 12 hours after Djokovic won easily in his return to the U.S. Open, the No. 3-seeded Medvedev looked just as impressive as when he beat Djokovic for the 2021 title to deny the 23-time major champion from Serbia what would have been the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men’s tennis since
August 29, 2023Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin made the cut, a person with direct knowledge of the decision confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the Bills have not announced their final cuts in paring their roster to 53 players. The NFL Network first reported the news regarding Hamlin, whose bid to resume his football career approaches completion after his near-death experience during a game at Cincinnati in January. Though general manager Brandon Beane has stressed changes could still be made to the roster before the Bills open
August 29, 2023Kyle McCord will be the starting quarterback when No. 3 Ohio State opens the season Saturday at Indiana. Buckeyes coach Ryan Day delivered the long-awaited decision on Tuesday, adding that both McCord and Devin Brown probably would play in the opener. “I think that Kyle has done a great job over the last two weeks showing consistency,” Day said. “He’s played very well in practice. But Devin, throughout the body of the preseason, has shown that he deserves to play. So expect both of them to play. We have confidence in both of them.” The competition
August 29, 2023The EU’s top official said Tuesday she would nominate the foreign minister of the Netherlands as the commissioner in charge of climate action to fill the void left by the departure of Frans Timmermans, who resigned last week to run in the Dutch general election. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen interviewed Wopke Hoekstra, who was named by the Dutch government as its preferred candidate to replace Timmermans. After their talks, she said he “showed strong motivation for the post and a great commitment to the European Union. He also has relevant professional experience for this
August 29, 2023Zimbabwe’s main opposition party on Tuesday demanded fresh elections supervised by neighboring countries, digging in on its rejection of last week’s polls that saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa win re-election and his long-ruling ZANU-PF party retain its majority in a vote criticized by international observers. Gift Siziba, the deputy spokesman for the Citizens Coalition for Change party, told reporters at a news conference in the capital, Harare, that the party will “not settle for less.” “There is no alternative to a fresh and proper election … as an exit out of the vicious cycle of disputed elections,”
August 29, 2023Tiger Woods was the richest guy in golf and played like he didn’t have two nickels to rub together. That’s one of many traits that made him so incomparable. Just don’t get the idea he wasn’t in it for the money. Woods won the first of his 82 titles on the PGA Tour in 1996 at the Las Vegas Invitational. He walked into the press room and glanced at the computer screen of an Associated Press writer who turned and asked him, “Like it?” “I like this,” Woods replied, pointing to the reporter’s reference of his $297,000
August 29, 2023Swiss federal prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted a former Algerian defense minister, now aged 85 and reportedly “on his deathbed,” for his alleged role in crimes against humanity during the bloody insurrection in the North African country in the 1990s. The Swiss attorney general’s office accuses former Gen. Khaled Nezzar of violating the laws of armed conflict under the Geneva Conventions, alleging that he knew of or willingly condoned, coordinated and encouraged activities such as torture, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention and physical assaults between 1992 and 1994. Nezzar’s lawyers said he contested the claims, and said
August 29, 2023Spain’s Aug. 20 victory at the Women’s World Cup was a momentous occasion for the soccer-crazed country, but the joy on and off the field was soon sullied by the leader of the country’s soccer federation when he planted an unwanted kiss on the lips of a star player during the medal ceremony. By defiantly refusing to step down as fury over the incident mounted, Luis Rubiales only exacerbated the controversy, prompting the world champions to say they will not play again until he’s gone and prosecutors to launch an investigation. The incident is fueling nationwide soul-searching
August 29, 2023The Biden administration weakened regulations protecting millions of acres of wetlands Tuesday, saying it had no choice after the Supreme Court sharply limited the federal government’s jurisdiction over them. The rule would require that wetlands be more clearly connected to other waters like oceans and rivers, a policy shift that departs from a half-century of federal rules governing the nation’s waterways. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said the agency had no alternative after the Supreme Court sharply limited the federal government’s power to regulate wetlands that do not have a “continuous surface connection” to larger, regulated
August 29, 2023Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei called Tuesday for a democratic transition of power to anti-corruption campaigner and president-elect Bernardo Arévalo and his Seed Movement party, which have faced waves of legal attacks in attempts to block his rise to power. The president’s statement came after a night of political chaos in the Central American nation following one of its most tumultuous elections in recent history. Hours before the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal certified late Monday that Arévalo won this month’s presidential election, another government body — the electoral registry — suspended his party from all political activities.
August 29, 2023After receiving two buyout offers in the past month, U.S. Steel Tuesday that it is in the process of reviewing multiple offers for the storied company and symbol of American industrialization. U.S. Steel rejected a $7.3 billion buyout proposal from rival Cleveland-Cliffs two weeks ago, and that offer was followed by $7.8 billion bid from the industrial conglomerate Esmark. Shares of the Pittsburgh steelmaker soared more than 30% on speculation that a deal was imminent. In a letter to shareholders Tuesday, U.S. Steel said it had entered into confidentiality agreements with “numerous” third parties and was beginning to share due
August 29, 2023Hilary Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin and their U.S. and Canadian national hockey team contemporaries now have a firm idea of where they’ll be playing in January. The newly founded Professional Women’s Hockey League unveiled its Original Six franchises on Tuesday, with franchises based in NHL markets — three in the United States and three in Canada — with track records of supporting the women’s game. Boston, New York City’s tri-state area and Minneapolis-St. Paul were the U.S. sites selected as homes for the yet-to-be named teams. The Canadian franchises will be based in the nation’s three largest northeastern centers of Toronto,
August 29, 2023Arab tribesmen clashed with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in several areas of eastern Syria on Tuesday, leaving at least 10 people dead and others wounded, opposition activists and pro-government media said. The clashes are among the worst in recent years in the region along the border with Iraq where hundreds of U.S. troops have been based since 2015 to help in the fight against the Islamic State group. The clashes first broke out Monday, a day after the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces detained the commander of a formerly allied group and several other members of his
August 29, 2023Chemical and consumer product manufacturer 3M has agreed to pay $6 billion to settle numerous lawsuits from U.S. service members who say they experienced hearing loss or other serious injuries after using faulty earplugs made by the company. The settlement, consisting of $5 billion in cash and $1 billion in 3M stock, will be made in payments that will run through 2029. The agreement announced by the Minnesota company on Tuesday marks a resolution to one of the largest mass torts in U.S. history. Hundreds of thousands of veterans and current service members have reportedly sued
August 29, 2023Ugandan authorities have charged a man with aggravated homosexuality, which carries a possible death penalty, in the first use of the charge since the enactment in May of an anti-gay law that has been condemned by critics as draconian. The law has widespread support in Uganda but has drawn pressure from abroad on Ugandan officials to repeal the measure. The World Bank earlier this month announced a decision not to consider new loans to Uganda because of the law, drawing an angry response from President Yoweri Museveni. The suspect is identified as a 20-year-old “peasant” in
August 29, 2023Businesses posted far fewer open jobs in July and the number of Americans quitting their jobs fell sharply for the second straight month, clear signs that the labor market is cooling in a way that could reduce inflation. The number of job vacancies dropped to 8.8 million last month, the Labor Department said Tuesday, the fewest since March 2021 and down from 9.2 million in June. Yet the drop appeared to be even steeper because June’s figure was initially reported as 9.6 million. That figure was revised lower Tuesday. July’s figure was still healthy historically — before
August 29, 2023U.S. captain Zach Johnson filled out his Ryder Cup team with familiar faces in Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler, along with LIV Golf player Brooks Koepka, as the Americans try to end three decades of losing on European soil. Johnson also went with Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa and Sam Burns, who will make his Ryder Cup debut in Rome having not won a match in a home Presidents Cup last fall. Among those Johnson left out were Cameron Young, who finished at No. 9 in the Ryder Cup standings, and Keegan Bradley, who won twice this season and finished 11th
August 29, 2023Americans are feeling less confident financially as summer comes to a close as high prices and interest rates weigh on their willingness to spend. There were also signs Tuesday of cooling in what has been a very resilient U.S. jobs market. The Conference Board, a business research group, said its consumer confidence index tumbled to 106.1 in August from a revised 114 in July. Analysts were expecting a reading of 116. August’s swoon — which has somewhat mirrored the stock market decline this month — erased gains from June and July. The index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic
August 29, 2023The value of running backs in the NFL has dropped precipitously in recent years as teams more and more rely on the passing game to succeed. That philosophical change explains why a player like Christian McCaffrey, who is equally as adept at running patterns as he is at running the ball, was voted the top running back in the league by The Associated Press. A panel of nine AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five players at running back, making their selections based on current status entering the 2023 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place
August 29, 2023The U.S. Open is loud. “Insane loud,” 2022 semifinalist Frances Tiafoe called it. There are the planes. The trains. The music at changeovers — they don’t play “Danza Kuduro” by Don Omar and Lucenzo or “Move Your Feet” by Junior Senior at Wimbledon’s Centre Court, the way the speakers blared during Coco Gauff’s first-round victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night. And there are the spectators, who do not necessarily adhere to the sort of decorum often associated with tennis. They yell and whistle and applaud and get especially rowdy at Ashe, a 23,000-capacity venue
August 29, 2023The Jacksonville shooter used to work at a dollar store and stopped in at one before a security guard’s presence apparently led him to instead target the Dollar General down the road, where he killed three people. The shooter worked at a Dollar Tree from October 2021 to July 2022, Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference Monday. And, the sheriff said, he stopped at a Family Dollar store Saturday before pulling into a parking lot at Edward Waters University, where he donned tactical gear. He left when security approached. “Based off what we saw:
August 29, 2023The job of an off-ball linebacker has perhaps never been harder in the NFL. Players need to be adept at stopping the run for defenses that are focusing most of their resources on defending the pass and not be liabilities when they are caught in coverage. No linebacker pulls off that trick better than Fred Warner, whose versatility helped anchor San Francisco’s top-ranked defense a year ago and made him the unanimous choice by The Associated Press for the top spot among off-ball linebackers. A panel of nine AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five players at off-ball linebacker,
August 29, 2023On remote islands off the Maine coast, a unique bird held its own this year in the face of climate change. Atlantic puffins — clownish seabirds with colorful bills and waddling gaits — had their second consecutive rebound year for fledging chicks after suffering a catastrophic 2021, said scientists who monitor the birds. The news flies in the face of environmental trends, as scientists have said warming waters off New England jeopardize the birds because that reduces the kind of fish they need to feed their chicks. One fish, though — the sand lance
August 29, 2023The governor of the German state of Bavaria said Tuesday that his deputy had not done enough to prove he wasn’t responsible for an antisemitic flyer as a high school student and ordered him to answer a detailed questionnaire to clear himself of any possible involvement in the scandal that caused an uproar in Germany. Daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Friday that when Deputy Governor Hubert Aiwanger was 17, he was suspected of writing a printed flyer calling for entries to a competition titled “Who is the biggest traitor to the fatherland?” It listed, among other things,
August 29, 2023The Dominican Republic advanced to the knockout stage at the World Cup with a 75-67 victory over Angola on Tuesday. The Caribbean nation is 3-0 in Group A and is the eighth team to advance. Eight more places will be decided on Tuesday and Wednesday — the final days of group play. Angola has no chance of advancing. Germany defeated Finland 101-75 to complete a perfect record in group play. Finland has three losses. Seven teams had already reached the knockout stage — defending champion Spain, the United States, Canada, Germany Latvia, Lithuania and Montenegro. Eight teams cannot advance —
August 29, 2023A plane carrying Israelis home from the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles made an emergency stop in Saudi Arabia before flying back to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, in what Israel praised as a sign of goodwill as Washington works to establish formal relations between the two countries. The Air Seychelles flight carrying 128 passengers was forced to land Monday because of an electrical malfunction. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the passengers spent the night at an airport hotel in Jeddah and were flown back by the airline on an alternate plane. Tracking data from FlightRadar24.com
August 29, 2023A team investigating sexual assault allegations by the late founder of a powerful talent agency for boy bands has found the charges credible, calling Tuesday for compensation for the victims and the resignation of the current chief executive. The three-month probe, which included speaking with 23 victims, concluded that Johnny Kitagawa sexually assaulted and abused boys as far back as the 1950s and targeted at least several hundred people. The investigative panel said Johnny & Associates must apologize, strengthen compliance measures and educate its ranks about human rights. Julie Keiko Fujishima, the chief executive, must resign for
August 29, 2023Long before it was confiscated by President Daniel Ortega’s government in mid-August, the Jesuit-run University of Central America in Nicaragua was a special place for the thousands whose minds and lives it transformed. “The university was the only center of independent thought left in the country,” said Juan Diego Barberena, a lawyer who fled to Costa Rica. He studied at the institution, known as UCA, between 2014 and 2017. Ortega’s government described the university as a “center of terrorism” and seized its property, buildings and bank accounts on August 16. A week later, the Jesuit religious
August 29, 2023Sales and profits at Best Buy slid in the second quarter as the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain continues to wrestle with a pullback in spending after Americans splurged during the pandemic. The decline in sales was smaller than what Wall Street had anticipated, however, and profits were better than expected, sending shares higher in early trading. The U.S. job market has remained resilient, but Americans are facing higher prices and more expensive credit with the Federal Reserve hiking benchmark interest rates to combat inflation. It’s more expensive to take out loans for appliances, cars and
August 29, 2023The U.N. human rights office says criminal gangs have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia into participating in unlawful online scam operations, including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches, and illegal gambling schemes. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a new report, cites “credible sources” that at least 120,000 people in strife-torn Myanmar and roughly 100,000 in Cambodia “may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams.” The report sheds new light on cybercrime scams that have become a major issue in Asia, with
August 29, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to attend the funeral of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin following his death in a plane crash, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t say where or when the chief of the Wagner Group military company would be buried, although some Russian media suggested it could take place as early as Tuesday in Prigozhin’s home city of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg’s Fontanka news outlet and some other media said Prigozhin, 62, will likely be put to rest at the Serafimovskoye cemetery, which has previously been used for
August 29, 2023A massive wildfire was burning unabated in northeastern Greece for the 11th day Tuesday despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters and a fleet of water-dropping aircraft from Greece and several of its European Union partners. After burning across vast tracts of land, the blaze in the Alexandroupolis and Evros region was mainly concentrated deep in a forest near the border with Turkey, in an area difficult to access. The wildfire, which was blamed for 20 of the 21 wildfire-related deaths in Greece last week, is the biggest in the EU since record keeping started in
August 29, 2023Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is suffering from stress and fatigue but is in good spirits, his daughter said Tuesday as criticism grew of his transfer to a hospital just hours after he began serving an eight-year prison sentence. Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup, returned to Thailand last week after 15 years of self-imposed exile and was immediately sent to prison over several criminal convictions he has decried as politically motivated. Corrections officials said Thaksin, 74, was considered vulnerable due to his age, chronic heart and lung conditions, high blood pressure and
August 29, 2023A Pakistani appeals court on Tuesday suspended the corruption conviction and three-year prison term of Imran Khan in a legal victory for the hugely popular embattled former prime minister, his lawyers and court officials said. Although he will face a retrial in due course, the ruling will enable Khan, 70, to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections. Khan has denied the charges, insisting he did not violate any rules. The Islamabad High Court also granted bail for Khan, but it was not immediately clear if he will be released as he also faces a multitude of other charges
August 29, 2023London’s traffic cameras are under attack. Police say hundreds of license plate-reading cameras have been damaged, disconnected or stolen by opponents of an anti-pollution charge on older vehicles that comes into force across the metropolis on Tuesday. The vandalism by vigilantes calling themselves the Blade Runners shows that emotions are running high over the city’s Ultra Low Emission Zone. London’s mayor says the measure will cut air pollution that is linked to about 4,000 deaths a year in the British capital. Critics say it’s a cash grab that will penalize suburban residents who depend on their cars
August 29, 2023Sudan’s top military officer is traveling to Egypt on Tuesday on his first trip abroad since the country plunged into a bitter conflict this year, authorities said. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, chairman of the ruling Sovereign Council, was expected to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on the latest developments in Sudan, the council said in a statement. Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April when simmering tensions between the military, led by Burhan, and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere. The
August 29, 2023Asian shares mostly rose Tuesday as markets shift their attention from the U.S. Federal Reserve to earnings and economic reports. Regional markets also got a perk from signs China-U.S. relations may be improving, as the nations agreed to work together to smooth out economic relations, including business and trade. “This sounds more like the kind of pragmatic and decisive breakthrough that is required. The proof will be in the pudding and only time will tell, but markets are correct to respond favorably to these developments,” said Clifford Bennett, chief economist at ACY Securities. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina
August 29, 2023Anti-government protests in southern Syria have entered their second week, with demonstrators waving the colorful flag of the minority Druze community, burning banners of President Bashar Assad and at one point raiding several offices of his ruling party. The protests were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country’s spiraling economy, but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of the Assad government. The protests have been centered in the government-controlled province of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze, who had largely stayed on the sidelines during the long-running conflict between Assad and those
August 29, 2023Police were searching for both the weapon and the motive in a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that left one faculty member dead and prompted an hours-long lockdown amid a search for the suspect. The assailant in Monday afternoon’s shooting at a science building in the heart of the flagship university’s campus was taken into custody about an hour and a half after the gunfire was first reported, officials said at a news conference. Neither the suspect nor the victim were immediately identified and it wasn’t clear whether they knew
August 29, 2023After a rousing tribute from former first lady Michelle Obama, Billie Jean King on Monday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Open becoming the first sporting event to offer equal prize money to female and male competitors, promising never to stop fighting to maintain that hard-won progress. “While we celebrate today, our work is far from done,” King said in a speech to a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd between night matches. Echoing a quote from Coretta Scott King, she said: “Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and
August 29, 2023On a breezy July morning in South Seattle, a dozen elementary-aged students ran math relays behind an elementary school. One by one, they raced to a table, where they scribbled answers to multiplication questions before sprinting back to high-five their teammate. These students are part of a summer program run by the nonprofit School Connect WA, designed to help them catch up on math and literacy skills lost during the pandemic. There are 25 students in the program, and all of them are one to three grades behind. One 11-year-old boy couldn’t do two-digit subtraction. Thanks to the program and
August 29, 2023Florida residents loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Idalia intensified Monday and forecasters predicted it would hit in days as a major hurricane with potentially life-threatening storm surges. “You should be wrapping up your preparation for #TropicalStormIdalia tonight and Tues morning at the latest,” the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter. As the state prepared, Idalia thrashed Cuba with heavy rain, especially in the westernmost part of the island, where the tobacco-producing province of Pinar del
August 29, 2023Ronald Acuña Jr. fended off two fans, including one who made contact with him in right field, while sparking the Atlanta Braves to a 14-4 rout of the Colorado Rockies on Monday night. Acuña tied career highs with four hits and five RBIs, hitting his 29th home run and stealing two bases to increase his major league-leading total to 61. He is one homer shy of becoming the first 30/60 player. One fan got his arms against Acuña during the middle of the seventh inning, just after Atlanta scored four runs to open a 9-4 lead. Two
August 29, 2023All 28 vehicle assembly lines at Toyota’s 14 auto plants in Japan shut down Tuesday over a problem in its computer system that deals with incoming auto parts. The automaker doesn’t believe the problem was caused by a cyberattack but the cause is still under investigation, said spokeswoman Sawako Takeda. It’s unclear when the lines will be back up. Toyota declined to say what models being produced might be affected. The shutdown comes after a shortage of computer chips and other auto parts stalled production in Asian nations affected by social restrictions over the coronavirus pandemic. The
August 29, 2023Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were in the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands to watch Coco Gauff’s first-round victory at the U.S. Open on Monday night. After that match, Michelle Obama went down on the court to participate in a tribute to Billie Jean King marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Open becoming the first Grand Slam tennis tournament to pay equal prize money to women. “Billie Jean teaches us that when things lie in the balance, we all have a choice to make. We can either wait around and accept what we’re
August 29, 2023Jose Altuve completed the first cycle of his career with a two-run homer over the Green Monster in the eighth inning, and the Houston Astros rolled past the Boston Red Sox 13-5 on Monday night. Altuve struck out swinging to lead off the game, then doubled in the third, singled in the fifth and tripled in the sixth. His homer made him the first Astros player to hit for the cycle since Brandon Barnes against Seattle on July 19, 2013. Altuve went 4-for-6, his third four-hit game of the season and 37th of his career. Yordan Alvarez
August 29, 2023The three U.S. Marines killed in a tiltrotor aircraft crash during a training exercise in Australia were from Illinois, Virginia and Colorado and another Marine was in critical condition, the Marine Corps said Tuesday. The Marine V-22B Osprey with 23 Marines on board crashed Sunday in tropical forest on Melville Island while taking part in Exercise Predators Run, a drill that includes the militaries of Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor. All 20 survivors were injured and were flown by rescue aircraft 80 kilometers (50 miles) south to the city of Darwin within hours of
August 29, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for his military to be constantly ready for combat to thwart plots to invade his country, as he accused the U.S. of conducting “more frantic” naval drills with its allies near North Korea, state media reported Tuesday. The U.S. and South Korean militaries are holding joint summer exercises that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. The allies have insisted the drills are defensive in nature. Kim said in a speech marking the country’s Navy Day that falls on Monday that the waters off the Korean Peninsula have
August 29, 2023The United Nations is in the throes of what Secretary-General António Guterres calls an “unprecedented” six-month exit from Mali on orders of the West African nation’s military junta, which has brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help fight an Islamic insurgency. The U.N. special envoy for Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, laid out the scale of the operation to the U.N. Security Council on Monday: All 12,947 U.N. peacekeepers and police must be sent home, their 12 camps and one temporary base handed over to the government, and 1,786 civilian staff terminated by the Dec. 31
August 29, 2023Guatemala’s top electoral tribunal declared progressive Bernardo Arévalo the winner of the country’s presidential elections on Monday just hours after the another part of the government suspended his Seed Movement party. The certification comes after one of the most tumultuous elections in the Central American nation’s recent history, and waves of judicial efforts to knock Arévalo out of the race. Arevalo faced former first lady Sandra Torres in the runoff. According to the official count, the progressive candidate obtained 60.9% of the valid votes cast against 37.2% for the right-wing Torres. The suspension of the Seed
August 28, 2023A campus security officer tipped off by observant students likely stopped the killer who fatally shot three people at a nearby Dollar General Store from carrying out his racist attack at Edward Waters University, the president of the historically Black institution said Monday. Students reported seeing a young, white man, pull into a campus library parking lot in Jacksonville, Florida, and begin putting on tactical gear Saturday, Edward Waters University President Zachary Faison Jr. said. They immediately flagged down a security officer who was on patrol to tell them what they saw. The officer approached the
August 28, 2023No one in college football has bigger shoes to fill than Carson Beck. His predecessor as Georgia’s starting quarterback was Stetson Bennett, who guided the Bulldogs to consecutive national championships and was always at his best in the biggest games. Now, after three years spent watching mostly from the sidelines, Beck is finally getting his chance to lead the No. 1 Bulldogs. Coach Kirby Smart is confident that he’s got the right man for a daunting job. “He’s very bright, very intelligent,” Smart said. “He’s been around, so he understands the demands that we put on
August 28, 2023Bronny James, the 18-year-old son of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, is doing well and attending classes after the highly regarded freshman guard went into cardiac arrest during a workout last month, Southern California basketball coach Andy Enfield said Monday. “The good thing is he’s doing extremely well and he’s in class right now. And we all love him,” Enfield said. “I think everybody is hopeful that Bronny will return to the court. We just have to be patient and take it step by step.” The James family released a statement Friday saying a congenital
August 28, 2023Thousands of protesters on cars and motorbikes took to the streets of Colombia’s main cities on Monday to reject recent hikes in gasoline prices that have drastically increased the price of fuel in the South American country. Protesters say that the monthly price hikes set by Colombia’s first leftist government are making it harder for small businesses to operate, and could push up the price of food. But the government of President Gustavo Petro says the gasoline subsidies cost about $11 billion a year. It says it must eliminate the subsidies to pay debts to the
August 28, 2023Amazon has been quietly raising the amount some customers must spend on its site to get free shipping. To qualify for no-cost deliveries, some Amazon customers who don’t have Prime memberships now need to spend $35, up from $25 previously. Amazon spokesperson Kristina Pressentin confirmed the company is testing the new qualification, which was first reported by the blog eCommerce Bytes. The change doesn’t impact Prime members who pay $14.99 per month, or $139 a year, for free shipping and other perks. “We continually evaluate our offerings and make adjustments based on those assessments,” Pressentin said.
August 28, 2023Farmers Insurance said Monday it will lay off 11% of its workforce — about 2,400 employees — as part of a corporate restructuring aimed at increasing its efficiency and long-term profitability. The California-based insurer owned by Swiss giant Zurich Insurance Group said the job cuts will impact all lines of its business. Monday was the last working day at the company for most employees impacted by the layoffs, Farmers confirmed to The Associated Press. In a statement announcing the job cuts, Raul Vargas, Farmers Group Inc. president and CEO, alluded to “existing conditions” in the insurance
August 28, 2023The newly established Professional Women’s Hockey League provided a sneak peak as to where it’s six franchises will be based Monday night, a day before it is scheduled to make the news official. According to the PWHL’s newly launched account on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, the teams will be based in the New York tri-state area, Minnesota, Boston, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. Each market had an account with an @PWHL prefix. The sites just happened to be the only six accounts @theofficialpwhl is currently following. All six markets were among the eight potential sites provided
August 28, 2023A.J. Laguerre worked at a Dollar General store after finishing high school to help support the grandmother who raised him. Angela Michelle Carr was an Uber driver beloved by her children. Jerrald Gallion relished weekends with his 4-year-old daughter. All three were slain Saturday when a gunman with swastikas painted on his rifle opened fire at the Dollar General where Laguerre worked in Jacksonville. The sheriff said writings left by the killer, a 21-year-old white man, made clear that he was motivated by racism. Each victim was Black. “I never thought I’d have to bury my
August 28, 2023Floridians pray that when Idalia hits the Gulf Coast it won’t join the long list of destructive Atlantic Ocean storms whose names started with “I.” Since 1955, 13 Atlantic storm names beginning with “I” have been retired, according to the National Weather Service. That happens when a storm’s death toll or destruction is so severe that using its name again would be insensitive, according to the World Meteorological Organization, which oversees storm naming. Some letter has to be No. 1, and hurricane season often reaches its peak around the time that the pre-determined alphabetical storm-name list gets to the “I.”
August 28, 2023The director of Haiti’s National Police vowed Monday to hold accountable those who encouraged hundreds of parishioners to take up machetes and sticks over the weekend to try and rid a community of gang members, only to be fatally shot by them. Police Chief Frantz Elbé said the group’s religious leader, identified as Marcorel Zidor, participated in the protest Saturday and was accompanied by unidentified people clad in olive green carrying assault rifles as they and the parishioners marched toward the community of Canaan. Elbé said the group drew gunfire from gang members, and that “multiple”
August 28, 2023Polish security authorities are investigating multiple cases of disruption to railway traffic, after unauthorized radio signals stopped several trains over the weekend. On some of the signals, the Russian national anthem could reportedly be heard in the background. Poland’s railway is the main transport route for international military support going to neighboring Ukraine, which is fighting Russia’s aggression. The network also transports Ukraine’s agricultural exports to markets further west. Two men in their 20s were arrested Sunday after they generated intercom signals that halted five passenger trains and one cargo train near Bialystok, in the northeast.
August 28, 2023More video recordings of an ambush of police officers in Fargo, North Dakota, show how the gunman cased the scene of a fender bender, waiting and watching for roughly four minutes as more officers arrived before opening fire. The additional videos — from officers’ body cameras, a police dashboard camera and a nearby business — were showed to The Associated Press and other media by North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley. “It’s fair to deduce from all of this that he is clearly targeting the police,” Wrigley told the AP. “He seemed to be waiting, and
August 28, 2023Excitement and anticipation dissolved into disappointment at West Point when a lead box believed to have been placed by cadets in the base of a monument almost two centuries ago was opened Monday during a livestreamed event and revealed to contain little more than gray dust. An audience at the U.S. Military Academy hoped to see military relics or historical documents pulled from the box. Instead, they let out a groan after experts pried open the top and pointed a camera inside to show just a layer of sediment on the bottom. West Point archeologist
August 28, 2023The University of North Carolina has ended the lockdown after an apparent shooting at its flagship campus in Chapel Hill. About three hours after warning students to seek shelter indoors and avoid windows Monday, the school posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “All clear. All clear. Resume normal activities.” Although school officials and local authorities didn’t provide details about the alleged shooting on campus, Gov. Roy Cooper posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had spoken to the Orange County sheriff and the state’s public safety secretary and “pledged all state resources
August 28, 2023Law enforcement has prepared a first-of-its-kind report detailing missing Alaska Natives and American Indian people in Alaska, a newspaper reported. The Alaska Department of Public Safety last week released the Missing Indigenous Persons Report, which includes the names of 280 people, dates of their last contact and whether police believe the disappearance was suspicious in nature, the Anchorage Daily News reported. In the report, the circumstances of each missing person in classified into one of four categories: environmental, nonsuspicious, suspicious or unknown. This is considered a point-in-time snapshot because it includes people who were missing as
August 28, 2023California’s attorney general sued a Southern California school district Monday over its recently adopted policy that requires schools to notify parents if their children change their gender identification or pronouns. Attorney General Rob Bonta called the Chino Valley Unified School District’s policy a “forced outing” of transgender students that violates their civil rights. He said he is seeking a court order to immediately halt the policy from taking effect. “It tramples on students’ rights,” Bonta told reporters. The move comes after Chino Valley Unified, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, adopted the
August 28, 2023Hawaii’s electric utility acknowledged its power lines started a wildfire on Maui but faulted county firefighters for declaring the blaze contained and leaving the scene, only to have a second wildfire break out nearby and become the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. Hawaiian Electric Company released a statement Sunday night in response to Maui County’s lawsuit blaming the utility for failing to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions. Hawaiian Electric called that complaint “factually and legally irresponsible,” and said its power lines in West Maui had been de-energized for more than six
August 28, 2023Leading officials within the Spanish Football Federation asked suspended president Luis Rubiales to resign on Monday for kissing a player on the lips at the Women’s World Cup final. The heads of the regional bodies that make up the federation (RFEF) made the request in a collective statement. “After the latest developments and the unacceptable behavior that has caused great damage to the image of Spanish soccer, the presidents request that Luis Rubiales resign immediately as president of the RFEF,” the statement said. The heads also urged interim president Pedro Rocha to immediately withdraw the federation’s request
August 28, 2023France’s education minister announced Monday a ban on long robes in classrooms starting with the new school year, saying the garments worn mainly by Muslims are testing secularism in the nation’s schools. Critics say that abayas, worn by women, and khamis, the male garb, are no more than a fashion statement. They say the garments do not constitute an ostentatious sign of religion and should not be banned from classrooms under a 2004 law. For Gabriel Attal, the recently appointed education chief, the garments are “an infringement on secularism,” a foundational principle for France, and, in some
August 28, 2023Florida officials are warning drivers of potential fuel contamination at dozens of gas stations on the Gulf Coast as residents brace for the landfall later this week of Tropical Storm Idalia. On Monday, Idalia was near the coast of Cuba and on a potential track to come ashore as a hurricane in the southern U.S. in the coming days, the National Hurricane Center said. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said late Sunday that gasoline purchased after 10 a.m. Saturday at some Citgo-supplied stations had a strong likelihood of being contaminated with diesel fuel.
August 28, 2023A scientific study published Monday projects that over half of Europe’s ski resorts will face a severe lack of snow if temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while nearly all would be affected by an increase of 4 degrees — presenting challenges for the industry and policymakers, and threatening a harsher reality for ski lovers. In the paper in the journal Nature Climate Change, the team of experts warns that a common solution — production of artificial snow – would only partially offset the decline and would involve processes like snow blowers that generate more
August 28, 2023Austin Reaves scored 15 points and the U.S. topped Greece 109-81 on Monday to clinch a berth in the second round of the Basketball World Cup. Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards each scored 13 for the Americans (2-0), who haven’t lost in seven games overall this summer. Brunson made all five of his shots, Bobby Portis had 10 points and Josh Hart grabbed 11 rebounds for the winners. The win, combined with New Zealand’s 95-87 overtime victory over Jordan earlier Monday, clinched a second-round berth for the Americans. They’ll finish group play against Jordan on Wednesday,
August 28, 2023The mother of the Spanish soccer federation president has started a hunger strike in a church in southern Spain in defense of her son, who is under fire for kissing a player during the recent Women’s World Cup awards ceremony. Ángeles Béjar, mother of suspended federation president Luis Rubiales, told the state news agency EFE she would remain on hunger strike “night and day” until a solution is found to “the bloody and inhumane hounding” of her son. Speaking outside the church in the southern town of Motril, Rubiales’ cousin, Vanessa Ruiz, joined his mother in calling
August 28, 2023Comebacks are nothing new in tennis. There’s quite a history of that sort of thing, including by stars such as Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Martina Hingis, Bjorn Borg, Kim Clijsters and Andy Murray. Perhaps that’s why so many fans of Serena Williams hold out hope she’ll return after playing her last match a year ago at the U.S. Open. Williams recently gave birth to her second child so she will not be at Flushing Meadows, but this year’s tournament features several players who left the tour for a significant amount of time and now are back.
August 28, 2023South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation, only gaining its independence 12 years ago. Cape Verde is one of the world’s least-populated nations, with fewer residents than any country that qualified for the Basketball World Cup. They stood tall on Monday at the World Cup — both nations winning games at FIBA’s biggest tournament for the first time. It was a double-dose of history for African basketball: South Sudan beat China 89-69 at Manila and Cape Verde beat Venezuela 81-75 at Okinawa, Japan. The wins kept both teams in contention for berths in the second round
August 28, 2023Tropical Storm Idalia intensified early Monday and was expected to become a major hurricane before it reaches Florida’s Gulf coast, the National Hurricane Center said Monday, warning of an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and dangerous hurricane-force winds in Florida as soon as late Tuesday. Heavy rainfall in western Cuba could produce flooding and landslides, forecasters said, and hurricane-force winds were expected later Monday. At 8 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm was about 90 miles (150 kilometers) off the western tip of Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph). The storm was moving
August 28, 2023An Illinois judge is expected to decide Monday whether the father of the man accused of fatally shooting seven people at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago will stand trial himself for helping his son obtain a gun license three years earlier. Prosecutors charged the father, Robert Crimo Jr., under an unconstitutionally vague law and the whole case should therefore be tossed, his lawyer argued at a hearing earlier this month in Waukegan, north of Highland Park where the 2022 shooting took place. If Lake County Judge George Strickland rejects the defense motion to dismiss,
August 28, 2023Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time. Francis’ comments were an acknowledgment of the divisions in the U.S. Catholic Church, which has been split between progressives and conservatives who long found support in the doctrinaire papacies of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, particularly on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage. Many conservatives have blasted Francis’ emphasis instead on social justice issues such as the environment and the poor,
August 28, 2023Iran has summoned a Swiss diplomat over the apparent U.S. seizure of Iranian crude oil from a ship that sat for months off Texas, an official said Monday, as the oil now appeared to be moored in Houston. The remarks by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani mark the latest twist in the saga of the oil once aboard the tanker Suez Rajan, which had become mired in the wider tensions between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic. That’s even as Tehran and Washington work toward a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets
August 28, 2023Artificial intelligence has been the buzzword of 2023 ever since ChatGPT made its public debut earlier this year, with businesses, schools, universities and even non-profits looking for ways to integrate AI in their operations. John Kim, chief product officer for PayPal, spoke with The Associated Press about how the company is using the early proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies in its business, as well as PayPal’s future in payments when there’s so much competition. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: How have security issues changed since you’ve been in this role or
August 28, 2023In some ways, track and field served up a tantalizing preview of what’s to come next year at the Paris Olympics. In others, the sport left the nine-day world championships with as many questions as answers. For every Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, athletes who won championships and declared themselves the sprinters to beat, there was a Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone or Elaine Thompson-Herah, defending Olympic champions who either didn’t show up or barely showed up at all. There were a handful of champion track and field athletes who were not heard from, or were far from the
August 28, 2023By some measures, the city was making strides to emerge from its racist past. But the killing of three Black people Saturday by a young, white shooter was a painful and startling reminder that the remnants of racism continue to fester in Jacksonville, Florida. What happened in Jacksonville, said longtime resident Rodney Hurst, 79, “could have happened anywhere, except it did happen in Jacksonville.” The shooting occurred as the Jacksonville community prepared for an annual commemoration of what is known as Ax Handle Saturday. In an unforgettable exhibition of brutality 63 years ago, a mob of white people used baseball
August 28, 2023One of Libya’s rival prime ministers said Monday he has suspended his foreign minister a day after Israel revealed that its chief diplomat met with her last week — news that prompted scattered street protests in the chaos-stricken North African nation. Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who heads the government of national unity in the capital, Tripoli, also referred Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush for investigation over the meeting, which was the first ever between top diplomats of Libya and Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Mangoush met in Rome last week. It was a small breakthrough for Israel’s
August 28, 2023China will no longer require a negative COVID-19 test result from incoming travelers starting Wednesday. It is a milestone toward ending the virus restrictions imposed in China since early 2020. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced the change at a briefing Monday. China ended its “zero-COVID” policy only in December, after years of draconian curbs that at times included full-city lockdowns and lengthy quarantines for people who were infected. As part of those measures, incoming travelers were required to quarantine for weeks at government-designated hotels. The curbs slowed the world’s second-largest economy, leading to rising unemployment and
August 28, 2023Eight U.S. Marines remained in a hospital in the Australian north coast city of Darwin on Monday after they were injured in a fiery crash of a tiltrotor aircraft that killed three of their colleagues on an island. All 20 survivors were flown from Melville Island 80 kilometers (50 miles) south to Darwin within hours of the Marine V-22 Osprey crashing at 9:30 a.m. Sunday during a multinational training exercise, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said. All were taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital, and 12 had been discharged by Monday, she said. The first
August 28, 2023It’s a strange scene: in the forest-covered mountains of Mexico City — which most people outside Mexico don’t know exist — a brigade of farmers and forest rangers plant inches-high pine saplings in a recently cut stand of trees, even as the sound of chainsaws can be heard nearby. Illegal logging has taken a huge toll in recent years on the forest-covered southern half of the city of 9 million inhabitants. “They have finished off the forest,” Alfredo Gutiérrez, 43, said with sadness. The extent of the devastation is astonishing. Just a year ago, “it was
August 28, 2023The movie centers around a renowned violinist from Belgium arriving in Kyiv to perform. The date is February 2022, and his trip is upended as Russia starts bombing Ukraine. The musician survives a series of “inhuman crimes and bloody provocations by Ukrainian nationalists,” and he wants to tell the world “what it was really like.” “The Witness” — a state-sponsored drama that premiered in Russia on Aug. 17 — is the first feature film about the 18-month-old invasion. It depicts Ukrainian troops as violent neo-Nazis who torture and kill their own people. One even wears a
August 28, 2023Asian shares were mostly higher Monday, as investors were relieved by the head of the Federal Reserve indicating it will “proceed carefully” on interest rates. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.7% to 32,151.72. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 7,155.40, after data on Australian retail sales showed they rose a higher than expected 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.8% to 2,539.30. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.7% to 18,260.91, while the Shanghai Composite surged 2.3% to 3,134.44. “The muted reaction of treasury yields to the rhetoric from Jackson Hole shows that US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell
August 28, 2023The season’s last Grand Slam tournament, the U.S. Open, gets started on Monday with some of the biggest names in tennis — about a year after two even bigger names walked away from the sport. The Day 1 schedule includes Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff on the women’s side, and Novak Djokovic and Frances Tiafoe on the men’s. And many more, of course. No one carries quite the star power of Serena Williams, whose last event was the 2022 U.S. Open, or Roger Federer, who announced his retirement shortly afterward. The No. 1-ranked Swiatek, a 22-year-old
August 28, 2023The library at Houston’s Lockhart Elementary had been a refuge for 8-year-old Sydney, who has struggled because of dyslexia. The school’s librarian, Cheryl Hensley, curated a space that encouraged her to read. But now Texas has taken over Houston’s public school district, and her refuge has been repurposed as a space to be used in part for discipline. While students can still check out books, there will be no one to guide them. Hensley, the librarian, is gone. “I’m hurt … and now to know that Ms. Hensley is no longer on the campus, the library has
August 28, 2023Climate activists have spraypainted a superyacht, blocked private jets from taking off and plugged holes in golf courses this summer as part of an intensifying campaign against the emissions-spewing lifestyles of the ultrawealthy. Climate activism has intensified in the past few years as the planet warms to dangerous levels, igniting more extreme heat, floods, storms and wildfires around the world. Tactics have been getting more radical, with some protesters gluing themselves to roads, disrupting high-profile sporting events like golf and tennis and even splashing famous pieces of artwork with paint or soup. They’re now turning their
August 28, 2023“Hola, Mama.” What seems like an unremarkable greeting between mother and son was in this case anything but. Forty-two years ago, hospital workers took Maria Angelica Gonzalez’ son from her arms right after birth and later told her he had died. Now, she was meeting him face-to-face at her home in Valdivia, Chile. “I love you very much,” Jimmy Lippert Thyden told his mother in Spanish as they embraced amid tears. “It knocked the wind out of me. … I was suffocated by the gravity of this moment,” Thyden told The Associated Press in a video call
August 28, 2023Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of the electronics giant Foxconn, declared Monday that he will run as an independent candidate for president in Taiwan’s 2024 election, ending months of speculation. At a news conference, Gou criticized the governing Democratic Progressive Party, saying its policies have “brought Taiwan into the risk of war” with China, which claims the self-ruled island democracy as part of its territory. He said Taiwan also needs new approaches on the economy and other matters at home. “Domestically, the national policy direction is filled with all sorts of mistakes. There’s no way to
August 28, 2023Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and her Chinese counterpart expressed a desire to improve trade conditions on Monday, as Raimondo began a visit to Beijing aimed at warming chilly relations, but neither side appeared willing to make concessions on the other’s main demands. Raimondo joined American officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in July who have visited China in the past three months. They expressed optimism about improving communication but have announced no progress on technology, security, human rights and other disputes that have plunged relations to their lowest level in decades. For its part, Chinese leader Xi
August 28, 2023A decade later, Simone Biles is still on top. The gymnastics star won her record eighth U.S. Championship on Sunday night, 10 years after she first ascended to the top of her sport as a teenage prodigy. Biles, now a 26-year-old newlywed considered perhaps the greatest of all time, posted an all-around two-day total of 118.40, four points clear of runner-up Shilese Jones. Florida junior Leanne Wong claimed third, bolstering her chances of making a third straight world championship team. Biles is all but assured of returning to the gym where she captured her first
August 28, 2023Viktor Hovland played the best golf of his life in the final two weeks of the PGA Tour season, and it paid off Sunday with the biggest trophy of his career — a FedEx Cup title along with the $18 million bonus. Staked to a six-shot lead, Hovland didn’t flinch under a relentless challenge from Xander Schauffele. The 25-year-old Norwegian stayed on the attack and closed with a 7-under 63 for a five-shot victory at East Lake. Hovland capped off his best season with three victories. Even more staggering is that he played his final tournaments —
August 27, 2023Luis Castillo pitched seven shutout innings and the Seattle Mariners grabbed sole possession of first place in the AL West, beating the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep. Teoscar Hernández and Julio Rodríguez homered as Seattle won for the 11th time in 12 games. The Mariners also improved to a major league-best 36-14 since July 1 for their best 50-game stretch since they also went 36-14 from April 23-June 18, 2003. Seattle (74-56) and Texas were tied for the AL West lead coming into the day, but the Rangers lost 7-6 to
August 27, 2023The wildfire situation showed some improvement in British Columbia on Sunday, with more people being allowed to return home, but blazes continued to threaten communities farther north in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Hot temperatures and winds expected to gust to up to 40 kph (25 mph) were fanning flames around the Northwest Territories town of Hay River, on the south shore of Great Slave Lake. The blaze, which has burned across 4,000 square kilometers (1,544 square miles), was about a kilometer (one-half mile) west of the town’s airport and 1.5 kilometer (one mile) from the town
August 27, 2023Louis Lappe hit a walk-off homer and California beat Curacao 6-5 in the Little League World Series championship on Sunday, despite giving up a four-run lead. Louis flipped his bat and threw his arms in the air as he trotted around the bases, leaping onto home plate before he was greeted by his teammates surrounding the batter’s box. The leadoff hitter in the bottom of the sixth inning, Louis lofted the second pitch he saw just beyond the left field fence. Curacao tied the game in the fifth on Nasir El-Ossais’s grand slam to center.
August 27, 2023Mookie Betts capped his return to Boston with a second straight three-hit game, hitting a two-run homer on Sunday to spark the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-4 victory over the team he led to the 2018 World Series title. Freddie Freeman also had three hits, and James Outman homered to help the Dodgers improve to 21-4 in August. Gavin Stone (1-0) earned his first career victory, following opener Caleb Ferguson to the mound and holding Boston to two runs over the next six innings before giving up homers on back-to-back pitches to start the eighth. Playing
August 27, 2023Roberto Mancini was appointed coach of the Saudi Arabia national team on Sunday, just two weeks after the European Championship-winning manager surprisingly left his job in charge of Italy. The Saudi Arabian soccer federation (SAFF) says Mancini has been given a four-year contract. His first matches in charge will be against Costa Rica on Sept. 8 and South Korea four days later — both are friendly games. SAFF posted a video on social media with clips of Mancini. In it, he says: “I made history in Europe, now it’s time to make history with Saudi.” Italian media reported that Mancini’s
August 27, 2023The U.S. military has identified the Marine Corps pilot who was killed Thursday when his combat jet crashed near a San Diego base during a training flight. Maj. Andrew Mettler was piloting an F/A-18D Hornet when it went down at 11:54 p.m. Thursday near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing said in a statement from its headquarters in Cherry Point, North Carolina. Searchers recovered Mettler’s body at the site, and the crash remains under investigation. Known as “Simple Jack,” Mettler was a native of Georgia and stationed at Marine Corps Air Station
August 27, 2023A white man wearing a mask and firing a weapon emblazoned with a swastika gunned down three Black people Saturday in what the sheriff described as a racially motivated attack in Jacksonville, Florida. The shooter, who had also posted racist writings, then killed himself. Here’s what is known about the killings: WHERE AND WHEN DID THE SHOOTING TAKE PLACE? The shooting happened Saturday afternoon at a Dollar General store in New Town, a predominantly Black neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. The store is near Edward Waters University, a historically Black school with about 1,000 students. The school
August 27, 2023Erling Haaland missed a penalty. Virgil van Dijk was shown a straight red card. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kyle Walker made sloppy defensive errors leading to goals. Manchester City and Liverpool delivered performances rife with errors from their star names in the Premier League on Sunday. Late winners ensured they didn’t prove costly. City is the only team to win its opening three matches after beating Sheffield United 2-1, but only because of an 88th-minute goal from Rodri that spared the blushes of Haaland and Walker. Haaland struck a first-half penalty against the post and squandered a slew of other chances
August 27, 2023Nicolas Batum has been part of France’s national team for about 15 years now. He was part of a gold-medal game loss to the U.S. at the Tokyo Olympics. Part of another gold-medal game loss at last year’s EuroBasket. Part of a pair of semifinal-round losses at the last two FIBA World Cups. Those were all difficult. To him, though, this was worse. Much worse. France — a medal favorite in the eyes of many entering this World Cup and the No. 5-ranked team in the world according to FIBA — won’t even get out of the first round of
August 27, 2023They were 10 words, 10 simple and factual and essentially harmless words — “It’s 20 years since Andy Roddick won the singles here …” — yet as soon as that phrase hung in the air at Frances Tiafoe’s pre-U.S. Open news conference, and before the question could be completed, the 25-year-old from Maryland rolled his eyes. And then, in case that wasn’t enough to convey how he felt, Tiafoe rolled his whole head, too, and shook it. Then he smiled that wide smile he so often displays and chuckled a bit before pointing out: “I knew
August 27, 2023Runaway Formula One leader Max Verstappen won a rain-marred Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday to equal Sebastian Vettel’s F1 record of nine straight victories. The Red Bull star clinched his third straight win from pole position at the Zandvoort track, with veteran Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso of Spain finishing second and picking up a bonus point for the fastest lap. “I already had goose bumps when they were playing the national anthem before the start. Even with all the bad weather and the rain the fans were still going at it, an incredible atmosphere,” the
August 27, 2023Tropical Storm Idalia formed Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico on a potential track to come ashore as a hurricane in the southern U.S., the National Hurricane Center said. At 2 p.m. Sunday, the storm was about 80 miles (129 kilometers) east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, moving north at 2 mph (3.2 kph) with highest sustained winds of 40 mph (64 kph), forecasters said. Hurricanes have winds of 74 mph (119 kph) and above. Forecasters said they expected Idalia to become a hurricane on Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico and then curve northeast toward the west coast
August 27, 2023Miami Dolphins rookie wide receiver Daewood Davis was released from a Jacksonville hospital Sunday morning after he was carted off the field during the fourth quarter of Miami’s preseason game against the Jaguars Saturday night. The Dolphins announced Sunday that Davis will travel back to South Florida with the team. Davis was trying to catch a pass from James Blackman in the fourth quarter when he took a hard hit from Jacksonvile’s Dequan Jackson, who was flagged for unnecessary roughness. Davis remained down on the field motionless, was carted off in an immobilized position and
August 27, 2023Intrepid athletes donned snorkels and slithered through slime on Sunday during one of Britain’s quirkiest sporting events: the World Bog Snorkeling Championships. The annual competition in the tiny town of Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, sees competitors race to complete two lengths of a 60-yard (55 meter) water-filled trench cut through a peat bog. They can use flippers on their feet, but conventional swimming strokes are banned. Some contestants accessorized their snorkels, masks and flippers with more flamboyant touches — one carried a giant plastic toad on their head, another had a bathing cap adorned with flowers. Spectators also
August 27, 2023Like a rite of autumn on the patchwork of fields of western Kansas, farmers will soon climb into their combines and bring in the harvest, taking advantage of whatever good weather might come their way. If it happens to be a Saturday, they are probably tuning the radio to Kansas State football. It has been that way for generations across the corn belt, a quaintly American scene that has played out on farms ranging from Iowa and Missouri to Oklahoma and Nebraska. Other farmers there might be searching airwaves for their beloved Cyclones and Tigers, or
August 27, 2023Chris Buescher and William Byron have this in common: Neither wants to declare himself the favorite heading into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Both have a strong case, though. Buescher won three of the last five regular-season races, including the finale Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. Byron, meanwhile, has a series-leading five victories and is tied for the points lead with Martin Truex Jr. as the postseason begins at Darlington Raceway next Sunday. Buescher and Byron have diverse resumes and definitive momentum. “I think we’re a contender,” Buescher said after leading RFK Racing to
August 27, 2023At a small section of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s central control room in northeastern Japan, the treated water transfer switch is on. A graph on a computer monitor nearby shows a steady decrease of water levels as treated radioactive wastewater is diluted and released into the Pacific Ocean. In the coastal area of the plant, two seawater pumps are in action, gushing torrents of seawater through sky blue pipes into the big header where the treated water, which comes down through a much thinner black pipe from the hilltop tanks, gets diluted by hundreds of
August 27, 2023NASCAR driver Ryan Preece is “awake, alert and mobile” after his car rolled about a dozen times during a terrifying crash at Daytona International Speedway. Stewart-Haas Racing said Sunday morning that Preece “has been communicating with family and friends.” He was hospitalized overnight. The 32-year-old Preece was able to climb out of his mangled No. 41 Ford on Saturday night with help before emergency workers put him on a gurney and into an ambulance. He initially went to the track’s infield care center before being transported to Halifax Health Medical Center for continued observation. He
August 27, 2023It was late in the first quarter of the U.S. team’s opener at the FIBA World Cup. Austin Reaves was in transition and tossed a lob to Cam Johnson, who got sandwiched in midair by two New Zealand defenders and took a hard fall. Steve Kerr expected such plays to happen. The U.S. coach knows that every opponent awaiting the Americans in this tournament will likely be very aggressive, hoping that tactic works to derail the only team in the World Cup with a roster composed entirely of NBA players. New Zealand tried; the U.S. shook
August 27, 2023One week after the president of the Spanish soccer federation kissed a player during the Women’s World Cup awards ceremony, his reputation is in tatters and he’s out of his job. Luis Rubiales, whose leadership of Spanish soccer had already been marked by successes tinged with scandal, wrecked his career by offending millions worldwide with his conduct at the final in Sydney, Australia, when he also grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture. “Rubiales cannot run Spanish soccer again,” Spanish minister María Jesús Montero said Sunday, a day after he was provisionally suspended by FIFA for
August 27, 2023Karl-Anthony Towns and the Dominican Republic stayed perfect at the Basketball World Cup, with a trip to the second round in their sights. Towns and Andres Feliz each scored 24 points, and the Dominican Republic connected on 16 3-pointers in an 87-82 win over Italy in a Group A game at Manila on Sunday. Feliz had seven of those 3s for the winners (2-0). Towns finished with 11 rebounds and Jean Montero had 12 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals. “Getting the job done,” Towns said. “I think we did a great job and found a way to
August 27, 2023Zimbabwe ‘s main opposition leader alleged Sunday there had been “blatant and gigantic fraud” after President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of another troubled election , with international observers reporting an atmosphere of intimidation against voters. The results were announced Saturday night, two days earlier than expected. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa promised to address the country soon as his Citizens Coalition for Change party said it would reject the results as “hastily assembled without proper verification.” “They stole your voice and vote but never your hope,” Chamisa wrote in a post on X, formerly known
August 27, 2023Russia’s Investigative Committee said Sunday that it confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder and head of the mercenary force Wagner who led a short-lived armed rebellion against Russia’s military, was killed in a plane crash. Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement that forensic and genetic testing identified all 10 bodies recovered at the site of Wednesday’s crash and the findings “conform to the manifest” of the plane. The statement didn’t offer any details about what might have caused the crash. Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, 62, and some of his top lieutenants
August 27, 2023A masked white man carrying at least one weapon bearing a swastika fatally shot three Black people inside a Florida store Saturday in an attack with a clear motive of racial hatred, officials said. The shooting in a Dollar General store in a predominately African-American neighborhood left two men and one woman dead and was “racially motivated,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said. In addition to carrying a firearm with a painted symbol of the genocidal Nazi regime of Germany of the 1930s and 1940s, the shooter issued racist statements before the shooting. He killed himself at the
August 27, 2023Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country’s role as the G20 host this year would focus on highlighting the concerns of the developing world, and has proposed the African Union to become permanent members of the forum. “We have a vision of inclusiveness and with that vision, we have invited the African Union to become permanent members of the G20,” Modi said on Sunday as he addressed the Business 20 Summit in New Delhi. The B20 is an industry event and part of the summit of the 20 leading rich and developing nations, which will
August 27, 2023Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation after a midair collision between two warplanes in the west of the country killed three pilots. Ukraine’s air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian television on Sunday it wasn’t immediately clear how long the probe would take. According to the air force’s Telegram page, two L-39 training military aircraft collided on Friday during a combat mission over Ukraine’s western Zhytomyr region. Three pilots were killed, including Andriy Pilshchykov, a well-known pilot with the nickname “Juice” who was an outspoken advocate for Ukraine getting F-16 fighter jets. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in
August 27, 2023More than 600 firefighters, including reinforcements from several European countries, backed by a fleet of water-dropping planes and helicopters were battling three persistent major wildfires in Greece Sunday, two of which have been raging for days. A massive blaze in the country’s northeastern regions of Evros and Alexandroupolis, believed to have caused the deaths of 20 people, was burning for a ninth day. The blaze, one of the largest single wildfires ever to have struck a European Union country, has decimated vast tracts of forest and burnt homes in the outlying areas of the city of
August 27, 2023Victor Kiplangat of Uganda executed his game plan to near perfection, pulling away late in the race to win the men’s marathon Sunday on the last day of world championships. Kiplangat finished in a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, 53 seconds to edge Maru Teferi of Israel by 19 seconds. Leul Gebresilase of Ethiopia took home bronze on a hot day where the temperature at the end soared to 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit). “It was hard today because it was so hot but I felt comfortable because I prepared well for this weather,”
August 27, 2023Yevgeny Prigozhin smiled as a crowd of adoring fans surrounded his black SUV on June 24 in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don and cheered him on. “You rock!” fans shouted while taking selfies with the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, who was sitting in the vehicle after nightfall. “You’re a lion! Hang in there!” Prigozhin and his masked, camouflage-clad fighters were leaving the city after a daylong mutiny against the country’s military leadership. President Vladimir Putin decried it as “treason” and vowed punishment, but then cut a deal not to prosecute Prigozhin. Beyond that, his
August 27, 2023A United States Marines Corps aircraft crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, injuring 23 Marines, several critically, officials said. Five of the injured were flown 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Melville Island to the mainland city of Darwin for hospital treatment, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said around six hours after the crash. Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft had been deployed to return from the remote location with the rest of the injured, he said. One of the injured was undergoing surgery at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said at
August 27, 2023Arianna Barajas never thought of herself as the outdoors type. The daughter of Mexican immigrants who grew up in Chicago’s suburbs, her forays into nature usually amounted to a bike ride to a community park. She was interested in wild animals but had no idea she could make a living working with them until her older brother enrolled in veterinarian school. She took a leap of faith and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and became a wildlife ecology major. This summer Barajas landed an internship designed for people of color at the International Crane Foundation’s
August 27, 2023Caleb Williams passed for 278 yards and four touchdowns in his return from his Heisman Trophy season, and freshman Zachariah Branch made an electrifying debut with a 96-yard kickoff return and a 25-yard reception for touchdowns in No. 6 Southern California’s 56-28 victory over San Jose State on Saturday night. Dorian Singer, Tahj Washington and Brenden Rice also caught TD passes and Austin Jones rushed for two more scores as USC opened its second season under Lincoln Riley with another impressive offensive performance that easily covered the Trojans’ persistent defensive flaws. Williams won USC’s eighth Heisman
August 27, 2023Chris Buescher won the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night, eliminating fan favorite Chase Elliott from playoff contention and sending Bubba Wallace into the postseason. Buescher and teammate Brad Keselowski finished 1-2 for RFK Racing. It was Buescher’s third victory in the last five races, making him a title contender no one could have expected two months ago. “We certainly got momentum on our side right now,” Buescher said. Because Buescher had previously won this season, Wallace took the 16th and final playoff spot on points. “That was the
August 27, 2023Miami Dolphins wide receiver Daewood Davis was carted off the field in an immobilized position after a collision in the fourth quarter of a preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday night. Davis was taken to a hospital for evaluation, the Dolphins announced, adding that he was conscious and had movement in all his extremities. Davis ran a slant route and was trying to catch a pass from James Blackman when he took a hard hit from Jacksonvile’s Dequan Jackson, who was flagged for unnecessary roughness. The entire Miami bench emptied, and Jaguars players also
August 27, 2023Lionel Messi scored a dazzling goal in the 89th minute of his Major League Soccer debut, helping Inter Miami beat the New York Red Bulls 2-0 on Saturday night and end an 11-match league winless streak. Forty-eight years after Pelé joined the North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos in an effort to jumpstart soccer in the United States, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner entered in the 60th minute to huge cheers. Messi scored with the help of a pair of former Barcelona teammates. Jordi Alba made an acrobatic leap for Sergio Busquets’ cross and with
August 27, 2023A powerful gang opened fire Saturday on a large group of parishioners led by a pastor as they marched through a community armed with machetes to rid the area of gang members. The attack was filmed in real time by journalists at the scene, and several people were killed and others injured, Marie Yolène Gilles, director of human rights group Fondasyon Je Klere, told The Associated Press. She watched online as hundreds of people from a local church marched through Canaan, a makeshift town in the outskirts of the capital of Port-au-Prince founded by survivors who
August 27, 2023Aaron Rodgers shook off the rust, threw a few passes and led the New York Jets into the end zone. It all made for a successful preseason debut with his new team. And Jets fans can breathe a sigh of relief. “I got in, didn’t get hurt, scored,” Rodgers said. “It was a good night.” Rodgers threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson to cap his second and final series, helping his new squad to a 32-24 victory over the Giants on Saturday night. Wearing his white No. 8 Jets jersey and playing in
August 27, 2023Rising trade barriers. Aging populations. A broad transition from carbon-spewing fossil fuels to renewable energy. The prevalence of such trends across the world could intensify global inflation pressures in the coming years and make it harder for the Federal Reserve and other central banks to meet their inflation targets. That concern was a theme sounded in several high-profile speeches and economic studies presented Friday and Saturday at the Fed’s annual conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. For decades, the global economy had been moving toward greater integration, with goods flowing more freely between
August 27, 2023Viktor Hovland can’t remember playing this well with every aspect of his game, and he can’t think of a better time for it to all come together. One more round of that and he’ll have $18 million to show for it, along with his name on the FedEx Cup trophy. Hovland delivered another sterling performance Saturday in the Tour Championship, a 4-under 66 that allowed him to pull away from an All-Star cast of contenders and build a six-shot lead going into the final round of the season at East Lake. “The list of names that’s been
August 27, 2023A brush fire on Saturday prompted Maui authorities to evacuate residents from a neighborhood of Lahaina, just a few miles from the site recently ravaged by blazes. An evacuation order had been issued for a residential part of Lahaina in the hills above Kaanapali resort hotels, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said. The order was for an area around Anapuni Loop, the agency said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Later, Maui County said in an Instagram post that firefighters had “stopped forward progress of the fire.” The county
August 27, 2023Arcangelo won the $1.25 million Travers by a length at Saratoga on Saturday, giving trainer Jena Antonucci her second major Grade 1 victory after the colt won the Belmont Stakes. “I guess the more this horse does, the more we’re going to keep writing some history,” Antonucci said. The day was marred by the deaths of two horses, including New York Thunder in the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial. In all, seven horses have died at the summer meet in upstate New York. “After what happened, this is the best outcome that you could have
August 26, 2023The Chicago White Sox say they were not aware at first that a woman injured during Friday’s game at Guaranteed Rate Field was shot and that the Chicago Police Department would have stopped play if officers thought it was unsafe to continue. Team spokesman Scott Reifert said police determined there was “no active threat and that the ballgame could continue.” The team was also in contact with Major League Baseball. “If the police want to stop the game, they’re going to stop the game,” Reifert said Saturday. The White Sox were still unsure if a gun was
August 26, 2023Lionel Messi was not in the starting lineup for his first Major League Soccer game with Inter Miami and didn’t join his teammates for warmups before a match at the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner was listed on coach Tata Martino’s bench along with midfielder Sergio Busquets, forward Josef Martinez and U.S. national team defender DeAndre Yedlin. Miami entered with an 11-game MLS winless streak that included eight defeats and had just one road victory this season. Miami’s 22 points were the fewest among the league’s 29 teams. The
August 26, 2023California will take on Curacao in the Little League World Series championship on Sunday after both teams worked their way into the title game from the elimination bracket. Here’s a look at both teams. HOW THEY GOT HERE Curacao didn’t have an easy path to the championship. Last year’s runner-up lost to Taiwan and then had to beat Mexico to get another shot at the Taiwanese. In the rematch Saturday, Curacao beat Taiwan 2-0 to win the international bracket and move to the final. Taiwan brought in ace Fan Chen-Jun, who was the talk of
August 26, 2023Aaron Rodgers completed three of his five passes for 23 yards on his first drive in his preseason debut with the New York Jets against the Giants on Saturday night. Wearing his white No. 8 Jets jersey for the first time in a game, Rodgers jogged onto the field to a nice ovation from the “road” fans at MetLife Stadium in the annual exhibition between the teams that share the stadium as their home. Rodgers came out throwing immediately, tossing a quick screen to Garrett Wilson for 10 yards — and a personal foul on
August 26, 2023Louis Lappe homered, drove in five runs and gave up just three hits on the mound as California beat Texas 6-1 on Saturday to advance to the Little League World Series championship. Brody Brody also hit a home run, a solo shot to center field on the third pitch he saw from Texas ace DJ Jablonski, stomping on home plate on his way to the dugout. Louis, a 12-year-old who stands 6-foot-1, drove in two runs on a third-inning double and started for the team from El Segundo, striking out 10 in 5 1/3 innings.
August 26, 2023Sam Hartman threw for four touchdowns in his Notre Dame debut and the No. 13 Fighting Irish routed Navy 42-3 on Saturday in a season-opening victory in Ireland’s capital. Notre Dame (1-0) scored at will by air and on the ground against the Midshipmen (0-1), improving to 3-0 all-time against Navy in Dublin games. Hartman completed 19 of 23 passes for 266 yards. Hartman connected with Jaden Greathouse on two scoring strikes, the second a 20-yard reception that made the score 35-0 early in the third quarter and kept the Irish offense perfect at that point —
August 26, 2023Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa was re-elected for a second and final term Saturday as results were announced much earlier than expected following a troubled vote in the southern African country. An opposition party spokesperson said within minutes of the results being announced that they would reject them as “hastily assembled without proper verification.” Mnangagwa won 52.6% of the vote, the Zimbabwe Election Commission said at a late-night announcement in the capital, Harare. Main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa won 44% of the vote, the commission said. The result will likely be scrutinized after election observers from the
August 26, 2023Multiple people were fatally shot Saturday inside a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store, the city’s mayor has told a television station. A city council member says the shooter is dead. Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT “there are a number of fatalities” inside the store but didn’t give a precise number. Numerous police officers were in the area near Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university. “This is unacceptable,” Deegan told the station. “One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.” Jacksonville City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman told the station
August 26, 2023Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR champion who stepped away from racing last season following a significant concussion, officially retired Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Busch, 45, held back tears as he called it quits while sitting on the same stage where he celebrated one of his most memorable Cup Series victories — the 2017 Daytona 500. “My body is just having a battle with Father Time,” Busch said, adding he has dealt with arthritis and gout while trying to recover from a rear-impact collision he says rattled his brain. “I’m very happy, complacent,” he said.
August 26, 2023Jay-Dlynn Wiel and Nasir El-Ossais got back-to-back singles off Taiwanese ace Fan Chen-Jun and later scored, leading Curacao to a 2-0 victory over Taiwan on Saturday in the semifinals of the Little League World Series. Taiwan came into the game having outscored its opponents 25-1 in its three previous outings at the tournament, but Curacao – which lost 9-1 to Taiwan on Wednesday – kept the Taiwanese bats quiet until the Caribbean team broke through. Fan came in for the bottom of the fourth to face Curacao’s top of the lineup. Fan hadn’t allowed a
August 26, 2023The American women’s 4×400 relay team was disqualified from the preliminary round at the world championships Saturday after their third and fourth runners in the four-lap race bungled the baton exchange. Quanera Hayes missed on several attempts to hand the stick to anchor runner Alexis Holmes. When they finally did make the exchange, they were out of the legal passing zone. It was the latest chapter in a long stretch of problems for Team USA in the relays, though a mishap in the longer relay is relatively rare because none of the runners are going as
August 26, 2023Few teams have ever invested as much capital into acquiring as the San Francisco 49ers did when they traded three first-round picks to draft Trey Lance. And few teams have ever cut ties with a highly drafted quarterback as quickly as San Francisco did with Lance, trading him away for a pittance before the start of his third season. “Obviously we took our shot, and it didn’t work out,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “So, that’s on us for that. But I’m not going to say anything is a failure. That’d be too much of a
August 26, 2023Manchester United had its worst-ever start to a Premier League game and still managed to win. Arsenal gave away a goal after less than a minute and couldn’t quite pull off a similar comeback. United bounced back from conceding two goals in the opening four minutes to beat Nottingham Forest 3-2 at Old Trafford on Saturday and avoid an early inquest following a dispiriting loss at Tottenham last weekend. Arsenal also thought it had turned the game around against Fulham when it took a 2-1 lead in the second half, only to concede an 87th-minute equalizer from
August 26, 2023Josh Jacobs took to social media Saturday to say, “I’m back,” after agreeing to a one-year deal to play for the Las Vegas Raiders this season. The contract is worth up to $12 million, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the terms have not been announced. Jacobs would have received $10.1 million this season if he had signed the franchise tag tender. His deal appears similar to the one fellow running back Saquon Barkley agreed to late last month to
August 26, 2023The Irish economy is getting a boost from the Notre Dame football game in Dublin. The Pittsburgh Steelers are benefitting, too. The NFL team has front-office representation in Dublin this weekend supporting American football initiatives and gathering intel on the Irish market now that it has marketing rights for Ireland and Northern Ireland as part of the NFL’s push to expand its audience internationally. The team has joined forces with the powerful Gaelic Athletic Association with an eye toward a regular-season game at Croke Park in the future, though no promises have been made. Daniel Rooney, the
August 26, 2023Caroline Wozniacki didn’t even know where her rackets were. That’s how far from her mind a return to tennis was for the former No. 1-ranked player and major champion who is now a 33-year-old mother of two — and, until quite recently, was a retired 33-year-old mother of two. “I didn’t miss it,” said Wozniacki, who returned to the tour earlier this month and will play her first Grand Slam match since 2020 on Monday when the U.S. Open gets started. “I played since I was, obviously, very, very young. It’s been part of my life
August 26, 2023Leanne Wong almost begged her professor at the University of Florida for a little extra time before turning in the first assignment for a health course in her pre-med major. Wong had something else pretty important on the schedule, she explained. Classes in Gainesville started last week and the paper was due Friday. One problem: Friday was the first night of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships across the country in Northern California. The professor agreed to give her an extension until Monday. “It was a long email,” Wong said with a grin. Maybe she could have
August 26, 2023Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Moscow court’s decision to extend his pretrial detention in Russia until the end of November, according to documents on the court’s website. The American journalist was arrested in March during a work trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow. He is the first U.S. journalist since the Soviet era to be held on espionage charges in Russia. An order that authorized keeping Gershkovich in jail before trial was set to expire on Aug. 30. The Moscow City Court extended the custody order on Thursday
August 26, 2023Paolo Banchero knows all about the haka, the traditional dance that was performed by New Zealand’s players pregame on Saturday as the traditional rallying cry to show national pride and serve as a challenge to opponents. He accepted that challenge. Banchero scored 21 points off the bench in his first World Cup game, Anthony Edwards added 14 and the U.S. shook off a 10-point early deficit on the way to beating New Zealand 99-72 in the tournament opener for both teams. “I love watching them play,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s been an absolute joy
August 26, 2023Mystery hunters converged on a Scottish lake on Saturday to look for signs of the mythical Loch Ness Monster. The Loch Ness Center said researchers would try to seek evidence of Nessie using thermal-imaging drones, infrared cameras and a hydrophone to detect underwater sounds in the lake’s murky waters. The two-day event is being billed as the biggest survey of the lake for 50 years, and includes people from around the world watching the waters remotely on webcams. Alan McKenna of the Loch Ness Center said the aim was “to inspire a new generation of Loch Ness
August 26, 2023FIFA suspended Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales from office on Saturday while its disciplinary committee investigates his conduct at the Women’s World Cup final, which included kissing a player without her consent. FIFA said Rubiales is removed from soccer duties for 90 days “pending the disciplinary proceedings opened” against him Thursday. Rubiales refused to resign from his soccer presidency Friday at an emergency meeting where he had been expected to leave under intense pressure from the Spanish government, women players plus soccer clubs and officials. ___ AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup
August 26, 2023In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows — those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact. Videos and images analyzed by The Associated Press confirmed those wires were among miles of line that Hawaiian Electric Company. left naked to the weather and often-thick foliage, despite a recent push by utilities in other wildfire- and hurricane-prone areas to cover up their lines or bury them. Compounding the problem
August 26, 2023Brazil’s Marcelo Huertas became the second oldest to play in the basketball World Cup in Brazil’s 100-59 victory over Iran on Saturday. He scored 10 points. Huertas is 40 years and 3 months. The only older player in tournament history was Eduardo Mingas, who was 40 years and 7 months when playing in two games for Angola at the 2019 World Cup. Later in the tournament, one of the youngest is expected to play — South Sudan’s 7-foot-1 center Khaman Maluach is just 16. Maluach, who is widely considered a 2025 NBA draft prospect, turns 17 next month. The only
August 26, 2023Families were torn asunder. A community is reeling with grief. More than 100 people have perished and hundreds more remain missing after flames and smoke barreled from the hills and annihilated the historic town of Lahaina. But even in places overwhelmed by despair and devastation, the Hawaiian spirit known as ‘ohana endures. In the Hawaiian lexicon, ‘ohana is a sensibility, a way of thinking that means family, belonging, community and so much more — solace in a time of calamity. It is a unifying principle in an increasingly fragmented world. And in recent weeks, amid misfortune,
August 26, 2023The head of trustees at the British Museum said Saturday that the museum has recovered some of the 2,000 items believed to have been stolen by an insider, but admitted that the 264-year-old institution does not have records of everything in its vast collection. Chairman of trustees George Osborne acknowledged that the museum’s reputation has been damaged by its mishandling of the thefts, which has sparked the resignation of its director and raised questions about security and leadership. Osborne told the BBC Saturday that 2,000 stolen items was a “very provisional figure” and staff were working to
August 26, 2023A new drone attack on Moscow early Saturday forced a temporary shutdown of all three major airports serving the city, Russian state media reported. Officials blamed Ukraine for what appeared to be the latest of near-daily strikes on the Russian capital and the surrounding region. Kyiv has since early this year sought to take the 18-month-war into the heart of Russia, also saying recently that it was behind strikes on Russian military assets far behind the front lines. Russia’s defense ministry and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that a drone was shot down over the Istra
August 26, 2023Amane Beriso Shankule led a 1-2 finish by Ethiopia in the women’s marathon on a warm Saturday morning at the world championships. Shankule powered through the city streets of Budapest to finish in a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes, 23 seconds to edge defending champion and teammate Gotytom Gebreslase. Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi of Morocco took bronze. The 31-year-old Shankule said the Ethiopian team worked together to make it difficult on the rest of the runners to keep up. “After we got rid of the rest, then it was a battle with my tough teammates,” Shankule
August 26, 2023Four astronauts from four countries rocketed toward the International Space Station on Saturday. They should reach the orbiting lab in their SpaceX capsule Sunday, replacing four astronauts living up there since March. A NASA astronaut was joined on the predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center by fliers from Denmark, Japan and Russia. It was the first U.S. launch where every spacecraft seat was occupied by a different country — until now, NASA had always included two or three of its own on its SpaceX taxi flights. A fluke in timing led to the assignments, officials
August 26, 2023Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year, and their al-Qaida-linked rivals are capitalizing on the deadlock and perceived weakness of armed groups that signed a 2015 peace agreement, United Nations experts said in a new report. The stalled implementation of the peace deal and sustained attacks on communities have offered the IS group and al-Qaida affiliates a chance “to re-enact the 2012 scenario,” they said. That’s when a military coup took place in March and rebels in the north formed an Islamic state two months later.
August 26, 2023Wildfires forced Amanda Dengler to flee her home in Canada’s Northwest Territories three times in the past 18 months, and each time her cats have evaded her attempts to bring them along. The latest time, Dengler had to stay away longer than expected, and joined the many residents who have turned to networks of volunteers who are rescuing animals from communities threatened by Canada’s record year of wildfires. Dengler said she tried to catch her three cats on Aug. 13, when she left her home in the town of Hay River because of a nearby wildfire. “I think they picked
August 26, 2023The Wagner Group’s presence extends from the ancient battlegrounds of Syria to the deserts of sub-Saharan Africa, projecting the Kremlin’s global influence with mercenaries accused of using brutal force and profiting on mineral riches they seized. But that was under Yevgeny Prigozhin, who in what could have been his final video released earlier this week appeared in military fatigues and held an assault rifle from an unidentified dry and dusty plain as he boasted that Wagner is “making Russia even greater on all continents and Africa even more free.” On Wednesday, a private jet carrying Prigozhin and his top lieutenants
August 26, 2023Electricity was being restored in most parts of Kenya on Saturday, 14 hours after the longest outage in recent memory, the majority government-owned power distributor said. There was still no clear explanation for the outage that hit on Friday night, shutting down the country’s main international airport, affecting major hospitals and even the president’s office compound. “I am really sorry for what has happened,” Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said in a statement close to midnight. “There is no excuse worth reporting and there is no reason why our airport is in darkness.” Kenya Power later on
August 26, 2023Chicago police are investigating a shooting at a White Sox baseball game at Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday night. Police said the investigation is ongoing. Additional details were expected to be released on Friday night, police spokesperson Tom Ahern said in a social media post. Major League Baseball did not provide any details, but said it was in contact with the White Sox and Chicago police. The announced crowd for the game — a 12-4 loss for the Chicago White Sox against Oakland — was 21,906. A postgame concert featuring Vanilla Ice, Rob Base and Tone Loc
August 26, 2023Taiwan’s defense ministry said Saturday that China sent dozens of aircraft and vessels toward the island, just days after the United States approved a $500-million arms sale to Taiwan. The defense ministry said in a statement that 32 aircraft from the People’s Liberation Army and nine vessels from the navy were detected in the 24 hours between 6 a.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday. Of these, 20 aircraft either crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or breached Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. In response, Taiwan tasked its own aircraft, vessels and missile systems to respond
August 26, 2023Fish auction prices at a port south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant fell Friday amid uncertainty over how seafood consumers will respond to the release of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the ocean. The plant, which was damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, began sending the treated water into the Pacific on Thursday amid protests at home and in nearby countries that are adding political and diplomatic pressures to the economic worries. Hideaki Igari, a middleman at the Numanouchi fishing port, said prices of flounder, Fukushima’s signature fish known as Joban-mono, was
August 26, 2023Brock Purdy ran for a 5-yard touchdown during a brief tune-up for the season opener for San Francisco before the Los Angeles Chargers backups beat the 49ers 23-12 in the exhibition finale on Friday night. The teams took different approaches in the final preseason game with San Francisco (1-2) playing Purdy and several other starters for two drives, while the Chargers (2-1) used almost exclusively second and third-string players. The game took place only a few hours after the Niners traded former quarterback of the future Trey Lance to Dallas for a fourth-round draft pick.
August 26, 2023The Arizona Diamondbacks jumped to an early four-run lead, and nearly blew it in the ninth inning. Their starting pitcher earned his first win in the majors. They even scored on infield fly rule popup. The most impressive highlight of a wild night: a kid stealing the ball from an outfielder trying to steal a home run. Tommy Pham lost a homer when a kid snatched the ball from Cincinnati left fielder Spencer Steer’s glove, but the Diamondbacks did enough offensive damage before that to beat the Reds 10-8 on Friday night. “Once I saw what happened,
August 26, 2023Cincinnati Reds left fielder Spencer Steer had the ball in his glove, a home run stolen. One problem: a young fan stole the ball out of his glove. Arizona’s Tommy Phan hit a ball to deep left in the seventh inning Friday night that to the edge of the wall. Steer timed it perfectly, leaped and had the ball in his glove for a second. The fan, also wearing a glove, reached in and pulled the ball out, leaving Steer slumped against the wall after he landed. The umpires initially ruled Pham’s shot a home run and
August 26, 2023When classes resume after Labor Day, Amber Lightfeather won’t have to worry about where her children’s next meals will be coming from. They’ll be free. Minnesota, New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, Michigan, and Massachusetts will make school breakfasts and lunches permanently free to all students starting this academic year, regardless of family income, following in the footsteps of California and Maine. Several other states are considering similar changes and congressional supporters want to extend free meals to all kids nationwide. Lightfeather, who has four kids who attend public schools in Duluth, Minnesota, said her family has
August 26, 2023The beloved wild horses that roam freely in North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park could be removed under a National Park Service proposal that worries advocates who say the horses are a cultural link to the past. Visitors who drive the scenic park road can often see bands of horses, a symbol of the West and sight that delights tourists. Advocates want to see the horses continue to roam the Badlands, and disagree with park officials who have branded the horses as “livestock.” The Park Service is revising its livestock plans and writing an environmental assessment
August 26, 2023The United States and its allies clashed Friday with North Korea, Russia and China over Pyongyang’s failed attempts to launch a spy satellite and who is responsible for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The open Security Council meeting called by the U.S., Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan and Malta to condemn the attempted launch, which used banned ballistic missile technology, was attended by North Korea’s United Nations ambassador for just the second time since 2017. Ambassador Kim Song, who also addressed the council in July, told members the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the country’s
August 26, 2023Simone Biles did not come back to do a victory lap. The gymnastics star sent a message on Friday night at the U.S. Championships, putting together a thrilling performance that included a show-stopping vault and looking ready for another shot at Olympic glory in Paris next summer. The 26-year-old, wearing a bedazzled purple leotard and with her family adorned in matching T-shirts that read “Still I Rise,” posted an all-around total of 59.300 that put a record eighth national title on Sunday well within reach. As late as this spring, Biles was unsure about how
August 26, 2023Megan Khang had five straight birdies in a back-nine burst and shot a 6-under 66 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead in the CPKC Women’s Open at challenging Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club. After playing the first 10 holes in 1 under, Khang birdied five straight on Nos. 11-15. She closed the bogey-free morning round with three pars, leaving her at 7-under 137 on the tree-lined — and mosquito-ladden — layout. “Honestly, this golf course I feel like you can’t really get too comfortable,” Khang said. “These fairways are tight and the greens are
August 26, 2023The Big Ten announced Friday that it will require its football teams to provide an availability report of its players to the conference office no more than two hours before kickoff as part its efforts to safeguard the integrity of games amid the growth of legalized gambling. The conference also announced a partnership with U.S. Integrity, a company that monitors sporting events for illegal or improper gambling activities, to provide enhanced monitoring and additional educational resources to help prevent student-athletes, coaches and staff from engaging in prohibited sports wagering. No other Power Five conference has a
August 26, 2023Framber Valdez of the Houston Astros has not allowed a hit through seven innings against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night but matched his career high with 114 pitches. The 29-year-old left-hander no-hit the Cleveland Guardians on Aug. 1. Making his fourth start since then, he struck out six, walked five and hit a batter. He threw 64 pitches for strikes in an outing that matched his 114 pitches at Oakland on May 30 last year. Valdez nearly allowed a second-inning homer to Miguel Cabrera, but right fielder Kyle Tucker made a jumping catch against the fence.
August 26, 2023Bronny James went into cardiac arrest during a basketball workout at the University of Southern California last month because of a congenital heart defect, according to a family spokeswoman. The 18-year-old son of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James was stricken on July 24. He was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and later was seen by doctors at the Mayo Clinic and Atlantic Health-Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey. A statement issued Friday by Stephanie Rosa of the LeBron James Family Foundation said the probable cause of James’ sudden cardiac arrest has been identified. “It is
August 25, 2023The San Francisco 49ers have traded quarterback Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys less than three years after trading three first-round picks to draft him. A person familiar with the situation said the Cowboys will send a midround pick to San Francisco for a player drafted third overall in 2021. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn’t been announced. ESPN first reported the trade. Lance had lost the competition to San Darnold to be the backup to Brock Purdy in San Francisco earlier in the week, setting the stage for his
August 25, 2023One bad shot during practice led to Collin Morikawa spending two hours looking for a fix. And now he has a scoring record at East Lake that previously belonged to Tiger Woods. Morikawa followed his 61 with another clean card for a 6-under 64 on Friday in the Tour Championship, giving him the lowest 36-hole score at East Lake and a share of the lead with Viktor Hovland going into the weekend of the FedEx Cup finale. “Sometimes just being out there when you don’t realize that you’re out there for that long of a period, but
August 25, 2023Chase Briscoe won the pole Friday for the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Briscoe had a lap at 181.822 mph in the No. 14 Ford in the final round of qualifying, edging Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola for the No. 1 starting spot. Harrison Burton qualified third in another Ford, followed by 23IX Racing teammates Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs in Toyotas. The top five qualifiers are among 17 drivers vying for the series’ final postseason berth at Daytona. “We literally have absolutely nothing to lose with our points situation,” Briscoe
August 25, 2023A crush at a stadium in Madagascar left at least 12 people dead and 85 injured as sports fans attended the opening ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island Games, authorities said Saturday. Government spokesperson Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy said that 33 of the injured remained in the HRJA Hospital. The crush on Friday at the Mahamasina Stadium in the capital, Antananarivo, happened as people gathered at an entrance for the official opening of the regional multi-sports event. Madagascar Prime Minister Christian Ntsay said Friday that 11 people were in critical condition following the crush, which happened at around
August 25, 2023Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used. Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78%
August 25, 2023The New York Yankees’ charter flight to Florida on Thursday had a familiar name in the cockpit. Captain Schmidt, as in Delta pilot Dwight Schmidt, the father of Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt. “It was a lot of fun,” Clarke Schmidt said before Friday night’s game at the Tampa Bay Rays. “I mentioned it to a few guys and then we got there, it kind of like spread like wildfire. It was kind of like interactive a little bit. A lot of guys got to see things they never got to see as far as like
August 25, 2023Novak Djokovic is back in the United States, back in New York — and back at the U.S. Open for the first time in two years. Unable to compete at Flushing Meadows in 2022 because he was not allowed to fly to the country as a foreign citizen who is not vaccinated against COVID-19, the 23-time Grand Slam champion will be back in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday as play begins in the season’s final major tournament. He was asked Friday whether he harbored some resentment over the way things happened; Djokovic sat out tournaments in
August 25, 2023Ryan Guidus was enjoying a spontaneous night out Wednesday with his 7-month-old daughter and mother-in-law at Cook’s Corner, a favorite family spot in Southern California that he’s frequented since his own childhood, when gunshots rang out. First, he thought it was fireworks. But when screaming began and more shots followed, the bar’s popular weekly spaghetti night turned into every parent’s worst nightmare as a retired police sergeant opened fire. “I just reached into the stroller and ejected my daughter out of that thing, ripped her out of there as fast as I could,” Guidus told The
August 25, 2023Former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer learned a lesson about his car keys after his vehicle was stolen as he hosted a Fargo radio show. Schafer was guest hosting KFGO’s “News and Views” program Friday morning when police called the station to ask if he owned a 2020 GMC Yukon, the station reported. It turns out that the SUV had been stolen out of the station’s parking lot. The thief apparently drove it to a probation office and surrendered to authorities, Schafer said. The vehicle has a push-button start feature and requires a key fob to
August 25, 2023Shohei Ohtani’s right elbow was fine until he tore his ulnar collateral ligament with a 94 mph fastball to Cincinnati’s Christian Encarnacion-Strand on Wednesday, according to Los Angeles Angels manager Phil Nevin. Baseball’s two-way superstar was back in the Angels’ lineup as a designated hitter Friday night against the New York Mets, two days after the injury ended his season as a pitcher and clouded his future months before potentially becoming a free agent. He received huge cheers from the crowd on Japanese Heritage Night when he walked to the plate in the first inning and
August 25, 2023Noah Lyles won the 200-meter world title Friday in 19.52 seconds, becoming the first man to complete the 100-200 sprint double at worlds since Usain Bolt did it for the third and final time back in 2015. It was Lyles’ third straight world championship at 200 meters and cemented him as the man to beat at both distances less than a year from now at the Paris Olympics. In the women’s race, Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson ran the second fastest time in history, a 21.41, to take her second straight world title at 200 meters. She beat
August 25, 2023The grassland birds that bring sweet song to North America’s prairie are in decline, with habitat loss, land degradation and climate change threatening what’s left of a once-vast ecosystem. Over half the grassland bird population has been lost since 1970, and one-quarter of the species are in extreme peril. It’s a situation that biologists, conservation groups, farmers and ranchers would like to reverse — so they’re teaming up to do so. That means ramping up efforts to tag birds, track them, and foster best practices for land use that can aid their survival. Here’s what else is happening related to
August 25, 2023”Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and the second season debut of the third “Power” spin-off “Power Book IV: Force” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the new musical game for the Nintendo Switch called Samba de Amigo: Party Central, the fine-dining satire “The Menu” being served on Hulu and a new album from the 20-member K-pop super group NCT. NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — ”Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” Harrison Ford’s last
August 25, 2023The sound stunned Fred Richard. The energy too. Walking into the arena for the men’s gymnastics competition at the World University Games in Chengu, China, earlier this month, the 19-year-old Richard wasn’t prepared for what he saw. “It’s filled with people filled to the brink,” said Richard, a sophomore at Michigan and the reigning men’s NCAA all-around champion. “So it’s like 10,000 people plus and they’re all cheering.” The scene when Richard and the rest of the top American men took the floor for the opening night of the U.S. Championships at the SAP Center
August 25, 2023San Diego Padres reliever Robert Suárez was suspended for 10 games by Major League Baseball on Friday, the sixth pitcher penalized for using banned sticky stuff. The penalty was announced by MLB senior vice president for on-field operations Michael Hill. Suárez appealed the discipline to John McHale Jr., a special assistant to baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. Any suspension will be delayed while the appeal is pending. Suárez was ejected Wednesday for having sticky stuff on his left wrist and arm before he threw a pitch in the eighth inning against Miami. Suárez denied using any banned
August 25, 2023Shares of Hawaiian Electric Co.’s parent fell more than 19% Friday, one day after the utility was sued by Maui County over the fires that devastated Lahaina earlier this month. Maui County accused Hawaiian Electric of negligently failing to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions — saying that the destruction from the deadly Aug. 8 fires could have been avoided if the company had taken essential actions. Outrage towards Hawaiian Electric grew as witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds,
August 25, 2023The descendants of a 19th-century Scottish sugar and coffee planter who owned thousands of slaves in Guyana apologized Friday for the sins of their ancestor, calling slavery a crime against humanity with lasting negative impacts. Charles Gladstone, a descendant of former plantation owner John Gladstone, traveled to Guyana from Britain with five relatives to offer the formal apology. “It is with deep shame and regret that we acknowledge our ancestors’ involvement in this crime and with heartfelt sincerity, we apologize to the descendants of the enslaved in Guyana,” he told an audience at the University of
August 25, 2023A massive fire at a south Louisiana oil refinery sent a tower of black smoke billowing into the air above the Mississippi River on Friday, forcing nearby residents to evacuate for several hours as emergency crews battled the blaze. No injuries were reported and the fire was under control and contained to two damaged storage tanks by late afternoon, according Marathon Petroleum, which operates the facility in Garyville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans. Air quality monitoring was also taking place, officials said. Photos from above showed orange flames leaping into the air
August 25, 2023One of the first personal computers built by Apple and signed by company co-founder Steve Wozniak has sold at auction for more than $223,000. The Apple-1 has been restored to a fully operational state and came with a custom case with a built-in keyboard, according to Boston-based RR Auction, which held the sale that closed Thursday. About 200 were manufactured in Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ garage in Los Altos, California, in 1976 and 1977 and helped launch the company that in June became the first publicly traded business to close a trading day with a $3 trillion
August 25, 2023The director of the British Museum said Friday that he would step down immediately amid investigations into the theft or disappearance of hundreds of items from its massive collection, including gold jewelry, semi-precious gems and antiquities dating to the15th century B.C. Hartwig Fischer had planned to leave the post next year but said his presence had become a distraction after questions were raised recently about whether the museum took warnings seriously. Two years ago, an art dealer contacted museum officials to report that he suspected items from the collection were being peddled online. “It is evident that
August 25, 2023Estonia’s strongly pro-Ukrainian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, came under increasing pressure Friday to resign, after Estonian media revealed her husband’s role in a company that indirectly did business in Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Kallas, 46, one of Europe’s most outspoken supporters of Ukraine, had urged all EU companies to stop doing business with Russia after the war in Ukraine began in February 2022. Her husband, Arvo Hallik, said Friday he would sell his 25% stake in Stark Logistics, a trucking company that worked with an Estonian company involved in Russia. He
August 25, 2023Auto workers are voting overwhelmingly to give union leaders the authority to call strikes against Detroit car companies if a contract agreement isn’t reached. The United Auto Workers union said Friday that results are still being tallied, but so far 97% have voted in favor of authorizing one or more strikes against Stellantis, General Motors and Ford. Such votes are almost always approved by large margins. Contracts between the union representing about 146,000 workers at Stellantis, General Motors and Ford expire at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14. Fain said earlier this week that negotiations with the
August 25, 2023Iga Swiatek wants to win the U.S. Open again, of course. She just doesn’t want to think about trying to win the U.S. Open again. Make sense? Let’s let the No. 1-ranked Swiatek explain. “I already had many opportunities to play tournaments as a defending champion and for me it’s not about defending something. It’s about giving everything that I have and playing my best, trying to do my best. Step by step. Day by day. I don’t focus on my final result. I focus on my next match and every match is a different story,” Swiatek wrote to The
August 25, 2023Niger’s junta authorized troops from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to its defense and asked the French ambassador to leave the country Friday, raising the stakes in a standoff with other West African nations who are threatening force to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president. The junta leader, Brig. Gen. Abdrahmane Tchiani, signed two executive orders authorizing the “security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi said late Thursday, after hosting a delegation from the two countries in the Nigerien
August 25, 2023Open Society Foundations plan to significantly curtail their work in Europe and lay off much of their staff on the continent, the foundations’ leaders told staff in Berlin, according to an internal email and several current employees, who say the decision is painful and perplexing. The planned European cuts, as described in an internal email viewed by The Associated Press, would represent a historic break with the roots of billionaire philanthropist George Soros’ support for civil society through education, human rights work and policy research, which started in his native Hungary more than three decades ago. The strategic change coincides
August 25, 2023Poland’s internal security officers were searching for the source of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease which has killed seven people and infected more than 100 others in the strategic city of Rzeszow, near the border with Ukraine, authorities said Friday. The region of Rzeszow, in Poland’s southeast, is a key transit hub for international military support for Ukraine, following Russia’s full-scale invasion last year. Some 10,000 U.S. troops are also stationed in the area. Officials from the Internal Security Agency were inspecting various sites in Rzeszow, but primarily the water pipelines, where experts suppose the
August 25, 2023Severe storms powered by winds of up to 75 mph (121 kph) in Michigan downed trees, tore roofs off buildings and killed five people while leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power, officials said. The National Weather Service said Friday some of the damage may have been caused by two tornadoes. In western Michigan, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office said a 21-year-old woman and two girls, ages 1 and 3, died Thursday night after two vehicles collided head-on as it was raining. “There was two vehicles traveling toward each other. One hydroplaned on water and
August 25, 2023Canada has never medaled at the Basketball World Cup. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander evidently has his sights on changing that, and his team sent a serious message on the opening night of the tournament. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 27 points and Canada topped France 95-65 in a Group H game at Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday night. It cap Day 1 of the World Cup that’s also being held in the Philippines and Japan. Canada outscored France 25-8 in the third quarter, turning what was a three-point game at the half into a runaway. “I’m not surprised,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We played really good basketball today.
August 25, 2023Maui County released the names of 388 people still missing Thursday more than two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, and officials asked anyone who knows a person on the list to be safe to contact authorities. The FBI compiled the list of names. The number of confirmed dead after fires on Maui that destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina stands at 115, a number the county said is expected to rise. “We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose
August 25, 2023A federal judge on Friday questioned whether living in poverty would be enough to qualify someone for a key immigration policy from President Joe Biden that allows a limited number of people from four countries in the Americas to enter the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. The program allows up to 30,000 people into the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined. The program is being challenged in a lawsuit filed by Texas and 20 other Republican-leaning states. They’re accusing it of being a “shadow immigration system” that’s letting in nearly everyone who applies. U.S.
August 25, 2023Taiwan’s vice president and front-runner in upcoming presidential elections accused China on Friday of employing unfair trade practices that could be used to influence the voting. William Lai, in a meeting with foreign journalists in Taipei, said China “will be hoping to interfere in the elections with all sorts of tactics.” If they succeed, he said, “it will be an undermining of Taiwan’s democracy.” His comments come after China announced on Monday that it was suspending mango imports from Taiwan, alleging that authorities had detected pests on the fruit. The trade curb is widely believed to
August 25, 2023Zimbabweans waited anxiously Friday for the outcome of general elections as dozens of armed police with water cannons guarded the national results center, the scene of deadly violence after the previous vote five years ago. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said it was still verifying results from close to 12,500 polling stations across the country and could start releasing details Friday. Results in the presidential balloting are not expected for several days. Zimbabwe’s long history of disputed elections has left many wary of official results. Voting closed Thursday after delays in distributing ballot papers in the capital,
August 25, 2023Authorities battling a major wildfire in northeastern Greece that has been described as the European Union’s largest single recorded fire recovered another body, the fire department said Friday, bringing the total death toll from wildfires in Greece this week to 21. The fire department said firefighters recovered the body of a man from the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park, which lies near the border with Turkey, on Thursday. Eighteen bodies were discovered Tuesday near a shack in an area near the northeastern city of Alexandroupolis, and the body of another person was found Monday in a forest.
August 25, 2023The Kremlin on Friday rejected allegations it was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Africa and Syria and conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago. Prigozhin, who was listed among those on board the plane, was eulogized Thursday by President Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind a crash that many saw as an assassination. A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded the plane was downed Wednesday by an intentional explosion. One of the U.S. and Western
August 25, 2023Dutch brewer Heineken has completed its withdrawal from Russia, 18 months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, selling its business in Russia for just 1 euro, the company announced Friday. Heineken said it would incur a total loss of 300 million euros ($325 million) for the sale to Russian manufacturing giant the Arnest Group. Heineken had faced criticism for the slow pace of its exit in the wake of the outbreak of war, but insisted it was seeking to look after its local employees in Russia. In March last year, Heineken had said
August 25, 2023The attacks range from the exotic — poisoned by drinking polonium-laced tea or touching a deadly nerve agent — to the more mundane of getting shot at close range. Some take a fatal plunge from an open window. Over the years, Kremlin political critics, turncoat spies and investigative journalists have been killed or assaulted in a variety of ways. None, however, has been known to perish in an air accident. But on Wednesday, a private plane carrying a mercenary chief who staged a brief rebellion in Russia plummeted into a field from tens of thousands of
August 25, 2023Asian shares mostly fell Friday, discouraged by a Wall Street slump that followed a blowout profit report from Nvidia and mixed reports on the United States economy. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped 2.0% to 31,634.37 in afternoon trading. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.9% to 7,118.20. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.8% to 2,516.63. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.5% to 18,126.36, while the Shanghai Composite shed less than 0.1% to 3,081.14. Tokyo inflation eased to 2.9% in August from the previous year, largely because of lower energy prices, according to government data. The consumer price index, excluding fresh
August 25, 2023When Giorgia Meloni was running to become Italy’s first far-right head of government of the post-war era, she steeped her winning campaign in the sharply ideological rhetoric of national sovereignty, “traditional families” and fear of migrants. Since taking office in September, Premier Meloni has toned down the bombast reflected in the slogans she shouted last year at a rally in Spain for a far-right ally — “ Yes to natural families! No to LGBT lobbies!” But her government and her party’s lawmakers are still pursuing multiple far-right policies, including refusing to allow the names of some same-sex
August 25, 2023The president of the Spanish soccer federation faces an emergency meeting of its general assembly on Friday amid media reports that he will hand in his resignation following an uproar for kissing a Women’s World Cup champion. Luis Rubiales is expected to stand before representatives of Spain’s regional federations, clubs, players, coaches and referees in Madrid at noon local time and local media say he is stepping down. The federation has refused to comment on repeated requests from The Associated Press for confirmation of Rubiales’ decision to go that was reported late Thursday. Rubiales, 46, is
August 25, 2023Starting Friday, Europeans will see their online life change. People in the 27-nation European Union can alter some of what shows up when they search, scroll and share on the biggest social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook and other tech giants like Google and Amazon. That’s because Big Tech companies, most headquartered in the U.S., are now subject to a pioneering new set of EU digital regulations. The Digital Services Act aims to protect European users when it comes to privacy, transparency and removal of harmful or illegal content. Here are five things that will
August 25, 2023It’s a common term these days, deployed to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with their captors: “Stockholm syndrome.” And it got its name 50 years ago this week, during a failed bank robbery in Sweden’s capital. Stockholm syndrome — dubbed by its founder “Norrmalmstorg syndrome,” after the square where the bank heist took place — has since been used in connection with hostage-takings around the world, including the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst in the 1970s. Here’s a look at Stockholm syndrome and how it got its name. WHAT
August 25, 2023An Australian court on Friday allowed a civil case to proceed against a Catholic archdiocese involving child sex abuse allegations against late Cardinal George Pell. The Victoria state Court of Appeal in Melbourne refused to hear the church’s challenge to a judge’s ruling that a father, identified in court documents as RWQ, was entitled to sue for damages for the nervous shock he suffered when he learned of allegations his son had been abused. Pell was the third highest-ranking cleric in the Vatican when he was convicted in 2018 of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in
August 25, 2023Asher Hong overcame an uncharacteristic fall on the floor exercise to take the lead after the opening round of the U.S. men’s gymnastics championships Thursday night. Hong, a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford, posted a total of 85.615 points, just ahead of 2017 national champion and 2020 Olympian Yul Moldauer at 85.548. Fred Richard, a sophomore at Michigan and the reigning NCAA all-around champion, was third at 85.469. Hong, third at the 2022 national championships, used a massive 15.455 on vault early in the competition to grab the lead. His only real miscue came on floor exercise later in the night,
August 25, 2023Giannis Antetokounmpo says he wants to see how committed the Milwaukee Bucks are to competing for another championship before deciding whether to sign a contract extension. The two-time MVP will become eligible next month to extend the deal that currently runs through the 2024-25 season, with a player option for 2025-26. Antetokounmpo told The New York Times he wouldn’t sign an extension this year. He said it might make more sense next summer, “but even then, I don’t know.” “I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same
August 25, 2023Kenny Pickett led two touchdown drives and showed he and the Pittsburgh starters are ready for real games as the Steelers overpowered the Atlanta Falcons’ backups 24-0 on Thursday night in the final preseason game for both teams. Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren ran for touchdowns to cap the only drives led by Pickett, who completed 4 of 4 passes for 86 yards in his short but productive playing time. The Steelers (3-0) scored touchdowns on each of their five preseason possessions led by Pickett. The second-year QB completed passes of 33 yards to Diontae Johnson and
August 25, 2023Yuka Saso had a big second nine to shoot a 6-under 66 and take the first-round lead Thursday in the CPKC Women’s Open, while Canadian star Brooke Henderson struggled while playing in glasses for the first time on the LPGA Tour. Even par at the turn at tree-lined — and mosquito-infested — Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, Saso birdied Nos. 1-4 and 6-7, playing her second nine in 6-under 30. The 22-year-old Japanese player won the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open for her lone LPGA Tour title. “I don’t know what happened the back nine,” Saso
August 25, 2023When Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivers a high-profile speech Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, many analysts think he could make one thing clear: That the Fed plans to keep its benchmark interest rate at a peak level for longer than had been expected. Powell isn’t likely to say whether the Fed will continue raising rates. But he may signal that any rate cuts are unlikely until well into next year. The central bank has already helped drive inflation down from painfully high levels. But Fed officials have said they need to keep rates high
August 25, 2023Georgia’s oldest city, steeped in history predating the American Revolution, made a historic break with its slavery-era past Thursday as Savannah’s city council voted to rename a downtown square in honor of a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write. Susie King Taylor is the first person of color whose name will adorn one of Savannah’s 23 squares. It’s the first time in 140 years that Savannah has approved a name change for one of the picturesque, park-like squares that are treasured features of the original plan for the city founded in
August 25, 2023Collin Morikawa faced a tough road at the Tour Championship, starting the tournament nine shots behind but knowing he had 72 holes — and an example from Rory McIlroy last year — to make up ground in the FedEx Cup finale. He managed to do that in one day, with a little help from the top. Morikawa finally put together his most complete round of the year at a good time Thursday, closing with three straight birdies for a 9-under 61 that gave him a share of the lead with Ryder Cup hopeful Keegan Bradley (63) and
August 24, 2023Unionized workers at a General Motors joint venture electric vehicle battery plant in Ohio will see pay raises while they continue to negotiate a contract, if they ratify an interim deal announced Thursday. The United Auto Workers union said that the 1,100 workers at the Ultium Cells plant near Warren, Ohio, will get $3 to $4 per hour increases as well as thousands of dollars in back pay. They’ll vote on the interim deal in the coming days. Ultium Cells said the average increase is 25%, and it would be effective on Aug. 28. Since it’s retroactive,
August 24, 2023Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday implored President Joe Biden to take urgent action to help her state absorb a surge of international migrants who have strained resources and filled homeless shelters — putting some Democrats in a vulnerable position in a state usually seen as immigrant-friendly. In a rare public address, Hochul said she had sent the president a letter asking him to expedite work permits for migrants and provide financial resources to help care for the estimated 100,000 asylum seekers who have come to the state in the last year, mostly to New York City.
August 24, 2023Michigan will give four assistant coaches a chance to be head coach on game day during the three weeks Jim Harbaugh will be serving the school’s self-imposed suspension for violating NCAA rules. Michigan also announced Thursday that Harbaugh’s 84-year-old father, Jack, will be assistant head coach when the third-ranked Wolverines face East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green at home in September, and strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert will add the title of associate head coach. The school handed down a three-game suspension to Jim Harbaugh earlier this week as it tries to get out
August 24, 2023The major freight railroads say a disagreement over whether they will be allowed to discipline some workers who use a government hotline to report safety concerns has kept them from following through on the promise they made back in March to join the program after a fiery Ohio derailment prompted calls for reforms. Unions and workplace safety experts say the idea of disciplining workers who report safety concerns undermines the purpose of creating such a hotline because workers won’t use it if they fear retribution. Programs like this one overseen by the Federal Railroad Administration are
August 24, 2023The government of Panama said Thursday it will launch a new campaign to stem the flow of migrants through the dangerous, jungle-clad Darien Gap, after crossings hit 300,000 so far this year. In comparison, less than 250,000 migrants crossed in all of 2022. The plan, named “Darien is a jungle, not a road,” will be launched next week, officials said, but they could barely hide their frustration with neighboring Colombia’s inability to stop migrants from coming to the two countries’ roadless border. “Despite all the efforts, meetings with other countries involved have not managed to stop
August 24, 2023The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued SpaceX, the rocket company founded and run by Elon Musk, for alleged hiring discrimination against refugees and people granted asylum. The complaint, filed in an administrative court within the department, asserts that SpaceX wrongly claimed that federal export control laws barred it from hiring anyone but U.S. citizens and permanent residents. As a result, it discouraged refugees and asylum grantees from applying for jobs at the company, according to the complaint. Export controls typically aim to protect U.S. national security and to further national trade objectives. They bar the
August 24, 2023When Billie Jean King won the U.S. Open in 1972, she didn’t make the usual remarks about hoping to win again. Instead, she threatened to not play at all the next year — and added that no other women would, either. That’s because she earned $10,000 for her championship, $15,000 less than what Ilie Năstase won for his. “I said: ‘This really stinks,’” King recalled Thursday. “And, of course, deep down in my heart of hearts, in my brain, I’m going, ‘I haven’t talked to them yet. You sure you’re doing the right thing here?’ This
August 24, 2023Videos released Thursday of a Tennessee traffic stop that ended in a fatal shooting shows a deputy holding on to the car’s steering wheel and being carried away as the vehicle speeds off, but does not show the moment when the deputy shot the driver. Jarveon Hudspeth, 21, was shot and killed June 24 by a Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputy after the deputy approached his car and tried to stop it from leaving the scene, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The situation escalated and Hudspeth drove off and “dragged” the deputy about 100
August 24, 2023Guyana president Irfaan Ali on Thursday lashed out at the descendants of European slave traders, saying those who profited from the cruel, trans-Atlantic slave trade should offer to pay reparations to today’s generations. The leader of the South American country also proposed that those involved in the slave trade be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity. Ali spoke ahead of Friday’s planned formal apology in Guyana by the descendants of Scottish 19th-century sugar and coffee plantation owner John Gladstone, saying the apology should also include issues of compensation and reparative justice. The president said that while
August 24, 2023Shohei Ohtani already knew he had a career-altering tear in his elbow ligament when he roped a double to right in the fifth inning of the Angels’ doubleheader nightcap on Wednesday. After he hustled to second base, he was greeted by Elly De La Cruz. Cincinnati’s 21-year-old rookie shortstop jokingly poked at the smiling Ohtani, essentially asking the two-way superstar, “Are you real?” That’s the question all of baseball has been asking about Ohtani for the past three seasons, ever since he returned from Tommy John surgery and redefined what’s possible in this sport. But the
August 24, 2023JetBlue Airways could raise fares on some routes by up to 40% if it succeeds in buying Spirit Airlines and eliminating the low-fare carrier as a competitor on those routes, according to lawyers who are suing the airline to block the deal. The estimations were contained in court filings made earlier this week, and which JetBlue says were not properly redacted. JetBlue said Thursday that the filings are based on the opposition lawyers’ interpretation of evidence, and are taking facts out of context. Consumer advocates jumped on the news, saying that the accidental disclosure supports the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit
August 24, 2023Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer whose self-given nickname stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill,” played a cat and mouse game with investigators and reporters for decades before he was caught. But Rader gradually faded from view after his 2005 arrest, as he served one life term for each of the 10 people he was convicted of killing. He made headlines again this week, though, because he was named the prime suspect in an Oklahoma teen’s 1976 disappearance and a Missouri woman’s 1990 killing. Here’s a look at how Rader spread fear and was eventually caught and convicted: WHAT IS THE
August 24, 2023Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric Company on Thursday over the fires that devastated Lahaina, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions. Witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds, which were driven by a passing hurricane. The Aug. 8 fire killed at least 115 people and left an unknown number of others missing. A spokesperson for Hawaiian Electric didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Had the utility heeded weather service “warnings and de-energized their powerlines
August 24, 2023Summer is still four months away in the Southern Hemisphere but Brazil is contending with a balmy winter, with record high temperatures and dry weather across much of the country. The rare heat wave engulfed 19 of Brazil’s 26 states on Thursday, as well as the capital of Brasilia, according to the National Meteorological Institute, bringing also low humidity for the country that’s home to the Amazon tropical rainforest. Beachgoers hit many of the country’s famous sandy stretches, including Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana. Four state capitals recorded the year’s highest temperature on Wednesday. Cuiabá, in
August 24, 2023The U.S. will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, beginning at an Air National Guard base in October, the Pentagon said Thursday. The training is part of a U.S. and European effort to get the advanced fighter jets to Ukraine for its defense against invading Russian forces. American military officials stress it takes years of training to be able to field F-16 squadrons, limiting the impact the aircraft will have on Ukraine’s defense for the near future. “This is about the long-term support to Ukraine,” the Pentagon spokesman, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, told
August 24, 2023A California judge on Thursday rejected an environmental group’s lawsuit that sought to block the state’s largest utility from seeking to extend the operating life of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Friends of the Earth sued in state Superior Court in April, hoping to derail a state-backed proposal to keep the twin-domed plant running for at least five additional years. The group was part of a 2016 agreement with operator Pacific Gas & Electric to shutter the state’s last nuclear power plant by 2025. Amid concerns over power supplies in a changing climate, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the
August 24, 2023Rory McIlroy hurt his lower back before arriving at East Lake for the FedEx Cup finale, bad timing for an injury as he tries to chase an $18 million bonus at the Tour Championship with the Ryder Cup a month away. McIlroy did not hit balls Wednesday and was limited to about 20 shots on the range before deciding to play the opening round. He is the No. 3 seed, meaning he started the Tour Championship at 7-under par, three behind top-seeded Scottie Scheffler. He did not mention the injury to the lower right side of his
August 24, 2023Nordstrom on Thursday reported that its sales and profits fell in its fiscal second quarter, joining itsdepartment store peers coping with shoppers’ cautious spending. But its results still topped Wall Street expectations. The Seattle-based upscale department store reaffirmed its financial annual outlook that calls for a sales decline for the year. After initially rising, its stock was down almost 5% in after-markets trading Thursday. Nordstrom’s sales were affected by the timing of the company’s anniversary sale, with one week falling into the third quarter this year compared to one day in 2022. Moreover, last year’s results
August 24, 2023San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch said he expects Trey Lance still to be on the roster when the season starts in just over two weeks despite losing out on the backup job to Sam Darnold. The Niners made the decision earlier this week to give Darnold the No. 2 job behind Brock Purdy despite trading three first-round picks to draft Lance third overall in 2021. The team is exploring all options with Lance, including a possible trade, but Lynch told flagship radio station KNBR that Lance being the third-string quarterback for Week 1
August 24, 2023Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg has decided to retire, ending a career that began as a No. 1 draft pick, included 2019 World Series MVP honors and was derailed by injuries, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because Strasburg has not spoken publicly about his plans. The person told The AP that Strasburg is expected to hold a news conference before a game at Nationals Park next month. The Washington Post first reported Strasburg’s decision to retire. Strasburg, who turned 35 last
August 24, 2023A collision involving a cart carrying Noah Lyles and his opponents in the 200-meter semifinals at world championships Thursday sent glass shards flying into the right eye of Jamaica’s Andrew Hudson, forcing him to race with blurred vision. An aerial video taken outside the stadium shows the cart carrying the athletes cruising down a sidewalk to bring the athletes to the warm-up room near the track. An oncoming cart hits the athletes’ cart and a volunteer tumbles out of the first cart. The video then shifts to inside the cart where Hudson is pressing his fingers
August 24, 2023The head of a Russian mercenary group who launched a rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June is presumed dead after a mysterious plane crash. But much remains uncertain. Here’s what we know and don’t know. What happened to the plane? Authorities said the private jet that took off from Moscow and was headed for St. Petersburg was carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin and some of his top lieutenants from the Wagner private military company. It went down northwest of the capital — after what appeared to be an explosion — minutes after takeoff. Everyone on board was killed. Is Prigozhin dead?
August 24, 2023India’s prime minister and China’s leader agreed Thursday to intensify efforts to de-escalate tensions at the disputed border between them and bring home thousands of their troops deployed there, according to an official from India’s foreign ministry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of a Johannesburg summit where the BRICS bloc of developing economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — invited six other countries to join the group, including Saudi Arabia and Iran. , India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told Indian reporters that Modi, in an
August 24, 2023Nigeria’s statistics agency on Thursday reported the country’s unemployment rate as 4.1%, the lowest in many years, but one analysts said was an undercount because of the agency’s new methodology. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) now classifies the employed in Nigeria as those working for at least one hour a week, as against the 20-hour-a-week parameter it had been using. In its new labor force report, the bureau said about three in four working-age Nigerians aged at least 15 were employed in the first quarter of 2023. Analysts said the unemployment statistics with the updated
August 24, 2023The Dominican Republic was starting to get back on its feet Thursday after Tropical Storm Franklin raked the island nation, with heavy flooding that killed at least two people. The storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and left more than 1.6 million without water. Heavy rains elsewhere caused flooding in several parts of the U.S., including an Ohio highway where 10 people were rescued from cars stranded in high water. In Michigan, flooded underground roadways blocked travelers from parts of Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and in Las Vegas, a fast-moving storm flooded parts of the city, including
August 24, 2023Two men were arrested Thursday on suspicion of torching an historic British pub in central England that was famous for its lopsided walls and sagging foundation, police said. The suspects were being questioned by Staffordshire Police about the Aug. 5 blaze that gutted the 18th century Crooked House pub in the village of Himley, 110 miles (180 kilometers) northwest of London. Locals mourning the loss of the tavern, which had recently been sold, were doubly devastated when it’s charred skeletal remains were bulldozed two days later before the cause of the fire had been determined and before
August 24, 2023Wireless carrier T-Mobile said Thursday it plans to cut 5,000 jobs, or about 7% of its workforce. In email to employees shared in a regulatory filing, CEO Michael Sievert said the layoffs would come over the next five weeks and impact T-Mobile workers across the country — particularly those working in corporate and back-office roles, as well as some technology positions. Retail and customer service teams will not be part of the cuts. “This is a large change, and an unusual one for our company,” Sievert wrote. “Because of this, we do not envision making additional
August 24, 2023The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed further above 7% this week to its highest level since 2001, another blow to would-be homebuyers grappling with rising home prices and a stubbornly low supply of properties on the market. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan climbed to 7.23% from 7.09% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.55%. It’s the fifth consecutive weekly increase for the average rate, which is now at its highest level since early June 2001, when it averaged 7.24%. High rates can
August 24, 2023When Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his armed rebellion that challenged the Kremlin, Western officials predicted Russian President Vladimir Putin would seek vengeance against the mercenary leader. Two months to the day after the action that Putin labeled a “stab in the back” and “treason,” those forecasts seem to have come true, in ruthless and menacing fashion. Although authorities have not yet confirmed the deaths of Prigozhin and his top lieutenants from the Wagner private military contractor in Wednesday’s plane crash northwest of Moscow, it sent an immediate chill through Russian official circles. Even amid the uncertainty, the message was clear: Anyone
August 24, 2023The Arizona Cardinals have traded Isaiah Simmons to the New York Giants, moving on from the No. 8 overall pick in the 2020 draft after three seasons. The deal was announced on Thursday, less than a week after Simmons had a disappointing preseason performance in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Giants are sending a seventh-round pick in the 2024 draft to the Cardinals. The move is pending Simmons passing a physical. The 25-year-old Simmons was seen as a can’t-miss defensive prospect in the 2020 draft after a stellar college career at Clemson. But
August 24, 2023Heavy rain flooded an Ohio highway where people were rescued from their cars, covered the Las Vegas strip with water and closed a busy airport terminal outside Detroit. Parts of the western United States have been deluged in recent weeks with rain from Tropical Storm Hilary and much of the central U.S. was beaten down by deadly sweltering heat. In Hawaii and Washington, emergency crews battled catastrophic wildfires. Parts of southeast Michigan got over 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain by Thursday morning resulting in street flooding in the Detroit area, including tunnels leading to Detroit
August 24, 2023The Naismith Trophy is part of the prize package for winners of the Basketball World Cup. It made a whirlwind tour over the last few weeks, including a stop in Las Vegas where U.S. guard Tyrese Haliburton got to spend a little time in its company. He immediately understood the mission. “It’s nice to see it,” Haliburton said. “It’ll be nicer if we bring it home.” The chance for 32 teams to do just that finally gets underway on Friday, when the World Cup begins in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan. Consider this a redemption-type opportunity
August 24, 2023Fast fashion retailers Shein and Forever 21 are going into business together. Under a partnership agreement announced Thursday, the Chinese-founded Shein will acquire about one-third interest in Sparc Group, Forever 21’s operator. Sparc will also become a minority shareholder in Shein. The deal is expected to expand Forever 21’s distribution on Shein’s global e-commerce platform, which has attracted 150 million online users. In turn, the partnership “also offers the opportunity to test” Shein product sales and returns in physical Forever 21 stores across the U.S., the companies said in a joint release. Forever 21 has more
August 24, 2023Norway is rebuilding a dilapidated reindeer fence along its border with Russia in the Arctic to stop the animals from wandering into the neighboring country — costly strolls for which Oslo has to compensate Moscow over loss of grassland. Norwegian officials said Thursday that so far this year, 42 reindeer have crossed into Russia seeking better pastures and grazing land. The reindeer barrier along the Norway-Russia border spans 150 kilometers (93 miles) and dates back to 1954. The Norwegian Agriculture Agency said a stretch of about 7 kilometers (4 miles) between the Norwegian towns of Hamborgvatnet
August 24, 2023If all goes according to plan, in a few weeks people will be sipping a shake that Marcelo Salazar has been developing for three years, made from the Amazon jungle’s cornucopia. His company Mazo Mana Forest Food has partnered with communities that live from the forest and gather the Brazil nuts, cocoa beans, acai, mushrooms, fruits and other ingredients that go into the drinks. They have received some backing from a business incubator based in Manaus that focuses on sustainable forest businesses, to counter an economy based on logging and ranching. “To turn the game around,
August 24, 2023King Charles III and Queen Camilla will visit France in September, Buckingham Palace said Thursday, after their planned state visit in March was postponed amid widespread demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s retirement age reforms. The couple had planned to tour Paris and Bordeaux in March as part of their debut on the world stage as monarch and queen consort. But the trip was shelved after violent nationwide protests rocked France, and Germany, which was originally intended to be the second leg of the journey, became the royals’ first destination instead. Palace officials say a state visit to
August 24, 2023The passenger manifest of the plane that went down in Russia is essentially a who’s who of Wagner mercenaries: Its second-in-command, who baptized the group with his nom de guerre. The logistics chief. A fighter wounded by U.S. airstrikes in Syria. At least one possible bodyguard. And, of course, Yevgeny Prigozhin himself, Wagner’s leader and mutineer who many believed was a marked man after his short-lived uprising in June against the Russian military. In all, the other passengers included six of Prigozhin’s lieutenants, along with the three-member flight crew. DMITRY UTKIN For a long time, Utkin was believed to be
August 24, 2023Ukraine on Thursday marked its second Independence Day since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with officials vowing to keep up their fight to drive out the Kremlin’s forces and local people remembering their fallen loved ones. The national holiday coincided with the war’s 18-month milestone, giving a somber mood to the commemorations. “We remember everyone who gave their lives for freedom and independence, for the free future of Ukraine,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post. He said that an independent Ukraine is “what we are fighting for.” In the northeastern Kharkiv region, families visited
August 24, 2023Uber raised the minimum age requirement for most of its new drivers in California to 25 on Thursday under rules the company said are necessary because of the rising costs of commercial auto insurance in the state. The new rule applies only to drivers signing up to transport passengers with Uber’s ride-hailing platform, and not for those delivering food with Uber Eats. Previously drivers as young as 19 could sign up. Those under 25 who activated their accounts prior to Wednesday can continue to drive for Uber, the company said. Insurance rates for Uber’s California drivers
August 24, 2023Subway said Thursday it will be sold to Roark Capital, a private equity firm with expertise in restaurant management that could help the sandwich chain expand and improve its stores. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Atlanta-based Roark was offering around $9.6 billion for Subway, which is privately owned. Subway CEO John Chidsey, who joined the company in 2019, said the deal reflects Subway’s long-term growth potential and the value of the brand. Subway plans to continue to modernize restaurants and expand internationally under Roark’s ownership. Subway said its leadership team
August 24, 2023Applications for unemployment benefits fell again last week as America’s labor market continues to hum along despite attempts by the Federal Reserve to cool the economy and bring down inflation that’s still higher than optimal. The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell last week by 10,000, to 230,000 the week ending August 19, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, rose by 2,250 to 236,750. Jobless claim applications are seen as reflective of the number of layoffs in a given week. Overall, 1.7 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the
August 24, 2023Boeing and a key supplier say that a new manufacturing flaw could delay deliveries of the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling plane. Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems said they discovered improperly drilled fastener holes in the aft pressure bulkhead — which maintains pressure when planes are at cruising altitude – on the fuselages of some models of the 737 Max. Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit said late Wednesday because it uses multiple suppliers, only some units are impacted and it will continue to deliver fuselages to Boeing. Boeing said the issue does not affect safety of flight, and 737 Max planes already in service
August 24, 2023FIFA opened a disciplinary case Thursday against the Spanish soccer official who kissed a player on the lips while celebrating the team’s victory in the Women’s World Cup final. The governing body’s disciplinary committee will weigh if Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales violated “the basic rules of decent conduct” and “behaving in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute.” Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy and medal ceremony on Sunday after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England in Sydney, Australia. Minutes earlier, Rubiales grabbed his crotch as
August 24, 2023Rajee Narinesingh faced struggles throughout her life as a transgender woman, from workplace discrimination to the lasting effects of black market injections that scarred her face and caused chronic infections. In spite of the roadblocks, the 56-year-old Florida actress and activist has seen growing acceptance since she first came out decades ago. “If you see older transgender people, it shows the younger community that it’s possible I can have a life. I can live to an older age,” she said. “So I think that’s a very important thing.” Now, as a wave of new state
August 24, 2023Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by an aggressive 7.5 percentage points on Thursday, in a new sign of a return to more traditional economic policies under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The bank hiked its policy rate to 25% as it continued to backtrack from a rate-cutting course set by Erdogan, which has been blamed for inflaming a cost-of-living crisis. Many households have been left struggling to afford rent and basic goods. Erdogan has long argued that lowering interest rates helps fight inflation, a theory that runs contrary to traditional economic thinking. Central banks
August 24, 2023Rescue crews were searching for survivors Thursday after a building collapse in Nigeria’s capital left two people dead while many others are feared trapped, emergency officials said. The two-story building in the densely populated Garki district of the capital Abuja collapsed during a downpour late Wednesday, witnesses said. It served both as a shopping center and a residential block and some of those trapped were believed to be shoppers. Nkechi Isa, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the city said 37 people have so far been pulled alive from the rubble. She said
August 24, 2023A court in Pakistan’s capital is expected to issue a crucial ruling Thursday on an appeal from the country’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan against his recent conviction and three-year sentence in a graft case, one of his lawyers said. The former cricket star and top opposition leader was found guilty of concealing assets after selling state gifts he received while in office and was convicted and sentenced on Aug. 5 by another court. Khan, through his legal team, requested his release, saying the trial court sentenced him in haste. The 70-year-old Khan, who was ousted
August 24, 2023Major wildfires burning for days in northeastern Greece and on the fringes of the country’s capital have incinerated more tracts of forest and forced additional evacuations Thursday as firefighters struggled against strong winds and arid conditions to bring the multiple fronts under control. The wildfires have left 20 people dead over the last week. Eighteen of those, including two boys aged between 10 and 15, are believed to be migrants who crossed the nearby border with Turkey. Their bodies were found by firefighters near a shack in a burnt forest area in northeastern Greece. Sixty firefighters
August 24, 2023The West African bloc ECOWAS rejected the proposal by Niger’s mutinous soldiers for a three-year transition to democratic rule, with a commissioner describing the slow timeline as a provocation. The door for diplomacy with Niger’s junta remained open but the bloc is not going to engage in drawn-out talks that lead nowhere, Abdel-Fatau Musah, the ECOWAS commissioner for peace and security, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. “It is the belief among the ECOWAS heads of state and also the commission that the coup in Niger is one coup too many for the region
August 24, 2023Iran and Saudi Arabia are among six nations invited Thursday to join the BRICS bloc of developing economies. United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia are also set to join the bloc from 2024. The announcement was made at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose country is the current BRICS chair. BRICS is currently made up of the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Those five members agreed at this week’s summit to expand the bloc. It’s the second time that BRICS has decided to expand. The
August 24, 2023Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and top officers of his private military were presumed dead in a plane crash that was widely seen as an assassination, two months after they staged a mutiny that dented Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority. Russia’s civil aviation agency said that Prigozhin and six top lieutenants were on a business jet that crashed Wednesday, soon after taking off from Moscow, with a crew of three. Rescuers quickly found all 10 bodies, and Russian media cited sources in Prigozhin’s Wagner private military company who confirmed his death. U.S. and other Western officials long expected Putin to
August 24, 2023Asian shares mostly rose Thursday after Wall Street rallied to its best day since June after pressures from the bond market relaxed a bit. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% in afternoon trading to 32,289.67. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5% to 7,182.10. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.2% to 2,534.60. The Bank of Korea’s Monetary Policy Board left the base rate unchanged at 3.50%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.1% to 18,220.68, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% to 3,088.74. A major event of the week for markets is a speech later in the day by U.S. Federal
August 24, 2023Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained on espionage charges, arrived at a Moscow court Thursday for a hearing on a motion by the prosecution to extend his arrest. Gershkovich arrived at court in a white prison van and was led handcuffed out of the vehicle wearing jeans, sneakers and a shirt. A 31-year-old United States citizen, Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia in late March. He and his employer deny the allegations, and the U.S. government declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities
August 24, 2023Voting is still underway in Zimbabwe, where hourslong delays in distributing ballot papers forced the president to extend the general election by a day at dozens of polling stations. Some frustrated voters slept at polling stations in the capital, Harare, snuggling under blankets or lighting fires to keep warm. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who seeks a second term, used his presidential powers to extend voting to Thursday night at dozens of polling stations. Ballot papers were still being printed late Wednesday, hours after voting should have closed. At other polling stations, counting of ballots began. Zimbabwe has
August 24, 2023“How We Do” blared from the clubhouse speakers as disco lights flashed to the rap. Aaron Judge took over the wrestling championship belt that Anthony Volpe had held since the rookie’s three-run homer sparked a win at Miami on Aug. 11. “He’s never going to get the belt back again if it’s going to lead to eight, nine losses in a row,” Judge said with a playful smile. Despite a feel-good 9-1 victory over Washington on Wednesday night that ended the Yankees’ first nine-game losing streak in 41 years, New York (61-65) is 9 1/2 games
August 24, 2023Southern California’s summer of discontent — marked by a series of work stoppages from hotels to Hollywood — has inspired labor-supporting Democrats in the state Legislature to try and change the law so striking workers can get unemployment checks while they picket for better pay and working conditions. The bill, introduced this week, would make California just the third state to do this, joining New York and New Jersey. But unlike most states, California currently doesn’t have enough money to pay the benefits owed to unemployed workers. Business groups who oppose the bill argue making more
August 24, 2023Two months after a railroad bridge collapse sent carloads of hazardous oil products plunging into Montana’s Yellowstone River, the cleanup workers are gone and a mess remains. Thick mats of tarry petroleum asphalt cover portions of sandbars. Oil-speckled rocks and bushes line the shore along with chunks of yellow sulfur, a component of crude. In the middle of the river downstream of the bridge, a tangle of steel juts out of the water from a ruptured railroad tank car that has not been removed. The railroad, Montana Rail Link, in conjunction with federal and state
August 24, 2023Plans for the start of the Basketball World Cup in Okinawa, Japan, were unaffected Thursday after a North Korean rocket launch prompted an alert ordering some residents to evacuate. Press conferences and practices for the eight teams that are beginning World Cup play in Okinawa went on as scheduled Thursday. The tournament begins Friday, also in the Philippines and Indonesia. There were no reports of damage. “It was a little scary,” Slovenia star Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks said Thursday when asked what it was like to experience the alert, which went out shortly before
August 24, 2023When members of the marine mammal team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare rush to a Cape Cod beach to help a stranded dolphin or porpoise, they have no choice but to treat the endangered animal on site and then immediately release it. That is about to change. The organization, which protects animals worldwide, is opening a first-of-its-kind short-term dolphin hospital on Cape Cod this month that it hopes will not only improve survivability rates, but also enhance the research it has developed over 25 years. Stranded marine mammals are stressed, in shock and dehydrated, said Brian Sharp, director
August 24, 2023A key portion of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy that grants parole to thousands of people from Central America and the Caribbean was set to be debated in a Texas federal courtroom beginning Thursday. Under the humanitarian parole program, up to 30,000 people are being allowed each month to enter the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Texas is leading a lawsuit filed by 21 Republican-leaning states to stop the program, arguing the Biden administration has overreached its authority. Other programs the administration has implemented to reduce illegal immigration have also faced legal challenges. The parole
August 24, 2023Shortly after the ignition of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, a developer of land around a threatened Maui community urgently asked state officials for permission to divert water from streams to fight the growing inferno. West Maui Land Company, Inc. said it eventually received approval from the Hawaii commission that oversees water management, but suggested the state body didn’t act quickly enough and first directed the company to talk with a downstream taro farmer who relies on stream water, according to letters by a company executive obtained by The Associated Press and
August 24, 2023When Wes Brown sought out children’s books for his two young sons, he made sure to seek titles that reflected the family he and his husband were building. He found that in one called “The Family Book,” a 2003 picture book by Todd Parr. It depicts families of all kinds: the traditional nuclear family, but also families with one parent or step-parents, as well as adoptive families and same-sex parents like Brown and his husband. But across the country, books and lessons that represent different families and identities are increasingly the target of conservative pushback — even when they’re for
August 24, 2023Three people were killed and five others were wounded in a shooting Wednesday at a Southern California biker bar, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said. The shooter also died. The shooting occurred after 7 p.m. at Cook’s Corner in rural Trabuco Canyon in Orange County, a popular longtime watering hole for motorcycle riders and enthusiasts who gather for live music, open-mic nights or just a cold beer after a long ride. Authorities didn’t immediately share details on how the shooting unfolded or about the assailant. Four people, including the shooter, were pronounced dead on scene.
August 24, 2023At the height of the post-pandemic economic recovery, Andy Parazette’s taco shop enjoyed such a crush of business that customers sometimes had to wait an hour for a burrito. Though Parazette welcomed the sales, the influx was unsustainable. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was absorbing a flood of visitors as Americans crowded into nearby Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks — outdoor sites seen as safe vacation spots. The uber-wealthy who owned area properties arrived, too, to ride out the pandemic. “The COVID thing was unmanageable,” Parazette said of the summers of 2020 and 2021. “I’d never
August 24, 2023Seoul office worker Kim Mijeong says she intends to stop eating seafood, as she deeply mistrusts the safety of Japan’s release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from its crippled nuclear power plant. “We should absolutely cut back on our consumption of seafood. Actually, we can’t eat it,” Kim said. “I can’t accept the Japanese plan because it’s too unilateral and is proceeding without countermeasures.” The International Atomic Energy Agency and many foreign experts already assessed the water discharge will cause negligible impact on the environment and human health. But ahead of the discharge
August 24, 2023Prince Harry is expected to return to the United Kingdom next month to attend a charity awards ceremony on the eve of the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the charity WellChild said Thursday. Harry, a long-time patron of U.K. charity WellChild, will attend its annual awards ceremony in London on Sept. 7 to mark the achievements of seriously ill young people. He is not expected to be joined by his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. The royal withdrew from the same charity awards ceremony last year, which took place on Sept. 8, the day
August 24, 2023Lionel Messi had two assists and converted a penalty kick as Inter Miami rallied from a two-goal deficit and beat MLS-leading Cincinnati 5-4 in penalties in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal on Wednesday night. Cincinnati jumped to a 2-0 lead before Messi set up a pair of goals by Leonardo Campana, tying the game at 2. Miami moved ahead when Josef Martínez scored three minutes into the first extra period, but Cincinnati tied the game at 3 when Yuya Kubo scored in the 114th minute, forcing penalty kicks. Messi made Miami’s first attempt in the shootout, and
August 24, 2023USA Gymnastics is looking to centralize its national training programs before the 2028 Olympics. President Li Li Leung said Wednesday over a dozen cities have responded to the organization’s request for an “expression of interest” in taking on the project, which would serve as the training and wellness headquarters for the organization’s various disciplines. The national camps for the programs are currently scattered across the country. The women’s artistic gymnastics national team trains in Texas. The men train in Colorado. The rhythmic gymnastics team meets in New York and the trampoline and tumbling programs split
August 24, 2023The man convicted of killing Kristin Smart, who vanished from a California college campus more than 25 years ago, was hospitalized after he was attacked in state prison, his lawyer said Wednesday. Paul Flores was taken Wednesday from Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga to an outside hospital where he was in serious condition, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The department didn’t confirm that Flores had been attacked, with a spokeswoman saying via email that the circumstances surrounding his injury were under investigation and details wouldn’t immediately be released. His attorney, Harold
August 24, 2023The Atlantic Coast Conference is making progress toward an expansion that could grab Stanford and California from the sinking Pac-12, a person with direct knowledge of the ACC’s potential move told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the conference was not making its internal discussions public. “It’s gaining momentum,” the person said about the possibility of expansion being approved. Two weeks ago, the ACC got so far as to gather its entire board of university leaders twice in three days to consider adding Stanford, Cal and possibly SMU, the Dallas-based American Athletic Conference
August 23, 2023Record-breaking oil production in New Mexico is likely to provide state government with a new multibillion-dollar surplus during the upcoming budget year, economists for the state announced Wednesday. Annual state general fund income would increase to $13 billion for the fiscal year that runs from July 2024 to June 2025 — a surplus of $3.5 billion, or 36%, over current annual general fund spending obligations, according to the forecast from lead economists at four state agencies including the Legislature’s budget and accountability office. The estimates were presented to a panel of leading legislators Wednesday and
August 23, 2023Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona has already scheduled shoulder replacement surgery and plans on having a pair of hernia operations at the end of this season. The 64-year-old knows his recovery period will be lengthy, and spending another year in the dugout is not conducive to making it a smooth process. Francona, however, isn’t quite ready to announce his retirement after 11 seasons with the franchise. “I need to go get healthy for my life, and this lifestyle is just too difficult,” Francona said Wednesday. “I also know how I feel about doing the job a certain
August 23, 2023John Isner will retire from professional tennis after playing at the U.S. Open, he announced Wednesday, bringing an end to a career that included one Grand Slam semifinal appearance and a victory in the longest match in the sport’s history. “This transition won’t be easy but I’m looking forward to every second of it with my amazing family,” the big-serving, 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) American wrote in a posting on social media that included a photo showing Isner, his wife and their four children. “Time to lace ‘em up one last time,” the 38-year-old Isner said, referring to the year’s last major
August 23, 2023Yevgeny Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who in June mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Prigozhin was aboard a plane that crashed north of Moscow on Wednesday, killing all 10 people on board, according to Russia’s civil aviation agency. The 62-year-old’s extraordinary journey took him from prisoner and hot dog vendor to elegant St. Petersburg restaurateur, and then from propaganda wars to the grisly battlefields in Ukraine. As an instrument to project Russian power globally, his soldiers-for-hire were deployed to Africa to
August 23, 2023Yevgeny Prigozhin’s fate has been entwined with the Kremlin for decades — as a trusted government contractor, and the head of the Wagner mercenary army that fought in Ukraine and has been blamed for doing Russia’s dirty work in Syria and Africa. But when he turned his men toward Moscow two months ago, many inside Russia and beyond started wondering just how long he could last after drawing the fury of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin cut a deal with Putin and the leader of Belarus for a safe haven for himself and the men involved in the rebellion. He
August 23, 2023With about three weeks until contracts expire with Detroit’s three automakers, the head of the United Auto Workers union says bargaining isn’t going well. President Shawn Fain told workers outside a Detroit factory that their walk Wednesday to practice picketing would become reality if General Motors, Ford and Stellantis don’t start negotiating seriously. “These companies better come to the table. The clock is ticking,” Fain told about 100 workers gathered in a parking lot near Stellantis’ Mack Avenue assembly complex. “Today I want you guys to have some fun practicing for what we’re going to have to
August 23, 2023In what amounted to a concession speech with the New York Yankees on the verge of their longest losing streak in a century, general manager Brian Cashman proclaimed the season “a disaster” and “an embarrassment” that will lead to job assessments of himself and manager Aaron Boone. New York (61-65), which began the season with baseball’s second-highest payroll at $275 million, ended its first nine-game losing streak in 41 years by beating Washington 9-1 Wednesday night on the strength of Aaron Judge’s first three-homer game. Still, the Yankees are on track for their first losing season
August 23, 2023A U.S. nurse who was kidnapped in Haiti last month with her young daughter spoke via video this week for the first time since her release. Alix Dorsainvil appeared alone in the video and sat in a manicured garden with crickets chirping in the background, thanking people who prayed for her. The nearly five-minute video in which Dorsainvil spoke entirely in Haitian Creole was posted Monday on the website of El Roi, the Christian group founded by Dorsainvil’s husband that offers medical care, education and other basic services in Haiti’s poorest areas. “For the
August 23, 2023Auston Matthews has put pen to paper on a deal that is set to make him the NHL’s highest-paid player. And the Toronto Maple Leafs — and their fans — can finally exhale. The star center signed a four-year, $53 million extension on Wednesday that ties him to the team that selected him first overall at the 2016 NHL draft through the 2027-28 season. The deal carries an average annual value of $13.25 million, which will make Matthews the league’s highest-paid player beginning in 2024-25, surpassing Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon’s $12.6 AAV. Matthews has one season left
August 23, 2023The seasonal drink that made pumpkin spice a star is turning 20. And unlike the autumn days it celebrates, there seems to be no chill in customer demand. Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte goes on sale Thursday in the U.S. and Canada, as it does each year when the nights start getting longer and the fall winds gather. It’s the coffee giant’s most popular seasonal beverage, with hundreds of millions sold since its launch in 2003. And it has produced a huge — and growing — industry of imitators flecked with cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. In the year ending July 29,
August 23, 2023Computer chip maker Nvidia has rocketed into the constellation of Big Tech’s brightest stars while riding the artificial intelligence craze that’s fueling red-hot demand for its technology. The latest evidence of Nvidia’s ascendance emerged with Wednesday’s release of the company’s quarterly earnings report. The results covering the May-July period exceeded Nvidia’s projections for astronomical sales growth propelled by the company’s specialized chips — key components that help power different forms of artificial intelligence, such as Open AI’s popular ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbots. “This is a new computing platform, if you will, a new computing transition
August 23, 2023Shohei Ohtani left the mound in the middle of an at-bat during the second inning Wednesday because of arm fatigue, the Los Angeles Angels said. Ohtani had a 2-2 count on Reds third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand when the Angels’ training staff came out to check on him following a 94 mph fastball. Ohtani headed off the mound after a brief discussion, having thrown just 26 pitches in the first game of a doubleheader. The two-way superstar and AL MVP front-runner skipped his previous turn in the rotation last week to rest his arm late in a
August 23, 2023Known as the Zorro Ranch, a high-desert property once owned by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has been sold after two years on the market. An attorney for Epstein’s estate, Daniel Weiner, confirmed Tuesday that the ranch had been sold for an undisclosed price, and the proceeds would be used to administer the estate and pay creditors. The property was listed in 2021 for $27.5 million. That price was later dropped to $18 million. Weiner told Albuquerque television station KRQE that the estate would disclose the sales price in its next quarterly accounting that will be
August 23, 2023The California woman killed for apparently refusing to remove an LGBTQ+ rainbow Pride flag from outside her store was adamant that she would never take it down, a longtime friend said Wednesday. Laura Ann Carleton was fatally shot Friday outside Mag.Pi, the clothing and home decor shop she owned in Cedar Glen, a mountain community east of Los Angeles. The shooter, Travis Ikeguchi, was killed by deputies after he opened fire on them a short time later, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said Monday. Ikeguchi had frequently posted anti-LGBTQ content on social media, sheriff’s officials
August 23, 2023Sam Darnold has won the backup quarterback job in San Francisco, signaling the possible end to Trey Lance’s tenure with the 49ers less than three years after the team traded three first-round picks to draft him. A person familiar with the situation said the 49ers are “considering all options” on Lance following the news that came out Wednesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not made any announcement about the backup quarterback or Lance’s future. NFL Network first reported that Darnold had beaten out Lance for the backup job behind
August 23, 2023South Korea said Thursday that North Korea has launched a long-range rocket. South Korea’s military said in a statement that the launch involved what the North called “a space launch vehicle.” It gave no further details. But it is likely be the North’s second attempt to put a spy satellite into space. Earlier this week, Japanese officials said North Korea told it that the North plans to launch a satellite in the coming days. In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a spy satellite plunged into the sea soon after liftoff, posing a setback
August 23, 2023Firefighters in a scenic region of British Columbia said Wednesday that heavy rain overnight helped douse wildfires that forced the evacuation of thousands of people from the Canadian province, as the cost of the devastating fires became clearer. Officials in southern British Columbia said 174 properties were partially or totally damaged by the fires that raged for days in the Okanagan Valley threatening towns in the Kelowna area, a summer destination about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of the U.S. border. “Things are looking good,” West Kelowna fire Chief Jason Brolund said. “It rained last
August 23, 2023Authorities in Oklahoma and Missouri are investigating whether the BTK serial killer was responsible for other homicides, with their search leading them to dig this week near his former Kansas property in Park City. Osage County, Oklahoma, Undersheriff Gary Upston told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the investigation into whether Dennis Rader was responsible for additional crimes started with the re-examination last year of the 1976 disappearance of Cynthia Kinney in Pawhuska. The case, which was investigated on and off over the years, was reopened in December. Upston said the investigation “spiraled out from there” into other unsolved murders
August 23, 2023Southwest Airlines is changing its unusual boarding system by limiting the opportunity to pay an extra fee and jump ahead of other passengers in the race for the best seats. The airline said Wednesday that it has not dropped “EarlyBird” entirely from any flights, but it is “limiting the number of spots available for purchase on certain flights, routes, or days, as we work on product enhancements.” As a result, the airline said in a statement, the service “is unavailable for some customers looking to purchase it.” The perk starts at $15 but can be higher, depending
August 23, 2023A Colorado man charged with killing 10 people at a Boulder supermarket in 2021 is competent to proceed toward a trial, prosecutors said Wednesday. The district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that experts at the state mental hospital say Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa no longer has a mental disability that prevents him from helping in his defense and can now participate in the court case against him. A judge still must accept their conclusion in order for criminal proceedings to resume, it said in a statement. Earlier this year, defense lawyers confirmed Alissa has schizophrenia, a mental disorder
August 23, 2023A man facing eviction opened fire at officers from inside a Pittsburgh home Wednesday, shooting down police drones and prompting evacuations in the neighborhood, in a gunbattle and siege that lasted much of the day and ended with authorities saying he was dead. City emergency medical service responders pronounced the man dead shortly after 5 p.m. after the hourslong standoff in the city’s Garfield neighborhood, Pittsburgh Public Safety reported. Officials did not immediately identify the man or elaborate on the circumstances of his death. Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Kraus said deputies went to the residence to serve
August 23, 2023Former Southern California running back Reggie Bush plans to file a defamation lawsuit against the NCAA over a statement made by college sports’ governing body about the reasoning for its decision not to restore the Heisman Trophy winner’s records. Bush announced his plan Wednesday through his attorneys at McCathern PLLC. Bush objects to a statement issued in July 2021 calling the star’s playing career at USC a “pay-for-play” arrangement. That standard was cited as the reason the NCAA wouldn’t restore Bush’s records, a decision that led to Bush returning his Heisman Trophy. “The NCAA’s statement is
August 23, 2023A business jet en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed Wednesday, killing all 10 people on board, Russian emergency officials said. Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list, officials said, but it wasn’t immediately clear if he was on board. Unconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company. Russia’s civilian aviation regulator, Rosaviatsia, said Prigozhin was on the passenger list. However, it was not immediately clear if he had boarded the flight. Russia’s state news agency Tass cited emergency officials as saying that the plane carried
August 23, 2023Iowa football player Noah Shannon, who has acknowledged his involvement in sports wagering, has been suspended for the season, coach Kirk Ferentz announced Wednesday. Ferentz told reporters in Iowa City the school would appeal the NCAA’s decision. Shannon has not been charged in the state’s criminal investigation of illegal sports wagering by athletes at Iowa and Iowa State. The senior from Aurora, Illinois, has started 28 games and came out of spring listed No. 1 at left defensive tackle. Ferentz said Shannon made at least one wager on an event involving a Hawkeyes team in another sport, which is an
August 23, 2023Four months after he was shot in the head after ringing the doorbell at the wrong house to pick up his brothers, Ralph Yarl has begun his senior year in high school. Next week, the man accused of shooting him will be in court. Yarl’s first day of school was Tuesday. “He was ready,” his aunt, Faith Spoonmore, told the Kansas City Star. “Ralph was ready to just go back to just being a teenager.” Andrew Lester, 84, pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the April 13 shooting. His preliminary
August 23, 2023People held signs without problems at the Tennessee Capitol complex Wednesday after a judge agreed to temporarily block a new rule advanced by House Republicans that had banned the public from doing so during floor and committee hearings. The ruling came in a lawsuit that was filed after state troopers removed three people Tuesday who held small signs urging gun control at a hearing on the same statehouse grounds where Republicans also drew attention this year for expelling two young Black Democratic lawmakers for breaking procedural rules. This week’s removals came at the order of a
August 23, 2023Get ready for the U.S. Open before play begins Monday with a guide that tells you everything you need to know about how to watch the year’s last Grand Slam tennis tournament, what the schedule is, what the betting odds are, who the defending champions are and more: HOW TO WATCH THE U.S. OPEN ON TV —In the U.S.: ESPN — Other countries are listed here. THE SINGLES SCHEDULE —Thursday: The brackets are released —Friday: Qualifying rounds end —Monday-Tuesday: First Round (Women and Men) —Aug. 30-31: Second Round (Women and Men) —Sept. 1-2: Third Round (Women
August 23, 2023The Texas ranch where Gilda Jackson trains and sells horses has been plagued by grasshoppers this year, a problem that only gets worse when the hatch quickens in times of heat and drought. Jackson watched this summer as the insects chewed through a 35-acre pasture she badly needs for hay; what they didn’t destroy, the sun burned up. Irrigation might have saved Jackson’s hay, but she and her husband rejected the idea about 10 years ago over the cost: as much as $75,000 for a new well and all the equipment. But now — with an extended drought and another
August 23, 2023Jason Kelce spent an offseason striking drums, pounding beers, fighting off retirement and knocking out podcasts with his NFL tight end brother. From elite center for the Philadelphia Eagles to center of attention from Sea Isle City to Saturday Night Live, Kelce has reveled in the man-of-the-people touches that put him on the short list of Philadelphia’s most beloved athletes. Ever. Heck, Kelce even endeared himself more to the people when a “cheap shot” (his words) sparked a melee at a joint practice this week between the Eagles and Indianapolis Colts. Kelce said he was just defending
August 23, 2023Peloton managed to beat sales expectations during its fiscal fourth quarter, but the exercise equipment maker reported a bigger loss than anticipated partly due to recall costs and a shift in consumer spending. Shares plunged more than 27% before the market open on Wednesday. Revenue fell to $642.1 million from $678.7 million in the quarter, but still topped the $640.5 million that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected. Subscription revenue rose 10%, while connected fitness products revenue slipped 25%. The number of members declined 5% to 6.5 million from 6.9 million. In a letter to shareholders, President and CEO
August 23, 2023Germany plans to ease citizenship rules under legislation approved Wednesday by the Cabinet, a project that the government contends will bolster the integration of immigrants and help an economy that is struggling with a shortage of skilled workers. The legislation passed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his ministers still requires approval from the lower house of parliament, where the socially liberal three-party coalition has a comfortable majority. It could take effect in January, depending on how quickly that happens. The government plans to make people eligible for citizenship after five years in Germany, or three in case
August 23, 2023A coalition advocating for Native American people impacted by an oppressive system of boarding schools for Native youths plans to digitize 20,000 archival pages related to schools in that system that were operated by the Quakers. The Quakers and other faith groups — including Episcopalians, Methodists and Catholics — have in recent years either begun or increased efforts to research and atone for their prior roles in the boarding school system that Native children were forced to attend, and that cut them off from their families, tribes and traditions. For decades, documents related to Quaker-operated Indian
August 23, 2023The coach of Spain’s Women’s World Cup champion soccer team is facing scrutiny after footage emerged showing him touching the chest area of a female assistant while celebrating the only goal of the final. The incident comes amid a national uproar against the president of the Spanish soccer federation after he kissed a player on the lips without her consent during the award ceremony after the 1-0 victory over England in Sydney, Australia. In a video of Spain’s coaching staff celebrating the goal against England, Jorge Vilda turns to hug three of his assistants — a woman
August 23, 2023Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to make it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official documents, legislation that the justice minister said aims to make life easier for “a small group for which it has great significance.” The legislation still needs approval by parliament. It is one of several reform plans that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition of three socially liberal parties has embarked on, and has been criticized by the conservative opposition. Under the planned “self-determination law,” which has been in the works for over a year,
August 23, 2023Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles each kicked off their quest for a second medal at the world championships Wednesday by easily winning their heats in the 200-meter preliminaries. Richardson finished in 22.16 seconds and Lyles in 20.05 in a pair of no-drama returns to the track after they gave the United States the first sweep of the 100 meters at a worlds since 2017, when Justin Gatlin and Tori Bowie won in London. Three women who have run faster than Richardson in the 200 this year — Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred and the
August 23, 2023Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine who was linked to the leader of an armed rebellion, has been dismissed from his job as chief of the air force, according to Russian state media. The report Wednesday came after weeks of uncertainty about his fate following the short-lived uprising. Surovikin has not been seen in public since armed rebels marched toward Moscow in June, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group. In a video released during the uprising, Surovikin urged Prigozhin’s men to pull back. During his long absence, Russian media have
August 23, 2023Water-dropping planes from several European countries joined hundreds of firefighters Wednesday battling wildfires raging for days across Greece that left 20 people dead, while major blazes also burned in Spain’s Tenerife and in northwestern Turkey near the Greek border. Greece’s largest active forest fire was burning out of control for the fifth day near the city of Alexandroupolis in the country’s northeast, while authorities were trying to prevent a blaze on the northwestern fringe of Athens from scorching homes and reaching the Parnitha national park, one of the last green areas near the Greek capital. Over
August 23, 2023Just as TV shows get canceled due to poor performance or changing customer tastes, the same happens for cars and trucks. Sluggish sales have often been the deciding factor in ending a model’s life cycle, but the industry’s shift toward electric vehicles is also becoming a major driving force. These cancellations tend to fly under the radar until it is too late for most people to try to snag a deal. But for people who don’t mind that a vehicle’s lineage is ending, these cars can make for a good value because they are more likely to be discounted or
August 23, 2023Leaders of some of the developing world’s most important economies turned Wednesday to the main business of their summit in South Africa, a day after a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the gathering an anti-Western tinge that officials had been hoping to avoid. The BRICS group of emerging economies made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are debating whether to expand their bloc and allow in new members more than a decade after it came into existence. More than 20 countries have formally applied to join the group, officials say, with Saudi
August 23, 2023The rescue of six school children and two adults who were plucked from a broken cable car that was dangling precariously hundreds of meters (yards) above a steep gorge was a miracle, a survivor said Wednesday. The teenager said he and the others felt repeatedly that death was imminent during the 16-hour ordeal. The eight passengers were pulled from the cable car in several rescue attempts Tuesday. One of the youngest children was grabbed by a commando attached to a helicopter by rope. A video of the rescue shows the rope swaying wildly as the child,
August 23, 2023Two tankers carrying oil products and liquefied natural gas collided in the Suez Canal, disrupting traffic through the global waterway, Egyptian authorities said Wednesday. The Suez Canal authority said in a statement that the BW Lesmes, a Singapore-flagged tanker that carries liquefied natural gas, suffered a mechanical malfunction on Tuesday night and ran aground while transiting through the canal. The Burri, a Cayman Island-flagged oil products tanker, collided with the broken vessel. The collision disrupted traffic, the statement said. The two tankers were part of a convoy transiting through from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
August 23, 2023The Hong Kong government was given the green light on Wednesday to appeal a court’s refusal to ban a protest song, after government lawyers cited national security concerns. “Glory to Hong Kong” was often sung by demonstrators during months of anti-government protests in 2019. It was later mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at international sporting events. The court’s decision in July not to ban the song was a setback for Hong Kong leaders seeking to crack down on dissent. Government lawyers sought an appeal, arguing that if the executive authority considered a measure necessary, the
August 23, 2023Iran sentenced seven men and a woman to prison after their convictions over allegedly aiding two men who were earlier executed for killing a paramilitary volunteer during the nationwide protests last year that followed Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody, state media reported Wednesday. The sentences come just ahead of the one-year anniversary of Amini’s Sept. 16 death, as authorities have been rounding up activists and others in an apparent attempt to tamp down on any dissent ahead of it. The report by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency offered the first official confirmation of
August 23, 2023Asian markets were trading mixed Wednesday ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech later in the week. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.5% to finish at 32,010.26. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 7,148.40. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.5% to 2,503.28. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.4% to 17,861.58, while the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.0% to 3,090.68. Powell is set to speak Friday at an event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the site of several major policy announcements by the Fed. The Fed has already hiked its main interest rate to the highest level since 2001
August 23, 2023As a U.S. Navy plane circled overhead, two Philippine boats breached a Chinese coast guard blockade in a dangerous confrontation in the disputed South China Sea to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino forces guarding a contested shoal. Two Philippine coast guard vessels escorting the supply boats, however, were blocked by at least four Chinese coast guard ships for about five hours Tuesday in a tense standoff off Second Thomas Shoal. The dangerous encounter is the latest flare-up from the long-seething territorial disputes in the busy sea that involve China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia,
August 23, 2023Alex Wakitinti is worried about the sacred natural sites he tends in the large swath of bushy grassland near Lake Albert. It’s the same slice of his homeland that oil companies are developing in order for Uganda to become an oil producer by 2026. But French oil company TotalEnergies and others working toward that goal are recklessly ignoring the significance of Wakitinti’s spiritual work, he said, as well as that of the other custodians minding hallowed natural sites in the remote district of Buliisa near the Congo border. “According to the program of Total, custodians are
August 23, 2023Authorities in Hawaii pleaded Tuesday with relatives of those missing after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century to come forward and give DNA samples, saying the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains discovered in the ashes. Some 1,000 to 1,100 names remain on the FBI’s tentative, unconfirmed list of people unaccounted for after wildfires destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina on Maui. But the family assistance center so far has collected DNA from just 104 families, said Julie French, who is helping lead efforts to
August 23, 2023Polls opened in Zimbabwe on Wednesday as President Emmerson Mnangagwa seeks a second and final term in a country with a history of violent and disputed votes. These are the second general elections since the ouster of longtime repressive ruler Robert Mugabe in a coup in 2017. There are 12 presidential candidates on the ballot. The main contest is expected to be between the 80-year-old Mnangagwa, known as the “the crocodile”, and 45-year-old opposition leader Nelson Chamisa. Mnangagwa narrowly beat Chamisa in a disputed election in 2018. Chamisa hopes to break the ruling ZANU-PF party’s 43-year
August 23, 2023Tropical Storm Franklin roared toward the island of Hispaniola shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti early Wednesday amid fears it would trigger deadly landslides and heavy flooding in both countries. Franklin was expected to swirl above the island for most of Wednesday, with forecasters warning the storm could dump up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain, with a maximum of 15 inches (38 centimeters) in isolated areas. By Tuesday night, the storm was located 175 miles (280 kilometers) southwest of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, according to the National
August 23, 2023Prosecutors were preparing Wednesday to present evidence against three men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in what investigators described as an extremist scheme to ignite a civil war. Attorneys were scheduled to make opening arguments in the trial of Eric Molitor and brothers William Null and Michael Null, who were among 14 defendants charged weeks before the November 2020 election. Nine have been convicted in state or federal court, including four who pleaded guilty, while two were acquitted. Investigators described them as members of paramilitary groups angered by Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, which
August 23, 2023Bernardo Arévalo’s experience in peacebuilding and diplomacy eminently qualify him to lead Guatemala as the conflict-riven country’s next president, those who know him say. But first he will have to overcome forces that could keep him from taking power. Guatemalans voted for Arévalo in a landslide Sunday, but his opponent, former first lady Sandra Torres, has not conceded, or said anything for that matter. The election results have not been certified, a legal step necessary for Arévalo to become president. That’s not the only hitch: The attorney general’s office also continues to investigate the registration of
August 23, 2023Thailand’s divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was transferred from prison to a hospital early Wednesday, less than a day after he returned from an extended exile and started serving an 8-year sentence. He had returned to Thailand after 15 years abroad on the same day a party linked to him won a parliamentary vote to form a new government. Thaksin was then sent to prison to serve sentences from several criminal convictions made in absentia that he had decried as politically motivated. The prison reported Thaksin had high blood pressure and low oxygen, he could not
August 23, 2023Russian defenses downed Ukrainian drones in Moscow and the region around the capital early Wednesday, the defense ministry and the mayor said. No casualties were reported. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said one drone fell into a building under construction in Moscow City, a prestigious business complex hit by drones twice before. Several windows were broken in two buildings nearby and emergency services responded to the scene. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the drone had been electronically jammed. It blamed the attack on Ukraine and said two other drones were shot down by air defense systems in the Mozhaisk and Khimki
August 23, 2023A’ja Wilson matched the WNBA record for points in a game with 53 as the Las Vegas Aces beat the short-handed Atlanta Dream 112-100 on Tuesday night. Wilson equaled the record set on July 17, 2018 by Dallas’ Liz Cambage. Riquna Williams was the only other WNBA player to top 50, scoring 51 for Tulsa on Sept. 8, 2013. “My teammates kept giving me the basketball in my spaces and I just wanted to return the favor,” Wilson said in an on-court interview. “They tried so hard to get me the ball, and it’s not
August 23, 2023Children’s advocacy groups including Fairplay and Common Sense Media are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google, saying the tech giant serves personalized ads to kids on YouTube despite federal law prohibiting the practice. The letter follows a report from The New York Times last week that found that ads on YouTube may have led to the online tracking of children. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, requires kid-oriented websites to get parents’ consent before collecting personal information of children under 13. In response to the Times report, Google said last week that it did not
August 23, 2023Saints tight end Jimmy Graham is expected to return this week to practice following what team officials have described as a “medical episode” that led police in the Los Angeles area to arrest the veteran player and take him to a hospital last weekend. “I expect to see Jimmy out here, hopefully tomorrow,” Saints coach Dennis Allen said following practice Tuesday night. “We’ll see, but I don’t think this is going to be anything that’s going to cause him to miss a significant amount of time.” Dr. John Amoss, the Saints’ team physician, has said Graham
August 23, 2023U.S. regulators on Wednesday announced a settlement with the company that runs Dollar Tree and Family Dollar aimed at improving worker safety at thousands of the bargain stores across the country. Labor Department officials cited hazards at the stores including blocked exits, unsafe storage of materials, and improper access to fire extinguishers and electrical panels. Under the agreement, the chains operated by Dollar Tree Inc. are required to find the “root causes” of violations that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has repeatedly cited at multiple stores and fix them within two years, the department said.
August 23, 2023The Chicago White Sox fired executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn on Tuesday, cutting ties with their baseball leadership amid another disappointing season. Williams, who originally joined the White Sox front office in 1992 as a scout, was in his 11th season as executive vice president after serving as the club’s general manager for 12 years. Hahn had been the GM since October 2012. Williams and Hahn, who joined the organization in October 2000, helped Chicago win the 2005 World Series. The White Sox also won the AL Central in 2008 and made
August 22, 2023A coalition of human rights groups on Tuesday leveled new criticism at a privately operated migrant detention facility in New Mexico, where they say fast-track asylum screenings routinely take place without legal counsel or adequate privacy during sensitive testimony. The rights groups say the broken screening system at the Torrance County Detention Facility means that migrants with strong, viable claims to asylum — who can’t go back to their country because of persecution or the threat of torture — are instead being screened out inappropriately for deportation as the Biden administration seeks to impose severe
August 22, 2023A year ago, Chair Jerome Powell delivered a stark warning: To fight persistently high inflation, the Federal Reserve would continue to sharply raise interest rates, bringing “some pain” in the form of job losses and weaker economic growth. Since Powell spoke at last summer’s annual conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Fed has followed through, raising its benchmark rate to 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years. Substantially higher loan rates have followed, making it harder for Americans to afford a home or a car or for businesses to finance expansions. Yet so far,
August 22, 2023Three-time AL MVP Mike Trout has returned to the Los Angeles Angels’ lineup after missing 38 games with a broken bone in his left hand. The Angels activated Trout before they hosted the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night. Trout hasn’t played since July 3, when he broke the hamate bone by fouling off a pitch in the eighth inning. The 32-year-old superstar had surgery to repair the break, and he returned to the lineup seven weeks after the injury. Trout is batting .263 with 18 homers, 44 RBIs and a .862 OPS this season, his third
August 22, 2023The union representing 340,000 UPS workers said Tuesday that its members voted to approve the tentative contract agreement reached last month, putting a final seal on contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide. The Teamsters said in a statement that 86% of the votes casts were in favor of ratifying the contract. The union said said it was passed by the highest vote for a contract in the history of the Teamsters at UPS. The union said all supplemental agreements were also ratified, expect for one which covers roughly 170 members
August 22, 2023A planned offshore wind farm moved a step closer to construction Tuesday with the Department of the Interior announcing it has approved the project, to be located in federal waters near Rhode Island south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The Revolution Wind project will have an estimated capacity of more than 700 megawatts of renewable energy, capable of powering nearly 250,000 homes, and is expected to create about 1,200 jobs during construction, regulators said. It’s the department’s fourth approval of a commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project, joining the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts, the South Fork Wind project off Rhode Island
August 22, 2023The Biden administration on Tuesday finalized tighter rules for complex devices meant to prevent catastrophic blowouts on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs, reversing some Trump administration policies and returning to a more stringent regulatory stance adopted after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Failure of blowout preventer equipment was a major cause of the April 2010 disaster that killed 11 workers and resulted in an estimated 130 million gallons of crude oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days. Tougher offshore safety rules had been adopted in 2016 but were revised in 2019 under
August 22, 2023Serena Williams has given birth to a baby girl, she posted Tuesday on Instagram, almost exactly a year after her last match as a tennis star. Adira River Ohanian is the second child — and second daughter — for the 41-year-old Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Their first, Olympia, was born in 2017. Williams, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles during a career that transcended her sport, revealed at the Met Gala in May that she was pregnant. When she told the world in August 2022 she was preparing to close her playing career, Williams cited
August 22, 2023A nightmarish summer of wildfires for Greece took its deadliest turn yet on Tuesday when firefighters found the burned bodies of 18 people near the city of Alexandroupolis. A hint of the scope of the fire can be seen in this image by Associated Press photographer Achilleas Chiras. The dead were believed to have been migrants who had crossed the nearby border with Turkey before falling victim to a major fire that was among dozens across the country being whipped by gale-force winds. Their deaths came after two people had died in fires Monday elsewhere in the country. Spain continues
August 22, 2023The father of Tennessee Titans cornerback Caleb Farley died in an apparent explosion around midnight on Monday that destroyed the NFL player’s North Carolina home and left another person injured, authorities said. Robert M. Farley, 61, was found dead in the debris of the Lake Norman, North Carolina house Tuesday morning, the Iredell County Fire Marshal’s Office said in a statement. First responders went to the house around midnight. They found one victim exiting the collapsed structure. The person, who has not been identified publicly, was transported to Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte with
August 22, 2023A giraffe without spots at a Tennessee zoo may be plain, but she’s definitely not ordinary. The female reticulated giraffe was born July 31 at the family-owned Brights Zoo in Limestone, a rural community in northeastern Tennessee. David Bright, one of the zoo’s owners, said the plain brown animal is a rarity: Research found another giraffe that was born without a pattern in Tokyo in 1972 and two others before that. The spots serve as camouflage for giraffes in the wild. The yet-unnamed baby is healthy and on display at the 103-acre zoo along with her mother, he said. The
August 22, 2023IBM is selling assets of The Weather Company — including Weather.com and The Weather Channel mobile app — to private equity firm Francisco Partners. The two companies announced the deal Tuesday that also includes The Weather Company’s forecasting science and technology platform and other digital properties. They did not disclose its price. IBM agreed to buy The Weather Channel mobile app along with the digital assets of The Weather Company in 2015 for $2 billion — but did not acquire The Weather Channel seen on TV. Allen Media Group has owned the Weather Group, which includes
August 22, 2023WNBA teams are ready for their sprint to the finish of the regular season with coveted playoff spots and positioning up for grabs. Las Vegas, New York and Connecticut have already clinched spots in the postseason. The Aces hold a three-game lead on the Liberty for the top seed with the teams set to meet one last time in the regular season on Aug. 28. Las Vegas is beginning a difficult four-game road trip over the next week that ends in New York. The Aces also have a White House visit on Friday to celebrate last season’s championship thrown in
August 22, 2023PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan expressed the same level of confidence Tuesday that he did last year at the season-ending Tour Championship. The difference was the topic. A year ago, Monahan unveiled a bold new model for the PGA Tour aimed at fending off the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League. Now it’s about getting a deal done with the Saudis. “As I sit here today, I am confident that we will reach an agreement that achieves a positive outcome for the PGA Tour and our fans — I see it and I’m certain of it,” Monahan said at
August 22, 2023The NBA has fined Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden $100,000 for public comments he made about his status with the team. Harden made public comments on Aug. 14 and Aug. 17 saying he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless he were traded to another team. The league talked to Harden as part of its investigation and confirmed that his comments referenced Harden’s belief that the 76ers would not grant his trade request. Harden picked up his player option for next season in June, but the 76ers have not found a
August 22, 2023Scorching heat affecting nearly 100 million people across a huge swath of the U.S. sent schools, outdoor workers and organizers of open-air events scrambling to adjust Tuesday — and claimed the life of a 1-year-old girl left in a Nebraska day care center’s van on one of the hottest days of the year. Officers and medics were called Monday afternoon to Kidz of the Future Childcare in Omaha for an unresponsive baby inside the van, police said. The call came as temperatures reached into the upper 90s (mid-30s Celsius) and the heat index soared to around
August 22, 2023Zach Johnson has a week to measure personalities, potential pairings and how statistics mesh with Marco Simone. He will talk it over with five vice captains and the six Americans who already qualified for the Ryder Cup team in Rome. And then he will announce Aug. 29 which six players get the coveted captain’s picks. Sound complicated? It wouldn’t be with only two choices. That’s the way it was when this business of captain’s picks began for the U.S. team in 1989, and it’s the way it should be now. Instead, the Ryder Cup selection system has
August 22, 2023FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried can’t adequately prepare for trial in six weeks while in jail without proper access to computers, necessary medications to help him concentrate, and a better diet than bread, water and peanut butter, his lawyers told a magistrate judge Tuesday. The lawyers made their complaints at a Manhattan federal court hearing after Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to seven charges he’ll face at his Oct. 3 trial, including wire fraud and multiple conspiracy counts. Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas in December after prosecutors said he stole billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits,
August 22, 2023Threads users, get happy – you will finally be able to use the social media platform without an app. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Threads post on Tuesday morning that a web version of the app will be rolling out over the next few days. The move will allow the nascent platform, dubbed the “Twitter Killer,” better compete with Elon Musk’s platform, which is now called X. Meta spokesperson Christine Pai said in a statement that the new logged-in web experience will let users post, view their feeds and interact with other posts from
August 22, 2023Newly released video shows the 98-year-old mother of a Kansas newspaper publisher confronting police officers as they searched her home in a raid that has drawn national scrutiny, at one point demanding: “Get out of my house!” Video released by the newspaper Monday shows Joan Meyer shouting at the six officers inside the Marion, Kansas, home she shared with her son, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer. Standing with the aid of a walker and dressed in a long robe or gown and slippers, she seems visibly upset. “Get out of my house …
August 22, 2023Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last month to the slowest pace since January, as elevated mortgage rates and a stubbornly low inventory of homes on the market combined to discourage many would-be homebuyers. Existing home sales fell 2.2% last month from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.07 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. That’s below the 4.15 million pace that economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Sales slumped 16.6% compared with July last year. It was also the lowest home sales pace for July since 2010. The national median
August 22, 2023Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said Tuesday that Russia already is in the process of shifting some short-range nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus, a move that Duda said will shift the security architecture of the region and the entire NATO military alliance. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko said last month that Moscow already had shipped some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus after announcing the plan in March. The U.S. and NATO haven’t confirmed the move. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg denounced Moscow’s rhetoric as “dangerous and reckless,” but said in
August 22, 2023As the Biden administration makes billions of dollars available to remove millions of dangerous lead pipes that can contaminate drinking water and damage brain development in children, some states are turning down funds. Washington, Oregon, Maine and Alaska declined all or most of their federal funds in the first of five years that the mix of grants and loans is available, The Associated Press found. Some states are less prepared to pay for lead removal projects because, in many cases, the lead must first be found, experts said. And communities are hesitant to take out loans
August 22, 2023Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez agreed to a new two-year contract with the club he led to the 2019 World Series championship. The Nationals said Tuesday, before opening a series at the New York Yankees at night, that Martinez is getting what they called a multiyear extension without revealing for how long. A person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press it is for two years; the person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms were not announced. The Nationals entered Tuesday with a 57-68 record and last in the NL East. The Athletic reported
August 22, 2023Dick’s Sporting Goods profit slipped in its second quarter and missed Wall Street’s expectations as the retailer cut its full-year profit outlook, citing worries over theft at its stores. Shares declined more than 24% in morning trading Tuesday. For the period ended July 29, Dick’s earned $244 million, or $2.82 per share. A year earlier the company earned $319 million, or $3.25 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet predicted earnings of $3.81 per share. “Our Q2 profitability was short of our expectations due in large part to the impact of elevated inventory shrink, an increasingly serious issue impacting many retailers,”
August 22, 2023Wander Franco’s seven-day stay on the restricted list is scheduled to end ahead of Tampa Bay’s homestand opener against Colorado on Tuesday night, leading to the possibility it could be extended or he could be placed on administrative leave under the sport’s domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. The 22-year-old All-Star shortstop was placed on the restricted list for a week on Aug. 14 while MLB launched an investigation following social media posts suggesting Franco was in a relationship with a minor. The AP has not been able to verify the reported posts. Ángel
August 22, 2023Macy’s swung to a loss and reported a sales decline in the second quarter as worries about inflation continue to make shoppers pull back on clothing and other discretionary purchases. However, the results, announced Tuesday, beat Wall Street expectations. Macy’s reaffirmed its annual sales and profits forecasts, noting uncertainty about the economy in the second half. Shares were down less than 1% in premarket trading Tuesday. Macy’s is one of the last remaining retailers to report second-quarter results in an earnings season that shows how still high inflation, despite some easing, is forcing shoppers to continue
August 22, 2023Turkey’s foreign minister accused the United Nations of abandoning its neutrality on Tuesday, a day after the U.N. Security Council criticized construction work by Turkish Cypriots inside the buffer zone dividing Cyprus and condemned their assault on U.N. peacekeepers. In a statement issued Monday, the Security Council described the construction of a road as a violation of the status quo that is contrary to council resolutions. The statement came at the end of emergency closed consultations by the council’s 15 members. Angry Turkish Cypriots last week punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers that blocked
August 22, 2023The Ethiopian government said Tuesday it will investigate a report by a human rights group of killings of hundreds its nationals at the Yemen-Saudi border. Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry said the investigation will be done “in tandem with the Saudi authorities.” The New York-based group Human Rights Watch released a report on Monday citing eyewitness accounts of attacks by border guards in Saudi Arabia using machine guns and mortars on unarmed Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen. The ministry called for restraint and advised against making “unnecessary speculation until an investigation is completed,” saying
August 22, 2023The African Union on Tuesday suspended Niger from all of its institutions and activities following last month’s coup “until the effective restoration of constitutional order.” The council of the 55-nation bloc made the decision after mutinous soldiers overthrew Niger’s democratically elected president last month, and have quickly entrenched themselves in power, rebuffing most dialogue efforts. President Mohamed Bazoum, his wife and son have been kept under house arrest in the capital.
August 22, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un severely rebuked his premier and other senior officials over what he called their irresponsible response to recent flooding of farmlands along the country’s western coast, state media reported Tuesday. Summer floods in North Korea often cause serious damage to farmlands due to poor drainage and deforestation. Observers say Kim’s lambasting of top officials likely aims to shift blame to them for the country’s economic hardships and food insecurity, or could set the stage for a reshuffling of senior leadership. Kim on Monday visited a western coastal tideland where seawater
August 22, 2023A Thai Cabinet minister is threatening to try to shut down Facebook in the country, saying the social media platform does not do enough to screen the advertisements it runs, leaving people vulnerable to costly scams. Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, Thailand’s minister of Digital Economy and Society, said in a statement Monday that he is ready to go to criminal court by the end of the month arguing for Facebook to be shut down in Thailand. He said Thai authorities have already appealed to Facebook parent company Meta to take down fraudulent ads, leading to more than 5,000 being
August 22, 2023The leader of one of Thailand’s best-known property empires has been selected prime minister just nine months after joining a political party that champions the poor. Parliament confirmed Srettha Thavisin on Tuesday, ending months of political uncertainty following May elections. The 61-year-old political newcomer, who exudes the confidence of a seasoned business tycoon, will lead the Pheu Thai party’s push to stimulate the economy and bridge one of the world’s worst inequality gaps. “I’m doing this because I want to improve the country and the economy,” Srettha wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, days ahead of
August 22, 2023Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a drone on Tuesday resembling America’s armed MQ-9 Reaper, claiming that the aircraft is capable of staying airborne for 24 hours and has the range to reach the country’s archenemy Israel. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency published a photograph of the drone, called the Mohajer-10, on display at a conference marking Defense Industry Day with what appeared to be smoke-machine fog underneath it. “Mohajer” means “immigrant” in Farsi and has been a drone line manufactured by the Islamic Republic since 1985. IRNA said the drone is able to fly up to 24,000
August 22, 2023Tropical Storm Franklin churned through the Caribbean Sea Tuesday as authorities in Haiti and the Dominican Republic warned residents to prepare for landslides and heavy floods. The storm was centered early Tuesday about 255 miles (415 kilometers) south of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, and had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was moving northwest at 3 mph (5 kph) and was expected to turn northward. Franklin was expected to strengthen before making landfall early Wednesday in Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The
August 22, 2023Spain’s acting prime minister greeted the country’s Women’s World Cup champions at the presidential palace on Tuesday. “You have achieved something very important. The girls who watch you see soccer as a place where they can develop athletically and personally,” Pedro Sánchez said while posing for a group photo with the soccer team. “The 21st century will be the century of women on all fronts, and the century of effective equality between men and women,” he added. Sánchez said the team members will be awarded Spain’s golden medal of sports achievement in honor of their victory.
August 22, 2023Autumn Nelson said she was seeking help for alcohol addiction last spring when fellow members of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana suggested a rehabilitation center in Phoenix, far to the south. The 38-year-old said the center even bought her a one-way airline ticket to make the 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) journey. But Nelson said after a month, she was kicked out after questioning why there was one therapist for 30 people and no Native American staff despite a focus on Indigenous clients. “All of a sudden I was out in the 108-degree heat in Phoenix, Arizona,” said Nelson. “I
August 22, 2023A massive wall of flames raced through forests toward a port city in northeastern Greece overnight, prompting authorities to evacuate another eight villages and a city hospital as firefighters battled dozens more wildfires across the country on Tuesday. Gale-force winds and high summer temperatures have hampered the efforts of hundreds of firefighters backed by dozens of water-dropping aircraft as they tackle wildfires breaking out across Greece. The fire risk level for several regions, including the wider Athens area, was listed as “extreme” for the second day Tuesday. Authorities have banned public access to mountains and forests
August 22, 2023Pakistani emergency workers launched a rescue operation to try and save six children and two men trapped in a chairlift after one of its cables snapped off on Tuesday, leaving it dangling high above ground in the country’s northwest. The chairlift was installed across a river canyon, connecting villages in Battagram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It was used by local villagers to cross the river and shorten the distance to nearby schools, government offices and other businesses. Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the disaster management authority, said the chairlift had been dangling 350 meters (1,150
August 22, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin will be notably absent when Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economie s start a three-day summit in South Africa on Tuesday. The bloc, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is holding its first in-person meeting since before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Putin will participate via video call after his travel to South Africa was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for him in March over the abduction of children from Ukraine. Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
August 22, 2023The defense and economy ministers in Denmark’s centrist government swapped places Tuesday, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Danish lawmakers for providing Kyiv with F-16 warplanes. Jakob Ellemann-Jensen who is also deputy prime minister in Denmark’s three-party coalition and head of the Liberal Party, became economy minister. Troels Lund Poulsen who acted as defense minister while Ellemann-Jensen was on a five-month leave of absence for health reasons, now takes over full-time at the defense ministry. Ellemann-Jensen told a news conference that he took the decision to swap places after returning to office Aug. 1
August 22, 2023Top administrators at New Mexico State University wanted to find just the right wording to announce that they were pulling the plug on the men’s basketball season following reports of alleged hazing involving team members. It was a busy afternoon in February — Super Bowl Sunday, in fact — as university officials traded emails and made suggestions before dropping the bombshell that the season was finished. They wanted the message to address the safety of students as well as the integrity of the university. And time was of the essence. “We don’t want our student athletes
August 22, 2023Russian air defense systems thwarted four nighttime Ukrainian drone attacks, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday, with the falling wreckage of one drone shattering an apartment building’s windows and damaging vehicles in Moscow’s western suburbs. There were no reports of injuries in the latest drone attacks that Russia blamed on Kyiv, as the war approaches its 18-month milestone. Though the drone attacks on Russian soil have occurred almost daily in recent weeks, they have caused little damage. Even so, they have unnerved some Russians and are in line with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pledge to take the war into the
August 22, 2023Considering that about 110 million people live in the Philippines, it’s not feasible to expect that they all would be basketball fans. “But it’s close,” said Tim Cone, the country’s top professional coach. And that might not be an understatement, either. Basketball’s World Cup starts on Friday, spread out over three nations — the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. It’ll be centered in Manila, where the medal rounds will be held in early September, where the favored U.S. team will play all its games in the event and where fans have been waiting for years for this
August 22, 2023Google, Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech companies operating in Europe are facing one of the most far-reaching efforts to clean up what people encounter online. The first phase of the European Union’s groundbreaking new digital rules will take effect this week. The Digital Services Act is part of suite of tech-focused regulations crafted by the 27-nation bloc — long a global leader in cracking down on tech giants. The DSA, which the biggest platforms must start following Friday, is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or
August 22, 2023Colorful campaign posters adorn street poles, buildings, vehicles and trees in Zimbabwe, but the buzz surrounding the country’s upcoming general election appears to end there. The presidential and parliamentary elections taking place Wednesday are crucial to determining the future of a southern African nation endowed with vast mineral resources and rich agricultural land. But for many people in the educated but underemployed population, the daily grind to put food on the table inhibits interest in politics. “What elections?” Kaleen Mbase, a 33-year-old Kuwadzana township resident, quipped as she halfheartedly chipped into a subdued political discussion at
August 22, 2023The sound of hammers and chisels striking stone rings out on most Sundays in the cemetery of ancient Xochiaca, a village swallowed up decades ago by the urban sprawl of Mexico City. It’s the sound of the stone carvers of Chimalhuacan — as the borough is known — who still pursue a craft passed down for generations, even after the local source of quarry stone was exhausted. The village cemetery is filled with yard-high (meter-high) statues of saints and a knot of men who coax flower garlands and flowers out of the blocks of stone with
August 22, 2023The March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech — and thus as a crowning moment for the long-term civil rights activism of what is sometimes referred to as the “Black Church.” At the march, King indeed represented numerous other Black clergy who were his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But the march was the product of sustained activism by a broader coalition. Black and white labor leaders, as well as white clergy, played pivotal roles over many months ahead of the event. Moreover, the Black
August 22, 2023Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher on Tuesday as traders waited for signs of interest rate plans from this week’s Federal Reserve conference. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul rose. Shanghai declined. Oil prices edged lower. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose Monday for its first gain in five days as tech stocks rallied. Traders hope officials at the Fed’s summer Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference say they are finished raising interest rates that are at a two-decade high. But forecasters warn they might say inflation isn’t under control yet. Fed Chair Jerome Powell “may even mention that
August 22, 2023A federal judge on Tuesday will consider whether Texas can keep a floating barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border as both the Biden administration and Mexico push to remove Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest hardline measure to deter migrants from crossing. The scheduled hearing in Austin comes days after Texas, which installed the water barrier on the Rio Grande in July near the border city of Eagle Pass, repositioned the wrecking ball-sized buoys closer to U.S. soil. Texas is being sued by the Justice Department, which argues the barrier could impact relations with Mexico and pose humanitarian
August 22, 2023Crews worked to dig roads, buildings and care home residents out of the mud across a wide swath of Southwestern U.S. desert Monday, as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years headed north, prompting flood watches and warnings in half a dozen states. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tropical Storm Hilary had lost much of its force as it headed to the Rocky Mountains, but warned that “continued life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding” was expected in parts of the region. Forecasters said the threat for flooding in states farther
August 22, 2023Two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through the Maui community of Lahaina, authorities say more than 800 people remain unaccounted for — a staggering number that presents huge challenges for officials who are trying to determine how many of those perished and how many may have made it to safety but haven’t checked in. Something similar happened after a wildfire in 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Authorities in Butte County, home to Paradise, ultimately published a list of the missing in the
August 22, 2023Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature is meeting in special session this week to consider a package of public safety proposals, including some stemming from a deadly shooting at a Nashville elementary school earlier this year. Though the session is not expected to result in any new firearms restrictions, it nonetheless highlights the widely divergent response among states to a spate of mass shootings across the U.S. More than half the states have enacted substantive new laws this year regarding gun policies or school safety measures — most often tightening firearm restrictions in Democratic-led states and loosening them in Republican-led ones. Some states
August 22, 2023Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, announced Tuesday it served 41.6 million passengers in the first half of this year — exceeding figures for the same period in 2019 as travelers return to the air after the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic. The airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates in skyscraper-studded Dubai, long has served as a barometer for the aviation industry worldwide. The new figures at the airport known as DXB reflect figures offered by the International Air Transport Association that traffic worldwide is at 94% of pre-COVID levels.
August 22, 2023Sam Howell threw for 188 yards and two touchdowns as the Washington Commanders defeated the Baltimore Ravens 29-28 on a last-minute field goal, snapping one of the NFL’s most peculiar runs of success. The loss marked the end of a 24-game preseason win streak for the Ravens, who passed the previous NFL record of 19, set by the Green Bay Packers in the 1950s. Howell was still in middle school the last time the Baltimore Ravens lost a preseason game in 2015. He was named the Commanders’ starting quarterback last Friday, and on Monday showed why
August 22, 2023A jailed university student in Hong Kong lost his bid to reduce his five-year sentence for inciting secession in a landmark ruling by the city’s top court Tuesday that will have a far-reaching impact on other cases brought under a Beijing-imposed national security law. Lui Sai-yu pleaded guilty to breaching the sweeping security law in April 2022 and admitted that content on a Telegram channel he administered incited others to separate Hong Kong from China or alter the legal status of the city unlawfully. But his timely guilty plea did not get him a one-third reduction
August 22, 2023Divisive ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand on Tuesday after years of self-imposed exile to face criminal charges on the same day that a party affiliated with him plans to start forming a new government. Thaksin has said his decision to return has nothing to do with an expected vote in Parliament later in the day on a candidate from the Pheu Thai party for prime minister. But many believe his arrival is connected to the party’s pursuit of power. Thaksin flew from Singapore in his private jet and landed at Don Mueang International Airport around
August 22, 2023The son of longtime autocratic Cambodian leader Hun Sen was approved by Parliament on Tuesday as the country’s new prime minister, part of a generational change in top positions in the Southeast Asian nation. Hun Manet, 45, won his first seat in the National Assembly in July elections and takes over from his father, who had been Asia’s longest serving leader with nearly four decades in power, after serving as Cambodia’s army chief. He was approved by lawmakers unanimously and is to be officially sworn in later Tuesday. Even though he’s at the head of
August 22, 2023A track for live horse racing in suburban Seattle turned prehistoric over the weekend as more than 200 people ran down the track cloaked in inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur costumes. The 2023 T-Rex World Championships at Emerald Downs — an event that started in 2017 as a pest control company’s team-building activity — ended in a photo finish on Sunday, with three competitors hitting the finish line together. Ocean Kim took top honors in the 100-yard (91.2-meter) dash after officials agreed Kim, of Kailua, Hawaii, hit the finish wire just ahead of the pack. Second place
August 22, 2023Treated and diluted radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be released into the ocean as early as Thursday, Japan’s government said Tuesday. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the final go-ahead at a meeting of Cabinet ministers involved in the plan and instructed the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, to be ready to start the coastal release Thursday if weather and sea conditions permit. The water release begins nearly 12 and half years after the March 2011 nuclear meltdowns caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Kishida said at the meeting that the
August 22, 2023The Indianapolis Colts have given disgruntled running back Jonathan Taylor permission to find a trade partner, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday. The person requested anonymity because it has not been released publicly. Just two days earlier Shane Steichen told reporters Taylor would rejoin the team Sunday following an excused absence to tend to a personal matter. Then on Sunday, Steichen said Taylor would travel with the Colts to Philadelphia, where the teams will hold a joint practice Tuesday before playing their preseason finales Thursday. Taylor has not practiced since
August 22, 2023A 27-year-old man killed by California sheriff’s deputies over the weekend after he fatally shot a store owner had ripped down an LGBTQ+ Pride flag outside the business and shouted homophobic slurs at the woman, authorities said Monday. When deputies confronted Travis Ikeguchi on foot about a mile from the store Friday night, he opened fire on them, striking multiple squad cars, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus told reporters. Deputies returned fire and shot Ikeguchi, who died at the scene, Dicus said. No deputies were hurt. Laura Ann Carleton was pronounced dead at Mag.Pi,
August 22, 2023The New York Knicks sued the Toronto Raptors, their new head coach and a former Knicks scouting employee on Monday, saying the defendants conspired to steal thousands of videos and other scouting secrets over the past few weeks. The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court seeks unspecified damages and a ban on the further spread of the Knicks’ trade secrets. The lawsuit claimed that secrets including scouting and play frequency reports, along with a prep book and a link to valuable software, had been downloaded thousands of times by Raptors employees. “This material consists of secret, proprietary
August 21, 2023North Korea told Japan on Tuesday it plans to launch a satellite in the coming days, possibly a second try to put a military spy satellite into orbit three months after its first effort failed, Japanese officials said. In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a spy satellite plunged into the sea soon after liftoff, posing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to establish a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the U.S. and South Korea. North Korea had vowed to make a second attempt after studying what went wrong with the first launch.
August 21, 2023Michael Oher emerged to cheers from the dozens of people lined up to get his newest book and addressed the crowd briefly before taking his seat. Beyond that, he didn’t have much to say. The former NFL player whose life story became the inspiration for the Oscar-nominated movie “The Blind Side,” greeted fans, signed his recently released memoir and took pictures at a book event Monday evening but maintained his media silence a week since suing to end his conservatorship. He declined to speak to reporters, only making a 90-second introduction to the assembled crowd in line
August 21, 2023Texas has moved a floating barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border closer to American soil as the Biden administration and Mexico protest the wrecking ball-sized buoys that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott authorized in the name of preventing migrants from entering the country. The repositioning comes ahead of a hearing Tuesday that could decide whether the buoys remain. Texas began installing the bright-orange buoys on the Rio Grande in July and the state was quickly sued by the Justice Department, which argues the barrier could impact relations with Mexico and pose humanitarian and environmental risks. During a trip
August 21, 2023MacKenzie Scott’s quest to give the bulk of her wealth to charity continues. So far this year, 17 nonprofits have announced they’ve received unrestricted donations from Scott through her Yield Giving fund, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy tally. The gifts total $97 million and range from $1 million to $15 million. Nearly half went to charities focused on early-childhood education and early-childhood development. Scott has now given more than $14.1 billion to at least 1,621 charities since 2020. To encourage people to focus on the charities rather than on her, Scott has stopped announcing her donations as she had
August 21, 2023Spanish pop star Miguel Bosé said Monday 10 armed assailants burst into his house in Mexico City and tied him up, his two children and household staff for more than two hours while they ransacked the premises. Bosé wrote in his Instagram account that he and his children are okay following the Friday home-invasion robbery. But he described the ordeal as “very tense, uneasy, and unpleasant.” Bosé said the assailants took his car and other possessions before leaving. He added that he was not thinking of leaving Mexico because of the crime. Neither city police nor
August 21, 2023American Sha’Carri Richardson won the women’s 100-meter world title Monday, outsprinting a star-studded field to take a gold medal two years after a positive marijuana test derailed her Olympic dreams. Running on the far outside in Lane 9, Richardson finished in 10.65 seconds to match the year’s best time and set the world-championship record. She beat Jamaicans Shericka Jackson by .07 seconds and five-time champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce by .12. This was Richardson’s first major competition on the world stage and she was listed as a 5-1 underdog even though she came in as the American champion
August 21, 2023A Maryland man charged in 2019 with planning an Islamic State-inspired attack at a Washington, D.C., area shopping and entertainment complex pleaded guilty on Monday to engaging in a separate plot to drive a stolen van into a crowd of people at a nearby airport. Rondell Henry’s plea agreement with Justice Department prosecutors could lead to his release from federal custody as soon as October, when a judge is scheduled to sentence him in the airport plot, which Henry abandoned. Henry, who has remained in custody for over four years, didn’t harm anybody before police
August 21, 2023A powerful storm that battered parts of Mexico and the western United States was fading on Monday, but just as Tropical Storm Hilary moved off-stage, Franklin was churning through the Caribbean to threaten Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, relentless wildfires were still burning in Canada, Greece and Spain, Hawaii was getting a visit from President Joe Biden and the central United States were bracing for more record heat. Hilary delivered a drenching that ranged from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula north all the way to Oregon and Idaho. The first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years dropped
August 21, 2023Biaggio Ali Walsh used to think about fighting only when someone wanted to see if the grandson of “The Greatest” was any good himself. Muhammad Ali is one of the biggest and best-known figures in boxing history. When kids in Las Vegas discovered he was also the grandfather of Biaggio and his brother, Nico, they’d challenge the siblings to put on the gloves. “People would find out who me and Nico were related to and they’d say, ‘Oh, can you fight?” Ali Walsh said. “And I’m like, ’I don’t know.’” The answer now is clearly yes.
August 21, 2023Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has informed his team and staff that he will serve a three-game suspension to start this season as part of the school’s self-imposed penalties for NCAA recruiting infractions, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday. The people spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because the school was notifying the NCAA of its intentions and preparing an official announcement. A suspension would take Harbaugh off the sideline for the second-ranked Wolverines’ home games against East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green. He will be permitted to coach the team during the week,
August 21, 2023American Airlines pilots have approved a new contract that will raise their pay about 41% over four years, their union said Monday. The Allied Pilots Association said that 73% of pilots who took part voted in favor of the four-year contract, which it valued at $9.6 billion. “This contract is a big first step toward restoring the wages, benefits, and work rules that were lost during the past two decades while our profession was under continuous assault,” said union President Ed Sicher. He said pilots deserved to be compensated in line with the “tremendous amount of responsibility”
August 21, 2023Vladimir Putin will be the odd one out when leaders from the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet in Johannesburg this week. While all the others are set to attend the meetings in person, Putin will dial in on a video call. The reason? An International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for the Russian president put summit host South Africa in a sticky situation and ultimately resulted in Putin staying at home. Here’s what is expected when the group of emerging economies holds three days of meetings starting Tuesday in South
August 21, 2023Cyprus police on Monday rescued 18 Syrian migrants after their boat started taking on water some 3.5 miles off the Mediterranean island nation’s southeastern coast. Police said the 11 men, three unescorted minors, one woman and her three children had set sail from Tartus, Syria and were brought ashore aboard a police patrol vessel. State-run Cyprus News Agency reported that the woman and her children were taken to the hospital after one of the kids had fainted. The migrants’ boat reportedly sank. The remaining 14 migrants were taken to a reception center on the western fringes
August 21, 2023The Los Angeles Angels’ game against the Cincinnati Reds scheduled for Monday night has been postponed due to the effects of Tropical Storm Hilary. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader Wednesday. Southern California’s first tropical storm in 84 years dropped several inches of rain across the Los Angeles area on Sunday. The rain had stopped by Monday morning, but Angel Stadium was too wet to play, according to the Angels. The Angels already had moved up their game scheduled for Sunday against Tampa Bay to a Saturday doubleheader. The rainout is
August 21, 2023Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Facebook on Monday of putting profits over people’s safety during the emergencies created by Canada’s record wildfire season. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced earlier this summer it would keep its promise to block news content from Canada on its platforms because of a new law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online. Fires raging in Canada have pushed tens of thousands of people from their homes and threatened cities such as Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories.
August 21, 2023The initial online search of a state website that led a central Kansas police chief to raid a local weekly newspaper was legal, a spokesperson for the agency that maintains the site said Monday, as the newspaper remains under investigation. Earlier this month, after a local restaurant owner accused the Marion County Record of illegally accessing information about her, the Marion police chief obtained warrants to search the newspaper’s offices and the home of its publisher, as well as the home of a City Council member who also accessed the driver’s license database. The police chief
August 21, 2023John Warnock, who helped invent the PDF and co-founded Adobe Systems, has died. He was 82. The Silicon Valley entrepreneur and computer scientist died Saturday surrounded by family, Adobe said in a statement. The company didn’t give a cause of death or say where Warnock died. “John’s brilliance and innovations left an indelible mark on Adobe, the technology industry and the world,” Adobe said. Warnock worked for Xerox before he and colleague Charles Geschke created a company around a rejected idea in 1982. Nearly a decade later, Warnock outlined an early version of the Portable
August 21, 2023The Swiss weather service said Monday a heat wave has driven the zero-degree Celsius level to its highest altitude since recordings on it in Switzerland began nearly 70 years ago, an ominous new sign for the country’s vaunted glaciers. MeteoSwiss says the zero-degree isotherm level reached 5,298 meters (17,381 feet) above sea level over Switzerland overnight Sunday to Monday. All of Switzerland’s snow-capped Alpine peaks — the highest being the 4,634-meter (15,203-foot) Monte Rosa summit — were in air temperatures over the level where water freezes to ice, raising prospects of a thaw. Even Mont Blanc, Europe’s
August 21, 2023Charles Martinet, the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games since the 1990s, is stepping down. Nintendo of America confirmed Monday that Martinet will now serve in the role of “Mario Ambassador,” traveling around the world to promote the beloved plumber, signing autographs and performing Nintendo character voices. “It’s been a privilege working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him,” Nintendo said in a statement. In addition to being the original voice of Mario, he’s also voiced Luigi, Wario and Waluigi in the
August 21, 2023Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged Monday to keep up military support for Ukraine for as long as it takes and to help with post-war reconstruction. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that might mean Greece could help train his country’s fighter pilots on new Western aircraft, though Greek officials did not comment. Zelenskyy was in Athens for his fourth visit to a European Union capital in three days, and he also attended an informal meeting of Balkan leaders with top European Union officials. In statements following his talks with Zelenskyy, Mitsotakis voiced full support for Kyiv
August 21, 2023Canadian firefighters made some progress battling blazes in a British Columbia region known for picturesque resort towns, but hundreds more raging across the province have pushed thousands from their homes and flames also threatened a provincial capital hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the north. There’s “finally a bit of a glimmer of hope,” West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Broland told a news conference of the progress being made Sunday in the Lake Okanagan region, which is known as a summer destination for families. “The weather has allowed us to make progress,” he said, adding that
August 21, 2023Manchester United said Monday that Mason Greenwood will leave the club despite a criminal investigation of possible attempted rape being closed by prosecutors six months ago. The 21-year-old England forward has not played for United since January 2022 and his future remained unclear during the club’s own investigation. “All those involved, including Mason, recognize the difficulties with him recommencing his career at Manchester United,” the club said in a statement. “It has therefore been mutually agreed that it would be most appropriate for him to do so away from Old Trafford, and we will now work
August 21, 2023WWE is flexing its branding muscle, selling more than 90,000 tickets to next year’s WrestleMania about eight months before the premium live event is held and before a single match has been announced. Tickets for WrestleMania 40, which will take place in Philadelphia on April 6 and April 7, 2024, went on sale on Friday. In one day, ticket sales for WrestleMania 40 topped the all-time total gross record of $21.6 million set by this year’s WrestleMania 39. The blockbuster ticket sales come on the heels of this month’s SummerSlam, which had ticket sales of $8.5 million, the largest amount
August 21, 2023The Basketball World Cup — FIBA’s biggest tournament — starts Friday, spread out across three countries for the first two rounds before all the biggest games get played in Manila to decide which nation will go home with gold medals and the Naismith Trophy on Sept. 10. Spain is the defending champion, having won in China four years ago. The U.S. was only seventh in that tournament, its worst finish ever in a major international event. But the Americans have high hopes, and enter as the tournament favorites. TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE The 32 teams were split into eight different groups of
August 21, 2023Moments after Spain won the Women’s World Cup, the man who leads the country’s national soccer federation took some unwanted attention away from the celebrating players. Criticism from the Spanish government and the soccer world rained down Monday on Luis Rubiales for his inappropriate conduct while reveling in Spain’s 1-0 win over England in Sunday’s final in Sydney, Australia. By grabbing his crotch in a victory gesture — seemingly oblivious to 16-year-old Princess Infanta Sofía standing nearby — and then kissing Spain player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal and trophy ceremony on the field,
August 21, 2023Protests spread Monday in two government-held provinces in southern Syria amid widespread anger over increasing prices, the crash of the Syrian pound and the dwindling purchasing power of many people in the war-torn country, opposition activists said. The rare protests are still limited to southern Syria and are far from government strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, the capital Damascus and the largest cities, including Aleppo and Homs. The protests came a week after Syrian President Bashar Assad issued two decrees doubling public sector wages and pensions, sparking inflation and compounding economic woes for others. The U.S. dollar
August 21, 2023In a historic decision, Ecuadorians voted on Sunday against the oil drilling of a protected area in the Amazon that’s home to two uncontacted tribes and serves as a biodiversity hotspot. With over 90% of the ballots counted by early Monday, around six in ten Ecuadorians rejected the oil exploration in Block 44, situated within Yasuni National Park, one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. The area is inhabited by the Tagaeri and Taromenani, who live in self-isolation. In 1989, Yasuni was designated a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
August 21, 2023Major wildfires were burning in Greece and on one of Spain’s Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa Monday, with hot, dry and windy conditions hampering the efforts of hundreds of firefighters battling the blazes, two of which have been burning for several days. European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017. In Greece, authorities ordered the evacuation of two villages in the central Viotia region, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest
August 21, 2023President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are traveling to Maui on Monday to comfort survivors of the devastating wildfires that ripped through the western part of the Hawaiian island earlier this month, as his administration responds to the devastation whose full scope is still unknown. The Bidens are taking a detour from their weeklong vacation in the Lake Tahoe area for the day trip to Lahaina, a historic town of 13,000 people that was virtually destroyed by the flames. While there, the first couple will meet with first responders and be briefed
August 21, 2023Thailand’s populist Pheu Thai party announced Monday that it plans to form a new government with an 11-party coalition that includes two pro-military parties affiliated with outgoing Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Parliament is expected to confirm the country’s 30th prime minister on Tuesday after a three-month stalemate following elections in May. Pheu Thai leader Chonlanan Srikaew said the coalition partners have agreed to nominate real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin as the new leader. Pheu Thai finished second in the elections but received a chance to form a government after members of the conservative unelected Senate repeatedly blocked
August 21, 2023The Clinton Global Initiative 2023 will convene “leaders, innovators and dreamers” – ranging from World Bank President Ajay Banga and The Bahamas’ Prime Minister Philip E. Davis to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres and Ford Foundation CEO Darren Walker, as well as A-list actors Orlando Bloom, Matt Damon, and Ashley Judd – in New York on Sept. 18 and 19 to keep up the momentum addressing global issues generated by the conference when it returned last year after a six-year hiatus. Former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
August 21, 2023A judge on Monday is set to sentence Lucy Letby, the most prolific child killer in modern U.K. history, for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others while working as a neonatal nurse at a hospital in northern England. Justice James Goss could level the most severe sentence possible under British law by imposing multiple life terms to ensure that Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars. Following 22 days of deliberation, a jury at Manchester Crown Court convicted Letby, 33, of killing the babies over a yearlong period that saw her
August 21, 2023Teams headed home from the Women’s World Cup with uncertain futures but hopes that the monthlong tournament would spur new interest and further investment in the game. For some teams, like Nigeria, the Philippines and Jamaica, the struggle for funding, support and recognition will continue. More established teams like Germany, Brazil, Canada and the United States now begin the post-tournament soul-searching about what went wrong. Spain, which defeated England 1-0 in the final on Sunday, can revel as first-time champions. “We need to be ready, because after this FIFA Women’s World Cup women’s football is going to
August 21, 2023The Biden administration on Monday continued its push toward internet-for-all by 2030, announcing about $667 million in new grants and loans to build more broadband infrastructure in the rural U.S. “With this investment, we’re getting funding to communities in every corner of the country because we believe that no kid should have to sit in the back of a mama’s car in a McDonald’s parking lot in order to do homework,” said Mitch Landrieu, the White House’s infrastructure coordinator, in a call with reporters. The 37 new recipients represent the fourth round of funding under the program, dubbed ReConnect by
August 21, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Danish lawmakers on Monday for helping his country resist Russia’s invasion, a day after Denmark and the Netherlands announced they will provide Kyiv with American-made F-16 warplanes. Zelenskyy said that if Russia’s invasion is successful, other parts of Europe would be at risk from the Kremlin’s military aggression. “All of Russia’s neighbors are under threat if Ukraine does not prevail,” he said in a speech in Copenhagen. Zelenskyy portrays Ukraine as defending Western values of freedom and democracy against tyranny and argues that Ukraine needs to be properly provisioned to fend
August 21, 2023A suspected Palestinian attacker killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man in the south of the occupied West Bank on Monday, Israeli authorities said, as violence continued to flare in the restive territory shortly after another shooting killed two Israelis. The latest attack is part of a sharp escalation in the region in recent months involving Palestinian militants, Israeli security forces and radical Jewish settlers. It took place as Israeli forces were already on high alert and searching for the gunman who had killed the two Israelis in the northern West Bank on Saturday. The
August 21, 2023Life in the capital of a war-torn country seems normal on the surface. In the mornings, people rush to their work holding cups of coffee. Streets are filled with cars, and in the evenings restaurants are packed. But the details tell another story. Numerous buildings across Kyiv bear the scars of Russian bombardment. Sandbags are stacked around monuments, museums and office buildings to protect from possible attack. At nights, streets are empty after the midnight curfew comes into force. In restaurants, diners chat about life, friends and jobs and discuss whether they liked the Barbie or
August 21, 2023Russia and China will look to gain more political and economic ground in the developing world at a summit in South Africa this week, when an expected joint dose of anti-West grumbling from them may take on a sharper edge with a formal move to bring Saudi Arabia closer. Leaders from the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will hold three days of meetings in Johannesburg’s financial district of Sandton, with Chinese premier Xi Jinping’s attendance underlining the diplomatic capital his country has invested in the bloc over the last decade-and-a-bit as
August 21, 2023Public utility regulators in Iowa will begin a hearing Tuesday on a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline for transporting emissions of the climate-warming greenhouse gas for storage underground that has been met by resistant landowners who fear the taking of their land and dangers of a pipeline rupture. Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile pipeline network would carry CO2 from 34 ethanol plants in five states to North Dakota for storage deep underground — a project involving carbon capture technology, which has attracted both interest and scrutiny in the U.S. North Dakota regulators earlier this month
August 21, 2023Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a former guerrilla fighter and bodyguard who responded to being fired as vice president by unseating Robert Mugabe, his own mentor and one of the world’s longest-ruling leaders, in a coup. Mnangagwa is now seeking reelection for a second term as president in a vote this week that could see the ruling ZANU-PF party extend its 43-year hold on power in the southern African nation struggling under international sanctions. Zimbabwe has been
August 21, 2023Asian stocks were mixed Monday as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s summer conference for signs of whether the U.S. central bank thinks inflation is under control or more interest rate hikes are needed to cool inflation. Shanghai and Hong Kong retreated while Tokyo and Seoul advanced. Oil prices rose. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index edged down 0.1% on Friday to end the week lower ahead of the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference. Fed officials have used the event in previous year’s to indicate changes in policy direction. There “may be rude hawkish surprises” for investors
August 21, 2023Tropical Storm Hilary drenched Southern California from the coast to inland mountains and deserts Sunday evening, prompting rescues from swollen rivers and forcing some of the nation’s largest school districts to cancel Monday classes. Millions braced for more flooding and mudslides, even as the storm began to weaken. The first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, Hilary brought intensifying rain to the region, with some mountain and desert areas seeing more than half an average year’s worth of rain come down in just one day, including the desert resort city of Palm Springs,
August 21, 2023Ecuadorian voters looking for a new leader to help curb the country’s unprecedented violence will have to head to the polls again in October for a runoff that is likely to see the ally of a convicted former president vie against the principal heir of a banana growing and exporting empire. No candidate in Sunday’s special presidential election received enough support to be declared winner. The election process took place under the watch of tens of thousands of police officers and soldiers deployed across the country, partly in response to the assassination of a presidential candidate
August 21, 2023A progressive from outside Guatemala’s power structure was resoundingly elected the country’s next president Sunday in a reprimand to the governing elite over widespread allegations of corruption. Despite preliminary results showing a potential landslide for anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo, the attention immediately turned to whether he would be allowed to assume power as the current administration attempts to suspend his party’s legal status. With more than 99% of votes counted, preliminary results gave Arévalo 58% of the vote to 37% for former first lady Sandra Torres in her third bid for the presidency. The official results
August 21, 2023A wealthy dentist convicted of killing his wife at the end of an African safari in Zambia is expected to be sentenced to life in prison Monday for a murder prosecutors say capped off a lifetime “spent seeking domination and control over others through wealth and power.” At the hearing in a Denver federal court, U.S. government prosecutors will also seek to get an estimated $25 million in restitution, seized property and fines from Larry Rudolph. He was also found guilty in federal court last year for mail fraud for cashing in nearly $5 million in insurance
August 21, 2023Sophia Smith wasted little time in her return from the Women’s World Cup, scoring the go-ahead goal one minute after taking the pitch as a second-half substitute in Portland’s 2-1 victory over North Carolina on Sunday in Portland, Oregon. The win lifted Portland (8-4-4) over North Carolina (8-6-2) in the league standings, with 28 points to 26 points for the Courage, and capped the league’s weekend return to action after breaking for the Women’s World Cup. Smith, a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team and reigning NWSL MVP, chased down a pass from Morgan Weaver and converted from short
August 21, 2023Newly crowned Women’s World Cup champion Spain has established itself for a long run among soccer’s elite with its young and talented roster of rising stars. La Roja defeated England 1-0 in Sunday’s final for their first major tournament title. Over the course of the month-long event, Spain played through the turbulence of last year’s player rebellion and the injury-diminished role of two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas. Aitana Bonmati, at just 25 years old, solidified her credentials as a top midfielder, and 19-year-old forward Salma Paralluelo proved to be a rising global star. “I know that
August 21, 2023Nearly three years after authorities foiled a bizarre plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the last defendants accused of taking part go on trial Monday. Eric Molitor and brothers William Null and Michael Null were among 14 men, described by prosecutors as anti-government extremists, charged in the scheme weeks before the November 2020 election. They were angered by Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, which shut down schools and restricted the economy, investigators said in court filings. The plotters were members of paramilitary groups and spoke of attacking the state Capitol and police to ignite civil war, the
August 21, 2023Freddy Tomas was working in his yard in Lahaina when the fire advanced with stunning speed right up to his fence. He rushed to save valuables from a safe inside his house but realized he didn’t have time and fled, his face blackened with soot. Days after fleeing in his pickup truck, amid smoke so thick he could only follow the red taillights of the vehicle in front of him and pray they were going the right way, the retired hotel worker from the Philippines returned to his destroyed home with his son to look for
August 21, 2023The Seattle Mariners were mostly sellers at the trade deadline three weeks ago, dealing closer Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a move signaling that this year probably wouldn’t end in the postseason. Julio Rodríguez had other ideas. The young All-Star recently finished a four-day stretch for the ages, setting an MLB record with 17 hits in those four games and helping to push the Mariners back into the American League playoff race. Rodriguez went 17 for 22 in the four games from Wednesday to Saturday — all Mariners wins — raising his batting average from
August 21, 2023Francis Ndege isn’t sure if his customers in Africa’s largest slum can afford to keep buying rice from him. Prices for rice grown in Kenya soared a while ago because of higher fertilizer prices and a yearslong drought in the Horn of Africa that has reduced production. Cheap rice imported from India had filled the gap, feeding many of the hundreds of thousands of residents in Nairobi’s Kibera slum who survive on less than $2 a day. But that is changing. The price of a 25-kilogram (55-pound) bag of rice has risen by a fifth since June. Wholesalers are yet
August 21, 2023Valerie Laveus remembers when she first heard about an immigration program designed to allow people to come to the U.S. from four countries, including her native Haiti. “I said, ‘Whoa! This seems like it would work well for bringing my nephew and my brother into the country,’” said the Florida teacher, who received a WhatsApp message in January and verified with an immigration lawyer that the program was real. After years of trying to get a green card, her brother arrived with her nephew in early August, ready to start a new life. They are two of
August 21, 2023Border guards in Saudi Arabia have fired machine guns and launched mortars at Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, likely killing hundreds of the unarmed migrants in recent years, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday. The rights group cited eyewitness reports of attacks by troops and images that showed dead bodies and burial sites on migrant routes, saying the death toll could even be “possibly thousands.” The United Nations has already questioned Saudi Arabia about its troops opening fire on the migrants in an escalating pattern of attacks
August 21, 2023Asian stocks were mixed Monday as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s summer conference for signs of whether the U.S. central bank thinks inflation is under control or more interest rate hikes are needed to cool inflation. Shanghai and Hong Kong retreated while Tokyo and Seoul advanced. Oil prices rose. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index edged down 0.1% on Friday to end the week lower ahead of the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference. Traders are watching because Fed officials have used the event in the past to indicate changes in policy direction. There “may be rude
August 21, 2023Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there’s just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard. At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic,
August 21, 2023Maxie Baughan, a College Football Hall of Famer from Georgia Tech and a nine-time Pro Bowler in the NFL, has died. He was 85. The Philadelphia Eagles said Baughan died Saturday of natural causes at his home in Ithaca, New York. Baughan, who spent six seasons with the Eagles, was surrounded by family members when he passed away, according to the team. A native of Forkland, Alabama, Baughan played for coach Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech as a linebacker and center. He was a second-round draft pick, No. 20 overall, by Philadelphia in 1960. He started as
August 21, 2023PGA champion Brooks Koepka went from a remarkable feat of getting among the six automatic spots on the Ryder Cup to now needing a phone call from U.S. captain Zach Johnson. Xander Schauffele did enough right Sunday in the BMW Championship that a bogey on the final hole didn’t cost him. He closed with a 2-under 68 at Olympia Fields and tied for eighth, giving him the sixth and final automatic spot on the Ryder Cup team. Koepka fell from No. 5 to No. 7, finishing 29 points behind Schauffele. Max Homa had been in
August 21, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has observed the test-firing of strategic cruise missiles from a navy ship, state media reported Monday, as the U.S. and South Korean militaries kicked off major annual drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal. The North’s report on missile tests came three days after the leaders of the U.S., South Korea and Japan held their first stand-alone trilateral summit and agreed to pursue enhanced ballistic missile defense cooperation to counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats. During an inspection visit of a navy flotilla on the
August 21, 2023Viktor Hovland delivered the best round of his career at the right time, making birdie on all but two holes on the back nine Sunday for a 9-under 61 to break the course record at Olympia Fields and storm past Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick to win the BMW Championship. What looked to be a two-man race between Scheffler and Fitzpatrick turned into a one-man show by Hovland. He headed to the back nine four shots behind. In the end, Scheffler and Fitzpatrick had to hole out from the fairway to catch him. Both closed
August 20, 2023Bryce Harper stretched his left arm and flashed goosebumps to Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber — just a trio of Philadelphia Phillies who were exhilarated Little League World Series fans for a moment, not high-priced sluggers in a pennant race. The Phillies raised their arms in celebration when Media, a suburb of Philadelphia, rallied and briefly kept its championship dreams alive. Hey, just like the Phillies last season, Media fell just a bit short of winning its World Series. But it was mostly a day full of joy Sunday around Williamsport, the Phillies and Washington Nationals
August 20, 2023Olga Carmona, whose goal won the Women’s World Cup for Spain on Sunday, learned after the final of her father’s death, the Spanish soccer federation said. He had been ill and died while Carmona’s mother and other relatives traveled to Australia to watch her play in the final, the federation said early Monday, without giving more detail on the cause of death. The family decided to wait until after the title celebrations to give Carmona the news. “And without knowing it, I had my Star before the game started,” Carmona said on X, formerly known as Twitter,
August 20, 2023Seventh-seeded Coco Gauff became the first teenager in more than 50 years to win the Western & Southern Open with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Karolina Muchova on Sunday. Gauff, the 2022 French Open runner-up, earned her first Masters 1000 title when Muchova sailed a forehand return wide on Gauff’s fourth match point. The 19-year-old American tossed her racket in the air and jumped up and down in glee after surviving a 1-hour, 56-minute match played in temperatures approaching 90 degrees. “This is unbelievable,” Gauff said during the post-match trophy presentation. “I’m just happy to be
August 20, 2023The largest union at Navy shipbuilder Bath Iron Works in Maine overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract, the union said Sunday, averting another strike like the one three years ago that contributed to delays in delivering ships. The contract, which takes effect Monday, raises pay a range of 2.6% to 9.6% in the first year with differences due to a mid-contract wage adjustment that already took effect for some workers, and will be followed by a 5% increase in the second year and 4% increase in the third. Workers are receiving an increase in contributions to
August 20, 2023Tropical Storm Hilary was accelerating northward off Mexico’s Baja coast on Sunday, no longer a hurricane but still packing what forecasters called “life-threatening” rain likely to unleash flooding across a broad region of the western U.S. As of 8 a.m. Pacific time, Hilary was located about 220 miles (350 kilometers) south-southeast of San Diego, the National Hurricane Center reported. Hilary had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph) and was moving northwest at 25 mph (41 kph), remaining just off the Pacific coast. The Mexican cities of Ensenada and Tijuana, directly in the storm’s path,
August 20, 2023Aaron Rodgers’ Big Apple debut will come in the New York Jets’ preseason finale against the Giants next Saturday night. The 39-year-old quarterback, who hasn’t played in an exhibition game since 2018 while with the Green Bay Packers, will start in the Jets’ final tuneup before the regular-season opener on Sept. 11 against the Buffalo Bills, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because the Jets didn’t announce their plans for the game. The New York Post first reported Rodgers’ debut with New York would come
August 20, 2023Spaniards erupted in joy after La Roja won the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, with some following coach Jorge Vilda’s call to take to the streets and celebrate Spain’s first major soccer title in more than a decade. Fans in Madrid, Barcelona and around the country cheered when the final whistle blew in Sydney, Australia, following Spain’s 1-0 win over England to clinch the women’s world title for the first time. The women’s triumph came 13 years after the men’s national team won its only World Cup title in South Africa. The men’s team also won the
August 20, 2023Libya’s central bank announced Sunday its reunification after being split for nearly a decade due to the country’s long-running civil war that resulted in two rival administrations, in the east and the west. The bank said in a terse statement that it has become a “unified sovereign institution” following a meeting in the capital, Tripoli, between Central Bank Governor Sadiq al-Kabir and his deputy in the country’s east, Marai Rahil. The bank said the meeting crowned efforts by Libyan parties and marked the unification of the bank. Al-Kabir and Rahil said they would continue their efforts to
August 20, 2023Patriots rookie cornerback Isaiah Bolden has been released from a Green Bay area hospital following a series of evaluations after being carted off the field in the fourth quarter of New England’s exhibition game with the Packers. The Patriots said in a statement Sunday that Bolden, who appeared to collide with teammate Calvin Munson while attempting to make a hit on a pass completion to Green Bay’s Malik Heath, will travel with the team Sunday when it returns Massachusetts. The league made the decision to call off the remainder of the game after Bolden’s injury, with
August 20, 2023Greek authorities evacuated another five villages near the northeastern border with Turkey Sunday where a large summer wildfire that has already destroyed several homes over the weekend drew dangerously close. There were no reports of serious injuries to firefighters or residents from the forest blaze near the town of Alexandroupolis, that forced the evacuation of another eight villages Saturday. Strong winds whipped on the flames, and civil protection authorities warned of an “extreme” fire risk Monday in the region around the capital, Athens, and other parts of southern Greece. Some 200 firefighters, assisted by 16 water-dropping
August 20, 2023Spain won its first Women’s World Cup title less than a year after a player rebellion, holding off England 1-0 on Sunday after Olga Carmona’s first-half goal. The victory made La Roja the first team to hold the under-17, under-20 and senior world titles at the same time. Spain is the fifth winner in nine editions of the Women’s World Cup and joins Germany as the only two nations to win both the men’s and women’s tournament. At the final whistle the Spanish players piled on each other in front of their goal and were still dancing
August 20, 2023Sha’Carri Richardson, Marie-Josée Ta Lou, Shericka Jackson and defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce all won their 100-meter heats at world championships Sunday to stay on course for a showdown in what could be the most unpredictable final of the nine-day track meet. Richardson, the American national champion, crossed the finish line in the day’s fastest time, 10.92 seconds. She pretended to flick some sweat off her brow — no big deal, not that anyone expected that in the first round. Fraser-Pryce, the Jamaican who is seeking to tie a record by winning her sixth world championship in
August 20, 2023Canary Islands regional President Fernando Clavijo said Sunday that police have confirmed that a wildfire raging on the Spanish tourist island of Tenerife was started deliberately. Clavijo said police had opened three lines of investigation but did not say if there had been any arrests. Improved weather conditions helped firefighters make advances overnight in their battle to tame the blaze that has raged out of control for the past five days, authorities said Sunday. “The night was very difficult but thanks to the work of the firefighters, the results have been very
August 20, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday, two days after the country said the United States had given its approval for Dutch and Danish authorities to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine’s air force. Zelenskyy is meeting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a military air base in the southern city of Eindhoven. The Ukrainian leader was in Sweden a day earlier. The U.S. approval Friday for the Netherlands and Denmark to deliver American-made F-16s to Ukraine was seen as a major boost for Kyiv, even though the fighter jets won’t have an
August 20, 2023United States captain Tyler Adams is returning to the Premier League after completing a move from Leeds to Bournemouth. Adams signed a five-year-deal with Bournemouth, the club said Saturday, after a one-year stint at Leeds that ended with him having hamstring surgery in March and the team being relegated from the Premier League at the end of the season. The clubs did not disclose the transfer fee but British media reported the deal was worth up to 24 million pounds ($30.5 million). The 24-year-old midfielder had been linked with a move to Chelsea earlier in the
August 20, 2023Russia’s robot lander the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon after it had spun into uncontrolled orbit, the country’s space agency Roscosmos reported on Sunday. “The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” read a statement from the agency. Roscosmos said it lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday after it ran into trouble while preparing for its pre-landing orbit after reporting an “abnormal situation ” that its specialists were analyzing. “During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic
August 20, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday vowed stern retaliation for a Russian missile strike in the center of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv that killed seven people and wounded almost 150 others the day before. “I am sure our soldiers will respond to Russia for this terrorist attack. Respond tangibly,” Zelenskyy said in a video address published in the early hours of Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden, his first foreign trip since attending a NATO summit in Lithuania last month. He identified a 6-year-old girl named Sofia as among the dead
August 20, 2023Mutinous soldiers in Niger are under pressure from regional sanctions as they refuse to reinstate the country’s president whom they toppled nearly a month ago while being fearful of attacks from France, an official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity after Saturday’s meeting between Niger’s new military regime and a delegation from the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS. He said the roughly two-hour discussion aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the country’s deepening crisis, yielded little with no clarity on the next steps. It was the first time head
August 20, 2023The Latest from the Women’s World Cup final between England and Spain: ___ UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin was not in attendance for the Women’s World Cup final despite the championship match featuring two European teams. England and Spain were facing off for what will be the first Women’s World Cup title for either team. UEFA instead was represented by Nadine Kessler, technical director of women’s soccer. Čeferin was in Athens on Wednesday for the Super Cup final between Manchester City and Sevilla. He also attended a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his visit. A
August 20, 2023Police in northeastern Bangladesh used batons and tear gas to disperse opposition activists amid a political dispute over who would oversee the next election, which is expected to be held in January, police and activists said Sunday. Around 300 people were injured in the clash on Saturday evening, including some with bullets, the country’s leading Bengali-language daily newspaper Prothom Alo reported, adding that police had opened fire on supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The United News of Bangladesh agency said as many as 150 people including police
August 20, 2023Pakistan’s top investigation agency has arrested an opposition leader, who is a close aide of convicted former Prime Minister Imran Khan, for exposing official secrets and harming state interests, according to case documents revealed Sunday. It’s the latest development in a standoff between the administration of outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his predecessor Khan, who was jailed earlier this month on graft charges. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a two-time foreign minister, was arrested Saturday night at his Islamabad home by the Federal Investigation Agency on charges of exposing a letter last year to claim that Khan was
August 20, 2023The United States, Japan and Australia are planning a joint navy drill in the South China Sea off the western Philippines this week to underscore their commitment to the rule of law in the region after a recent show of Chinese aggression in the disputed waters, Filipino security officials said Sunday. On Aug. 5, Chinese coast guard ships used water cannons against Philippine vessels in the contested waterway where disputes have long been regarded as a potential flashpoint and have become a fault line in the rivalry between the U.S. and China in the region. The
August 20, 2023Indian police intervened to stop a meeting of prominent activists, academics and politicians discussing global issues ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations that will be hosted in New Delhi next month, the meeting’s organizers said Sunday. Nearly 400 participants had spent two days debating the G-20 agenda and key issues that affect much of the world’s population, including food security, climate change, labor rights, natural resources and rising inequality. The meeting also featured speakers who were critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government’s role in hosting the
August 20, 2023Firefighters kept wildfires at bay near the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as well as a threatened city in British Columbia, though no one claimed victory as forecasters warned that drier and windier weather was coming. For Saturday at least, the weather was milder, providing some help for fire teams battling to contain the flames of Canada’s worst fire season on record that destroyed structures, fouled the air with thick smoke and prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents. Officials said a huge wildfire again had been kept from advancing closer than 15
August 20, 2023The language is stark: People in torched areas of Maui should not try to filter their own drinking water because there is no “way to make it safe,” Maui County posted on its Instagram account this week. The message reached Anne Rillero and her husband Arnie in Kula, who were eating yet another meal of frozen pizza. The couple feels incredibly lucky they and their home survived the fires that raced across Maui in recent days, wiping most of Lahaina off the map. The number of confirmed fatalities was raised on Friday to 114 people. When a neighborhood organization alerted
August 20, 2023Ecuador is holding a special election Sunday to pick a new president, with police and soldiers on guard against unprecedented violence, including the assassination of a candidate this month. Front-runners include an ally of exiled former President Rafael Correa and a millionaire with a security background promising to be tough on crime. Authorities have deployed more than 100,000 police and soldiers to protect the vote against more violence. Some Ecuadorians still said they would not even leave home for the election, even though skipping the trip to the polls could result in a fine. “I don’t
August 20, 2023When Allison Strickland urged a suburban Atlanta school board in June to remove four books from school libraries, she was following a path cleared by Georgia’s Republican lawmakers. But after the bitterly debated Georgia law took effect Jan. 1, The Associated Press found few book challengers are using it. One key element restraining complaints: The law only allows parents of current students to challenge books. Although not new, book challenges have surged since 2020, part of a backlash to what kids read and discuss in public schools. Conservatives want to stop children from reading books with
August 20, 2023After a tumultuous campaign, Guatemalans head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, hoping that the country’s next leader will provide relief from rising prices and get a handle on crime and corruption. The two candidates offer starkly different paths forward. Former first lady Sandra Torres became an ally of outgoing, deeply unpopular President Alejandro Giammattei in her third bid for the presidency. Her opponent, Bernardo Arévalo, with the progressive Seed Movement, rode a wave of popular resentment toward politics to his surprise spot in the runoff. Central America’s most populous country and
August 20, 2023Inside a jail cell at Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, Albertyn Pino’s only plan was to finish the six-month sentence for public intoxication, along with other charges, and to return to her abusive boyfriend. That’s when she was offered a lifeline: An invitation to the tribe’s Healing to Wellness Court. She would be released early if she agreed to attend alcohol treatment and counseling sessions, secure a bed at a shelter, get a job, undergo drug testing and regularly check in with a judge. Pino, now 53, ultimately completed the requirements and, after about a year and a half, the
August 20, 2023An American-owned oil tanker long suspected of carrying sanctioned Iranian crude oil began offloading its cargo near Texas late Saturday, tracking data showed, even as Tehran has threatened to target shipping in the Persian Gulf over it. The fate of the cargo aboard the Suez Rajan has become mired in the wider tensions between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, even as Tehran and Washington work toward a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea for the release of five Iranian-Americans held in Tehran. Already, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard
August 20, 2023The NBA is investigating the reasons behind James Harden calling Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey a liar, a person with knowledge of the details said Saturday. The league likely would seek to determine whether any promises were made to Harden that would have been in violation of salary cap rules. Penalties could be possible, the person told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation has not been publicly announced. It was first reported by ESPN. Harden picked up his $35.6 million contract option for next season in June, apparently with the hopes that the
August 20, 2023New England’s preseason game with the Green Bay Packers was called off on Saturday night after Patriots rookie cornerback Isaiah Bolden was carted off the field early in the fourth quarter. Bolden, a seventh-round pick from Jackson State, appeared to collide with teammate Calvin Munson while attempting to make a hit on a pass completion to Green Bay’s Malik Heath. As medical officials treated Bolden, both teams left their respective sidelines and got on the field, with some players getting on one knee. After Bolden was carted off the field, the two teams conferred and
August 20, 2023Patrick Mahomes saw his first extended action of the preseason, throwing for 105 yards and a touchdown, and the Kansas City Chiefs rolled past the Arizona Cardinals 38-10 on Saturday night in the second preseason game for both teams. The reigning MVP for the defending Super Bowl champs completed 10 of 15 passes, playing the entire first quarter. The Chiefs’ first-team offense wasn’t very crisp during its first two drives, fighting through a few dropped passes and penalties. But Kansas CIty found the end zone on its third try when Mahomes rolled out to his right
August 20, 2023Baker Mayfield might have won Tampa Bay’s starting quarterback job without even taking a snap in the Buccaneers’ 13-6 preseason victory over the New York Jets on Saturday night. Mayfield was held out and remained on the sideline during Tampa Bay’s second preseason game — a possible sign he has moved ahead of Kyle Trask in the competition to open the season under center. Todd Bowles, who coached the Jets from 2015-18, hadn’t indicated before the game whether either quarterback had an advantage. Trask, listed with Mayfield as the starter on the Buccaneers’ unofficial depth
August 20, 2023Tampa Bay Buccaneers third-string quarterback John Wolford was taken to a hospital because of a neck injury after being carted from the field after being sacked in a preseason game against the New York Jets on Saturday night. Wolford, who started the second half in relief of Kyle Trask, was taken down by Jalyn Holmes and his head appeared to hit the turf with the Jets defensive lineman on top of him with 1:03 left in the third quarter. Wolford’s teammates immediately called for the trainers, who rushed out to attend to the 27-year-old quarterback.
August 20, 2023Lionel Messi scored for the 10th time in seven games since joining Inter Miami, giving his squad an early lead against Nashville SC in the Leagues Cup final on Saturday night. The ball landed at Messi’s feet in the 24th minute after a pass from teammate Robert Taylor was blocked. Messi dribbled past Nashville defender Walker Zimmerman and unleashed a bending shot from just outside the penalty box into the top left corner of the goal. Diving goalkeeper Elliott Panicco had no chance at playing the ball. Nashville fans had booed Messi on his previous touches
August 20, 2023It turns out that two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has a deft scoring touch on the court — and the pitch. Antetokounmpo, a minority owner of Nashville SC of the MLS, was on the field Saturday night before the start of his team’s Leagues Cup final against Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami, playfully taking shots on goal. Antetokounmpo, who purchased a stake in the club in March, delighted the fans by burying a shot from distance and emulating the goal celebration of another superstar from the world of soccer, Cristiano Ronaldo. The 7-foot, “Greek Soccer Freak,” who
August 20, 2023Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will make a brief visit to the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday to highlight the safety of an impending release of treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, a divisive plan that his government wants to start soon despite protests at home and abroad. His trip comes hours after he returned home Saturday from a summit with U.S. and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David. Before leaving Washington on Friday, Kishida said it is time to make a decision on the treated water’s release date, which
August 20, 2023Max Homa experienced the potential for disruption with betting at PGA Tour events when he said a fan yelled in the middle of his 5-foot birdie putt Saturday in the BMW Championship. Homa already was struggling with short putts on a windy day at Olympia Fields, having missed a 2-foot putt on the seventh hole a 5-footer at No. 12. What bothered him was what he described as a drunk fan on the 17th hole, right after Chris Kirk had left his 18-foot birdie putt about 1 foot short. Homa holed his 5-footer, then shouted
August 19, 2023Manny Ramírez pulled off his dark designer sunglasses, tugged at his Dolce & Gabbana tie and smiled widely. Back in his element. Manny being Manny. “It’s an honor to come back to the house that I built, the Jake” Ramírez said during a news conference at Progressive Field, known as Jacobs Field when the slugger played in Cleveland. “I know they changed the name, but I’m happy to be back. I’m happy to be back in the city and the place that I grew up.” One of best hitters in baseball history, and one of the game’s
August 19, 2023Carson Beck will open the season as No. 1 Georgia’s starting quarterback as the Bulldogs begin their quest for a third straight national championship. Coach Kirby Smart named Beck the starter on Saturday, and the announcement was not a surprise. Beck was the top backup for Stetson Bennett in 2022 and ended spring practice atop Georgia’s depth chart. “He’s done the best job,” Smart said of Beck, the junior who threw for 310 yards and four touchdowns last season. “We communicated that earlier in the week to the other quarterbacks, and we’ve kind of been operating
August 19, 2023Scottie Scheffler was feeling good enough with his short game that he was willing to take on a long shot with high risk. Just like everything else Saturday, it worked out just fine for him in the BMW Championship. In wind that gusted through tree-lined Olympia Fields, Scheffler hit a driver off the fairway on the par-5 15th hole that traveled 299 yards — a lot of it on the ground — to just short of the green to set up his seventh and final birdie in a round of 6-under 64. It gave him
August 19, 2023Russia reported an “abnormal situation” Saturday on its moon-bound Luna-25 spacecraft, which launched earlier this month. The country’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, and that its specialists were analyzing the situation. “During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roscosmos said in a Telegram post. Roscosmos did not specify whether the incident will prevent Luna-25 from making a landing. The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south
August 19, 2023Coco Gauff had never won a set against Iga Swiatek in seven previous meetings. On Saturday, the 19-year old beat the No. 1-ranked player in the world, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, to advance to Sunday’s final in the Western & Southern Open. Swiatek, winner of three of the last six Grand Slam titles, survived three match points before Gauff finally finished off the upset to the delight of a large crowd that loudly supported the American. “It feels really good,” Gauff said. “It shows that I can be at that level, or compete at that level at
August 19, 2023New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham was in the midst of a “medical episode” and was disoriented when he was taken into custody in the Los Angeles area and transported to a hospital, the team said Saturday. Graham was stopped by police on Friday night while reportedly wandering in traffic and booked on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance. The Saints announced Graham has been evaluated by team doctor John Amoss, was released from a hospital on Saturday morning and was back with the team as it prepared for a preseason
August 19, 2023The days of waiting have become harder and harder as the odds grow longer and longer, but Kevin Baclig remains undeterred in his search for his wife and her parents, missing since Aug. 8 when a wildfire engulfed and flattened the Hawaiian town of Lahaina. He has gone looking from one shelter to another, hoping strangers might recognize the faces on the flyers he brings with him. Baclig, 30, has driven back and forth to Lahaina, desperately scouting for anything that might lead him to his wife, Angelica, and her parents, Joel and Adela Villegas. Six
August 19, 2023Thousands more residents of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands have fled their homes as a wildfire that authorities deemed “out of control” raged on for a fourth day. The regional government for the Canary Islands said that 4,000 more people were ordered to evacuate on Saturday. Those were in addition to the 4,500 people who on Friday were forced to move out of harm’s way on the Atlantic island that is home to around a million people and is also a popular tourist destination. That figure of more than 8,000 evacuees is
August 19, 2023General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit has agreed to cut its fleet of San Francisco robotaxis in half as authorities investigate two recent crashes in the city. The state Department of Motor Vehicles asked for the reduction after a Cruise vehicle without a human driver collided with an unspecified emergency vehicle on Thursday. “The DMV is investigating recent concerning incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco,” the DMV said Saturday in a statement to The Associated Press. “Cruise has agreed to a 50% reduction and will have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150
August 19, 2023Bryce Harper wants to get to Cooperstown. Sure, what baseball player, especially a two-time NL MVP such as Harper, doesn’t dream of induction into the Hall of Fame. But Harper’s hopes extend well beyond a call to the Hall — the Philadelphia Phillies slugger would love for Major League Baseball to stick one of its yearly attraction games — akin to recent “Field of Dreams” and London trips — in Cooperstown, New York, as part of Hall of Fame weekend. “I think it’s pretty cool being able to play in different areas and different countries,” Harper said.
August 19, 2023Long before a wind-whipped wildfire blasted through the island of Maui, tension existed between Hawaii’s kamaaina, or longtime residents, and the visitors some islanders resent for turning their beaches, mountains and communities into playgrounds. It’s a love-hate relationship that dates back generations. But now that tension is building in the aftermath of a blaze that killed over 100 people and scorched the historic town of Lahaina, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. A week after the fire, a state flag blew upside down in the breeze along a road leading to
August 19, 2023One of the Egyptian activists behind the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak walked free from prison Saturday following a presidential pardon after spending nearly 10 years behind bars. Authorities released prominent activist Ahmed Douma from a prison complex outside Cairo where he was serving a 15-year sentence after being convicted of taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces in the Egyptian capital in December 2011, according to rights lawyer Khaled Ali. “Douma is free,” Ali wrote on Facebook. He posted a photo showing the activist along with former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi
August 19, 2023The decorated French general in charge of the ambitious, big-budget restoration of fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Jean-Louis Georgelin, has died. He was 74. President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute Saturday to one of France’s “greatest soldiers, greatest servants,” who “stone by stone, was restoring the wounded beauty” of Notre Dame. Before being pulled from retirement to oversee the cathedral reconstruction, Georgelin previously served as chief of France’s military general staff, overseeing operations in Afghanistan, the Balkans and beyond. Citing the regional prosecutor, local news reports said Georgelin died while hiking in the Pyrenees, likely in an
August 19, 2023Two Israelis were killed in a suspected Palestinian shooting attack Saturday in a volatile area of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said, the latest outburst of violence to rock the region. The military said it was searching for suspects and setting up roadblocks near the town of Hawara, a flashpoint area in the northern West Bank, which has seen repeated shooting attacks as well as a rampage by Jewish West Bank settlers that torched Palestinian property. The shooting attack came after Palestinian official media said a Palestinian 19-year-old died of his
August 19, 2023World-record holder Ryan Crouser needed only one attempt to advance to the shot put finals at world championships, where Saturday night he was set to defend his title. Crouser’s throw of 21.48 meters (70 feet, 5 3/4 inches) in a rain-soaked ring at Hungary’s National Athletics Centre put him into the 12-man final. The American, who posted on social media this week that he was dealing with two blood clots in his lower leg, has broken the world record twice over the past 26 months. It currently stands at 23.56. A thunderstorm delayed the start of
August 19, 2023It’s easy to understand why Gail Newsham can’t stop grinning as she prepares for England’s soccer team to play in the final of the Women’s World Cup. Newsham, 70, grew up at a time when women in England were banned from the sport — called football here — and helped lead a resurgence in the game once those restrictions were lifted. Now she’s getting ready to watch Sunday’s game against Spain on TV and hoping to see her team bring home a world championship. “I’ll be wearing my shirt, I’ll be having a sausage roll and a
August 19, 2023A central Kansas police chief was not only on legally shaky ground when he ordered the raid of a weekly newspaper, experts said, but it may have been a criminal violation of civil rights, a former federal prosecutor added, saying: “I’d probably have the FBI starting to look.” Some legal experts believe the Aug. 11 raid on the Marion County Record’s offices and the home of its publisher violated a federal privacy law that protects journalists from having their newsrooms searched. Some believe it violated a Kansas law that makes it more difficult to force reporters
August 19, 2023Among the prized possessions that John Jenkins has collected in his career: a handwritten letter from former USA Basketball coach Gregg Popovich for his role on the Tokyo Olympic team, and a gold medal from those games. His medal is a replica. His effort was very real. And who knows, another shiny souvenir might be coming his way in a few weeks. As part of its preparations for big tournaments in recent years — such as the World Cup, which begins on Friday in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan — USA Basketball has
August 19, 2023Nobody beats Sweden on the rebound from a Women’s World Cup semifinal loss. Not even the tournament hosts. The Swedish women extended their perfect record in World Cup third-place matches to four, with Fridolina Rolfo and Kosovare Asllani scoring Saturday in a clinical 2-0 win over Australia. “It feels amazing. We showed from minute one, we were the better team,” Rolfo said. “We deserve this medal.” It was a disappointing finish for the Matildas, who captivated their country during their run to the semifinals for the first time. The tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand
August 19, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting Sweden on Saturday — his first visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the Swedish government said. It said Zelenskyy will meet Swedish government officials in Harpsund, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Stockholm. He will also meet Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at a palace in the area. Sweden abandoned its longstanding policy of military nonalignment to support Ukraine with weapons and other aid in the war against Russia. It also applied for NATO membership but is still waiting to join
August 19, 2023Hurricane Hilary headed for Mexico’s Baja California with “life-threatening and potentially catastrophic” rain and flash flooding, while officials as far north as Los Angeles scrambled to get the homeless off the streets, set up shelters and prepare for evacuations. Hilary is expected to plow into the Mexican peninsula sometime Sunday and then surge northward and enter the history books as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years by late Sunday or Monday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for a wide swath of Southern California from
August 19, 2023If those precise passes that untangle defenses and the attacks coming from all angles by first-time Women’s World Cup finalist Spain look familiar, there is good reason. The Spanish squad is built on a core of Barcelona players who have triumphed with their club and are now one step from the ultimate prize when they face England on Sunday in Sydney. Nine Barcelona players, including two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, attacking midfielder Aitana Bonmatí and defensive leader Irene Paredes, are among the key players for Spain. The club’s influence also extends to the England team,
August 19, 2023A delegation from regional nations is expected to arrive in Niger in a last-ditch diplomacy effort to reach a peaceful solution with mutinous soldiers who ousted the country’s president last month. The representatives from the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, could arrive in the capital, Niamey, as early as Saturday and would join efforts by United Nations Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao, who came on Friday, in trying to facilitate a resolution to the ongoing crisis. On Friday U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said Simao would meet with the junta and
August 19, 2023A Swiss citizen was arrested in military-ruled Myanmar for creating a film that allegedly insulted Buddhism, state media reported Saturday. Didier Nusbaumer, 52, was arrested on Aug. 8 along with 13 Myanmar nationals, including a 12-year-old girl, Myanma Alinn newspaper said. Insulting Buddhism is a punishable offense in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where religious nationalism has surged in recent years. About 90% of Myanmar people are Buddhist. The news report said that Nusbaumer wrote, filmed and edited the 75-minute movie “Don’t Expect Anything,” which was posted on YouTube on July 24. Short clips from the movie spread on social
August 19, 2023Four grandmothers wearing bright yellow headscarves, T-shirts and skirts huddled around a cellphone in Zimbabwe’s rural Domboshava area. They cackled at a video showing a troop of mischievous baboons ripping up ruling party election posters with the face of the president on them. With a swish and a click, 64-year-old Elizabeth Mutandwa posted the video on a couple of community WhatsApp groups, and followed it up with some election campaign information from the party she supports in next week’s election — the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change. The grandmothers say they and their fellow opposition
August 19, 2023Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Friday that what’s rebuilt from the ashes of the devastating wildfires on Maui will be determined by the people. “Lahaina will rise again,” Green said during a livestreamed evening address from Honolulu. The seaside town will be rebuilt as a living memorial to those lost — a number that increased by three on Friday to 114 — while preserving and protecting Native Hawaiian culture, he said. His wife, Jaime Kanani Green, stood next to him and cried as she described Lahaina as a vibrant community rich in history and culture. “Tragically
August 19, 2023As unrelenting heat set in across Texas this summer, opponents of a sweeping new law targeting local regulations took to the airwaves and internet with an alarming message: outdoor workers would be banned from taking water breaks. Workers would die, experts and advocates said, with high temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) and staying there for much of the past two months. But a closer look at the law, and the local ordinances requiring water breaks, reveals a more complicated picture. At least one political analyst said the dispute is less about worker protection and more about politics,
August 19, 2023The capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories was virtually deserted after nearly all the residents of the city of just over 20,000 fled as a huge wildfire burned nearby. To the south, in British Columbia, thousands more people were told to leave their homes while firefighters battled a growing fire that set homes ablaze. Officials in Northwest Territories said Friday evening that about 19,000 people had left Yellowknife in less than 48 hours, with about 15,000 driving out in convoys and 3,800 leaving on emergency flights. “I described today as another marathon sprint,” Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca
August 19, 2023Business has vanished at Kingsley Odafe’s clothing shop in Nigeria’s capital, forcing him to lay off three employees. One culprit for his troubles stands out: The U.S. dollar’s strength against the Nigerian currency, the naira, has pushed the price of garments and other foreign goods beyond the reach of local consumers. A bag of imported clothes costs three times what it did two years ago. The price these days is running around 350,000 naira, or $450. “There are no sales anymore because people have to eat first before thinking of buying clothes,” Odafe said. Across the
August 19, 2023Cardinals rookie shortstop Masyn Winn did get a souvenir baseball to take home after recording his first major league hit in his MLB debut. But it wasn’t easy to get the ball after New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso tossed it into the stands. The 21-year-old Winn was playing in his first MLB game Friday night when he beat out a dribbler down the third base line for his first career hit in the bottom of the fifth inning. Alonso, after being told to throw the ball out of play, tossed it over the netting
August 19, 2023Jorge Soler hit two of the Marlins’ season-high five homers off Tony Gonsolin, and Miami snapped the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 11-game winning streak with an 11-3 victory Friday night. Jake Burger hit a three-run homer and Jacob Stallings added a two-run shot while the Marlins scored six runs on three homers in the third. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s three-run shot in the fourth finally chased Gonsolin (8-5), who gave up a career-worst 10 runs while getting only 10 outs. He tied Don Sutton’s record for homers allowed in a start during the Dodgers’ Los Angeles era. Mookie
August 19, 2023The Los Angeles Angels turned their first triple play in 26 years during the ninth inning Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. The triple play helped the Angels remain tied 6-6 with the Rays going into the bottom of the ninth. With runners at the corners and the infield playing shallow, Harold Ramirez hit a grounder to Luis Rengifo. The shortstop made the short toss to second baseman Brandon Drury to get Randy Arozarena and then threw to first baseman Nolan Schanuel. Yandy Diaz was at third but did not go when the ball was
August 19, 2023Aissata Sall was scrolling through WhatsApp in May when she first learned about the new route to the United States. For Ibrahima Sow, the discovery came on TikTok a few weeks later. By the time their paths crossed at the tidy one-story brick house in Cincinnati, they had encountered hundreds of other Mauritanians, nearly all of them following a new path surging in popularity among younger migrants from the West African nation, thanks largely to social media. “Four months ago, it just went crazy,” said Oumar Ball, who arrived in Cincinnati from Mauritania in 1997 and recently
August 19, 2023Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will visit the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday before setting a release date for its treated radioactive wastewater, as his government continues working to promote understanding over the controversial plan at home and abroad. “The government has reached the final stage where we should make a decision,” Kishida told reporters in Washington on Friday after wrapping up his summit with U.S. and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David. Since the government announced the release plan two years ago, it has faced strong opposition from
August 19, 2023Hours before a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio and erupted in fire in February, a judge ruled a former railroad employee could proceed with a lawsuit claiming he had been harassed for years by managers who said he reported too many flaws in rail cars he inspected and had his job changed after reporting an injury. Richard Singleton’s case against Norfolk Southern was settled for an undisclosed amount after the judge said he had enough evidence to go to trial over whether he was disciplined for reporting safety violations that slowed trains passing through a
August 19, 2023The Chinese military launched drills around Taiwan on Saturday as a “stern warning” over what it called collusion between “separatists and foreign forces,” its defense ministry said, days after the island’s vice president stopped over in the United States. Taiwanese Vice President William Lai’s recent trip to Paraguay to reinforce relations with his government’s last diplomatic partner in South America included stops in San Francisco and New York City. The mainland’s ruling Communist Party claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and says it has no right to conduct foreign relations. A spokesperson for China’s Eastern
August 19, 2023Joplin officials say they have big plans for $13.8 million of pandemic relief funds the tornado-ravaged southwestern Missouri city received under a two-year-old federal law. Yet the latest federal records show none of the money has been spent — or even budgeted. In fact, about 6,300 cities and counties — nearly 1 in 4 nationwide — reported no expenditures as of this spring, according to an Associated Press analysis of data released by the U.S. Treasury Department. About 5,100 of those listed no projects — either planned or underway. So what gives? Is the money not needed? Are cities just
August 19, 2023Desmond Ridder led an impressive drive for Atlanta in his preseason debut and the Falcons settled for a field goal with 2 seconds left for a 13-13 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals on Friday night. After sitting the starters last week in a 19-3 victory at Miami, the Falcons (1-0-1) went with the ones for their opening possession. Ridder completed 7 of 9 passes for 80 yards and also broke off a 7-yard run before the drive ended with an interception off a deflected pass. Cornerback Mike Hilton appeared to make contact with intended receiver Scotty Miller
August 19, 2023Then Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ordered an aide to sell undeclared luxury jewelry received as a gift and funnel the money to him, a lawyer for the aide charged Friday. Cezar Bittencourt, who represents Bolsonaro’s former right-hand man, Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, said his client had recounted receiving those orders from Bolsonaro shortly before the president left office at the end of last year. The claim was initially reported in an interview published Friday by the Brazilian magazine Veja, and Bittencourt confirmed his comments in a phone call with The Associated Press. Bittencourt said that in
August 19, 2023Daniel Jones played very much like a $40 million man in his preseason debut, throwing a touchdown pass to cap a near-perfect performance in leading the New York Giants to a 21-19 victory over the Carolina Panthers and improving No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young on Friday night. Jones, who signed a four-year, $160 million in March, completed 8 of 9 passes for 69 yards on his only series, capping it with a 4-yard touchdown strike to Daniel Bellinger. Exciting tight end Darren Waller had three catches on the drive for 30 yards and
August 19, 2023Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson said Friday he has to be better after he let his emotions get the better of him in a heated moment with Cleveland Guardians slugger José Ramírez. Anderson was suspended for six games after he fought with Ramírez on Aug. 5, triggering a wild brawl between the AL Central rivals. He had his punishment reduced to five games in a settlement with Major League Baseball that was announced on Thursday. Anderson started serving the suspension with Friday night’s series opener at Colorado. “I’m kind of at a point in my career
August 18, 2023Stella Weaver, the only girl playing in the Little League World Series this year, singled, scored a run and was hit by a pitch, helping Tennessee to an 8-1 win over Rhode Island on Friday. The 12-year-old Weaver is just the 22nd girl to play in the tournament’s history. The first Little League World Series was held in 1947. With bases empty, Stella hit a hard grounder to short and beat out the throw to become the 10th girl to record a hit in the LLWS. She later hustled from second to home on a
August 18, 2023Max Homa was aware of the course record at Olympia Fields, and not just because of how well he was playing Friday in the BMW Championship. He happened to see a video board just as it flashed a message that Chris Kirk was challenging the course record of 63. “Just randomly saw that today, and then I had to think about it,” Homa said. Homa broke the record even with two bogeys, making 10 birdies in his round of 8-under 62 that gave him a two-shot lead over Kirk (66) going into the weekend of
August 18, 2023Major League Baseball has rescheduled three Sunday games in California because of the forecast for Hurricane Hilary. The changes were announced by MLB as Hurricane Hilary churned off Mexico’s Pacific coast Friday as a powerful Category 4 storm. Each of the games — Arizona at San Diego, Tampa Bay at the Los Angeles Angels and Miami at the Los Angeles Dodgers — will now be played Saturday as part of split-doubleheaders. The first game in San Diego begins at 3:10 p.m. ET, and the second is scheduled for 8:40 p.m. ET. The opener at Angel Stadium
August 18, 2023Lolita, an orca whale held captive for more than a half-century, died Friday at the Miami Seaquarium as caregivers prepared to move her from the theme park in the near future. The Seaquarium posted on social media that Lolita — also known as Tokitae, or Toki — started exhibiting serious signs of discomfort over the past two days. Seaquarium and Friends of Toki medical team began treating immediately and aggressively, but the 57-year-old orca died from an apparent renal condition, the social media post said. “Toki was an inspiration to all who had the fortune to hear
August 18, 2023Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has appealed a judge’s ruling that left a new Nebraska law intact that bans abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and imposes restrictions on gender-affirming surgery. Planned Parenthood filed its appeal Friday with help from the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, one week after a judge sided with the state and rejected the challenge to the law Nebraska lawmakers approved earlier this year. The lawsuit had argued that the law violated a Nebraska constitutional rule that bills cannot contain more than one subject, but the judge disagreed. Lawmakers added the
August 18, 2023Arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico soared 33% from June to July, according to U.S. government figures released Friday, reversing course after a plunge that followed the introduction of new asylum restrictions in May. President Joe Biden’s administration insisted that its carrot-and-stick approach of expanding legal routes while imposing more punitive measures on those who enter illegally is working. It noted that illegal crossings were still down 27% from July 2022 and were well below the days that preceded the new immigrations rules. The increase from June to July was driven by a larger presence of families
August 18, 2023American Airlines is suing a travel website that sells tickets that let people save money by exploiting a quirk in airline pricing. American sued Skiplagged Inc. in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, this week, accusing the website of deception. It threatened to cancel every ticket that Skiplagged has sold. In a practice called skiplagging and hidden-city ticketing, travelers book a flight that includes at least one stop, but they leave the plane during a layover. Generally skiplagging is not illegal, but airlines claim that it violates their policies. Last month, American booted a 17-year-old from a
August 18, 2023Before fleeing about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of Yellowknife by car, Agnes Grandejambe looked to social media to find out almost everything she needed to know about escaping the encroaching wildfires. Some from official government accounts. Mostly from friends and family, including an offer of help from her First Nation band. But not from news media sites. That’s because Canadian news outlets — including the only one she trusts — have been blocked on Facebook and Instagram as a result of a dispute with the national government. “People were posting how close the fires were. And we knew the
August 18, 2023A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a new sentence for a North Carolina man who pleaded guilty to a petty offense in the Capitol riot — a ruling that could impact dozens of low-level cases in the massive Jan. 6, 2021 prosecution. The appeals court in Washington said James Little was wrongly sentenced for his conviction on a misdemeanor offense to both prison time and probation, which is court-ordered monitoring of defendants who are not behind bars. Little, who entered the Capitol but didn’t join in any destruction or violence, pleaded guilty in 2021 to a charge that carries
August 18, 2023Anthony Edwards scored 21 points, Cameron Johnson added 13 and USA Basketball never trailed Friday in a 108-86 win over Greece in a World Cup tune-up game for both teams. Austin Reaves and Jaren Jackson Jr. each had 11 for the U.S., which improved to 4-0 in its five-game exhibition season before flying to the Philippines next week to start World Cup play. The Americans had all 12 players score, and Mikal Bridges and Bobby Portis each finished with 10 points. Greece is playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA MVP for Milwaukee
August 18, 2023The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday it has approved more than $5.6 million in assistance to nearly 2,000 households in Maui so far as the federal government tries to help survivors of the devastating wildfires. The White House and FEMA approved a one-time payment of $700 per household for needs like clothing, food, or transportation. The agency will also pay to put survivors up in hotels and motels and says it has paid out $1.6 million in rental assistance as of Friday. The amounts are expected to grow significantly. Estimates are that thousands of buildings
August 18, 2023First came the robotaxis. Then the driverless buses arrived. San Francisco has launched an autonomous shuttle service — less than a week after California regulators approved the expansion of robotaxis despite traffic and safety concerns. The free shuttle will run daily in a fixed route called the Loop around Treasure Island, the site of a former U.S. Navy base in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The Loop makes seven stops, connecting residential neighborhoods with stores and community centers. About 2,000 people live on the island. The all-electric vehicle, which doesn’t have a driver’s seat or
August 18, 2023Marcus Davenport was on his way to meet his best man for some day-before wedding preparations when he took a call from his new head coach Kevin O’Connell. The Minnesota Vikings had just drafted Jordan Addison. Call it first-round privilege, but the rookie wide receiver had worn the No. 3 jersey his whole life. That was Davenport’s original pick upon signing with Minnesota as a free agent the previous month, but the sixth-year outside linebacker agreed to switch with his mind happily preoccupied with the impending nuptials. All the numbers in the 90s were claimed, and
August 18, 2023The Baltimore Ravens have made another late addition to their defense, agreeing to a contract with edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney. The Ravens confirmed the signing Friday. Baltimore’s defense has been dealing with injuries in the secondary and could also use some pass rushing help. Clowney can provide the latter. He has 43 sacks in nine seasons since entering the NFL as the No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft. Clowney had 11 sacks over the past two seasons with the Cleveland Browns. Baltimore moved on from veteran pass rushers Calais Campbell and Justin Houston this offseason. Odafe Oweh and David
August 18, 2023Anthony Richardson wants his Indianapolis Colts home debut to be as impressive as his last performance at Lucas Oil Stadium. Justin Fields will have a front row view — from the Bears sideline. Even though Chicago coach Matt Eberflus has announced Fields won’t play and Colts coach Shane Steichen hasn’t said how much playing time his high-profile rookie will get, the two young quarterbacks will once again be all the rage this weekend, as they usually are. “You’ve got to work because the guy who jumps the highest in the world, he’s still got to perfect
August 18, 2023Union Berlin is looking to a fresh-faced kid from Medford, New Jersey, for experience as the German club embarks on its first ever Champions League season. United States midfielder Brenden Aaronson will be one of the few Union players to have played in European soccer’s most important club competition when the group stage starts in September. The 22-year-old Aaronson, who joined Union on loan from relegated Leeds in the offseason, already has been asked by teammates about the competition. “I told them how special it is,” said Aaronson, who helped Austrian team Salzburg qualify for the 2021-22
August 18, 2023Tim McGraw roars back with “Standing Room Only” and the “Mandalorian” spin-off “Star Wars: Ahsoka” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are “The Eight Mountains,” a soul-stirring Italian epic of male friendship, and the return of Adam Sandler in “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.” NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — It would have been easy to dismiss “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” as another tired Hollywood effort to parlay whatever unused IP it
August 18, 2023A Japanese town said Friday it has agreed to a geological study to determine its suitability as an interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel. Kaminoseki, a small town in the southwestern prefecture of Yamaguchi, said it would accept the offer of a survey by Chugoku Electric Power Co., one of two major utility operators, along with Kansai Electric Power Co., whose spent fuel storage pools are almost full. The Japanese government is promoting the greater use of nuclear power as a low-carbon energy source, but the country’s nuclear plants are running out of storage capacity. The
August 18, 2023Authorities are searching for a member of the Proud Boys extremist group who disappeared days before his sentencing in a U.S. Capitol riot case, where prosecutors are seeking more than a decade in prison, according to a warrant made public Friday. Christopher Worrell of Naples, Florida, was supposed to be sentenced Friday after being found guilty of spraying pepper spray gel on police officers, as part of the mob storming the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to 14 years. The sentencing
August 18, 2023A top global chess official on Friday called for more research into whether factors such as hormone levels and physical endurance might have an impact on players’ abilities at the game, which has traditionally been and remains dominated by men. The world chess federation FIDE stirred controversy with its decision, announced this week and set to take effect Monday, to prohibit transgender women from its official events for women until the federation makes an assessment of the issue. Dana Reizniece-Ozola, the deputy chair of the federation’s management board, insisted that the goal of the new regulations was
August 18, 2023Tennessee’s GOP-dominant Legislature will return to the state Capitol on Monday months after a deadly school shooting, equipped with a long list of proposals about mental health, school resources, tougher penalties for violent criminals and more. Almost certainly missing from the special legislative session will be any serious consideration of tightening Tennessee’s relaxed gun laws. On March 27, a shooter opened fire at a Nashville Christian elementary school and killed six people, including three young students. The tragedy contributed to a record pace for mass killings in the U.S. this year and jumpstarted a statewide campaign
August 18, 2023The U.S. is making precautionary plans to evacuate two key drone and counter-terror bases in Niger if that becomes necessary under the West African nation’s new ruling junta, the Air Force commander for Africa said Friday. That planning includes looking for U.S.-allied nations in the Saharan and Sahel regions, some of the world’s most active areas for al-Qaida- and Islamic State-allied extremist groups, “that we could maybe partner up with, and then move our assets there,” Air Force Gen. James Hecker told reporters in Washington. Hecker stressed that there had been no decision from the Biden administration
August 18, 2023A rare Rhode Island tornado lifted a car off an interstate highway Friday morning as severe weather damaged homes and swept already storm-weary New England, a fire official said. Johnston Fire Chief David Iannuccilli said firefighters rushed to help the startled motorist on Interstate 295 and found her unharmed from her encounter with a tornado. “The driver said she got caught in the funnel, was lifted 10 feet in the air and was dropped back down on her tires,” Iannuccilli said. “She was shaken up more than anything.” The tornado also moved through wooded areas and residential
August 18, 2023Coach Ron Rivera has named Sam Howell the Washington Commanders’ starting quarterback, making the North Carolina product the latest in a revolving door of players at the position for the organization in recent years. Rivera announced the decision Friday morning before practice after deliberating with new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard. Howell, if he remains healthy until then, would become Washington’s seventh different season-opening starter in as many years. “He’s basically met the challenge that we talked about, and that was seeing the growth and improvement from OTAs and minicamp,” Rivera said.
August 18, 2023A neonatal nurse in a British hospital was found guilty Friday of killing seven babies and trying to kill six others Lucy Letby, 33, was charged with murder in the deaths of five baby boys and two girls, and the attempted murder of five boys and five girls, when she worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between 2015 and 2016. She was accused of deliberately harming the newborn infants in various ways, including by injecting air into their bloodstreams and administering air or milk into their stomachs via nasogastric tubes. She was also
August 18, 2023Iran’s foreign minister met Friday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of his visit to the kingdom, a sign of how the two countries are trying to ease tensions after years of turmoil. Images of Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amirabdollahian, sitting with Prince Mohammed would have been unthinkable only months earlier, as the longtime rivals have been engaged in what officials in both Tehran and Riyadh have viewed as a proxy conflict across the wider Middle East. The prince even went as far as to compare Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah
August 18, 2023Angry Turkish Cypriots punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers who obstructed crews working on a road that would encroach on a U.N.-controlled buffer zone in ethnically divided Cyprus, the U.N. said Friday. It said the attack happened as peacekeepers stood in the way of work crews building a road to connect the village of Arsos, in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, with the mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla, inside the buffer zone and abutting the Greek Cypriot south, where the island’s internationally recognized government is seated. A video seen by The Associated
August 18, 2023Ever since Usain Bolt exited the men’s sprint game, the 100 meters — the race for the title of “Fastest Man in the World” — has been a snoozy affair filled with men of few words and names from out of nowhere. Maybe, just maybe, that’s about to change, just in time for the run-up to next year’s Paris Olympics. Two of the fastest sprinters in the United States, Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley, brought some smack talk and even a bit of fun back to track, turning a routine news conference Friday in advance of
August 18, 2023Austria’s former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government, which collapsed in a scandal in 2019, prosecutors said Friday. An indictment against Kurz, his former chief of staff, Bernhard Bonelli, and another unidentified person was filed at the state court in Vienna, the prosecutors’ office that investigates corruption cases said in a statement. The court said Kurz will go on trial on Oct. 18. The charges result from an investigation that was launched in 2021, when Kurz was still chancellor. It centers on
August 18, 2023Firefighters battled overnight to try to bring under control the worst wildfire in decades on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, a major tourist destination, officials said Friday. The fire in the north of the island, which started late Tuesday, has forced the evacuation or confinement of nearly 8,000 people in eight municipalities. Television images and videos posted on social media showed the flames coming down the hill close to houses in small neighborhoods and a massive cloud of smoke rising from the area. The fire is located up in a pine
August 18, 2023The United States, Japan and South Korea are set to sign on to a new security pledge, committing the three countries to consult with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific, according to Biden administration officials. Details about the new “duty to consult” commitment emerged as President Joe Biden prepared Friday to welcome South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. The move is one of several joint efforts that the leaders are expected to
August 18, 2023If mutinous soldiers who ousted Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum succeed, it will threaten democracy and security across the region and the continent, a high-ranking member of Bazoum’s political party warned in an interview with The Associated Press. Boubacar Sabo, deputy secretary general for the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, said Bazoum had been “kidnapped” by members of the presidential guard who overthrew him on July 26 and have since kept him under house arrest. “What is happening in Niger, if it succeeds, is the end of democracy in Africa. It’s over. … If we fight
August 18, 2023Hurricane Hilary grew rapidly to Category 4 strength off Mexico’s Pacific coast and could bring heavy rain to the southwestern U.S. by the weekend. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Hilary had sustained winds near 140 mph (220 kph) at midnight and was expected to continue its rapid intensification through Friday morning. It should start to weaken Saturday. Tropical storm conditions could begin affecting the Baja California peninsula late Friday. Hilary’s projected path threatened landfall in the middle of the peninsula by Sunday, or it may stay just offshore while heading for Southern California. Hilary was
August 18, 2023FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Friday that the Women’s World Cup has “broken even” after generating more than $570 million in revenue but dismissed suggestions for equal prize money with the men’s World Cup. The current World Cup prize pools sit at $110 million for women and $440 million for men. Infantino has consistently played down calls for equal payments. On Friday, he suggested demands for equal prize money were a “slogan” that “would not solve anything.” “Some voices were raised, where it cost too much, we don’t make enough revenues, we will have to subsidize,” Infantino
August 18, 2023Asian shares mostly slipped Friday as rising yields in the bond market on Wall Street set off expectations that high interest rates would continue in the U.S. Japan’s inflation data showed consumer prices rose 3.1% from a year earlier in July, down from 3.3% in June. But that was still higher than the 2.5% forecast by some analysts and above the Bank of Japan’s target at 2%. The core consumer price index, which eliminates energy and fresh food prices from the measure, rose 4.3% on year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Japan’s Nikkei
August 18, 2023Russian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian drone over central Moscow early Friday and some fragments fell on an exposition center, officials said. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the drone was shot down about 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) and there were no injuries or fire caused by the fragments. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said some of the fragments fell on the grounds of the Expocentre, an exhibition complex adjacent to the Moscow City commercial and office complex that was hit twice by drones in the past month. The area is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles)
August 18, 2023England’s rallying cry “It’s Coming Home” may finally come true after a 57-year drought in global soccer. But if the World Cup trophy does return to the birthplace of soccer for the first time since 1966, it will be with the women’s national team, not the men. The Lionesses will play for their first Women’s World Cup title Sunday against Spain. England coach Sarina Wiegman is back in her second consecutive finale as the only coach in the history of the tournament to take two nations to the final. Wiegman was coach of the Netherlands when the
August 18, 2023Outdoor alert sirens on Maui stayed silent as a ferocious fire devastated the seaside community of Lahaina last week. The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency said he had no regrets about not deploying the system as a warning to people on the island. A day after making that statement, Administrator Herman Andaya resigned Thursday. Andaya had said he feared blaring the sirens during the blaze could have caused people to go “mauka,” using a navigational term that can mean toward the mountains or inland in Hawaiian. “If that was the case, then they would
August 18, 2023Kentucky’s largest school district had fewer transportation delays Friday but some snags persisted as most students returned to school more than a week after a busing debacle forced officials to cancel classes. Jefferson County Public Schools officials used the time off to add resources and help drivers learn new routes that were put in place this year. The 90,000-student district drew up the new routes and staggered school start times over the summer in the hopes of alleviating driver shortage issues. But the new routes confused drivers and parents and led to some students getting home
August 18, 2023Residents in the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories were rushing to beat a noon Friday deadline to evacuate their homes as one of hundreds of wildfires raging in the territories moved closer to the city of 20,000. Thousands fled on Thursday, driving hundreds of miles to safety or waiting in long lines for emergency flights, as the worst fire season on record in Canada showed no signs of easing. The fire was within 16 kilometers (10 miles) of Yellowknife’s northern edge Thursday and officials worried that strong northern winds could push the flames toward the
August 18, 2023Austin Barnes hit a solo shot in the eighth inning, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win their 11th in a row with a 1-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night. The NL West-leading Dodgers swept the NL Central leaders, outscoring them 14-3 in three games. The Dodgers had their 12th shutout of the season. Lance Lynn dueled 2021 Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, who retired 10 in a row, including six on strikeouts, although neither figured in the decision. Lynn allowed four hits in seven innings, struck out three and walked one. Burnes
August 18, 2023Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for measures to mitigate the effects of this year’s disastrous flooding which has left scores dead and inflicted massive damage on crops, homes and infrastructure, including in and around Beijing. At least 90 rivers have risen above warning levels and 24 have already overflowed their banks, according to state media, threatening a vast area in northeastern China with flooding, including the Songliao Basin north of the capital, which encompasses more than 1.2 million square kilometers (482,200 square miles) with a population of almost 100 million. “As China is still in the
August 18, 2023Rosalynn Carter will celebrate her 96th birthday at home Friday with her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, and other family members, while the surrounding community of Plains, Georgia, honors the former first lady’s years of public health advocacy. The latest milestone comes as Rosalynn Carter navigates dementia and the former president, now 98, continues to receive hospice care. Yet they remain together in the same small town where they were born, married and that anchored Jimmy Carter’s victorious 1976 presidential campaign. Rosalynn will have a quiet birthday celebration, according to The Carter Center, the human rights organization
August 18, 2023A judge will hear a fourth and final day of testimony Friday to determine whether a teenager will get a life sentence for the fatal shooting of four students at a Michigan school in 2021. An immediate decision is not expected. Prosecutors are planning to counter claims made by a psychologist who said Ethan Crumbley was like a “feral child” and mentally ill when he attacked students and staff at Oxford High School. Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes. His attorneys are arguing he can be rehabilitated while in prison and
August 18, 2023Kim Cuevas-Reyes, a 38-year-old cellphone store owner, snuck into Lahaina last Friday to see the remnants of her home with her own eyes. She took backroads and walked. What she saw stunned her. “When you step into the house, it’s like an inch or two of ash. There is nothing,” she said, adding that she hopes to stay and rebuild her home and destroyed business and is in touch with the insurance company. More than 3,000 buildings in Lahaina were damaged by fire, smoke or both. Insured property losses alone already total some $3.2 billion, according to Karen Clark &
August 18, 2023North Korean taekwondo athletes and officials were traveling through Beijing on Friday morning, apparently the country’s first delegation to travel abroad since the nation closed its borders in early 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group of around 80 men and women wearing white track suits with “Taekwondo-Do” printed on the back and the North Korean flag on the front were in the departure hall of Beijing’s international airport checking in and walking to customs. They reportedly arrived Wednesday or Thursday. The group was expected to take an Air Astana flight to Kazakhstan to
August 18, 2023Salma Paralluelo could have been preparing for next year’s Olympics if she’d decided to stick with track and not make the switch to soccer. But she did pick soccer add the 19-year-old winger has been a super-sup that helped lift Spain into the Women’s World Cup final. Spain plays England on Sunday in the first all-European final since 2003. “We’re over the moon to be through to the final,” she said. “It’s incomparable. It’s so hard to get here and we managed to do so. And now we can dream big.” Paralluelo has been one of the
August 18, 2023Workers have begun loading radioactive fuel into a second new nuclear reactor in Georgia, utilities said Thursday, putting the reactor on a path to begin generating electricity in the coming months. Georgia Power Co. says workers will transfer 157 fuel assemblies into the reactor core at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, in the next few days. There are already three reactors operating at the plant. Two reactors have been operating for decades, while the third reactor entered commercial operation on July 31, becoming the first new nuclear unit built from scratch in the United States in decades.
August 18, 2023A Georgia school board voted along party lines Thursday to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth grade class. The Cobb County School Board in suburban Atlanta voted 4-3 to fire Katie Rinderle, overriding the recommendation of a panel of three retired educators. The panel found after a two-day hearing that Rinderle had violated district policies, but said she should not be fired. She had been a teacher for 10 years when she got into trouble in March for reading the picture book “My Shadow Is Purple”
August 18, 2023Australia already captivated a nation as co-hosts of the Women’s World Cup. Now there’s one more thing to play for, even if it’s not the fairytale ending the team had wanted for this tournament. The Matildas play Sweden on Saturday for third place in Brisbane. Australia lost 3-1 to England in the semifinals on Wednesday, dashing hopes of playing in the title match. “I know we’ve got the support of everyone, I know that they’re still going to come out to the game against Sweden,” midfielder Katrina Gorry said. “I know they’re always going to have our backs, but yeah,
August 18, 2023Rory McIlroy didn’t mind being in the rough at rain-soaked Olympia Fields, except for having trees and a bunker between him and the 17th green. And even that didn’t matter Thursday in the BMW Championship. McIlroy found the short grass only six times with 18 tee shots — three of them on par 3s — and no one would have guessed that looking at his card. He played bogey-free for a 5-under 65, giving him a share of the lead with British Open champion Brian Harman in the second FedEx Cup playoff event. “Only hitting
August 18, 2023Stanford has not given up on getting an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference as its fellow Pac-4 members in the Pacific Northwest hope to rebuild their plundered league and wait to find out if the Cardinal are in. Leaders from Stanford, California, Oregon State and Washington State spoke Thursday, and Stanford told its colleagues it had informed the ACC that it would be open to joining the conference at greatly reduced or even no media rights payout for several years, a person familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because
August 17, 2023The challenge is formidable: identifying the remains of more than 100 victims as agonized loved ones yearn for information about those missing in Maui after the United States’ deadliest wildfire in more than a century. It is a painstaking process, and one that other communities have endured following disasters and mass casualties. The advent of DNA technology and subsequent advances have provided powerful tools. But finding remains, zeroing in on genetic material or other clues and amassing the information needed to get a match still takes time — if certainty comes at all. As Maui Police
August 17, 2023The excitement of Deion Sanders taking over at Colorado is making the Buffaloes an unlikely favorite of bettors for this college football season. At least with what is considered the betting public. For the pros, not so much. Colorado has a win total of 3 1/2 at FanDuel Sportsbook and other books for its final Pac-12 Conference season. The professional gamblers are the reason why that number isn’t higher, and they’re the ones who carry the most influence when determining lines. “We’re seeing a lot of over action from the public,” said Chuck Esposito, Red Rock
August 17, 2023Former Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, a free agent after 16 years in Chicago, says he is stepping away from hockey to get healthy after playing in just 53 games last season. “I’d like to announce that I am not fully retiring, but I am taking time away from the game again this season,” Toews, who also missed all of the 2020-21 season with symptoms of long COVID and chronic immune response syndrome, posted on social media. “I cannot deny my love for the game of hockey and still feel the passion for competing at my highest level.
August 17, 2023Fans line up outside Inter Miami’s practice facility to watch Lionel Messi’s car drive away after training sessions. Players from opposing teams wait after matches to get his signature or just a simple handshake. His No. 10 jersey is everywhere in South Florida. For Messi, these are reminders that he made the right choice. He could have continued his acclaimed career with another stint in Barcelona, where he rose to stardom. He could have signed a lucrative deal to play for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia. He chose the unfamiliar — to travel stateside and play
August 17, 2023Nine current or former Northern California police officers were charged Thursday in a federal corruption investigation that found evidence they committed civil rights violations and fraud in an effort to get a pay raise and lied on reports to cover up use of excessive force, U.S. authorities said. Ismail J. Ramsey, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, filed four indictments that outlined charges including wire fraud, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy against rights, and conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids. Nine police officers and one community service officer are named in the
August 17, 2023New York City officials want to ease pressure on overcrowded homeless shelters by housing migrants in a federal jail that once held mobsters, terrorists and Wall Street swindlers before being shut down after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide. The proposal, suggested in an Aug. 9 letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration, came as New York struggles to handle the estimated 100,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since last year after crossing the southern U.S. border. The city is legally obligated to find shelter for anyone needing it. With homeless shelters full, New York City Mayor Eric
August 17, 2023Firefighters battling lightning-sparked blazes in northwest California got some help from wet weather, authorities said Thursday. The Head Fire, the largest of more than 20 that ignited in the Klamath National Forest this week, remained at approximately 5.5 square miles (14.2 square kilometers) after light rain overnight moderated its behavior, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement. Evacuation orders and warnings for the very lightly populated area remained in place. The fires were sparked over several days as unstable air brought thunderstorms and lightning to the region just south of Oregon. The Head Fire experienced
August 17, 2023Transfer Payton Thorne has won Auburn’s starting quarterback job. Coach Hugh Freeze said Thursday that the Michigan State transfer is set to start for the Tigers in their opener Sept. 2 against Massachusetts. Thorne, who signed with Auburn in May, has been competing with returning starter Robby Ashford and redshirt freshman Holden Geriner. “The reason Payton is getting the nod is just the leadership ability and understanding of the offense,” Freeze said. “He’s been in some really good battles, and it just seems like he was more efficient in the decision-making to this point. Not that
August 17, 2023A district attorney in Tennessee said Thursday that his office has dropped 30 to 40 cases involving the five former officers who have been charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. In a statement, Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy’s spokesperson also said charges were reduced in about a dozen other cases involving the former Memphis Police officers. Four cases were referred to the U.S. attorney’s office for allegations of excessive force, the district attorney’s office added. The decisions follow a review by Mulroy’s office of about 100 cases shared among the
August 17, 2023A New Hampshire sheriff has been arrested and charged with eight felonies as part an investigation into his misuse of county credit cards, the state attorney general announced Thursday. Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave, who campaigned in 2020 to be the state’s only Black sheriff, is charged with one count of theft by deception for stealing about $19,000 in county funds by submitting reimbursement for personal expenses with false justifications; two counts of falsifying physical evidence; and five counts of perjury for lying in his testimony before the Strafford County Grand Jury, Attorney General John Formella
August 17, 2023The U.S. government said Thursday it is formally requesting a dispute settlement panel in its ongoing row with Mexico over its limits on genetically modified corn. Mexico’s Economy Department said it had received the notification and would defend its position. It claimed in a statement that “the measures under debate had no effect on trade,” and thus do not violate the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, known as the USMCA. The U.S. Trade Representatives Office, or USTR, objected to Mexico’s ban on GM corn for human consumption and plans to eventually ban it as animal feed.
August 17, 2023A Florida man who used a flagpole to attack officers who were trying to defend the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison. Michael Steven Perkins, 40, of Plant City, was sentenced in District of Columbia federal court, according to court records. His co-defendant, Joshua Christopher Doolin, 25, of Lakeland, received one year and six months on Wednesday. Both were convicted earlier this year of felony civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. Doolin was
August 17, 2023A Brazilian hacker claimed at a congressional hearing Thursday that then-President Jair Bolsonaro wanted him to hack into the country’s electronic voting system to expose its alleged weaknesses ahead of the 2022 presidential election. Walter Delgatti Neto did not provide any evidence for his claim to the parliamentary commission of inquiry. But his detailed testimony raises new allegations against the former far-right leader, who is being investigated for his role in the Jan. 8 riots in the capital city of Brasilia. Delgatti told lawmakers he met in person with Bolsonaro on Aug. 10, 2022, for
August 17, 2023An out-of-control wildfire on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife has burned thousands of acres and nearly 8,000 people were evacuated or confined. Regional President Fernando Clavijo said 250 firefighters and members of the Spanish army are tackling flames on the key tourist destination. Clavijo said the fire, which occurred in extremely hot temperatures, had a nearly 30-kilometer-long (19-mile) perimeter. Here’s what else is happening related to extreme weather and the climate right now: —-In Canada, residents of the Northwest Territories’ capital began fleeing an approaching wildfire Thursday in long convoys while air evacuations were underway — the latest chapter
August 17, 2023Only two of a flock of 15 wild Canada geese that landed and became trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles in late July have survived after they were rescued and cleaned off. Los Angeles Animal Services extricated the birds from the pits on July 31. More than half had died, but the seven that were still alive were given to International Bird Rescue, a nonprofit that specializes in rescuing and rehabilitating birds from oil spills. Of those, only two survived between transportation and rehabilitation operations. After three washes for both and a
August 17, 2023Approximately 1,000 former Northwestern University athletes sent a letter condemning hazing while defending the school’s culture, saying allegations of abuse within the football program and other men’s and women’s teams do not reflect their experiences. “We strongly condemn hazing in any form and firmly believe it has no place in collegiate sports or, for that matter, in university life, period,” the letter obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday reads. “The allegations being made are troubling and we support the University’s efforts to fully investigate these claims. However, these allegations do not represent or define the
August 17, 2023After learning that 100 pounds of insulin was stuck, grounded last week at Kona International Airport on the big island, volunteers at Maui Brewing Company, Hawaii’s largest craft brewery, got to work. They spent several hours trying to link health officials with a general aviation pilot who could complete the medical delivery to their community. Kami Irwin, who runs a military nonprofit, was frustrated that it fell to volunteers like her to secure such a vital resource. “The fact that I’m just a normal civilian that is trying to help the community along with everyone else here and we were
August 17, 2023A new scientific study published Thursday suggests the world should start preparing to protect the ecosystems that emerge from under the disappearing ice, as a warming planet is inevitably causing glaciers to melt. If nothing is done to stop global warming, the world could lose glaciers totaling the size of Finland by 2100. Even a best-case scenario — if the targets of the Paris Agreement to stop climate change are met — foresees glacier shrinkage the size of Nepal, according to the study published in the scientific journal Nature. The analysis from Swiss and French scientists adds
August 17, 2023Maximizing player rest and limiting travel demands were again part of the NBA’s formula for the upcoming regular season, the league indicated Thursday when announcing the schedule for 2023-24. Teams have an average of 14 instances of back-to-back games this season, up slightly from last year’s rate of 13.3 per team. But back-to-backs involving travel are down to 9.0 on average; the rate of those last season was 9.6 per team. No team will play the day before or after high-profile national television games, such as Christmas matchups and all ABC weekend matchups. No In-Season Tournament games will be on
August 17, 2023North Korea is increasing its repression of human rights and people are becoming more desperate and reportedly starving in parts of the country as the economic situation worsens, the U.N. rights chief said Thursday. Volker Türk told the first open meeting of the U.N. Security Council since 2017 on North Korean human rights that in the past its people have endured periods of severe economic difficulty and repression, but “currently they appear to be suffering both.” “According to our information, people are becoming increasingly desperate as informal markets and other coping mechanisms are dismantled, while their
August 17, 2023The Kansas City Chiefs plan to play Patrick Mahomes and the rest of their starters for the first half of their preseason game in Arizona, where they were last seen walking off the field hoisting their second Lombardi Trophy in four years. Chiefs coach Andy Reid said upon wrapping up training camp at Missouri Western on Thursday that the starters would get the first half and backups would split the second half. That’s in line with what Reid has done since the league trimmed the preseason to three games and is designed to help Mahomes
August 17, 2023A strong earthquake followed quickly by a strong aftershock shook Colombia’s capital and other major cities Thursday. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the initial quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 and the aftershock a preliminary magnitude of 5.7. The epicenters of both quakes were about 100 miles ( 160 kilometers) southeast of Bogota, according to USGS. People in the city of 11 million felt buildings and floors rumble in the midday quake. Alarms blared in Bogotá as residents left their homes, with throngs of people gathering in the streets. The
August 17, 2023A large ice chunk fell from the sky and hit a house in Massachusetts, damaging the roof of the home, the homeowner said. Jeff Ilg said he and his wife, Amelia Rainville, suspect the ice fell off an airplane traveling to Boston Logan International Airport. Neither the couple nor their two children were hurt when the ice chunk, which Ilg said was initially estimated to be 15 to 20 pounds (six to nine kilograms), hit the roof on Sunday night. “We heard an explosion, basically,” he said on Thursday. “The loudest pop, bang I’ve ever heard.”
August 17, 2023Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon was found not guilty Thursday of aggravated menacing in a January traffic dispute. Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Gwen Bender acquitted Mixon of the misdemeanor charge after a four-day bench trial. A woman had accused the 27-year-old of pointing a gun at her as their cars were stopped next to each other at a traffic light. Mixon’s attorneys argued it couldn’t be proven that he ever had a gun in the car. The woman involved, whose name wasn’t disclosed in court, said she and Mixon yelled at each other angrily after
August 17, 2023The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in more than 20 years, pushing up borrowing costs for homebuyers already challenged by a housing market that remains competitive due to a dearth of homes for sale. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose to 7.09% from 6.96% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.13%. It’s the fourth consecutive weekly increase for the average rate and the highest since early April 2002, when it averaged 7.13%. The last time the average rate was above
August 17, 2023Ecuadorians will choose a new president Sunday, less than two weeks after the South American country was shaken by the assassination of one of the candidates — a crime that laid bare people’s fears over unprecedented violence in their once-calm nation. The winner faces a universal demand for safety, but how the incoming administration will fund crime-fighting promises remains to be seen. Much of the country’s increasingly polarized society yearns for the prosperity seen under the presidency of Rafael Correa, now a fugitive from Ecuadorian justice, but few readily acknowledge it left the country with a
August 17, 2023The doping task force created nearly eight years ago to chart Russia’s path back into track and field holds its final meeting this week before being disbanded. That hardly means the country is in good standing. Questions remain over how to make sure future Russian track teams will be clean when they’re allowed back into the sport after the war in Ukraine ends. “That is a very important question,” Sebastian Coe said Thursday at the World Athletics council meeting where he was elected to a third term as president. There are no Russians allowed at the
August 17, 2023There is no real history of world-class, elite basketball success in the United Arab Emirates. The nation has never qualified for the Basketball World Cup, never reached the courts at the Olympics, never sent a player to the NBA. Doesn’t matter. The game is coming to the oil-rich nation that considers itself a big-time sports playground, and it’s easy to see why: other sports like soccer, golf, auto racing, tennis and UFC have long held competitions there, despite concerns about its human-rights record. For the first time, USA Basketball’s men’s national team is
August 17, 2023Twila Kilgore will serve as interim coach of the U.S women’s national soccer team following the resignation of coach Vlatko Andonovski. U.S. Soccer formally announced Andonovski’s resignation on Thursday. Kilgore, the first American-born woman to earn U.S. Soccer’s top-level Pro License, was an assistant under Andonovski and will lead the team while a search for a permanent coach is conducted. Andonovski’s resignation comes less than two weeks after the United States was knocked out of the Women’s World Cup earlier than ever before. “While we are all disappointed by the outcome at this year’s World Cup, I am immensely proud
August 17, 2023President Joe Biden is traveling to Pennsylvania on Thursday to privately pay his respects to the mother of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who died last week in Biden’s hometown of Scranton. The president is expected to arrive before visiting hours for Ellen Casey, also a former first lady of Pennsylvania, at St. Peter’s Cathedral. Casey, the widow of Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey and the mother of Casey, D-Pa., died last week at age 91. Biden issued a statement Monday commemorating her life. “On the many trips I’ve taken home to Scranton over the decades, one of
August 17, 2023A Mississippi judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of two white men charged in an attack on a Black FedEx employee who was making a delivery. Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Case, are charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle driven by D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. Gibson, now 25, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire led to complaints on social media of racism in Brookhaven, about an hour’s drive south of the state capital, Jackson. Judge David Strong said he made the mistrial decision because of
August 17, 2023Damar Hamlin has little more to prove to Bills coach Sean McDermott in the third-year safety’s bid to resume his football career after a near-death experience during a game at Cincinnati in January. “From my non-medical standpoint, I think he’s checked all the boxes as far as that goes,” McDermott said on Thursday. “There’s just been enough of a sample where you’re saying, he’s executed well and come out of that healthy.” McDermott based his assessment on how Hamlin has showed no signs of hesitation in passing each milestone of his recovery, and especially since
August 17, 2023Hilary strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane off Mexico’s Pacific coast Thursday, and it could bring heavy rain to the U.S. southwest by the weekend. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said that Hilary had maximum winds of 105 mph (165 kph) and could perhaps skim the coast of the Baja California peninsula by the weekend. Hilary was located about 500 miles (805 kilometers) south-southeast of Los Cabos, on the southern tip of the Baja peninsula. While it was still far from land, the hurricane was moving west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph) and was expected to
August 17, 2023The city where Anne Frank wrote her World War II diary while hiding with her family from the brutal Nazi occupation is hosting an exhibition about the Ukraine war with grim echoes of her plight more than three quarters of a century later. The exhibition that opened at Amsterdam City Hall on Thursday offers a vision of the war in Ukraine as experienced by children caught in the devastating conflict. “This exhibition is about the pain through the children’s eyes,” Khrystyna Khranovska, who developed the idea, said at the opening. “It strikes into the very heart of
August 17, 2023State labor officials have temporarily shut down more than two dozen Boston Market restaurants in New Jersey after finding multiple violations of workers’ rights, including more than $600,000 in back wages owed to 314 employees. A stop-work order was issued Tuesday by the Department of Labor against 27 restaurants across New Jersey. The state also imposed nearly $2.6 million in penalties against the firm. The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to Boston Market’s corporate office in Golden, Colorado, on Thursday. There are 31 Boston Market restaurants in New Jersey and 310 nationwide, according to
August 17, 2023Women lose value if men can see their uncovered faces in public, a spokesman for a key ministry of Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Thursday, adding that religious scholars in the country agree that a woman must keep her face covered when outside the home. The Taliban, who took over the country in August of 2021, have cited the failure of women to observe the proper way to wear the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, as a reason for barring them from most public spaces, including parks, jobs and university. Molvi Mohammad Sadiq Akif, the spokesman for the
August 17, 2023The Russian authorities have opened a criminal investigation into one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group, his lawyer said Thursday. The case against Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia’s leading election watchdog Golos, is the latest step in the months-long crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after sending troops into Ukraine. Melkonyants’ lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told The Associated Press that his client is facing charges of “organizing activities” of an “undesirable” group, a criminal offense punishable by up to six years in prison. Golos has not been labeled
August 17, 2023Lionel Messi made the three-man shortlist announced Thursday for the UEFA award as the best player in Europe last season. The World Cup-winning captain from Argentina, who has left Europe to play for Inter Miami, is up against Manchester City teammates Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland. Messi won the UEFA award twice in its 12-year history, both in years when Barcelona was European champion. Man City won the Champions League title last season. Pep Guardiola is the favorite for the men’s coaching award after leading Man City to the Champions League, Premier League and FA
August 17, 2023The U.S. labor market continues to flex its muscle as applications for jobless claims fell again last week and remain at healthy levels in the face of high interest rates and inflation. Applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 11,000 to 239,000 for the week ending August 12, down from 250,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 2,750 to 234,250. Jobless claim applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week. Overall, 1.72 million people were collecting unemployment
August 17, 2023An out-of-control wildfire on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife has burned thousands of acres and affected some 7,600 people who are either evacuated or confined, Regional President Fernando Clavijo said Thursday. He said some 250 firefighters and members of the Spanish army are tackling the blaze, located in the north of the island. Clavijo said the fire had a nearly 30-kilometer-long (19-mile) perimeter. “This is probably the most complicated blaze we have had on the Canary Islands, if not ever, at least in the last 40 years,” Clavijo told reporters. Extreme temperatures in the island,
August 17, 2023Sweden on Thursday raised its terrorism alert level one notch to the second-highest setting, following recent Quran burnings in the Scandinavian country by a handful of anti-Islam activists, which sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries. The Scandinavian country’s domestic security service, SAPO, said the overall security situation has deteriorated and the risk of terrorism in Sweden was now at level four — “high” — on its five-point scale. It was the first time since 2016 that SAPO raised the alert to that level. Sweden has in recent weeks warned citizens abroad and businesses linked to the country
August 17, 2023Israel’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it has secured its largest-ever defense deal selling a sophisticated missile defense system to Germany for $3.5 billion after the United States approved the deal. Although Israel has long had close economic and military links with western European countries, the deal with Germany could draw the attention of Russia, which Israel has maintained working relations with throughout the war in Ukraine. Israel has repeatedly rebuffed requests to sell arms to Ukraine for fear of antagonizing Russia. Germany will buy the advanced defense system, coined Arrow 3, which is designed to intercept long-range
August 17, 2023Israel’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it has secured its largest-ever defense deal selling a sophisticated missile defense system to Germany for $3.5 billion after the United States approved the deal. Although Israel has long had close economic and military links with western European countries, the deal with Germany could draw the attention of Russia, which Israel has maintained working relations with throughout the war in Ukraine. Israel has repeatedly rebuffed requests to sell arms to Ukraine for fear of antagonizing Russia. Germany will buy the advanced defense system, coined Arrow 3, which is designed to intercept long-range
August 17, 2023The U.S. military academies must improve their leadership, stop toxic practices such as hazing and shift behavior training into the classrooms, according to a Pentagon study aimed at addressing an alarming spike in sexual assaults and misconduct. U.S. officials said the academies must train student leaders better to help their classmates, and upend what has been a disconnect between what the cadets and midshipmen are learning in school and the often negative and unpunished behavior they see by those mentors. The review calls for additional senior officers and enlisted leaders to work with students at the Army,
August 17, 2023Walmart reported strong second-quarter sales results as the retailer’s low-price model continues to attract budget conscious consumers in a tough economic environment. The nation’s largest retailer boosted its annual outlook again, sending shares up 2% before the opening bell Thursday. Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, earned $7.89 billion, or $2.92 per share, for the three-month period ended July 31. Adjusted results were $1.84 per share, or 13 cents better than Wall Street had expected, according to a survey of industry analysts by FactSet. It was also up from last year’s quarterly profit of $5.15 billion. Sale
August 17, 2023Thai authorities said Thursday they have seized more than a ton of pangolin scales worth over 50 million baht ($1.4 million) that are believed to have been headed out of the country through a land border. The scales that cover a type of anteater were found Wednesday night in the northeastern province of Kalasin, and apparently were meant to be transported out through Mukdahan province, which shares a border with Laos, Thai police said at a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday. Two male suspects, who were on a truck with the scales, were arrested and charged
August 17, 2023The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until an assessment of gender change is made by its officials. The decision by Lausanne, Switzerland-based federation FIDE was published on Monday and has drawn criticism from advocacy groups and supporters of transgender rights. FIDE said it and its member federations increasingly have received recognition requests from players who identify as transgender, and that the participation of transgender women would depend on an analysis of individual cases that could take up to two years. “Change of gender is a
August 17, 2023China says it would welcome a visit by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo following the imposition of foreign investment controls by her agency that have stung numerous Chinese companies. Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson Shu Jueting did not offer a date, but said the countries are in “close communication on arrangements,” according to reports Thursday. Media have speculated that a visit could come as early as later this month. Raimondo last met her Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, in Washington in May to discuss trade. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Aug. 9 to block and regulate
August 17, 2023Iran’s foreign minister traveled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, marking the first trip to the kingdom by Tehran’s top diplomat in years after the two nations reached a détente with Chinese mediation. The visit by Hossein Amirabdollahian comes as both Saudi Arabia and Iran try to ease tensions between their nations, which long have viewed each other as archrivals for influence across the wider Middle East. Challenges remain, however, particularly over Iran’s advancing nuclear program, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and security across region’s waterways. Amirabdollahian’s trip to Riyadh comes as the two nations
August 17, 2023A small aircraft lost control and crashed Thursday on a highway in Malaysia’s central Selangor state, killing all eight people on board and two on the ground, authorities said. Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan said the six passengers and two crew members on the private chartered plane perished in the crash. The drivers of a motorcycle and a car that were hit when the plane smashed into the highway also died, he said. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the plane left the northern resort island of Langkawi and had obtained approval to land at
August 17, 2023More than 60 migrants are feared dead after a Spanish fishing vessel off the Atlantic island of Cape Verde rescued a boat that started with more than 100 aboard, authorities and migrant advocates said Thursday. Seven dead bodies were found on the boat, while an estimated 56 people are missing at sea and presumed dead, said International Organization for Migration spokesperson Safa Msehli. According to Senegal’s foreign affairs ministry, 38 survivors were rescued earlier in the week near Cape Verde, about 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa. The Spanish migration advocacy group
August 17, 2023An Iranian filmmaker and his producer reportedly face prison time and being barred from filmmaking after they showcased a movie at the Cannes Film Festival without government approval, drawing immediate criticism internationally from leading American director Martin Scorsese and others. Director Saeed Roustayi and producer Javad Norouzbeigi traveled to Cannes last year to show “Leila’s Brothers,” competing for the festival’s grand Palme d’Or prize. The film focuses on a family struggling to make ends meet as Iran faces international sanctions and includes sequences showing protests in the Islamic Republic as a series of nationwide
August 17, 2023North Korea is preparing its second attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit as well as tests of long-range missiles to mark a key national anniversary and protest efforts by the United States to strengthen its regional alliances, South Korea’s intelligence service told lawmakers Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been expected to conduct weapons tests in response to major U.S.-South Korean military drills that begin next week and a trilateral U.S.-South Korea-Japan summit at Camp David in the United States this Friday. The National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed-door
August 17, 2023Spain’s newly elected Parliament meets Thursday to choose the chamber’s speaker and presiding council, a normally routine vote but which this time will be read as a bellwether of a future government. Inconclusive national elections on July 23 left no party with an easy path to cobble together the support needed to lead a government. Parties on the left and right of the spectrum are delicately poised in the fight for power. Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appears to have a slight edge over his conservative and rightwing rivals, but nothing is guaranteed and a new election
August 17, 2023Regional countries are facing a crisis of legitimacy as they run out of options and time to restore democratic rule in Niger after soldiers ousted the president last month, say analysts. Defense chiefs from the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, are meeting in Ghana Thursday to discuss Niger’s crisis after a deadline passed for mutinous soldiers to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face military intervention. Bazoum was overthrown in July and remains under house arrest with his wife and son in the capital, Niamey. This is the first meeting since ECOWAS ordered the deployment
August 17, 2023Heavy rain in parts of Germany caused flooding and led to dozens of flight cancelations at Frankfurt Airport, the country’s busiest and a major European hub, authorities said Thursday. The airport said large quantities of water accumulated on the tarmac Wednesday evening and ground handling was suspended for more than two hours, German news agency dpa reported. The airport website showed about 70 flights were canceled by 11 p.m., when flying is ordinarily halted for the night, while 23 flights headed for Frankfurt were diverted to other airports. Downpours in parts of southwestern and central Germany led
August 17, 2023Police arrested more than 100 Muslims in overnight raids from an area in eastern Pakistan where a Muslim mob angered over the alleged desecration of the Quran by a Christian man attacked churches and homes of minority Christians, prompting authorities to summon troops to restore order, officials said Thursday. There were no casualties as Christians living in a residential area in the city of Jaranwala in the Faisalabad district quickly moved to safer places along with their families following one of the country’s most deadly attacks against Christians. Christians slowly returned to their homes Thursday, only
August 17, 2023Days of relentless rain in India’s Himalayan region have killed at least 72 people this week, a government official said Thursday, as a heavy monsoon triggered landslides and flash floods that have submerged roads, washed away buildings and left residents scrambling for safety. Rescuers in the mountainous Himachal Pradesh state have been working through challenging weather conditions to save people trapped under mud and debris from the rains that struck over the weekend. India’s weather department has put the state on high alert and expects the downpours to continue over the next few days. Vikram Singh,
August 17, 2023Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in a raid on a militant stronghold in the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest violence in a city that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the current round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Violence has gripped the region since last spring, when Israel launched near-nightly raids in response to a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks. The violence has escalated into the fiercest fighting in the West Bank in some two decades, and along with increased violence by radical Jewish settlers and
August 17, 2023Japan suffered a trade deficit last month as exports sank for the first time in more than two years, dragged down by a slowdown overseas. Japan’s trade deficit totaled 78.7 billion yen ($539 million), the Finance Ministry said Thursday, the first trade deficit for the world’s third largest economy in two months. Exports shrank most markedly for the rest of Asia, including China, Singapore and Taiwan, declining 0.3% from the same month the previous year to 8.73 trillion yen ($60 billion). Exports recovered in autos and auto parts, as the social restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic,
August 17, 2023Along a bustling street in a western Ukrainian city, Denys Abdulin takes his first independent strides since he was severely wounded and blinded while fighting invading Russian troops more than a year ago. The 34-year-old former soldier, wearing black glasses and gripping a white mobility cane, steps onto a more crowded stretch of sidewalk. His movements become tentative and tense. He accidentally blocks the path of a woman approaching an ATM to withdraw cash. Like many other pedestrians, she responds with a compassionate smile and gracefully moves aside. Gradually, Abdulin covers 600 meters (almost 3/10 of
August 17, 2023Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower Thursday after notes from a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting dented hopes interest rate hikes are finished. Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul declined. Shanghai was unchanged. Oil prices were lower. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 lost 0.8% on Wednesday after minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting suggested board members are unsure what to do after raising their key lending rate to a two-decade high. Traders had hoped they would decide inflation was under control and last month’s rate hike was the last. Fed officials face a “tough balancing act” between “the risk
August 17, 2023California residents driven from their homes by one of the deadliest wildfires in recent history had one request before they would rebuild in the small mountain town of Paradise: warning sirens to bolster town emergency systems that failed some people before the fast-moving inferno that killed 85. Town officials started testing the new sirens this summer after installation began in spring and as the five-year anniversary of the wildfire that wiped out much of the community approaches this November. There will eventually be 21 sirens erected throughout town that will emit one minute of loud, Hi-Lo
August 17, 2023Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for patience in a speech released as the ruling Communist Party tries to reverse a deepening economic slump and said Western countries are “increasingly in trouble” because of their materialism and “spiritual poverty.” Xi’s speech was published by Qiushi, the party’s top theoretical journal, hours after data Tuesday showed consumer and factory activity weakened further in July despite official promises to support struggling entrepreneurs. The government skipped giving an update on a politically sensitive spike in unemployment among young people. Xi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, called for China
August 17, 2023China’s government is trying to reassure jittery homebuyers after a major real estate developer missed a payment on its multibillion-dollar debt, reviving fears about the industry’s shaky finances and their impact on the struggling Chinese economy. There is no indication Country Garden’s problems might spread beyond China, which seals off its financial system from global capital flows, economists say. But they highlight the industry’s struggle under pressure from the ruling Communist Party to reduce soaring debt that is seen as an economic threat. That has bankrupted hundreds of small developers and depressed China’s economic growth. The Country
August 17, 2023Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston was ruled not guilty Thursday of an Australian charge of concealing his father’s child sex crimes. Houston, 69, was the Sydney-based church’s senior global pastor when police charged him two years ago with concealing a serious indictable offense. He resigned from his church roles months later. Sydney Magistrate Gareth Christofi ruled Brian Houston had a reasonable excuse for not reporting Frank Houston’s offenses to police. Christofi accepted that Houston believed the victim Brett Sengstock did not want the abuse in the 1970s reported to police. Sengstock testified in the trial that
August 17, 2023Hawaii Gov. Josh Green vowed “to keep the land in local people’s hands” after a deadly wildfire that incinerated a historic Maui community, as the island’s schools began reopening and traffic resumed on a major road. Green said at a Wednesday news conference that he had instructed the state attorney general to work toward a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina, which he acknowledged will come with legal challenges. “My intention from start to finish is to make sure that no one is victimized from a land grab,” Green said. “People are right now traumatized. Please
August 17, 2023Residents in the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories were ordered to evacuate Wednesday night as wildfires neared the city of 20,000 people. People in the four areas of Yellowknife at highest risk should leave as soon as possible and residents in other areas have until noon Friday to leave, the Northwest Territories government said. “I want to be clear that the city is not in immediate danger and there’s a safe window for residents to leave the city by road and by air,” Shane Thompson, environment minister for the Territories, told a news conference. The
August 17, 2023Most football coaches preach about players keeping their cool in the dog days of August when temperatures and tempers both tend to flare. Not Deion Sanders. The University of Colorado’s new head coach upbraided some of his players Wednesdsay — not for fighting, but for not fighting. A brief fracas followed Anthony Hankers’ touchdown run up the middle in a goal-line drill when safety Jaden Milliner-Jones grabbed the running back by his jersey and tossed him to the ground well after he’d scored. Massive offensive tackle Gerad Christian-Lichentan, who packs 310 pounds onto his 6-foot-10 frame,
August 17, 2023Angels left-hander Reid Detmers took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit his 42nd home run as Los Angeles beat the AL West-leading Texas Rangers 2-0 on Wednesday night. The Rangers got their first hit when Marcus Semien lined a double into the left-center gap with one out in the eighth on the 108th and final pitch by Detmers (3-9). Reynaldo Lopez and Carlos Estevez then finished off the Angels’ eighth shutout this season. Texas, which entered the game with .273 team batting average and an MLB-high 1,138 hits, was held
August 17, 2023A federal judge on Wednesday declined to approve a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit prompted by a surge in Hyundai and Kia vehicle thefts, saying it fails to provide “fair and adequate” relief to vehicle owners. The proposed settlement, announced in May, could be valued at $200 million and covers about 9 million 2011-2022 model year Hyundai and Kia vehicles in the U.S., the companies said at the time. These cars are not equipped with push-button ignitions and immobilizing anti-theft devices. That has allowed thieves to easily steal them using just a screwdriver and a USB cord, creating a
August 17, 2023Los Angeles Angels left-hander Reid Detmers hasn’t allowed a hit through six innings Wednesday night against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers. The 24-year-old Detmers threw a no-hitter as a rookie for the Angels last season against Tampa Bay. He was only the second Angels rookie to do so. Detmers, who was 0-4 in his previous six starts coming into the game, had five strikeouts and two walks through six innings. Another runner reached on a throwing error by shortstop Luis Rengifo in the second inning. There were relievers warming up in the bullpen for the Angels
August 17, 2023A Texas woman was arrested and has been charged with threatening to kill the federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Washington and a member of Congress. Abigail Jo Shry of Alvin, Texas, called the federal courthouse in Washington and left the threatening message — using a racist term for U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan — on Aug. 5, court records show. Investigators traced her phone number and she later admitted to making the threatening call, according to a criminal complaint. In the call, Shry told the judge, who is overseeing the
August 17, 2023U.S. women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski has resigned, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The move comes less than two weeks after the Americans were knocked out of the Women’s World Cup earlier than ever before. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the move had not been officially announced. An announcement was expected Thursday. The four-time tournament champions struggled throughout the World Cup. A victory over Vietnam to kick off the group stage was followed by a pair of draws against Netherlands and Portugal — barely enough to
August 17, 2023A long way from home and playing in its first Little League World Series game ever, Cuba allowed just one hit Wednesday, but got no-hit in a 1-0 loss to Japan in an opening round game. The Cuban team received a polite reception from the nearly 8,000 people in Volunteer Stadium, typical of the appreciation international teams receive at the LLWS. But the Cubans didn’t have many true fans. Opposite the packed section of Japanese families sat a mere two rows along the first-base side adorned in the red, white and blue of Cuba. As
August 17, 2023Eight inmates at a San Francisco Bay Area lockup — dubbed the “rape club” by prisoners and workers alike — filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the federal Bureau of Prisons, saying sexual abuse and exploitation has not stopped despite the prosecution of the former warden and several former officers. The lawsuit filed in Oakland by attorneys representing the inmates and the advocacy group California Coalition for Women Prisoners also names the current warden and 12 former and current guards. It alleges the Bureau of Prisons and staff at the Dublin facility didn’t do enough to prevent
August 16, 2023Destinee Thompson was supposed to be on her way to lunch with her stepmother in August 2021 when Colorado police, mistaking her for a robbery suspect, fatally shot the pregnant mother as she fled in her minivan. Frustrated by the district attorney’s decision last year not to charge the officers, Thompson’s family filed a wrongful death and excessive force lawsuit on Tuesday against five officers from the Denver suburb of Arvada who were present when she was killed. “I want their badges,” said Francis Thompson, Destinee’s father. “She’s 5-foot tall, seven months pregnant. … You’re a grown
August 16, 2023Patrick Hamilton, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War who covered civil wars in Central America as a photojournalist for The Associated Press and later worked at Reuters covering the first Gulf War in Iraq, has died after a long struggle with cancer. He died at age 74 Sunday at home in San Antonio. Hamilton’s experience in Vietnam served him well in Central America during the 1980s and then with Reuters, for which he covered Operation Desert Storm in 1990. Colleagues remembered him as a gentle professional who was cool under pressure and as someone
August 16, 2023Amazon will impose new fees on third-party sellers who ship their products to customers instead of using the company’s fulfillment service. Effective October 1, the company will get a 2% cut of every product sold by merchants that are members of Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime Program, or a minimum of $0.25 per item, according to a notice sent by the company. Launched in 2015, the Sellers Fulfilled Prime program allows merchants to display a Prime badge on their listings without using Amazon’s fulfillment service, Fulfillment by Amazon. In return, sellers have to fulfill orders with one-day and two-day delivery at
August 16, 2023Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark says his conference is done expanding, shutting down the possibility of adding UConn and Gonzaga after engaging with both basketball powers on potential membership. Less than two weeks after the Big 12 announced Pac-12 schools Arizona, Arizona State Colorado and Utah will switch leagues and join the conference next year, Yormark appeared on the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” and revealed other potential moves. “I did have conversations with UConn and Gonzaga, and unfortunately, things didn’t work out, only because the dream scenario unfolded for us, so those conversations are no longer,” Yormark said.
August 16, 2023MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred threw his support behind a new stadium for the Royals on Wednesday, calling both of their potential sites near downtown Kansas City “unbelievably high quality” for the type of revenue-producing, multi-use districts that are necessary for small-market clubs to compete. Manfred spoke for an hour at the Urban Youth Academy, which is designed to encourage inner-city youth in baseball, alongside Royals chairman John Sherman and Bob Kendrick, the president of the nearby Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The Royals plan to announce in September whether they will build a replacement for Kauffman
August 16, 2023A prosecutor in the Dominican Republic says the investigation into Tampa Bay Rays All-Star shortstop Wander Franco’s alleged relationship with a minor is being handled by a division specializing in minors and gender violence in the province of Peravia. Ángel Darío Tejeda Fabal, a prosecutor in Peravia, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the investigation into Franco is open under The National Agency for Boys, Girls, Adolescents and Family and Gender Violence Unit. He said the probe is in its early stages and will be chaired by Judge Olga Diná Llaverías, a specialist
August 16, 2023An ex-police officer considered by many to be Haiti’s most powerful gang leader warned Wednesday that he would fight any international armed force deployed to the Caribbean country if it commited any abuses. Jimmy Chérizier, best known as “Barbecue,” also urged Haitians to mobilize against the government. “We are asking the population to rise up,” he said at a news conference. Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has led Haiti since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, has been pushing for the deployment of a foreign armed force since October to help fight powerful gangs
August 16, 2023The U.S. Air Force will invest $235 million to help a start-up manufacturer build a jet with a blended-wing body that officials say could provide greater range and efficiency for military tankers and cargo planes and perhaps eventually be used to carry airline passengers. JetZero and the Air Force, which announced the award Wednesday, say they hope that the full-size demonstrator plane will be ready to fly in 2027. Most large airplanes are tubes with wings and a tail section attached. Blended-wing planes are designed with the body and wings being one piece. The result is a sleek, futuristic-looking aircraft
August 16, 2023Nicaragua’s government has confiscated a prestigious Jesuit-run university alleging it was a “center of terrorism,” the college said Wednesday in announcing the latest in a series of actions by authorities against the Catholic Church and opposition figures. The University of Central America in Nicaragua, which was a hub for 2018 protests against the regime of President Daniel Ortega, called the terrorism accusation unfounded and the seizure a blow to academia in Nicaragua. The government did not confirm the confiscation or comment on the Jesuits’ statement. The Jesuit order, known as the Society of Jesus, said it
August 16, 2023Dan Snyder remains in the news despite no longer owning the Washington Commanders. Snyder selling the team to a group led by Josh Harris and including Magic Johnson in July for a North American professional sports record $6.05 billion came with the NFL fining him $60 million for sexual harassment and financial improprieties. On Wednesday, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform wrote a letter to the Republican chair in charge asking him to refer Snyder to the Department of Justice for lying under oath. Snyder’s ownership was under fire long before he and wife
August 16, 2023Hurricane-fueled flash floods and mudslides. Lava that creeps into neighborhoods. Fierce drought that materializes in a flash and lingers. Earthquakes. And now, deadly fires that burn block after historic block. Hawaii is increasingly under siege from disasters, and what is escalating most is wildfire, according to an Associated Press analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency records. That reality can clash with the vision of Hawaii as paradise. It is, in fact, one of the riskiest states in the country. “Hawaii is at risk of the whole panoply of climate and geological disasters,” said Debarati Guha-Sapir, director
August 16, 2023A court watchdog has filed a complaint against the federal judge who ordered “religious-liberty training” for a trio of Southwest Airlines lawyers as part of their punishment for not fully following his orders in a case involving speech about abortion. The leader of Fix the Court says U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr’s choice of training conducted by a Christian legal-advocacy group is “strange and unprecedented.” Fix the Court, a small, nonpartisan group known mostly for monitoring the U.S. Supreme Court, filed the judicial-misconduct petition Tuesday with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in New Orleans. The group’s executive director, Gabe
August 16, 2023Ada Deer, an esteemed Native American leader from Wisconsin and the first woman to lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has died at age 88. Deer passed away Tuesday evening from natural causes, members of her family confirmed on Wednesday. She had entered hospice care last month. “She passed last night in peace surrounded by loved ones,” said her nephew Joe Deer, one of her primary caretakers. “We miss her, but what a life she led.” Born August 7, 1935, on the Menominee reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin, Deer is remembered as a trailblazer and fierce advocate
August 16, 2023Lawyers for a prominent Memphis couple planned to speak with reporters Wednesday about former NFL player Michael Oher’s effort to take control of his finances in a now-public dispute involving those who inspired the Oscar-nominated movie “The Blind Side.” Attorneys for Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy scheduled a news conference to discuss Oher’s accusations that they enriched themselves at his expense. Oher moved in with the Tuohys before his senior year of high school, a story that led to a movie that received an Academy Award nomination for best picture in 2010. The Tuohys have called
August 16, 2023Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey was set to have foot surgery Wednesday, a potentially significant blow to the team’s defensive backfield. Coach John Harbaugh said it isn’t a long-term injury, but he didn’t give a more specific timeline and the start of the regular season is less than four weeks away. “There’s no long-term concern, and that’s good,” Harbaugh said. “There’s plenty of short-term concern. We’ve got to look at that, and it starts with the guys you have. We have guys that are ready to play.” Aside from star quarterback Lamar Jackson, Humphrey might
August 16, 2023The ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform is asking the Republican chair in charge to refer former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder to the Department of Justice for lying under oath. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin wrote a letter Wednesday to Kentucky Rep. James Comer urging him to send the case to the DOJ to determine if Snyder should be prosecuted for making false statements in his deposition and obstructing a congressional investigation. Raskin pointed to the results of the NFL’s independent review by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White that contradicted Snyder’s
August 16, 2023Most Federal Reserve officials last month still regarded high inflation as an ongoing threat that could require further interest rate increases, according to the minutes of their July 25-26 meeting released Wednesday. At the same time, the officials saw “a number of tentative signs that inflation pressures could be abating.” It was a mixed view that echoed Chair Jerome Powell’s noncommittal stance about future rate hikes at a news conference after the meeting. According to the minutes, the Fed’s policymakers also said that despite signs of progress on inflation, it remained well above their 2% target. They
August 16, 2023The prosecutor in Marion County, Kansas, said Wednesday that police should return all seized material to a weekly newspaper that was raided by officers in a case that has drawn national scrutiny of press freedom. Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey said his review of police seizures from the Marion County Record found “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.” “As a result, I have submitted a proposed order asking the court to release the evidence seized. I have asked local law enforcement
August 16, 2023Venus Williams will be back in the U.S. Open at age 43, and Caroline Wozniacki will join her in the field for her return to Grand Slam tennis. Both players were given wild cards into the tournament on Wednesday by the U.S. Tennis Association. Williams was the U.S. Open champion in 2000 and 2001, two of her seven major singles titles. A year after younger sister Serena retired following the tournament, Venus Williams will be back in Flushing Meadows, where she reached the final in her debut in 1997. She recently returned to competition after missing
August 16, 2023Discount grocer Aldi said Wednesday it plans to buy 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets in the southern U.S. Under a proposed merger agreement, Aldi will acquire all outstanding shares of Jacksonville, Florida-based Southeastern Grocers Inc., the parent company of Winn-Dixie and Harveys. If the deal is approved by regulators, it’s expected to close in the first half of 2024. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Both Southeastern Grocers and Aldi are private companies. Aldi is based in Germany with a U.S. headquarters in Batavia, Illinois. Aldi said the deal supports its long-term growth strategy in the U.S., where it
August 16, 2023The British Museum said Wednesday that a member of its staff has been dismissed after items dating back as far as the 15th century B.C. were found to be missing, stolen or damaged. The museum said it has also ordered an independent review of security and a ‘‘vigorous program to recover the missing items.″ The stolen artifacts include gold jewelry and gems of semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century B.C. to the 19th century A.D. Most were small items kept in a storeroom and none had been on display recently, the museum said. “Our
August 16, 2023Some Bank of Ireland customers were able to withdraw money they did not have Tuesday and early Wednesday after an hours-long technical glitch that also halted many of the bank’s online services. The outage allowed some customers to transfer and withdraw funds “above their normal limits,” the Bank of Ireland said. Customers could withdraw up to €500 ($546) with their Bank of Ireland card, the bank confirmed to The Associated Press Wednesday. They could also transfer funds from their Bank of Ireland account to a different account and withdraw up to €1,000 ($1,091), the bank said.
August 16, 2023The players and coaches on USA Basketball’s roster for the World Cup that starts next week are in possession of a combined 16 NBA championship rings. The breakdown of those rings: Coaches 15, Players 1. Make no mistake, there are some rising star players on this U.S. roster: Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Brandon Ingram and Jaren Jackson Jr. have already been All-Stars, Jalen Brunson should be one soon, Jackson Jr. is the reigning NBA defensive player of the year and Paolo Banchero is the NBA rookie of the year. But the biggest names
August 16, 2023Libyan security forces patrolled the streets
August 16, 2023Former West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins has entered a 12-month diversion program to resolve a drunken driving arrest. Huggins had been scheduled for a formal arraignment on Thursday. According to court records in Pittsburgh, that hearing was canceled last month after he was accepted into the program. Under the agreement, his one-year probation period can be done after six months if he meets all conditions, including completion of an alcohol treatment program. Huggins was assessed $2,810 in court costs and fees, including $300 for an alcohol highway safety program. His driver’s license was suspended for at least 60
August 16, 2023Dozens of migrants headed for Spain are believed missing and feared dead after coast guards off the Atlantic Island of Cabo Verde rescued 38 people on a boat that had left Senegal in West Africa over one month ago with more than 100 aboard, authorities and migrant advocates said. Senegal’s foreign affairs ministry said the boat was rescued on Tuesday with 38 survivors and several dead on board by the coast guard in Cabo Verde, about 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa. Authorities did not confirm how many migrants died, or what
August 16, 2023Syria’s president early Wednesday doubled public sector wages and pensions as the war-torn country’s national currency spiraled further downwards, reaching a new low for the year. President Bashar Assad issued the two decrees just before midnight Tuesday as the Syrian pound’s value against the U.S. dollar declined to a new all-time low, down from 7,000 at the beginning of 2023 to 15,000 pounds to the greenback. At the start of the conflict in 2011, the dollar was trading at 47 pounds. For over a year, Damascus has been restructuring its program of subsidies for gasoline, diesel for
August 16, 2023The bodies of 33 people have been recovered from a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar and rescuers are searching for at least three people believed to be missing, a rescue official said Wednesday. In the landslide on Sunday in Hpakant, the center of the world’s largest and most lucrative jade mining district, earth and debris from several mines slid about 300 meters (1,000 feet) down a cliff into a lake below, carrying more than 35 miners with it. About 150 rescuers using five small boats have recovered the bodies from the muddy lake in
August 16, 2023A Muslim mob on Wednesday stormed a Christian locality in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, burning one church, damaging two others and demolishing the house of a man after accusing him of desecrating the pages of Islam’s holy book, police said. The attack happened in the district of Faisalabad in eastern Punjab province, local police chief Rizwan Khan said. He said the mob attacked the Christian colony after some of the Muslims living nearby accused a local Christian, Raja Amir, and his friend of desecrating pages of the Quran. Khan said the accusations angered Muslims who had
August 16, 2023China appears to be constructing an airstrip on a disputed South China Sea island that is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, according to satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press. The work on Triton island in the Paracel group mirrors construction on seven human-made islands in the Spratly group to the east which have been equipped with airstrips, docks and military systems, although it currently appears to be somewhat more modest in scale. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, denying the claims of others and defying an international ruling invalidating its
August 16, 2023England moved on to its first Women’s World Cup championship game with a 3-1 victory over co-host Australia on Wednesday, ending the Matildas captivating run through the tournament. Australia superstar Sam Kerr started her first match of the tournament and scored for the Matildas but it wasn’t enough to hold off European champion England. Ella Toone scored in the 36th minute to put England up 1-0 and the Lionesses dominated possession in the first half. Kerr’s equalizer in the 63rd gave the 75,000-plus crowd some hope, but Lauren Hemp scored to to restore England’s lead in the
August 16, 2023The Biden administration on Wednesday announced nearly $200 million in federal infrastructure grants to upgrade tunnels that carry streams beneath roads but can be deadly to fish that get stuck trying to pass through. Many of the narrow passages known as culverts, often made from metal pipes or concrete, were built in the 1950s and contribute to population declines of salmon and other fish that live in the ocean but return to freshwater streams to spawn. By extension, fisheries — including tribal-run operations in the Pacific Northwest — have experienced losses they blame in part on such barriers as culverts
August 16, 2023Lithuania on Wednesday decided to temporarily close two of its six checkpoints with Belarus later this week amid growing tensions with its eastern neighbor, an ally of Russia. The Lithuanian government has said that the crossings at Tverecius and Sumskas will be closed, and traffic will be diverted to the Medininkai border checkpoint, which is the largest of Lithuania’s six checkpoints. The decision came as Lithuanians grow increasingly worried about the presence of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries in Belarus. “The main goal is to temporarily suspend operations at these two points from Aug. 18,” Deputy Minister
August 16, 2023A $5.4 billion acquisition of Israeli chip manufacturer by Intel has been called off after China failed to sign off on the deal amid rising tensions with the United States. It was a mutual decision between Intel and Tower Semiconductor, the companies said Wednesday. Intel said that the deal was terminated “due to the inability to obtain in a timely manner the regulatory approvals required under the merger agreement.” The deal required approval from a number of regulators worldwide, including those in China. Chinese regulators failed to approve the deal by a deadline Wednesday, even after
August 16, 2023The Czech Republic on Wednesday completed the ratification of a defense treaty with the United States that deepens military cooperation and makes it easier to deploy U.S. troops in Czech territory. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s signature was the final step in the ratification process of the Defense Cooperation Agreement, which had been endorsed by both houses of Parliament in July and by President Petr Pavel on Aug 1. The document sets a legal framework for possible deployment of U.S. troops in the country at a time of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova
August 16, 2023Target’s second quarter sales were hit by inflation and a negative reaction by some customers, widely publicized on social media, to its Pride merchandise. The Minneapolis retailer expects high interest rates, which makes credit cards more expensive to use, and higher prices on food to continue to put a strain on customers and on Wednesday, the chain cut its profit and sales expectations for the year. In lowering its forecast, Target also cited the end of the student loan moratorium, which had provided one-time college students a little more financial breathing room. Profit came in above
August 16, 2023Russia resumed its targeting of grain infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, local officials said Wednesday, using drones in overnight strikes on storage facilities and ports along the Danube River that Kyiv has increasingly used for grain transport to Europe after Moscow broke off a key wartime export deal through the Black Sea. At the same time, a loaded container ship stuck at the port of Odesa since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than 17 months ago set sail and was heading through the Black Sea to the Bosporus along a temporary corridor established by Ukraine for
August 16, 2023An offshore drilling rig arrived at its location in the Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon’s coast and will start operations in the coming weeks to search for gas, Lebanese Cabinet ministers said Wednesday. The rig is expected to begin drilling in September in Lebanese waters near the border with Israel after the two countries reached a deal last year on their maritime border. Lebanon and Israel have formally been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. Cash-strapped Lebanon hopes that future gas discoveries will help the small Mideast nation pull itself out of the worst economic and financial
August 16, 2023In all likelihood, Kenya will haul in another good chunk of medals in distance races at this month’s track and field world championships, each one of them throwing more suspicion on a country with a reputational crisis because of doping. Kenya has achieved unparalleled success in modern distance running, but a wave of positive drug tests over the last decade has made it the sport’s latest doping pariah and pushed it to the brink of a sweeping international ban that would put it alongside Russia. Anti-doping authorities inside and outside the East African nation are grappling to get it under
August 16, 2023A plan for how Indonesia will spend $20 billion to transition to cleaner energy was submitted Wednesday to the government and its financing partners, the planners said. Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership deal was announced last year and aims to use the funds over the next three to five years to accelerate retirement of the nation’s coal plants and development of renewable energy. Details were not made public. The investment plan will be reviewed and revised further by Indonesia and its JETP partners before being made available for public review and comment, according to a statement
August 16, 2023Nigeriens are preparing for war against regional countries threatening to invade, three weeks after mutinous soldiers ousted the nation’s democratically elected president. Residents in the capital, Niamey, are calling for the mass recruitment of volunteers to assist the army in the face of a growing threat by the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, which says it will use military force if the junta doesn’t reinstate the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. ECOWAS has activated a “standby force” to restore order in Niger after the junta ignored a deadline to reinstate and release Bazoum. The initiative, spearhead by
August 16, 2023The rate of inflation in the U.K. fell sharply in July to a 17-month low largely on the back of lower energy prices, official figures showed Wednesday, a welcome development for hard-pressed households struggling during the cost of living crisis. The Office for National Statistics said the annual rate of inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, was 6.8% in July, its lowest level since February 2022, the month Russia invaded Ukraine and sent energy prices surging. The decline from June’s 7.9% rate was in line with economists’ expectations. The statistics agency said the fall was
August 16, 2023A New Zealand jury on Wednesday found a mother guilty of murdering her three young daughters in a case that shocked the nation. Lauren Dickason, 42, had earlier admitted killing her 2-year-old twin daughters Maya and Karla, and their 6-year-old sister Lianè, at their home in the town of Timaru nearly two years ago. But she had pleaded not guilty to murder, arguing she was mentally disturbed at the time of the killings and didn’t know that what she was doing was wrong. Prosecutors, however, pointed to Dickason’s troubling phone messages and online history in
August 16, 2023Germany’s Cabinet is set to approve a plan to liberalize rules on cannabis, setting the scene for the European Union’s most populous member to decriminalize possession of limited amounts and allow members of “cannabis clubs” to buy the substance for recreational purposes. The government’s approval, expected on Wednesday, is billed as the first step in a two-part plan and will still need approval by parliament. But it’s a stride forward for a prominent reform project of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s socially liberal coalition, though significantly short of the government’s original ambitions. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is to give
August 16, 2023Asian shares declined Wednesday amid worries over discouraging data on China, as well as over the future of the U.S. economy. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped 1.3% in afternoon trading to 31,805.37. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dove 1.6% to 7,192.10. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 1.6% to 2,528.73. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.5% to 18,309.42, and the Shanghai Composite lost 0.5% to 3,159.71. New Zealand’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 5.5% on Wednesday. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s monetary policy committee said the headline inflation rate had declined, but core inflation remained too
August 16, 2023Chinese and Indian military commanders pledged to “maintain the peace and tranquility” along their disputed border, China’s Defense Ministry said, in an apparent effort by the sides to stabilize the situation after a rise in tensions. China’s Defense Ministry issued a joint statement on social media late Tuesday saying the 19th round of commander-level talks between the sides held on Sunday and Monday had produced a “positive, constructive and in-depth discussion” centered on resolving issues related to the Line of Actual Control in the border’s western sector. The statement said they “agreed to resolve the remaining issues
August 16, 2023Two years after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the United States has begun easing rules that could allow commercial airlines to fly over the country in routes that cut time and fuel consumption for East-West travel. But those shortened flight routes for India and Southeast Asia raise questions never answered during the Taliban’s previous rule from the 1990s to the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. How, if at all, do you deal with the Taliban as they block women from schools and jobs, and engage in behavior described by United Nations experts
August 16, 2023Rural areas near California’s border with Oregon were under evacuation orders Wednesday after gusty winds from a thunderstorm sent a lightning-sparked wildfire racing through national forest lands, authorities said. The blaze in Siskiyou County, dubbed the Head Fire, was one of at least 20 fires — most of them tiny — that erupted in the Klamath National Forest as thunderstorms brought lightning and downdrafts that drove the flames through timber and rural lands. “This has been a fire that has moved extremely quickly,” Forest Supervisor Rachel Smith told The Associated Press. “Just in a matter of
August 16, 2023A mobile morgue unit arrived Tuesday to help Hawaii officials working painstakingly to identify remains, as Maui County released the first names of people killed in the wildfire that all but incinerated the historic town of Lahaina a week ago and raised the death toll to 106. The county named two victims, Lahaina residents Robert Dyckman, 74, and Buddy Jantoc, 79, adding in a statement that a further three victims have been identified. Those names will be released once the county has identified their next of kin. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed
August 16, 2023Christian Yelich hit Bobby Miller’s first pitch of the game for a single. Then the rookie walked William Contreras. “After that inning just got to forget about what’s happening and focus on getting that first guy out every inning,” Miller said. “When I’m commanding the ball and throwing it where I want to things usually go well.” Indeed they did. Miller tossed six innings of one-run ball and retired the final 18 batters he faced to help the Los Angeles Dodgers win their ninth straight game, 6-2 over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in a
August 16, 2023The company behind a disastrous change to a Kentucky city’s school bus routes that resulted in more than a week of canceled classes had similar problems in two cities in neighboring Ohio last year. Touting its connections to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bus-routing vendor AlphaRoute pitched its mathematical models and machine-learning technology as a way of saving money and smoothing out complex bus routes in Louisville, Kentucky, and school districts across the U.S. But real-world problems often got in the way. Columbus began running new routes planned by AlphaRoute in fall 2022 after entering into
August 16, 2023The fishermen of Lake Maracaibo say they face their worst nightmare everyday as fish stocks decline and pollution degrades the health of this great freshwater lake, one of the oldest — and largest — in the world. Lake Maracaibo, which once was at the heart of Venezuela’s oil boom, has turned into a polluted wasteland, according to environmentalists. The pollution of the lake, located about 600 kilometers (372 miles) west of the capital, Caracas, is the result of decades of excessive oil exploitation, poor maintenance of the obsolete infrastructure and a lack of waste treatment plants
August 16, 2023On a recent Sunday afternoon, Vermont’s lieutenant governor was at a local library, reading a book about two male penguins to a crowd of nearly two dozen. This was not the first stop for Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman nor would it be the last. While officials in some other states are banning or restricting certain books in schools and libraries, Zuckerman, in liberal Vermont, has taken a different tack: reading and discussing them at libraries and bookstores around the state. ″ These bans often target books that feature LGBTQ+ characters; talk about gender and sexuality; highlight
August 16, 2023The International Criminal Court should prosecute Taliban leaders for a crime against humanity for denying education and employment to Afghan girls and women, the U.N. special envoy for global education said. Gordon Brown told a virtual U.N. press conference on the second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Tuesday that its rulers are responsible for “the most egregious, vicious and indefensible violation of women’s rights and girls’ rights in the world today.” The former British prime minister said he has sent a legal opinion to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan that shows the denial of
August 16, 2023Lionel Messi keeps scoring goals, and Inter Miami keeps winning games. Messi ripped a shot from 30 yards past three Philadelphia defenders in the 20th minute that made fans who paid a record price for soccer tickets in the Philly area rejoice, and Inter Miami beat the Union 4-1 in a Leagues Cup semifinal on Tuesday night. Major League Soccer is Messi’s league now. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner scored his ninth goal in six matches with his new team in front of a crowd that pushed 20,000 fans, with ticket prices soaring past $1,000 on
August 16, 2023Almost a week after the Apple faithful collectively gasped at the first evidence that the iPhone’s red “end call” button might soon be vacating its center position to take up residence one column to the right, it looks like it might have been mostly a false alarm. The initial shock followed the release of last week’s test, or beta, version of iOS 17, the next major update of the iPhone’s operating software. That’s where users first saw the end-call button, which has traditionally lived in splendid isolation centered well below function buttons such as “mute,” “keypad”
August 16, 2023Police who were examining a stolen car for evidence made a surprising find — a kitten — and now they are looking for his owner. The gray-and-white male cat was perched under a seat in the stolen vehicle, which collided with a police car during a chase Thursday, the Meriden Police Department said on its Facebook page and in a news release Monday. Officers were pursuing the car on suspicion that it had been used in armed robberies in several nearby communities hours earlier. After the crash, six suspects fled but were soon arrested. “We are
August 15, 2023New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge likely will avoid surgery on his ailing toe after the season, manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday. Speaking before a game against the Atlanta Braves, Boone said Judge has been moving well since his return from injured list on July 28. “I don’t think surgery is in the plans,” the manager said. “We’re not at the offseason yet, but he’s been doing pretty well. The fact that he’s been able to play good amount of games in the field is a testament to that.” After serving as a designated hitter in an
August 15, 2023The United Nations chief urged the international community on Tuesday to deploy a multinational force comprising “police special forces and military support units” to Haiti to combat gangs with sophisticated weapons and restore security to the impoverished Caribbean nation. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a 12-page letter to the U.N. Security Council obtained by The Associated Press that “ Addressing the security situation in Haiti requires a range of coercive law enforcement measures, including active use of force in targeted police operations against heavily armed gangs.” The letter was a response to a Security Council resolution
August 15, 2023A judge has called a new law unconstitutional that passed in the GOP-led Texas Legislature and will dictate how elections are run in the state’s most populous county, which is a Democratic stronghold and home to Houston. The law, which would abolish a position that oversees elections in Harris County, was temporarily blocked by state District Judge Karin Crump in Austin after county officials filed a lawsuit earlier this month. But the judge’s order, issued Monday, was short-lived. It was put on hold on Tuesday after the Texas Attorney General’s Office filed a notice that it will
August 15, 2023A retired political science professor who traveled in Washington’s elite social circles pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he stole tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry from his wealthy acquaintances. Lawrence Gray sold at least seven rare and valuable stolen items, including diamond earrings, a pink sapphire brooch, and a 19th century gold pocket watch, prosecutors said. They allege he earned more than $45,000 consigning the pieces to a Manhattan auction house. “The defendant allegedly repeatedly sold stolen jewelry in order to enrich himself,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
August 15, 2023North Korea asserted Wednesday that a U.S. soldier who bolted into the North across the heavily armed Korean border last month did so after being disillusioned at the inequality of American society. It’s North Korea’s first official confirmation of the detention of Private 2nd Class Travis King, who entered the North while on a tour of a Korean border village on July 18. He became the first American detained in the North in nearly five years. The North Korean official news agency, KCNA, said King told investigators that he had decided to enter North Korea
August 15, 2023Little League has been hosting its World Series in Williamsport since 1947, yet it will be welcoming a new guest when the tournament starts Wednesday — Cuba. Bayamo Little League beat Habana del Este Little League 6-2 to become the first Cuban team to qualify for the tournament back in March. And the club from Bayamo sure is happy to have made it. Walking into a Little League-sponsored picnic Monday at a college across the Susquehanna River, the Cubans entered with a player draped in the Cuban flag, the only team to carry one to
August 15, 2023The executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting has stepped down after one year on the job, the latest sign of upheaval at a news outlet recently shaken by a reporter’s allegation that she was fired for writing an unfavorable story about a division of the state health department. Butch Antolini, former communications director for Gov. Jim Justice and the state Department of Agriculture, didn’t give a reason for his resignation in a brief letter submitted to the board chairman of the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority on Friday. The EBA, which comprises 11 voting members,
August 15, 2023With two bidders revealed in a matter of days and more in the wings, United States Steel Corp. — a symbol of American industrialization that for more than a century helped build everything from the United Nations building in New York City to the New Orleans Superdome — appears be on the cusp of being absorbed. Here’s what’s happened so far, and how the acquisition of U.S. Steel could reshape steelmaking globally. BIDDING WAR After rejecting a $7.3 billion buyout proposal from rival Cleveland-Cliffs on Sunday, U.S. Steel said it was considering its next move. On Monday, industrial conglomerate Esmark
August 15, 2023Maui Police Chief John Pelletier repeatedly urges “patience, prayers and perseverance” as teams painstakingly search the ashes in the seaside community of Lahaina for the remains of scores of victims from the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years. It’s the kind of message he has used before, in the aftermath of another American tragedy: the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that left 58 dead and hundreds injured. Pelletier was a Las Vegas police captain when a gunman with military-style rifles opened fire from the windows of a Las Vegas Strip high-rise hotel into a
August 15, 2023A dog with hind legs bandaged tightly from paw to hip whimpered in pain through a plastic medical cone, chest rising and falling quickly in shallow breaths. The animal is one of the pets and people bearing marks of their escape from the smoke and flames of Maui wildfires that claimed more than 90 lives and decimated a historic town. “We have seen animals come through our shelter that have severe, severe burns,” said Katie Shannon, director of marketing and communications at Maui Humane Society. “We have seen dogs that have essentially had their paws all
August 15, 2023President Santiago Peña said Paraguay and Taiwan are “not just allies, but also brothers” when he was sworn in as the South American country’s new president on Tuesday. Peña took the presidential oath outside the government palace in the capital of Asunción in a ceremony attended by several regional leaders and Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai. Paraguay is the only country in South America, and a member of a dwindling group of 12 governments around the world, to have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. It lost a key ally in the region earlier this year when Honduras
August 15, 2023When President Joe Biden has questions about artificial intelligence, one expert he turns to is his science adviser Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prabhakar is helping to guide the U.S. approach to safeguarding AI technology, relying in part on cooperation from big American tech firms like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta. The India-born, Texas-raised engineer and applied physicist is coming at the problem from a career bridging work in government — including leading the Defense Department’s advanced technology research arm — and the private sector as a former Silicon Valley executive and
August 15, 2023In 2018, Jon Singleton requested his release from the Houston Astros after being suspended 100 games following a third failed marijuana test while in the minors, choosing to walk away from baseball rather than face the suspension and everything that came with it. “I just didn’t want to play baseball anymore,” he told The Associated Press earlier this month. “I knew I had to serve 100 games, and serving 100 games with this organization and the position I was in was not going to be a good thing for me. It was going to take me down
August 15, 2023A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia by going to work, after he retired, for an oligarch he once investigated. Appearing before a federal judge in New York City, Charles McGonigal, 55, said he was “deeply remorseful” for work he did in 2021 for the billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska. McGonigal told the judge he accepted over $17,000 to help Deripaska collect derogatory information about another Russian oligarch who was a business competitor. Deripaska has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 for reasons related to Russia’s occupation of
August 15, 2023WeWork has sounded the alarm on its ability to stay in business, prompting speculation around the future of the troubled workspace-sharing company. Last week, WeWork warned there was “substantial doubt” about the New York-based company’s “ability to continue as a going concern” — which is accounting-speak for having the resources needed to operate and stay in business. WeWork pointed to increased member churn, financial losses and the company’s need for cash, among other factors, over the next year. This isn’t the first time the future of WeWork has been uncertain. The company went public in October
August 15, 2023If you’re heading to college or starting to think about where you’d like to apply, you’re probably considering options for funding your education. If you need to borrow money to pursue your dreams, you are far from alone. According to the Federal Reserve, 30% of all U.S. adults said they incurred at least some debt for their education. Borrowers owe a collective $1.77 trillion in student loan debt, including federal and private loans. “Borrowing is almost at the point where it’s a requirement,” said Dana Kelly, from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. If
August 15, 2023A small Minnesota town will soon be without a police department, an exodus spurred by low pay for the chief and his officers. Goodhue Police Chief Josh Smith and one other officer are still on the force, but only until their resignations become official on Aug. 23, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Smith submitted his resignation at a City Council meeting Aug. 9, while another full-time officer and five part-time employees resigned Friday after learning that Smith was stepping down. “This is heartbreaking to us,” Goodhue Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck said Monday night after an emergency
August 15, 2023HP has failed to shunt aside class-action legal claims that it disables the scanners on its multifunction printers when their ink runs low. Though not for lack of trying. On Aug. 10, a federal judge ruled that HP Inc. must face a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company designs its “all-in-one” inkjet printers to disable scanning and faxing functions whenever a single printer ink cartridge runs low. The company had sought — for the second time — to dismiss the lawsuit on technical legal grounds. “It is well-documented that ink is not required in order to
August 15, 2023About 146,000 members of the United Auto Workers union will vote next week whether to authorize their leaders to call strikes against the Detroit automakers. Union President Shawn Fain told members in a Facebook Live appearance Tuesday that the talks, which started in mid-July, are moving slowly and have yet to get to wages and other economic issues. The union’s contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis expire in about a month, at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14. “If we want to make progress at the bargaining table, we need to show the companies that it’s not just
August 15, 2023The Indianapolis Colts saw enough from rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson in his NFL debut on Saturday to name him their opening day starter. Coach Shane Steichen made the announcement Tuesday, three days after Richardson had a solid performance against Buffalo’s defense in the Colts’ preseason opener. When Indy hosts Jacksonville on Sept. 10, it will be the seventh consecutive year the Colts open the season with a new starter. The streak began when Scott Tolzien replaced the injured Andrew Luck in 2017. Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft, beat out veteran
August 15, 2023A trial is set to begin Tuesday for two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home. Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Charles Case, were indicted in November on charges of attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle of D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. Gibson, who was 24 at the time, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire led to complaints on social media of racism in Brookhaven, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of
August 15, 2023There were 1.4 seconds left in the first half of USA Basketball’s first exhibition game of its pre-World Cup tour this summer, with the Americans taking the ball out on the far end of the floor. U.S. coach Steve Kerr signaled for a quick inbounds pass and desperation heave. If he was coaching such a game in San Francisco, or any other NBA city, Kerr probably would never call timeout in that situation. Only this summer, he’s coaching under FIBA rules. And after getting a bit of an education on how timeouts don’t
August 15, 2023The Taliban view their rule of Afghanistan as open-ended, drawing legitimacy from Islamic law and facing no significant threat, their chief spokesman said in an interview marking the second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of the country. He also suggested a ban on female education will remain in place. Zabihullah Mujahid brushed aside any questions from The Associated Press about restrictions on girls and women, saying he had nothing new to say on the matter while also indicating the status quo will remain. The ban on girls attending school beyond sixth grade was the first of
August 15, 2023The presidents of a wide-ranging group of 13 universities are elevating free speech on their campuses this academic year, as part of a new nonprofit initiative announced Tuesday to combat what organizers call dire threats to U.S. democracy. The Campus Call for Free Expression will take different forms on different campuses. The campaign, created by The Institute for Citizens & Scholars with funding from the Knight Foundation is designed to cultivate the freedom of expression on campuses and help students work together to find solutions to complicated, divisive problems. “The national context of the deep political polarization, the inability of
August 15, 2023Russia’s ruble has fallen a long way in recent months, and the country’s central bank has stepped in to try to halt the slide. Until now, the government stood aside as the declining ruble helped its budget. But a weaker currency also poses the threat of higher prices for everyday people in Russia — and the government has finally moved to halt the drop. Here are key things to know about the ruble: WHY IS THE RUBLE FALLING? Economic fundamentals play a role, though they aren’t the whole story. Russia is selling less abroad — mainly reflected in falling revenue
August 15, 2023Americans increased their purchases at retailers last month – for clothing, dining out, online goods and other areas – in a sign that solid consumer spending is still powering a resilient U.S. economy. Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.7% in July from June, according to the Commerce Department’s report Tuesday. The gain followed a revised 0.3% gain the previous month, the government said. Analysts noted that spending on Amazon Prime Day, the online juggernaut’s big two-day sales event that took place earlier last month, also helped boost online sales. Excluding autos and gas, sales rose a
August 15, 2023NATO member Poland displayed its state-of-the-art weapons and defense systems at a massive military parade Tuesday, as war rages in neighboring Ukraine and ahead of parliamentary elections in two months. President Andrzej Duda, the chief commander of the armed forces, said in his opening speech that the protection of Poland’s eastern border is a key element of state policy. He also noted that Poland is supporting Ukraine in its struggle against Russia’s aggression of almost 18 months. “The defense of our eastern border, the border of the European Union and of NATO is today a key
August 15, 2023Deadly clashes between rival militias in Libya’s capital left residents trapped in their homes on Tuesday, unable to escape the violence, authorities said. The fighting appears to be the most intense to shake Tripoli this year. There were at least four dead but it was not immediately clear if they were militiamen or civilians, an official said. The clashes erupted late on Monday between militiamen from the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force, according to local media reports. Tensions flared after Mahmoud Hamza, a senior commander of the 444 brigade, was allegedly detained by the rival
August 15, 2023A vast swath of northeastern China is threatened by flooding as at least 90 rivers have risen above warning levels and 24 have already overflowed their banks, state media reported Tuesday. Crews are standing by to defend homes and farmland across the Songliao Basin north of Beijing, which encompasses more than 1.2 million square kilometers (482,200 square miles). The area includes parts of four provinces and several major cities with a total population of almost 100 million. Tens of thousands have already been moved to safety. Reservoirs have been partly drained and overflow areas prepared to handle
August 15, 2023Poland is deploying thousands of troops to its border with Belarus, calling it a deterrent move as tensions between the two neighbors ratchet up. Those tensions between Poland — a NATO and European Union country — and Belarus, which is Russia’s ally in its war on Ukraine, have been building up in recent months on the border. Here is why: ORIGINS OF THE TENSIONS Poland has been backing the Belarusian opposition ever since the 2020 presidential elections, where pro-Russian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in a vote that Poland and the wider Western
August 15, 2023Twenty United Nations agencies and other international organizations called Tuesday for peace, access to humanitarian support and respect for human rights in Sudan, where a war that has led to deaths, sexual violence and food shortages reached the four-month mark. Sudan was plunged into chaos in April when months of simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere. Since then, the U.N and rights groups have accused both the military and the RSF of numerous
August 15, 2023Spain will play for its first Women’s World Cup championship after Olga Carmona’s goal in the 89th minute lifted La Roja to a 2-1 victory over Sweden in the Tuesday semifinal. Spain, which overcame last year’s near mutiny by its players against coach Jorge Vilda, will play the winner of tournament co-host Australia and England on Sunday in the final in Sydney. The controversy surrounding Spain dates to last September, when 15 players signed a letter complaining about Vilda and the conditions for the the national team. Three of those players are on this World
August 15, 2023A country spends millions, sometimes billions, to deliver a major international sports event to the world. That money buys a chance to project strength at home and abroad and, if the event goes well, maybe even glosses over that country’s oft-dissected shortcomings. It’s a pattern that has played out in China, Russia, Qatar and other countries in the recent past. This month in Budapest, the spotlight will shine on Hungary, a country led by a prime minister with authoritarian leanings and a shaky human-rights record. Budapest’s latest step onto the international stage starts Saturday, the opening
August 15, 2023Human rights activists in Niger say they have been unable to gain access to top political officials detained after mutinous soldiers ousted the democratically elected president nearly three weeks ago. After soldiers ousted President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, they also arrested several former ministers and other political leaders, but requests to see them and check on their wellbeing have gone unanswered, Ali Idrissa, executive secretary of a local human rights group, the Network of Organizations for Transparency and Analysis of Budgets, told The Associated Press. The junta has also been holding Bazoum, his wife and
August 15, 2023Germany’s foreign minister has abandoned a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji after a problem with her government plane twice forced it to return to Abu Dhabi, delaying her by more than a day. Annalena Baerbock set off from Berlin Sunday on what was supposed to be a nearly weeklong trip, and was scheduled to arrive in Canberra on Monday night. But a mechanical problem with her aging German air force Airbus A340’s landing flaps meant that it had to turn back to Abu Dhabi after a refueling stop there. The aircraft took off again for
August 15, 2023Russia’s central bank on Tuesday made a large interest rate hike of 3.5 percentage points, an emergency move designed to fight inflation and strengthen the ruble after the country’s currency reached its lowest value since early in the war with Ukraine. The decision to bring the key rate to 12% was announced after a meeting of the bank’s board of directors was called a day earlier as the ruble declined. The fall comes as Moscow increases military spending and Western sanctions weigh on its energy exports. The Russian currency passed 101 rubles to the dollar on
August 15, 2023A Russian missile attack overnight damaged multiple civilian buildings in Ukraine’s western region of Lviv and injured local residents, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday. Lviv, on the border with Poland, is hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from the frontline but is regularly a target of Russian attacks as Moscow tries to disrupt supply routes for Western weapons and as its war in Ukraine nears the 18-month mark. Multiple buildings in the region and its namesake capital were damaged in the attack, Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi said. A multi-story residential building caught fire in the city of Lviv
August 15, 2023An ancient Christian mosaic bearing an early reference to Jesus as God is at the center of a controversy that has riled archaeologists: Should the centuries-old decorated floor, which is near what’s believed to be the site of the prophesied Armageddon, be uprooted and loaned to a U.S. museum that has been criticized for past acquisition practices? Israeli officials are considering just that. The proposed loan to the Museum of the Bible in Washington also underscores the deepening ties between Israel and evangelical Christians in the U.S, whom Israel has come to count on for
August 15, 2023Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India’s economy will be among the top three in the world within five years, as he marked 76 years of independence from British rule on Tuesday. Wearing a flowing, multi-colored turban, Modi addressed the country from New Delhi’s 17th century Mughal-era Red Fort, saying his government had lifted over 130 million people out of poverty and that India’s growing prosperity was an opportunity for the world. “When poverty decreases in a country, the power of the middle class increases considerably,” he said. “In the next five years, I promise India will
August 15, 2023A massive explosion at a gas station in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan killed 27 people and injured more than 100, local officials said Tuesday. Three of those killed were children, Dagestan’s governor Sergei Melikov said. The explosion took place Monday night on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the region’s capital. A fire started at a car repair shop and spread to a nearby gas station, prompting a blast, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the country’s Emergency Ministry. The subsequent fire raged on the area of 600 square meters (yards), the report said. Some of
August 15, 2023Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, in a raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said. Israel has been carrying out near-nightly raids in the West Bank since last year in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks, what has fueled tensions in the region and sent the death toll soaring. The violence comes amid a spike in attacks on Palestinians by radical Jewish settlers, continued settlement expansion and as Israel is led by a government composed of ultranationalist settlement supporters. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified those
August 15, 2023Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after China reported weak July consumer and business activity and its central bank cut a key interest rate to shore up the struggling economy. Shanghai and Hong retreated while Tokyo and Sydney gained. Oil prices rose. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3% to 3,169.18 after official data showed growth in Chinese consumer spending and factory output slowed more than expected. The People’s Bank of China cut its interest rate on one-week loans to banks. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.8% to 18,622.55. “Policymakers are starting to hit the panic
August 15, 2023The number of deaths caused by the Maui wildfires stood at 99 Monday, a figure that is likely to increase as search crews comb neighborhoods where flames moved as fast as a mile a minute. The blazes that consumed most of the historic town of Lahaina are already the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. The cause was under investigation. Gov. Josh Green said the search will take time and and asked for space to do it properly. “For those people who have walked into Lahaina because they really wanted to see, know
August 15, 2023The mother of a 6-year-old who shot his teacher in Virginia pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of felony child neglect, seven months after her son used her handgun to critically wound the educator in a classroom full of students. Prosecutors agreed to drop the misdemeanor charge of reckless storage of a firearm against Deja Taylor. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said they will not seek seek a sentence that is longer than state sentencing guidelines, which call for six months in jail or prison. A judge will have full discretion and will
August 15, 2023Four Australian tourists were rescued after being missing for two days in the waters off Indonesia’s Aceh province, the father of one of the Australians said Tuesday. Peter Foote, the father of Elliot Foote, who had traveled to Indonesia to celebrate his 30th birthday with friends, said he received a text message from his son saying he is okay. “It says: ‘Hey Dad, Elliot here. I’m alive. Safe now. Love you. Chat later,’” Peter Foote said at a news conference on Tuesday. “It’s great, it’s good news. I’ll have to talk to him and want to
August 15, 2023Federal officials said Tuesday they will ease water cuts for Western states reliant on the Colorado River next year thanks to a slightly improved outlook, but long-term challenges remain. The river serves seven U.S. states, Native American tribes and two states in Mexico. It also supports a multibillion-dollar farm industry in the West and generates hydropower used across the region. Years of overuse by farms and cities, and the effects of drought worsened by climate change has meant much less water flows today through the Colorado River than in previous decades. The U.S. government in 2021 announced
August 15, 2023Texas wants Planned Parenthood to give back millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements — and pay far more in fines on top of that — in a lawsuit that appears to be the first of its kind brought by a state against the largest abortion provider in the U.S. A hearing was set for Tuesday in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who earlier this year put access to the most common method of abortion in the U.S. in limbo with a ruling that invalidated approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. The case now before
August 15, 2023Outdoor dining was a part of the pandemic that many people actually liked — made possible by streetside dining sheds that popped up around New York City and allowed many restaurants to stay in business when they couldn’t have diners inside. Some sheds were simple — wooden structures with basic cutouts for light, a few tables, the occasional plastic sheeting to keep out rain and snow. Other restaurants got more into it — choosing decor to match the restaurant’s interiors and adding heaters, plants and plush seating. As New York City has moved out from under
August 15, 2023The unprecedented violence shaking Ecuador claimed the life of another political leader Monday, bringing the number of politics-related slayings within the last four weeks to three, including that of a presidential candidate. The fatal shooting of Pedro Briones, a local leader of Revolución Ciudadana, the party of former President Rafael Correa, was confirmed by Luisa González, the frontrunner in Sunday’s special presidential election and member of the same party. The shooting happened in the northern province of Esmeraldas. Details were not immediately available. “Ecuador is experiencing its bloodiest era,” González tweeted. “A heartfelt hug to the
August 15, 2023South Korea’s president called for deeper security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan to address North Korean nuclear threats, saying Tuesday that his upcoming summit with the U.S. and Japanese leaders at Camp David will “set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation.” It will be the first time for the leaders of the three countries to gather entirely for a trilateral summit, rather than on the sidelines of international meetings. This suggests they are serious about boosting their ties in the face of North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal and China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy. In
August 15, 2023Donald Trump has won a series of delays as he seeks to avoid going to trial on any of four criminal indictments before the Nov.
August 15, 2023Japan’s economic growth jumped at an annual pace of 6% in the April-June period, marking the third straight quarter of growth as exports and inbound tourism recovered. Real gross domestic product, which measures the sum value of a nation’s products and services, grew 1.5% in the fiscal first quarter for the world’s third largest economy, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday. The annualized pace shows what the growth would have been if what was marked during the quarter had continued for a year. The rate outpaced what analysts had forecast at 3.1% growth. The latest quarter showed the
August 15, 2023Former NFL running back Alex Collins, who played five seasons for the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens, was killed in a motorcycle crash in South Florida, authorities said. He was 28. Collins was driving a motorcycle that crashed into a sport-utility vehicle Sunday night in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The SUV was making a left turn when Collins’ motorcycle hit its rear passenger side. The impact caused Collins to go through a window of the SUV and come to rest inside the vehicle, the sheriff’s office
August 15, 2023A judge sentenced a former contestant on the television game show “Family Feud” to life in prison after he was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the slaying of his estranged wife in western Illinois. Timothy Bliefnick, 40, showed no reaction as Adams County Circuit Judge Robert Adrian read the sentence Friday, news outlets reported. A jury in May convicted Bliefnick of murder, home invasion and use of a firearm to commit first-degree murder in the Feb. 23 shooting death of Rebecca Bliefnick, 41. Her body was found by a family member inside her
August 15, 2023A strong tropical storm lashed central and western Japan with heavy rain and high winds Tuesday, causing flooding and power blackouts and paralyzing air and ground transportation while many people were traveling for a Buddhist holiday week. The storm weakened from Typhoon Lan early in the morning and made landfall near Cape Shionomisaki in the central prefecture of Wakayama, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. On Tuesday afternoon, it was just south of Fukuchiyama city and had sustained winds of up to 90 kph (55 mph) as it headed north. It was then expected to veer east
August 15, 2023Testimony from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s “trusted inner circle” of former executives at his collapsed cryptocurrency empire will be used to prove at an October trial that he misappropriated billions of dollars from his investors to fuel his businesses, make illegal campaign contributions and enrich himself, prosecutors said Monday. Prosecutors made the assertions in papers filed in Manhattan federal court, where Bankman-Fried is charged with defrauding investors in his businesses and illegally diverted millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency from customers using his FTX exchange. He has pleaded not guilty. The court filing, in which prosecutors
August 15, 2023The New York Jets agreed to terms on a one-year contract with former Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook on Monday, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. Cook, who turned 28 last week, joins a revamped Jets offense led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers and coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team hadn’t announced the agreement. NFL Network and ESPN first reported the deal is worth up to $8.6 million. Cook has run for at least 1,000 yards in each of the past four seasons, but was released
August 14, 2023President Joe Biden’s administration has agreed to investigate how California manages its water after some Native American tribes and environmental groups complained the state’s policies are “rooted in white supremacy.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week it would investigate the California State Water Resources Control Board. The board, whose members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, sets rules for how to use much of the state’s water, including 211,000 miles (339,572 kilometers) of rivers and streams. Federal law requires the board to review those rules every three years. But
August 14, 2023Police video released Monday shows U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas being taken to the ground by officers, profanely berating them and threatening to report them to the governor during an altercation at a rodeo last month. In body camera video, the former White House physician can be seen approaching a group of people surrounding a 15-year-old girl who authorities have said was having seizures. The two-term Republican congressman later has what looks like an argument with one of the people attending to the teenager before she is put on a stretcher. Shortly afterward, Jackson is wrestled
August 14, 2023Warren Buffett’s company appears to be betting on the housing market picking up because Berkshire Hathaway bought more than $700 million worth of homebuilder DR Horton’s stock this spring along with smaller stakes in fellow builders Lennar Corp. and NVR Corp. Berkshire revealed those new investments Monday in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that shows the conglomerate’s holdings as of the end of June. Investors always watch Berkshire’s moves closely because of Buffett’s remarkably successful track record over the years, but these filings don’t make clear which moves Buffett made and which
August 14, 2023The Utah man accused of making violent threats against President Joe Biden before a trip to Salt Lake City last week pointed a handgun at FBI agents attempting to arrest him, the agency said on Monday. Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old Air Force veteran, was killed during a raid on his home in Provo last Wednesday, hours before Biden arrived. FBI agents went to his home early in the morning to arrest him for three felonies, including making threats against the president and agents who had been investigating him for months, according to court records unsealed
August 14, 2023Industrial conglomerate Esmark said Monday it has made an all-cash offer to buy U.S. Steel that values the iconic steelmaker at $7.8 billion, topping an earlier offer from rival Cleveland-Cliffs. On Sunday, U.S. Steel said it had rejected a cash and stock offer from Cleveland-Cliffs that was valued at $7.3 billion as of the close of trading Friday. U.S. Steel also said it had received offers for all or parts of the company from several parties and was evaluating its options. Pittsburgh-based Esmark is run by James Bouchard, a former vice president in U.S. Steel’s European
August 14, 2023A Texas woman was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for helping dispose of the body of a U.S. soldier, whose 2020 killing sparked a movement of women speaking out about sexual abuse in the military and led to changes in how they can report it, according to the Guillén family’s attorney. Cecily Aguilar is the only suspect arrested in the death of Vanessa Guillén, who was killed at Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Aguilar was 24 years old when she pleaded guilty in November at a federal court in
August 14, 2023A powerful explosion rocked a bustling market area in a city near the capital of the Dominican Republic on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 30 others, authorities said. The explosion occurred at a bakery in the town of San Cristobal, which lies just west of Santo Domingo. Officials said in a statement that the fire then spread to a hardware store located next door and a nearby furniture store. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion. Charred cars and debris from several collapsed buildings lined the streets as
August 14, 2023Three-time Pro Bowl running back Ezekiel Elliott has signed a one-year deal with the New England Patriots worth $4 million, a person familiar with the terms told The Associated Press. The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team hasn’t announced the move, said the contract can be worth up to $6 million with incentives. The 28-year-old Elliott ran for 68 touchdowns and more than 8,000 yards in seven years with the Dallas Cowboys. He led the NFL in rushing yards in 2016, when he was the runner-up for the AP Rookie of the Year
August 14, 2023Three former members of Northwestern University’s baseball coaching staff filed a lawsuit against the school on Monday, saying they lost their jobs for trying to report bullying and derogatory abuse by the team’s head coach, who has since been fired. The ex-staffers say Jim Foster’s coaching was rife with toxic and volatile behavior throughout the 2022-23 season, and that the school protected Foster after they filed a human resources complaint against him. Northwestern says the lawsuit suit “lacks merit” and vowed to fight it in court, and Foster did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment
August 14, 2023Activists and environmental groups including the Sierra Club sued Puerto Rico’s government Monday over the planned location of dozens of renewable energy projects meant to ease the U.S. territory’s power woes. The lawsuit claims the projects would be built on lands that are ecologically sensitive and of high agricultural value, a violation of local laws. The groups requested that a judge prohibit various local government agencies from approving projects on such lands, noting that they should instead be built on roofs, parking lots, landfills in disuse and previously contaminated grounds. “The loss of prime
August 14, 2023There’s one college football conference sitting out the reshuffling going on among its big-money brethren: The Ivy League will start the season with the same eight members it has had since it formed in 1956. “It’s lunacy going on nationally right now,” Brown coach James Perry said on the Ivy League Media Day Zoom on Monday. “This league has always put the student-athlete first, his interests first, making him the best ballplayer he can be while still being a student. … In the changing landscape of college athletics, that’s how you do things right over a very,
August 14, 2023Tensions between public officials and the press are hardly unusual. To a large extent, it’s baked into their respective roles. What’s rare in a democratic society is a police raid on a news organization’s office or the home of its owner. So when that happened late last week, it attracted the sort of national attention that the town of Marion, Kansas, is hardly used to. The Marion Police Department took computers and cellphones from the office of the Marion County Record newspaper on Friday, and also entered the home of Eric Meyer, publisher and editor. The
August 14, 2023U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy on Monday made her third visit to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been behind bars in Russia since March on charges of espionage. Tracy last visited Gershkovich in early July. “Ambassador Tracy said that Evan appears in good health and remains strong, despite his very challenging circumstances. Embassy officials will continue to provide all appropriate support to Evan and his family. And we expect Russian authorities to provide continued consular access,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel. “Once again, we call on the Russian Federation to immediately release
August 14, 2023UBS will pay U.S. authorities $1.44 billion to settle the last lingering legal case over Wall Street’s role in the housing bubble of the early 2000s, which ultimately led to the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession. The Swiss bank agreed to pay a civil penalty over how it handled the sale of 40 mortgage-backed securities issued in 2006 and 2007. The settlement argues that UBS bankers gave false and misleading statements about the health of the mortgages in those bonds to the buyers in violation of federal securities law. For example, UBS bankers knew that
August 14, 2023Michael Oher, the former NFL tackle known for the movie “The Blind Side,” filed a petition Monday in a Tennessee probate court accusing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of lying to him by having him sign papers making them his conservators rather than his adoptive parents nearly two decades ago. In the petition filed Monday in Shelby County Probate Court, Oher asks for the conservatorship to be terminated along with asking for a full accounting of the money earned off the use of his name and story. He also asks to be paid what he is
August 14, 2023Thousands of Bosnians took to the streets on Monday to demand authorities act to curb violence against women after a man last week shot and killed his ex-wife while streaming the slaying live on Instagram. Protests were held simultaneously in several Bosnian cities. In Sarajevo, the capital, a huge crowd of people walked through the city center to press for more protection for women, curbing of violent media content and control of police work in cases of violence. Participants carried banners reading “Silence is approval,” “We won’t live in fear” or “Stop femicide.” Protesters in Sarajevo
August 14, 2023The destruction and suffering caused by the Maui wildfires in Hawaii prompted many to immediately look for ways to help. However, experts say immediate donations may not be the most useful following a natural disaster like the Maui wildfires. They suggest standing by a week or two until needs are assessed and support lines have been established. But they know that some people will not be able to wait. Here’s what you need to know about getting your donations to the people you are trying to help. There are so many solicitiations to help the people
August 14, 2023Tyronn Lue has waited a long time for this trip. He was supposed to have the USA Basketball logo on his chest on foreign soil long ago — 1997, actually, when he was starring as the point guard at Nebraska and picked to represent his country at the men’s 22 and under world championships in Australia. But a nagging right leg injury flared up, causing numbness so severe he couldn’t navigate stairs without falling. The team ruled him out, and he flew home alone. Fast forward 26 years: Lue, the coach of the
August 14, 2023Kyle Larson might be the busiest driver in motorsports. He started Saturday by practicing and qualifying for the Brickyard 200 then traveled to Iowa where he led all 50 laps to claim his second win in three years at the prestigious Knoxville Nationals. A red-eye return to Indy had him back in time for Sunday’s race, where he finished eighth, and even the pre-race news conference to discuss his attempt at racing’s double next May. And with additional trips booked for Indy in preparation of what he hopes will be 1,100 miles of racing in one day,
August 14, 2023The New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces are living up to the preseason WNBA hype and will meet for the first time with a championship on the line when they play for the Commissioner’s Cup title on Tuesday night. The budding rivals were predicted to win the WNBA title before the season tipped off and have loftier aspirations of taking home that trophy. The first-place Aces won both the Commissioner’s Cup and the WNBA title last season and wouldn’t mind double-dipping again this year. Each member of the winning team will receive around $30,000. Players on the losing squad
August 14, 2023The Argentine peso plunged Monday after a 52-year—old anti-establishment candidate who admires former President Donald Trump came first in primary elections that will help determine the country’s next president. Javier Milei rocked Argentina’s political establishment Sunday by receiving the biggest share of primary votes for presidential candidates in the October general election to determine who leads a nation battered by economic woes. Milei wants to replace the peso with the dollar, and says that Argentina’s Central Bank should be abolished, and that he thinks that climate change is a lie. He has characterized sex education
August 14, 2023The International Ice Hockey Federation has ruled in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers by agreeing that Russian goaltender Ivan Fedotov had a valid NHL contract for the upcoming season when he signed with CSKA Moscow in the KHL. The decision rendered Monday paves the way for Fedotov to play in North America, like he planned to do a year ago before being conscripted into the Russian military. It was not immediately clear if he’d seek to leave Russia to play in North America. Relations between Russia and the U.S. are strained over the war in Ukraine, the NHL cut ties
August 14, 2023Libya’s judicial authorities have formally asked Lebanon to release one of the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s sons, held without charges in Lebanon since 2015, because of his deteriorating health, officials said Monday. The health of Hannibal Gadhafi has been deteriorating since he went on hunger strike on June 3, to protest his detention without trial. He was taken to hospital at least twice since then and has been only drinking small amounts of water. According to two Lebanese judicial officials, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Sediq al-Sour, sent a request earlier this month to his Lebanese counterpart, Ghassan Oueidat,
August 14, 2023Neymar is set to complete a move to the Saudi Pro League after Al Hilal agreed a reported 90 million euros ($98 million) transfer fee with Paris Saint-Germain on Monday. The fee would be a record for the league, backed by the oil-rich state, in its spending spree on high-end soccer talent. Al Hilal could finally seal a statement signing to match Al Nassr, its city rival in Riyadh, which lured Cristiano Ronaldo in January. Recent offers to Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé, teammates of Neymar last season at French champion PSG, were not accepted.
August 14, 2023Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday will introduce Larry Snelling, the police department’s counterterrorism head, as his choice for police superintendent of the nation’s third-largest city. The introduction comes after Johnson named Snelling on Sunday after a monthslong search led by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. The selection of Snelling, 54, to head the department is subject to City Council approval. Snelling will succeed David Brown, who in March announced that he would step down the day after Chicago’s mayoral primary election in which crime was a central issue. Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost that
August 14, 2023James Harden appears determined to sever ties with the Philadelphia 76ers after the star guard called team president Daryl Morey a liar at a promotional event in China. Harden’s comments — video of which surfaced Monday — came almost seven weeks after he picked up his $35.6 million option with the 76ers for this season and then promptly said he wanted to be traded. The Sixers told Harden’s agent, Mike Silverman, over the weekend that Morey was unable to find a suitable deal and the franchise was not compelled to deal him unless it could find a
August 14, 2023David Krejci has decided to retire, an expected development that leaves the Boston Bruins without their top two centers after setting records for the most wins and points in a season. Krejci announced his retirement in a statement Monday, thanking team president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney for allowing time to make the decision. It comes three weeks after captain and face of the franchise Patrice Bergeron opted to retire. “After 15 full NHL seasons I have decided to retire from the best league in the world,” Krejci said. “I have been very lucky to
August 14, 2023Threads, the simple, bare-bones text-based social network created by Facebook owner Meta, burst onto the scene during a particularly bad week for the rival then still known as Twitter. It quickly amassed 100 million signups — a huge feat for a newcomer in the space — and was dubbed as a “Twitter killer.” By week two, though, signups began to drop off. As of Aug. 7, the number of people who used Threads daily hovered around 10 million on Android phones, down from 49 million when it launched a month earlier, according to research firm SimilarWeb. Is Mark Zuckerberg’s latest
August 14, 2023More than 6,000 people representing scores of religions and belief systems are expected to convene in Chicago starting Monday for what organizers bill as the world’s largest gathering of interfaith leaders. For the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the week-long event marks a return to its roots – the organization was founded in Chicago in 1893. In the past 30 years, it has convened six times, most recently in Toronto in 2018. Past gatherings have drawn participants from more than 80 nations. This week’s speakers and presenters will represent Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Baha’i, Hinduism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Indigenous religions,
August 14, 2023A human rights group urged the international community on Monday to intervene quickly to end spiraling violence by gangs in Haiti. The call by Human Rights Watch comes as Haiti awaits a response from the U.N. Security Council to its request in October for the immediate deployment of an international armed force to fight the surge in violence. “The longer that we wait and don’t have this response, we’re going to see more Haitians being killed, raped and kidnapped, and more people suffering without enough to eat,” said Ida Sawyer, the group’s crisis and
August 14, 2023Italy on Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Genoa’s Morandi Bridge with a minute of silence and demands for justice for the 43 people who died in what authorities say was an example of greed-fueled negligence. Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini told relatives of victims, local residents and authorities at the Genoa commemoration that the people who plunged to their deaths weren’t victims of a flood or natural disaster. Rather, he said, they were “victims of greed, of people who didn’t do their jobs.” A huge section of the Morandi bridge broke off during a
August 14, 2023The Russian ruble has reached its lowest value since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine as Western sanctions weigh on energy exports and weaken demand for the national currency. On Monday, the Russian currency passed 101 rubles to the dollar, continuing a more than 25% decline in its value since the beginning of the year and hitting the lowest level in almost 17 months. President Vladimir Putin’s economic adviser, Maksim Oreshkin, on Monday blamed the weak ruble on “loose monetary policy” in an op-ed for state news agency Tass. He said a strong ruble is
August 14, 2023A senior Swedish official said Monday Swedes abroad and businesses linked to Sweden“should observe increased vigilance and caution,” following recent Quran burnings in the country and protests in the Muslim world. Henrik Landerholm, Sweden’s National Security Adviser, said there are signs of “a heightened threat” to the country and to Swedish interests abroad, adding the security situation has worsened. In a statement, Landerholm said that “representatives of terrorist groups have called for attacks against Sweden. States and other actors have helped amplify such messages.” He said Sweden has gone from being considered a “legitimate” target to
August 14, 2023Poland’s government said Monday it wants to ask voters whether they want dismantled a recently-built border wall that blocks unauthorized migration from Belarus. The loaded question is one of four the right-wing ruling party wants to ask in a referendum it intends to hold alongside the Oct. 15 parliamentary elections. The Law and Justice party is intent on winning an unprecedented third term in the elections. Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on social media that the question will ask: “Do you support the pulling down of the barrier on the border on the Polish Republic with
August 14, 2023An explosion ripped through a hotel in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding seven others, police said. The blast occurred at a city hotel frequented by Afghan people and refugees from Pakistan’s former militant stronghold of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, said Mustaghfir Gurbaz, a police spokesperson in Khost. He said officers were investigating to determine what caused the blast and who was behind it. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though Afghanistan’s Taliban government has blamed the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the
August 14, 2023As Hawaii residents mourned those killed in ferocious wildfires, officials warned that the full human and environmental toll was not yet known and the recovery only just beginning. Twenty dogs and dozens of people will make their way through neighborhoods reduced to ash, searching burnt out cars and homes for the dead. With the toll at 96, this is already the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Two fires have not yet been completely contained, including the one that demolished the historic town of Lahaina, according to an update from Maui County late Sunday.
August 14, 2023In a rare televised speech Monday, the head of Sudan’s military accused the rival paramilitary force of committing war crimes as all-out civil war threatens to engulf the northeast African country. Sudan was plunged into chaos in April when months of simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere. In a speech broadcast on Sudan TV, Burhan accused the RSF and Dagalo of committing violations under the falsehood of promising to restore democracy. “How can you
August 14, 2023Russia launched three waves of nighttime air attacks against the southern Ukraine port city of Odesa, officials said Monday, though the Ukrainian air force said it intercepted all 15 incoming Shahed drones and eight Kalibr missiles. Falling debris from the interceptions damaged the dormitory of an educational facility in the city, a residential building and a supermarket, Odesa Gov. Oleh Kiper said. Two employees of the supermarket were hospitalized, Kiper said. The Kremlin’s forces have pummeled Odesa in recent times, aiming at facilities that transport Ukraine’s crucial grain exports and also wrecking cherished Ukrainian historical sites.
August 14, 2023Germany’s foreign minister was stuck in Abu Dhabi on Monday after a technical problem on her government plane — the latest in a succession of such incidents — forced it to return to the airport rather than continue to Australia. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was due to arrive in Canberra on Monday night at the start of a visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. But her German air force Airbus A340 had to return to Abu Dhabi after a refueling stop because of “a mechanical problem with the landing flaps,” ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer wrote on
August 14, 2023An airstrike on a crowded town square in Ethiopia’s restive Amhara region killed at least 26 people and wounded more than 55 others, a senior health official said Monday, days after authorities asserted that calm had been restored in the area. Local militia members have been clashing with Ethiopia’s military over efforts to disband them, and last week the military retook key Amhara towns by force. The airstrike hit the center of the Finote Selam community on Sunday, said the health official, who like other people spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The
August 14, 2023Cambodian authorities have temporarily closed a high school where thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance from the country’s nearly three decades of civil war have been unearthed. The ordnance was found at the school in the northeastern province of Kratie after deminers were invited to search for buried landmines on the campus before a new building was constructed, Chheang Heng, the provincial deputy chief for education. More than 1,000 students study at Queen Kossamak high school. The site was an ammunition warehouse during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s before being turned into a
August 14, 2023Heavy monsoon rains triggered floods and landslides in India’s Himalayan region, leaving at least 22 people dead and many others trapped, officials said Monday. A cloudburst in mountainous Himachal Pradesh state’s Solan district on Sunday night killed nine people in the area, and nine more bodies were pulled out from under mud and debris after two landslides in Shimla, the state’s capital, authorities told the Press Trust of India news agency. Four others were killed in heavy rains and a landslide in the state’s Hamirpur district, they added. The state’s chief minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, said
August 14, 2023Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar is to be sworn in Monday as Pakistan’s prime minister to head a caretaker national government that will oversee parliamentary elections. Kakar, who is comparatively new to politics, has been representing his Baluchistan province in the Senate since 2018. On Sunday, Kakar quit as the head of his small Baluchistan Awami Party and quit as a senator after being named by outgoing premier Shehbaz Sharif and opposition leader Raza Riaz to oversee the vote and run the day-to-day affairs of the government until the people elect a new government. It is normal practice in Pakistan
August 14, 2023As Lebohang Mphuthi works amid the chaos of boisterous children during a lunch break at the Omar H.S. Ebrahim elementary school in South Africa — the kids are pushing, shoving and spilling food everywhere — she can’t help but think how this is as far from her dream job as it can get. Four years after graduating with a degree in analytical chemistry, the only work the 26-year-old has found is as a student assistant at a public school in Pretoria. Her responsibilities include handing out meals to the children and limiting the chaos as best she
August 14, 2023Spain failed to qualify for the first six editions of the Women’s World Cup, but once La Roja made the tournament in 2015 they’ve made a steady climb toward joining the global elite. Spain scored its first point with a draw in its World Cup debut. Four years later, Spain advanced to the knockout round before it was eliminated by the U.S. team that went on to clinch a second consecutive championship. Now in their third World Cup, the Spaniards have reached a new level and face Sweden in the first World Cup semifinal on Tuesday at
August 14, 2023The pilot of a Cold War-era jet noticed it was losing power and decided to eject himself and a crew member before the Soviet fighter plane crashed during a weekend air show in suburban Detroit, an official said Monday. The pilot, who also owns the plane, had serious injuries but nothing life-threatening, while a second person aboard the MiG-23 had mild injuries after they parachuted to the ground, said John Brannen, senior air safety investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board. “It’s very fortunate, of course, that nobody on the ground was injured. … The plane
August 14, 2023New Zealand on Monday removed the last of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions, marking the end of a government response to the pandemic that was watched closely around the world. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the requirement to wear masks in hospitals and other healthcare facilities would end at midnight, as would a requirement for people who caught the virus to isolate themselves for seven days. New Zealand was initially praised internationally for eliminating the virus entirely after imposing nationwide lockdowns and strict border controls. But as the pandemic wore on and more infectious variants took
August 14, 2023Niger’s mutinous soldiers say they will prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining state security, hours after they said they were open to dialogue with West African nations to resolve the mounting regional crisis. The announcement on state television on Sunday night, by spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said the military regime had “gathered the necessary evidence to prosecute before competent national and international authorities the ousted president and his local and foreign accomplices for high treason and for undermining the internal and external security of Niger.” Bazoum, Niger’s democratically elected president, was
August 14, 2023Asian stock markets tumbled Monday after stronger U.S. inflation revived worries the Federal Reserve might hike interest rates again. Hong Kong’s main market index plunged 2.4%. Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney also fell. Oil prices sank. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index slipped 0.1% on Friday after government data showed producer price inflation accelerated in July. Earlier data showed consumer prices also rose faster in July. “Setbacks to optimistic expectations are hard to ignore,” said Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank in a report. “The data need to provide reasons” for the Federal Reserve “not to hike.” The
August 14, 2023A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar left more than 30 people missing, and a search and rescue operation was underway on Monday, a rescue official said. The incident occurred in Hpakant, a remote mountainous town in Kachin state about 950 kilometers (600 miles) north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. The area is the epicenter of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mines. The leader of a local rescue team coordinating search efforts told The Associated Press on Monday that more than 30 miners who were digging for jade were swept into a lake
August 14, 2023A small central Kansas police department is facing a torrent of criticism for raiding a local newspaper’s office and the home of its owner and publisher, seizing computers and cellphones, and, in the publisher’s view, stressing his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her weekend death. Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department’s actions as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. The Marion County Record’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, worked with his staff Sunday to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials for its next edition Wednesday, even as
August 14, 2023Six former Mississippi law officers are expected to plead guilty to state charges on Monday for torturing two Black men in a racist assault after recently admitting their guilt in a connected federal civil rights case. Prosecutors say the officers, who are all white, nicknamed themselves the “Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and cover it up, including the attack that ended with a victim shot in the mouth. In January, the officers entered a house without a warrant and handcuffed and assaulted the two men with stun guns, a sex toy
August 14, 2023Belen Diaz was walking home from college one evening when a motorcycle carrying two men made a menacing U-turn. Terrified that she was about to be robbed for the eighth time in three years, the teaching student banged on a cab window until the driver drove her home. Diaz got away safe, but there was an unrelated fatal shooting the next day outside her gated community of two-story homes on the edge of the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil. Ecuador was one of the calmest countries in Latin America until about three years ago. Today, criminals
August 14, 2023Asian stock markets tumbled Monday after mixed U.S. economic data revived worries the Federal Reserve might hike interest rates again. Hong Kong’s main market index plunged 2.3% and Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney also fell. Oil prices retreated. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index slipped 0.1% on Friday after government data showed producer price inflation accelerated in July. Earlier data showed consumer prices also rose faster in July. “Setbacks to optimistic expectations are hard to ignore,” said Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank in a report. “The data need to provide reasons” for the Federal Reserve “not to
August 14, 2023Seven of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy advocates had part of their convictions quashed Monday over their roles in one of the biggest pro-democracy protests in 2019. Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper; Martin Lee, the founding chairman of the city’s Democratic Party; and five former pro-democracy lawmakers, including barrister Margaret Ng, had been found guilty of organizing and participating an unauthorized assembly. Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho were jailed between eight to 18 months. Martin Lee, an octogenarian nicknamed the city’s “Father of Democracy,” Ng and Albert Ho were
August 14, 2023Wildfires have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation, decimating a historic town. While many wait in agony for news on whether their friends and family are safe, the fires have already claimed the lives of more than 90 people — making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years. Here are the stories of those who died. —- A FAMILY’S LOSS A family of four — Faaso and Malui Fonua Tone, Salote Takafua, and her son, Tony Takafua — died while attempting to flee from the flames. Their remains
August 14, 2023United States Steel Corp. said Sunday that it rejected a $7.3 billion buyout proposal from rival Cleveland Cliffs and was reviewing “strategic alternatives” after receiving several unsolicited offers. Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel said it rejected the offer because Cleveland-Cliffs was pushing it to accept the terms without being allowed to conduct proper due diligence. “At this juncture, we cannot determine whether your unsolicited proposal properly reflects the full and fair value of the Company. For all of the above reasons, the Board has no choice but to reject your unreasonable proposal,” U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt said
August 14, 2023Lucas Glover made three big putts just to stay in the game and then hit the most important shot — on dry land in a playoff — to beat Patrick Cantlay on the first extra hole and win the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday for his second straight victory. And so the amazing run continues for the 43-year-old Glover, who two weeks was No. 112 in the FedEx Cup and preparing for an early end to his season. Now he is assured the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake and perhaps consideration for the Ryder
August 14, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made another inspection tour of major munitions factories and ordered a drastic increase in production of missiles and other weapons, state media said Monday, days before South Korea and the U.S. begin annual military drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. Kim’s push to produce more weapons also comes as U.S. officials believe Russia’s defense minister recently talked with North Korea about selling more weapons to Russia for its war with Ukraine. The Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited factories producing tactical missiles, mobile launch platforms,
August 14, 2023Cedric Mullins robbed Ty France of a homer in the ninth inning and hit a two-run homer in the 10th, and the AL-best Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners in extra innings for the second straight day, 5-3 on Sunday. Mullins, who entered in the sixth as a defensive replacement, leaped and reached over the wall in center field to snag France’s deep drive off Mike Baumann. Mullins fell face-first to the warning track with the ball in his glove and pumped his fist as he jumped to his feet. Two pitches later, Dominic Canzone hit a
August 13, 2023Raiders rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell passed for 141 yards and a touchdown in a highly efficient performance and Las Vegas beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-7 on Sunday in the preseason opener for both teams. O’Connell, third on the depth chart behind starter Jimmy Garoppolo and veteran Brian Hoyer, played the first three quarters. The Raiders drafted O’Connell in the fourth round this year out of Purdue. He was known for his accuracy with the Boilermakers, setting a school record with a 66.7 career completion percentage. That skill was on display in this game as O’Connell
August 13, 2023Phil Mickelson’s bid for his first LIV Golf title ended early and spectacularly. Cam Smith rarely made winning look so easy Sunday at LIV Golf-Bedminster. Mickelson, playing in the final group for the first time since joining the Saudi-funded circuit last year, hit two tee shots in the water and made a quintuple-bogey 8 on the par-3 seventh hole at Trump National, effectively ended his hopes. Smith, who had two early bogeys that dropped his lead to three shots over Mickelson at the time, closed with five birdies and a clean card for a 3-under 68
August 13, 2023The U.S. World Cup basketball team got its first big test of the summer Sunday, and a perfect shooting night from Jalen Brunson helped ensure the Americans passed. Brunson was 9 for 9 from the field on the way to a team-best 21 points, Jaren Jackson Jr. added 14 and the U.S. pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat Spain 98-88 in a pre-World Cup exhibition between tournament favorites. Spain is the No. 1-ranked team in the world according to FIBA; the U.S. is No. 2. The Americans shot 67% — 71% on 2-pointers, 56%
August 13, 2023All 105 soccer fans suspected of being involved in extensive clashes in the Greek capital that ended in the death of a 29-year-old AEK Athens supporter have been ordered to be detained pending their trial, authorities said Sunday. Three examining magistrates and two prosecutors questioned the detained fans in batches — 30 on Friday, 40 on Saturday and 35 on Sunday — and decided each day whether to detain them pending trial. One suspect, who is hospitalized under guard, gave a deposition to a visiting magistrate. The 102 Croat citizens and 3 Greeks have all denied
August 13, 2023Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Sunday stayed within the ranks and named Larry Snelling, the police department’s counterterrorism head, as his choice for police superintendent of the nation’s third-largest city. The announcement comes after a monthslong search led by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. The selection of Snelling, 54, to head the department is subject to City Council approval. Snelling will succeed David Brown, who in March announced that he would step down the day after Chicago’s mayoral primary election in which crime was a central issue. Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost that primary, and
August 13, 2023The Atlanta Falcons waived 2022 starting linebacker Mykal Walker in a surprise move Sunday. Walker started and had four tackles in the Falcons’ 19-3 preseason win at Miami on Friday night. Falcons coach Arthur Smith did not play most of his projected starters against the Dolphins. On Sunday, the Falcons signed linebacker Frank Ginda, the 2023 USFL defensive player of the year. The Falcons did not announce an injury to Walker in Friday night’s game, but the 2020 fourth-round draft pick apparently was unavailable for the remainder of training camp. Smith said several players were
August 13, 2023Michael McDowell raced to his second NASCAR crown jewel victory Sunday, dominating the Brickyard 200 — and putting himself in the playoffs for the second time in three years. The 38-year-old Arizona driver who has made more than 450 career starts beat Chase Elliott across the yard of bricks by 0.937 seconds in the road-course race that had only one yellow flag. Pole winner Daniel Suarez was third as the regular season winds down. McDowell, also the 2021 Daytona 500 winner, gave Front Row Motorsports its fourth victory. “We did it, we won Indy,” he shouted into
August 13, 2023Shohei Ohtani hit his AL-leading 41st homer, and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Houston Astros 2-1 on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep. Ohtani’s first home run since Aug. 3 put the Angels up 2-0 in the sixth inning. Houston cut it to 2-1 in the bottom half, but the Angels finally got some help from their pitching staff after losing each of the first two games of the series 11-3. Their bullpen pitched three scoreless innings to secure the win. Ohtani’s big hit came after the Angels announced the two-way star would skip his next
August 13, 2023Derek Carr threw a touchdown pass in his New Orleans preseason debut and rookie Blake Grupe kicked a 31-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Saints to a 26-24 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in the opening exhibition game for both clubs. Chiefs star QB Patrick Mahomes started but took just five snaps before Kansas City’s first drive ended with a failed fourth-and-1 play on a direct snap to reserve tight end Blake Bell. Carr looked comfortable taking his first live snaps in his new offense, completing six of eight passes
August 13, 2023Liudmila Samsonova beat Elena Rybakina 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday to reach the final of the rain-delayed National Bank Open. The 15th-seeded Samsonova was set to play two matches in one day; the final against Jessica Pegula was scheduled for Sunday night. Pegula beat top-ranked Iga Swiatek in her semifinal match on Saturday before the weather deteriorated. Rybakina, the No. 3 seed, was coming off a 3-hour, 27-minute match against Daria Kasatkina that wrapped up at 3 a.m. Saturday. Tournament director Valerie Tetreault said Rybakina was in favor of playing two matches on Sunday if necessary, while
August 13, 2023A small central Kansas police department is facing a firestorm of criticism after it raided the offices of a local newspaper and the home of its publisher and owner — a move deemed by several press freedom watchdogs as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection of a free press. The Marion County Record said in its own published reports that police raided the newspaper’s office on Friday, seizing the newspaper’s computers, phones and file server and the personal cellphones of staff, based on a search warrant. One Record reporter said one of her fingers
August 13, 2023Mauricio Pochettino’s return to the Premier League didn’t start with a win, but there was plenty to like for the Argentine manager in his first game in charge of Chelsea. Pochettino saw his team dominate possession in a manner that few teams have done against Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, although the Blues lacked the firepower up front to come away with more than a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. “After four years (away from the Premier League), it is a fantastic way to start the season. I enjoyed the match a lot,” said Pochettino, who
August 13, 2023A record-setting Norwegian mountaineer pushed back Sunday against claims that she could have done more to save the life of a Pakistani porter who slipped off a narrow trail near the peak of the world’s most treacherous mountain and died there after several hours. The circumstances of Mohammad Hassan’s July 27 death on K2, the world’s second-highest peak, sparked ongoing controversy, with two climbers arguing that he could have been saved if all those on the mountain that day had aborted their climb and focused on getting him down safely. The fallout from Hassan’s death overshadowed a
August 13, 2023Five people were found dead after a house explosion in western Pennsylvania that destroyed three structures and damaged at least a dozen others, authorities said Sunday. Plum Borough Police Chief Lanny Conley said the bodies of four adults and one adolescent were recovered after the blast shortly before 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the borough, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh. “This is certainly a sad, sad day and a sad time, for not just the folks in Plum but all the folks in the community and in this region,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich
August 13, 2023American golfer Lilia Vu won the Women’s British Open to claim her second major title of 2023, taking any potential drama out of the final round by shooting 5-under 67 for a six-stroke victory on Sunday. The 25-year-old Californian, who also won the Chevron Championship in April, became the first female player to win two majors in the same year since Jin Young Ko in 2019, and the first American woman since Juli Inkster in 1999. Vu began the final round tied for the lead with Charley Hull, with 11 players within five shots of them.
August 13, 2023Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani will skip his next scheduled pitching start Wednesday at Texas after telling manager Phil Nevin he was feeling some arm fatigue. Nevin said Sunday that Ohtani is not injured and will return to the rotation during a series at home against the Reds that begins Aug. 21. “I’ve told you guys many times he knows his body better than anybody,” Nevin said. “I trust him when he talks about it. He’s assured me there’s no pain, there’s no injury. He’s got some regular arm fatigue that some go through at
August 13, 2023For scores of families in Hawaii still hoping to reunite with loved ones, it was not yet time to give up — even as the staggering death toll continued to grow, and even as authorities predicted that more remains would be found within the ashes left behind by a wildfire that gutted the once-bustling town of Lahaina. But many others are already confronting a painful reality. Their loved ones did not make it out alive. Kika Perez Grant wasn’t sure what would become of the remains of her uncle, Franklin Trejos, who was found in a charred car, his body
August 13, 2023A gunman opened fire Sunday night at a prominent shrine in southern Iran, wounding at least four people, authorities said. Information on the attack at Shah Cheragh remained unclear immediately after the shooting, with state media and semiofficial news agencies offering differing details. The state-run IRNA news agency said four had been wounded, including two workers at the shrine and two pilgrims. The governor of Fars province, where Shiraz is the provincial capital, told Iranian state television that a single gunman carried out the attack and later was detained by security forces. Mohammad Hadi Imanieh did
August 13, 2023Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a law banning firearms advertising that officials determine produces a public safety threat or appeals to children, militants or others who might later use the weapons illegally — opening the door for lawsuits against firearms manufacturers or distributors. Pritzker on Saturday signed the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act, making Illinois the eighth state to approve legislation that rolls back legal protections for firearms manufacturers or distributors. The legislation comes after the deadliest six months of mass killings recorded in the United States since at least 2006 — all but one of which
August 13, 2023Paris Saint-Germain soccer superstar Neymar has reportedly agreed a two-year deal to join Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal. France’s leading sports daily L’Equipe said on its website Sunday that the PSG and Brazil forward will receive a total of 160 million euros ($175 million) over two seasons. No details were given as to how much the transfer fee would be for Neymar, who has also been linked with a return to Barcelona. The Associated Press has asked defending French champion PSG to confirm the deal. The request was not immediately answered. Neymar’s current contract with PSG runs until
August 13, 2023Italy coach Roberto Mancini surprisingly resigned on Sunday, ending an an up-and-down tenure with the national team that included a European Championship title in 2021 but also a failed qualification for last year’s World Cup. The Italian soccer federation issued a short announcement saying that Mancini communicated his resignation “late last night,” adding that a new coach would be named “over the next days.” The federation doesn’t have much time with Euro 2024 qualifying matches against North Macedonia and Ukraine scheduled for Sept. 10 and 12, respectively. Mancini was hired in May 2018. ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer
August 13, 2023England captain Harry Kane said Sunday that he may need time to adapt to German football following a loss in his first game for Bayern Munich and won’t “panic” if he isn’t scoring. Kane came on as a 64th-minute substitute in a 3-0 defeat to Leipzig in the German Super Cup on Saturday after being confirmed as a Bayern player earlier in the day. “Obviously, I’ve spent my whole career, my whole life, in England and in the Premier League so it might take a bit of adapting to get used to a new league,” he said.
August 13, 2023Seven people – including a 23-day-old baby girl – were killed in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Sunday, the country’s Internal Affairs Ministry said. Artillery shelling in the village of Shiroka Balka, on the banks of the Dnieper River killed a family — a husband, wife, 12-year-old boy and 23-day-old girl — and another resident. Two men were killed in the neighboring village of Stanislav, where a woman was also wounded. The attack on Kherson province followed Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar’s comments on Saturday attempting to quell rumors that Ukrainian forces
August 13, 2023After a checkered victory in Saturday’s state elections that saw strong gains by the Malay-Islamist opposition, analysts say Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim faces a daunting task in uniting an increasingly polarized nation and strengthening his nascent unity government. Anwar’s multi-coalition unity government and the opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) bloc, that includes the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, retained control of three states each, as widely expected. While the PN bloc, led by former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, failed to alter the status quo, it did make major inroads in the government-controlled states and nearly swept
August 13, 2023One week after a deadline passed for mutinous soldiers in Niger to reinstate the country’s ousted president or face military intervention, the junta has not acquiesced. No military action has been taken and the coup leaders appear to have gained the upper hand over the regional group that issued the threat, analysts say. The West African regional bloc ECOWAS had given the soldiers that overthrew Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum until last Sunday to release and reinstate him or they threatened military action. On Thursday, the bloc ordered the deployment of a “standby” force to
August 13, 2023Poland’s ruling party wants to ask voters in a referendum whether they support accepting “thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa” as part of a European Union relocation plan, the prime minister said Sunday, as his conservative party seeks to hold onto power in an October parliamentary election. Mateusz Morawiecki announced the referendum question in a new video published on social media. It indicated that his party, Law and Justice, is seeking to use migration in its election campaign, a tactic that helped it take power in 2015. Poland is hosting more than
August 13, 2023Jimmy Lai, a former newspaper publisher and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, spends around 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in a maximum-security facility while he awaits a trial that could send him to prison for life. In exclusive photos taken by The Associated Press in recent weeks, the 75-year-old Lai can be seen with a book in his hands wearing shorts and sandals and accompanied by two guards at Stanley Prison. He looks thinner than when he was last photographed in February 2021. Lai is allowed out for 50 minutes a
August 13, 2023Richy Palalay so closely identifies with his Maui hometown that he had a tattoo artist permanently ink “Lahaina Grown” on his forearms when he was 16. But a chronic housing shortage and an influx of second-home buyers and wealthy transplants have been displacing residents like Palalay who give Lahaina its spirit and identity. A fast-moving wildfire that incinerated much of the compact coastal settlement last week has multiplied concerns that any homes rebuilt there will be targeted at affluent outsiders seeking a tropical haven. That would turbo-charge what is already one of Hawaii’s gravest and biggest
August 13, 2023If Wisconsin state Rep. Jimmy Anderson wants to visit residents in some of the northern neighborhoods he represents, he first must leave his own district — twice. From his Fitchburg home in suburban Madison, Anderson must exit his 47th Assembly District, pass through the 77th District, reenter the 47th District, then head north through the 48th District to finally reach a cluster of homes assigned like a remote outpost to his district. Unusual? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. Unconstitutional? Perhaps. Though the Wisconsin Constitution requires legislative districts “to consist of contiguous territory,” many nonetheless contain sections of land
August 13, 2023As bystanders trained their smartphone cameras on the riverfront dock while several white boaters pummeled a Black riverboat co-captain, they couldn’t have known the footage would elicit a national conversation about racial solidarity. Yet, a week after multiple videos showing the now-infamous brawl and valiant defense of the outnumbered co-captain were shared widely on social media, it’s clear the event truly tapped into the psyche of Black America and created a broader cultural moment. Andrea Boyles, a sociology professor at Tulane University, said a long history of anti-Black racism and attacks and current events likely magnified
August 13, 2023Argentines voted Sunday in a primary election that will act as a bellwether ahead of October general elections and give a hint at how eager citizens are for a change in a country that is suffering one of the world’s worst inflation rates. The primary will determine who will be the presidential candidate in the main center-right opposition coalition in which Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta is facing off against former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich. Whoever comes out on top will almost certainly be running against Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who is facing a
August 13, 2023As the death toll from a wildfire that razed a historic Maui town reached 89, authorities warned Saturday that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages. It’s already the deadliest U.S. wildfire for over a century. Crews with cadaver dogs have completed just 3% of the search area, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said. “We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles and it is full of our loved ones. And we’ve got 89 so far. Today we identified two,” noting
August 13, 2023Postal worker Eugene Gates Jr. was delivering mail in the suffocating Dallas heat this summer when he collapsed in a homeowner’s yard and was taken to a hospital, where he died. Carla Gates said she’s sure heat was a factor in her 66-year-old husband’s death, even though she’s still waiting for the autopsy report. When Eugene Gates died on June 20, the temperature was 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.6 Celsius) and the heat index, which also considers humidity, had soared over 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius). “I will believe this until the day I die, that it was
August 13, 2023The sound of repeated explosions could be heard in the area around the Syrian capital before dawn on Sunday, state media and Damascus residents said. There was no immediate statement from government officials on the source or target of the attack, but similar incidents in the past have usually been attributed to Israeli airstrikes, with Syrian air defenses responding to shoot down the missiles. The latest such incident was on Aug. 7, when Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes hit areas around Damascus, killing at least four Syrian army soldiers. The Syrian Observatory for Human
August 13, 2023Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and Pau Gasol brought a European flavor to the Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement. Fans waved a German flag and chanted Nowitzki’s name when the former Dallas Mavericks star walked the red carpet into Symphony Hall on Saturday night for the ceremony. Parker’s fans whooped it up when he took the stage to lead off the proceedings. “There are a lot of French people in town. Sorry,” the former San Antonio Spurs point guard said. Spain was well-represented, too, with Gasol shouting out his national team — “mi familia” — before joining
August 13, 2023It is unclear if the NCAA Committee on Infractions will accept Michigan’s proposal of a four-game suspension for coach Jim Harbaugh to settle a case involving recruiting violations. Michigan recently submitted a negotiated resolution to the NCAA in a case that has been in the works for about two years. The school received notice earlier this year that the NCAA was investigating impermissible texts and calls — including some by Harbaugh — to high school prospects during part of a pandemic-related dead period for contact with potential recruits. The details were confirmed by a person who spoke to The Associated
August 13, 2023Cam Smith birdied three of his last four holes Saturday for a 4-under 67 that allowed him to pull away from Phil Mickelson and build a four-shot lead in LIV Golf-Bedminster. Mickelson also had a 67, one of his best round of the year in the LIV Golf League considering Trump National Bedminster has not yielded low scoring this week. He was one shot behind when he bogeyed the par-3 14th and failed to birdie the par-5 15th. Smith picked up birdies on the 15th, the par-3 16th and the par-5 18th. He was at 9-under
August 12, 2023Jessica Pegula beat top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday to reach the National Bank Open final, breaking serve 11 times in a 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-4 victory. Pegula, the 29-year-old American seeded fourth, finally broke through in the semifinals after falling in the round the previous two years. “It was a great match,” Pegula said. “It was tough. Kind of a roller-coaster. Really up and down, but I’m glad I was able to hold my nerve there at the end.” Pegula beat Swiatek a day after fellow American Tommy Paul knocked off top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s
August 12, 2023Lucas Glover shot 4-under 66. He has the 54-hole lead in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He has made only two bogeys going into the final round. Such is the state of his game that he said he needed time to think about all the good things that went right Saturday. “Scrappy would be how I would describe that day — parts of it you could remove the ‘s.’ I got a lot out of what I had,” Glover said after building a one-shot lead over Taylor Moore. Glover is steeped in common sense, however, and it wasn’t long before
August 12, 2023The Iceman became the Ironman of IndyCar on Saturday. Capped it off with a win, too. Scott Dixon overcame a first-lap spin and then held off hard-charging Graham Rahal over the final 10 laps to win Saturday’s Indianapolis Grand Prix by 0.4779 seconds. Dixon extended his record to 19 consecutive seasons with a win. The victory on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the first of the season for Dixon, who passed Tony Kanaan when he started the race for most consecutive starts. His 319 consecutive races streak began in 2004 and have all been
August 12, 2023There will be a first-time winner of the Women’s World Cup this year, and maybe, just maybe, it will be host country Australia. The Matildas, serving as co-hosts of the tournament with New Zealand, became the first home team since the United States in 1999 to win a quarterfina l in nine Women’s World Cups. Australia has reached its first semifinal in team history and faces England on Wednesday for a chance to play for the title. “I genuinely really believe that this team can do great history in so many ways,” Australia coach Tony
August 12, 2023Lilia Vu moved into position to become the first American this century to win multiple women’s majors in the same year. She’s got company atop the leaderboard in home favorite Charley Hull at the Women’s British Open. The final major of the year came to life Saturday at Walton Heath thanks to a third-round collapse from overnight leader Ally Ewing, whose five-shot advantage lasted nine holes before she was swallowed up by a slew of chasers. First it was Vu, who won the Chevron Championship in April, and then came another American in Angel Yin before
August 12, 2023Afghanistan’s universities are ready to readmit female students, but the ruling Taliban’s leader has the ultimate say on when that might happen — if it happens at all, an education official said Saturday. The Taliban barred women from campuses last December, triggering global outrage. Girls had been banned from school beyond sixth grade soon after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with bans on female education. Afghanistan’s higher education minister, Nida Mohammed Nadim, said at the time the university ban was necessary to prevent the mixing
August 12, 2023Four people were dead and a fifth was unaccounted for following a house explosion in western Pennsylvania that destroyed three structures and damaged at least a dozen others Saturday morning, authorities said. Allegheny County officials said three people were taken to hospitals after the blast shortly before 10:30 a.m. in the borough of Plum, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh. Three people were transported to area hospitals, including one who was listed in critical condition and two who were treated and released. More than 20 firefighters were evaluated, many for heat exhaustion, authorities said.
August 12, 2023After Arsenal left fans standing in line for an extra 30 minutes to get into the stadium, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka proved they were worth the wait. Arsenal’s two star wingers lit up the opening Saturday of the Premier League season with an audacious assist and a curling long-range strike that helped the team start the campaign with a 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest. Jarrod Bowen provided another highlight with a strike similar to Saka’s to open the scoring for Bournemouth in a 1-1 draw with West Ham, while Brighton’s record signing Joao Pedro scored on
August 12, 2023Cleveland Guardians All-Star third baseman José Ramírez had his MLB suspension for fighting with Chicago’s Tim Anderson reduced from three games to two on Saturday. Ramírez, who knocked Anderson to the ground with a wild, well-placed punch, will serve the suspension this weekend during Cleveland’s series in Tampa Bay. Ramírez won’t play Saturday or Sunday. Anderson was suspended six games for fighting with Ramirez near second base and triggering a benches-clearing melee on Aug. 5 between the Guardians and White Sox that went on for several minutes and included several other flareups. Guardians manager Terry Francona, third base coach Mike
August 12, 2023Western-backed maritime forces in the Middle East on Saturday warned shippers traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far away from Iranian territorial waters as possible to avoid being seized, a stark advisory amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. A similar warning went out to shippers earlier this year ahead of Iran seizing two tankers traveling near the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. While Iran and the U.S. now near an apparent deal that would see billions of
August 12, 2023NFL great Tom Brady got to know some of the locals ahead of his first home match as minority owner of English soccer team Birmingham City. Brady made an appearance at The Roost, a pub near St. Andrew’s stadium, before Birmingham’s game against Leeds in the second-tier Championship on Saturday A few hours earlier, Brady posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Any plans before kick off guys? See you at St. Andrew’s.” He later went to the stadium, where he was pictured meeting mascots and signing jerseys. The seven-time Super Bowl champion has partnered with
August 12, 2023An investigation has been launched into the death of a Pakistani porter near the peak of the world’s most treacherous mountain, a Pakistani mountaineer said Saturday, following allegations that dozens of climbers eager to reach the summit had walked past the man after he was gravely injured in a fall. The accusations surrounding events on July 27 on K2, the world’s second-highest peak, overshadowed a record established by Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Sherpa guide Tenjin. By climbing K2 that day, they became the world’s fastest climbers, scaling the world’s 14 highest mountains in 92 days.
August 12, 2023Taiwan’s vice president left Saturday on a trip to Paraguay to reinforce relations with his government’s last diplomatic partner in South America at a time when China is stepping up efforts to isolate the self-ruled island democracy. William Lai’s trip includes stops in San Francisco and New York City, which Beijing criticized Washington for allowing. The mainland’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as part of its territory and says it has no right to conduct foreign relations. Lai was due to attend the inauguration of Paraguayan President-elect Santiago Peña on Tuesday. Lai said he would meet
August 12, 2023On and off the big screen, it’s Barbie’s world and Ken is just living in it. As reflected in Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster movie that tackles the legacy Mattel’s famous doll, Barbie has always been more popular than Ken. For every Ken doll sold today, there’s generally eight to 10 Barbies sold, according to Jim Silver, a toy industry expert and CEO of review site of TTPM. It’s unclear if Warner Bros’ “Barbie,” which was also co-produced by Mattel, will increase Ken production and sales. But Silver noted that the movie “gave Ken more attention than Ken
August 12, 2023Alessia Russo fired England into the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup in a 2-1 win against Colombia on Saturday. The Arsenal striker’s second-half goal completed a come-from-behind win for the Lionesses after Leicy Santos had given the Colombians a first-half lead. Lauren Hemp equalized before halftime and Russo struck the winner in the 63rd minute as England advanced to the semifinals for the third straight time. It will face co-host Australia for a spot in the final. Sarina Wiegman is also a step closer to her second consecutive Women’s World Cup final after her Netherlands team
August 12, 2023Australia edged France on penalty kicks Saturday to reach the Women’s World Cup semifinals for the first time. Cortnee Vine took Australia’s 10th penalty from the spot and calmly converted to give the Matildas a 7-6 win in the shootout after the quarterfinal match finished 0-0 after regulation and extra time. The Australians missed two earlier chances to clinch a dramatic shootout but ultimately it didn’t matter as they ended a long curse for tournament hosts. The Australians became the only team other than the United States to advance past the quarterfinals of a Women’s World
August 12, 2023The only way to avoid conflict between mutinous soldiers that ousted the president in Niger and regional countries threatening an invasion to reinstate him is to recognize the new regime, a rights defender with ties to the junta told The Associated Press. In his first interview with Western media Friday, Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who supports Niger’s new military rulers in its communications and says he is in direct contact with them, said there will be no dialogue with regional countries until they acknowledge the new head of state. Nearly three weeks ago mutinous
August 12, 2023The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an ambush in eastern Syria that killed at least 20 government soldiers and wounded others, warning that such attacks will continue. IS sleeper cells still carry deadly attacks despite their defeat in Syria in 2019. The group once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq where they declared a caliphate in 2014. The Friday night statement said IS fighters ambushed two army trucks in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour using different kinds of weapons. IS claimed that 40 members of the Syrian military were killed and 10 were
August 12, 2023Anxious about Japan’s impending release of treated nuclear wastewater from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, hundreds of South Koreans marched in their capital on Saturday. Protesters called for Tokyo to abandon the plans, and expressed anger toward Seoul for endorsing the discharge despite alleged food safety risks. Saturday’s rally was the latest of weekslong protests since the International Atomic Energy Agency approved the Japanese discharge plans in July, saying that the process would meet international safety standards and pose negligible environmental and health impacts. The safety of the wastewater release plans has also been
August 12, 2023Russia thwarted an attack by 20 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow-annexed Crimea overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday. Fourteen drones were shot down by Russian air defenses and a further six were jammed electronically, the ministry said in a Telegram post. No casualties or damage were reported. The overnight attacks followed three consecutive days of drone attacks on the Russian capital, Moscow. Firing drones at Russia, after more than 17 months of war has little apparent military value for Ukraine, but the strategy has served to unsettle Russians and bring home to them the conflict’s consequences.
August 12, 2023Over the past decade, Guatemalan presidential candidate Sandra Torres has been drifting rightward on the political spectrum as she repeatedly has tried to win the presidency. Now, in her third bid, the former first lady has drafted an evangelical pastor as her running mate and is leaning heavily on her firm commitments to keeping abortion and same-sex marriage illegal in Guatemala. Her opponent in the Aug. 20 runoff, Bernardo Arévalo of the progressive Seed Movement, also has said Guatemala’s abortion ban should remain untouched. But he has declined to make any such declaration on
August 12, 2023Blackened hulks of burned-out cars, the pavement streaked with melted and then rehardened chrome. Block after block of flattened homes and businesses. Incinerated telephone poles and elevator shafts rising from ashy lots where apartment buildings once stood. A truck bed full of glass bottles, warped into surreal shapes by the furious heat. Anthony Garcia assessed the devastation as he stood under Lahaina’s iconic banyan tree, now charred, and swept twisted branches into neat piles next to another heap filled with dead animals: cats, roosters and other birds killed by the smoke and flames. Somehow it made
August 12, 2023England captain Harry Kane completed his move to Bayern Munich from Tottenham on Saturday in soccer’s biggest transfer of the summer as the striker goes in search of the first major trophies in his career. The transfer fee for Kane could hit more than 100 million pounds ($110 million), which breaks the Bundesliga transfer record and is a huge sum for a player who would have been out of contract next year. “Buzzing to have signed for such a massive club with an incredible history, can’t wait to get started!” Kane wrote on his social media channels. Kane, who has
August 12, 2023Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan outlasted Daria Kasatkina of Russia 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (8) in a National Bank Open quarterfinal that ended Saturday at 2:54 a.m. With a few hundred hardy fans left, Rybakina finally finished off Kasatkina with an overhand smash on her fifth match point. Rybakina also fended off a match point with an ace to even the tiebreaker at 8. After more than six hours of rain delays Thursday and some long matches Friday backed up the schedule, the third-seeded Rybakina and 10th-seeded Kasatkina started play at 11:27 p.m. They finished 3 hours, 27 minutes
August 12, 2023Standing in an old Orthodox church in Antalya with a Bible in one hand and a candle in the other, the Rev. Ioann Koval led one of his first services in Turkey after Russian Orthodox Church leadership decided to defrock him following his prayer for peace in Ukraine. Last September, when President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists, Moscow Patriarch Kirill required his clergymen to pray for victory. Standing in front of the altar and dozens of his parishioners in one of Moscow’s churches, Koval decided to put the peace above the patriarch’s orders.
August 12, 2023In the hours before a wildfire engulfed the town of Lahaina, Maui County officials failed to activate sirens that would have warned the entire population of the approaching flames and instead relied on a series of sometimes confusing social media posts that reached a much smaller audience. Power and cellular outages for residents further stymied communication efforts. Radio reports were scarce, some survivors reported, even as the blaze began to consume the town. Road blocks then forced fleeing drivers onto one narrow downtown street, creating a bottleneck that was quickly surrounded by flames on all sides.
August 12, 2023The Pochaina neighborhood in the Ukrainian capital comes alive every weekend as hundreds of people flock to its famous flea market, looking for finds. Antique-hunters, collectors and many others look over seemingly endless rows of trinkets and time-worn wares. It’s a dizzying array that includes Soviet-era relics such as decorative medals, ceramics with communist leaders’ portraits, Cold War-era gas masks and military uniform items. Despite Ukraine’s ban on Soviet and Nazi symbols adopted in 2015 as a part of the country’s effort to distance itself from its totalitarian past, vendors, buyers and law enforcement all seem
August 12, 2023Leshia Wright heard the crackle of the fast-moving inferno closing in on her home in Lahaina and decided it was time to evacuate. The 66-year-old grabbed her medication for a pulmonary disease and her passport and fled the subdivision in the historic Hawaii oceanside community just minutes before flames engulfed the neighborhood. Hours later, she called family members and told them she slept in her car. Then her phone went dead. The next 40 hours were agony for her daughter in New York and sister in Arizona. But early Friday morning, Wright called back and told
August 12, 2023As one of the worst heat waves on record set in across much of the southern United States this summer, authorities and activists in South Texas found themselves embroiled in a mystery in this arid region near the border with Mexico. Barrels of life-saving water that a human rights group had strategically placed for wayward migrants traveling on foot had vanished. Usually, they are hard to miss. Labeled with the word “AGUA” painted in white, capital letters and standing about waist-high, the 55-gallon (208-liter), blue drums stand out against the scrub and grass, turned from green
August 12, 2023A mudslide caused by torrential rains killed at least two people on the outskirts of Xi’an in western China, an official news agency said Saturday, while some trains in the northeast were canceled as a powerful storm lashed the region. Rescuers were looking for 16 missing people following Friday evening’s mudslide in the village of Luanzhen, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said roads, bridges and power supplies were damaged. Parts of China suffer heavy rains and flooding every summer, but this year has been unusually severe in some areas, while other regions struggle with drought that
August 12, 2023As he gears up for reelection, President Joe Biden is already facing questions about his ability to convince voters that the economy is performing well. There’s skepticism about the 80-year-old president’s ability to manage a second term. And on Friday, Biden faced a fresh setback when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to probe his son, Hunter. Biden’s challenges pale in comparison to his predecessor and possible future rival, Donald Trump, who is facing three criminal indictments, with additional charges expected soon. But the appointment of the special counsel was nonetheless a reminder of
August 12, 2023photos time-released to move at 12:01 a.m. Saturday RPRB101-102. Nine months after leaders of Georgia’s oldest city stripped the name of a pro-slavery U.S. vice president from one of its public squares, nominees being considered for the green space’s new name include a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write. Susie King Taylor, who started a school for Black children and adults on the Georgia coast in 1862 with support from occupying Union soldiers, is among the finalists recommended for an honor Savannah hasn’t bestowed in 140 years: choosing a name to
August 12, 2023Lionel Messi’s goalscoring streak lives on, as does Inter Miami’s winning streak. Messi scored in the 86th minute, his eighth goal in five matches with his new club, and Inter Miami rolled past Charlotte 4-0 in a Leagues Cup quarterfinal game on Friday night. Messi has scored in all five of his appearances with Miami. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner who led Argentina to the World Cup crown last year has yet to lose a match with Miami, walking off winners in all five matchups so far in the Leagues Cup, a 47-team event composed
August 12, 2023A walrus calf found on its own miles from the ocean on Alaska’s North Slope last week and who received cuddles as part of his care after being rescued died on Friday. “While often rewarding, wildlife rescue is inherently unpredictable and comes with it the possibility of great loss. For those that dedicate their lives to animal care, this is the hardest part of the job,” the Alaska SeaLife Center, the nonprofit research facility and public aquarium that was caring for him, said in a statement online. The Pacific walrus calf, taken in by the center
August 12, 2023“Fernandomania” has broken out again at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers were set to retire Fernando Valenzuela’s No. 34 jersey on Friday night before hosting the Colorado Rockies. “It’s very emotional,” Valenzuela told a crowded room of English and Spanish-language media hours before the ceremony. “I never expected it.” Earlier in the day, the 62-year-old was in downtown Los Angeles, where the city council declared it “Fernando Valenzuela Day.” The activities were part of a weekend-long celebration of one of the most enduring and popular players in Dodgers history. A postgame drone show honoring Valenzuela was set
August 12, 2023Voting began Saturday in crucial state elections in Malaysia, where Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s multi-coalition government is seeking to strengthen its hold against a strong Islamic opposition. Queues formed outside schools and other polling stations as voters began to stream in. Nearly 9.8 million people, or about half the country’s electorate, are eligible to elect 245 assembly members in six states that contribute more than half of Malaysia’s gross domestic product. The polls are widely viewed as an early referendum both for Anwar’s leadership and also the strength of the Islamist opposition after a divisive
August 12, 2023A Nebraska judge on Friday rejected an effort to block a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and restrictions on gender-affirming surgery. Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret sided with the state and allowed a law approved by the Nebraska Legislature earlier this year to remain in effect. The law outlaws abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. As of Oct. 1, it also will prevent people under 19 from receiving gender-affirming surgery and restricts the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers for minors.
August 12, 2023Brazil’s federal police on Friday alleged former President Jair Bolsonaro received cash from the nearly $70,000 sale of two luxury watches he received as gifts from Saudi Arabia while in office, posing another potential blow for the embattled far-right leader. Earlier in the day, officers raided the homes and offices of several people purportedly involved in the case, including a four-star army general. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing involving the gifts. A Federal Police officer said the force is seeking authoriziation to access the personal banking and financial information of Bolsonaro. The officer, who spoke on
August 12, 2023A 3-year-old child riding one of Texas’ migrant buses died while on the way to Chicago, officials said Friday, the first time the state has announced a death since it began shuttling thousands of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border last year. Texas authorities confirmed a child’s death in a statement Friday but did not say where the child was from or why they became ill. The Illinois Department of Public Health said the child was 3 years old and died Thursday in Marion County, in the southern part of that state. “Every loss of life is
August 12, 2023An Alabama boat co-captain was hanging on “for dear life” as men punched and tackled him on the capital city’s riverfront, he told police after video of the brawl circulated widely online. Dameion Pickett, a crew member of the Harriott II in Montgomery, described the brawl in a handwritten statement to authorities included in court documents, saying he was attacked after moving a pontoon boat a few feet so the city-owned riverboat could dock. Four white boaters have been charged with misdemeanor assault in the attack against Pickett, who is Black, as well as a teen
August 11, 2023Damar Hamlin has reached another major milestone in his return to football. The Bills safety was scheduled to suit up and play in Buffalo’s preseason opener against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday. The game will mark the first time Hamlin has appeared in a competitive setting since going into cardiac arrest and needing to be resuscitated on the field during a game at Cincinnati on Jan. 2. What seemed unfathomable in those frightening first moments, and the nine-day stay in two hospitals that followed, has become a reality for the 25-year-old Hamlin, who put his
August 11, 2023Sloppy mud one day, broiling heat the next. Lucas Glover is playing his best golf no the matter the conditions on the ground or in the air, posting a 6-under 64 on Friday for a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Glover holed three putts longer than 25 feet, one of them for eagle on the par-5 16th, and has made only one bogey through 36 holes going into the weekend of the PGA Tour’s postseason opener at TPC Southwind. It was the 19th time in his last 20 rounds Glover
August 11, 2023A judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit from the state of Utah challenging President Joe Biden’s restoration of two sprawling national monuments in the state that were downsized by President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge David Nuffer said Biden acted within his authority when he issued proclamations restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in 2021. The monuments are on land sacred to many Native Americans. Nuffer said Biden could issue such proclamations creating monuments “as he sees fit” and those actions were not reviewable by the court. The part of southeastern Utah where the two monuments are located has
August 11, 2023A federal judge has set off a debate among legal scholars by ordering lawyers for Southwest Airlines to undergo “religious-liberty training” by a conservative Christian legal group. Critics say that if the judge believes such training is necessary, he should have found a less polarizing group to conduct it. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr made the decision after ruling that Southwest was in contempt of court for defying a previous order he issued in a case involving a flight attendant who said she was fired for expressing her opposition to abortion. She sued Southwest and won. Starr, nominated to the
August 11, 2023A white police officer handcuffed a Black child outside his Michigan home in an “unfortunate case of ‘wrong place, wrong time,’” the Lansing Police Department said Friday. The department posted the explanation on Facebook after cellphone video circulated on social media showing the officer leading the boy — whose hands are cuffed behind his back — through the parking lot of an apartment complex on Thursday. The officer had been searching for a suspect in a string of car thefts when he spotted the child. The boy was identified as 12-year-old Tashawn Bernard during a Friday
August 11, 2023Fox Corp. said Friday that its chief legal officer who oversaw a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation allegations is leaving the company. Viet Dinh, Fox’s chief legal and policy officer, will step down effective Dec. 31, the New York-based company said in a statement. He will remain a “special advisor” to Fox Corp., it added. Fox News, a unit of Fox Corp., agreed to settle the case brought by the voting machine producer in mid-April following weeks of pretrial disclosures that revealed the network had aired false claims about the 2020 U.S.
August 11, 2023Alex Palou has changed his mind — again — and informed McLaren Racing he will not be joining the team at the end of this season. In a letter sent to the Arrow McLaren Racing employees by boss Zak Brown, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, Brown wrote that Palou “has no intention of honoring his contract with our Arrow McLaren IndyCar team for the 2024 season and beyond.” The letter was sent to McLaren employees shortly after Friday’s final IndyCar Series on-track session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Palou last July upended the free agent market
August 11, 2023Kirk Ferentz has known for weeks that several of his Iowa football players were under investigation for illegal gambling. He said Friday at the team’s media day he didn’t know until recently that some were accused of wagering on their own games. “It can’t be compromised, the integrity of the game, that’s first and foremost,” Ferentz said. “That’s got to be protected, and that’s where everything should start.” Former players Arland Bruce IV and Reggie Bracy and current player Jack Johnson were charged Thursday on suspicion of tampering with records to disguise that they were
August 11, 2023For years, Gregg Popovich has eschewed the idea of him being worthy of inclusion in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He felt others were more deserving and worthy of the sport’s highest honor. On Friday, the man whose career has sprouted basketball tenacles that now span the globe was listed among a collection of basketball royalty that underscored his undeniable impact on the game. He can no longer run from the inevitable. Popovich, a five-time NBA champion, Olympic gold medal-winning coach and the league’s all-time leader in coaching wins, will join fellow NBA champions Dwyane
August 11, 2023Baltimore Orioles broadcaster Kevin Brown says all is well between him and team management. Brown posted on social media on Friday in his first public comments since he reportedly was pulled from the air in late July over comments regarding the team’s poor record at Tampa Bay before this season. The Orioles have said Brown will be back on the air soon. “O’s fans — I’m a storyteller. And never want to be a part of the story,” Brown posted on Friday. “The most compelling story in baseball right now is the story of the league-leading Baltimore
August 11, 2023A federal appeals court on Friday granted a motion to dismiss a challenge to construction permits for a controversial natural gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia after Congress mandated that the project move forward. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, sided with lawyers from Mountain Valley Pipeline in dismissing challenges to the project by environmental groups over concerns about the pipeline’s impact on endangered species, erosion and stream sedimentation. The U.S. Supreme Court last month allowed construction to resume. Work had been blocked by the 4th Circuit, even after Congress ordered
August 11, 2023Bryce Harper flexed his legs, his shoulders, doing all he could to stay in the game for the Philadelphia Phillies. But back spasms forced the slugger out of one game, and he will have to sit out for at least one more. Harper was not in the lineup for Friday night’s game against Minnesota, a day after the two-time NL MVP was sidelined by mid-back spasms. There was some good news for the NL champion Phillies as they try to keep the top spot in the NL wild-card race: Harper is day to day and shouldn’t miss
August 11, 2023Amazon is rolling out a new generative AI feature that summarizes product reviews for customers. The feature, which the company began testing earlier this year, is designed to help shoppers determine at a glance what other customers said about a product before they spend time reading through individual reviews. It will pick out common themes and summarize them in a short paragraph on the product detail page. The company wrote in a blog post published Monday that the AI-generated reviews are now available to a subset of mobile shoppers in the U.S. across a “broad” selection of products. And it
August 11, 2023An immigrant cook building a new life. A widow preparing to say goodbye. And a couple taking their vows. All were caught in the crossfire, forced to flee as flames swallowed parts of Maui, that drop in the Pacific where roads wind past waterfalls, turtles glide through gem-blue waters and a volcano towers overhead. These are the stories of the survivors: ___ By the time Marlon Vasquez heard the alarms, there was only time to run. The 31-year-old cook shouted for his brother and opened the door of their Lahaina rental home to thick smoke and intense heat. “The fire
August 11, 2023Preakness officials say they are considering moving the second Triple Crown race back to four weeks after the Kentucky Derby instead of two weeks later, which would change the timing that has been in place for decades. Aidan Butler, CEO of 1/ST Racing, which owns and runs Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore where the Preakness is run, said it’s necessary to take a close look at making changes. “Discussion around spacing out the schedule of the Triple Crown is nothing new, and we believe the time has come to advance those discussions to the next step,” Butler said in a
August 11, 2023Melissa Crick was heartbroken this week while watching videos on her phone of people fleeing from a fast-moving wildfire in Hawaii. “Sending love and support from Paradise, California,” Crick commented on one woman’s social media post. To Crick’s surprise, the woman wrote back. She knew Paradise — the small Northern California city in the Sierra Nevada foothills that was mostly destroyed by a wildfire in 2018. The woman told Crick her support meant a lot to her. “That was a really heavy moment,” Crick told The Associated Press. Lahaina, Hawaii, is a tropical paradise on the
August 11, 2023Jennifer Lawrence’s R-rated comedy “No Hard Feelings” and the more family friendly animated movie “The Monkey King” from director Stephen Chow are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a Harlan Coben TV adaptation with a young protagonist, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier’s third studio album and sweet Marcie, the introverted member of the “Peanuts” gang gets a special, “Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie.” NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — Parents looking for fresh animated offerings should rejoice that Netflix has a
August 11, 2023Former big league slugger José Bautista signed a one-day contract so he could retire with the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, one day before his name is added to the team’s level of excellence. The 42-year-old Bautista played for eight teams during 15 seasons in the majors, making his final appearance with Philadelphia in 2018. He hit .247 with 344 homers and 975 RBIs in 1,798 games. “I think everybody knew for a while that I had been retired, but this is a way to make it official,” Bautista said Friday. Pittsburgh’s 20th round pick in the
August 11, 2023A total overhaul of bus routes for Louisville’s school district turned into a logistical meltdown on the first day of classes because the new plan created too steep a learning curve for the system, district officials said Friday, forcing administrators to cancel two days of classes and leaving parents and state legislators fuming. It took just one disastrous day for Jefferson County Public Schools leaders to completely reexamine the transportation plan for Kentucky’s largest district, which serves 96,000 students. Some kids arrived home hours late on Wednesday, and classes were canceled Thursday and Friday. “We are
August 11, 2023A Southern California judge was charged Friday with murder in the shooting death of his wife and 47 weapons were seized from the house, authorities said. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 72, was arrested last week after his adult son called 911 to report his mother, Sheryl Ferguson, had been shot at the family’s home in the upscale neighborhood of Anaheim Hills, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. He was released a day later on $1 million bail. Prosecutors want additional bail conditions because authorities recovered 47 weapons and more than
August 11, 2023New versions of the Mustang muscle car will begin shipping next week and more than two thirds of the orders include the big, 5-liter V-8 engine, Ford said Friday. Demand for roaring engines remains strong in an era when Detroit automakers are starting to phase out the rumbling gas burners and transition to electric vehicles in order to meet strict government emissions and fuel economy requirements. There are about 13,000 U.S. orders for the 2024 Mustangs, Ford says, which also can be equipped with a four-cylinder turbocharged engine. Of those orders, 67% have the V-8, and more
August 11, 2023While technology experts sound the alarm on the pace of artificial-intelligence development, philanthropists — including long-established foundations and tech billionaires — have been responding with an uptick in grants. Much of the philanthropy is focused on what is known as technology for good or “ethical AI,” which explores how to solve or mitigate the harmful effects of artificial-intelligence systems. Some scientists believe AI can be used to predict climate disasters and discover new drugs to save lives. Others are warning that the large language models could soon upend white-collar professions, fuel misinformation, and threaten national security. What philanthropy can do
August 11, 2023With the Paris Olympics coming up next year, U.S. women’s water polo coach Adam Krikorian is feeling the pressure of time. As in not enough of it. There is history at stake, too. No water polo team — men or women — has won four straight gold medals at the Games. The U.S. women, led by Maggie Steffens, have won three in a row, but there are signs that the American grip on the sport is weakening. “To be quite frank, this team isn’t as good. They hate it when I tell them that, but it’s the truth,” Krikorian said
August 11, 2023If elephants are really known for their sense of direction, what are nine of them doing in the heart of Brussels, seemingly lost between the gothic and baroque houses lining the UNESCO-protected Grand Place? As of Friday, nothing is quite what it seems as the Belgian capital celebrates the nation’s love of surrealism. The nine life-sized wooden elephants were brought in from the Verbeke art center about an hour’s drive north of Brussels to be the prime attraction of Flowertime, a biennial festival highlighting the nation’s fling with flowers. Only this time, surrealism adds a twist. And
August 11, 2023The United Nations said Friday that five staff members who were kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago have walked free. In a brief statement, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said all “available information suggests that all five colleagues are in good health.” Haq named the freed men as Akm Sufiul Anam; Mazen Bawazir; Bakeel al-Mahdi; Mohammed al-Mulaiki; and Khaled Mokhtar Sheikh. All worked for the U.N. Department of Security and Safety, he said. “The secretary-general reiterates that kidnapping is an inhumane and unjustifiable crime, and calls for the perpetrators to be
August 11, 2023American golfer Ally Ewing stretched her lead to five strokes midway through the second round of the Women’s British Open after shooting a 6-under 66, the low score among the early starters at Walton Heath on Friday. The 39th-ranked Ewing, who is seeking her first major title, led by one shot after a first-round 68 and pulled further clear by making five birdies in her front nine — including four straight from No. 6. She rolled in more birdies at Nos. 11 and 16, only to make her first bogey of the day at the last
August 11, 2023Russia fired missiles at western Ukraine that killed an 8-year-old boy, local officials said, and drones that Russian officials blamed on the Ukrainian military targeted Moscow for a third straight day but reportedly didn’t cause significant damage. Also Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the firing of all the heads of regional military draft boards, part of his crackdown on corruption since the outbreak of Russia’s war in Ukraine more than 17 months ago. The missile that killed the boy struck a house In western Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk region, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Polish
August 11, 2023A man in Bosnia killed his ex-wife, whose murder he posted live on Instagram, and two other people while on the run before taking his own life on Friday, according to police and media reports. A police statement in the northeastern Bosnian town of Tuzla said that apart from the three killed, three other people were wounded before the killer “committed suicide after being located and before being apprehended.” Police did not immediately offer any more details. The man, identified by Bosnian media as Nermin Sulejmanovic from the northeastern Bosnian town of Gradacac, first posted an
August 11, 2023Britain is removing 39 asylum seekers from a barge moored in southern England after environmental samples showed legionella bacteria in the water system. The move came just days after the men were moved to the floating hostel amid government efforts to reduce the cost of sheltering the growing number of people seeking asylum in Britain. The government expects the Bibby Stockholm to house up to 500 adult males. “As a precautionary measure, all 39 asylum seekers who arrived on the vessel this week are being disembarked while further assessments are undertaken,’’ the Home Office, which deals with
August 11, 2023A Paris prosecutor opened a preliminary judicial investigation on Friday for unvoluntary manslaughter aggravated by breach of safety rules, after a fire left 11 dead at a vacation home housing adults with disabilities in eastern France. Wednesday’s fire killed 10 adults with slight intellectual disabilities and one person accompanying them. The judicial investigation will seek to determine the cause of the blaze, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office. It comes after the discovery that required safety standards weren’t met at the private vacation house in the Alsacian town of Wintzenheim. “The first investigations led to
August 11, 2023Giannis Antetokounmpo will not play for Greece at the Basketball World Cup that starts later this month, with the Milwaukee Bucks star saying Friday he and his medical advisers decided that he’s simply not ready to compete. Antetokounmpo had surgery on his left knee earlier this summer. Greece will play the U.S., Jordan and New Zealand in group-stage games at Manila in the tournament, which starts Aug. 25 in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan. “Everyone knows my passion and love for my national team has and never will change,” Antetokounmpo wrote in a statement Friday. “Since the conclusion of my
August 11, 2023Wholesale price increases in the United States picked up slightly in July yet still suggested that inflationary pressures have eased this year since reaching alarming heights in 2022. The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers— rose 0.8% last month from July 2022. The latest figure followed a 0.2% year-over-year increase in June, which had been the smallest annual rise since August 2020. On a month-to-month basis, producer prices rose 0.3% from June to July, up from no change from May to June. The producer price figures
August 11, 2023Severe floods in China’s northern province of Hebei brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri this month killed at least 29 people and caused billions of dollars in economic losses, its provincial government said Friday. Official news agency Xinhua reported that rescue crews were still searching for 16 missing people as of Thursday and the province’s reconstruction is expected to take two years to complete. Initial estimates showed the province’s direct economic losses amounted to 95.8 billion yuan ($13.2 billion), state media China News Service said. Last week, Hebei was hit by serious flooding as the remnants of
August 11, 2023One camper, from Oakland, California, has a white Jewish mother and a father who is Black and Muslim. Another was adopted in Uganda by a white Jewish woman; they now live in Montana. Like many of the young people who shared challenges and adventures with them this summer, they grew up often feeling like outliers — and then found a near-magical comfort zone at Camp Be’chol Lashon in the rolling hills of California’s Marin County. Its founders say it’s the only sleepaway summer camp specifically serving Jewish children of color, creating a safe space for candid
August 11, 2023India’s government on Friday introduced a bill in Parliament that seeks to replace a British colonial-era sedition law with its own version. The provision dealing with sedition — actions aimed at encourage people to be or act against a government— was imposed by the British in 1860 to repress India’s freedom fighters. India won independence from the British colonialists in 1947, but continued to use the sedition law. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s critics accused his government of using the sedition charge to label dissenting citizens as disloyal toward the country. If convicted, a person could be
August 11, 2023Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique still hopes Kylian Mbappé will stay at the club despite an ongoing transfer standoff, but wouldn’t comment on Neymar’s future as the Brazil forward moves closer to a possible departure. Neither Mbappé nor Neymar took part in PSG’s training session on Friday, parts of which were open to the media. The club said Neymar trained alone indoors away from his teammates because of a viral infection. Mbappé has trained apart from PSG’s first-team regulars all week after making it clear he wants to play out the final season of his contract and
August 11, 2023The family of a U.S. publishing executive killed in a boating incident in southern Italy is urging Italian authorities to fully investigate the death and hold accountable anyone responsible. “We are cooperating with the Italian authorities in their investigations, and will continue to do so until they conclude,” said the statement late Thursday to The Associated Press by Mike White, husband of Adrienne Vaughan, on behalf of their family. Vaughan, the 45-year-old president of Bloomsbury Publishing’s U.S. branch, was killed Aug. 3 when the rented motorboat her family had hired slammed into a chartered sailboat off the
August 11, 2023China has detained a worker from a military industrial group on suspicion of spying for the CIA, national security authorities said Friday, adding to the list of public accusations of espionage between Beijing and Washington. The Ministry of State Security, the country’s civilian spy agency, said in a statement that a military industrial worker surnamed Zeng had been providing military secrets to the CIA in exchange for large sums of money. The 52-year-old suspect had been sent to Italy to study by his employer. There, he met “an official with the U.S. embassy,” who later turned
August 11, 2023Poland’s ruling party leader said Friday that Polish voters will be asked to decide whether they support the sell-off of state-owned enterprises in a referendum, saying it would be about “whether the wealth of generations will remain in Polish hands.” The move came as the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, stepped up its attacks on the main opposition leader, Donald Tusk, ahead of parliamentary elections in the fall, which the president scheduled this week for Oct. 15. Law and Justice has for some time expressed a wish to hold a referendum on the topic of
August 11, 2023Sweden first knocked off the United States and then bounced Japan to snag a spot in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup. The Swedes, the World Cup runners-up in 2003 and three-time third-place finishers, eliminated previously unbeaten Japan 2-1 in Friday’s quarterfinal. With Japan out of the lineup, this year’s World Cup will crown a first-time winner. The sold-out crowd at Eden Park, where Sweden will play in the semifinals on Tuesday against Spain, danced to songs by Swedish rock band Abba as it was played throughout the stadium after the win. Amanda Ilestedt
August 11, 2023Australia will try to avoid the host team curse by avoiding elimination in the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup. The Matildas have co-hosted this tournament with New Zealand, but the Football Ferns failed to advance out of group play. Australia is still playing and faces France on Saturday in Brisbane, Australia, for a spot in the semifinals. But tournament hosts have always struggled to make it past the quarterfinals, starting with China in the inaugural 1991 tournament, then Sweden in 1995, Germany in 2011, Canada in 2015 and finally France in 2019. France was
August 11, 2023More evacuations were being considered Friday in southeastern Norway, where the level of water in swollen rivers and lakes continued to grow after days of torrential rain. Huge amounts of water, littered with broken trees, debris and trash, were thundering down the usually serene rivers. It flooded abandoned houses, left cars coated in mud and swamped camping sites. One of the most affected places was the town of Hønefossen where the Begna river had gone over its banks and authorities were considering moving more people downstream for fear of landslides. Up to 2,000 people have already
August 11, 2023Makkabi Berlin’s first game ever ended in a 15-1 loss in the city’s humblest soccer league. The result of that 1971 match was secondary, though, as merely playing was an achievement for the team founded by Holocaust survivors. “We wanted to show that we’re still here — that we’re accepted, that we weren’t ended in 1933,” co-founder Marian Wajselfisz told The Associated Press. He still laughs about the result. On Sunday, Makkabi will be the first Jewish club to play in the German Cup, a season-long tournament for 64 of the country’s best professional and amateur sides.
August 11, 2023Tensions are escalating between Niger’s new military regime and the West African regional bloc that has ordered the deployment of troops to restore Niger’s flailing democracy. The ECOWAS bloc said on Thursday it had directed a “standby force” to restore constitutional order in Niger after its Sunday deadline to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum expired. Hours earlier, two Western officials told The Associated Press that Niger’s junta had told a top U.S. diplomat they would kill Bazoum if neighboring countries attempted any military intervention to restore his rule. It’s unclear when or where the force will
August 11, 2023Chinese tech giant Huawei on Friday reported its revenue rose 3% over a year earlier in the first half of 2023 and its profit margin widened despite sanctions that block access to U.S. processor chips and other technology. China’s first global tech brand has responded to U.S. curbs that devastated its smartphone brand by increasing emphasis on selling network gear to hospitals, ports, electric car brands and other industrial customers it believes will be less vulnerable to sanctions. Revenue in the six months ending in June rose 3.1% to 310.9 billion yuan ($43.1 billion), Huawei Technologies Ltd.
August 11, 2023UBS said Friday it has shut down rescue packages agreed with Swiss authorities that made available up to 200 billion Swiss francs (about $230 billion) to help shepherd through its takeover of ailing rival Credit Suisse and avert an international banking crisis. The Zurich-based banking giant, which completed the takeover on June 12, said it had moved to “voluntarily terminate” rescue programs that aimed to help mop up billions of losses and provide liquidity to the banks as they moved forward on the complex deal. UBS said it had repaid 50 billion francs in loans from the
August 11, 2023Nearly two months after a dilapidated fishing trawler crammed with people heading from Libya to Italy sank in the central Mediterranean, killing hundreds, relatives are still frantically searching for their loved ones among the missing and the dead. Many questions remain about Greek authorities’ response and exactly how and why the boat, carrying an estimated 500-750 people mostly from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt, capsized and sank in the early hours of June 14 in what became one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. Only 104 people were pulled from the sea alive — all
August 11, 2023Former South African President Jacob Zuma was taken back to prison on Friday after his parole was ruled invalid, only to be released again within two hours under a new program to reduce overcrowding in jails. The move raised more questions over whether the 81-year-old is receiving preferential treatment to avoid serving out a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. The remissions program was authorized by President Cyril Ramaphosa and made public for the first time Friday. While it aims to release more than 9,400 inmates from jail and put them under correctional supervision at home, Zuma
August 11, 2023Gunmen have ambushed a bus carrying Syrian soldiers in the country’s east, killing at least 20 and wounding others, opposition activists said Friday. The Thursday night attack was believed to be carried out by members of the Islamic State group whose sleeper cells in parts of Syria still carry deadly attacks despite their defeat in 2019. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 23 Syrian soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded in the attack on a desert road near the eastern town of Mayadeen in Deir el-Zour province that borders Iraq. Another activist collective that
August 11, 2023The British economy unexpectedly grew in the second quarter of the year largely as a result of a strong rebound in June when many businesses, particularly in the leisure sector benefited from the warm and settled weather, official figures showed Friday. The Office for National Statistics said the economy expanded by 0.2% in the April to June period, compared with the three-month period. That was higher than the 0.1% recorded in the first quarter and ahead of economists’ expectations for no change. The positive outcome was due to a 0.5% monthly increase in June when pubs and
August 11, 2023China, Iran and Russia are engaged in foreign interference in New Zealand, the nation’s domestic intelligence agency said Friday after making its threat assessment report public for the first time. In the report, Director-General of Security Andrew Hampton said the Security Intelligence Service sees enormous value in sharing more of its insights publicly. The agency had previously taken a secretive approach. It decided to change course after it and other agencies were criticized for focusing too much on the perceived threat from Islamic extremism and being blindsided when a white supremacist shot and killed 51
August 11, 2023Bangladesh is struggling to deal with higher casualties and infections from dengue this year, with officials warning that the death toll this month could break records. The government’s Directorate General of Health Services reports the 2023 death toll from the mosquito-born illness has reached 364 in the south Asian country. More than 78,000 people have been infected since January this year, it said. Officials warn that the number of deaths and infections this month could set a new, grim record. In the first 10 days of August, more than 23,000 people were diagnosed with dengue, compared to
August 11, 2023Weeks after its international launch, Worldcoin is drawing the attention of privacy regulators around the world, with the Kenya’s government going so far as to shut down the service indefinitely. The international ID startup, backed by big names in Silicon Valley, is now having to defend itself in investigations over whether the biometric data that the company is collecting is truly secure. Here’s what to know about Worldcoin and the concerns its raising: WHAT IS WORLDCOIN? Worldcoin is the creation of Sam Altman, best known as the CEO of OpenAI, the company that has gained widespread
August 11, 2023Asian stock markets declined Friday after U.S. inflation edged higher, fueling unease about the outlook for the biggest global economy. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney declined. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday. Oil prices edged lower. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained less than 0.1% on Thursday after government data showed consumer prices rose 3.2% in July. That was higher than the previous month but below forecasts. Traders hope the data will persuade the Federal Reserve that inflation that peaked above 9% last year is under control and no more interest rate hikes are
August 11, 2023Maui residents who made desperate escapes from flames, some on foot, asked why Hawaii’s famous emergency warning system didn’t alert them as fires raced toward their homes, in interviews at evacuation centers Thursday. Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that the warning sirens were triggered before a devastating wildfire killed at least 53 people and wiped out a historic town, officials confirmed Thursday. Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain. But many of Lahaina’s
August 11, 2023The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the state’s ban on the sale or possession of the type of semiautomatic weapons used in hundreds of mass killings nationally. In a 4-3 decision Friday, the high court found that the Protect Our Communities Act does not violate the federal Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law nor the state constitution’s bar on special legislation. The court also decreed that state Rep. Dan Caulkins, a Decatur Republican, and like-minded gun-owners who brought the lawsuit had earlier waived their claims that the law infringes on the Second Amendment to
August 11, 2023Retired mailman and Vietnam veteran Thomas Leonard lived in the historic former capital of Hawaii for 44 years until this week, when a rapidly moving wildfire burned down his apartment, melted his Jeep and forced him to spend four terrifying hours hiding from the flames behind a seawall. “I’ve got nothing left,” Leonard said Thursday as he sat on an inflatable mattress outside a shelter for those who fled the blaze that decimated the town of Lahaina. “I’m a disabled vet, so now I’m a homeless vet,” he added with a small laugh. The fire that
August 11, 2023Members of Ethiopia’s LGBTQ+ community say they face a wave of online harassment and physical attacks and blame much of it on the social media platform TikTok, which they say is failing to take down posts calling for homosexual and transgender people to be whipped, stabbed and killed. A local LGBTQ+ support group, House of Guramayle, said that some TikTok users are also outing Ethiopians by sharing their names, photographs and online profiles on one of the country’s most popular social media platforms. In Ethiopia, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
August 11, 2023It was a funeral no one had envisaged: Sadig Abbas’ lifeless body was lowered hastily into a shallow unmarked grave in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, not long after dawn. Even the few family members and neighbors who could attend were distracted, scouring the cemetery’s surroundings for warnings of incoming fire, recounted Awad el-Zubeer, a neighbor of the deceased. Thankfully, none came. Nearly four months of violent street battles between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have made funerals a near impossibility in Khartoum. Amid the chaos, residents and local medical
August 11, 2023The brazen assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio at a crowded political rally Wednesday night deepened the country’s sense of vulnerability to the crime that’s spread across the country in recent years. After multiple threats for his stance against drug trafficking and corruption, Villavicencio was under the watch of police and private security guards. His shooting death has focused global attention on his country’s wave of violent deaths, which began about three years ago, and the connection between organized crime and other powerful interests there. HOW WAS VILLAVICENCIO THREATENED? He said during his campaign that
August 11, 2023The fast-moving wildfires that raked Maui this week took a heavy toll on humans and property, killing at least 53 people and devastating the historic town of Lahaina. But their effects on the landscape and environment in Hawaii are also expected to be significant. Experts say the fires are likely to transform the landscape in unwanted ways including hastening erosion, sending sediment into waterways and degrading coral that is critically important to the islands, marine life and the humans who live nearby. A look at some of those potential impacts: CORAL The wildfires struck Hawaii just as Jamison Gove, a
August 11, 2023Seattle wide receiver Cade Johnson was taken to a hospital during halftime of the Seahawks’ preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night to be evaluated for head and neck injuries. The Seahawks said Johnson was placed on a backboard as a precaution and transported to Harborview Medical Center. The team said he was in stable condition. Johnson was attended to in the medical tent behind the bench for several minutes late in the first half by Seattle’s training staff and medical personnel. He was placed on a backboard, loaded onto a stretcher, taken across the
August 11, 2023FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is returning to New York City for a court hearing Friday that could decide whether the fallen cryptocurrency wiz must go to jail while he awaits trial. Prosecutors have asked a judge to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail, claiming he tried to harass a key witness in his fraud case. His lawyers insist he shouldn’t be jailed for trying to protect his reputation against a barrage of unfavorable news stories. The 31-year-old has been under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, since his December extradition from the Bahamas on charges
August 11, 2023Ecuador’s transformation into a major drug trafficking hub and the ensuing three-year surge of violence is weighing on the nation following the killing of a presidential candidate whose life’s work was to fight crime and corruption. Six Colombian men were arrested Thursday in connection with the fatal shooting of Fernando Villavicencio a day earlier in the capital, Quito. He was not a front-runner in the race, but his assassination in broad daylight less than two weeks before the special presidential election underscored the challenge Ecuador’s next leader will face in any attempt to curb gangs and
August 11, 2023Salma Paralluelo scored deep in extra time to give Spain a 2-1 win over Netherlands on Friday and send the sixth-ranked nation into the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup for the first time. The teenager struck late of an tight clash between European heavyweights whose men’s teams already have storied World Cup histories. Netherlands lost the final to the United States in France four years ago, and now both teams have exited the tournament. The 19-year-old Paralluelo made her break down the left, pivoted momentarily and from a difficult angle launched a left-foot shot
August 11, 2023Georgia’s new offensive coordinator is hardly a stranger. Mike Bobo played quarterback for the Bulldogs back in the 1990s. He worked on Mark Richt’s coaching staff for more than a decade, including a lengthy stint calling the plays. Despite all that familiarity, Bobo might be under more scrutiny than anyone associated with the two-time defending national champs. His task is straightforward yet daunting: Keep Georgia’s offense rolling toward an unprecedented third straight title. “We know this job has pressure,” Bobo said after practice Thursday. “I’ve sat in this chair and felt those pressures, but I’m older
August 11, 2023Flights and trains resumed and power was mostly restored Friday after a tropical storm blew through South Korea, which was preparing a pop concert for 40,000 Scouts whose global Jamboree was disrupted by the weather. Much of Khanun’s damage was concentrated in the country’s southern and eastern regions, where several cities and towns saw 30 to 40 centimeters (12 to 16 inches) of rain. Dozens of houses and buildings were damaged, roads were closed and at least one death was reported. Khanun had weakened by the time it arrived in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan
August 11, 2023C.J. Stroud had a short and at times shaky NFL debut, Davis Mills threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to rookie Tank Dell and the Houston Texans beat the New England Patriots 20-9 in the teams’ preseason opener Thursday night. Stroud, drafted second overall out of Ohio State, played the first two series and went 2 of 4 for 13 yards with an interception. He rushed twice for 6 yards and was sacked once. Mills — who started 15 games last season — took over for Stroud and finished 9 of 12 for 99 yards while playing
August 11, 2023Michael Lorenzen will get some extra rest after pushing himself beyond his usual limits while throwing a no-hitter. The 31-year-old Phillies right-hander threw a career-high 124 pitches in his no-no against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night. Lorenzen was making his first home start for Philadelphia, which acquired the All-Star in a trade with Detroit. Lorenzen won’t pitch again until Aug. 18 at Washington. Philadelphia has been going with a six-man rotation to reduce starters’ workload, and the club has two days off next week. Lorenzen said Thursday his arm hurt “10 percent more so” than it
August 11, 2023Leaders of a forum on Florida’s new standards for teaching Black history encouraged parents to let their discontent be heard by showing up at local school board meetings, sending feedback to the state’s Department of Education and voting. Hundreds of lawmakers, teachers and parents crowded into Antioch Baptist Church in Miami Gardens on Thursday night to discuss the new policy, which has drawn harsh criticism for requiring teachers to instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” But Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, the
August 11, 2023Jordan Spieth kept a clean card and clean pants, even without having to roll them up to his calves on a rain-soaked course. He opened with a 7-under 63 on Thursday for a one-shot lead in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Spieth chipped in for eagle and made a key par putt on the 17th to take his first 18-hole lead on the PGA Tour since the Sony Open in January. He missed the cut the next day in Honolulu. That won’t be possible at the TPC Southwind — the 70-player field has no cut. The
August 10, 2023An armed Utah man killed by FBI agents after making violent threats against President Joe Biden was described by his family Thursday as a gun enthusiast and devoted churchgoer who became distraught over what he saw as “a corrupt and overreaching government.” The family insisted in a statement that Air Force veteran Craig Deleeuw Robertson would not have acted on the threats and committed violence over political disagreements, despite court records in which prosecutors depicted him as radicalized. Robertson, who public records say was 74 years old, was killed Wednesday by agents trying to serve a
August 10, 2023Singapore-based Maxeon Solar Technologies plans to build a major solar panel manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, pending approval of a loan application with the U.S. Department of Energy, the company announced Thursday. The factory would employ about 1,800 people to provide photovoltaic solar panels for use in for residential, commercial and utility-scale solar arrays. Maxeon said annual panel production would be capable of generating three gigawatts of electricity — more than any existing silicon-solar facility in the U.S. About six gigawatts of solar panels were installed nationwide in the first three months of 2023, according to
August 10, 2023Attorneys for an Atlanta-based venture capital firm being sued over a grant program for Black women vowed Thursday to fight back against the lawsuit, calling it misguided and frivolous. At a New York news conference, the attorneys also announced that prominent civil rights lawyers, including Ben Crump, would join the defense for the Fearless Fund, which was founded in 2019 by three Black women. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, was brought by a nonprofit founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, the man behind the Supreme Court cases that led to the dismantling of
August 10, 2023A 17-year-old was indicted on a hate-crime murder charge in a stabbing that followed taunts and confrontation over a group of men dancing shirtless to Beyoncé as they gassed up their car, prosecutors said Thursday. Prosecutors concluded O’Shae Sibley’s death was motivated by anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ bias, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. “It’s clear to me, under the circumstances of this case, that in substantial part, this attack was caused because people were offended by Mr. Sibley and his friends dancing and celebrating,” Gonzalez said. The suspect is due in court Friday to answer the
August 10, 2023Laboring to breathe, West Virginia coal miner Terry Lilly told federal regulators Thursday he is appreciative the U.S. government is finally considering a proposal to limit the poisonous rock dust causing a severe resurgence of black lung. But Lilly said the rule — a half-century in the making — will mean nothing if there aren’t strict enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure companies comply. “Cheating the samples is what we need to stop. If we can stop this, we can save some lives,” said Lilly, asking officials to excuse him as a took a pause to
August 10, 2023Like a scene out of a horror movie, Michelle Lespron returned to her Tucson, Arizona, home to find a snake had set up camp in her toilet. “I’d been gone for four days and was looking forward to using my own restroom in peace. I lifted up the lid and he or she was curled up,” Lespron told The Associated Press. “Thank God the lid was closed.” The hiss-sterical encounter happened July 15. But Lespron has been getting messages from family, friends and even people she went to high school with since Rattlesnake Solutions, a Phoenix-based
August 10, 2023A new commercial ferry line moving through Central America began operating Thursday, directly connecting El Salvador and Costa Rica to the exclusion of Nicaragua and Honduras. The Blue Wave Harmony sailed out of La Union, El Salvador, headed for Caldera, Costa Rica, a trip that its backers say will save shipping time, avoid border closures and eliminate delays at two extra border crossings between the two countries. Officials launching the new service in El Salvador were diplomatic, avoiding direct references to the increasingly authoritarian government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Federico Anliker, president of
August 10, 2023It’s not easy picking a preseason Top 25. Take it from voters in The Associated Press poll. Unlike the regular season, when the panel of 63 writers and broadcasters from around the country judge teams on week-to-week performances and bodies of work, the preseason poll that will be released Monday at noon Eastern is based on the voters’ collective best guess on how teams stack up 1 through 25. “I take it very seriously, and I probably do more work than I should,” said Austin American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls, who has voted every year since at least 1990. “I don’t
August 10, 2023While rescue and emergency operations continued Thursday at the deadly wildfires that swept across the Hawaiian island of Maui, many people are already looking for ways to support the response and provide relief to those affected. The full extent of the damage and the recovery needs may not be known for up to a week, said Regine Webster, vice president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and she urged people to be patient before deciding where to give their support. “You literally have to wait for the firefighters to complete their work before that damage assessment can be fully realized,”
August 10, 2023Federal investigators said Thursday that miscommunication between pilots led to a United Airlines plane diving within 748 feet of the ocean’s surface shortly after takeoff from Hawaii in December. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a final report that the crew failed to manage the plane’s path, airspeed and nose direction after the mix-up between the captain and co-pilot. After a normal takeoff during heavy rain, the captain asked the co-pilot, or first officer, to reset the wing flaps, but the co-pilot heard “15” instead of “five,” according to the NTSB. The Boeing 777 climbed above 2,200 feet (670
August 10, 2023Nick Kyrgios pulled out of the U.S. Open on Thursday, meaning he will have missed all four Grand Slam tournaments the year after reaching his first major final. Kyrgios has played in just one official singles match all season — a loss in Stuttgart, Germany, in June. Soon after that, he withdrew from Wimbledon, citing a wrist injury. It was at the All England Club in 2022 that Kyrgios turned in his best run at one of the sport’s four most important events, finishing as the runner-up to Novak Djokovic. Then, at the U.S. Open a year ago, Kyrgios made
August 10, 2023A civil suit can continue against a former Mississippi deputy who pleaded guilty on Aug. 3 to torturing two Black men and shooting one of them in the mouth, with the suit alleging the deputy is also responsible for the death of another Black man in 2021. In a Wednesday ruling, Rankin County Circuit Judge Brad Mills allowed claims of excessive force to move forward against Hunter Elward, a member of a group of corrupt law officers who called themselves the “Goon Squad,” a moniker they adopted because of their penchant for violent tactics. Monica Lee
August 10, 2023A federal appeals court has ruled that drug users shouldn’t automatically be banned from having guns, marking the latest sign of upheaval in the nation’s firearm legal landscape and raising questions about a law cited in the case against Hunter Biden. The opinion overturns the conviction of a Mississippi man, Patrick D. Daniels of Gulfport, who had two guns found in his car during a traffic stop last year and acknowledged using marijuana regularly but wasn’t accused of driving under the influence. The appeals court cited the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as New York State
August 10, 2023A seasoned mountain guide and two clients in their 60s were roped together when they died while traversing a treacherous ridge in the Scottish Highlands over the weekend, British media reported Thursday. Police reported the deaths early in the week, but have not identified the victims. The Scottish Sun said Thursday that Dave Fowler, 39, head of West Coast Mountain Guides, was leading the man and woman on the notoriously difficult scramble along Aonach Eagach, which is one of the narrowest ridge crests in Britain. The group failed to return Saturday night and searchers found the bodies
August 10, 2023The poverty rate in Mexico has declined from 49.9% of the population in 2018 to 43.5% in 2022, according to a study published Thursday by the country’s poverty analysis agency. The study by the agency, known as Coneval, showed a decline in a key measure of poverty over the four-year period. The reduction means there were 5.7 million fewer people who reported incomes below the market basket for basics like food and clothing. It was unclear what was behind the reduction in poverty. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in December 2018, and since then
August 10, 2023Iowa will attempt to set the all-time women’s basketball attendance record when it hosts DePaul in an outdoor exhibition at 69,000-seat Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 15, the school announced Thursday. “I know if anyone can do it, Hawkeye fans can and will,” coach Lisa Bluder said. The state of Iowa has a long history of supporting girls and women’s basketball. The Hawkeyes were second nationally in attendance last season with an average of 11,143 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The women’s basketball attendance record of 29,619 was set in the 2002 national title game between Connecticut and
August 10, 2023The head of this year’s U.N. global climate summit urged more availability of funds to fight climate change in the Caribbean during a regional meeting Thursday in Barbados. Sultan al-Jaber, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of industry, noted that high costs have prevented island nations from quickly adopting renewable energy as they face what he said was some of the world’s harshest climate impacts. “The peoples of the Caribbean have been on the front lines of climate change for longer than most,” he said. “Your experience represents an early warning system for the rest
August 10, 2023A self-proclaimed white supremacist was arrested Thursday on charges that he made online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the U.S. Justice Department said. Hardy Carroll Lloyd of Follansbee, West Virginia, is accused of sending threatening social media posts and emails along with comments on websites about the trial of Robert Bowers. In addition, Lloyd, 45, allegedly was responsible for stickers placed in predominantly Jewish areas of Pittsburgh directing people to a website containing his threats and antisemitic messages, the Justice Department
August 10, 2023The Detroit police chief said he’s setting new policies on the use of facial-recognition technology after a woman who was eight months pregnant said she was wrongly charged with robbery and carjacking in a case that was ultimately dismissed by prosecutors. The technology, which was used on images taken from gas station video, produced leads in the case but was followed by “very poor” police work, Chief James White said. “We want to ensure that nothing like this happens again,” White said Wednesday. His comments came two days after the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan announced
August 10, 2023The U.N. Security Council will hold its first open meeting on North Korea’s dire human rights situation since 2017 next week, the United States announced Thursday. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk and Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. independent investigator on human rights in the reclusive northeast Asia country, will brief council members at the Aug. 17 meeting. “We know the government’s human rights abuses and violations facilitate the advancement of its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles program,” Thomas-Greenfield said, adding that the Security Council “must address
August 10, 2023Northern Ireland’s top police officer apologized Thursday for what he described as an “industrial scale” data breach in which the personal information of more than 10,000 officers and staff was released to the public. The incident is particularly sensitive given the delicate security situation in Northern Ireland, which is still trying to overcome decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles.” Twenty-five years after a peace agreement largely ended the violence, many police officers continue to shield their identities because of continuing threats from dissident elements of the republican and unionist communities. Chief Constable Simon Byrne told
August 10, 2023Iran has transferred five Iranian-American from prison to house arrest, U.S. officials said Thursday, a move coming as Tehran for months has suggested a prisoner swap was possible between it and Washington in exchange for billions of dollars frozen in South Korea. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the move. The possibility of the complicated, multinational deal comes amid months of heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. A major American military buildup in the Persian Gulf is underway, with the possibility of armed U.S. troops boarding and guarding commercial ships traveling through the crucial
August 10, 2023The plan was for Chloe Dygert to win the world championship in the time trial, then carry that momentum toward the Summer Olympics, where the American road cycling star would be the favorite to win the gold medal. That was three years, a career-threatening crash and immeasurable heartache ago. Perhaps Dygert’s plan will come to fruition this time. Despite dealing with an illness that might have kept her off the start line a day earlier, Dygert roared over the 36.2-kilometer course to Stirling Castle in a time of 46 minutes, 59.80 seconds Thursday. That was enough to hold off Australia’s
August 10, 2023The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate rose this week to just under 7%, the latest setback for would-be homebuyers already facing affordability challenges due to a housing market limited by a shortage of homes for sale. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose to 6.96% from 6.90% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.22%. It’s the third consecutive weekly increase for the average rate, which now matches its high for the year set on July 13. High rates can add hundreds of dollars a
August 10, 2023The Ecuadorian presidential candidate who was fatally shot at a political rally was unafraid to take on criminal networks and a political elite he accused of corruption at the hands of organized crime. Fernando Villavicencio, who was a journalist before entering politics, waged a yearslong battle against the forces that he saw transforming Ecuador, including crime that had seeped into nearly every aspect of life, from street robbery to cocaine trafficking and corrupt government contracting. Among the 59-year-old’s biggest scoops as a journalist was reporting on a trove of documents that pointed to inflated prices, shoddy
August 10, 2023Phil Mickelson has wagered more than $1 billion over the last three decades and wanted to place a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup while playing for Team USA, according to a much-anticipated book by renowned gambler Billy Walters. The stunning betting estimates Walters provides — from his own detailed record from what he describes as two reliable sources — are detailed in an excerpt of Walters’ book, “Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk.” It is schedule to be available Aug. 22. The FirePit Collective obtained an excerpt of the book. Mickelson’s management group did not immediately respond
August 10, 2023The Mississippi Supreme Court says it will not remove NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre as a defendant in a civil lawsuit that seeks to recover millions of dollars of misspent welfare money meant to help some of the poorest people in the United States. A panel of three justices issued a brief ruling Wednesday, denying an appeal from Favre. His attorneys said in written arguments in May that the Mississippi Department of Human Services is making “utterly meritless” legal arguments in suing the retired quarterback. On April 24, Hinds County Circuit Judge Faye Peterson denied
August 10, 2023Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered an indefinite suspension of 22 major land reclamation projects in Manila Bay to allow a study of their environmental impact and legal compliance, an official said Thursday. Marcos’s order came after the United States expressed public concern over environmental damage from the projects and the involvement of a Chinese company which was blacklisted by Washington for its role in building militarized Chinese island bases in the South China Sea that further stoked tensions in the contested waters. The heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in Manila sits on the edge of
August 10, 2023The crack of a summer thunderstorm once comforted people in Ludlow, Vermont. But that was before a storm dropped eight inches of rain on the village of 2,200 in two days last month. And it was before the devastation of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Now a coming rainstorm can stir panic. “We could lose everything again,” said Brendan McNamara, Ludlow’s municipal manager. The rainfall that walloped Vermont last month hit Ludlow so hard that floodwaters carried away cars and wiped out roads. It sent mud and debris into homes and businesses and forced officials to
August 10, 2023One of the world’s biggest law firms said Thursday it is separating from the Chinese firm that was part of its global network for eight years, citing changes in cybersecurity and other rules that have rattled foreign companies. The decision by Dentons follows warnings by business groups that global companies are postponing or shifting investment away from China due to concern about an expanded anti-espionage law, tighter controls on business, a data security crackdown and raids on foreign consulting firms. Dentons said it was separating from Beijing Dacheng Law Offices due to changes in cybersecurity and data
August 10, 2023The federal government is shutting down the harvest of a species of marine invertebrate in a national wildlife refuge during the spawning season to try to give the animal a chance to reproduce. Fishermen harvest horseshoe crabs so the animals can be used as bait and so their blood can be used to make medical products. Conservationists have long pushed to limit the harvest of the animals, in part because horseshoe crab eggs are vitally important food for migratory birds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a ruling on Monday that calls for the end of horseshoe crab harvesting
August 10, 2023On plateaus overlooking the Uinta Basin’s hills of sandstone and sagebrush, pumpjacks bob their heads as they lift viscous black and yellow oil from the earth that will eventually make everything from fuel to polyester fabric. To move fossil fuels from the Uinta Basin’s massive reserve to refineries around the country, officials in Utah and oil and gas companies are chugging along with a plan to invest billions to build an 88-mile (142-kilometer) rail line through national forest and tribal land that could quadruple production. The Uinta Basin Railway would let producers, currently limited to tanker
August 10, 2023The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits jumped last week, but not enough to raise concern about the consistently strong U.S. labor market. U.S. applications for unemployment benefits rose by 21,000 to 248,000 for the week ending August 5, from 227,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most in five weeks. The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile reading, ticked up by 2,750 to 228,250. Jobless claim applications are viewed as broadly representative of the number of layoffs in a given week. Overall, 1.68 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that
August 10, 2023Tapestry, parent company of luxury handbag and accessories retailer Coach, is buying the owner of fashion brands including Michael Kors, Versace and Jimmy Choo, Capri Holdings. The approximately $8.5 billion deal puts Tapestry in a better position to take on its big European fashion rivals. U.S. fashion houses have been attempting to take on powerhouses in Europe like LVMH and Kering. Tapestry Inc., whose brands also include Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, said Thursday that the combined company had global annual sales of more than $12 billion and has a presence in more than 75 countries.
August 10, 2023Dissipating smoke and ash revealed the sheer devastation that a wildfire left behind in Lahaina Town, one of Hawaii’s most historic cities and onetime capital of the former kingdom. At least 36 people were killed and hundreds of structures were damaged or destroyed in the blaze that sparked Tuesday and quickly spread throughout the western Maui community of less than 13,000 residents. It’s feared that the fire consumed much of historic Front Street, home to restaurants, bars, stores and what is believed to be the United States’ largest banyan — a fig tree with roots that
August 10, 2023Required safety standards weren’t met at a vacation home for adults with disabilities where a heavy fire left 11 dead in eastern France, a deputy prosecutor said Thursday. A day earlier, the fire killed 10 adults with slight intellectual disabilities and one person accompanying them. Nathalie Kielwasser, the deputy prosecutor of Colmar, said the first phase of the investigation shows that a mandatory safety inspection for such private accommodation facility had not been done. Speaking on French news broadcaster BFM TV, she said the fire started from the upper floor, but its cause has not been determined.
August 10, 2023China accused Washington on Thursday of trying to block its development after President Joe Biden stepped up a feud over technology and security by tightening controls on U.S. investments that might help Beijing develop its military. The Foreign Ministry accused the Biden administration of pursuing “technology hegemony” and demanded Washington “immediately revoke its erroneous decision.” It warned that the latest restrictions in a spreading conflict over Beijing’s industrial development would hurt global supply chains. An order signed by Biden on Wednesday targets advanced computer chips, micro electronics, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence. The order says it
August 10, 2023A British man was killed amid violent protests in the South African city of Cape Town after the vehicle he was riding in drove into the midst of some of the unrest. The 40-year-old man was sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle when he was shot in the head, South African police said. Two other passengers and an infant were also in the vehicle. The passengers were taken to a hospital for medical treatment, police said. South African police said they opened a murder case over the shooting, which happened last week
August 10, 2023People in Norway prepared Thursday for more flooding and destruction Thursday as rivers swollen by days of heavy rain carried large amounts of water through the country’s mountainous southeast, where vast areas were either inundated or hit by landslides. Thousands of people living near waterways were evacuated, their houses emptied and cars moved to higher ground. There had been fears that a train bridge over the Lågen River would collapse because of the large volume of water, but railway officials said Thursday that it was now stable. All traffic across the bridge was halted Monday. On
August 10, 2023Malaysia’s government said Thursday that all Swatch products that contain lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer elements — including watches, wrappers and boxes — were banned, warning that anyone found with one could be jailed for up to three years. The ban has been published in the Federal Gazette — which makes it official — as part of a printing law that includes distribution and possession, citing concerns that such products were detrimental to the nation’s morality. Malaysia, which is predominantly Muslim, already criminalizes same-sex relationships, with punishments ranging from caning under Islamic laws to
August 10, 2023It’s dreary and raining in “the CBD” of Auckland, 11 a.m. on Tuesday in the thick of New Zealand winter. A video conference connects with Scott Dixon, who has called from his home in Indiana, in the stickiness of a Midwest summer, where it is 6 p.m. on Monday. Dixon grew up in Auckland until his racing dreams took him to Australia at age 16. And then two years later, accidentally, all the way to America. It is in the United States where Dixon has a two-plus decade run as the greatest IndyCar driver of
August 10, 2023Ethiopia’s government and residents say the country’s military recaptured several areas in the embattled Amhara region from local militia fighters as details of dozens of civilian deaths began to emerge from the region amid an internet shutdown. The military reclaimed control of six towns, including the regional capital, Bahir Dar, and Amhara’s second-largest town, Gondar, according to a government statement issued Wednesday night. The statement said a curfew was imposed in those areas but flights were set to resume. The federal government declared a state of emergency in Amhara on Friday after regional authorities lost control
August 10, 2023Egypt’s annual inflation rate reached a record high in July, as price hikes continue unabated in the cash-strapped North African country, official figures said Thursday. Consumer prices rose 38.2% from a year earlier, up from 36.8% in June, according to data released by the state-run Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics. Average food and beverage prices, the main drivers of inflation, increased 68.2% over the past 12 months, the agency’s data showed. Egyptians, particularly working-class households, are struggling to keep up with the rising prices, which have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Egypt is the
August 10, 2023Russian air defense systems on Thursday shot down two drones heading toward Moscow for the second straight day, officials said, with the attack disrupting flights at two international airports as Ukraine appeared to step up its assault on Russian soil. One drone was downed in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow and another near a major Moscow ring road, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin and the Russian Defense Ministry, which blamed the attack on Ukraine. No casualties or damage were immediately reported. Domodedovo airport, south of the city, halted flights for more than two hours and
August 10, 2023West African heads of state are scheduled to meet Thursday after Niger’s military junta defied their deadline to reinstate the nation’s deposed president, but analysts say the Economic Community of West African States may be running out of options as support fades for a military intervention. As Niger’s junta turns away most efforts at mediation, one analyst asserted that Russian meddling in the country has spiked in the two weeks since mutinous soldiers overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who has refused to step down and is under house arrest. The junta announced a new government
August 10, 2023Asian benchmarks mostly fell Thursday after shares declined on Wall Street and investors braced for a highly anticipated United States inflation report. Later in the day, the U.S. government will give its monthly update on the inflation that consumers are experiencing. Economists expect to see an acceleration to 3.3% in July from 3% in June. Tina Teng, markets analyst at CMC Markets, called the looming update “a pivotal event for global markets.” Inflation in China also remains a huge concern. “A slowdown in consumer spending and high-interest rates remain issues for the global economy,” said Teng. Japan’s
August 10, 2023Japan has hardly been tested in this Women’s World Cup and rolled with a perfect 4-0 record into the quarterfinals, where a win over Sweden would show the Nadeshiko are very much a true contender. But Friday’s opening day of the quarterfinals also gives Netherlands an opportunity to take control of a wide-open World Cup. The Dutch were runners-up to the United States four years ago, and the Americans beat them in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics. With the U.S. already eliminated, Netherlands has a major obstacle out of its way. But first up
August 10, 2023The Czech power utility CEZ said on Thursday its net profit in the first half of 2023 reached 22.3 billion Czech crowns ($1 billion), down from 33.6 billion in the same period a year ago. The country’s main electricity producer said it attributed the 34% decline to a windfall tax on profits introduced as prices for energy soared. The Czech state, which has an almost 70% stake in the company, will receive up to 120 billion Czech crowns from CEZ this year in dividends, income taxes and levies on production sales, including a windfall tax, the company
August 10, 2023It’s a nearly $3 billion attempt to mimic Mother Nature: Massive gates will be incorporated into a section of a flood protection levee southeast of New Orleans to divert some of the Mississippi River’s sediment-laden water into a new channel that will guide it into southeast Louisiana’s Barataria Basin. If the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project works as intended, the solids in the river water will settle out in the basin and gradually restore land that has been steadily disappearing for decades. State coastal officials call it a first-of-its-kind project they are certain will work, even as
August 10, 2023The sky was dark from smoke and were flames racing through the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina when Kamuela Kawaakoa got back to his apartment after a quick dash to the supermarket for water. He, his girlfriend and their 6-year-old son grabbed a change of clothes and ran as the bushes around them caught fire. At least six people were killed when wildfires, whipped by strong winds from Hurricane Dora passing far to the south, took the island of Maui by surprise, leaving behind burned-out cars on once busy streets and smoking piles of rubble where
August 10, 2023Food service workers at a Las Vegas Strip arena demanding higher pay and better benefits are set to rally Thursday evening beneath the glittery lights of the famed tourist corridor amid ongoing negotiations for a union contract. The Culinary Workers Union, a political powerhouse in Nevada, said in a statement ahead of the rally that servers, dishwashers, cooks and bartenders who work at T-Mobile Arena have been locked in contract negotiations for nearly a year with their employer, Levy Premium Food Service. The workers say they want a fair contract that will ensure “one job is
August 10, 2023Shohei Ohtani left the mound muttering to himself after his 97th and final pitch ended the sixth inning. He even unleashed a yell of frustration when he reached the dugout steps. On a night that drained him physically and mentally, the Angels’ two-way superstar fought through fatigue to victory — and even made one more bit of baseball history. Ohtani allowed one unearned run over six innings of three-hit ball, and he earned his 10th victory of the season after Mike Moustakas hit a tiebreaking three-run homer in Los Angeles’ 4-1 win over the San Francisco
August 10, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his military to sharpen its war plans and signed off on expanding combat operations of frontline units, state media said Thursday, as the United States and South Korea prepare for a large-scale combined military exercise. Condemning the allies’ expanding drills as invasion rehearsals, Kim has used them as a pretext to further accelerate his weapons demonstrations, which have included the testing-firings of more than 100 missiles since the start of 2022, driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula to their highest point in years. Experts say Kim’s nuclear push
August 10, 2023When philosophy professor Darren Hick came across another case of cheating in his classroom at Furman University last semester, he posted an update to his followers on social media: “Aaaaand, I’ve caught my second ChatGPT plagiarist.” Friends and colleagues responded, some with wide-eyed emojis. Others expressed surprise. “Only 2?! I’ve caught dozens,” said Timothy Main, a writing professor at Conestoga College in Canada. “We’re in full-on crisis mode.” Practically overnight, ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots have become the go-to source for cheating in college. Now, educators are rethinking how they’ll teach courses this fall from Writing 101 to computer
August 10, 2023Kyle Dubas had just completed the biggest trade of the NHL offseason, landing defenseman Erik Karlsson in a three-team deal that furthers the Pittsburgh Penguins’ desire to win now, when he was asked if other moves might be in store. The team’s new general manager and president of hockey operations said he thinks he’s done this summer. Still, he acknowledged: “You can never make any promises. You always want to try and improve the team.” Rival GM Brian MacLellan of the Washington Capitals is still busy working the phones, not giving up on the hope of landing a top-six forward
August 10, 2023Michael Lorenzen threw the 14th no-hitter in Philadelphia Phillies history, a dazzling performance in only his second start with his new team, which beat the Washington Nationals 7-0 on Wednesday night. The 31-year-old Lorenzen (7-7) struck out five, walked four and improved to 2-0 since he was acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline for a minor leaguer. Lorenzen retired Lane Thomas on a grounder to open the ninth and struck out Joey Meneses looking. The crowd of 30,406 erupted when Lorenzen retired Dominic Smith on a flyball on his career-high 124th pitch to end his first
August 10, 2023An Ecuadorian presidential candidate known for speaking up against corruption was shot and killed Wednesday at a political rally in the capital, an attack that comes amid a wave of startling violence in the South American country. President Guillermo Lasso confirmed the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio and suggested organized crime was behind his slaying. Villavicencio was one of eight candidates in the Aug. 20 presidential vote, though not the frontrunner. “I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso said in a statement. “Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the
August 10, 2023South Korean officials evacuated thousands of coastal residents Thursday as a powerful tropical storm started to pummel the country’s southern regions. The Korean Meteorological Administration said Khanun will make landfall soon and likely pound the country with intense rains and winds while slowly plowing through the Korean Peninsula for hours, with its eyes brushing the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area where half of South Korea’s 51 million people live. The storm’s strength is expected to be diminished when it moves on to North Korea early Friday, but forecasters said the greater Seoul area would still
August 10, 2023Michael Lorenzen has not allowed a hit through seven innings Wednesday for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Washington Nationals. The right-hander has struck out four and walked four. He has thrown 100 pitches, 60 for strikes. The Phillies lead 6-0. Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Weston Wilson homered in his first major league plate appearance. The 31-year-old Lorenzen was an All-Star this season for Detroit before the Phillies acquired him at the trade deadline for a minor leaguer. He promptly threw a season-high eight innings of two-run ball in his Phillies debut last week. Lorenzen spent much of
August 10, 2023California regulators are poised to decide whether two rival robotaxi services can provide around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco, despite escalating fears about recurring incidents that have caused the driverless vehicles to block traffic or imperil public safety. If the state’s Public Utilities Commission approves expansions sought by robotaxi services Cruise and Waymo in a vote scheduled Thursday, San Francisco will become the first major U.S. city with two fleets of driverless vehicles competing for passengers against ride-hailing and taxi services dependent on humans to operate the cars. It’s a distinction San Francisco officials don’t want, largely
August 10, 2023Generational talents Marta, Christine Sinclair and Megan Rapinoe have all played in their final Women’s World Cup and are leaving the game in a much different place than when they started. Joining them in the group of players ending their international careers is Estefania Banini of Argentina, who said it’s time to make way for younger players. Caroline Seger of Sweden is still playing in the tournament, but she has already said that it will be her last. “It’s emotional. Those are some of the greatest football players of all time, players that I’ve looked
August 09, 2023A dangerous mix of conditions appear to have combined to make the wildfires blazing a path of destruction in Hawaii particularly damaging, including high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation. Experts also say climate change is increasing the likelihood of more extreme weather events like what’s playing out on the island of Maui, where at least six people have been killed and a historic tourist town was devastated. “It’s leading to these unpredictable or unforeseen combinations that we’re seeing right now and that are fueling this extreme fire weather,” said Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British
August 09, 2023Washington State athletic director Pat Chun blasted the “poor leadership” that has led the Pac-12 to the brink of extinction on Wednesday and said the Cougars have earned the right to be part of a Power Five conference as the chances of that happening appeared unlikely. Meanwhile, Pac-12 members California and Stanford have been looking for an escape hatch to a Power Five league, reaching out to officials with the Big Ten and its schools even as the Atlantic Coast Conference ponders building out a West Wing, too. Two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that
August 09, 2023Weston Wilson braved a blood clot in his shoulder that derailed his career, endured a year out of pro ball and survived a stint driving for a food service — oh, and all 2,836 minor league plate appearances — to finally get the call to the big leagues. And on the third pitch Wilson saw in his first big league at-bat, the Philadelphia Phillies’ left fielder socked one into the seats in left-center. Yes, a home run, in front of teary members of his family at Citizens Bank Park. The whole group celebrated a long-awaited milestone for
August 09, 2023The agreement the United Nations reached with Syria to reopen the main border crossing from Turkey to its rebel-held northwest for six months “safeguards” the independence of U.N. operations and allows it to provide aid to all parties, the U.N. said Wednesday. The agreement, which was announced Tuesday night, will reopen the Bab al-Hawa crossing, which had been used for 85% of deliveries to the northwest Idlib region, home to about 4.1 million people. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the U.N. is ready to resume operations through Bab al-Hawa as soon as possible but it
August 09, 2023The foundation that supports Texas A&M athletics announced Wednesday it is closing the branch set up for donors to support endorsement deals for Aggies athletes, an effort that has pushed the boundaries of how closely a school’s traditional fundraising and booster groups could get involved in payments to players. The 12th Man Foundation said it will still engage in name, image and likeness activities with Aggies athletes using “unrestricted donations.” But it noted “external advisers” recommended shutting down the 12th Man+ Fund, which had just been launched in February. The foundation cited a June memo from the Internal Revenue Service
August 09, 2023Nearly four months of brutal fighting is driving Sudan to collapse with millions of people trapped in a “humanitarian calamity” and the possibility of a new ethnic conflict spilling into the region, U.N. officials said Wednesday. The dire briefings to the U.N. Security Council by Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee and the U.N. humanitarian agency’s operations director, Edem Wosornu, painted a grim picture of escalating clashes and no sign of an end to the conflict, which the government said in June had killed more than 3,000 people. No figures have been released since then. Wosornu said the
August 09, 2023Inflation in the United States likely rose in July for the first time in 12 months, driven higher by more expensive gasoline and suggesting that the fight against rising prices may prove bumpier in the months ahead. The inflation report the government will issue Thursday is expected to show that consumer prices increased 3.3% from 12 months earlier. That would mark an uptick from a 3% year-over-year increase in June — the lowest such figure in more than two years. On a month-to-month basis, consumer prices are thought to have risen 0.2% from June to July, the
August 09, 2023Jennifer Valente already had become the most decorated American track cyclist in history at this year’s world championships, winning a gold medal in the scratch race and a bronze medal in the elimination race to give her 19 medals for her career. Valente capped her week in Glasgow, Scotland, on Wednesday by making that total a nice, round — and golden — number. The Olympic champion in the multi-event omnium, Valente built a substantial lead over the first three of four races, leaving her only to keep track of her closest pursuers in the concluding points race. When Amalie Dideriksen
August 09, 2023A Utah school district has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of a Black, autistic 10-year-old girl who killed herself after being harassed by her classmates. The family of Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor blamed her death in 2021 on an inadequate response by school officials to reports that the girl was being bullied over her race and disabilities. The Davis School District announced the settlement on Tuesday. The lawsuit said that Izzy, the only Black student in her class, was bullied by students at North Salt Lake’s Foxboro Elementary School by classmates who called
August 09, 2023Northwestern athletic director Derrick Gragg blasted assistant football coaches and staff members for wearing shirts supporting fired coach Pat Fitzgerald at practice Wednesday, calling them “inappropriate, offensive and tone deaf” given the hazing and abuse scandal engulfing the program and other teams. “Let me be crystal clear,” he said in a statement. “Hazing has no place at Northwestern, and we are committed to do whatever is necessary to address hazing-related issues, including thoroughly investigating any incidents or allegations of hazing or any misconduct.” Gragg said he and the university were unaware that they owned the black
August 09, 2023Three months since construction began on their new stadium, the Buffalo Bills are already facing a potential cash crunch with latest projections having the team on the hook for as much as $300 million in cost over-runs, four people with direct knowledge or briefed on the financial details told The Associated Press this week. What was initially listed to cost $1.4 billion in March 2022, and increased to $1.54 billion months later, is now projected to have jumped to $1.65 billion and approaching $1.7 billion, the people told The AP on the condition of anonymity
August 09, 2023Norfolk Southern made improvements after one of its trains derailed, caught fire and spilled toxic chemicals near an Ohio town, but the company is nowhere near the “gold standard for safety” it is striving to be, according to federal regulators. Instead, the railroad is too often only willing to meet minimum safety requirements. The Federal Railroad Administration released its 143-page report on the Atlanta-based railroad’s safety culture Wednesday. The agency has been working on the report for months since thousands of people had to evacuate their homes after the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment. Poor communication and
August 09, 2023MLS fans will have to wait a little longer for Lionel Messi’s first regular-season match with Inter Miami CF. Miami’s Aug. 20 match against Charlotte FC would have been Messi’s first in MLS play, but it was postponed to an unspecified date after both clubs advanced to the Leagues Cup quarterfinals. Inter Miami will face Charlotte in the quarterfinals Friday at DRV PNK Stadium. One of the two clubs will play in either the final or third place match on Aug. 19. Messi’s first MLS match now is expected to be Saturday, Aug. 26, at the New York Red Bulls.
August 09, 2023With thousands of migrants still arriving in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday renewed his appeal to the federal government to help the city avert a budgetary crisis as expenses mount — now projected at $12.2 billion by the end of next year — because of the influx of people coming from the southern U.S. border seeking temporary care and shelter. “Our compassion may be limitless, but our resources are not. This is the budgetary reality we are facing if we don’t get the additional support we need,” Adams said during an address that
August 09, 2023At least 27 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have died in recent days in the country’s western desert near the border with Tunisia, Libyan authorities said. In a statement posted on Facebook, Libya’s Interior Ministry said late Tuesday the bodies were discovered recently near the border and that a forensic team had been deployed to the area. In the same post, the ministry published pictures of African migrants receiving treatment from Libyan medical teams. Mohamed Hamouda, a spokesperson for the Libyan government, on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of the bodies to The Associated Press, but declined to provide
August 09, 2023Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa urged thousands of his supporters at a rally on Wednesday to deliver a “thunderous victory” in this month’s national election and proclaimed that “no one will stop us from ruling this country.” He said that people who vote for his ruling ZANU-PF party — which has been in power for 43 years —would go to heaven. Mnangwagwa, the 80-year-old leader who assumed power in the southern African nation in a coup in 2017, also warned his supporters against engaging in violence in the buildup to the Aug. 23 vote. That plea came
August 09, 2023Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters. RESIDENTS TO BE ALLOWED BACK IN TO HARD-HIT LAHAINA Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Lahaina residents will be allowed to return Friday to check on their property and that people will be able to get out, too, to get water and access other services. An official announcement
August 09, 2023Ron Rivera said Wednesday he spoke to Eric Bieniemy about his comments that some Washington Commanders players expressed concern over the new offensive coordinator’s coaching style, apologizing for the remarks that put him in hot water around the NFL. Rivera attempted to clarify what he said about players coming to him to ask about Bieniemy’s vocal approach on the practice field. “I basically told him I put my foot in my mouth,” Rivera said. “I think what I said wasn’t as clear as it needed to be. And I think the understanding of it is just
August 09, 2023The United Nations’ human rights chief on Wednesday warned that Iraq’s water crisis could affect other countries in the region. Severe water shortages in Iraq because of climate change and government mismanagement have destroyed wheat and fruit harvests, and killed off fish and livestock. Humanitarian organizations have warned for years that drought and mismanagement could deprive millions of people of water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, which also run through neighboring war-torn Syria. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk made the comments at a news conference in Baghdad following a four-day visit to the
August 09, 2023Hanging up that phone call? The location of Apple’s red end-call button is set to slightly move with upcoming iOS 17 updates to the phone app, so be wary of your thumb’s muscle memory. As iPhone users know, the “End” button currently sits prominently away from other call options, in a center position towards the bottom of the screen. But with iOS 17, which officially launches this fall, the red icon will move the right — and other features will move down to join it. While a iOS 17 preview guide from Apple showed this new
August 09, 2023Back to full health, Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday the PGA Tour is on the right path to finalize a deal with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf. Whether he’s the best person to lead the tour will be measured by results of the surprise agreement. “I am confident when we complete this process, this will be a rewarding result for PGA Tour players and the fans,” Monahan said in a roundtable media discussion. He spoke publicly for the first time since returning to work July 17, having stepped away for five weeks with what had
August 09, 2023Waves of severe thunderstorms in the U.S. during the first half of this year led to $34 billion in insured losses, an unprecedented level of financial damage in such a short time, according to Swiss Re Group, as climate change contributes to the frequency and severity of violent meteorological events. Damages from convective storms in the U.S., those that can come with hail, lightning, heavy rain and high winds, accounted for nearly 70% of the $50 billion in global catastrophic damages so far this year, the reinsurer said Wednesday. Those global figure includes earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The storms
August 09, 2023The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide against ethnic Armenians in its Nagorno-Karabakh region and called for the U.N. Security Council to bring the matter before the international tribunal. A report by Luis Moreno Ocampo issued Tuesday said Azerbaijan’s blockade of the only road leading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh seriously impedes food, medical supplies and other essentials to the region of about 120,000 people. “There is a reasonable basis to believe that a genocide is being committed,” Ocampo’s report said, noting that a U.N. convention defines genocide as
August 09, 2023Indian lawmakers Wednesday approved a data protection legislation that “seeks to better regulate big tech firms and penalize companies for data breaches” as several groups expressed concern over citizens’ privacy rights. The legislation will limit cross-border transfer of data and provide a framework for setting up a data protection authority to ensure compliance from tech companies, Information Technology and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. Several opposition lawmakers and digital experts say the legislation would allow the government and its agencies to access user data from companies and personal data of individuals without their consent as well
August 09, 2023Villagers in central England are fuming after one of Britain’s quirkiest pubs burned down and was reduced to rubble by a digger before a fire investigation was completed. The local mayor has joined thirsty regulars from the 18th-century Crooked House pub in the village of Himley, 130 miles (210 kilometers) northwest of London, in pressing for a proper investigation into the events surrounding the pub’s destruction. Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, said Wednesday that local authorities will “get to the truth” and that he will continue to “keep the pressure on for a rebuild”
August 09, 2023Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said Wednesday he’ll retire next summer. The 67-year-old Smith, who has spent the past 18 years at Ohio State leading one of the largest and most successful athletic programs in the country, announced he would step down in July 2024. “I have always believed that a leader seeks to be the right person at the right time in the life of the institution,” Smith said. “I believe that July 2024 is the right time to welcome new leadership to build upon what we have achieved and continue to build upon
August 09, 2023Syrian President Bashar Assad slammed Turkey in comments published Wednesday, blaming Ankara for the uptick in violence in his war-torn country and insisting on the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria. Assad spoke in an interview with Sky News Arabia, his first interview with a foreign media outlet in months. The interview will be fully aired later Wednesday, but Sky News Arabia released some excerpts before the broadcast. Turkey is a main backer of armed opposition fighters who have been trying to remove Assad from power and has carried out three major incursions into northern Syria since
August 09, 2023American nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter were freed Wednesday, nearly two weeks after they were kidnapped in Haiti’s capital, according to aid organization El Roi Haiti. The Christian group founded by Dorsainvil’s husband asked that neither she nor her family be contacted: “There is still much to process and to heal from in this situation,” the group said in a statement. The group added that it confirmed the safe release “with a heart of gratitude and immense joy.” No other details were immediately available, including whether any ransom was paid. The U.S. State Department said
August 09, 2023Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday suspended the top prosecutor in Orlando, again wielding his executive power over local government in taking on a contentious issue in the 2024 presidential race. It’s the second time DeSantis, a Republican, has removed a Democratic state attorney and follows an investigation that began when a teenager was charged with fatally shooting a television reporter and a 9-year-old girl. “It is my duty as Governor to ensure that the laws enacted by our duly elected Legislature are followed,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Tallahassee announcing the suspension of
August 09, 2023Stretching back to 2019, there have been 21 different winners in the last 22 major championships in women’s golf. The field, then, is wide open for the final major of 2023 — even if two players stand out. Celine Boutier and Rose Zhang are dominating the conversation heading into the Women’s British Open starting Thursday at Walton Heath, a course southwest of London that hosted the Ryder Cup in 1981 and where thick heather is the biggest hazard. Boutier because of the golf she is producing at the moment. Zhang because of what’s likely ahead for a 20-year-old star widely
August 09, 2023New U.S. Open tournament referee Jake Garner recalls being a chair umpire and having a tough time figuring out in the moment whether a ball bounced twice before a player got it back over the net. If that happens at Flushing Meadows this year, though, an official can check a replay: Video review will make its Grand Slam tennis debut when main-draw competition begins in New York on Aug. 28. “There were certain situations, of course, where you would see a video post-match and wish you had made a different decision,” Garner told The Associated Press, “or wish you had
August 09, 2023Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds burned multiple structures, forcing evacuations and closing schools in several communities Wednesday, and rescuers pulled a dozen people escaping smoke and flames from the ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard responded to areas where people went into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, Maui County said in a statement. The Coast Guard tweeted that a crew rescued 12 people from the water off Lahaina. A firefighter responding to the West Maui fire was taken to a hospital after experiencing smoke inhalation and was in stable condition, according to
August 09, 2023Senior lawmakers from the United States and Europe are calling for a change in the Western diplomatic approach toward Serbia and Kosovo amid concern that tensions between the two could rapidly spiral out of control. In the letter, signed by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his counterparts in Germany, the U.K., Ukraine and other countries, the lawmakers said U.S. and European Union negotiators were not putting enough pressure on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Serbia and its former province of Kosovo have been at odds for decades. Their 1998-99 war left
August 09, 2023A top Pakistani court Wednesday said it wanted to hear from the government before deciding over former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s appeal against his imprisonment on corruption charges. Khan was arrested at his Lahore home on Saturday and given a three-year jail sentence on charges of concealing assets. He is held at the high-security prison Attock in the eastern Punjab province while his legal team seeks his release. His appeal hearing is underway, but the Islamabad High Court gave Khan no immediate relief and he remains behind bars. The court said it seeks “government response” and would
August 09, 2023United States goalkeeper Matt Turner joined Nottingham Forest from Arsenal for a reported 10 million pounds ($12.75 million) on Wednesday. Turner has signed a four-year deal. He only joined Arsenal in June last year from New England Revolution. The 29-year-old Turner started for the U.S. team in all four of its games at the World Cup last year but only played for Arsenal in cup competitions last season. “It’s a great challenge and a great step in my career,” Turner said. “When I heard that there was interest to bring me here, it just felt right for
August 09, 2023In the early days of hip-hop, plugging turntables into a light post and converting an outdoor basketball court into a discotheque may have seemed like a simple invitation to party. A closer look scene revealed the truth: Hip-hop was a response to social and economic injustice in disregarded neighborhoods, a showcase of joy, ingenuity and innovation despite a lack of wealth and resources. The music emanating from the DJ’s equipment might tell partiers to “move your feet,” and in the very next set, tell them to “fight the power.” Hip-hop has been an integral part of
August 09, 2023It was born in the break, all those decades ago — that moment when a song’s vocals dropped, instruments quieted down and the beat took the stage. It was then that hip-hop came into the world, taking the moment and reinventing it. Something new, coming out of something familiar. At the hands of the DJs playing the albums, that break moment became something more: a composition in itself, repeated in an endless loop, back and forth between the turntables. The MCs got in on it, speaking their own clever rhymes and wordplay over it. So did
August 09, 2023Forty-one people are believed dead after a boat carrying migrants capsized off Tunisia in rough seas, the Italian Red Cross and rescue groups reported, citing four survivors who were rescued and brought to land Wednesday. The survivors reported having left Sfax, Tunisia, on a metal boat with a total of 45 people on Aug. 3. About six hours into their voyage, a huge wave overturned the vessel, RAI state television reported. The Red Cross said in a statement that the four survived using inner tubes and managed to climb onto another empty vessel nearby, evidence of the
August 09, 2023Honda reported Wednesday that its April-June profit more than doubled on healthy sales of its motorcycles and cars, as the Japanese company also received a perk from favorable exchange rates. Honda Motor Co. said its fiscal first quarter profit totaled 363 billion yen ($2.5 billion), up from 149 billion yen. Quarterly sales jumped 21% to 4.6 trillion yen ($32 billion). Honda’s financial service division also reported growing sales. Honda, which makes the Fit subcompact, Honda e electric car and Gold Wing motorcycle, said its profitability improved, especially in North America, where production recovered. Automakers around the world
August 09, 2023India’s top opposition leader unleashed a strong condemnation Wednesday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for its failure to control bloodshed in a remote northeastern state that he said has been split in two. Rahul Gandhi told Parliament that the army would have restored peace in a day, but state authorities have allowed hatred and violence to fester for over three months. He called for the firing of the state government run by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. More than 150 people have died in Manipur and over 50,000 people have fled in fear since
August 09, 2023Nearly 100 Croatian soccer fans appeared in an Athens court Wednesday to face criminal charges that include murder and membership of a criminal organization over their alleged involvement in deadly fan violence. The handcuffed youths — many with their shirts pulled over their heads to hide their identity — appeared before an investigative magistrate a day after a 29-year-old Greek fan was stabbed to death outside AEK Athens’ stadium, prompting the cancellation of a Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb. Court officials said the magistrate issued the blanket charges against all 103 suspects, including 97 Croatian
August 09, 2023Landslides triggered by heavy rain occurred overnight across mountainous southern Norway, with police saying Wednesday that more than 600 people were evacuated in the region north of Oslo. “The situation is still unclear and chaotic,” police in southern Norway said after Storm Hans battered parts of Scandinavia and the Baltics for several days, causing rivers to overflow, damaging roads and injuring people with falling branches. Thousands remained without electricity. In Estonia, approximately 5,000 households remained without power Tuesday. More heavy rain was expected over southern Norway and central Sweden. “It is exceptional to have such a
August 09, 2023Russian air defenses shot down two drones aimed at Moscow overnight, officials said Wednesday, in what they described as Ukraine’s latest attempt to strike the Russian capital in an apparent campaign to unnerve Muscovites and take the war to Russia. The drones were intercepted on their approach to Moscow and there were no casualties, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The Russian Defense Ministry described it as a “terrorist attack.” One of the drones came down in the Domodedovo region south of Moscow and the other fell near the Minsk highway, west of the city, according to Sobyanin.
August 09, 2023French authorities say 11 people are missing after a fire broke out early on Wednesday in a holiday home for people with disabilities in eastern France while 17 others have been evacuated. Interior minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that “early this morning, a fire broke out in a facility for disabled people” in the small town of Wintzenheim, close to the border with Germany. “Despite the rapid and courageous intervention of the fire department … several casualties are reported,” he said. Rescue operations were still ongoing. The local administration of the Haut-Rhin region said the fire broke out
August 09, 2023Nagasaki marked the 78th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city Wednesday with the mayor urging world powers to abolish nuclear weapons, saying nuclear deterrence also increases risks of nuclear war. Shiro Suzuki made the remark after the Group of Seven industrial powers adopted a separate document on nuclear disarmament in May that called for using nuclear weapons as deterrence. “Now is the time to show courage and make the decision to break free from dependence on nuclear deterrence,” Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said in his peace declaration Wednesday, “As long as states are dependent
August 09, 2023Sony’s April-June profit slipped 17% from a year earlier, as worries grew about revenue damage from a strike in the movie sector, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Wednesday. Tokyo-based Sony Corp.’s fiscal first quarter profit totaled 217 billion yen ($1.5 billion), down from 261 billion yen a year ago. Quarterly sales rose 33% to 2.96 trillion yen ($21 billion), as sales for the period grew in games and network services, the music business, financial services and imaging solutions. Sony said its results got a boost from a favorable exchange rate. The yen has been declining
August 09, 2023As a military junta in Niger marked two weeks in power Wednesday, its leaders are appointing a government and rejecting calls for negotiation in what analysts described as an attempt to entrench their power and show that they’re serious about governing the West Africa country in the face of an escalating regional crisis. The junta has named a new prime minister and made a slew of other new cabinet appointments. They also refused to admit meditation teams that planned to come Tuesday from the United Nations, the African Union, and West African regional bloc ECOWAS, citing
August 09, 2023The World Bank said it will not consider new loans to Uganda after the East African country earlier this year enacted an anti-gay bill that rights groups and others have condemned. The World Bank had deployed a team to Uganda after the law was enacted in May and determined that additional measures were necessary to ensure projects align with the bank’s environmental and social standards. “No new public financing to Uganda will be presented to our Board of Executive Directors until the efficacy of the additional measures has been tested,” the World Bank Group said in
August 09, 2023After receiving distressed text messages from a young man worried about the conditions his friend was living in at a social care home in central Romania, Georgiana Pascu arranged an impromptu visit to inspect the facility. “In the beginning, we were quite sure there is nothing there,” said Pascu, program manager at the Center for Legal Resources, a rights group. She said that a day earlier, state authorities had carried out an inspection of the care home for older and disabled people, and no issues had been flagged. But what she and her colleagues uncovered at
August 09, 2023Asian shares mostly fell Wednesday after worries about the U.S. banking system set off a decline on Wall Street and amid concerns closer to home about Chinese economic growth. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.5% to 32,232.60 in afternoon trading. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.3% to 7,329.10. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.3% to 2,606.84. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.3% to 19,134.00, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.4% to 3,247.91. Clifford Bennett, chief economist at ACY Securities, called the export data out of China “rather alarming,” noting it was the sharpest decline in three years and
August 09, 2023Flaming cars, violent clashes, dozens of people detained. As one of the world’s most repressive countries marks 30 years of independence, festivals held by Eritrea’s diaspora in Europe and North America have been attacked by exiles that the regime dismisses as “asylum scum.” People who fled the Horn of Africa nation say the violence against festivals in Germany, Sweden and Canada are protests against a repressive government that’s been described as the “North Korea of Africa.” Some allege that proceeds from festivals might support the government. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Eritrea over the
August 09, 2023The death toll in recent flooding in China’s capital rose to 33, including five rescuers, and another 18 people remain missing, officials said Wednesday, as much of the country’s north remains threatened by unusually heavy rainfall. Days of heavy rain hit areas in the city’s mountainous western outskirts especially hard, causing the collapse of 59,000 homes, damage to almost 150,000 others and flooding of more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of cropland, according to the city government. Scores of roads were damaged, along with more than 100 bridges, Xia Linmao, a Beijing vice mayor, said at a
August 09, 2023Max Scherzer had six strikeouts and pitched three-hit ball over seven innings and the Texas Rangers extended their longest winning streak in seven years to eight games, beating the last-place Oakland Athletics 6-1 on Tuesday night. Scherzer, the three-time Cy Young winner whom the Rangers acquired in a trade from the Mets on July 30, worked efficiently through the worst offense in the majors in front of another sparse crowd of 5,419 at the Coliseum. The 39-year-old right-hander retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced and didn’t allow a hit until JJ Bleday’s leadoff
August 09, 2023Representatives of rainforest nations in Africa and Southeast Asia joined a summit of Amazon countries in Brazil on Wednesday to begin charting a common course for preservation of the ecologically diverse regions that are crucial in countering climate change. On Tuesday, leaders and ministers from eight Amazonian nations signed a declaration that laid out plans to drive economic development in their countries while preventing the Amazon’s ongoing demise “from reaching a point of no return.” Some scientists say that when 20% to 25% of the forest is destroyed, rainfall will dramatically decline, transforming more than half
August 09, 2023Dozens of flights and ferry services were grounded in South Korea on Wednesday ahead of a tropical storm that has dumped rain on Japan’s southwestern islands for more than a week. Khanun’s heavy rains and winds were expected to arrive in South Korea’s southern and eastern regions Wednesday afternoon, South Korea’s weather agency said. It is expected to reach the southern resort island of Jeju hours later and then make landfall near the mainland port of Tongyeong early Thursday. The agency says Khanun could have a punishing impact as it will likely slice through the
August 09, 2023Several Hawaii communities were forced to evacuate from wildfires that destroyed at least two homes as of Tuesday as a dry season mixed with strong wind gusts made for dangerous fire conditions. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles (805 kilometers), was only partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph (97 kph) that toppled power lines, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters. “It’s kind of because of Hurricane Dora, but it’s not a direct result,” said Jeff Powell, a
August 09, 2023The traditional elite have been cut down to size at the Women’s World Cup. That has been the standout theme as a tournament that has already set records for attendance and goals scored enters the quarterfinals stage, and it has made for high drama. “It’s been absolutely incredible and a great testament to some of the work that is happening around the world,” FIFA’s head of women’s football, Sarai Bareman, told The Associated Press. “To see the results of this World Cup brings so much meaning to the work that we do. “It’s really special, not only
August 09, 2023Kyle Tucker’s grand slam off Félix Bautista in the top of the ninth inning gave the Houston Astros a 7-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night. Houston trailed 5-0 after Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman homered off Framber Valdez in the first and second innings, but the Astros pulled off a remarkable comeback in the ninth against arguably the game’s most dominant closer. Pinch-hitter Jon Singleton led off the ninth with a walk, and Jose Altuve followed with a single. Bautista (6-2) struck out Alex Bregman, but Yordan Alvarez came within a few feet of
August 09, 2023Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. was hit on the left elbow by a pitch from Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Colin Holderman in the sixth inning on Tuesday night and left the game. The Braves said X-rays were negative and Acuña is considered day to day. Acuña has been one of the best players in the majors this season, and the Braves brought MLB’s best record into the game. He led off the game with his 26th homer — his 31st career leadoff homer and fifth this season — and went 1 for 3. Acuña is batting .339
August 09, 2023Longtime snowboard coach Peter Foley was suspended by the U.S. Center for SafeSport on Tuesday for sexual misconduct and violating policies at U.S. Ski and Snowboard. Foley’s suspension came after a near 18-month investigation that stemmed from an Instagram post by a former team member during last year’s Winter Olympics. That post led to allegations by others that Foley had molested them, coerced them into taking naked pictures, crawled into bed with them and nurtured an atmosphere in which women were treated as sex objects. A former member of U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s board of directors, Lisa
August 09, 2023WeWork is warning there’s “substantial doubt” about its ability stay in business over the next year because of its financial losses and its need for cash, among other factors. The New York-based workspace-sharing company said Tuesday that its ability to stay in operation is contingent upon its ability to improve its liquidity and profitability over the next 12 months. WeWork went public in October 2021 after a spectacular collapse during its first attempt to do so two years earlier — which led to the ousting of its CEO and founder, Adam Neumann. The company was valued
August 09, 2023Players who reached the knockout round at the Women’s World Cup got larger individual bonuses that are life-changing to many of them. FIFA designated $30,000 for the 732 players among 32 teams in the tournament field. The payout rises to $60,000 for players on the 16 teams that advanced out of group play. The money grows to $90,000 for players in the quarterfinals and its a significant payday for many of the players, particularly those that have had financial disputes with their federations over pay and support. Hildah Magaia, appropriately nicknamed the “Breadwinner” of South Africa’s
August 08, 2023The United States’ hold on the Women’s World Cup is over, and two-time champion Germany also exited the tournament. Olympic gold medalist Canada was bounced, and Marta and her Brazil team were knocked out before she had a chance to become the first player to score in six World Cups. Yes, the heavyweights of women’s soccer have all been eliminated, and yes, it has created a wide-open World Cup. The eight teams that advanced to the quarterfinals represent some traditional powers, one previous World Cup winner and two teams making their debut in the final
August 08, 2023The man accused of killing a 9-year-old Chicago girl who had been riding her scooter outside crossed a street and headed straight toward her in the vestibule of her apartment building before shooting her, prosecutors said Tuesday. Serabi Medina’s father, who had told her to come into the vestibule, shouted at Michael Goodman, but the man ignored him, allegedly raising his arm and shooting Medina in the head Saturday night in the Portage Park neighborhood, prosecutors said during a court hearing. The father tackled Goodman, causing the gun to go off again and striking Goodman in the
August 08, 2023Tampa Bay Rays All-Star left-hander Shane McClanahan’s may not pitch again this season. Rays manager Kevin Cash said before Tuesday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals that McClanahan will have his arm evaluated soon but it is “highy unlikely” that he will pitch again this season. Cash said Tommy John surgery is among the options under consideration. McClanahan, 11-2, left his last start on Aug. 2 in New York against the Yankees with tightness in his left forearm. He pitched four innings and gave up five runs. The 26-year-old has pitched five innings or
August 08, 2023Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency Tuesday, citing an influx of migrants seeking shelter at a time when the cost of housing — already in short supply — continues to rise. There are nearly 5,600 families or more than 20,000 people – many of whom are migrants — currently living in state shelters, including infants, young children and pregnant women. That is up from around 3,100 families a year ago, about an 80% increase, Healey said. Many of the migrants are arriving by plane from other states. In the past 48 hours alone, she
August 08, 2023Auburn fans will once again be able to celebrate victories by rolling the oak trees at Toomer’s Corner with toilet paper. Auburn had asked fans not to roll the new trees after their planting in February 2017 until they were established enough to avoid damage. The trees were removed after being poisoned by Alabama fan Harvey Updyke in 2010. Two new live oaks were planted in 2015 but both were removed after being damaged by fire while celebrating a win over LSU. “The rolling of Toomer’s Corner is one of the nation’s top sports traditions,” Auburn
August 08, 2023Chase Elliott is running out of time. The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, whose year was stunted by a snowboarding accident and hindered by a suspension, needs to win one of the next three races to earn a spot in the playoffs. “It’s the only option,” he acknowledged. On a short week, the series shifts to the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Verizon 200 on Sunday before the regular season closes with races at Watkins Glen and Daytona. Elliott lasted just 34 laps in the FireKeepers 400 at Michigan, where Chris Buescher won
August 08, 2023The Native American Journalists Association is aiming to become more inclusive as its members vote on whether to rebrand as the Indigenous Journalists Association — a move inspired, in part, by evolving trends in cultural identity. The group, with more than 950 members mostly in the United States, is expected to approve the change at its annual conference this week in Winnipeg, Canada. Voting on the new name, as well as branding that would replace a feather with an “ija” logo in stylized letters, runs through Thursday, Aug. 10. Founded in Canada in 1983, NAJA wants to
August 08, 2023The National Basketball Association set a league record for most head coaches of color in the past year, helping it earn high grades in an annual diversity report. The NBA earned a combined grade of A in the 2023 NBA Racial and Gender Report Card released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida on Tuesday. In November 2022, the league reached new all-time highs for head coaches of color (17) and Black head coaches (16). As of the report’s release, the league had 15 head coaches of color. The Milwaukee Bucks
August 08, 2023Atlantic Coast Conference presidents and chancellors held a conference call Tuesday but took no action on West Coast expansion with California and Stanford, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the league isn’t publicly revealing internal discussions regarding realignment. Another person with knowledge of the situation said the conference’s athletic directors were planning to have a call later Tuesday to continue discussions. The ADs also met Monday. The Pac-12 is down to four schools committed to the conference beyond the upcoming school year. This will
August 08, 2023Gently holding a baby hummingbird between her hands, Catia Lattouf says, “Hello, cute little guy. Are you very hungry?” It’s the newest patient at her apartment in a toney section of Mexico City where she has nursed hundreds of the tiny birds back to health over the past decade. Under Lattouf’s caress, the bird relaxes little by little, allowing her to evaluate it. A young man who rescued it after it fell from a nest onto his patio watched attentively. “It is a broad-billed hummingbird,” the 73-year-old Lattouf said, as she moved an eyedropper to its
August 08, 2023Puerto Rico’s capital is renowned for its all-night partying, but a new municipal code is expected to change that. San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero on Tuesday signed a new measure to prohibit alcohol sales after certain hours, saying he was “morally convinced” it was the right thing to do. The new code, scheduled to go into effect in November, is expected to affect hundreds of restaurants and bars across San Juan. It was fiercely debated in recent months, with businesses and Puerto Ricans used to long nights and decades of no oversight decrying the
August 08, 2023The United Nations announced late Tuesday that an agreement had been reached with Syria to reopen the main border crossing from Turkey to its rebel-held northwest for six months. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the “understanding” reached following talks between U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and Syrian officials, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. The agreement will reopen the Bab al-Hawa crossing which has been used for 85% of deliveries to the northwest Idlib region. Haq’s statement followed his earlier announcement Tuesday that Syria has agreed to keep two other crossings to the northwest, Bab al-Salameh
August 08, 2023Myanmar’s military and affiliated militias are committing increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes, including aerial bombings targeting civilians, a group of investigators established by the United Nations said Tuesday. The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, or IIMM, said it found strong evidence during the 12 months ending in June that the army and militias indiscriminately and disproportionately targeted civilians with bombs, mass executions of people detained during operations and large-scale burning of civilian houses. The group, which was established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018 to monitor violations of international law in Myanmar, said it
August 08, 2023There are few places where the debate over school textbooks has gone so ballistic in such a short time as in Mexico, where opponents are hurling cries of “communist” and “fascist’ at each other. The series of about three dozen government-written, free textbooks will be required reading for first through ninth grades in every school nationwide, starting on Aug. 28. News anchor Javier Alatorre claimed the new schoolbooks written by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are trying to inject “the virus of communism” into kids. Government supporters, meanwhile, have compared the opposition to
August 08, 2023Total prize money and player compensation at this year’s U.S. Open tennis tournament will reach a record $65 million, the U.S. Tennis Association said Tuesday, noting that the number is boosted by increases in the amount of expenses covered. Last year’s total payout was about $60 million. Play in the main draws for singles begins on Aug. 28 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and closes with the women’s final on Sept. 10 and the men’s final on Sept. 11. This is the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Open becoming the sport’s first event to pay women
August 08, 2023A judge has sanctioned Southwest Airlines, writing that the airline twisted his words and disregarded his order in the case of a flight attendant who claimed that she was fired for expressing her opposition to abortion. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr found Southwest in contempt for the way it explained the case to flight attendants last year after losing a jury verdict. In a blistering 29-page order, the judge said the airline acted as if its own policy limiting what employees can say is more important than a federal law protecting religious speech. On Monday, the judge
August 08, 2023Survivors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide criticized Tuesday a call by appeals judges at a United Nations court to indefinitely halt the trial of an alleged financer and supporter of the massacre due to the suspect’s ill health. The ruling Monday sends the matter back to the court’s trial chamber with instructions to impose a stay on proceedings. That likely means that Félicien Kabuga, who is nearly 90, will never be prosecuted. His trial, which started last year at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, was halted in June because his dementia left
August 08, 2023Poland’s president announced Tuesday that the country would hold its parliamentary election on Oct. 15, marking the official start of an electoral campaign that informally has been underway for months and is being shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine. President Andrzej Duda said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the elections for the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm, and for the 100-seat Senate will both take place on that Sunday in October. Lawmakers will be elected for a four-year term, and the party with the most votes will be
August 08, 2023Georgia has fired the football recruiting staffer who survived a January crash that killed player Devin Willock and another recruiting staffer, less than a month after she filed a lawsuit against the university’s athletic association. The school issued a statement saying Victoria “Tori” Bowles was dismissed because she refused to cooperate with an internal investigation into the crash. Her attorneys claim she is being retaliated against for filing the lawsuit, which also names former Georgia player and first-round NFL draft pick Jalen Carter. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported Bowles’ firing. The Jan. 15 crash, which occurred
August 08, 2023Eli Lilly’s diabetes treatment Mounjaro, which is widely used for weight loss, raked in nearly $1 billion in second-quarter sales, or more than $200 million above what Wall Street had expected. Shares of the drugmaker soared to an all-time-high early Tuesday after Lilly said Mounjaro sales swelled more than 70% since the first quarter to $980 million. Almost all of that came from the U.S., and the company said significant demand was leading to delays in filling orders for some doses. Analysts expected the drug to bring in about $740 million during the quarter, according to FactSet. The U.S. Food
August 08, 2023Campbell Soup is set to buy Sovos Brands, the maker of Rao’s pasta sauces. In a Monday announcement, the two companies said they had entered an agreement for Campbell’s to acquire Sovos for $23 per share in cash — reflecting a total value of about $2.7 billion. The transaction will help diversify and strengthen Campbell’s Meals & Beverages division, Campbell’s President and CEO Mark Clouse said in a statement. “And paired with our faster-growing and differentiated Snacks division, (the Sovos portfolio) makes Campbell one of the most dependable, growth-oriented names in food,” he added. Besides its
August 08, 2023U.S. regulators are warning airlines to limit the use of an anti-icing system on Boeing 737 Max jets in dry air to avoid overheating engine-housing parts, which could cause them to break away from the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration says the risk to the flying public is serious enough that it will put the order into effect in just 15 days, and without allowing public comment first. The FAA said if the engine inlet gets too hot, parts of the housing could come off and strike a window, causing decompression and a hazard to passengers in window seats. The
August 08, 2023Italian bank stocks plunged Tuesday after the Cabinet approved a proposal to apply a 40% tax on some bank profits this year to help consumers and businesses cope with higher borrowing costs. Transport Minister Matteo Salvini announced the tax at a Monday evening press conference, saying it was a measure of “social equity” to make up for a series of interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank. Those increases are aimed at fighting inflation and make it more expensive for people to get loans to buy homes and cars or for companies to get new equipment
August 08, 2023A generation ago nonprofit organizations regularly lobbied for legislation and served as advocates on issues. But according to a recent survey, charities are now far more reluctant to seek to influence lawmakers and other policymakers. The survey, conducted for Independent Sector, a membership organization of nonprofits and grantmakers, found that less than one-third of nonprofits have actively advocated for policy issues or lobbied on specific legislation over the past five years, down from nearly three-quarters of nonprofits in 2000. And even though nonprofits work on a range of issues that are affected by policy choices, such as funding for the
August 08, 2023The estranged son of Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn visited a daycare center for underprivileged children in Bangkok on Tuesday following a surprise return to the country after 27 years of living abroad. Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse’s return was first revealed in a video posted online Sunday showing him in the arrival area of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport being greeted by well-wishers. His return came at a sensitive time for the Thai royal family, with the eldest daughter of the king being in a coma since December. The 42-year-old, who works at a law firm in New York, is the
August 08, 2023Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed, in part, to take into consideration the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” laws. The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new laws prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed
August 08, 2023Revenue declined at UPS in the second quarter and the package delivery company lowered its full-year revenue expectations by $4 billion as package volumes decline, and after reaching a tentative labor contract reached late last month with its 340,000 unionized workers. Package volume has been in decline for all shippers and fell significantly for UPS during the quarter. Shares for the Atlanta company slid about 5% before the opening bell Tuesday. Domestic revenue slid 6.9% during the quarter as average daily package volume fell 9.9%. The company offset that decline somewhat, however, booking a 3.3% increase in revenue per piece.
August 08, 2023A man was arrested after stabbing another man outside the British Museum in London on Tuesday, police said. The museum, famous for housing the Rosetta Stone, was evacuated but police say there was no additional risk to the public after the isolated incident. The museum reopened in the afternoon with increased security and bag checks. Metropolitan Police said the stabbing occurred near the museum’s entrance. The victim was taken to the hospital with a stab wound and the suspect was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. The British Museum, founded in 1753, is the world’s
August 08, 2023The United Nations World Food Program is slowly resuming food aid to Ethiopia nearly five months after taking the extraordinary measure of suspending aid to millions of people after the discovery of a massive scheme to steal donated grain. WFP said it’s testing small-scale distribution in some areas but acknowledges that the government still plays a role in the process. Critics of the aid suspension, including aid groups and health workers, have called it immoral and alleged that hundreds of people have died of hunger. The United States, however, says its own suspension of food aid
August 08, 2023A 29-year-old fan was killed in overnight clashes between rival supporters in the Greek capital, prompting European governing soccer body UEFA to postpone a Champions League qualifying game between AEK Athens and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday. Eight fans were also injured in the extensive clashes outside AEK’s stadium, while Greek police said they had made 88 arrests, mostly of Croatian supporters. Amateur video of the incident showed chaotic scenes, with fans hurling flares and petrol bombs and clashing with wooden bats. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis to express
August 08, 2023Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. continued to rack up losses for the fiscal first quarter as technology investments soured amid a market downturn. But SoftBank’s April-June red ink, at 477.6 billion yen ($3.4 billion), was smaller than a year ago, when losses totaled 3.16 trillion yen ($22 billion), the Tokyo-based company said Tuesday. Losses came from what SoftBank calls its Vision Funds, as well as from other investments including those in telecommunications in Japan. Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto struck an upbeat tone, stressing that the environment for technology issues was improving. “We must pay attention
August 08, 2023Norwegian authorities warned Tuesday to prepare for “extremely heavy rainfall” in the area after Storm Hans caused two deaths, ripped off roofs and upended summertime life in northern Europe. Strong winds continued to batter the region along with rains, causing a lengthy list of disruptions in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. Ferries were canceled, flights were delays, roads and streets were flooded, trees were uprooted, people were injured by falling branches and thousands remained without electricity Tuesday. In Oslo, officials urged people to work from home Tuesday. On its website, the Norwegian Water
August 08, 2023Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday appealed his conviction and three-year prison sentence in a graft case, a spokesman for his legal team said. Naeem Haider Panjutha, Khan’s lawyer, said the Islamabad High Court will hear the appeal on Wednesday. It’s the latest turn in Khan’s legal drama after being ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. He remains the country’s leading opposition figure and was convicted and jailed Saturday on charges of concealing assets after selling state gifts he received while in power. Panjutha met with Khan in the high-security Attock jail in
August 08, 2023Thousands of Los Angeles city employees, including sanitation workers, lifeguards and traffic officers, walked off the job Tuesday for a 24-hour strike alleging unfair labor practices. Picket lines went up before dawn at Los Angeles International Airport and other locations and a rally was planned for later in the day at City Hall. SEIU Local 721 said airport custodians, heavy duty mechanics and engineers are among the more than 11,000 LA city workers who are striking. The union said its members voted to authorize the walkout because the city has failed to bargain in good faith
August 08, 2023India’s opposition accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of choosing silence while a northeastern state governed by his party convulsed in ethnic violence as Parliament began debate Tuesday on a no-confidence motion against his government that’s certain to be defeated. “If Manipur is burning, India is burning. If Manipur is divided, India is divided,” Congress party lawmaker Gaurav Gogoi said as he opened debate on the motion. For three months, Modi has been largely silent on the bloodshed in the remote state, which teeters on the brink of a civil war, and the opposition moved the no-confidence
August 08, 2023The death toll from Russian missile strikes that hit apartment blocks and other buildings in an eastern Ukrainian city has climbed to seven, with 67 injured, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said Tuesday. Two Russian missiles slammed into the downtown area of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region that is partially occupied by Russia, on Monday evening, local authorities said. The missiles, which hit within 40 minutes of each other, damaged nine- and five-story buildings, houses, a hotel, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of
August 08, 2023Nigeriens awoke Tuesday to deepening uncertainty about whether a regional bloc will follow through on its threat to use military force to try to reinstall ousted President Mohamed Bazoum or if last-minute diplomacy will prevail, nearly two weeks after mutinous soldiers overthrew the country’s democratically elected leader. The West African regional bloc ECOWAS had given the mutinous soldiers until Sunday to release and reinstall Bazoum or they threatened to use force. Members from ECOWAS, the United Nations and the African Union were expected to join talks in the capital, Niamey, on Tuesday, a foreign official told
August 08, 2023Israeli security forces on Tuesday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian man accused of carrying out a deadly shooting attack earlier this year, the military said, the latest incursion to fuel tensions in the occupied territory. Israel’s decades-old tactic of leveling the family homes of alleged Palestinian assailants has drawn intense criticism from human rights groups, which call it collective punishment — prohibited under international law. Opponents of the policy also raise questions about its efficacy, arguing that leveling the residences of often uninvolved parents, spouses and children of alleged assailants and leaving
August 08, 2023A senior Japanese politician advocated Tuesday for increasing his country’s deterrence ability to ensure peace in the region, and called for that message to be clearly conveyed globally — particularly in China. “The most important thing for us now is that there should be no war in the region, including the Taiwan Strait,” the vice president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Taro Aso, said Tuesday in Taipei at the Ketagalan Forum hosted by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Japan, as a very close neighbor to Taiwan, I think we should be the first to express
August 08, 2023The gray, two-story home with white trim toppled and slid, crashing into the river below as rushing waters carried off a bobbing chunk of its roof. Next door, a condo building teetered on the edge of the bank, its foundation already having fallen away as erosion undercut it. The destruction came over the weekend as a glacial dam burst in Alaska’s capital, swelling the levels of the Mendenhall River to an unprecedented degree. The bursting of such snow-and-ice dams is a phenomenon called a jökuhlaup, and while it’s relatively little-known in the U.S., researchers say such
August 08, 2023Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street rallied and Chinese exports fell ahead of a U.S. inflation update that might influence Federal Reserve plans for possible interest rate hikes. Tokyo and Sydney advanced while Shanghai and Hong Kong declined. Oil prices gained. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.9% on Monday, recovering one-third of last week’s loss. “U.S. stocks started the week in better form,” said ING analysts in a report. “It is not clear that this is going to last, though.” The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1% to 3,265.02 after customs data showed
August 08, 2023For years, the man known as Otoniel was seen as one of the world’s most dangerous drug lords, the elusive boss of a cartel and paramilitary group with a blood-drenched grip on much of northern Colombia. On Tuesday, Dairo Antonio Úsuga faces sentencing to at least 20 years in a U.S. prison. He pleaded guilty in January to high-level drug trafficking charges, admitting he oversaw the smuggling of tons of U.S.-bound cocaine and acknowledging “there was a lot of violence with the guerillas and the criminal gangs.” The U.S. agreed not to seek a life sentence
August 08, 2023China’s exports plunged by 14.5% in July compared with a year earlier, adding to pressure on the ruling Communist Party to reverse an economic slump. Exports fell to $281.8 billion as the decline widened from June’s 12.4% fall, customs data showed Tuesday. Imports tumbled 12.4% from a year earlier to $201.2 billion in a sign of weak domestic demand, widening from the previous month’s 6.8% contraction. The country’s global trade surplus narrowed by 20.4% from a record high a year ago to $80.6 billion. Chinese leaders are trying to shore up business and consumer activity after a
August 08, 2023New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone made the most of his AL-leading sixth ejection this season during a 5-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Monday night. Boone was booted by plate umpire Laz Diaz after Anthony Volpe was called out on strikes against Chicago reliever Bryan Shaw to begin the eighth inning. After he was thrown out, Boone ran to home plate and went into a theatrical, arm-waving display. The manager bent down and drew a line in the dirt with his finger at the edge of the left-handed batter’s box, demonstrating where he thought
August 08, 2023Anthony Edwards and Cam Johnson each scored 15 points, and USA Basketball used a 20-0 run in the second half on the way to rolling past Puerto Rico 117-74 on Monday night in the first World Cup tune-up game for the Americans. Mikal Bridges scored 14 for the U.S., which finished with seven players in double figures. Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 12, Jalen Brunson scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Bobby Portis and Brandon Ingram each scored 11 for the Americans. Tyrese Haliburton finished with 12 assists for the U.S., which held a 53-27
August 08, 2023Georgia could join other states requiring children to have their parents’ explicit permission to create social media accounts. Two top Republicans in the Georgia state Senate — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Sen. Jason Anavitarte of Dallas — said in a Monday news conference they will seek to pass such a law in 2024. The proposal could also restrict accounts on other online services. “It’s important that we empower parents,” Anavitarte said. “A lot of parents don’t know how to restrict content.” Anavitarte said Georgia’s rules would be modeled on a law Louisiana passed this year. That
August 08, 2023Lottery players will have another shot Tuesday night at a massive Mega Millions prize that ranks as the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history. The estimated $1.55 billion prize has been gradually building for months thanks to 31 straight drawings without a jackpot winner. The last time someone won the game’s top prize was April 18. Each drawing without a winner pushes the prize closer to the record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot that someone in California won last year. Mega Millions jackpot winners are so rare thanks to odds of 1 in 302.6 million. The $1.55 billion payout would go to
August 08, 2023In a scathing ruling last month, a judge said the FBI had used a ”villain” of an informant to manipulate a group of Muslim men into going along with a fictitious plot to destroy military planes and synagogues in New York City’s suburbs. She ordered three released from prison, saying “the real lead conspirator was the United States.” Now, a man convicted in another sting carried out by the same FBI operative says he hopes the ruling will prompt U.S. prosecutors to review the fairness of similar counterterrorism operations carried out in the wake of the
August 08, 2023Thousands of muddy plastic bottles, chunks of Styrofoam and other waterlogged pieces of rubbish are piled onto a flatbed trailer on the banks of the Tisza River in Hungary — a metric ton of waste that was removed by hand from the waterway and its floodplain in a single day. It’s the haul of volunteers participating in a 10-day competition that draws over 150 people, life-jacketed rivergoers of all ages that pile into dozens of canoes to scour Hungary’s second-largest river for trash that has flowed downstream. Since its start in 2013, participants in the annual
August 08, 2023The diminutive woman with a white feather headdress stood on the stage of the majestic colonial theater in Brazil’s Amazon on Monday and addressed the crowd. The woman, Minister of Indigenous People Sonia Guajajara, declared the day “the milestone of Indigenous participation,” then cited the national statistics institute’s freshly released census data that revealed the full scope of the nation’s Indigenous population: 1,693,535 people. While just 0.8% of Brazil’s population, the figure marks an 89% jump from the nation’s prior census, in 2010, due to greater willingness of people to recognize their roots and better survey
August 08, 2023Buses began moving thousands of global Scouts from their campsite on South Korea’s coast to inland venues Tuesday ahead of a tropical storm that is forecast to bring intense rains and strong winds to the peninsula within days. More than 1,000 vehicles are being used to move 37,000 Scouts — mostly teenagers — from the World Scout Jamboree that opened last week in Buan, a county on South Korea’s southwestern coast. Most will be accommodated in Seoul and the capital’s metropolitan area, where officials have secured university dormitories, government and corporate training centers, and hotels.
August 08, 2023Over the past year, inflation in the United States has tumbled from 9% all the way to 3%, softening most of the price pressures that have gripped the nation for more than two years. Now comes the hard part. Squeezing out the last bit of excess inflation and reducing it to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target rate is expected to be a much harder and slower grind. A measure called “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is even higher than overall inflation. It, too, seems likely to slow only gradually. The Fed pays particular
August 08, 2023New Zealand’s government said Tuesday it will partner with U.S. investment giant BlackRock in its aim to become one of the first nations in the world to have its electricity grid run entirely from renewable energy. The government said it was helping BlackRock launch a $1.2 billion fund to ramp up investments in wind and solar generation, as well as battery storage and green hydrogen. Some of the investment is expected to come from government-owned companies. New Zealand’s electricity grid already runs off about 82% renewable energy after it damned rivers decades ago to produce
August 08, 2023Larry Scott boasted five years ago that the Pac-12 Conference would be able “to adapt, react and take advantage of this new world media order that’s coming in a way others can’t.” As it turns out, Scott’s statement instead ended up reflecting what rival conferences and commissioners did. Scott didn’t have a chance to negotiate a second Pac-12 media deal. He stepped down as commissioner in 2021 and his successor, George Kliavkoff, didn’t land the deal the conference needed. Last week’s Pac-12 collapse, which saw five of the remaining nine members announce they were leaving the “Conference of Champions” for
August 08, 2023Colombian President Gustavo Petro took office a year ago laying out ambitious goals for the nation’s first leftist government. He said his agenda would provide Colombians with a “second opportunity” to end decades of internal violence, and he promised that his “government of change” would tackle longstanding inequalities by increasing government spending and reforming the health system and labor laws. Yet, while celebrating his first year in office Monday, Petro is facing growing doubts about his ability to fulfill his promises in the remainder of his four-year term. The president’s approval rating has plunged 20 points,
August 07, 2023The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is cutting its field nearly in half and eliminating one of the three courses, part of the price to become a signature event with a $20 million purse in a revamped 2024 schedule the PGA Tour released Monday. Pebble Beach replaces the Phoenix Open as a signature event, which was expected. What it gave up was the 156-man field, each with a prominent amateur, playing Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula over 54 holes before a cut to the final round. Next year Pebble Beach will have 80 players and
August 07, 2023Plant-based meat maker Beyond Meat said its revenue plunged 30.5% in the second quarter as consumer demand for its burgers, sausages and other products fell despite price cuts. The El Segundo, California-based company lowered its full-year revenue forecast as a result. Beyond Meat now expects revenue between $360 million and $380 million for the year. That’s down from the $375 million to $415 million it forecast at the end of the first quarter. For the April-June period, Beyond Meat reported revenue of $102.1 million. That was lower than the $108.7 million Wall Street forecast, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
August 07, 2023Hannah Roberts has won just about everything possible on a freestyle BMX bike except an Olympic title. That could be coming next. The 21-year-old American trick artist didn’t even need her second run in the finals of the world championships on Monday, posting a score of 91.04 points during her opening run to secure her fourth straight title and fifth overall. Roberts was followed by all five of the riders from emerging powerhouse China, led by silver medalist Sibei Sun and bronze medalist Huimin Zhou. “I mean, Team China, they’re coming on strong. They have some of the best riders
August 07, 2023A new class of meme stocks has sprung up during the stock market’s surprise recent rally, raising concerns about investors’ willingness to take on bigger risks amid a still uncertain economy. Meme stocks are typically weak companies on the verge of failing, but that still manage to garner attention from individual investors willing to take on risky bets and drive the stock price higher. Two years ago, the video game retailer GameStop and movie theater operator AMC Entertainment made a big splash with individual investors in a frenzy that caught the attention of regulators and Congress.
August 07, 2023Chicago’s Tim Anderson has been suspended six games and Cleveland’s José Ramírez for three games by Major League Baseball for fighting and touching off a lengthy, wild brawl between the White Sox and Guardians on Saturday night. MLB announced the discipline for Anderson and Ramírez on Monday along with other suspensions and fines following one of baseball’s ugliest fights in several years. Anderson and Ramírez were also fined an undisclosed amount. Both players are appealing. Also, Cleveland manager Terry Francona, closer Emmanuel Clase and third base coach Mike Sarbaugh have been suspended one game each. Chicago manager
August 07, 2023A Detroit woman is suing the city and a police officer, saying she was falsely arrested when she was eight months pregnant and accused of a carjacking based on facial recognition technology that is now the target of lawsuits filed by three Black Michigan residents. Porcha Woodruff, a 32-year-old Black woman, was preparing her two children for school on Feb. 16 when six Detroit police officers showed up at her house and presented her with an arrest warrant for robbery and carjacking, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
August 07, 2023Chris Buescher has earned half of his four career NASCAR Cup Series victories in a stunning, nine-day stretch of success. Buescher won his second straight NASCAR Cup Series race by holding off points-leader Martin Truex late in the FireKeepers 400 on Monday and is surging with his top performances toward the end of the regular season. “It’s certainly very good timing as we head into the playoffs in a few short weeks,” said the 30-year-old Buescher, who was in the No. 17 Ford for RFK Racing. Buescher, who won last week at Richmond, led 52 of
August 07, 2023Belarus began military exercises Monday near its border with Poland and Lithuania, a move coming with tensions already heightened with the two NATO members over Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries moving to Belarus after their short-lived mutiny in Russia. Both Poland and Lithuania have increased border security since thousands of Wagner fighters arrived in Russian-allied Belarus under a deal that ended their armed rebellion in late June and allowed them and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to avoid criminal charges. Leaders of the two NATO nations have said they are braced for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in a
August 07, 2023Raging waters that ate away at riverbanks, destroyed at least two buildings and undermined others continued to recede Monday in Alaska’s capital city after a glacial dam outburst over the weekend, authorities said. Levels along the Mendenhall River had begun falling by Sunday but the city said the banks of the river remained unstable. Onlookers gathered on a bridge over the river and along the banks of the swollen Mendenhall Lake to take photos and videos Sunday. A home was propped precariously along the eroded river bank as milky-colored water whisked past. The city said it
August 07, 2023There is no mystery why the Mega Millions jackpot has grown to $1.55 billion, making it the third-largest ever ahead of Tuesday night’s drawing. The prize has ballooned because no one has matched the game’s six winning numbers since April 18, amounting to 31 straight drawings without a big winner. The nearly four-month-long unlucky streak could be all the sweeter for the person who finally lands the top prize, which is inching toward the record lottery jackpot of $2.04 billion won in 2022 by a player in California. “It’s a fun thing,” said Merlin Smith,
August 07, 2023A boater who had been missing for more than a day and a half was rescued off the Florida coast in a half-submerged boat, authorities said. The Coast Guard rescued 25-year-old Charles Gregory 12 miles off St. Augustine, Florida, on Saturday morning after he went missing on a 12-foot flat-bottomed boat. A Coast Guard aircrew spotted him sitting in his partially submerged boat, and he was rescued by a Coast Guard boat crew. He didn’t need any medical attention, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Gregory was last seen Thursday night leaving the
August 07, 2023The bodies of three missing hikers were recovered from a mountain in the Scottish Highlands after they didn’t return from a notoriously difficult scramble on one of the narrowest ridge crests in Britain, police said Monday. The trio set out Saturday in Glen Coe to hike the Aonach Eagach, a 6-mile (10-kilometer) knife-edge ridge that tops out at 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) and has precipitous drops. A search began after sunset when they didn’t return, Police Scotland said. A Coastguard helicopter flying in fog and mist located the bodies and a search and rescue crew
August 07, 2023Pakistan’s Imran Khan and his lawyer met Monday at a high-security prison where the former prime minister is being held following his sentencing, to plan how to challenge the graft case that landed him behind bars more than a year after he was ousted from power. A national cricket hero and top opposition leader, Khan was sentenced over the weekend to three years for concealing assets after selling state gifts while in power and taken to Attock, a high-security prison in eastern Punjab province. The stunning sentence could bar him from politics as Pakistani law prohibits anyone
August 07, 2023The European Union and NATO began sending urgent aid Monday to Slovenia after severe flooding over the weekend affecting two-thirds of the small European country killed at least six people and left hundreds homeless. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob on Monday, expressing his sympathy and the trans-Atlantic alliance’s strong solidarity with Slovenia, a NATO statement said. “I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekend’s floods,” Stoltenberg said. On Sunday, Slovenia and Cyprus activated a
August 07, 2023Nearly two weeks have passed since the coup in Niger, and the two men making competing claims to power have gone quiet in recent days. One is the ousted president, who said last week he’s being held hostage and has been publicly silent since then. The other is the military junta leader who asserts he acted out of concern for the country’s security and has encouraged Nigeriens to defend it from any foreign intervention. Here’s a look at President Mohamed Bazoum and Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as Niger’s junta defies a threat by the West African regional
August 07, 2023Supporters of a former historical marker dedicated to a feminist and labor activist from New Hampshire who also led the U.S. Communist Party sued the state Monday, saying officials violated a law around administrative procedures and should put it back up. The green and white sign describing the life of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was installed May 1 in Concord close to where she was born Aug. 7, 1890. It was one of more than 275 across the state that describe people and places, from Revolutionary War soldiers to contemporary sports figures. But it was taken down
August 07, 2023With the help of technology, scammers are tricking Americans out of more money than ever before. But there are steps you can take to keep your money and information safe. In 2022, reported consumer losses to fraud totaled $8.8 billion — a 30 percent increase from 2021, according to the most recent data from the Federal Trade Commission. The biggest losses were to investment scams, including cryptocurrency schemes, which cost people more than $3.8 billion, double the amount in 2021. Younger adults ages 20-29 reported losing money more often than older adults ages 70-79, the FTC
August 07, 2023On the banks of the Komi Memem River, the activity never ceases: women go down the embankment from Laje Velho village carrying basins to wash clothing, while men embark in small canoes on hunting and fishing expeditions. At day’s end, it’s the children’s turn to dive into its tea-colored waters. The river, named Laje in non-Indigenous maps, is vital to the Oro Waram, one of the six subgroups of the Wari’ people, who have inhabited the Western Amazon for centuries. However, this immemorial relationship is under increasing threat. The relentless expansion of soybeans and pastures encroaches
August 07, 2023Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn is departing after 13 years with the electric vehicle and solar panel maker. Kirkhorn stepped down Friday but will remain with Tesla through the end of the year to “support a seamless transition,” according to the Austin, Texas, company. Shares of Tesla Inc. ended down about 1% Monday amid a broader sell-off in the electric vehicle sector. Rivian Automotive Inc. fell almost 4% and Lucid Group Inc. lost 3%. Vaibhav Taneja was named CFO in addition to his current role as chief accounting officer, the company said in a regulatory filing
August 07, 2023Two people were fatally shot on a fifth day of violent protests in the South African city of Cape Town on Monday sparked by a dispute last week between minibus taxi drivers and authorities. A person was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting near the Cape Town International Airport after a group of protesters pelted a car with stones and the driver responded by firing shots at them, police said. The shooting happened while minubus taxis blockaded a road near the airport, police said. Police said the shooter would be investigated
August 07, 2023Tyson Foods Inc. is closing four chicken processing plants as it looks to lower costs. The company said Monday that the plants being closed are located in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Corydon, Indiana; Dexter, Missouri and Noel, Missouri. Tyson said that it will shift production to other facilities and halt operations at the four plants in the first two quarters of fiscal 2024. The company currently estimates having $300 million to $400 million in total charges, based on a preliminary analysis. Tyson launched a plan in fiscal 2022 where it targeted $1 billion in productivity savings by the end of
August 07, 2023An 8-year-old Chicago girl riding a scooter was fatally shot in the head by a man who was upset over noise, witnesses said. “It just didn’t make sense. None of it made sense,” a neighbor, Megan Kelley, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Everybody in the community would just tell him they are just kids having fun playing. Just let them be.” The shooting happened Saturday night in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood. Police were at the suspect’s apartment building Sunday, interviewing people and collecting evidence, hours after the death of Sarabi Medina. “Before he shot her, he had said
August 07, 2023Thailand’s populist Pheu Thai party announced Monday that it will form a coalition with a party from the outgoing military-backed administration to try to end nearly three months of political deadlock after the progressive party that won national elections was excluded from the formation of a new government. Thailand has struggled to break the impasse and select a new leader after the progressive Move Forward Party became the surprise winner of the May elections but was blocked by the conservative elite from taking power. Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat had assembled an eight-party coalition with 312 seats
August 07, 2023Illinois will soon outlaw advertising for firearms that officials determine produces a public safety threat or appeals to children, militants or others who might later use the weapons illegally, as the state continues its quest to curb mass shootings. Gun-rights advocates say the plan, which Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has pledged to sign into law, is an unreasonably vague decree that violates not only the constitutionally protected right to own guns but also free speech. The prime exhibit in Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s effort is the JR-15, a smaller, lighter version of the AR-15 semi-automatic
August 07, 2023Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks don’t have “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — wasn’t invited. Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months. But without Russia’s participation and without taking into account Moscow’s interests, the meeting was pointless, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement
August 07, 2023A small group of asylum-seekers has been moved to a barge moored in southern England as the U.K. government tries to cut the cost of sheltering people seeking protection in the country, British news media reported Monday. The asylum-seekers were transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, a barge outfitted with temporary accommodations that will ultimately house up to 500 men moved from hotels or elsewhere in the country. More were expected to arrive later Monday. The barge, owned by a Swedish company, was previously used to house oil field workers and migrants in other countries. The U.K. government
August 07, 2023Stormy weather across the Baltic Sea region Monday killed at least one person and caused airport delays, suspended ferry services and a train’s partial derailment. Three people had been taken to hospital in Sweden when two of the train’s passenger cars went off the tracks in Hudiksvall, a town 280 kilometers (174 miles) north of Stockholm, police said. The derailment happened because ”the embankment has been undermined by the heavy rain and landslides,“ they said, adding that the extent of their injuries is unclear. There had been 120 people on the train, Swedish media said. Ferries
August 07, 2023A Palestinian teenager who was shot by Israeli troops last week after throwing a firebomb in the occupied West Bank died Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. It was the latest in a long string of violent incidents involving Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank in the last year and a half. It came after a bloody weekend in which a settler killed a Palestinian man and a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli security guard in Tel Aviv. The Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that Ramzi Hamed, 17, was shot near the West Bank settlement
August 07, 2023Multiple passengers died after a charter bus carrying up to 50 people collided with a vehicle on an interstate in Pennsylvania, state police said. The crash happened during heavy rain about 11:50 p.m. Sunday on southbound Interstate 81 in Dauphin County’s Lower Paxton Township, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania State Police said. The bus flipped on its side. Police said in a statement that “multiple passengers” died. The route being taken by the bus and the cause of the crash weren’t immediately known. “This is considered a mass casualty incident,” Trooper Megan Frazer said. “We do
August 07, 2023England won without star Lauren James, who was ejected with a red card, to beat Nigeria on penalty kicks Monday and advance to the quarterfinals at the Women’s World Cup. The round of 16 match ended 0-0 after regulation and extra time, giving Nigeria a chance to win a knockout match at the Women’s World Cup for the first time in nine trips to the global tournament. But European champion England won the shootout 4-2, missing only one attempt. England became the title favorite after the defending champion U.S. team was eliminated Sunday in a penalty
August 07, 2023Authorities in southern Pakistan partially restored passenger rail service on Monday after a passenger train derailed, killing at least 30 people, officials said, as funerals began for the victims. Aqeel Ahmed Qureshi, a doctor at a hospital in the district of Nawabshah in Sindh province, said 27 bodies of the victims had been handed over to their relatives, while three bodies were yet to be identified. Dozens of injured people were still being treated at the hospital, while mourners took the bodies of some of the victims to their hometowns after holding their funerals in Nawabshah,
August 07, 2023Toshiba announced a 2 trillion yen ($14 billion) tender offer on Monday in a move that would take it private, as the scandal-tarnished Japanese electronics and energy giant seeks to turn itself around. The tender offer led by a buyout fund of major Japanese banks and companies called Japan Industrial Partners starts Tuesday and is priced at 4,620 yen ($32) a share. Chairperson Akihiro Watanabe asked shareholders to back the proposal, saying it is the only option for Toshiba Corp. to return to its former strength. “This move for Toshiba is great not only for Japan but
August 07, 2023Trucking company Yellow Corp. has declared bankruptcy after years of financial struggles and growing debt, marking a significant shift for the U.S. transportation industry and shippers nationwide. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was filed Sunday, comes just three years after Yellow received $700 million in pandemic-era loans from the federal government. But the company was in financial trouble long before that — with industry analysts pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back decades. Former Yellow customers and shippers will face higher prices as they take their business to competitors, including FedEx or ABF Freight,
August 07, 2023A multinational force is helping Cyprus fight stubborn wildfires in the summer heat, with Lebanon joining Greece and Jordan in sending aircraft to fight a blaze that has scorched miles of mountainous terrain, officials said Monday. Cyprus Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis told The Associated Press that neighboring Lebanon is expected to send a pair of choppers as the wildfire continues to reignite on several fronts. Two Greek Canadair aircraft have been dispatched to help douse the fire in the mountains about 11 miles (17 kilometers) north of the coastal town of Limassol. Jordan has sent
August 07, 2023Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil giant Aramco made $30 billion in profit in the second quarter, a nearly 40% decline from the same period the previous year, which it attributed to lower crude oil prices. Total sales stood at just over 400 billion riyals (about $106 billion), down from 562 billion riyals ($150 billion in the second quarter of 2022. In an earnings report filed with the Saudi stock exchange Monday, Aramco said the decrease “mainly reflected the impact of lower crude oil prices and weakening refining and chemicals margins.” Last week, Fortune magazine ranked
August 07, 2023Niger’s mutinous soldiers closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, as the junta defied a deadline to restore the ousted president and said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with “an energetic and immediate response.” Niger’s state television announced the move Sunday night, hours before West African regional bloc ECOWAS had demanded that the coup leaders reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face military force. A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, warned of “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country” and
August 07, 2023South Korea is preparing to evacuate tens of thousands of scouts from a coastal jamboree site as Tropical Storm Khanun looms, scouting officials said Monday. The World Organization of the Scout Movement said it received confirmation from South Korea’s government of the early departure for all participants in the southwestern county of Buan. That means quickly moving tens of thousands of scouts — mostly teenagers — from 158 countries out of the storm’s path. South Korea’s weather agency reported that Khanun was about 330 kilometers (205 miles) northeast of the Japanese island of Okinawa as
August 07, 2023India’s Parliament on Monday reinstated top opposition leader Rahul Gandhi as a lawmaker three days after the country’s top court halted his criminal defamation conviction for mocking the prime minister’s surname. His reinduction as a member of Parliament is likely to strengthen the opposition’s effort to corner Narendra Modi’s government ahead of a no-confidence motion this week over deadly ethnic violence that has roiled India’s northeastern state of Manipur for more than three months. A fierce critic of Modi and his main challenger in the 2024 polls, Gandhi was ousted from Parliament after his conviction by
August 07, 2023Cambodia’s king on Monday formally appointed army chief Hun Manet to succeed his father and long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen as the nation’s leader later this month after their party sealed victory in a one-sided election last month. The royal decree signed by King Norodom Sihamoni and shared to the public by state social media means the 45-year-old Hun Manet is officially the incoming leader and will take office Aug. 22 when the new National Assembly adopts the new cabinet. The appointment came after Cambodia’s electoral body on Saturday announced the final results of last
August 07, 2023Iran on Monday began registering candidates for parliamentary elections in March, which will be the first since nationwide protests rocked the country last year. Iran has held regular presidential and parliamentary elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But a clerical body vets candidates — disqualifying any seen as disloyal to the Islamic Republic — and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on all major policies. Iran saw months of nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was being held by the morality police for allegedly
August 07, 2023Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan’s popular opposition leader, is now an inmate at a high-security prison after being convicted of corruption and sentenced to three years. It’s the most dramatic twist yet in months of political and legal wrangling between Khan and his political rivals since he was toppled in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022. Khan’s party said it will appeal what government critics describe as a flimsy case, aimed at removing the former cricket star from politics ahead of a general election meant to be held this fall. The government defended the conviction
August 07, 2023Three people were killed after two firefighting helicopters collided in Southern California on Sunday while fighting a blaze in Riverside County, emergency officials said. One of the helicopters landed safely. “Unfortunately, the second helicopter crashed and tragically all three members perished which included one Cal Fire Division chief, one Cal Fire captain and one contract client pilot,” Cal Fire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher said during a news conference early Monday. Fulcher did not identify the victims. Cal Fire and Riverside County Fire Department resources were dispatched to a reported structure fire near the intersection of
August 07, 2023The Philippine government summoned the Chinese ambassador on Monday to convey a diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guard’s use of a water cannon against a Filipino supply boat in the disputed South China Sea, a Philippine official said. The Philippine military on Sunday condemned the Chinese coast guard ship’s “excessive and offensive” use of a water cannon to block a Filipino supply boat from delivering a new batch of troops, food, water and fuel to the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed waters. The United States, the European Union and their key allies including
August 07, 2023The last former Minneapolis police officer to face sentencing in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd will learn Monday whether he will spend additional time in prison. Tou Thao has testified he merely served as a “human traffic cone” when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes while the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020. A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s killing touched off protests worldwide
August 07, 2023His social media accounts suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching high-speed trains and rubbing shoulders with foreign leaders as a powerhouse on the global stage and the face of an ascendant India. But that carefully crafted image, followed by millions, sits uncomfortably at odds with his silence on what’s come close to a civil war engulfing India’s northeastern state of Manipur. For three months, the strongman leader has been absent on arguably the worst ethnic violence ever seen in the remote state, where Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is in power. Modi’s role,
August 07, 2023A father will ask a judge Monday to dismiss his case in which authorities say he helped his son obtain a gun license three years before the younger man fatally shot seven people at a 2022 Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago. Illinois prosecutors charged Robert Crimo Jr. under a unconstitutionally vague law, his lawyers are expected to argue at a hearing in Waukegan, north of Highland Park where the shooting occurred. If Lake County Judge George Strickland allows the case to proceed, Crimo Jr.’s bench trial would start Nov. 6. Crimo Jr. has pleaded not
August 07, 2023Asian shares were trading mostly lower on Monday after U.S. employment data had Wall Street close out a losing week. Investors are also closely watching earnings reports due later this week, including from Disney in the U.S., Alibaba Group in China and Sony and SoftBank in Japan. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 recouped losses earlier in the day and gained 0.2% to finish at 32,254.56. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 7,309.20. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5% to 2,590.63. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.3% to 19,484.90, while the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.8% to 3,262.12. “Local stocks appear
August 07, 2023Lionel Messi wasted little time scoring in his first match outside Florida with Inter Miami. The only wait was to see whether the goal would count. Messi’s left-footed kick from just outside the penalty box beat FC Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes inside the left post, giving Miami a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute Sunday night. Josef Martinez was initially ruled offsides by the head referee for interfering with Paes’ view, but the call was overturned on review. Messi has scored in all four matches since joining Miami, with six goals total. He had consecutive multigoal
August 07, 2023At least two buildings have been destroyed and residents of others have been evacuated from Juneau after flooding caused by a release of water from a glacier-dammed lake near Alaska’s capital city, officials said. The Mendenhall River flooded on Saturday because of a major release from Suicide Basin above Alaska’s capital city, a news release from the City and Borough of Juneau said Sunday. Video posted on social media showed towering trees behind a home falling into the rushing river as the water ate away at the bank. Eventually, the home, teetering at the edge, collapsed
August 07, 2023Lucas Glover did more than extend his PGA Tour season Sunday. He won the Wyndham Championship with a 2-under 68 that sends him into the FedEx Cup playoffs with more big opportunities in front of him. Glover managed a two-hour rain delay and took advantage of a faltering Russell Henley to win for the first time in more than two years and earn an unlikely spot in the lucrative postseason. Justin Thomas ended his season with a shot he won’t soon forget. Needing a birdie on the 18th hole, his pitch from 100 feet short of
August 07, 2023The rest of the world has finally caught up to the United States. The once-dominant Americans crashed out of the Women’s World Cup on penalties after a scoreless draw with Sweden in the Round of 16 on Sunday. It was the earliest exit ever for the four-time tournament champions. A shootout in the 1999 World Cup — with a much different outcome — supercharged the U.S. team’s prominence atop the sport globally. The Americans defeated China on penalties in front of a sellout crowd at the Rose Bowl and Brandi Chastain doffed her jersey in celebration.
August 06, 2023California authorities have captured four suspects in multiple break-ins at homes around South Lake Tahoe: a mama bear and three of her cubs. DNA has confirmed the large female black bear and her three little accomplices were responsible for at least 21 instances of property damage since 2022, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement. The mother bear and her babies were “safely immobilized” on Friday, the statement said. The adult female, known to researchers as 64F, will likely be taken to a sprawling wildlife sanctuary near Springfield, Colorado. Her
August 06, 2023Pope Francis said Sunday his recovery from his latest abdominal surgery is going well and stressed that he ditched speeches during his five-day trip to Portugal and spoke off-the-cuff not because he was tired or feeling unwell, but to better communicate with young people. Francis was asked about his health en route home from Lisbon, where he presided over World Youth Day festival. It was his first trip since he was hospitalized in June for nine days following last-minute surgery to repair an abdominal hernia and remove intestinal scar tissue. The trip, which came
August 06, 2023A little more than a month ago, Coco Gauff left Wimbledon after a first-round loss that left her dispirited and unsure of what she needed to do. That seems kind of far away after she won the trophy at the very next tournament she entered. Surging at the end of each set, Gauff defeated Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-3 in the DC Open women’s final on Sunday for the fourth WTA Tour singles title of her career. Gauff, a 19-year-old from Florida, was helped in Washington by two recent additions to her team: full-time coach Pere Riba —
August 06, 2023Simone Biles is well aware of how the drill goes. She’s lived it. Multiple times at this point. Whenever the gymnastics star goes to work, the questions about the Olympics come, no matter where the Games fall on the calendar. “It’s just like when you get married (and) they ask when you’re having a baby,” said Biles, who married Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens in April. So it’s telling that while Biles talked for a good 15 minutes on Saturday night after her electric victory at the U.S. Classic — the 26-year-old’s first meet
August 06, 2023The Pac-12 dubbed itself the “Conference of Champions” for a history of athletic excellence stretching back more than 100 years. The largest conference out West has dominated Olympic sports, went on an unprecedented run in men’s college basketball and has won more national championships than any other league. Pac-12 alumni include some of the greatest names in sports history: Jackie Robinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tiger Woods and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. A run of defections has now turned the tradition-rich league into a conference of ashes. “To think even remotely five years ago the Pac-12 would be in this position, it’s unthinkable to
August 06, 2023Bryson DeChambeau sensed his game was close to delivering something special. Sunday in the LIV Golf-Greenbrier was more than he imagined. DeChambeau became the fourth player on a top-level tour to shoot 58, making birdie on his last four holes to finally capture his first LIV Golf title at the rain-softened Greenbrier. DeChambeau holed a 35-foot putt on the par-3 18th and leapt in the air with both arms extended to celebrate his lowest score ever and first LIV victory. “Probably the greatest moment in my golf career,” said DeChambeau, a former U.S. Open
August 06, 2023Ukraine has replaced the Soviet emblem that once adorned one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks with the country’s coat of arms. The symbolic move is part of a wider shift throughout Ukraine to reclaim the country’s cultural identity from the Soviet past amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. Erected in 1981 as part of a larger complex housing Ukraine’s national World War II museum, the Mother Ukraine monument stood on the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kyiv, facing eastwards toward Moscow. Created in the image of a fearless female warrior, the 200-foot-tall (61-meter-tall) statue previously
August 06, 2023Erik Karlsson is heading to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their latest win-now move, a midsummer blockbuster trade with the San Jose Sharks that also involves the Montreal Canadiens. Pittsburgh traded a 2024 first-round pick, forward Mikael Granlund and defenseman Jan Rutta to San Jose and goaltender Casey DeSmith, defenseman Jeff Petry, a 2025 second-round pick and prospect Nathan Legare to Montreal as part of the deal for the three-time Norris Trophy winner. Karlsson is the first defenseman to be traded fresh off winning the Norris as the NHL’s top defenseman since Doug Harvey in 1961. The 33-year-old
August 06, 2023Megan Rapinoe wanted a different finish for her final Women’s World Cup. Even with the disappointing conclusion, she was grateful for her wildly successful run with the U.S. national team. Rapinoe’s World Cup career ended on Sunday in the Round of 16, when the United States lost to Sweden on penalties after a scoreless draw. The outspoken 38-year-old announced last month that this would be her last international tournament. “I wish we were moving on and I could guarantee a championship and all that,” she said. “But it doesn’t take anything from this experience, or my
August 06, 2023Nicole Leger always thought of the burn pits at military bases in Afghanistan as more like campfires than health hazards. Ordered to dispose of sensitive documents, she would toss the paperwork into the flames while catching up with fellow soldiers, moments of quiet bonding that provided a respite from her riskier work as a hastily trained medic for the U.S. Army. “We really didn’t see that it was dangerous at the time,” she said. “It was just part of the mission. So we had to get it done.” But then her sinus problems began, only worsening after
August 06, 2023Iraq’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into how a bear escaped from its crate in the cargo hold of an Iraqi aircraft as it was due to depart from Dubai airport, leaving passengers disgruntled over the delay and causing a stir on social media. Iraqi Airways said it wasn’t to blame for the bear’s escape and that the aircraft’s crew worked with authorities in the United Arab Emirates, which dispatched specialists to sedate the animal and remove it from the plane. A video clip circulating on social media showed the plane’s captain apologizing to passengers for
August 06, 2023Tim Anderson is not in Chicago’s starting lineup Sunday and Cleveland’s José Ramírez is playing as Major League Baseball weighs likely discipline following a fight and wild brawl in Saturday night’s game. Anderson and Ramírez threw punches at second base, and the Guardians’ All-Star third baseman knocked down the White Sox shortstop with an overhand right to the chin. Anderson was dazed by the blow. Both players were ejected, along with Cleveland manager Terry Francona, third base coach Mike Sarbaugh, closer Emmanuel Clase and Chicago manager Pedro Grifol. Before Sunday’s series finale, Grifol said Anderson isn’t injured
August 06, 2023The far-right Alternative for Germany declared the European Union a “failed project” in its current form as it adopted its program for next June’s European Parliament election at its party convention in the eastern city of Magdeburg on Sunday, the German news agency dpa reported. The text states that the EU has “completely failed” in all important areas, including its migration and climate policy, and it rejects the Euro as a currency. However, the party stopped short of demanding Germany’s exit from the EU. Instead, the AfD is calling for the EU to be re-founded as a
August 06, 2023Dozens of migrants were dramatically rescued by Italy as they foundered in the sea or clung to a rocky reef Sunday after three boats launched by smugglers from northern Africa shipwrecked in rough waters in separate incidents over the weekend. Survivors said some 30 fellow migrants were missing from capsized vessels. In a particularly risky operation, two helicopters battled strong winds to pluck to safety, one by one, the migrants, including a child and two pregnant women, who had been stranded for nearly two days on a steep, rocky reef of tiny Lampedusa island. The migrants had
August 06, 2023Elon Musk says his potential in-person fight with Mark Zuckerberg would be streamed on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. The two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a “cage match” face-off in late June. Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts, and the CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta posted about completing his first jiu jitsu tournament earlier this year. “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X,” Musk wrote in a post Sunday on the platform. “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.” Musk said earlier Sunday he was
August 06, 2023The United States played its best game of this Women’s World Cup and it’s wasn’t good enough. The Americans’ bid to win an unprecedented third consecutive title ended Sunday night on penalty kicks when Lina Hurtig converted and Sweden knocked the United States out of the World Cup 5-4 after a scoreless draw. It is the earliest exit in tournament history for the United States, the two-time reigning champions and four-time winners. “We didn’t put anything in the back of the net,” sobbed Julie Ertz after the loss. “The penalties were tough. It’s just emotional because
August 06, 2023The death toll from a train derailment in southern Pakistan rose to 30, with the number of injured to 60, and rescue operations were underway, officials said Sunday. Ten cars of a Rawalpindi-bound train got derailed, and some overturned, near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah trapping many passengers, said senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho. Senior police officer, Abid Baloch — present at the scene of the accident— said that so far 30 bodies have been recovered while more than 60 people were injured, some critically. He added that the death toll may rise as rescue
August 06, 2023Three people have died during a night of air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said Sunday, while Moscow’s second-largest airport briefly suspended flights following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital. Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the area’s Kupyan district late on August 5. “This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,”
August 06, 2023Israeli troops on Sunday killed three alleged Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank, further escalating a wave of violence in which two other people, including a young Palestinian man believed to have been gunned down by extremist Jewish settlers, were killed over the weekend. The Israeli army said it shot the three men near the Jenin refugee camp — the site of a large-scale military operation last month. It said the three men had just exited the camp and were on their way to carry out an attack and that an M-16 rifle was recovered from
August 06, 2023The deadline has arrived Sunday for Niger’s military junta to reinstate the country’s ousted president, but the West Africa regional bloc that has threatened a military intervention faces prominent appeals to pursue more peaceful means. Neighboring Nigeria’s Senate on Saturday pushed back against the plan by the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, urging Nigeria’s president, the bloc’s current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are taken by consensus by member states, but the warning on the eve of Sunday’s deadline raised questions about the
August 06, 2023Heavy rains in Paris have led to the cancellation on Sunday of a swimming event in the River Seine that was to be a test for next year’s Summer Olympics, but Games organizers say the waterway will be better prepared in 2024. The Open Water Swimming World Cup event was canceled because “the water quality in the Seine has remained below acceptable standards for safeguarding swimmers’ health,” French Swimming Federation (FFN) said in a statement Sunday. Water quality falls below acceptable standards when rains cause overflows of untreated waste into the Seine. France’s capital city is spending massively on water-management
August 06, 2023Pope Francis wrapped up his five-day trip to Portugal on Sunday with a massive open-air Mass for an estimated 1.5 million people who camped out overnight on a vast field to attend the grand finale of the World Youth Day festival. The sun rose over the River Tagus, waking up pilgrims who slept on mats, cots and the bare ground to be in place for Francis’ Mass, scheduled for early to avoid midday temperatures that are expected to hit 40 degrees C (104 F). Starting at dawn, a priest-DJ started spinning thumping reggae and Christian hymns
August 06, 2023Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan spent the night at a high-security prison after a court handed him a three-year jail sentence for corruption, a development that could end his future in politics. The court ruled Saturday that Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 but remains the country’s leading opposition figure, had concealed assets after selling state gifts. The prison sentence could bar him from politics under a law that prohibits people with a criminal conviction from holding or running for public office. He could also lose the chairmanship of the
August 06, 2023Thousands of tourists spill onto a boardwalk in Alaska’s capital city every day from cruise ships towering over downtown. Vendors hawk shoreside trips and rows of buses stand ready to whisk visitors away, with many headed for the area’s crown jewel: the Mendenhall Glacier. A craggy expanse of gray, white and blue, the glacier gets swarmed by sightseeing helicopters and attracts visitors by kayak, canoe and foot. So many come to see the glacier and Juneau’s other wonders that the city’s immediate concern is how to manage them all as a record number are expected this
August 06, 2023Maksym Bunchukov remembers hearing rockets explode in Zaporizhzhia as the war in Ukraine began. “It was terrible,” he said. He and his wife sent their adult daughter west to Lviv for safety and joined her later with their pets. Now, about 18 months after the war broke out, Bunchukov is in North Dakota, like thousands of Ukrainians who came over a century ago. He is one of 16 new arrivals who are part of a trade group’s pilot effort through the Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian program to recruit refugees and migrants during a workforce shortage. Twelve
August 06, 2023Hiroshima officials criticized growing support for nuclear weapons as a detterent resulting from uneasiness over Russia’s war in Ukraine and tensions in the Koreas, commenting Sunday as the city remembered the atomic bombing of 78 years ago. The observance came two months after Hiroshima hosted a summit of the Group of 7 major industrial nations, at which G7 leaders visited the city’s peace park and a museum dedicated to those who died in the word’s first atomic attack. The leaders issued a joint statement calling for the continued non-use of nuclear weapons, but they also justified having
August 06, 2023The Philippine military on Sunday condemned a Chinese coast guard ship’s “excessive and offensive” use of a water cannon to block a Filipino supply boat from delivering new troops, food, water and fuel to a Philippine-occupied shoal in the disputed South China Sea. The tense confrontation on Saturday at the Second Thomas Shoal was the latest flare-up in the long-seething territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate
August 06, 2023As Ralph James settled into the restored, highbacked desk at the segregated school he attended in rural South Carolina, he remembered the old school bell, the cascading light through tall windows, the Christmas pageant and the basketball court just outside. It was in schools like this one, and nearly 5,000 others built in the American South a century ago, that Black students largely ignored by whites in power gained an educational foundation through the generosity of a Jewish businessman who could soon be memorialized with a national park. They are now called Rosenwald Schools in
August 06, 2023Monica Lee sat outside her parents’ home, where a former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy pummeled her son, who died hours later in the hospital. It was a sweltering afternoon in Braxton — the same town where, in a separate episode, six white law enforcement officers tortured two other Black men in January, shaking seasoned federal prosecutors, elected officials and ordinary people to their core. The officers, one of whom also was involved in the violent episode with Lee’s son two years prior, pleaded guilty Thursday to a long list of federal civil rights charges. Lee believes former
August 06, 2023Netherlands advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup on Sunday with a 2-0 win over South Africa. Jill Roord and Lineth Beerensteyn scored in each half at the Sydney Football Stadium to secure the 2019 runners-up a place in the last eight. But South Africa, one of the surprise teams of the tournament, gave the Dutch some nervous moments, forcing goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar into a string of saves to keep Thembi Kgatlana at bay. Netherlands lost to the U.S. team in the World Cup final four years ago and look like contenders again after
August 06, 2023Simone Biles began her first competition in 732 days by briefly running around during introductions, unsure of where she was supposed to go. It’s the only time she seemed out of place. Once Biles saluted the judges, it was the same as it ever was. Biles soared to victory in the U.S. Classic on Saturday night in her return following a two-year layoff after the Tokyo Olympics, the case of “ the twisties ” that forced her to take herself out of multiple events in Japan seemingly firmly in her rearview mirror. Wearing a black-and-white
August 06, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the country’s key weapons factories, including those producing artillery systems and launch vehicles for nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and pledged to speed up efforts to advance his military’s arms and war readiness, state media said Sunday. Kim’s three-day inspections through Saturday came as the United States and South Korea prepared for their next round of combined military exercises planned for later this month to cope with the growing North Korean threat. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years as the pace of North Korea’s
August 06, 2023Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox and José Ramírez of the Cleveland Guardians exchanged punches at second base Saturday night, triggering a bench-clearing melee in the sixth inning that led to six ejections. Ramírez appeared to connect with a right hand to the face of Anderson, who fell backward to the ground. Cleveland manager Terry Francona, third base coach Mike Sarbaugh and closer Emmanuel Clase, and Chicago manager Pedro Grifol were ejected for their actions later in a fight that included multiple flare-ups on the infield and in foul territory. It took 15 minutes before order
August 06, 2023A day after leaving behind more than a century as a tenant to the premier athletic conference on the West Coast, Washington’s leadership said stability was at the forefront of its decision to join the Big Ten Conference. “It was about having a future that we could count on and build toward,” Washington President Ana Mari Cauce said Saturday. Cauce said there were several concerns that led to Washington and Oregon saying goodbye to their collective heritage to become the 17th and 18th members of the Big Ten beginning in 2024. The Ducks and Huskies were two
August 06, 2023An upcoming YMCA summer camp session in Idaho has been canceled so staffers can deal with the emotional trauma of a bus crash that injured almost a dozen people, an official said Saturday, as police still tried to determine the cause. The bus was carrying about 30 adolescent campers and staff back to Boise from the Treasure Valley YMCA’s camp at Horsethief Reservoir. Eleven passengers were hospitalized, seven in critical condition, after the bus rolled over on a winding Idaho highway north of the town of Banks on Friday afternoon, Idaho State Police said. The flipped bus blocked a state
August 06, 2023In front of a raucous crowd at Kentucky’s premier political event on Saturday, the Democratic incumbent governor talked about the state’s high-flying economy while his Republican challenger hammered away on social issues. Both sides stuck largely to scripts written in the early months of their general election showdown as they campaigned at the Fancy Farm picnic, traditionally seen as the jumping-off point for fall elections in Kentucky. This year, however, both Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron have been going at it for weeks, pounding away at many of the same
August 05, 2023Matthew Wolff made enough birdies to offset a few mistakes Saturday for a 3-under 67 that gave him a share of the lead with David Puig at LIV Golf-Greenbrier. The third and final round is wide open on the Old White course at Greenbrier Resort, with nine players separated by only two shots. That includes former U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, one of the marquee signings for the Saudi-funded league who has yet to win in LIV Golf. DeChambeau had a 61 and joined Richard Bland (63) and Talor Gooch (64) just one shot
August 05, 2023Lucas Glover and Billy Horschel started the Wyndham Championship as long shots to advance to the PGA Tour postseason. Now they have reason to think about winning. Glover had great control Saturday, hitting every fairway and missing only one green, on his way to an 8-under 62. That gave him a share of the lead with Horschel, who fought his swing toward the end and still managed a 63. They were at 18-under 192, one shot ahead of 36-hole leader Russell Henley. He rolled in a sweeping birdie putt from just inside 30 feet on the
August 05, 2023Kevin Harvick has fond memories of Michigan International Speedway, where he won for the sixth time last summer. Harvick is just not real interested in waxing poetically about the track before making one last run on it Sunday in the FireKeepers Casino 400. “Michigan has been a great place for us, but when we leave it’s over,” he said. “I’m not coming back.” It’s not personal. It’s business. While the 47-year-old Harvick may return to the Irish Hills region of southern Michigan as a TV analyst and potentially for his managing and marketing company, he has
August 05, 2023Oregon has extended rules restricting the state’s lucrative Dungeness crab fishery in order to protect humpback whales from becoming entangled in ropes attached to crab traps, the state’s fish and wildlife department has announced. Humpbacks, which migrate off Oregon’s coast, and other whales can get caught in the vertical ropes connected to the heavy traps and drag them around for months, leaving the mammals injured, starved or so exhausted that they can drown. Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery is one of the backbones of the Pacific Northwest’s fishing industry, but crabbers fear that overregulation will harm the
August 05, 2023An earthquake in eastern China before dawn Sunday knocked down houses and injured at least 10 people, according to state media, but no deaths were reported. The magnitude 5.5 quake occurred near the city of Dezhou, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Beijing, the Chinese capital, at 2:33 a.m., according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 5.4. The quake caused 74 houses to collapse and 10 people were injured, government broadcaster China Central Television and other news outlets reported. TV broadcasters showed Dezhou residents who ran outdoors after
August 05, 2023Maria Sakkari let a huge lead disappear but recovered to take the last four games and beat top-seeded Jessica Pegula 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in the DC Open semifinals Saturday. Sakkari, a 28-year-old from Greece who is ranked No. 9 and seeded No. 4 at the tune-up for the U.S. Open, is trying to win her second career WTA Tour trophy and first on hard courts. She was up by a set and a break at 4-1 in the second before Pegula forced a third. “Well, obviously it would have been ideal if I could be off the
August 05, 2023Striking Nigerian doctors on Saturday said they will embark on a nationwide protest, accusing the country’s newly elected president of ignoring their demands for better pay, better work conditions and payment of owed earnings. The protest, scheduled to start on Wednesday, adds to other challenges confronting Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who is leading efforts by the West Africa regional bloc of ECOWAS — which he chairs — to restore democracy in Niger after last week’s coup. The protest became necessary “to press home our demands, which have been largely neglected by our parent ministry and the
August 05, 2023Justin Verlander pitched seven innings, allowed a go-ahead home run to Jake Bauers in the fifth inning and began his second stint for the Houston Astros with a 3-1 loss to the New York Yankees on Saturday. Verlander (6-6) allowed seven hits, his second most this season and lost a regular-season start to the Yankees for the first time since June 19, 2015, with Detroit. He struck out four and walked two and fell to 10-8 lifetime against the Yankees in the regular season. The Astros reacquired Verlander on Tuesday from the Mets for a pair
August 05, 2023Police have arrested a 17-year-old high school student on a hate-motived murder charge in the fatal stabbing of a professional dancer during an altercation between two groups of friends at a New York City gas station last weekend. Police took the teenager into custody Friday in connection with the killing of the 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, who was gay. Authorities declined to release the defendant’s name. “Parents lost a child, a child, to something that was clearly a hate crime,” Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, said Saturday during a news conference outside the Brooklyn gas
August 05, 2023DeMarcus Ware got his Super Bowl ring after leaving the Cowboys for Denver. He’d already earned his gold jacket for excelling in Dallas. The four-time All-Pro outside linebacker was among nine members of the Class of 2023 enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Ware talked about growing up in a tough environment in Alabama and once having a gun held to his head when he was in college at Troy. He thanked his mother for providing for her family as a single parent and forgave
August 05, 2023Social media influencer Kai Cenat is facing charges of inciting a riot and promoting an unlawful gathering in New York City, after the online streamer drew thousands of his followers, many of them teenagers, with promises of giving away electronics, including a new PlayStation. The event produced chaos, with dozens of people arrested — some jumping atop vehicles, hurling bottles and throwing punches. Cenat was released early Saturday from police custody after being issued a desk appearance ticket, which is issued by police to require a suspect to appear in court to answer charges. The mayhem
August 05, 2023Driver Noah Gragson has been suspended indefinitely by NASCAR and Legacy Motor Club due to liking an insensitive meme with a photo of George Floyd’s face. “I am disappointed in myself for my lack of attention and actions on social media,” Gragson posted Saturday. “I understand the severity of this situation. I love and appreciate everyone. I try to treat everyone equally no matter who they are. I messed up plain and simple.” Josh Berry will be in the No. 42 Chevrolet in Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway to replace Gragson. Floyd, who was Black,
August 05, 2023I won’t forget the first time I took a ride in a car without anyone sitting in the driver’s seat. It happened one night last September when a Chevy Bolt named Peaches picked me up outside a San Francisco bar. Our ensuing half-hour ride together produced, at first, a titillating display of technology’s promise. Then an unexpected twist made me worry that the encounter had turned into a mistake I would regret. Peaches and I were getting along great for most of our time together, as the car deftly navigated through hilly San Francisco streets similar
August 05, 2023Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney and Hugh Jackman watched an eight-goal thriller which had an unhappy ending for the Hollywood stars as Welsh soccer club Wrexham lost its first match back in England’s Football League on Saturday. Host Wrexham was beaten 5-3 by MK Dons at the Racecourse Ground in the opening round of matches in the fourth tier. Co-owners Reynolds and McElhenney have made Wrexham one of the most talked-about teams in Britain after buying a down-on-its-luck club for $2.5 million in 2021 and making it the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary — entitled “Welcome to
August 05, 2023A tugboat sank Saturday in Egypt’s Suez Canal after it collided with a Hong Kong-flagged tanker, the waterway’s authorities said. In a statement, the Suez Canal Authority, which oversees the operation of the key water passage, said its teams were working to recover the tugboat after it launched an operation to save the seven-person crew. It did not mention whether the movement of other ships transporting through the canal had been affected. The canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas, sees periodic groundings of mega-large transport ships that go through it, many of them traveling between
August 05, 2023A baby girl who was born under the rubble of her family home destroyed by the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria six months ago is in good health, loves her adopted family and likes to smile even to strangers. The dark-haired baby Afraa survived 10 hours under the rubble after the Feb. 6 earthquake crushed to death her parents and four siblings in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis. When she was found, her umbilical cord was still connected to her mother. Her story captivated the world at the time, and people from all
August 05, 2023The body of a fourth victim has been found following an explosion and fire that destroyed a New Jersey house and seriously injured two children, who were pulled from the fire by civilians, authorities said. The cause of Thursday morning’s explosion in Buena, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Philadelphia, is being investigated. It damaged several nearby homes, but no other injuries were reported. Authorities had previously said those likely in the house at the time included two men, ages 52 and 73, and two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. A 1-year-old
August 05, 2023Ricky Rubio of the Cleveland Cavaliers announced Saturday that he is taking a break from basketball to focus on his mental health, a move that comes as his Spanish national team prepares to defend its title at the FIBA World Cup that starts later this month. Rubio was the MVP of the most recent World Cup four years ago, leading Spain to the championship and an 8-0 record in the tournament. The veteran point guard was also expected to be part of Spain’s team that will look to defend that crown in the World Cup that starts Aug. 25 in
August 05, 2023Slovenia has faced the worst-ever natural disaster in its history, Prime Minister Robert Golob said Saturday, after devastating floods caused damage estimated at half a billion euros ($550 million). Devastating floods on Thursday and Friday killed three people and destroyed roads, bridges and houses in the small Alpine country. Two thirds of the territory had been affected, Golob said. The floods were “the biggest natural disaster” in Slovenia’s history, Golob said after a meeting of the country’s National Security Council on Saturday. “Luckily, last night was easier than the one before.” After three weather-related deaths were
August 05, 2023The Loch Ness Centre in Scotland is calling for “budding monster hunters” and volunteers to join in what it dubs the largest search for the Loch Ness Monster since the 1970s. The visitor attraction said this week that modern technology such as drones that produces thermal images of the lake will “search the waters in a way that has never been done before.” The new surface water search for the fabled “Nessie,” planned for the weekend of Aug. 26 and 27, is billed as the largest of its kind since the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau studied the
August 05, 2023South Korea is plowing ahead with the World Scout Jamboree, rejecting a call by the world scouting body to cut the event short as a punishing heat wave caused thousands of British and U.S. scouts to begin leaving the coastal campsite Saturday. Hundreds of participants have been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree began Wednesday at the coastal site in Buan as South Korea grapples with one of its hottest summers in years. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during a news conference that South Korea is determined to continue the event as planned through
August 05, 2023Niger’s new military junta has asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner as the deadline nears for it to release the country’s ousted president or face possible military intervention by the West African regional bloc, according to an analyst. The request came during a visit by one of the coup leaders, Gen. Salifou Mody, to neighboring Mali, where he made contact with someone from Wagner, Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, told The Associated Press. He said three Malian sources and a French diplomat confirmed the meeting first
August 05, 2023Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late Friday night, according to Russian officials and video circulating on social media. The strike was the second sea attack involving drones in one day, after Ukraine struck a major Russian port earlier on Friday. As Kyiv’s naval capabilities grow, the Black Sea is becoming an increasingly important battleground in the war. Three weeks ago, Moscow withdrew from a key export agreement that allowed Ukraine to ship millions of tons of grain across the Black Sea for sale on world markets. In the wake
August 05, 2023Regional mediation efforts to reverse the coup in Niger and restore its democracy collapsed as soon as they started. Tensions have escalated as the Sunday deadline nears for possible military intervention by other West African countries. As its meeting ended Friday in neighboring Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, the region’s defense chiefs finalized a plan to use force against the Niger junta — needing approval by their political leaders — if Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated as Niger’s president. An Economic Community of West African States delegation to Niger, led by Nigeria’s former head of state Gen. Abdulsalami
August 05, 2023Pakistani police on Saturday arrested former Prime Minister Khan at his home in the eastern city of Lahore. It’s the second time the popular opposition leader has been detained this year. Earlier Saturday, a court convicted him in an asset concealment case, handing down a prison sentence that could see him barred from politics. The Islamabad court issued the arrest warrant after convicting Khan, with police in Lahore moving quickly to take him from his home to the Pakistani capital. It’s a fresh blow to Khan’s bid to return to power. Since his ouster from power in
August 05, 2023Pope Francis visited the Portuguese town of Fatima on Saturday to pray for peace at a shrine known for apocalyptic prophesies of hell, peace and Soviet communism that have found new relevance with Russia’s war in Ukraine. Francis was spending the morning in Fatima, praying with sick people and prisoners, alongside pilgrims who began filling the shrine’s central esplanade long before sunrise. As Francis prayed before a statue of the Madonna, nearby wildfires turned the sky smoky black and sent ash flittering down on the crowd. The trip was a brief excursion from Lisbon, where Francis
August 05, 2023Two Florida police officers were shot and critically injured during a traffic stop in Orlando late Friday, police said. The Orlando Police Department officers stopped a vehicle around 11 p.m. Friday as part of an investigation of a Miami homicide and were shot by a suspect in the car, Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith said during a press conference early Saturday. The officers, who were not immediately identified, were transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center, Smith said. The suspect carjacked another vehicle and police pursued, but did not immediately catch the suspect. A search was ongoing
August 05, 2023Three powerhouse teams play on the second day of the Women’s World Cup knockout stage and at least one of the best will be eliminated. The United States is the two-time reigning tournament champions and ranked No. 1 in the world. But their lackluster play in the group stage stopped the Americans from winning their group, which knocked them down to second and a Sunday match against Sweden in the round of 16. Sweden is ranked third in the world and won its group by sweeping all three games. The seventh World Cup meeting between
August 05, 2023Cambodia’s electoral body on Saturday announced the final results of last month’s election, sealing a landslide victory for the ruling party of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen and a mandate for the next five years. In an announcement on TVK state television and government social media platforms, the country’s National Election Committee said Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won 120 of 125 available seats in the July 23 general election. The royalist Funcinpec Party won five seats, while none of the other 16 political parties gained any seats. The Cambodian People’s Party received 6,398,311 votes
August 05, 2023Fans of the United States women’s soccer team remained faithful viewers no matter what hour the game was on. The Americans three group stage matches at the Women’s World Cup had an average combined English- and Spanish-language audience of of 5,256,000. Trying to replicate that over the next four matches will be a difficult task. With its second-place finish in Group E, the remaining U.S. matches will take place overnight. Had the Americans won the group, its round of 16 and quarterfinal matches would have been in prime time. Australia and New Zealand are 14-16 hours ahead of New York
August 05, 2023Chris Taylor and pinch-hitter J.D. Martinez drew consecutive bases-loaded walks during a Padres bullpen meltdown in the five-run eighth inning that lifted the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers to a 10-5 win Friday night, their sixth straight victory against San Diego. The Dodgers won their fourth straight game overall and kept the Padres from reaching .500 for the first time since May 11. Since losing 5-2 to the Padres on May 5, the Dodgers have outscored the Padres 29-12 in the six straight wins. Rookie center fielder James Outman had a big game for the Dodgers,
August 05, 2023A beloved bookstore in Vermont’s small capital city moved across the street to a new spot farther from the Winooski River after an ice jam sent river water into the store in 1992. A nearby office supply and gift store did the same in 2011 because it liked a different space that came with a bonus: it was higher and farther from the river. But their moves to higher ground weren’t enough to save them from flooding after torrential rains in July caused what some saw as the state’s worst natural disaster since a 1927 flood
August 05, 2023As state lawmakers rush to get a handle on fast-evolving artificial intelligence technology, they’re often focusing first on their own state governments before imposing restrictions on the private sector. Legislators are seeking ways to protect constituents from discrimination and other harms while not hindering cutting-edge advancements in medicine, science, business, education and more. “We’re starting with the government. We’re trying to set a good example,” Connecticut state Sen. James Maroney said during a floor debate in May. Connecticut plans to inventory all of its government systems using artificial intelligence by the end of 2023, posting the
August 05, 2023Officials in the city of Lebanon worried that the amount of state money distributed from Tennessee agencies based on 2020 census figures wasn’t keeping pace with their explosive growth. So they reached out to the U.S. Census Bureau to ask about conducting another head count, or “special census,” for the city on the edge of metro Nashville. But Lebanon officials balked at the $880,000 price tag and decided to do it themselves. “We think we can do it cheaper,” said Paul Corder, planning director for Lebanon, which has a population of 44,000 residents. Their census is rolling out later this
August 05, 2023On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand what’s happening in the vast war. Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians’ understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that can’t be confirmed — and stay quiet about defeats. None of this is unique to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any nation at war bends the truth — to boost morale on the home front,
August 05, 2023A funeral home in El Salvador has taken Barbie mania to an extreme, offering pink coffins with Barbie linings. It’s all designed so you can be a Barbie fan till the day you die — and even after that. The pink metal coffins are on sale at the Alpha and Omega Funeral Home in the city of Ahuachapán, near the border with Guatemala. Owner Isaac Villegas said Friday he had already offered the option of pink coffins before the July premiere of the Barbie movie. But the craze that swept Latin America convinced him
August 05, 2023A Texas judge ruled Friday the state’s abortion ban has proven too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications and must allow exceptions without doctors fearing the threat of criminal charges. The ruling is the first to undercut Texas’ law since it took effect in 2022 and delivers a major victory to abortion rights supporters, who see the case as a potential blueprint to weaken restrictions elsewhere that Republican-led states have rushed to implement. “For the first time in a long time, I cried for joy when I heard the news,” lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski said
August 05, 2023Brock Purdy knows the process of getting ready for the season after major elbow surgery in the offseason is a deliberate one with each day providing a new test. He got an unexpected one earlier this week when teammate Clelin Ferrell hit his surgically repaired throwing arm as he attempted a throw, knocking the ball out and causing San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan to “to hold my breath so I didn’t lose my mind.” For Purdy, it was just another play on his road back to being the starting quarterback. “I feel like as
August 05, 2023Scott Dixon credits luck for being in position to put his name on another IndyCar Series milestone Sunday. If the defending champion of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix starts the race around Nashville’s streets, Dixon will tie Tony Kanaan’s IndyCar record with his 318th consecutive start. “It’s difficult to do you know?” the six-time series champ said Friday. “You got to have a lot of things kind of go right for that to be possible.” Dixon could might soon have the consecutive start streak all to himself when IndyCar goes back to the Indianapolis
August 04, 2023Russell Henley remained in a familiar spot with a 4-under 66 on Friday that gave him the lead at the Wyndham Championship for the fifth time in the last 10 rounds, just not the round that counts toward winning. Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas made late moves that could help salvage their seasons. The Wyndham Championship is the final PGA Tour stop before the lucrative postseason begins for the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup. Henley led the opening three rounds in 2021 before stumbling on the final nine and making bogey on the last
August 04, 2023Deshaun Watson received a warm greeting from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, embraced Aaron Rodgers and was all smiles at the Hall of Fame game. One year after Goodell and the NFL vigorously tried to suspend the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback a minimum of one season for alleged sexual misconduct before settling on 11 games, Watson is moving forward. He says he’s a changed person. Coaches and teammates have praised his leadership, work ethic and attitude. Media see a noticeable difference in his demeanor. All that’s been missing is obvious contrition. Watson didn’t show any when he
August 04, 2023Ignore the wedding band and it could have been 2019 for Simone Biles. Or 2016. Or 2014. Long before Tokyo. Long before the “twisties.” Long before two years off in which the gymnastics star took a step back, took a long look at the arc of her record-setting career and decided she wasn’t done. Not quite yet. There she was walking onto the floor at NOW Arena on Friday on the eve of the U.S. Classic, her first meet since winning bronze on balance beam at the delayed 2020 Olympics, a medal she called among
August 04, 2023Anthony Davis is under contract to the Los Angeles Lakers for the next five seasons, after agreeing to an extension that comes with the highest per-season average salary in NBA history. Davis and the Lakers have agreed on a three-year, $186 million contract extension, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul said Friday. ESPN first reported that the Lakers and Davis struck the deal. At an average value of $62 million per season, the extension becomes the richest annual agreement in league history, surpassing the average of $60.8 million per season that Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown got
August 04, 2023Police in New York City are struggling to control a crowd of thousands of people who gathered in Manhattan’s Union Square for an internet personality’s supposed videogame console giveaway that got out of hand. Aerial TV news footage Friday showed a surging, tightly packed crowd climbing on vehicles, hurling chairs, throwing punches and scaling structures in the park. Shouting teenagers swung objects at car windows and ran through the streets. Traffic was blocked by the crowd on several streets. A growing number of police officers could be seen trying to control the gathering. Some people climbed
August 04, 2023A German wind energy developer and a New York utility are teaming up to build another offshore wind power project off the New Jersey coast. But this project would be more than twice as far out to sea as others that have drawn the ire of residents who don’t want to see windmills on the horizon. Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid applied Friday to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for permission to build a wind farm in the waters off Long Beach Island. Their joint venture is called Community Offshore
August 04, 2023The NFL has responded to a Nevada congresswoman’s inquiries about the league’s gambling policies with a detailed letter that includes a call for lawmakers and law enforcement to pay additional attention to illegal gambling and put more resources toward combating it. The NFL’s letter to U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat who is co-chair of the bipartisan gaming caucus, highlights the league’s recent efforts to increase education for its approximately 17,000 players, coaches, team personnel and others about the league’s gambling rules. “There is no higher principle at the NFL than safeguarding the integrity of the game,” NFL vice
August 04, 2023A Taiwanese microchip manufacturer building its first U.S. plant in Arizona has agreed to more scrutiny from the state when it comes to the safety of construction workers, Gov. Katie Hobbs said Friday. At a news conference held against the backdrop of ongoing construction at a site in north Phoenix, Hobbs announced that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility and the state have signed a voluntary protection program. “Under this agreement, TSMC will adhere to requirements higher than those at the federal level,” the Democratic governor said. “These additional safety measures include greater transparency for workers, closer
August 04, 2023A Tennessee man who tried to enter a Jewish school with a gun fired shots at a construction worker there and later pointed his weapon at police before an officer wounded him on a residential street, authorities said Friday. Joel Bowman, 33, went to Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South school in Memphis on Monday and tried to get inside, but he was denied entry, police said on the day of the shooting. Class was not in session, but there were limited staff and construction workers there at the time. In an affidavit made public
August 04, 2023The Kansas City Chiefs have been doing no favors to the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor, the Giants’ Saquon Barkley, the Raiders’ Josh Jacobs and every other running back that wants to get paid handsomely for what they do. The Chiefs have proven they can win with bargain finds in the backfield. Take last season, when the Chiefs won a seventh consecutive AFC West title and defeated the Eagles to win their second Super Bowl title in four years. Their leading rusher was seventh-round draft pick Isiah Pacheco in the first year of his paltry rookie contract,
August 04, 2023Saints star running back Alvin Kamara and Colts defensive back Chris Lammons each have been suspended for three regular-season games by the NFL because of their involvement in a February 2022 fight in Las Vegas. The NFL released its decision on Friday, two days after Kamara was excused from training camp to meet with Commissioner Roger Goodell. Kamara and Lammons pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges last month in a deal with prosecutors in Las Vegas that avoided trial and potential jail time. Kamara has been one of New Orleans’ most productive players as a rusher
August 04, 2023Matt Ryan brought the No. 2 jersey back to the Atlanta Falcons’ training camp on Friday. This time, however, the jerseys were worn by Ryan’s 5-year-old twins, Johnny and Thomas. Ryan, the most accomplished quarterback in franchise history, returned as a sideline spectator, perhaps gathering notes for his new career as a TV analyst. Ryan played 14 seasons with Atlanta from 2008-2021 before he was granted his trade request and spent the 2022 season with Indianapolis. In May, Ryan joined CBS as an analyst. He did not retire as a player but is not with
August 04, 2023The return of the mystery-comedy “Only Murders in the Building” and Gal Gadot getting her “Mission: Impossible”-style action film with the international espionage thriller “Heart of Stone” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are “Superfan,” a new one-hour game show that features music superstars crowning their biggest fan, and a royal rom-com adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s bestseller “Red, White and Royal Blue” lands on Prime Video. NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — Gal Gadot gets her “Mission: Impossible”-style
August 04, 2023Months into the fallout from a damning short-selling report, shares for corporate raider and activist investor Carl Icahn’s conglomerate Icahn Enterprises plunged Friday after the firm halved its quarterly dividend. In sharing second-quarter financial results on Friday, Icahn Enterprises declared a distribution of $1 per depositary unit, representing a 12% annualized yield. That’s half of the firm’s previous $2 per unit payout. Its stock closed Friday down more than 23%. The quarterly divided slash comes months after a May 2 report from short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, which claimed that IEP has been using inflated asset valuations.
August 04, 2023Except for a small bag of lentils and the orange juice she reserves for guests, there is no food in Ashwaq Abu al-Wafa’s house in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. Ever since the U.N. cut her food aid in June, she has fallen behind on rent. All her money now goes to feeding her three children, she said. “The fridge is empty,” al-Wafa said from her apartment on Thursday. “I can barely hold all of this stress in my heart.” Thousands of families like al-Wafa’s across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
August 04, 2023A former K-9 officer has been indicted in Ohio on murder charges in the death of a Black man who was lying on his bed when he was shot by police trying to serve a warrant. Former Columbus police officer Ricky Anderson was also charged Friday with reckless homicide by a county grand jury in the death last year of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis. Attorney Rex Elliott, who represents Lewis’ family, said at a news conference Friday that Anderson had racked up more than 60 complaints of excessive force during his 30-year career with the Columbus Police
August 04, 2023Talks between the Big Ten and Oregon and Washington about the two schools switching conferences have become uncertain, two people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday, renewing the possibility the Pac-12 can survive after it appeared in danger of being poached into extinction. Athletic directors in Big Ten have not fully supported the potential expansion to the Pacific Northwest, according to the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because nothing was official and both the conferences and schools were not making their decisions public. Another person told AP that Big Ten presidents also scheduled to
August 04, 2023More than 4,000 British Scouts will leave the World Scout Jamboree at a campsite in South Korea and move into hotels this weekend, the U.K. Scout Association said Friday, as concerns grow after more than 100 participants were treated for heat-related ailments. The pullout of the Jamboree’s largest national contingent was announced hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol promised an “unlimited supply” of air-conditioned buses and refrigerator trucks to provide chilled water to the site in the southwestern town of Buan. South Korea has been grappling with one of its hottest summers in
August 04, 2023Law enforcement authorities said Friday they’ve identified a woman whose remains were found as far back as 1996 in different spots along the Long Island coast, some of them near the Gilgo Beach locations of bodies investigators believe were left by a serial killer. The woman, who investigators had called the “Jane Doe No. 7,” was Karen Vergata, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said Friday. She was 34. He said she disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996, and had been living in Manhattan. Her partial remains were first discovered in 1996 on Fire Island. More of
August 04, 2023The first time the College Board bumped up against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s efforts to inject conservative ideals into education standards, it ultimately revamped the Advanced Placement course for African American studies, watering down curriculum on slavery reparations and the Black Lives Matter movement – and a nationwide backlash ensued. Now, faced with altering its AP Psychology course to comply with Florida’s limits on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity, the nonprofit College Board is pushing back. It advised the state’s school districts Thursday to not offer the college-level course to Florida’s high school students unless
August 04, 2023Doctors in Kenya say the bullet wounds that civilians received during opposition protests in two counties last month show that most were shot while running from police or trying to surrender, according to a report released Friday. The report by the Kenya Medical Association, Amnesty International Kenya and the Law Society of Kenya looked at three days of protests in the western counties of Kisumu and Kisii, part of the opposition’s stronghold. It confirmed at least 11 people killed, most of them shot dead, and counted at least 47 others with gunshot wounds. “There was indeed
August 04, 2023Nestled in the spruce trees in the Harz mountains of northern Germany is a bark-eating pest not much bigger than a sesame seed. Known as “book printers” for the lines they eat into the bark that fan out from a single spine resembling words on a page, these eight-toothed beetles have always been part of the local forest. Officials expect the bugs to typically kill a few spruces each summer as they find suitable trees to lay their eggs — they burrow into the tree’s cambium, or growing layer, hampering it from getting the nutrients it
August 04, 2023Kashmir’s top pro-India politician had a stark message Friday — the eve of the fourth anniversary since India revoked the disputed region’s special status, throwing the Himalayan territory into political chaos: “Democracy stops where the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir begin.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Omar Abdullah said India’s 2019 decision to strip the region’s statehood, its separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs have pushed the territory into a “democratic void” and led to a clampdown on civil liberties. “It’s a very abnormal calm that exists” in the region, Abdullah,
August 04, 2023A leading human rights group called Friday on the United States and the United Nations to impose further sanctions on the Sudanese individuals “responsible for the atrocities” in Darfur, as evidence of scorched-earth attacks mount. The northeast African country plunged into chaos in April when monthslong tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere. In Darfur, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with RSF
August 04, 2023Damage to the school complex in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp from recent clashes between factions could delay the start of the school year for some 6,000 children, a United Nations official said Friday. The concern arose after heavy street battles broke out Sunday in Ein el-Hilweh between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and Islamist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. The clashes erupted after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp. The fighting has killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more
August 04, 2023Men who had sworn an oath to protect and serve were huddled on the back porch of a Mississippi home as Michael Corey Jenkins lay on the ground, blood gushing from his mutilated tongue where one of the police officers shoved a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The roughly 90-minute period of terror preceding the shooting began late on Jan. 24 after a white neighbor called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman inside a Braxton home. McAlpin tipped off Deputy Christian Dedmon,
August 04, 2023Global prices for food commodities like rice and vegetable oil have risen for the first time in months after Russia pulled out of a wartime agreement allowing Ukraine to ship grain to the world, and India restricted some of its rice exports, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly traded food commodities, increased 1.3% in July over June, driven by higher costs for rice and vegetable oil. It was the first uptick since April, when higher sugar prices bumped up the
August 04, 2023Pope Francis visited a once troubled and crime-plagued neighborhood of Portugal’s capital Friday to draw attention to the charitable side of the Catholic Church and the need to protect the world’s most vulnerable people with concrete gestures that “get your hands dirty.” The midway point in Francis’ five-day visit to Portugal began with the pontiff hearing confessions of some young people who were in Lisbon for World Youth Day. The big Catholic youth festival will end Friday with a traditional Way of the Cross procession recreating Christ’s crucifixion. Francis visited a community center in the city’s
August 04, 2023At first sight, Tiembe studies his frozen breakfast with hesitation: Chunks of red meat and bone packed in a foot-long block of ice. The 15-year-old Angolan lion eventually licks the ice before gnawing pieces of meat free. Animals at the Attica Zoological Park outside the Greek capital were being fed frozen meals Friday as temperatures around the country reached 40 C (107.5 F) and were set to rise further, in the fourth heat wave in less than a month. The extreme temperatures and wildfires — a growing concern for biodiversity in southern Europe — have had
August 04, 2023In a span of a decade, Alexei Navalny has gone from the Kremlin’s biggest foe to Russia’s most prominent political prisoner. Already serving two convictions that have landed him in prison for at least nine years, he stands a new trial that could keep him behind bars for two more decades. The verdict in the trial is due to be announced Friday in a makeshift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6, where Navalny is being held and where the trial took place behind closed doors, in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometers (over 140 miles)
August 04, 2023Andrew Tate, the divisive internet influencer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, won an appeal on Friday to be released from house arrest and will instead be put under judicial control measures, his spokesperson said. The exact restrictions that Tate will face were not immediately made public. The decision at the Bucharest Court of Appeal comes after prosecutors formally indicted the 36-year-old Tate in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women in the same case. All four were arrested in late
August 04, 2023Frequent rivals Sweden and the United States will meet meet once again at the Women’s World Cup, but this time the stakes are tremendously higher. The two-time defending champion Americans are struggling heading into the round of 16 match on Sunday against the Swedes, who they have played often in both the World Cup and the Olympics. “We always find a way to play them in these big tournaments, so we know they’re a very good team. Every time that we play them it’s a massive battle,” U.S. captain Lindsey Horan said ahead of the match
August 04, 2023Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny due to hear the verdict Friday in his latest trial on extremism charges. The prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said he expects a lengthy prison term. Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court in a penal colony east of Moscow. In 2021, he was also sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation. The latest trial against Navalny has been taking place behind closed doors in the colony where he is imprisoned. If the court finds
August 04, 2023South Korea showed its age in the Women’s World Cup and is now looking toward necessary changes to get to the next level. The rebuild will be built around 16-year-old phenom Casey Phair, the first multiracial footballer named to the South Korea national team. Phair was born in South Korea to an American father and South Korean mother and resides in New Jersey in the United States. From a performance side, South Korea closed its tournament with strong play in a 1-1 draw that eliminated both teams. But sending home the two-time champion Germans is considered
August 04, 2023Cyprus’ veterinarians association on Friday lauded a government decision to allow its stock of human coronavirus medication to be used on cats to fight a local mutation of a feline virus that has killed thousands of animals on the Mediterranean island. The association said in a statement that it had petitioned the government for access to the medication at “reasonable prices” from the beginning of this year, when the mutation that causes lethal Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) began to noticeably crop up in the island’s cat population. “We want to assure that we will continue to
August 04, 2023India’s top court on Friday stayed the criminal defamation conviction of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi for mocking the prime ministers surname. His party said it would now seek to have Gandhi reinstated as a member of parliament. A fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in 2024 polls, Gandhi was ousted from Parliament after his conviction by a magistrate’s court in March. The stay by the Supreme Court means a temporary halt to the conviction while the court goes into Gandhi’s appeal in detail before issuing a final ruling. Gandhi’s disqualification as
August 04, 2023Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers is declaring a state of emergency in the country’s Amhara region after authorities pleaded for help as clashes intensify there between regional forces and the military. The prime minister’s office announced the decision on Friday after the region’s leader said regular law enforcement was no longer able to contain the violence. The declaration needs approval from Parliament. “The threat the activity is imposing on national security and public peace is increasing day by day,” the declaration said, noting severe economic damage as well and blaming “armed extremist groups.” Ethiopia’s second most populous
August 04, 2023Change is happening fast in women’s soccer. A leveling of the playing field is being highlighted at the Women’s World Cup, which saw two-time champion Germany crash out of the tournament on Thursday. In the biggest upset of a World Cup that has been full of surprises, the second-ranked Germans, two-time World Cup winners, were eliminated in group stage for the first time in team history. Copa America champion Brazil and Olympic gold medalist Canada were also eliminated in the first round, while Morocco, South Africa and Jamaica all advanced to the knockout stage while making history
August 04, 2023Brazil and Canada are out. Same for Italy and Germany, all powerhouse teams already eliminated from the Women’s World Cup following shocking upsets in group play. The United States, meanwhile, hardly looks as dominant as it did in winning the last two consecutive titles. The round of 16 begins Saturday in what’s now a wide-open World Cup with plenty of underdogs still in contention. Morocco, ranked 72nd in the world and in the tournament for the first time, used an unbelievable upset over Colombia to advance. South Africa made it through to the round of
August 04, 2023Russia accused Ukraine early Friday of attacking its Black Sea navy base in the port of Novorossiysk with sea drones. The attack on Novorossiysk is the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war. The city is a major port on the Black Sea and hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal. It is a key port for Russian exports. Novorossiysk is just across the water from Crimea, where Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it thwarted another attack by Ukraine overnight, taking down 13 drones. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Russian ships
August 04, 2023Niger’s military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous government’s key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies. A regional delegation’s efforts at negotiation quickly deadlocked. The junta’s announcement on state television late Thursday deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States’ and allies’ last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global center of terrorism. With
August 04, 2023China is lifting a stifling 3-year-old tariff on Australian barley starting Saturday — a sign of an improving bilateral trade relationship since Australia’s government changed. China effectively closed its door to Australian barley in May 2020 by imposing an 80.5% tariff after the previous Australian government angered Beijing by calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of, and responses to, the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, both governments confirmed the resumption of trade in the grain that was worth 916 million Australian dollars ($602 million) in the year before China blocked imports. Australian Prime Minister Anthony
August 04, 2023Eight people were killed when a freight train struck a pickup truck that was crossing railway tracks in an eastern province of Thailand early Friday morning, authorities said. The accident at 2:20 a.m. (19:20 GMT) also injured four people in the Muang district of Chachoengsao province, according to the State Railway of Thailand. The 54-year-old driver, Wichai Yulek, told authorities he saw the approaching train and heard a warning horn. He slowed, but passengers in the vehicle urged him to keep going. When he realized the truck was headed for a collision, he could not stop in
August 04, 2023Asian stocks markets were mixed Friday ahead of a U.S. jobs update that could influence interest rate plans after Britain’s central bank raised its key lending rate. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul rose. Tokyo and Sydney declined. Oil prices advanced. Wall Street sank for a third day after the Bank of England on Thursday raised its benchmark lending rate to a 15-year high and indicated it could stay high for a while. Investors were rattled a day earlier after Fitch Ratings cut its credit rating on U.S. government debt, despite analyst comments that the change made little
August 04, 2023Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of violating the law and tearing apart independent institutions to cling to power. In an interview with The Associated Press, Nelson Chamisa also warned that any evidence of tampering by Mnangagwa’s ruling party in this month’s elections could lead to “total disaster” for a beleaguered nation that is in economic ruin and already under United States and European Union sanctions for its human rights record. Chamisa, who will challenge Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party’s 43-year hold on power in an Aug. 23 vote, claimed widespread intimidation against
August 04, 2023South Korean police detained a man suspected of stabbing a high school teacher with a knife Friday in the city of Daejeon. The stabbing follows a separate, apparently random attack on Thursday in which 14 people were wounded near a busy subway station in Seongnam. Officials at the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency didn’t immediately release the personal details of the suspect in the Friday morning attack on the teacher at Songchon High School, describing him only as a man in his late 20s. According to police, the suspect waited for the teacher to step out
August 04, 2023Heavy rain and high water levels on rivers in northeastern China were threatening cities downstream on Friday, prompting the evacuation of thousands, although the country appears to have averted the worst effects of the typhoon season battering parts of east Asia. Hebei province surrounding the capital Beijing on three sides issued alerts for several of its cities. The province of Heilongjiang to the north, was evacuating entire villages in anticipation of life-threatening deluges. Rescue work remains underway. At least 20 people have been reported killed in Beijing’s outer suburbs and another 27 were missing following the weekend
August 04, 2023A vanload of church volunteers drove along a main street in north Seattle one night last month with sandwiches, water bottles and blankets for homeless people. They didn’t find any — but they did see dozens of barely clothed women walking along the road or leaning into traffic to advertise their services. “Just woman after woman after woman,” recalled one of the volunteers, Stuart Jenner. “We prayed for them as we drove south.” About two hours later, the FBI said, a man posing as an undercover police officer shackled and abducted a woman from the area after
August 04, 2023Three years after Beirut’s massive port blast, attempts to prosecute those responsible are mired in political intrigue, the final death toll remains disputed and many Lebanese have less faith than ever in their disintegrating state institutions. As the country marks the anniversary Friday, relatives of some of those killed are still struggling to get their loved ones recognized as blast victims, reflecting the ongoing chaos since the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion. The blast killed at least 218 people, according to an Associated Press count, wounded more than 6,000, devastated large swaths of Beirut and caused billions of
August 04, 2023Lottery players will have a shot Friday night at an estimated $1.25 billion Mega Millions jackpot that has been growing ever larger after months without a grand prize winner. There have been 30 straight drawings since the last time someone won the game’s jackpot on April 18. That has enabled the prize to steadily grow until it is now the sixth-largest ever in the U.S. The jackpot is so hard to win because of the 1-in-302.6 million odds of matching the numbers on five white balls and a separate mega ball. The odds are better to win smaller prizes, which
August 04, 2023In the wheelhouse of a crab boat named Heidi Sue, Mike Pettis watched the gray whale surface and shoot water through its blowhole. Tangled around its tail was a polypropylene rope used to pull up crab traps. It took two men with serrated knives 40 minutes to free the whale, which swam away with a small piece of rope still embedded in its skin. That was in 2004, off the waters of Waldport, Oregon. Pettis, a crab fisherman, said it’s the only time in his 44 years of fishing he has ever seen a whale caught in crab lines, and
August 04, 2023U.S. authorities are sharply expanding the reach of curfews for the heads of asylum-seeking families while they wait for initial screenings after crossing the border, signaling they are comfortable with early results of what is intended as an alternative to detention. The curfews began in May in four cities and, on Friday, grow to 13 locations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told advocates. The additions are Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose in California. New Orleans and Houston started July 28. The number of cities is expected to reach
August 04, 2023Nine members of Congress are expected to tour the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, shortly before ballistics technicians reenact the massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead. Few have been inside the three-story building since the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting. The structure looms over the campus, locked behind a chain-link fence for use as evidence in last year’s penalty trial for the shooter. There is broken glass on the floor, along with wilted roses, deflated balloons and discarded gifts. Opened textbooks and laptop computers remain on
August 04, 2023Haitians are expressing skepticism over an offer by Kenya to lead an international police force aimed at combatting the gang violence that has wracked the Caribbean nation. They say the sexual abuse and a devastating cholera outbreak that have accompanied foreign forces in past decades don’t inspire much trust. But Haitians also say uncontrolled bloodshed in their country leaves them with few other options. Florence Casimir, an elementary school teacher, said that while past international interventions have damaged Haiti, their abuses don’t compare to the brutality of gangs, which kidnap her students and force parents to
August 04, 2023Zach Wilson showed he can move New York’s offense as a backup quarterback, but the Jets kicked off the Aaron Rodgers Era with a 21-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night in the Hall of Fame game. It was a battle of rookies and reserves as both teams rested their starters in the NFL’s inaugural game of 2023. There was a notable opening-night glitch as a power outage in Tom Benson Stadium caused about a 20-minute delay between the third and fourth quarters. Browns rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson rallied the Browns with a pair
August 04, 2023Diana Taurasi received a pass and in an instant, the shot was off her fingertips. It was a 3-pointer that splashed through the net, just like it has so many other times during her career. Taurasi became the first WNBA player to score 10,000 points, hitting the mark with 8:23 remaining in the third quarter against the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night. After the shot, the crowd in Phoenix erupted in cheers and Taurasi’s teammates surrounded her in a circle, jumping up and down and celebrating. The 41-year-old guard started the night needing 18 points to make
August 04, 2023Shohei Ohtani was pulled from the mound by the Los Angeles Angels after only four innings Thursday night due to cramping in his pitching hand and fingers. The two-way superstar pitched scoreless three-hit ball with four strikeouts against the Seattle Mariners, and he had thrown only 59 pitches. Ohtani also had problems with cramps during the Angels’ just-completed trip, leaving consecutive games early with lower-body cramping. Ohtani remained in the game at Angel Stadium as the Halos’ designated hitter. The start was Ohtani’s shortest of the season, not counting a two-inning outing in Boston caused by
August 04, 2023Several banks of lights went dark during the second half of the Hall of Fame game Thursday night, causing a delay in the matchup between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. The power outage happened at end of the third quarter with the Jets clinging to a 16-14 lead. There was no immediate word on what caused the lights to go out inside Tom Benson Stadium at approximately 10:20 p.m. There were still some lights on, but it was too dark for play to resume. As the officials gathered at midfield with Browns coach Kevin
August 04, 2023For Portugal coach Francisco Neto, his team’s accomplishment hit him during the national anthem. After all the preparation and 13 qualifying matches, Portugal, like seven other countries, made its debut at this year’s Women’s World Cup. Being here became real for Neto during the pregame ceremony before his side’s opening match July 23 against the Netherlands as “A Portuguesa” played. “The first time we heard the anthem,” Neto said when asked a moment he cherished at the tournament. “It was our first World Cup,” he continued. “It was the first time we were there, and
August 04, 2023The managers of the Panama Canal said they expect income from the waterway to drop after authorities were forced to limit the number of ships passing through each to 32 due to a lack of rainfall. Ricaurte Vásquez, the canal’s administrator, said Thursday that income in 2024 could drop by as much as $200 million because of the drought. The canal implemented a measure Sunday capping the number of ships passing through its locks daily to a maximum of 32, compared to 36 to 38 under normal operation. Not enough rain has fallen to feed the watershed system of rivers
August 04, 2023The man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year was on a long drive by himself around the time of the deaths, his defense attorneys wrote in new court documents filed this week. Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the Moscow, Idaho, university campus last November. He has exercised his right to remain silent during the court case, so a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf earlier this year. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said
August 04, 2023Justice Elena Kagan publicly declared her support for an ethics code for the U.S. Supreme Court but said there was no consensus among the justices on how to proceed, suggesting the high court is grappling with public concerns over its ethics practices. “It’s not a secret for me to say that we have been discussing this issue. And it won’t be a surprise to know that the nine of us have a variety of views about this,” she said Thursday at a judicial conference in Portland, Oregon. The Supreme Court is navigating a fraught moment in
August 03, 2023A rare attack by a river otter in southern Montana injured three women floating on inner tubes and inflicted wounds serious enough that one victim had to be airlifted to a hospital, authorities said Thursday. The attack happened near the town of Cardwell on a remote stretch of the Jefferson River, a tributary of the Missouri River that’s popular with anglers and recreational floaters. At least one otter swam up to the adult women at about 8:15 p.m. Wednesday and attacked them, said Morgan Jacobsen with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. The women were able to
August 03, 2023Jalen Brunson could be on his honeymoon right now. He’s playing for his country instead. Let this serve as incredible proof of how badly Brunson wanted to play for USA Basketball at the FIBA World Cup that starts later this month: He and his now-wife moved their wedding to make it happen. Instead of getting married on Sept. 2, as was the plan, Brunson and Ali Marks got married this past Saturday. And on Wednesday, Brunson was going through his first practice with the World Cup team. The honeymoon will wait. There’s a gold medal to
August 03, 2023A Black woman from Arkansas who was held at gunpoint along with three family members when Texas police wrongly suspected their car was stolen said Thursday that she decided to speak out after seeing video from a passerby and realizing two officers had aimed firearms at her 13-year-old son while his hands were up. “I was there present in that moment, but where they had me I couldn’t see everything, so when I seen that video it really broke me, it really broke me bad,” Demetria Heard said during a news conference in Little Rock.
August 03, 2023IndyCar loves racing through the streets of Music City so much that the series is making Nashville the final race of the season and the stage for its annual awards starting in 2024. Mark Miles, president and CEO of Penske Entertainment Corp., announced Thursday that the combination of Nashville and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will help elevate the IndyCar Series even higher globally. “Next year’s race in Nashville will be an unbridled celebration of the most fierce and competitive motorsport on the planet, set against the backdrop of an innovative and breathtaking stage
August 03, 2023On the last of his many visits to Jim Brown’s home in Los Angeles, Ray Lewis recalled the legendary running back being as powerful as ever. As a feeble Brown, in the final months of his life, slowly approached the Hall of Fame linebacker, Lewis braced himself. “He said, ‘If I put this walker down, I still don’t think you can stop me,'” Lewis said. No one stopped Jim Brown. With dozens of fellow Hall of Famers dressed in their signature gold jackets in attendance, Brown’s extraordinary life — on and off the field — was
August 03, 2023Federal investigators said Thursday that the pilot of a charter jet took off without permission, creating a “conflict” with a JetBlue plane that was preparing to land on an intersecting runway at Boston’s Logan International Airport in February. A screen grab from video shot from the JetBlue cockpit captures the moment that the Learjet operated by charter service Hop-A-Jet crossed the runway just in front of the JetBlue plane. Pilots of the JetBlue Embraer jet estimated they were about 30 feet (9 meters) off the ground when they saw a plane cross in front of them — the captain said
August 03, 2023When Javon Bullard was asked about the play that might have saved Georgia’s season — last season, that is — he was in no mood to talk. He already has moved on, his focus firmly fixed on what’s ahead. “To be honest, that play happened in December,” Bullard told reporters. “If you’re still talking about it, that’s not my fault.” That’s just the sort of attitude coach Kirby Smart wants to hear from his players, and it might very well carry the Bulldogs to an accomplishment that no other school has done before, at least not
August 03, 2023Apple’s eked out a slightly higher profit last quarter even though sales dipped during the period, a time during which the iPhone maker became the first publicly held U.S. company in to be valued at $3 trillion. The results released Thursday covered April through June, the third consecutive quarter that Apple has posted a year-over-year decline in revenue. That’s its longest stretch of falling sales in nearly seven years. Revenue totaled $81.8 billion, down 1% from last year. Profit edged up by less than 1% from a year ago to $19.9 billion, or $1.26 per share. The earnings were better
August 03, 2023Amazon on Thursday posted better-than-expected revenue and profits for the second quarter, sending its stock higher in after-hours trading. The e-commerce giant earned $6.7 billion, or 65 cents per share, for the three-month period ended June 30, much higher the $3.64 billion industry analysts surveyed by FactSet had anticipated. Amazon had reported a loss during the same period last year, driven by a big loss on its investment in electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive. Its profits for the second quarter include a pre-tax valuation gain of $0.2 billion in its Rivian investment. The company, which has
August 03, 2023Chloe Dygert insisted in the week leading up to the cycling world championships that she wasn’t quite in form yet. The American track star was still by far the best in the world Thursday. The 26-year-old from Indiana, who has overcome a career-threatening crash and several other setbacks over the past three years, roared to victory in the individual pursuit for the first elite gold medal of worlds. In fact, Dygert was so far ahead of her opponent in the finals, defending champion Franziska Brausse, that she passed the German on the final lap. Dygert stopped the clock in 3
August 03, 2023Airbnb said Thursday its second-quarter profit jumped more than 70% over last summer, to $650 million, as revenue rose on strong bookings for summer-vacation rentals. The San Francisco company said bookings grew 11% over the same period last year. Still, they were a bit lighter than analysts expected. The shares fell about 1% after three hours of late trading. Airbnb has been battling complaints that high cleaning fees have pushed prices closer to, or even above, hotels for short rentals. It changed its site to display cleaning fees upfront, when consumers are price-shopping. Prices, however, remain stubbornly high. Airbnb had
August 03, 2023Georgia’s Fulton County has reached a settlement with the family of a man who died in a bedbug-infested cell in the county jail’s psychiatric wing, the family’s lawyers said Thursday. Lashawn Thompson, 35, died in September, three months after he was booked into the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. Attorneys Ben Crump and Michael Harper, who represent Thompson’s family, said in a news release Thursday that the family has reached settlements with the county “and other unidentified entities.” Thompson’s death gained public attention in April after Harper released photos of his face and body covered in insects.
August 03, 2023Texas A&M University reached a $1 million settlement Thursday with a Black journalism professor after botched attempts to hire her unraveled after pushback over her past work promoting diversity. The nation’s largest public school agreed to pay Kathleen McElroy $1 million, and apologized to her while admitting “mistakes were made during the hiring process.” Texas A&M had initially welcomed McElroy, a Texas A&M graduate, with great fanfare to revive the school’s journalism department in June. She is a former New York Times editor and had overseen the journalism school at the more liberal University of Texas
August 03, 2023Russell Henley still thinks about a poor finish from two years ago at the Wyndham Championship. He had no complaints about his start Thursday, an 8-under 62 that gave him the lead in the final tournament before the PGA Tour’s postseason. Henley hit his approach to 6 feet for eagle on the par-5 15th on his way to a 30 on the back nine at rain-softened Sedgefield Country Club. He led by one over Adam Svensson and Byeong Hun An, who birdied his last two holes. Henley is at No. 34 in the FedEx Cup standings,
August 03, 2023Arizona is in talks to join the Big 12, a person with direct knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press, and a board of regents meeting Thursday night could determine whether Arizona State is ready to leave the Pac-12, too, and join the Wildcats. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because neither the school nor the conference were prepared to finalize an invitation to the Wildcats. The person added that Arizona State was not as far along in the process, which could slow down Arizona’s final decision because the Tucson-based school would prefer to be
August 03, 2023Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is keeping its promise to block news content in Canada on its platforms in response to a new law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online. Google’s owner Alphabet has said it plans to do the same, although it does not appear to have followed through yet. The company said in a June blog post that it will begin removing news links in the country when the law takes effect — expected in December. Meta has threatened to block links
August 03, 2023One of the state agencies involved in the ongoing investigation of alleged sports wagering violations by Iowa and Iowa State athletes announced Thursday no evidence had been discovered to suggest the integrity of any contest involving the schools was affected by gambling interests. A total of seven current or former athletes at the two schools were criminally charged this week, notably ISU quarterback Hunter Dekkers and ex-Iowa basketball player Ahron Ulis. All seven are charged with tampering with records, and all are suspected of placing bets on contests involving their own schools. Four are alleged to have wagered on games
August 03, 2023Tunisia’s interior minister conceded that small groups of sub-Saharan migrants trying to enter the country are pushed back into the desert border areas with Libya and Algeria, but labeled as “false allegations” claims by the U.N., humanitarian groups and migrants themselves of mistreatment. In an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Kamel Fekih said that while there is no “collective” expulsion of migrants, small groups trying to enter Tunisia are pushed back into the desert no man’s land. However, he disputed remarks earlier this week by the deputy spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, who
August 03, 2023The former personal lawyer of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took a seat on the country’s Supreme Court on Thursday amid criticism that their relationship poses a conflict of interest. Lula appointed Cristiano Zanin in June, drawing accusations from the opposition that he is jeopardizing the impartiality of Brazil’s highest court by making a friend one of its justices. The president denies having a friendship with the lawyer. Zanin, who holds a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, specializes in procedural and business law. He helped Lula overturn convictions
August 03, 2023Six former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have been charged with federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized for more than an hour during a home raid, before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth. The charges were unsealed Thursday as the former five Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and another officer — all of whom are white — appeared in federal court. The two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, say the officers burst into a home without a warrant on Jan. 24, then beat
August 03, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken challenged all countries Thursday to tell Russia to stop using the Black Sea and Ukraine’s grain as “blackmail” and stop treating the world’s hungry and vulnerable people as leverage in its “unconscionable war.” America’s top diplomat lashed out at Russia at a U.N. Security Council meeting for ignoring the world’s appeals and pulling out of the year-old deal that allowed Ukraine to ship more than 32 tons of grain from Black Sea ports to needy countries. “And what has Russia’s response been to the world’s distress and outrage? Bombing Ukrainian
August 03, 2023Two U.S. Navy sailors were charged Thursday with providing sensitive military information to China — including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material. The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it wasn’t clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the sailors were aware of each other’s actions. Both men
August 03, 2023The American economy has generated at least 200,000 new jobs for a record 30 straight months. And the streak likely continued into July. But just barely. The Labor Department’s latest jobs report, out Friday, is expected to show that employers tacked on exactly 200,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. That would be fewest since December 2020 – but still a healthy number and a sign that the U.S. labor market remains sturdy despite markedly higher interest rates. In another sign of strength, the unemployment rate is expected to
August 03, 2023A Michigan attorney involved in multiple efforts around the country to overturn the 2020 election in support of former President Donald Trump has been charged in connection with accessing and tampering with voting machines in Michigan, prosecutors announced Thursday. The charges against Stefanie Lambert come days after Matthew DePerno, a Republican lawyer whom Trump endorsed in an unsuccessful run for Michigan attorney general last year, and former GOP state Rep. Daire Rendon were arraigned in connection with the case. Lambert, DePerno, and Rendon were named by Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office last year as having “orchestrated
August 03, 2023In the 1990s, two hurricanes devastated Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean, wiping entire communities off the map and killing dozens of people. “Everything was just decimated,” Malama Tafuna’i, a primary care physician in Apia, the territory’s capital, said. “It looked like a bomb had gone off.” A young girl at the time, Tafuna’i watched as her father, a doctor, would go out to treat patients while her household navigated the aftermath of the storms. “He still had to go to work and the rest of us had to figure out, you know, how do we
August 03, 2023Those ads showing caged dogs and desperate looking cats while Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” played in the background have been not just effective at making viewers sad, but also remarkably successful at raising money for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals since 2007. However, a new study shows other strategies may also be effective at motivating people to give, apart from all that “ sadvertising.” Maybe try “Hakuna Matata.” The study from Nathan Chan, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Casey Wichman, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute
August 03, 2023In a wild finale to the group stage of the Women’s World Cup, two-time champion Germany was eliminated on Thursday and the second lowest-ranked team in the tournament, Morocco, advanced to the knockout stage. Colombia also advanced as Group H winner to round off a slew of upsets in the opening weeks of the competition being held in Australia and New Zealand. A day earlier, Jamaica eliminated another favorite, Brazil, to advance to the round of 16, while South Africa is also through to the next stage after its stoppage-time winner against Italy. But Germany’s early exit
August 03, 2023An 87-year-old Maine woman ably fought off a teenage attacker, then fed him because he said he was “awfully hungry.” Marjorie Perkins said she awoke at 2 a.m. on July 26 and saw the young man standing over her bed. He had shed his shirt and pants and told her he was going to cut her. “I thought to myself, if’s he’s going to cut, then I’m going to kick,” she said. She put on her shoes and fought back, putting a chair between them as the two jostled in her Brunswick home. The intruder struck her on the cheek
August 03, 2023Saudi Arabia said Thursday it will extend its unilateral production cut of 1 million barrels of oil a day through the end of September in its effort to boost flagging energy prices. The Saudi reduction, which began in July, comes as the other OPEC+ producers have agreed to extend earlier production cuts through next year. The kingdom announced the extension in a statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an anonymous official in the kingdom’s Energy Ministry. The official added that the cut “can be extended or deepened” if the need arises. “This
August 03, 2023The man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue was formally sentenced to death Thursday, one day after a jury determined that capital punishment was appropriate for the perpetrator of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. U.S. District Judge Robert Colville imposed the sentence on Robert Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver whose vicious antisemitism led him to shoot his way into a place of worship and target people for practicing their faith. “I have nothing specific that I care to say to Mr. Bowers,” Colville said, before issuing the formal sentence. “I am however
August 03, 2023A new era has begun for the Charlotte Hornets, raising hope that one day the struggling franchise might turn things around. Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall officially acquired the majority stake of the Hornets from six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan on Thursday, bringing new thoughts and ideas on how to rebuild a franchise that hasn’t been to the playoffs in the last seven seasons. Plotkin said he and Schnall plan to be “patient” NBA owners, but they are driven to build a winner in Charlotte. “We think ultimately this is a top-10 or top-15 franchise in
August 03, 2023USA Gymnastics and Nike have reached an agreement on a sponsorship deal that will make the athletic giant the exclusive apparel and footwear provider for the men’s and women’s national teams. The deal, which USA USA Gymnastics says is the largest ever both in terms of annual value and total value for the national governing body, runs through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. It also signals a shift in perception of USA Gymnastics in the corporate world as it tries to distance itself from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. The organization has undergone a litany of changes — both
August 03, 2023The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose slightly last week but remained at a historically low level that points to a robust job market. Applications for jobless aid rose 6,000 to 227,000 for the week ending July 29, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell 5,500 to 228,250. Jobless benefit applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week. Thursday’s report comes just a day before the July jobs report will be released, which will provide a broader and more detailed
August 03, 2023Veronica Iordanova remembers Octobers growing up in Arizona when it was too cold to trick-or-treat in a short-sleeved Halloween costume. She can’t imagine that anymore. The summer heat lasts longer and feels more intense now, and she knows that is a result of human-caused global warming. She worries about her and her family’s future. “We need to realistically look at the situation and realize it’s not going to get better,” said Iordanova, who lives in Tempe. Across the U.S., many people are living through one of the most brutal summers of their lives. And some psychologists believe the attention on
August 03, 2023Mexican authorities are trying to identify two bodies found in the Rio Grande this week, including one that was spotted along the floating barrier that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had installed recently in the Rio Grande, across from Eagle Pass, Texas. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department reported for the first time Wednesday that a body had been found along the floating barrier. The Coahuila state prosecutor’s office later told local media outlets that the two bodies were recovered and that the process of identification was underway. The department initially said one body was found along the barrier,
August 03, 2023Mindy Scheirer was working in fashion before her son, Oliver, was born with muscular dystrophy. As he grew, and she watched him struggle to get dressed, her eyes were opened to her industry’s limitations for people with disabilities. At 8, Oliver wanted to ditch his daily sweatpants for jeans, favored by his peers. His mom couldn’t find any to accommodate his leg braces and difficulty working zippers and buttons, so she began making adaptations herself. She put strips of fabric fastener on the inseams of the jeans, and she replaced the button and zipper on the
August 03, 2023After playing their part by edging Colombia 1-0, Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses huddled on the pitch in Perth to follow the end of the Germany-South Korea group-stage finale at the Women’s World Cup and hope it remained tied. “We had the phone and we started praying. We were praying while we were watching the game,” said midfielder Anissa Lahmari, who scored Morocco’s winning goal in first-half stoppage time on Thursday. “Afterwards it was just a complete explosion of joy.” Cue celebrations, both in Morocco and other parts of the Arab world. In one of the most unexpected
August 03, 2023At least 13 people were injured in South Korea on Thursday when a man rammed a car onto a sidewalk and then stepped out of the vehicle and began stabbing people near a subway station in the city of Seongnam. Yoon Sung-hyun, an official from the southern Gyeonggi provincial police department, said at least nine people were stabbed and four others were injured by the vehicle. Police did not confirm whether any were in serious condition. Police were questioning an unidentified suspect who was arrested at the scene. In response to the attack, the National
August 03, 2023A Florida man sentenced to death for the 1988 attack on a woman who was sexually assaulted and killed with a hammer, then set on fire in her own bed, is set for execution Thursday after dropping all his appeals and saying he was ready to die. James Phillip Barnes, 61, was to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke. It would mark the fifth execution this year in Florida. Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to
August 03, 2023Polish and Lithuanian leaders held an urgent meeting Thursday in a strategically sensitive area where their NATO nations border Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, warning that they are bracing for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in the area. The meeting came two days after two Belarusian helicopters flew briefly at low altitude into Polish air space, in what was viewed as a provocative move. Both nations on NATO’s eastern flank have increased their border security following the arrival of thousands of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries just across their borders in Belarus after an aborted
August 03, 2023Anheuser-Busch Inbev reported a drop in U.S. revenue in the second quarter as Bud Light sales plunged amid a conservative backlash over a campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The world’s largest brewer said Thursday that revenue in the United States declined by 10.5% in the April-to-June period from a year earlier, “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.” It has lost its place as America’s best-selling beer after more than two decades, slipping into second place in June behind Mexican lager Modelo Especial, which is also owned by the Belgium-based ABInBev. The company faced blowback after sending
August 03, 2023Greenpeace demonstrators draped the country estate of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in black fabric Thursday to protest his plan to expand oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. Video posted by the group showed a crew dressed in bright red jumpsuits, helmets, and safety harnesses carrying ladders and climbing onto the roof of the Yorkshire house. They slowly unfurled long black sheets of fabric over the front of the home and held a yellow sign on the roof that read “No New Oil.” The prime minister was not home because he is vacationing with his
August 03, 2023A cautious calm returned to Lebanon’s Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian camp in south Lebanon Thursday after a night of renewed clashes. Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, which is home to about 50,000 people, has been racked since Sunday by fierce battles between President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and Islamist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. Fatah has accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp on Sunday. The fighting has so far killed more than a dozen people, wounded dozens more, and displaced thousands. In the
August 03, 2023Banks from four Arab countries are interested in investing in Lebanon’s struggling banking sector, which was hard-hit by the small nation’s three-year economic meltdown, a top Arab banker said Thursday. Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic crisis in its short and troubled history that has skyrocketed poverty and inflation, and crippled its bloated public sector and infrastructure. Wissam Fattouh, the Secretary General of the Union of Arab Banks, spoke to The Associated Press on the sidelines of the biggest regional banking conference held in Beirut since the historic economic crisis began in October 2019.
August 03, 2023Violent unrest is escalating in Ethiopia’s Amhara region as federal security forces clash with a local ethnic militia, leading the deputy prime minister in an unusually outspoken statement to call the situation “increasingly grave.” Ethiopia’s second most populous region has been gripped by instability since April, when federal authorities disarmed the Amhara regional force as part of the recovery from a devastating two-year conflict in the neighboring Tigray region. Authorities last year also tried to dismantle the Amhara militia known as Fano. Both forces had fought alongside federal ones in the Tigray conflict, but now the
August 03, 2023Nintendo reported a 52% increase in net profit for the first fiscal quarter on Thursday following the success of its Super Mario movie and the new Zelda video game. Demand was strong for Nintendo Switch game software, which received a boost from the release earlier this year of the film about the jumping plumber called “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” according to Nintendo Co. The film has so far drawn more than 168 million people globally, grossing $1.3 billion. That makes it one of the top-selling animation films on record, second only to “Frozen II,” and the
August 03, 2023Pope Francis challenged university students on Thursday to make the world a more just and inclusive place, as he focused the second day of his Portugal trip on inspiring young people to use their privilege to combat global warming and economic inequalities. Francis received a warm welcome at the Catholic University, one of Portugal’s top institutions of higher learning, where students broke into periodic papal chants under an already bright sun on the central Lisbon campus. After the event, Francis was heading to the seaside town of Cascais to visit the local branch of his Scolas
August 03, 2023Russian shelling on Thursday damaged a landmark church in the city of Kherson that once held the remains of the renowned 18th-century commander who exerted Russian control through the southeast parts of modern Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine’s emergency service said four of its workers were wounded in a second round of shelling as they fought the fire at St. Catherine’s Cathedral. Four other people were wounded in the first shelling attack, which also hit a trolleybus, the prosecutor general’s office said. The shelling followed the severe damage sustained by a beloved Orthodox cathedral
August 03, 2023NFL great Tom Brady has become a minority owner of English second-tier soccer team Birmingham and wants to bring a winning mentality to an underperforming club. The seven-time Super Bowl champion has partnered with the club’s holding company, U.S.-based Knighthead Capital Management, and becomes chairman of a new advisory board, Brady and Birmingham said Thursday. “Maybe you are asking, ‘What do you know about English football, Tom?’” Brady said in a club video. “Well, let’s just say I’ve got a lot to learn. But I do know a few things about winning.” Birmingham said Brady will
August 03, 2023Israel’s Supreme Court heard a petition on Thursday against a law that protects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from being removed from office over claims of a conflict of interest due to his ongoing corruption trial. Netanyahu’s governing coalition passed a law in March that limits removing a prime minister from office to cases of medical and mental incapacitation. It would protect Netanyahu from being deemed unfit for office because of his ongoing corruption trial and claims of a conflict of interest. Critics say the law is tailor-made for Netanyahu and encourages corruption. A few dozen people protested
August 03, 2023Tugboats towed a freight ship that burned for a week on the North Sea while carrying thousands of cars into a Dutch port on Thursday for salvaging, laying to rest fears that it could sink close to shipping lanes and a protected habitat for birds. The Fremantle Highway was taken to the northern port of Eemshaven, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said. A boat that has special booms to clean up oil spills accompanied the nearly 200-meter-long (around 650-foot-long) vessel as a precaution. The ship with 3,784 new vehicles, including 498 electric ones,
August 03, 2023Alex Morgan was speaking to reporters at the Women’s World Cup when she had to excuse herself to Facetime her young daughter before the toddler’s bedtime back home in the United States. Just another day for a working mom. Forget about orange slices, players such as Morgan, Katrina Gorry of Australia and Cheyna Matthews of Jamaica are redefining what it means to be a “soccer mom.” There have been plenty of elite athletes who have also juggled parenthood, but the level of support the mothers are receiving while on the job at the Women’s World Cup is improving. Morgan’s daughter,
August 03, 2023An Indian court on Thursday ruled that officials can conduct a scientific survey to determine if a 17th-century mosque in the country’s north was built over a Hindu temple. The Gyanvapi mosque in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, an area Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents in India’s parliament, is one of several mosques in northern Uttar Pradesh state that some Hindus believe was built on top of demolished Hindu temples. The dispute over land ownership had been one of India’s most heated issues between India’s 80% majority Hindu community and Muslim minority, which makes up
August 03, 2023Niger ‘s ruling junta and civil society groups called on the nation to mobilize in the capital on Thursday to fight for the country’s freedom and push back against foreign interference. “We are talking about the immediate departure of all foreign forces,” Mahaman Sanoussi, interim coordinator for the M62 civil society group that’s organizing the protest, told The Associated Press. “(We’ll mobilize) against all forms of threats to continue the struggle for the sovereignty of the people. The dignity of the Nigerian people will be respected by all without exception.” The march falls on the West
August 03, 2023Israel is being rocked by a wave of mass protests calling for the country’s democracy to be upheld. But the pro-democracy movement lacks any clear message of opposition to Israel’s open-ended military rule over millions of Palestinians. This contradiction reflects a widely held belief among Jewish Israelis that the conflict with the Palestinians is both intractable and somehow separate from Israel’s internal strife. Critics of the protest movement, including Palestinians, say this is a significant blind spot and that such selective advocacy of democratic ideals shows how disconnected Israelis are from the harsh reality of those living
August 03, 2023The Bank of England is set to raise interest rates Thursday for the 14th time in a row to a fresh 15-year high and keep the door open for further increases in the months to come as it tries to tamp down persistently high inflation. Most economists think the U.K. central bank will increase its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 5.25%. There had been fears, certainly among hard-pressed households and businesses, that the bank would repeat its outsized half-point increase from June. But figures last month showing that inflation fell more than
August 03, 2023Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday after Fitch Ratings cut the United States government’s credit rating. Tokyo’s market benchmark fell more than 1%. Shanghai and Hong Kong gained. Oil prices edged higher. Wall Street turned in its biggest one-day decline in months after Fitch Ratings cut the U.S. government credit rating Wednesday by one level. The agency cited rising debt and a “steady deterioration in standards of governance” after Congress pushed Washington close to defaulting before agreeing to raise the amount it can borrow. “This is largely irrelevant despite some initial shock,” said Kristina Hooper of Invesco
August 03, 2023The search for an Australian army helicopter that crashed at sea killing four people during a military exercise with the United States last week found human remains but not the black box crucial to explaining the tragedy, an officer said on Thursday. Retrieving the bodies of the four air crew and the black box flight data recorder have been the main priorities since an MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crashed on July 28 during a nighttime operation in the Whitsunday Islands off the northeast Australian coast. An underwater drone spotted the human remains and part of the cockpit
August 03, 2023Slade Cecconi’s first career strikeout might go down as one of the most unique in the majors. The ball wound up stuck high in catcher Jose Herrera’s inner thigh. Just more than a month past his 24th birthday, the Arizona right-hander threw a 3-2 fastball to Giants leadoff man LaMonte Wade Jr. in the first inning of the Diamondbacks’ 4-2 loss to San Francisco on Wednesday night. The ball grazed off the knob end of Wade’s bat and Herrera somehow pinned the ball in his leg without letting it hit the ground. “I basically threw one
August 03, 2023Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, awaiting the start of a separate impeachment trial, is set to appear in a Houston courtroom Thursday to discuss his nearly decade-long delayed trial on securities fraud charges. It’s unclear if any decision will be made during the court hearing on when Paxton might finally go to trial on felony charges of defrauding investors in a tech startup. He was indicted in 2015. The case is back in a Houston courtroom after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a decision last month by a judge who originally oversaw the case
August 03, 2023Gunfire will again ring out at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday as a reenactment of the 2018 massacre that left 17 dead, 17 wounded and hundreds emotionally traumatized is conducted as part of lawsuits filed by the victims’ families and the injured. Ballistics experts for the families will conduct the test, firing up to 139 shots inside a three-story classroom building as part of the lawsuit against the families’ primary targets: the school’s then-assigned deputy, Scot Peterson, and his employer, the Broward Sheriff’s Office. They will fire live ammunition from the same spots
August 03, 2023Singapore hanged a third prisoner in two weeks on Thursday for drug trafficking despite calls for the city-state to halt capital punishment for drug-related crimes. The Central Narcotics Bureau said Mohamed Shalleh Abdul Latiff, a 39-year-old Singaporean, was executed at Singapore’s Changi Prison after being accorded due process under the law. He was sentenced to death for trafficking 54 grams (1.9 ounces) of heroin, an amount “sufficient to feed the addiction of about 640 abusers for a week,” it said in a statement. Transformative Justice Collective, an anti-death penalty advocate in Singapore, said Shalleh, an
August 03, 2023As the U.S. government was considering Kenya to lead a multinational force in Haiti, it was also openly warning Kenyan police officers against violent abuses. Now 1,000 of those officers might head to Haiti to take on gang warfare. It’s a challenging turn for a police force long accused by rights watchdogs of killings and torture, including gunning down civilians during Kenya’s COVID-19 curfew. One local group confirmed that officers fatally shot more than 30 people in July, all of them in Kenya’s poorest neighborhoods, during opposition-called protests over the rising cost of living. “We are
August 03, 2023Diana Taurasi is an icon in the world of hoops, and the perennial All-Star known as the “White Mamba” is on the cusp of another milestone in her illustrious WNBA career. She is closing in on becoming the first player in league history to score 10,000 points in the regular season. But like most of the greats in any sport, Taurasi says she has always cared more about winning than milestones and records. “I really don’t think about the number, I really don’t,” Taurasi said after scoring 29 points in a one-point loss to Indiana on Tuesday night. “I’ve always
August 03, 2023China’s internet watchdog has laid out regulations to curb the amount of time children spend on their smartphones, in the latest blow to firms such as Tencent and ByteDance, which run social media platforms and online games. The Cyberspace Administration of China on Wednesday published the draft guidelines on its site, stating that minors would not be allowed to use most internet services on mobile devices from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and that children between the ages of 16 and 18 would only be able to use the internet for two hours a day. Children between
August 03, 2023The typhoon that damaged homes and knocked out power on Okinawa and other Japanese islands this week was slowly moving west Thursday but is forecast to make a U-turn and dump even more rain on the archipelago. Typhoon Khanun, now in the waters between China and Japan’s southwestern islands, is expected to slow to nearly stationary movement before a weakening high pressure system nearby allows it to turn east Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. That forecast would spare China, where rain from an earlier typhoon caused deadly flooding and damage this week around the capital, Beijing.
August 03, 2023A woman who escaped her kidnapper by punching her way out of a homemade cinder block cell at a home in southern Oregon likely saved other women from a similar fate, authorities said, by alerting them to a man they now suspect in sexual assaults in at least four more states. Negasi Zuberi posed as an undercover police officer when he kidnapped the woman in Seattle, drove hundreds of miles to his home in Klamath Falls and locked her in the garage cell until she bloodied her hands breaking the door to escape, the FBI said
August 03, 2023A man suspected of trying to enter a Jewish school with a gun in Memphis, Tennessee, on Monday and firing shots outside the building has been charged with multiple crimes, the lead agency looking into the shooting said Wednesday. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Joel Bowman, 31, of Stanton, Tennessee, was charged with criminal attempted second-degree murder, reckless endangerment, possessing a firearm during the commission or attempt to commit a dangerous felony, carrying weapons on school property, and assault against a first responder. Bowman remained hospitalized in Memphis as of Wednesday, the bureau said. Officers
August 03, 2023At least 83 people were treated for heat-related illnesses at the World Scout Jamboree being held in South Korea, which is having one of its hottest summers in years. The Ministry of Interior and Safety described the illnesses as “simple exhaustion” caused by overheating and said the ill participants were treated at a hospital. It wasn’t immediately clear how many were children and their ages. The illnesses occurred during Wednesday night’s opening ceremony of the Jamboree, which brought more than 40,000 scouts to a campsite built on land reclaimed from the sea in the southwestern
August 03, 2023Although the New York Mets are planning for 2025 and beyond, owner Steve Cohen doesn’t want to get “embarrassed” next season. Cohen met with players, coaches and reporters Wednesday before the struggling Mets played in Kansas City, one day after the team capped a stunning selloff of veteran players leading up to baseball’s trade deadline. After acquiring a bevy of minor league prospects in return, New York is clearly focused on the future. Cohen, however, said he still thinks the Mets will be “highly competitive” in 2024. “I think the expectations were really high this
August 03, 2023A federal jury in Louisiana on Wednesday acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist despite body-camera footage that showed the officer pummeling the man 18 times with a flashlight. The case of Jacob Brown was the first to emerge from a series of FBI investigations into troopers’ beatings of Black men during traffic stops in Louisiana and underscored the challenges prosecutors face convicting law enforcement officials accused of using excessive force. After a three-day trial in Monroe, jurors found Brown not guilty of depriving Aaron Bowman of his civil rights during a
August 03, 2023The Mexican government said Wednesday that the first dead body has been spotted along the floating barrier that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott installed recently in the Rio Grande river, across from Eagle Pass, Texas. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said authorities are trying to recover the body, and did not know the person’s nationality. Many had warned about the danger of the barrier, because it is designed to make it more difficult for migrants to climb over or swim under it. The department said Mexico had warned about the risks posed by the bright orange, wrecking ball-sized
August 03, 2023A leading human rights group said on Thursday Sudan’s warring parties have committed “extensive war crimes” including mass killings of civilians, rape and sexual slavery of women in the ongoing conflict. The east African country plunged into chaos in mid-April when monthslong tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country. Amnesty International’s 56-page report said civilians were deliberately targeted and killed and wounded. Women were raped, with some of them held in conditions “amounting to sexual slavery” mostly in the capital,
August 03, 2023Lionel Messi scored in his third straight game for Inter Miami after the start of the Leagues Cup contest against Orlando City on Wednesday night was delayed 95 minutes because of thunderstorms. It was Messi’s fourth goal since joining the MLS club and came seven minutes into the game. He stopped a pass on his chest from Robert Taylor, dribbled a couple of yards near the edge of the 6-yard box and converted a shot that landed under the crossbar. The goal gave Inter Miami a 1-0 in the Round of 32 match. The game
August 03, 2023For days now, newly arrived international immigrants have waited night and day outside New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel, sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk in hopes of a bed in the city’s shelter system. And for weeks, Mayor Eric Adams has said the city is out of room and sought to dissuade more migrants from arriving. The scene outside the former hotel — now a migrant shelter and intake center — has underscored the extreme overcrowding in a homeless housing system filled to record levels. City officials and activists alike call it heartbreaking. But some critics accuse
August 02, 2023After recording the warmest monthly average temperature for any U.S. city ever in July, Phoenix is poised to climb back up to dangerously high temperatures this week. That could mean trouble not just for people but for some plants, too. Residents across the sprawling metro are finding the extended extreme heat has led to fried flora, and have shared photos and video of their damaged cacti with the Desert Botanical Garden. Nurseries and landscapers are inundated with requests for help with saguaros or fruit trees that are losing leaves. Phones have been “ringing nonstop” about everything from
August 02, 2023Racial justice groups and relatives of a Black man shot and killed this week by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper demanded Wednesday that the governor fire three officers who were involved in stopping the man on a Minneapolis freeway. The groups and relatives of 33-year-old Ricky Cobb II made the demands at a news conference outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, two days after Cobb was killed during a traffic stop. Troopers had pulled over Cobb for a traffic stop early Monday on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. Body and dash cam video from the state
August 02, 2023New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán has voluntarily entered inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse, the team announced Wednesday. Germán, who threw a perfect game June 28 at Oakland, was placed on the restricted list. “It is critical that Domingo completely focuses on addressing his health and well-being,” the Yankees said in a statement. “We will respect his privacy as he begins this process.” Germán is 5-7 with a 4.56 ERA in 20 appearances this season. He was scratched from his scheduled start Monday night against Tampa Bay, with the Yankees saying it was because of armpit
August 02, 2023The Texas Rangers certainly expected to win a lot of games this season after bolstering their rotation with some proven veterans and hiring three-time championship manager Bruce Bochy last winter, a year after they committed a half-billion dollars for an All-Star middle infield. Now there are thoughts of maybe winning it all. “The way the guys have played has obviously made a change,” general manager Chris Young said. “We came into the season focused on being a competitive club and playing meaningful games in September with a chance to play in October,” he said. “This team
August 02, 2023Late Tuesday, Fitch Ratings became the second of the three major credit-rating firms to remove its coveted triple-A assessment of the United States government’s credit worthiness, a move that spurred debate in Washington about spending and tax policies. Fitch cited the federal government’s rising debt burden and the political difficulties that the U.S. government has had in addressing spending and tax policies as the principal reasons for reducing its rating from AAA to AA+. Fitch said its decision “reflects the expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden, and
August 02, 2023A Nevada judge on Wednesday ordered former NFL cornerback Damon Arnette to appear in person to resolve a felony gun case by pleading guilty to two misdemeanors stemming from an argument with Las Vegas Strip casino valets in January 2022. “I’m going to need the justification for the agreement,” Clark County District Court Judge Ronald Israel told Arnette’s attorney, Ross Goodman, before rescheduling a hearing for Monday to accept the plea deal. Goodman protested that similar deals are routinely accepted by judges without the defendant appearing in court. The attorney pointed to a document that Arnette
August 02, 2023Willy the rodeo goat, who has lassoed the hearts of residents in a rural South Texas county ever since she escaped from an arena enclosure July 15, has been found. The elusive goat had hidden in sugar cane and corn fields, avoiding capture for weeks in Willacy County, about 300 miles (483 km) southwest of Houston. Residents searched for her on horses, all-terrain vehicles and by drone. Local businesses aided the search by donating 90 prizes and gifts worth $5,000 in total — including brisket, bales of hay and beef jerky — to be given to whoever
August 02, 2023A group of Big Ten presidents has begun discussing the possibility of adding more West Coast schools to the conference if the Pac-12 continues to crumble, two people familiar with the conversations told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the conversations were preliminary and the Big Ten was not going public with its internal deliberations. Yahoo Sports first reported the Big Ten was exploring the potential of adding more Pac-12 schools. The Pac-12 is down to nine schools seemingly committed beyond this year, with Southern California and UCLA heading to
August 02, 2023DoorDash set new records for total orders and revenue in the second quarter as its grocery and convenience deliveries accelerated and it improved driver efficiency. The San Francisco-based delivery company said its total orders rose 25% to 532 million for the April-June period. That was ahead of Wall Street’s forecast of 521 million, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue rose 33% to $2.1 billion, which was in line with analysts’ forecasts. DoorDash raised its full-year forecast Wednesday. The company said it now expects gross order values between $64.2 billion and $65.2 billion for the year, up from the $63
August 02, 2023Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus dominated NASCAR for years. It seems only fitting they will enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame together after being voted in on Wednesday. Johnson, one of the most accomplished drivers in the sport’s history, and his crew chief Knaus combined to win a record-tying seven Cup Series championships. They will be joined by longtime driver Donnie Allison, a member of the pioneer ballot, as part of NASCAR’s Class of 2024. The induction ceremony will be held Jan. 19 in Charlotte. Despite his accomplishments, the 47-year-old Johnson was not a unanimous selection.
August 02, 2023When Adidas cut ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, due to his antisemitic comments, it was left with more than a billion dollars worth of high-end Yeezy sneakers. Now, Jewish Americans are evaluating the German company’s plan to give some of the proceeds from the sneakers’ sale to groups engaged in fighting antisemitism. Like other Jewish civic leaders contacted by The Associated Press, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson said he wasn’t planning to buy a pair of Yeezys himself, but he also doesn’t see the value of wasting the labor and material that went into making them.
August 02, 2023The homers just keep coming for the Atlanta Braves, who have their sights set on being the most prolific power team in baseball history. Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley and Matt Olson went deep for the MLB-leading Braves, who cruised to a 12-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday. Acuña launched a three-run shot over the center-field wall off Lucas Giolito (6-8) in the third inning, then Riley and Olson went back to back in the fourth to cap a six-run outburst that finished off the Angels’ starter. “It’s crazy,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
August 02, 2023The Kansas City Chiefs allowed wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman to walk away in free agency, and in their place they signed a couple of relative unknowns while taking a gamble on an injury-prone talent and unproven draft pick. The expectation this season is that Patrick Mahomes can make it work, just as he has for so many years. It helps that All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce is still producing at a level that few wide receivers can match, and the Chiefs return a deep backfield led by Isiah Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon and
August 02, 2023A man who posed as an undercover police officer kidnapped a woman in Seattle, drove her hundreds of miles to his home in Oregon and locked her in a cinder block cell until she bloodied her hands breaking the door to escape, the FBI said Wednesday. Negasi Zuberi, 29, faces a federal interstate kidnapping charge, and authorities said they are looking for additional victims after linking him to violent sexual assaults in at least four more states. “This woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell,” Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent
August 02, 2023Gambling investigations at Iowa and Iowa State have resulted in criminal charges filed against seven current or former athletes, with ex-Hawkeyes basketball player Ahron Ulis and Cyclones quarterback Hunter Dekkers the ones with the highest profiles. Each is accused in the complaints of tampering with records related to an Iowa Criminal Division investigation into sports gambling. Current athletes also face a loss of eligibility for violating NCAA gambling rules. According to Johnson County online court records, charges have been filed against Ulis, Iowa baseball player Gehrig Christensen and former Iowa kicker Aaron Blom. Dekkers was charged in Story County, as
August 02, 2023Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, announced Wednesday that they are separating after 18 years of marriage. The two said in statements posted on Instagram that they made the decision after “many meaningful and difficult conversations.” A statement from the prime minister’s office said they both have signed a legal separation agreement. Trudeau, the 51-year-old scion of one of Canada’s most famous politicians, was sworn into office in 2015. Sophie Trudeau is a former model and TV host. The couple were married in 2005. Together, they brought star power to the prime
August 02, 2023Ramon Diaz says he was just 17 years old when Northwestern University upperclassmen shaved “Cinco de Mayo” onto the back of his head as the entire football team watched. “The holiday itself has a significant meaning to me and my family and then the Latino community at large,” Diaz told The Associated Press. “I was mocked and ridiculed.” Diaz said he was the only Latino offensive lineman at a time when the athletic department’s culture allowed racism and sexual abuse to thrive and caused psychological and emotional damage to athletes of color. A lawsuit announced on Diaz’
August 02, 2023At age 45 and after a career that included a World Cup title with Italy, a long list of trophies with Juventus and many years when he was considered among the best goalkeepers in soccer, Gianluigi Buffon announced his retirement on Wednesday. Buffon had one season remaining on his contract with Parma in Serie B and therefore leaves the sport with the same team that he began his professional career with nearly three decades ago. “That’s all folks! You gave me everything. I gave you everything. We did it together,” Buffon wrote on Instagram next to
August 02, 2023The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death for perpetrating the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, a jury decided Wednesday. Robert Bowers spewed hatred of Jews and espoused white supremacist beliefs online before methodically planning and carrying out the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three congregations had gathered for Sabbath worship and study. Bowers, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, also wounded two worshippers and five responding police officers. The same federal jury that convicted the
August 02, 2023An American fugitive accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah can be extradited to the U.S., a judge in Scotland ruled Wednesday, calling the man “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.” The wanted man known in Scotland as Nicholas Rossi has fought his return since being arrested in December 2021 at a Glasgow hospital, where he was being treated for COVID-19. He repeatedly appeared in court — and in several television interviews — in a wheelchair using an oxygen mask and speaking in a British accent. He
August 02, 2023NATO allies located along the alliance’s eastern front are growing increasingly worried about the presence of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries in Belarus, where some have been deployed since a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia — members of NATO and the European Union which border Belarus — had already been on alert since large numbers of migrants and refugees began arriving at their borders from Belarus two years ago. They have accused Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Russia, of opening the migration route in an act of “hybrid warfare” aimed
August 02, 2023The United States has expressed concerns over major land reclamation projects in Manila Bay near its heavily secured embassy due to the involvement of a Washington-blacklisted Chinese company, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday. Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay said the U.S. also expressed its concerns over the potential environmental impact of the reclamations in Manila Bay in discussions with Philippine government officials. Environmental groups have staged protests against the yearslong government-approved reclamations, mostly by real estate companies seeking to build islands on which to anchor upscale hotels, casinos, restaurants and entertainment centers in a bay long notorious
August 02, 2023Rebecka Blomqvist’s second-half goal lifted Sweden to a 2-0 win over Argentina on Wednesday to advance the Blagult to a round-of-16 showdown with the United States in the Women’s World Cup. Argentina was eliminated from the tournament. Neither side looked close to scoring for much of the match until Blomqvist broke the deadlock with a headed goal at the 66th-minute mark to help the blue and yellow finish 3-0 and win Group G. Sweden, which rested nine starters to open the match, threatened at times in the first half. A combination of disjointed play and
August 02, 2023Foreign nationals departed Niger’s capital on the last of four French military evacuation flights late Wednesday after waiting at the airport for hours, while defense officials of a regional bloc gathered to discuss how to respond to last week’s military coup in the West African nation. France, Italy and Spain all have announced evacuations of their citizens and other Europeans in the capital, Niamey, following concerns they could become trapped after soldiers detained democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and seized power. The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened to use force to restore Bazoum to
August 02, 2023Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched a surprise military drill Wednesday on disputed islands in the Persian Gulf, just as the U.S. military increase its presence in the region over recent ship seizures by Tehran. The drill focused primarily on Abu Musa Island, though the Guard also landed forces on the Greater Tunb Island as well, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported. Swarms of small, fast boats took part, along with paratroopers, drones and truck-launched surface-to-sea missile systems, footage aired on state television showed. “We always try for security and tranquility; it is our way,” the Guard’s
August 02, 2023Wall Street tumbled to its worst drop in months on Wednesday as its torrid rally that critics called overdone lost more momentum. The S&P 500 sank 1.4% for its sharpest tumble since April. It was the second straight loss for the index after it hit a 16-month high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 348 points, or 1%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 2.2%. Prices were mixed in the bond market after Fitch Ratings cut the credit rating of the U.S. government. The repeated standoffs in Congress about whether to allow a default on
August 02, 2023Russian drones on Wednesday hit a Ukrainian port city along the border with Romania, causing significant damage and a huge fire at facilities that are key to Ukrainian grain exports. The attacks followed the end of a deal with Russia that had allowed Ukrainian shipments to world markets from the Black Sea port of Odesa. Since scrapping the deal, Russia has hammered the country’s ports with strikes, compounding the blow to the key industry. In the past two weeks, dozens of drones and missile attacks have targeted the port of Odesa and the region’s river ports,
August 02, 2023Nearly 10 years ago, Mariame Coulibaly Sangare lost everything when armed violence in northern Mali forced her to flee her home. Desperate for money, she saw an opportunity with the arrival of a new United Nations peacekeeping mission in the West African nation’s capital, Bamako. Sangare left her previous job of trading animal skins to open a restaurant across the street from the mission’s headquarters. Selling rice dishes to U.N. workers earned the 58-year-old enough money to help support her family. But after Mali’s military junta ordered the mission to leave the country, the mother of
August 02, 2023Firefighters aided by rain fought to contain a massive blaze that swept through the California desert into Nevada and is threatening the region’s famous spiky Joshua trees. The York Fire that erupted last Friday is California’s largest wildfire this year. As of Wednesday night it had burned through nearly 147 square miles (380.4 square kilometers) of land and was 34% contained, fire officials said. Humid monsoonal weather conditions Tuesday afternoon brought brief but heavy rain, especially on the south end of the fire, and kept its spread to a minimum, fire officials said. Wednesday
August 02, 2023China’s capital has recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days as remnants of Typhoon Doksuri deluged the region, turning streets into canals where emergency crews used rubber boats to rescue stranded residents. The city recorded 744.8 millimeters (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday. Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei were hit by severe flooding because of the record rainfall, with waters rising to dangerous levels. The rain destroyed roads and knocked out power and even pipes carrying drinking water.
August 02, 2023Pope Francis blasted Portugal’s Catholic Church leaders for the “scandal” of clergy sex abuse Wednesday as he kicked off a trip to the European country, saying their actions had helped drive the faithful away and ordering members of the Catholic hierarchy to change their ways and treat victims better. Francis waded head-on into the scandal roiling the Portuguese church upon his arrival in Lisbon, where he is spending five days for the first World Youth Day Catholic festival since the COVID-19 pandemic. A panel of experts hired by the Portuguese church reported in February that priests
August 02, 2023Authorities in Alabama said Friday they filed criminal charges against a woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway. Carlee Russell was charged with false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident, both misdemeanors that carry up to a year in jail, Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said. Russell turned herself in to jail Friday and was released on bond, he said. “Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for citizens of our city
July 28, 2023In 2016, hospitals in New York state identified a rare and dangerous fungal infection never before found in the United States. Research laboratories quickly mobilized to review historical specimens and found the fungus had been present in the country since at least 2013. In the years since, New York City has emerged as ground zero for Candida auris infections. And until 2021, the state recorded the most confirmed cases in the country year after year, even as the illness has spread to other places, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data analyzed by The
July 27, 2023The Cleveland Guardians have agreed to trade shortstop Amed Rosario to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher Noah Syndergaard and cash considerations, a source familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The deal is contingent on the players passing medical exams, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade hasn’t been completed. Rosario has been a valuable, versatile player for the defending AL Central champions the past few years. The 27-year-old is returning to the National League after spending three seasons with the New York Mets before going to Cleveland
July 27, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to discuss military issues and the regional security environment, state media said Thursday as the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of an armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim and Shoigu talked Wednesday in the capital, Pyongyang, and reached a consensus on unspecified “matters of mutual concern in the field of national defense and security and on the regional and international security environment.” The report did not specify what was discussed.
July 27, 2023The Colorado board of regents has scheduled a special meeting Thursday with athletics operations on the agenda, ramping up speculation that the school is considering a return to the Big 12 from the Pac-12. The board of regents for the Boulder-based school met on Wednesday and then scheduled another session to be conducted remotely, according to a posted notification. Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark has spoken for months about his desire to expand the conference and add schools in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 has seemed vulnerable to more poaching after losing USC and UCLA to
July 27, 2023Another seven heat-associated deaths were confirmed over the last week in America’s hottest big metro, health officials reported Wednesday, amid a blistering heat wave with daytime highs over 110 F (43.3 C) and overnight lows not dropping below 90 F (32.2 C). Maricopa County, the biggest county in Arizona and home to Phoenix, reported that its health department has confirmed 25 heat-associated deaths this year as of Saturday since the first one was recorded in April, with 249 more under investigation. That’s seven more heat-associated deaths for the year since 18 were reported as of July 15,
July 26, 2023Whit Merrifield hit a three-run homer, Danny Jansen also went deep and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-1 on Wednesday, taking two of three from the NL West leaders. Merrifield sent an 0-2 pitch from Tony Gonsolin (5-4) over the wall in left with two outs in the fifth inning, scoring Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who both singled. Jansen led off the sixth, blasting a line-drive to left off reliever Alex Vesia for a 6-0 lead. Merrifield sacrificed into a double play that scored Guerrero in the second for the
July 26, 2023The family of Bronny James, the hospital and the university made no new public comments about his health Wednesday, two days after the 18-year-old son of NBA superstar LeBron James went into cardiac arrest during a basketball practice with his team at the University of Southern California. LeBron James was spotted by photographers entering Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where Bronny James is being treated after the incident Monday morning at USC’s campus arena. Bronny James was in stable condition Tuesday, and patients who experience an unlikely cardiac arrest often undergo numerous tests over multiple days to determine
July 26, 2023The “Barbie” blockbuster movie created magic at the box office, but the iconic doll’s parent Mattel is bracing for it to make a big difference in the toy aisles. Mattel Inc. on Wednesday turned in a surprise profit and better sales during the second quarter than analysts expected. But worldwide sales of Barbie to retailers excluding adjustments fell 6% in the quarter ended June 30 as promotions were shifted to align with last weekend’s release of the iconic doll’s first live action picture. Mattel executives told analysts during an earnings call following the release that sales
July 26, 2023The trainer of racehorse champion Maximum Security was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday for his role in a widespread international scheme to drug horses to make them race faster. Jason Servis was sentenced by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty to one felony and one misdemeanor charge alleging that he used unapproved drugs on the horses he trained. He was also ordered to pay $311,760 in forfeiture, $163,932 in restitution and a $30,000 fine. “You have undermined the integrity of the sport of horse racing,” Vyskocil told Servis
July 26, 2023Less than 24 hours after becoming the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback by annual salary, Justin Herbert’s first training camp practice on Wednesday didn’t appear different from past seasons. The Los Angeles Chargers signal-caller had his share of dynamic throws and then for nearly 25 minutes went up and down the sidelines signing autographs for fans and posing for pictures. Herbert then chatted with owner Dean Spanos for a couple minutes before being interviewed by reporters about his five-year, $262.5 million extension. Besides an immense amount of gratitude, Herbert was relieved that the extension was able to
July 26, 2023The Mega Millions lottery jackpot is approaching $1 billion ahead of Friday’s drawing, driving first-time buyers and other hopefuls to stock up on tickets. Regeina Whitsitt, a lottery clerk for RED X Grocery Store in the Missouri city of Riverside near the border of Kansas, said she’s sold tickets to a number of new players trying to win the $910 million jackpot. Customers are buying $60 to $100 worth of tickets, Whitsitt said. The $910 million prize is one of the largest in U.S. lottery history and follows a $1.08 billion Powerball prize won by a
July 26, 2023Facebook parent company Meta Platforms posted stronger-than-expected results for the second quarter on Wednesday, buoyed by a rebound in online advertising after a post-pandemic slump. The Menlo Park, California-based company earned $7.79 billion, or $2.98 per share, in the April-June period. That’s up 16% from $6.69 billion, or $2.46 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue jumped 11% to $32 billion from $28.82 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $2.91 per share on revenue of $31.08 billion, according to a poll by FactSet Research. Facebook had 3.03 billion monthly active users
July 26, 2023An Ohio police department has fired an officer who released his police dog on a surrendering truck driver even after state troopers told him to hold the dog back. A statement issued Wednesday by Circleville police said Ryan Speakman “did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers” and that he has been “terminated from the department, effective immediately.” Speakman was sacked a day after Circleville’s police chief announced the officer had been put on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure in cases where use of force is investigated. The town’s
July 26, 2023Aaron Rodgers strolled over to the New York Jets’ defensive sideline, gave a few teammates pats on their backs and then got to Tony Adams. The second-year safety had just picked off the four-time NFL MVP in team drills — and Rodgers had a couple of messages for him. “I wanted to tell T.A., ‘Man, nice play on that interception,”’ Rodgers said Wednesday. “Two, I also wanted to remind him that was a free play because they jumped offside.” Indeed, there was a penalty called on the play. But it was another display of Rodgers’
July 26, 2023U.S. Facebook users have one more month to apply for their share of a $725 million privacy settlement that parent company Meta agreed to pay late last year. Meta is paying to settle a lawsuit alleging the world’s largest social media platform allowed millions of its users’ personal information to be fed to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Anyone in the U.S. who has had a Facebook account at any time between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, is eligible to receive a payment. To apply for the settlement, users can fill out
July 26, 2023It was once Latin America’s largest landfill. Now, a decade after Rio de Janeiro shut it down and redoubled efforts to recover the surrounding expanse of highly polluted swamp, crabs, snails, fish and birds are once again populating the mangrove forest. “If we didn’t say this used to be a landfill, people would think it’s a farm. The only thing missing is cattle,” jokes Elias Gouveia, an engineer with Comlurb, the city’s garbage collection agency that is shepherding the plantation project. “This is an environmental lesson that we must learn from: nature is remarkable. If
July 26, 2023Sam Bankman-Fried should be immediately jailed, a prosecutor told a federal judge on Wednesday, saying the FTX founder violated his bail conditions by sharing information with a reporter designed to harass a key witness against him. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan didn’t immediately decide whether to put the cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind bars, instead giving his lawyers and prosecutors several days to submit written arguments and more information. “I am certainly very mindful of his First Amendment rights, and I am very mindful of the government’s interest here, which I take very seriously,” Kaplan said. “And I say
July 26, 2023LeBron James and his high school sweetheart, Savannah Brinson, were still teenagers when they welcomed their first child a few months after James won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award with the Cleveland Cavaliers. They named him LeBron James Jr., but everyone soon called him Bronny. Now 18 himself, Bronny James had nothing like the hardscrabble childhood of his father, the only child of a single mother in Akron, Ohio. Along with wealth and celebrity, Bronny grew up with two loving, involved parents and two younger siblings who formed a tight-knit family unit — dubbed
July 26, 2023Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s term was extended until 2029 on Wednesday by major league owners. The decision to give Manfred a third term in charge of the sport was made during a vote at an in-person meeting in Washington, D.C. The extension keeps Manfred in place until Jan. 25, 2029. Manfred, 64, succeeded Bud Selig in January 2015 and was given a five-year term. Owners voted in November 2018 to offer Manfred a new deal through the 2024 season. Manfred has overseen a period of on-field change for the sport, including instituting a pitch clock and
July 26, 2023Northwestern’s hazing scandal already has cost the university its winningest football coach and a once-pristine reputation. The Wildcats were missing a presence at the Big Ten’s annual football kickoff, too. Pending litigation caused the three hand-picked players to skip Wednesday interviews, forcing interim coach David Braun to fend off questions about what happened and possible solutions all by himself. “I won’t speak to current allegations; I fully believe our university is going through a process and can speak to the facts,” he said, making his first public comments since Pat Fitzgerald’s firing on July 10. “What I
July 26, 2023The Carolina Panthers have their QB1. Coach Frank Reich wasted no time naming rookie Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, the starting quarterback for the team’s Sept. 10 regular-season opener against the Atlanta Falcons. “When we decided to pick Bryce we imagined and saw the vision that we would be standing here today saying he is the QB1,” Reich said Wednesday. The announcement came after the completion of the Young’s first training camp practice at Wofford College, although the news seemed imminent after he took over first-team reps from veteran Andy
July 26, 2023A doctor who says he received the nickname “Hockey Doc” after spending more than two decades providing medical assistance to youth hockey teams in Michigan and Minnesota will stand trial on charges that he sexually assaulted patients. Zvi Levran faces 22 counts of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving 10 former hockey players. He denies any wrongdoing. Some witnesses testified during his preliminary hearing that ended Tuesday in Farmington Hills District Court near Detroit that the sexual assaults occurred when they were teens and adults. Each situation had one purpose, which was to “satisfy
July 26, 2023Joe Lewis, the British billionaire who owns the Tottenham soccer team, was taken into U.S. federal custody in New York City on Wednesday, where he awaited an initial court appearance on insider trading charges alleging that he fed corporate secrets to romantic partners, personal assistants, friends and his pilots, earning them millions of dollars illegally. Two pilots — Patrick O’Connor and Bryan ‘Marty’ Waugh — were also arrested, authorities said. All three men were expected to appear in Manhattan federal court. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who announced the charges Tuesday night in a video, said in
July 26, 2023British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday he was committed to paying out compensation swiftly to thousands of people affected by the country’s infected blood scandal, which saw more than 2,000 patients die after contracting HIV or hepatitis from transfusions of tainted blood in the 1970s and 1980s. But Sunak, who was testifying before an independent inquiry into the public healthcare scandal, was heckled by survivors and affected families when he did not give a clear answer on when full payments will be paid out. The Infected Blood Inquiry was established in 2017 to examine how thousands
July 26, 2023Gap has tapped a top Mattel executive who re-energized Barbie and Hot Wheels to be its next president and CEO. The San Francisco-based chain, which operates stores under its namesake as well as Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta, said Wednesday that Richard Dickson will join Gap Inc. on Aug. 22 from his most recent role as president and chief operating officer of toy giant Mattel. In a separate announcement, Mattel, based in El Segundo, California, said that Dickson will depart Aug. 3. Gap’s CEO spot had been vacant since Sonia Syngal left last July. Dickson
July 26, 2023A home-cooked dinner of salmon and vegetables prepared by his mother would have made it an excellent 26th birthday for Sebastian Aho, no matter what. Even better for Aho: It came with a lucrative contract extension. The Carolina Hurricanes signed Aho to an eight-year deal worth $78 million on Wednesday, the richest contract handed out in the history of the franchise that used to be the Hartford Whalers. Aho is now under contract through 2032 at an annual salary cap hit of $9.75 million, once the deal kicks in for the 2024-25 NHL season. “Birthday and an extension — it
July 26, 2023Seven major automakers say they’re joining forces to build a North American electric vehicle charging network that would rival Tesla’s and nearly double the number of fast-charging plugs in the U.S. and Canada. General Motors, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes and Stellantis said Wednesday that they will share in a multi-billion dollar investment to build “high power” charging stations with 30,000 plugs in urban areas and along travel corridors. The dramatic move is intended to speed the adoption of electric vehicles, allaying fears that chargers won’t be available for long distance travel. The companies wouldn’t disclose the
July 26, 2023Some African leaders arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a summit with President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin seeks more allies amid the fighting in Ukraine. Putin has billed the two-day summit that opens Thursday in St. Petersburg as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage. On Wednesday, Putin is set to hold separate meetings with the leaders of Egypt and Ethiopia ahead of the summit. Africa’s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations
July 26, 2023Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce a major Cabinet shake-up on Wednesday as he readies his team for the next federal election. Trudeau is removing several Cabinet ministers, including Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. Medicino, Algabra and several others confirmed the moves before a swearing-in ceremony for new ministers. New ministers were also expected in defense, justice, heritage, fisheries and procurement. At least four ministers are out after saying they wouldn’t run in the next election, which must take place by October 2025, but it could be called well before then.
July 26, 2023Israel’s highest court said Wednesday that it would hear petitions in September against a divisive law weakening its power that the country’s parliament passed earlier this week. Israeli civil society groups and others have filed petitions asking the Supreme Court to strike down the law enacted Monday — the first major piece of legislation in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broader program to overhaul Israel’s judiciary. The far-right government’s plans to limit judicial power have plunged Israel into its worst domestic crisis in years, unleashing widespread unrest and exposing the country’s deep social fissures. Critics of the overhaul
July 26, 2023Conceding a goal directly from a corner kick against Ireland on Wednesday, Olympic champion Canada was in trouble in its second game of the Women’s World Cup. After a disappointing 0-0 draw with Nigeria in its opening match of the tournament, and with iconic forward Christine Sinclair on the bench, Canada’s hopes of advancing from the group stage were under threat. Up against a determined Ireland, an inspired Katie McCabe and torrential rain at Rectangular Stadium, the odds were stacking up against the Canadians. But with the character of Olympic gold medallists, a touch of fortune
July 26, 2023Kevin Spacey was acquitted of sexual assault on Wednesday after the Oscar winner’s testimony as a witness in his own defense spared him a possible prison term and gave him a shot at a career comeback. Tears rolled down Spacey’s cheeks as the final “not guilty” verdict was read. It was his 64th birthday. Spacey’s wide-ranging testimony climaxed as he choked up speaking of the six years he’d gone without work after sex abuse allegations surfaced against him during the #MeToo movement in the U.S. in 2017. “My world exploded,” Spacey testified. “There was a rush to
July 26, 2023Union Pacific on Wednesday hired the CEO recommended earlier this year by a hedge fund pressuring the railroad to improve, as the company cut its outlook after reporting disappointing results driven by weakening consumer demand and higher labor costs. The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad said its former chief operating officer Jim Vena will take over as CEO next month. The Soroban Capital Partners hedge fund that holds a $1.6 billion stake in Union Pacific had been urging the railroad to hire Vena because of his expertise in streamlining operations. The hedge fund said that UP lagged behind
July 26, 2023A tall construction crane caught fire in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, and its arm hit a building as it crashed to the street below. Photos and videos posted on social media show flames bursting from the car of a crane hundreds of feet above 10th Avenue at 41st Street. The crane’s arm scraped the top floors of a skyscraper across the street as it fell. There were no immediate reports of injuries from the crane fire and collapse, which happened shortly before 8 a.m. Firefighters stationed on a roof deck of another building used hoses to
July 26, 2023The Federal Reserve’s expected move Wednesday to raise interest rates for the 11th time could once again send ripple effects across the economy. Mortgage rates, which have surged since the Fed began lifting rates in March 2022, could rise further. So could rates on credit cards and some business loans. Perhaps no one has felt the pain more than car buyers. It’s not just that sticker prices are way up. Or that lenders have tightened credit standards. On top of all that, steadily higher auto loan rates have elbowed many would-be buyers out of the market.
July 26, 2023China’s sharp-tongued foreign minister, Qin Gang, was something of an avatar for nationalist Communist Party leader and President Xi Jinping, warning of “conflict and confrontation” with the U.S., the stakes of which could be the “future of humanity.” Now, Qin has been dismissed from office in the biggest political tumult to strike China in a decade. Qin’s departure was announced Tuesday after a month-long disappearance from public view, sparking rumors of personal scandals or friction within the top party echelons. He was absent from key meetings as the U.S. sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other
July 26, 2023Iran said Wednesday it gave new details to the United Nations about two sites near Tehran that inspectors say bore traces of manmade uranium, part of a wider probe as tensions remain high over the Islamic Republic’s advancing program. The comments by Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s civilian nuclear program, come as Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers remains in tatters and as Tehran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Resolving questions from the International Atomic Energy Agency could see Iran avoid further censure as an October deadline approaches that
July 26, 2023Governing bodies in Africa condemned what they characterized as a coup attempt Wednesday against Niger’s president, whose official Twitter account reported that elements of the presidential guard engaged in an “anti-Republican demonstration” and tried to obtain the support of other security forces. The tweet from the administration of President Mohamed Bazoum did not refer to a coup, and the part of that referred to the demonstration later was deleted. But it said the president and his family were doing well, and Niger’s army and national guard “are ready to attack” if those involved in the protest
July 26, 2023Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled two foldable smartphones as it continues to bet on devices with bending screens, a budding market that has yet to fully take off because of high prices. The clamshell-designed Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5, a larger device that opens and folds like a book, will be available for pre-orders starting July 26 in certain markets including the United States and South Korea. Built with 6.7-inch and 7.6-inch main screens, the phones have bigger displays than Samsung’s previous folding devices and are equipped with more advanced cameras,
July 26, 2023Boeing flipped to a $149 million loss in the second quarter despite higher revenue, as the plane maker struggled with higher costs in both its airline and defense business. Boeing said it is beginning to increase production of its two most popular airline planes. The company plans to raise production of the 737 Max from 31 to 38 planes a month to take advantage of demand for newer, more fuel-efficient planes. Boeing is also boosting output of the larger, two-aisle 787 Dreamliner from four to five per month by year end. “We have more work ahead to improve performance, but
July 26, 2023Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a petition from former Prime Minister Imran Khan about halting his trial in a lingering case involving the concealment of assets after selling state gifts, officials said. The latest court ruling was a blow to Khan, who was disqualified by the Election Commission in October 2022 on charges he didn’t correctly disclose his assets after selling state gifts that he had received from foreign dignitaries and heads of state after coming to power in 2018. Under last year’s ruling by the country’s election oversight body, Khan also lost his seat in
July 26, 2023Singapore executed a man Wednesday for drug trafficking and is set to hang a woman Friday — the first in 19 years — prompting renewed calls for a halt to capital punishment. Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, was hanged at Singapore’s Changi Prison and has been buried, said activist Kirsten Han of Transformative Justice Collective, which advocates for abolishing the death penalty in Singapore. A citizen of the city-state, he was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin, Han said. Saridewi Djamani, a 45-year-old Singaporean woman, is due to
July 26, 2023As Thailand grapples with the unexpectedly difficult task of naming a new prime minister, the most controversial former holder of the job, billionaire populist Thaksin Shinawatra, plans to return home next month from years of self-imposed exile, his daughter announced Wednesday. Thaksin’s planned Aug. 10 return, confirmed in a Facebook posting by his daughter Paetongtarn on the occasion of his 74th birthday, comes at a politically sensitive time, as the Pheu Thai party, regarded as the main vehicle for his political interests, is seeking to win enough support in Parliament to have one of its leaders become
July 26, 2023The European Union’s official watchdog said Wednesday it has opened a probe in the role of the bloc’s Frontex border agency in the shipwreck off Greece last month that is feared to have killed hundreds of people in the Mediterranean Sea. Migrant crossings in unseaworthy boats organzied by human traffickers from Northern Africa have spiked this year, with massive losses of life. Now, EU ombudsman Emily O’Reilly wants her investigation to make clear to the public “who is accountable for these deaths” as Frontex has unclear jurisdiction and limits to its authority over member states like Greece
July 26, 2023Major fires raging in parts of Greece and in other Mediterranean countries advanced Wednesday, causing additional deaths, destroying homes and threatening nature reserves during a third successive wave of extreme temperatures. The summer wildfires have struck countries across the region, prompting the European Union to expand its support, sending two Spanish firefighting planes to Tunisia after wildfires in neighboring Algeria left at least 34 people dead in recent days. Here’s a look at some of the major wildfires across the Mediterranean region. ___ GREECE New evacuations were ordered overnight on the islands of Corfu, Evia and
July 26, 2023Tens of thousands of doctors in Britain’s state-funded health service will go on strike for a further four days in August as their pay dispute with the government shows few, if any, signs of resolution, their union said Wednesday. Fresh from a five-day walkout that was described as the longest in the history of the National Health Service, doctors at the early stages of their careers will stage a walkout in England between Aug. 11 and Aug. 15. “It should never have got to the point where we needed to announce a fifth round of strike action,”
July 26, 2023A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the latest bloodshed in one of the most violent stretches of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in years. Israeli forces entered the al-Ein refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus and arrested a suspected militant after surrounding his house, the army said. Palestinian officials said a 23-year-old man was killed when fighting erupted between Palestinian militants and Israeli security forces. The Israeli army said Palestinians opened fire and threw stones
July 26, 2023The pan-Arab news network Al Jazeera has condemned a recent decision by Egyptian authorities to brand some of its journalists as terrorists. The media outlet, which is owned by the Gulf state of Qatar, said that “a number” of its Egyptian journalists and presenters had been added to a list of alleged terrorists published in an official newspaper earlier this month following a ruling by the Cairo Criminal Court. “Al Jazeera Media Network strongly denounces the recent move by the Egyptian authorities to reinstate a number of its journalists onto a newly crafted terrorism
July 26, 2023U.S.-European carmaker Stellantis on Wednesday reported a 37% boost in earnings in the first half of the year, driven by strong North America income and an increase in electric vehicle sales in Europe. Profit in the first six months of the year was 10.9 billion euros ($12.07 billion), compared with 7.96 billion euros in the first half of 2022. The carmaker set record net revenue in the first six months of the year of 98.4 billion euros, up 12% over a year earlier. It came as shipments rose to 3.327 million vehicles from 3.033 million. CEO Carlo
July 26, 2023The United States and the Netherlands meet again on the Women’s World Cup stage — with smaller stakes than the 2019 title game won by the Americans — and the Dutch team collecting injuries at a terrible time of the tournament. The Netherlands will most likely be without forward Lineth Beerensteyn, who was hurt early in her team’s 1-0 victory over Portugal to open the tournament, when they play the Americans on Thursday in New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington. The Americans are the two-time reigning World Cup champions and Netherlands coach Andries Jonker said
July 26, 2023Nissan and Renault have formally redefined their French-Japanese auto alliance into a more equal one in cross-shareholdings, both sides said Wednesday. The disparity between the holdings has long been a cause of friction in the alliance, set up in 1999. At the start, Nissan, based in the Japanese port city of Yokohama, had been on the verge of bankruptcy. Under the latest terms, which still need regulatory approval expected by the end of the year, Nissan Motor Co. will invest 600 million euros ($663 million) in Ampere, Renault’s electric vehicle and software entity in Europe. Renault Group
July 26, 2023The Olympics is on track to be back in business with millions of visitors coming to Paris for the 2024 Games. The French capital has the expert experience to stage the event and welcome guests for the first Olympics of the post-pandemic era. That should be a relief after a chaotic lead-in to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and uncertainty from postponing the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 with no guarantee it would eventually happen one year later. It did, but in almost entirely empty venues. Organizers, athletes and fans preparing for competitions in Paris — and
July 26, 2023Longtime Cambodian leader Hun Sen says will step down in three weeks as prime minister and hand the position to his oldest son. The announcement Wednesday came after his Cambodian People’s Party won a landslide victory in weekend elections that Western countries and rights organizations criticized as neither free nor fair, in which the country’s main opposition was suppressed. Hun Sen has been Cambodia’s autocratic leader for 38 years but said ahead of the elections he would hand off the position to his oldest son, Hun Manet, sometime during this next five-year term. Hun Manet
July 26, 2023Hikaru Naomoto and Aoba Fujino scored two minutes apart in the first half to lead Japan to a 2-0 Women’s World Cup victory over Costa Rica on Wednesday that put the Japanese on the brink of advancing to the knockout stage. Japan could advance out of Group C later Wednesday if Spain, ranked sixth in the world, beat 77th-ranked Zambia in Auckland. The two teams kicked off in front of a sparse crowd of 6,992 at Dunedin Stadium, a huge differential from the record sales of over 1.5 million tickets for this year’s tournament. High
July 26, 2023Asian stock markets were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street hit a 15-month high ahead of what traders hope will be the Federal Reserve’s final increase in this interest rate cycle. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul declined. Tokyo and Sydney advanced. Oil prices retreated. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.3% on Tuesday after companies reported bigger profits than expected. On Wednesday, investors expect the Fed to raise its key lending rate by 0.25 percentage points to a 22-year high. They hope the U.S. central bank can manage a “soft landing,” extinguishing inflation while avoiding a recession.
July 26, 2023Rose Lavelle believes she’s developed into a smarter player in the four years since becoming a breakout star for the United States in the 2019 Women’s World Cup final against the Netherlands. The midfielder was 24 and one of the Americans’ younger players when she scored in the 69th minute of the title game in Lyon, France. Megan Rapinoe also scored in the 2-0 victory that earned the United States its second straight World Cup trophy, and fourth overall. The United States meets the Netherlands again on Thursday, this time in the group stage of
July 26, 2023A fire on a freight ship carrying nearly 3,000 cars was burning out of control Wednesday in the North Sea, and the Dutch coast guard said one crew member had died, others were hurt and it was working to save the vessel from sinking close to an important habitat for migratory birds. Boats and helicopters were used to get the 23 crew members off the ship after they tried unsuccessfully to put out the blaze, the coast guard said in a statement. The cause of the blaze wasn’t immediately known, and it wasn’t clear how
July 26, 2023The chief executive of one of NatWest, one of Britain’s biggest banks, left her job on Wednesday after discussing personal details of a client — the populist politician Nigel Farage — with a journalist. The bank said Alison Rose was leaving “by mutual consent.” The surprise early-morning statement came just hours after NatWest had expressed full confidence in the CEO. Rose’s departure came after days of news stories sparked when Farage complained that his bank account had been shut down because the banking group didn’t agree with his political views. Farage, a right-wing talk show presenter and
July 26, 2023The truce that stopped the bloodshed in the Korean War turns 70 years old on Thursday and the two Koreas are marking the anniversary in starkly different ways, underscoring their deepening nuclear tensions. North Korea has invited delegations from China and Russia as it prepares to stage huge celebrations with thousands of citizens who have rehearsed for months to commemorate the armistice it sees as a victory in the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War.” The festivities are likely to be capped by a giant military parade in the capital, Pyongyang, where leader Kim Jong Un could
July 26, 2023India’s popular but polarizing prime minister, Narendra Modi, has a fondness for abbreviations that create buzz around his government schemes and dress down his rivals. Last week, Modi’s political opponents did exactly that. They announced a new alliance — called INDIA — to unseat Modi and defeat his ruling party’s electoral juggernaut. The acronym, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, comprises India’s previously fractured opposition parties that are aiming to keep the Modi government’s increasingly powerful sway at bay. At stake, the alliance says, is the future of India’s multiparty democracy and secular foundations
July 26, 2023Months after Missy Nester ended The Welch News’ 100-year run, she can barely stand to walk through the office doors of the newspaper her mother taught her to read with growing up in West Virginia’s southern coalfields. It’s still too painful. The Welch News owner and publisher’s desk is covered with unpaid bills and her own paychecks — a year’s worth — she never cashed. Phones that used to ring through the day have gone silent. Tables covered with typewriters, awards and a century’s worth of other long-abandoned artifacts are reminders that her beloved paper has
July 26, 2023Typhoon Doksuri ripped tin roofs off of homes, flooded low-lying villages, knocked out power and displaced more than 12,000 people Wednesday as it smashed into a small island and lashed northern Philippine provinces with ferocious winds and rain, officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties after the typhoon slammed into Fuga island off Aparri town in Cagayan province, where more than 12,100 people were evacuated from high-risk coastal villages and schools, and workplaces were shut down as a precaution as Doksuri approached. Thousands of people in other northern provinces were also displaced by the
July 26, 2023Pete Alonso homered twice and drove in a season-high five runs, Justin Verlander pitched six shutout innings and the New York Mets beat the New York Yankees 9-3 on Tuesday night in their Subway Series opener. Jeff McNeil had three RBIs and Francisco Lindor added three hits and three runs for the disappointing Mets (47-53), hoping for a big week that might persuade ownership not to sell at the Aug. 1 trade deadline. Alonso and Daniel Vogelbach connected back-to-back to begin the sixth against Domingo Germán, who fell to 0-2 in four starts since throwing the
July 26, 2023Nearly 100 pilot whales stranded themselves on a beach in western Australia Tuesday, and about half had died by Wednesday morning, despite the efforts of wildlife experts and volunteers to save them. The pod of long-finned pilot whales was first spotted swimming near Cheynes Beach east of Albany on Tuesday morning. As the day progressed, the pod began moving closer to the beach, sparking the concern of conservation officers. By 4 p.m., a large stretch of the shoreline was covered in beached whales. Western Australia state’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions set up an overnight
July 26, 2023Even after inflation has steadily eased this year, the Federal Reserve’s policymakers still think prices are rising too fast and are almost certain to lift their key interest rate by a quarter-point on Wednesday. A rate increase, the 11th in 17 months, would raise the Fed’s short-term rate to roughly 5.3%, the highest level since 2001. As with its previous rate hikes, Wednesday’s increase would likely further elevate the costs of mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and business borrowing. Another hike is widely expected despite a run of encouraging news that has sent stock prices steadily higher,
July 26, 2023Rocky Wirtz, who won three Stanley Cup titles as owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and presided over the team during one of the NHL’s biggest scandals, has died. He was 70. The Blackhawks said in a release that Wirtz died on Tuesday, calling it a “sudden passing.” No further details were provided. “Our hearts are very heavy today,” Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz, Rocky’s son, said on Twitter. “Our dad was a passionate businessman committed to making Chicago a great place to live, work and visit, but his true love was for his family and close friends. …
July 26, 2023The world waited 94 minutes last Friday for Lionel Messi to score his first goal for Inter Miami of Major League Soccer. In Tuesday’s match against Atlanta United, he scored twice in the first 22 minutes. Making his first start and playing his first regular-season MLS game for Miami, Messi took a pass from teammate Sergio Busquets, surged forward and sent a strike off the right post before tapping in his own rebound in the eighth minute. Then, in the 22nd minute, Messi put Miami ahead 2-0 off a pass from Robert Taylor. Messi’s short
July 26, 2023Justin Herbert is set to become the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback by annual salary, agreeing to a five-year, $262.5 million extension with the Los Angeles Chargers on Tuesday. The extension came as the Chargers reported for training camp earlier in the day. Their first practice will be Wednesday. Herbert’s total value and $52.5 million average per season surpasses the $260 million, five-year extension ($52 million average) Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson signed three months ago, a person close to the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Chargers did not release the financial
July 25, 2023Britain has “underplayed and underestimated” the threat posed by the Russian Wagner mercenary group and should ban it as a terrorist organization, a powerful committee of U.K. lawmakers said Wednesday. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said the sanctions imposed by Britain on Wagner are “underwhelming” and U.K. authorities have done little to track the private army’s activities beyond Ukraine, where it has fought as part of Russia’s invading forces. “There are serious national security threats to the U.K. and its allies of allowing the network to continue to thrive,” said the committee, whose members come
July 25, 2023Northwestern will not have any players at the Big Ten’s annual media days this week after the three who were scheduled to attend opted Tuesday to back out because of hazing scandals that have engulfed the school. Linebacker Bryce Gallagher, defensive back Rod Heard II and receiver Bryce Kirtz said in a statement they made the “very difficult” decision after consulting with interim coach David Braun, their parents and teammates. “Given the recent events involving the Northwestern football program, we did not want our participation to be dominated by the hazing issue and steal the focus
July 25, 2023A federal judge on Tuesday vacated the military conviction of Bowe Bergdahl, a former U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post and was captured in Afghanistan and tortured by the Taliban. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington says that military judge Jeffrey Nance, who presided over the court-martial, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an immigration judge, creating a potential conflict of interest. Walton noted that former President Donald Trump had strongly criticized Bergdahl during the
July 25, 2023Ensconced in a glass cage lined with bamboo shoots, the first panda ever born in France bid ‘’adieu’’ to the French zoo where it grew up and set off Tuesday for its new home in China. Named Yuan Meng, the 120-kilogram (264-pound) panda peered out of the cage as staff at the Beauval Zoo south of Paris paid an emotional farewell. Its name means ‘’the realization of a wish” or “accomplishment of a dream.” A crowd of well-wishers waved goodbye as the trailer pulling the cage rolled out of the zoo, the words “Bon Voyage Yuan Meng’’
July 25, 2023A boat that washed ashore in Hawaii last week has been identified as belonging to a California mariner who ran into trouble while sailing from San Diego to Guadalupe, Mexico, seven months ago. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the owner of the boat sent a distress call on Dec. 12, 2022, KHON-TV reported. He was rescued, and his boat was left behind. After drifting thousands of miles, the boat found its way Friday to Punaluu on Oahu’s windward coast, where it has been laying on its side on white sand and rocks. The 24-foot boat, which has
July 25, 2023In the final months of the Trump administration, a new plan to seal off the United States’ southern border started gaining steam: a floating water barrier to discourage migrants from trying to cross from Mexico. The idea never materialized. But three years later, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has put it into action. The state installed a floating barrier of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande this month, stretching roughly the length of three soccer fields. It is an untested strategy of deterring migrants along the U.S. border that is already fortified in
July 25, 2023A federal judge has sentenced three more men charged in connection with an alleged international fentanyl trafficking operation. U.S. Chief District Court Judge Peter Welte on Tuesday sentenced Daniel Vivas Ceron, 42, of Colombia, to 27 years in prison. He was extradited from Panama to the U.S. in 2017. In 2019, he pleaded guilty to charges including drug conspiracy and money laundering. On Monday, Welte sentenced Jason Joey Berry, 40 of Cornwall, Ontario, to 24 years in prison. Berry was extradited from Canada to the U.S. in 2021. Last year he pleaded guilty last year to a drug conspiracy charge.
July 25, 2023An unexplained outage at Chase Bank led to interruptions for users of the Zelle payment network, who took to social media to complain. Zelle said on Twitter that its network is functioning normally and pointed a finger at Chase, saying the bank was experiencing trouble with payment processing. “The rest of the Zelle network is up and running,” it tweeted. “Chase is one of our partner banks, and as such, is in full control of the Zelle feature in their app.” Chase issued a statement noting that it’s “working to restore full service to account transfers, Zelle payments and bill
July 25, 2023Wildlife workers on Tuesday halted their efforts to capture a grizzly bear that killed a woman over the weekend near Yellowstone National Park after finding no sign of the animal since the day of the attack. Amie Adamson, 48, was killed Saturday morning while running or hiking alone on a forest trail about 8 miles (12.87 kilometers) west of the park, officials said. The bear was traveling with one or more cubs, and officials believe it struck Adamson during a surprise encounter before fleeing the area. “The information that we have suggests that this was defensive
July 25, 2023Longtime Phoenix residents know that sweltering Julys are to be expected, but no one could have predicted the brutal heat wave that has enveloped the country’s fifth largest city this summer. Phoenix this month shattered its record for consecutive days in which the temperature reached at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius), standing at 26 days and counting as of Tuesday, when the forecast called for a high of 118 (47.8 C). The record was likely to grow Wednesday, with a high of 119 degrees (48.3 C) expected. A bit of relief might be on the horizon,
July 25, 2023Aaron Judge is playing simulated games at the New York Yankees’ training complex in Tampa, Florida, as he gets closer to returning from a toe injury. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Judge’s status is “day by day” and he didn’t know if the slugger would require a minor league rehab assignment before coming off the injured list. When asked Tuesday if Judge could possibly play for New York at first-place Baltimore this weekend, Boone said: “I wouldn’t rule anything out.” “Keeps moving in a good direction and the fact that we’re at this point is a
July 25, 2023The Banc of California has agreed to buy PacWest Bancorp in an all-stock transaction, bringing an end to months of speculation about whether PacWest could survive on its own after the failures of three other regional banks this spring. The deal announced Tuesday got help from Warburg Pincus and Centerbridge Partners, two large private equity firms, which are investing $400 million to help shore up and restructure the balance sheet of the combined bank. Centerbridge Partners has a long history as an investor in distressed companies, The deal is a bit of good news for PacWest,
July 25, 2023Google snapped out of an unprecedented advertising slump during its latest quarter, signaling a return to growth cycle needed to fuel investments in artificial intelligence technology that expected to reshape the competitive landscape. The results for the April-June period released Tuesday by Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., reversed a financial downswing that had raised fears Google was losing its financial steam at the same time advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, threatened to undercut the dominant search engine that powers its digital ad empire. But after Google’s ad revenue suffered year-over-year declines in consecutive quarters for
July 25, 2023Microsoft on Tuesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $20.1 billion, or $2.69 per share, beating analyst expectations for $2.55 per share. It posted revenue of $56.2 billion in the April-June period, up 8% from last year. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $55.49 billion, according to FactSet Research. CEO Satya Nadella said the company remains focused on “leading the new AI platform shift.” “Organizations are asking not only how – but how fast – they can apply this next generation of AI to address the biggest opportunities and challenges they face – safely and responsibly,”
July 25, 2023The Israeli government has passed the first major piece of legislation in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s legal system — part of a broader plan that has triggered nationwide protests, divided the country and rattled the powerful military and influential business community. The plan seeks to weaken the country’s Supreme Court and transfer more powers to the parliament. Supporters say Israel’s unelected judges wield too much power. But opponents say the judges play an important oversight role, and that the plan will push Israel toward autocratic rule. Despite the fraught atmosphere, Netanyahu’s allies say they are
July 25, 2023San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has been cleared to take part in training camp after undergoing surgery on his throwing elbow in the offseason. General manager John Lynch said Tuesday that Purdy has been given the green light from doctors to practice after making good progress in his rehabilitation. “Brock’s cleared and ready to go,” general manager John Lynch said. “He’s been cleared. He’s going to be without restrictions. Having said that, we’re sticking to and adhering to a plan. He got after it the last couple days and we upped his pitch count.
July 25, 2023An intense police search of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann is now complete, authorities said Tuesday as they ended a 12-day hunt for evidence that involved ripping up the yard and the discovery of basement vault containing hundreds of weapons kept by the man accused of killing at least three women more than a decade ago. At a press conference outside the Massapequa Park home where Heuermann lived with his wife and two kids, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said police had found a “tremendous amount of information” during their search. He declined
July 25, 2023Last Saturday, Mohammed Aslam was working in his kitchen garden when he heard his fellow villagers shouting that water was coming from the nearby foothills in southern Kulgam area in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Within moments, the farmer said, mud and muck from gushing water swept through the village, damaging scores of homes. “It was sudden and swift,” Aslam said. A cloudburst followed by flashfloods hit nearly a dozen villages in Kulgam, filling homes with mud and washing away some cattle. A day before, on Friday night, another cloudburst in the neighboring arid, cold desert region of Ladakh
July 25, 2023The most reliable count shows that homicides in Mexico declined significantly for the first time in several years in 2022, Mexico’s National Statistics Institute said Tuesday. Mexico’s National Statistics Institute said there were 32,223 killings in 2022, 9.7% less than in 2021. The country’s homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants dropped from about 28 in 2021 to 25 in 2022. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has struggled persistently with high homicide rates since he took office in December 2018, said the decline represented the results of his “hugs not bullets” policy of avoiding open confrontation with
July 25, 2023Johnny Lujack, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who led Notre Dame to three national championships in the 1940s, died in Florida on Tuesday following a brief illness. He was 98. Lujack’s death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Amy Schiller, who said he had entered hospice care recently after having been in good health until a couple of weeks ago. “He was not only a legend in Notre Dame football and the sports world,” Schiller said, “he was a legend as a father and grandfather and great grandfather.” Lujack is considered one of the greatest Notre Dame players of all time, having
July 25, 2023Opening a new front in legal battles over college admissions, the U.S. Department of Education has launched a civil rights investigation into Harvard University’s policies on legacy admissions. Top colleges’ preferential treatment of children of alumni, who are often white, has faced mounting scrutiny since the Supreme Court last month struck down the use of affirmative action as a tool to boost the presence of students of color. The department notified Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit based in Boston, on Monday that it was investigating the group’s claim that alleges the university “discriminates on the basis
July 25, 2023A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through. But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately to give President Joe Biden’s administration time to appeal. The order from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California takes away a key enforcement tool set in place by the Biden administration as coronavirus-based restrictions on asylum expired in May. The use of a rule known as
July 25, 2023Nearly six years ago, the leader of Catalonia’s failed secession bid slipped secretly across the Spanish border to escape arrest and start a life as a self-styled political exile. Now, Carles Puigdemont has the future of Spain’s government in his hands. An inconclusive national election Sunday has left Spain in political limbo. No leader came close to an absolute majority or was left with a guaranteed path to forming a government in the 350-seat Parliament with 11 parties spread across the spectrum. Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is closest to solving the puzzle after his Socialist
July 25, 2023Far-right activist Ammon Bundy, who led the takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, an associate and three of their groups must pay over $50 million in damages for accusing a hospital of child trafficking and harassing medical staff, a jury has decided. The defamation lawsuit by St. Luke’s Regional Health accused Bundy and Diego Rodriguez of making defamatory statements against the hospital and its employees after Rodriguez’s infant grandson was removed from his family for several days and taken to St. Luke’s amid concerns for his health. The emergency room physician, Dr. Rachel Thomas, testified that the 10-month-old
July 25, 2023Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso is once again making use of the executive’s power to suspend people’s rights of assembly in some areas and mobilize the military in an attempt to quell the most recent wave of violence that has left at least 18 people dead in the South American country. Lasso on Tuesday declared a state of emergency covering all of its prisons and ordered the deployment of 2,700 soldiers and police officers to regain control of the facilities. Less than 24 hours earlier, Lasso had announced an emergency measure suspending people’s rights to assembly and
July 25, 2023Myanmar’s military-controlled government plans to transfer the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi from a prison in the capital, Naypyitaw, to home confinement. The move is part of an act of clemency to prisoners in connection with a religious ceremony next week, a security official said Tuesday. There has been no official confirmation of the plans, though journalists working for outlets friendly to the military government said they had heard the same information. News about Suu Kyi is tightly controlled by the military government, and even her lawyers are banned by a gag order from talking
July 25, 2023UPS has reached a tentative contract agreement with its 340,000-person strong union, potentially averting a strike that threatened to disrupt logistics nationwide for businesses and households alike. The agreement was announced after UPS and the Teamsters came back to the negotiating table Tuesday to talk over remaining sticking points in the largest private-sector contract in North America. Both sides had already reached tentative agreement on a host of issues but remained at odds on things like pay for part-time workers who make up more than half of the UPS employees represented by the union. The Teamsters
July 25, 2023Lawyers for the gunman who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue requested a court order Tuesday to exhume the body of his long-dead father. Robert Bowers’ lawyers want the body exhumed for a DNA test after federal prosecutors raised questions about paternity during the penalty phase of Bowers’ trial for the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted in June on 63 criminal counts in the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack. A federal jury has to decide whether to sentence him to death or life in
July 25, 2023Bronny James, son of NBA superstar LeBron James, was hospitalized after going into cardiac arrest while participating in a practice at Southern California on Monday, a family spokesman said Tuesday. The spokesman said medical staff treated the 18-year-old James on site and he was transported to a hospital, where he was in stable condition after leaving the intensive care unit. “We ask for respect and privacy for the James family and we will update media when there is more information,” the spokesman said. “LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to
July 25, 2023In 2022, doctors recorded the first confirmed case of tick-borne encephalitis virus acquired in the United Kingdom. It began with a bike ride. A 50-year-old man was mountain biking in the North Yorkshire Moors, a national park in England known for its vast expanses of woodland and purple heather. At some point on his ride, at least one black-legged tick burrowed into his skin. Five days later, the mountain biker developed symptoms commonly associated with a viral infection — fatigue, muscle pain, fever. At first, he seemed to be on the mend, but about a week
July 25, 2023Patrice Bergeron, who led the Boston Bruins to the 2011 championship and two other trips to the Stanley Cup Final over two decades in which he established himself as the NHL’s dominant two-way forward and one of the most respected players in the game, announced Tuesday “with a full heart and a lot of gratitude” that he was retiring. “I have given the game everything that I have physically and emotionally, and the game has given me back more than I could have ever imagined,” the Bruins captain said in a statement posted on social media. “As
July 25, 2023U.S. consumer confidence shot to the highest level in two years this month as inflationary pressures eased and the American economy continued to show resilience in the face of dramatically higher interest rates. The Conference Board, a business research group, said its consumer confidence index rose to 117 in July from a revised 110.1 in June. The gauge beat the 110.5 that economists had expected and was the highest since July 2021. The index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months. Both improved in July. The future expectations
July 25, 2023Poland’s population has shrunk again to just under 37.7 million in June despite returning emigrants, the state statistical office said Tuesday. A preliminary report by the Statistics Poland office says there were around 130,000 Poles fewer in the European Union country at the end of June compared to a year ago. It was among Poland’s highest decreases since 2010, when the population was over 38.5 million, despite a policy of bonuses for families with many children that the right-wing government launched after taking office at the end of 2015. In the first six months of 2023,
July 25, 2023Katie Ledecky won the 1,500-meter freestyle with ease on Tuesday at the World Aquatics Championships in a landmark victory which made her the most decorated female swimmer at the worlds with 20 golds overall, 15 of which have come in individual events. That ties Michael Phelps’ record at the worlds for individual gold medals. American Ryan Murphy added the second American gold medal on Tuesday, winning the 100-meter backstroke. But as usual when the 26-year-old Ledecky swims, she’s the story. Ledecky has won seven Olympic golds, the first coming more than a decade ago in London.
July 25, 2023A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a roadside mosque when a police officer tried to arrest him after a chase in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing the officer, police said. It was unclear whether any worshippers were at the mosque when the bombing took place in Khyber, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police official Saleem Khan said. The mosque collapsed because of the impact of the explosion, Khan said. He said no worshippers were inside the mosque when the suspect went there to hide. Pakistan has witnessed an
July 25, 2023Emergency call center workers say their centers are understaffed, struggling to fill vacancies and plagued by worker burnout, according to a national survey released Tuesday. The survey conducted by the National Emergency Number Association in conjunction with Carbyne, a cloud technology company focused on emergency services, polled about 850 workers from 911 call centers across the country. It found that many were experiencing burnout, handling more frequent call surges and felt undertrained. The findings show the widespread nature of staffing problems that have been laid bare in some communities in recent years. In St Louis this month, callers tried desperately
July 25, 2023The Mega Millions jackpot climbed to an estimated $910 million after Tuesday night’s drawing produced no big winners, extending a stretch of bad luck dating back to April. The numbers drawn were: 3, 5, 6, 44, 61 and the yellow ball 25 The absence of a winner for the estimated $820 million jackpot brings the count of fruitless drawings to 28, at least for the big prize. The new $910 million prize is among the largest in U.S. lottery history and follows a $1.08 billion Powerball prize won by a player July 19 in Los Angeles. California lottery officials haven’t
July 25, 2023Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants settled on a contract for the star running back just in time for training camp, signing a one-year contract worth up to $11 million, a source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Giants had not announced the signing of the player they had placed the franchise tag on in March. The deal, which adds $909,000 in incentives to the $10.1 million Barkley will earn playing under the franchise tag, came on the day players reported
July 25, 2023Swimming will set up an “open category” that will include transgender competitors, the governing body of the sport said Tuesday. World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam said the event would take place in the future among other races but gave no details. Reports suggest it could be this year. “This is a very complex topic,” Al-Musallam said at the World Aquatics Congress in the southwestern Japanese city of Fukuoka. “But I am delighted to tell you today that we are now making plans for the first trial of an open category, and we hope to be able
July 25, 2023Leticia Santiago carries her ancestral heritage wherever she goes. Every time she addresses the crowds during the Guelaguetza, the biggest cultural event in southwestern Mexico, her words, her garments and her skin reveal a clue about the town where she was proudly born. The 35-year-old Mexican was elected as Centéotl goddess in late June, which means she’ll represent the Aztec deity of maize for a year and lead all festivities during the Guelaguetza, which will run in the state of Oaxaca through July 28. During the government-sponsored event, 16 Indigenous ethnic groups and the Afro-Mexican community
July 25, 2023Fires raging through forests, mountain villages and towns in northern Algeria have left at least 34 people dead — with 23 of them in the coastal region of Bejaia, according to authorities and a local radio station keeping track of the grim toll in Bejaia. Among those killed were 10 soldiers encircled by flames during an evacuation, the Defense Ministry reported Monday night. Bejaia, part of the Berber-speaking Kabyle region east of Algiers, was the hardest-hit area, with 23 deaths since Sunday, the local Soummam Radio reported on Tuesday. Counting the deaths from the wind-driven blazes
July 25, 2023Thousands of Israeli doctors walked out of work, labor leaders threatened a general strike and senior justices rushed home from a trip abroad Tuesday, a day after the government approved a law weakening the country’s supreme court that critics say will erode the system of checks and balances. Four leading Israeli newspapers covered their front pages in black ink — an ominous image paid for by an alliance of high-tech companies. The only words on the pages were in a line at the bottom: “A black day for Israeli democracy.” Monday’s vote — on the first of
July 25, 2023China on Tuesday removed outspoken Foreign Minister Qin Gang from office and replaced him with his predecessor, Wang Yi, in a move that has already fueled rumors over the personal lives and political rivalries of China’s Communist Party elite. In its announcement on the national evening news, state broadcaster CCTV on gave no reason for Qin’s removal. Qin dropped out of sight almost a month ago and the Foreign Ministry has provided no information about his status. That is in keeping with the ruling Communist Party’s standard approach to personnel matters within a highly opaque political system
July 25, 2023Indonesian police are investigating the illegal trade of human organs involving police and immigration officers who were accused of helping traffickers send 122 Indonesians to a hospital in Cambodia to sell their kidneys, police said Tuesday. Indonesian authorities arrested 12 people, including a police officer and an immigration officer, on July 19, and police will continue to crack down on human smuggling syndicates conducting the illegal trade of human organs, said Hengki Haryadi, the Jakarta police director for general crimes. He said all 122 victims, including factory workers, teachers and executives, had returned to Indonesia, and
July 25, 2023Despite taking on a huge chunk of an expensive electric vehicle recall, General Motors posted $2.54 billion in second-quarter net income, a 52% increase over a year ago. Continued strong vehicle sales and pricing, as well as cost cuts, led to the better-than-expected quarter. The Detroit automaker on Tuesday raised its financial guidance for the full year with one qualification: that it can negotiate union labor contracts without a strike. Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson told reporters that customers paid about $1,600 more per vehicle last quarter than from January through March — with an average U.S.
July 25, 2023Countries in the Asia-Pacific region need to drastically increase their investments in disaster warning systems and other tools to counter rising risks from climate change, a United Nations report said Tuesday. The report issued Tuesday by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, or ESCAP, says nearly $145 billion is needed to set up systems to minimize deaths and damage from floods, earthquakes, drought and other disasters. Artificial intelligence, satellites, remote sensing and other technologies can aid in forecasting, notifying the public in times of emergency and providing other services, but telecommunications systems must
July 25, 2023Both Russia and China are sending government delegations to North Korea this week for events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. The visits suggest North Korea is further opening up after years of self-imposed pandemic isolation and is eager to showcase its partnerships with authoritarian neighbors in the face of deepening nuclear tensions with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. North Korea’s state media said Wednesday that a Russian delegation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday evening where they were greeted by senior North Korean officials
July 25, 2023A third successive heat wave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 40 C (104 F) across parts of the country Tuesday following more nighttime evacuations from fires that have raged out of control for days. The latest evacuations orders were issued on the islands of Corfu and Evia, while a blaze on the island of Rhodes continued to move inland, torching mountainous forest areas, including part of a nature reserve. Desperate residents, many with wet towels around their necks to stave off the scorching heat, used shovels to beat back flames approaching their homes, while firefighting
July 25, 2023The Taliban announced Tuesday that all beauty salons in Afghanistan must now close as a one-month deadline ended, despite rare public opposition to the edict. Sadiq Akif Mahjer, spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry, did not say whether it would use force against salons that do not comply. The ruling is the latest curb on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls following edicts barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment. The Taliban said it decided to ban beauty salons because they offered services forbidden by Islam and caused
July 25, 2023The U.N. atomic watchdog says its staff at Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant report seeing anti-personnel mines around the site as Kyiv pursues a counteroffensive against the Kremlin’s entrenched forces after 17 months of war. “Having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement late Monday. However, any detonation of the mines, located between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers, “should not affect the site’s nuclear
July 25, 2023A jury is expected to render its verdict Tuesday over Belgium’s deadliest peacetime attack, suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and a busy subway station in 2016 that killed 32 people in a wave of violence in Europe claimed by the Islamic State group. Among the 10 defendants is Salah Abdeslam, who already is serving a life sentence without parole in France over his role in attacks that hit Paris cafes, the Bataclan theater and France’s national stadium in 2015. The suspects in Brussels were tried on charges including murder, attempted murder and participation in the acts
July 25, 2023European Union agriculture ministers met Tuesday to discuss ways of moving grain vital to global food security out of Ukraine after Russia halted a deal that allowed the exports. At the same time, they want to protect prices for farmers in countries bordering the war-ravaged nation. The ministers met in Brussels for the first time since Russia pulled the plug last week on the wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into
July 25, 2023Sophia Smith pretended to zip her lips closed as she celebrated her second goal against Vietnam during the United States’ opening match at the Women’s World Cup. It was a tribute to former Stanford teammate Katie Meyer, who died by suicide last year. Smith and teammate Naomi Girma decided on the tribute for Meyer, the goalkeeper star of Stanford’s 2019 NCAA championship. She stopped two penalty shots in the title game. An ebullient California girl known for her animated celebrations, Meyer made the gesture after her first penalty save as a way to silence anyone
July 25, 2023South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday overturned the impeachment of the public safety minister ousted over a Halloween crowd surge that killed nearly 160 people last October at a nightlife district in the capital, Seoul. The court’s decision allows Lee Sang-min to return as the minister of the interior and safety. Vice Minister Han Chang-seob has served as acting minister since February when South Korea’s opposition-controlled parliament voted to impeach Lee, saying he should be held responsible for the government’s failure to employ effective crowd control measures and its botched emergency response, which contributed to
July 25, 2023A Houston woman known online as the “Sassy Trucker” has been stuck in Dubai for months after an altercation at a car rental agency, the latest case showing the limits of speech in this skyscraper-studded city-state. The case against Tierra Young Allen, 29, comes as the seven sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates have rules that strictly govern speech far beyond what’s common in Western nations. A middle finger raised in a traffic dispute, a text message calling someone a name or swearing in public easily can spark criminal cases — something that foreign
July 25, 2023Throughout South Korea’s Women’s World Cup opener against Colombia on Tuesday, players stayed loose behind the goal. Early in the 78th minute, one player broke away from the group. Casey Phair, at 16 years and 26 days, stepped onto the field and became the youngest player to do so in a World Cup — women’s or men’s. “Going on, I was really, really nervous,” said Phair, who has an American father and a South Korean mother and was raised in the United States. “It was a scary moment, but then going on and running around, I think
July 25, 2023Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher Tuesday after China’s ruling Communist Party promised to shore up its sagging economy ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting traders hope will announce this interest rate cycle’s final increase. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney advanced. Tokyo declined. Oil prices rose. The Chinese ruling party on Monday promised measures to boost sluggish economic growth by supporting real estate sales and other struggling sectors but gave no details and didn’t mention possible stimulus spending. Any stimulus is “unlikely to be significant” while Beijing takes a “gradual and targeted approach,” said Andrew
July 25, 2023Tetiana Khlapova’s hand trembled as she recorded the wreckage of Odesa’s devastated Transfiguration Cathedral on her cellphone and cursed Russia, her native land. Khlapova was raised in Ukraine and had always dreamed of living in the seaside city. But not as the war refugee that she has become. In only a week, Russia has fired dozens of missiles and drones at the Odesa region. None struck quite as deeply as the one that destroyed the cathedral, which stands at the heart of the city’s romantic, notorious past and its deep roots in both Ukrainian and Russian
July 25, 2023Two teachers in eastern Germany tried to counter the far-right activities of students at their small town high school. They counseled bullies who threatened to beat up immigrant classmates. They gave more lessons about their country’s Nazi past. They invited in a Black rapper to talk about mutual respect. None of it helped. In desperation, Laura Nickel and Max Teske wrote a public letter in which they described an atmosphere of intimidation at Mina Witkojc School in Burg. They reported students greeting each other with the Nazi salute, scratching swastikas on their desks and playing music
July 25, 2023The Israeli military said it shot and killed three alleged Palestinian gunmen in the northern occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the latest bloodshed in one of the most violent stretches of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in years. Israeli security forces said they opened fire at Palestinian militants who had shot at them from a car in the West Bank city of Nablus, the territory’s commercial capital and a major focus of the Israeli military’s recently stepped-up raids. In the hilly neighborhood of al-Tur shortly after the shooting, Israeli forces inspected a shattered black Skoda surrounded by
July 25, 2023Japanese police said they have arrested a woman and her parents in a bizarre beheading case in a popular night entertainment district in Japan’s northern city of Sapporo, where a headless man was found in a hotel room three weeks ago. Hokkaido police on Japan’s northern main island said Tuesday they arrested Runa Tamura, 29, and her father Osamu Tamura, a 59-year-old psychiatrist, the day before on suspicion of conspiring in beheading the victim at a hotel room and relocating his severed head in the middle of the night between July 1 and July 2. The head
July 25, 2023For years, beavers have been treated as an annoyance for chewing down trees and shrubs and blocking up streams, leading to flooding in neighborhoods and farms. But the animal is increasingly being seen as nature’s helper in the midst of climate change. California recently changed its tune and is embracing the animals that can create lush habitats that lure species back into now-urban areas, enhance groundwater supplies and buffer against the threat of wildfires. A new policy that went into effect last month encourages landowners and agencies dealing with beaver damage to seek solutions such as putting flow devices in
July 25, 2023A powerful typhoon blew closer to the northern Philippines on Tuesday, forcing thousands of evacuations and a halt to sea travel ahead of torrential rains and tidal surges up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet). The strongest winds at the storm’s center are expected to remain offshore as Typhoon Doksuri barrels northwest off Cagayan and Batanes provinces, but they may hit outlying islands in the archipelago. The typhoon’s 680-kilometer- (420-mile-) wide rainband could cause flash floods and set off landslides in northern provinces, the country’s weather bureau said. Doksuri was last tracked 310 kilometers (193 miles)
July 25, 2023Gunfire erupted in a maternity unit of an Oregon hospital over the weekend, fatally wounding an unarmed security guard and leading to renewed calls Monday to protect health care workers from increasing violence. Gun violence in America has hit supermarkets, churches, a synagogue, schools — and now a birthing center. Police were summoned Saturday morning to Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland, with callers reporting that a man with a gun was threatening hospital workers, Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said. By the time the officers arrived, shots had been fired and security guard Bobby
July 25, 2023The Florida Supreme Court publicly reprimanded the judge who oversaw the penalty trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz on Monday for showing bias toward the prosecution. The unanimous decision followed a June recommendation from the Judicial Qualifications Commission. That panel had found that Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer violated several rules governing judicial conduct during last year’s trial in her actions toward Cruz’s public defenders. The six-month trial ended with Cruz receiving a receiving a life sentence for the 2018 murder of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after
July 25, 2023Now that the United States women have won equal pay with their male counterparts, there’s no need for their supporters to again chant for fairness when the Americans play the Netherlands on Thursday in their rematch of the 2019 Women’s World Cup final. The Americans defeated the Netherlands 2-0 in France for their second straight World Cup trophy, and fourth overall. They were in the midst of a contract battle at the time over pay with U.S. Soccer, and the players were feted with shouts of “Equal Pay!” from the fans. The team’s pursuit for
July 25, 2023The Pulitzer Prize-winning Santa Barbara News-Press, one of California’s oldest newspapers, has ceased publishing after its owner declared the 150-year-old publication bankrupt. The newspaper became an online-only publication in April. But its last digital edition was posted Friday when owner Wendy McCaw filed for bankruptcy. Managing editor Dave Mason broke the news to staff in an email Friday, according to NoozHawk, a digital publication whose executive editor, Tom Bolton, used to lead the News-Press. “They ran out of money to pay us. They will issue final paychecks when the bankruptcy is approved in court,” Mason wrote
July 24, 2023NFL camps open this week with most of the focus on players who aren’t showing up. All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones skipped Sunday’s first workout with the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs over a contract dispute. Veterans with the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders are scheduled to report on Tuesday, but Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs are expected to hold out because they didn’t receive long-term deals after getting the franchise tag. Both star running backs would earn $10.1 million this season under the tag. Neither Barkley nor Jacobs signed the franchise tender, which means they
July 24, 2023The NFL indefinitely suspended Denver Broncos defensive end Eyioma Uwazurike on Monday for betting on league games during the 2022 season. Uwazurike, a fourth-round draft pick from Iowa State in 2022 who played in eight games as a rookie, becomes the 10th player this offseason to be suspended for gambling on games or betting on other sports while in NFL locker rooms. He will be eligible to petition for reinstatement no earlier than July 24, 2024. “Our organization fully cooperated with this investigation and takes matters pertaining to the integrity of the game very seriously,” the Broncos
July 24, 2023A 19-year-old was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a jury on Monday after being found guilty of attempted capital murder in a 2021 shooting at a Dallas-area high school that wounded two other students and a teacher. Timothy Simpkins had faced up to life in prison following his conviction last week by the Tarrant County jury. Simpkins was 18 when he opened fire on Oct. 6, 2021, inside Timberview High School in Arlington during a fight with Zaccheaus Selby, who was 15 at the time and was among those wounded. Taking the witness
July 24, 2023Authorities in Alabama said Monday that a woman has confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of the interstate. Hoover Police Department Chief Nicholas Derzis said Carlee Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, provided a statement on Monday saying there was no kidnapping. “There was no kidnapping on Thursday July 13. My client did not see a baby on the side on the road,” the statement read, according to Derzis, who read it at a news conference. She did not leave the city,
July 24, 2023Georgia’s Big Peanut is back. The roadside landmark along Interstate 75 in south Georgia was rededicated Thursday, nearly five years after an earlier version was felled by the winds of Hurricane Michael. This time, the giant goober is made of sheet metal, not fiberglass. It’s a symbol of pride in the heart of south Georgia’s peanut belt, as well as an enticement for tourists to pull off the highway in the small town of Ashburn. The Ashburn-Turner County Chamber of Commerce raised nearly $80,000 to replace the giant groundnut, which had saluted motorists since 1975 until it was blown down
July 24, 2023The Justice Department on Monday sued Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over a floating barrier that the state placed on the Rio Grande to stop migrants from crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. The lawsuit asks a court to force Texas to remove a roughly 1,000-foot (305-meter) line of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys that the Biden administration says raises humanitarian and environmental concerns. The suit also claims that Texas unlawfully installed the barrier along without permission near the border city of Eagle Pass. The buoys are the latest escalation of Texas’ border security operation that
July 24, 2023Rookie quarterbacks C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans and Anthony Richardson of the Indianapolis Colts have both agreed to fully guaranteed, four-year contracts. Stroud agreed to a $36 million deal with Houston, a person familiar with the contract told The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced. Richardson, the fourth overall pick in the NFL draft, agreed to a $34 million contract. Stroud, who was drafted second overall, is expected to replace Davis Mills, who struggled as the Texans’ starter for the last two seasons. Mills went
July 24, 2023Green Bay Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy says it will probably take “at least half a season” for the team to know what it has in new starting quarterback Jordan Love. Murphy noted the parallels to 2008, when Aaron Rodgers took over as Green Bay’s starting quarterback after backing up Hall of Famer Brett Favre for three seasons. Rodgers’ trade to the New York Jets cleared the way for Love, who has made one career start since the Packers selected him out of Utah State with the 26th overall pick in the 2020 draft. The Packers
July 24, 2023Joe Burrow reported to camp without a long-term contract extension, and Cincinnati Bengals executives on Monday refused to discuss the state of the negotiations with the franchise quarterback. Signing the 2022 Pro Bowler and 2021 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year to an extension was a goal of the team this summer. Both camps have done a credible job of keeping details of the talks locked down tight. “I have bound myself not to talk about Joe’s contract,” Bengals owner Mike Brown told reporters Monday, a day before the opening of training camp in Cincinnati. “They
July 24, 2023The slumping Tampa Bay Rays believe in themselves. Baseball’s best team for much of this season has seen a historic start give way to a July swoon that’s loosened its hold on the top record in the American League. The surging Baltimore Orioles won three of four between the division rivals over the weekend, taking over first place in the AL East and dropping the reeling Rays, who opened the year with 13 consecutive victories, two games off the pace. Tampa Bay entered July with a season-high 6½-game division lead but has stumbled to an
July 24, 2023The world’s biggest luxury group, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, announced a sponsorship deal Monday with the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, joining the ranks of top-tier French sponsors such as banking group BPCE, pharmaceutical maker Sanofi and supermarket operator Carrefour. Antoine Arnault, one of the heirs to the LVMH empire, confirmed the deal during a news conference also attended by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, Paris 2024 chief organizer Tony Estanguet, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and France’s sports minister, Amelie Oudea-Castera. LVMH is led by Arnault’s father, Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault. Its collaboration with
July 24, 2023Denny Hamlin’s friends greeted him at the airport with a sparkling wine shower the instant he walked down the steps of his plane — and hours after he drove into victory lane at Pocono Raceway — in celebration of his 50th career NASCAR Cup win. Let’s put that milestone in perspective. Yes, with three Daytona 500 victories, crown jewel Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500 wins and expansion into team ownership, Hamlin already was headed to the Hall of Fame. But 50 wins in Cup stamps rockets him into rarified air. It’s the NASCAR equivalent of
July 24, 2023Vermont state and federal officials on Monday urged farmers to document and report damage from the catastrophic flooding that hit the state two weeks ago and inundated crops in the rural mountainous state known for its scenic farmland. They toured Paul Mazza’s Fruit and Vegetable farm, where fields were under 20 feet (6 meters) of water during the flooding, including row after row of blueberry bushes laden with berries and corn. The crops are now contaminated and unsellable. Mazza, who has seven farms in different locations, estimates he has about 25% of his produce left.
July 24, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin signed new legislation Monday which marked the final step in outlawing gender-affirming procedures, a crippling blow to Russia’s already embattled LGBTQ+ community. The bill, which was approved unanimously by both houses of parliament, bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records. The only exception will be medical intervention to treat congenital anomalies. It also annuls marriages in which one person has “changed gender” and bars transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents. The ban is said
July 24, 2023Authorities searched Monday for a grizzly bear that attacked and killed a woman on a trail west of Yellowstone National Park along the Montana-Idaho border. The attack happened Saturday morning only a few hundred yards (meters) from a trailhead and private campground. There was no sign that the bear, which was traveling with at least one cub, tried to eat the victim, who appears to have been jogging when she was fatally mauled, said Morgan Jacobsen with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Authorities could not say for certain whether the victim was preyed upon or
July 24, 2023An investigation has been launched into why an Ohio officer allowed his police dog to attack a truck driver who was surrendering with his hands raised, despite State Highway Patrol troopers urging the officer to hold the dog back. The lengthy pursuit on July 4 and the ensuing attack were captured on a police body camera. Authorities said the chase began on state highway 35, when officers tried to stop a commercial semitruck that was missing a mud flap and had failed to stop for an inspection. State troopers were called in to help with the
July 24, 2023Wildfires raging across Algeria have killed 25 people, including 10 soldiers trying to get the flames under control in the face of high winds and scorching summer temperatures, government ministries said Monday. At least 1,500 people were evacuated, the Interior Ministry said, without providing details. The Interior Ministry announced 15 deaths and 24 injuries. In addition, the Defense Ministry later announced 10 soldiers were killed and 25 injured as they fought fires in the resort area of Beni Ksila east of the capital Algiers. It wasn’t immediately clear over what period of time the casualties happened,
July 24, 2023After undergoing emergency surgery to implant a pacemaker, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, made a video appearance from a hospital near Tel Aviv. Wearing a crisp dark suit, he grinned and declared energetically that he felt “great, as you can see.” But the Sunday photo-op failed to reassure Israelis, who were shocked to learn the same day that their longest-serving prime minister had concealed a long-known heart problem. The admission was a stark contrast to the image of a fully healthy, energetic leader that Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to bolster. A week after a
July 24, 2023The fraught politics of abortion have helped turn an August ballot question in Ohio that would make it harder to change the state constitution into a cauldron of misinformation and fear-mongering. State Issue 1, the sole question on the ballot, calls for raising the threshold for passing future changes to the Ohio Constitution from a simple majority to 60%. Starting next year, it also would double the number of counties where signatures must be gathered, from 44 to all 88, and do away with the 10-day grace period for closing gaps in the total valid signatures
July 24, 2023The Buffalo Bills will have to shelve plans to incorporate Nyheim Hines’ versatility into their offense after the running back was struck by a jet ski and sustained a season-ending knee injury, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday. Word of Hines’ injury came as the Bills begin reporting for training camp, which is set to open Wednesday in the Rochester suburbs. Hines was sitting on a stationary jet ski when he was struck by another water scooter, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of
July 24, 2023Renowned Japanese mystery writer Seiichi Morimura, whose nonfiction trilogy “The Devil’s Gluttony” exposed human medical experiments conducted by a secret Japanese army unit during World War II, died Monday. He was 90. His official website and publisher, Kadokawa, said Morimura died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. “Akuma no Hoshoku,” or “The Devil’s Gluttony,” which began as a newspaper series in 1981, became a bestseller and created a sensation across the country over atrocities committed by Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731 in China. From its base in Japanese-controlled Harbin in China, Unit 731 and related units injected
July 24, 2023Detroit Lions defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson does not have structural damage to his right knee after going down Monday with a noncontact injury, a person familiar with his test results told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced an update on Gardner-Johson’s injury, which occurred on the second day of training camp. Gardner-Johnson, a key addition this year, was carted off the field after grabbing his right knee during a noncontact drill. The injury potentially was a major setback for a team that
July 24, 2023As a heat wave grips parts of the world, Associated Press photographer Fatima Shbair captured Palestinians enjoying a day at the beach on the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza City. A boy is tossed in the air as a camel is walked on the beach. Additional evacuations were needed as fires raged Monday on the Greek island of Rhodes and tore past defenses, fueled by strong winds and successive heat waves. Over the weekend, several people were missing after intense thunderstorms dumped record amounts of rain across a wide swath of Canada’s Atlantic-coast province of Nova Scotia, causing flash flooding, road
July 24, 2023France’s national police chief has said that law enforcement officers under investigation shouldn’t be jailed like ordinary citizens, amid a walkout by numerous Marseille police over the detention of a colleague for his actions during nationwide riots. The apparently unprecedented remarks by Frederic Veaux in a weekend interview — which got the support of the Paris police prefect — quickly triggered a debate, and raised fundamental questions about whether French law enforcement is above the law. “Knowing that (the officer) is in prison stops me from sleeping,” Veaux said in an interview with Le Parisien, after a
July 24, 2023At least 17 people were found dead after a boat capsized in Senegal’s capital, said local officials on Monday. The bodies were discovered by the navy early in the morning and are believed to be migrants because of the type of boat they were in, said Ndeye Top Gueye, the mayor of the Ouakam neighborhood of Dakar where the bodies were found. “Because of the size and shape, we know that it’s a pirogue (a long wooden boat),” she said. While this is the first time bodies have washed up in the neighborhood migrant deaths at
July 24, 2023China dominated the second day of the swimming world championships on Monday, winning back-to-back gold medals in the first 10 minutes of the session. Zhang Yufei won the women’s 100-meter butterfly and Qin Haiyang went wire-to-wire in the men’s 100 breaststroke. Zhang rallied over the final 15 meters, touching in 56.12 seconds. Margaret MacNeil of Canada finished second in 56.45, while Torri Huske of the United States clocked 56.61 for third two years after placing fourth in the event at the Tokyo Olympics. The women’s race was a repeat of the final two years ago at
July 24, 2023Civil rights attorney Ben Crump was set Monday to announce another lawsuit against Northwestern University over hazing allegations in its athletic programs, with the latest suit touted as containing “damning new details” of sexual hazing and abuse in its football program. Crump and other attorneys were expected to join former Northwestern quarterback Lloyd Yates in discussing the lawsuit’s filing Monday afternoon in Chicago. A news advisory says the complaint will allege “negligence, willful and wanton disregard for player safety and well-being” among other claims. Yates is among more than 15 men and women who have retained Crump
July 24, 2023The director of the Miami-Dade Police Department was in stable condition after surgery in a Tampa area hospital, the Miami-Dade mayor said Monday. “Following a critical injury in Tampa yesterday, Chief Ramirez is hospitalized and in critical but stable condition,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez, 52, was in Tampa for a law enforcement conference, officials said. Amid speculation over what caused Ramirez’s injury, the mayor said that “All that matters right now is Chief Ramirez’s wellbeing,” and state Florida law enforcement officials said they were investigating an ‘incident.’ “We have been advised
July 24, 2023Spaniards woke up Monday to find their country in political disarray after a general election a day earlier left no party with a clear path to forming a government. The uncertainty deepened as both of Spain’s two main parties indicated that they hope to take power. The only sure thing seems to be that the country faces weeks, perhaps months, of political negotiations and possibly a new election to sort out the mess. Here’s a look at what happened and what might unfold in the next few months. _____ A BITTER VICTORY FOR THE OPPOSITION Alberto Nuñez
July 24, 2023Stephanie Pullman died on a sweltering Arizona day after her electricity was cut off because of a $51 debt. Five years later, the 72-year-old’s story remains at the heart of efforts to prevent others in Arizona from having their power cut off, leaving them without life-saving air conditioning in temperatures that have topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) on every day this month. “Stephanie Pullman was the face of the fight that helped put the disconnect rules in place for the big, regulated utilities in Arizona,” said Stacey Champion, an advocate who pushed for new regulations.
July 24, 2023After missing out on Lionel Messi, Saudi Arabian soccer team Al-Hilal made a record 300 million euro ($332 million) bid for Kylian Mbappe on Monday, which could see the France striker join Cristiano Ronaldo in the oil-rich kingdom. Paris Saint-Germain confirmed the offer for its player and has given Al-Hilal permission to open negotiations directly with Mbappe. The 2018 World Cup winner is in a contract standoff with PSG after his decision not to take up the option of a 12-month extension on his deal. Instead, he plans to walk away as a free agent at the
July 24, 2023Mali’s army together with suspected mercenaries from the shadowy Russian group Wagner have committed summary executions, lootings, forced disappearances and other abuses, a leading human rights group reported Monday. Human Rights Watch said the atrocities happened in Mali’s central region and that several dozen civilians were summarily executed or forcibly disappeared since December 2022. The human rights group interviewed 40 people by phone, including witnesses, and reviewed a video “showing evidence of abuses by Malian soldiers and associated foreign fighters.” HRW said in its report that much of the abuse took place during military operations in
July 24, 2023Serbian police said Monday they have arrested two people suspected of helping smuggle Cubans toward Spain as part of an international crime group. The two Serbian citizens were arrested in a monthslong investigation in cooperation with Spain, the Interpol and Europol, police said in a statement. They said 18 more suspects have been arrested in Spain. The suspects in Serbia are accused of organizing the illegal transfer of at least 53 people to neighboring countries — North Macedonia or Bosnia — and on to Spain, said the statement. Serbia, a southeastern European nation located on the
July 24, 2023Elon Musk has unveiled a new black and white “X” logo to replace Twitter’s famous blue bird as he follows through with a major rebranding of the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last year. Musk replaced his own Twitter icon with a white X on a black background and posted a picture on Monday of the design projected on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The X started appearing on the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday, but the bird was still dominant across the phone app. Musk had asked fans for logo
July 24, 2023A civilian plane crashed after taking off from an airport in eastern Sudan, killing nine people including four military personnel on board, the military said, as the conflict in the northeastern African country reached the 100-day mark on Monday with no signs of abating. The military said in a statement that a child survived the late Sunday crash in Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea that so far has been spared from the devastating war between the military and rival powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The Antonov plane crashed shortly after taking off from the
July 24, 2023Eight police officers assigned to a security team protecting South Africa’s deputy president have been arrested and are expected to appear in a courtroom on Monday after they were caught on video kicking and stomping on two off-duty trainee soldiers having pulled their car over on a highway in Johannesburg. Some of the plainclothes VIP protection officers were carrying assault rifles when they dragged the men out of their car and attacked them earlier this month. One of the men was kicked unconscious in the attack, which was caught on video by another motorist and shared widely
July 24, 2023A weeklong wildfire on the Greek island of Rhodes tore past defenses Monday, forcing more evacuations, as three major fires raged elsewhere in the country fueled by strong winds and successive heat waves. The latest evacuations were ordered in south Rhodes after 19,000 people, mostly tourists, were moved in buses and boats over the weekend out of the path of the fire that reached several coastal areas from nearby mountains. Help continued to arrive from the European Union and elsewhere, with Turkish firefighting planes joining the effort in Rhodes, where eight water-dropping planes and 10 helicopters
July 24, 2023Germany’s opposition leader insisted on Monday that there will be no “cooperation” at the local level between his party and the far-right Alternative for Germany after his suggestion that they might somehow work together drew unease within his own conservative bloc. Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union has long said it won’t work with Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has drifted steadily further right. Merz reiterated in a ZDF television interview Sunday that there would be no cooperation in the national, state or European parliaments with AfD, which recently has surged in polls. But he was
July 24, 2023A year before the Paris Olympics, and nearly a year-and-a-half since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, officials governing many of the sports on the 2024 program are still split on how to treat Russian athletes. Increasingly, various governing bodies are allowing them back into Olympic qualifying competitions as neutral competitors without national flags or anthems. Most sports initially barred Russians from competing soon after last year’s full-scale invasion. The International Olympic Committee strongly backs those moves even as the body itself says it hasn’t decided if athletes from Russia and ally Belarus can compete at the Paris
July 24, 2023Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow early Monday that saw one of the aircraft fall near the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters, while the Russian military launched new strikes on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties when the drones struck two nonresidential buildings. The Defense Ministry claimed that the military jammed both attacking drones, forcing them to crash. Russian media reported that one of the drones fell on the Komsomolsky highway near Moscow’s center, close to the main Defense Ministry building. Another drone hit
July 24, 2023Iranian authorities have shut down one of the offices of the country’s biggest e-commerce company and launched judicial procedures after it published pictures online showing female employees not wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf, semi-official media reported. The move appears to be part of a new campaign launched last week to impose the Islamic dress code nearly a year after the morality police largely melted away in the face of widespread protests. Digikala, informally known as “Iran’s Amazon,” appears to have run afoul of the rules by posting pictures of a corporate gathering in which
July 24, 2023The French president is heading to the South Pacific to make France’s voice heard in a region shaping up as a prime geopolitical battleground for China and the U.S. President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Caledonia comes as French forces take part in massive U.S.-Australian-led military exercises in the region. With French troops, citizens and resources spread across its Pacific territories, France wants to protect its own interests and project its power alongside like-minded democracies worried about China’s growing assertiveness. Macron starts Monday in the French archipelago of New Caledonia, trying to
July 24, 2023Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba says it does not plan to sell any shares in its one-third shareholding in financial technology company Ant Group because it wants to retain its stake in an “important strategic partner.” Alibaba Group Holdings said in a filing Sunday that it will not participate in Ant’s share buyback program. It allows shareholders to sell back up to 7.6% of their holdings at an unspecified price that values the company at 567.1 billion yuan ($78.8 billion). Ant, which operates one of China’s leading mobile payments services Alipay, has seen its valuation fall nearly
July 24, 2023Climate activist Greta Thunberg will appear in court on Monday on a charge of disobeying police at a protest in southern Sweden last month. Local newspaper Sydsvenskan reported that Thunberg and other activists were detained after they stopped traffic in the oil terminal of the port in Malmö on June 19. Thunberg was charged because she refused to comply with police orders to leave the scene during the protest, according to Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Annika Collin and a statement from prosecutors. Prosecutor Charlotte Ottosen told the newspaper that the crime of disobedience is typically punishable
July 24, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from the hospital on Monday after an emergency heart procedure, facing an unprecedented national crisis ahead of parliament’s vote on the first major piece of legislation to remake the country’s justice system. Demonstrators, many of whom feel the very foundations of their country are being eroded by the government’s plan, stepped up their opposition, blocking a road leading up to parliament. Businesses across the country shuttered their doors in protest of the vote. Driven by a governing coalition made up of ultranationalist and ultra-religious parties, the judicial overhaul
July 24, 2023As Russia seeks more allies during its invasion of Ukraine, longtime U.S. security partner Kenya might not be an obvious choice. But hours after Russia terminated a deal to keep grain flowing from Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador saw an opening to appeal to one of the African countries that would feel the effects the most. In an opinion piece for two of Kenya’s largest newspapers, Ambassador Dmitry Maksimychev blamed the United States and European Union for the deal’s collapse, asserting they had “used every trick” to keep Russian grain and fertilizer from the global markets. “Now, my
July 24, 2023Matt Cooper has no illusions about the hazards of diving from a 27-meter platform — about 90 feet, or as high as a nine-story building — into the sea, a lake, or a diving tank. “Even if it’s a good dive, the impact you have from 27 meters is like a car crash going 85 kilometers per hour (50 mph),” said Cooper, who’s preparing for the high-diving competition this week at the World Aquatics Championships in southwestern Japan. Cooper is dented up. He pulverized his left heel in Australia diving into a pool that was too
July 24, 2023Japanese police said Monday that they have arrested a man on suspicion of slashing three people on a train in western Japan. The 37-year-old suspect was carrying three knives, including two in each hand, when he was arrested on the platform of Rinku Town station in Osaka, western Japan, immediately after the alleged attack Sunday, according to police in Izumisano City. The injured — a train conductor in his 20s and two male passengers aged 23 and 79 — were taken to nearby hospital for treatment. Their injuries were not life-threatening, police said. After an emergency call
July 24, 2023Asian shares advanced on Monday after Wall Street closed out another winning week. Hong Kong declined but other major markets in the region were higher. U.S. futures edged lower and oil prices also fell. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its federal funds rate on Wednesday to its highest level since 2001. Investors are hoping that might be the final increase of the tightening cycle because inflation has been cooling since last summer. The federal funds rate started 2022 at virtually zero. This week markets also are watching for the outcome of a major political
July 24, 2023HOLD FOR AM Spain may be facing weeks, even months of political gridlock and possibly a new election, but a national ballot produced one result that will be greeted with relief in continental capitals that like Madrid firmly support the European Union. Spain’s Vox party, with its ultra-nationalist bent, lost support among voters in Sunday’s election, dashing its hopes to be a kingmaker and enter a governing coalition that would have given the far-right its first share of power in Spain since Francisco Franco’s 20th century dictatorship. The mainstream conservative Popular Party won the election, but performed
July 24, 2023The Jesuits said Monday that a famous artist priest is definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they couldn’t prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican’s internal procedures. The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik remains a Catholic priest but is no longer a Jesuit priest, after he didn’t appeal his June expulsion decree, said Rupnik’s former superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren. Rupnik, a Slovenian priest, is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church. His mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican.
July 24, 2023How’s this for a pair of stats? The first eight matches of the Women’s World Cup each included a penalty kick – and the attacking team converted just four times from the spot. Some of the attempts were turned away by goalkeeping heroics, others were clean misses and all four denials had some of the game’s biggest names on the short end. Longtime New Zealand striker Ria Percival missed high off the crossbar with a chance to extend the lead in the Football Ferns’ eventual opening-match upset of Norway. Spain’s all-time top scorer Jennifer Hermoso’s
July 24, 2023Wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande. Razor wire strung across private property without permission. Bulldozers changing the very terrain of America’s southern border. For more than two years, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has escalated measures to keep migrants from entering the U.S., pushing legal boundaries with a go-it-alone bravado along the state’s 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico. Now blowback over the tactics is widening, including from within Texas. A state trooper’s account of officers denying migrants water in 100-degree Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) temperatures and razor wire leaving asylum-seekers bloodied has prompted renewed criticism.
July 24, 2023A nuclear-propelled U.S. submarine has arrived in South Korea in the second deployment of a major U.S. naval asset to the Korean Peninsula this month, South Korea’s military said Monday, adding to the allies’ show of force to counter North Korean nuclear threats. The USS Annapolis arrived at a port on Jeju Island about a week after the USS Kentucky docked at the mainland port of Busan. The Kentucky was the first U.S. nuclear-armed submarine to come to South Korea since the 1980s. North Korea reacted to its arrival by test-firing ballistic and cruise missiles
July 24, 2023An overloaded passenger boat capsized off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 15 people and leaving 19 others missing, rescuers said Monday. The vessel was traveling from Lanto village in Buton Central regency in Southeast Sulawesi province to nearby Lagili village when it capsized just after midnight on Monday, local search and rescue agency head Muhammad Arafah said. The wooden boat was carrying 40 people but was designed for just 20. Rescuers were searching Monday for 19 people who were still missing in rough seas, while 15 bodies had been recovered and six people were rescued,
July 24, 2023What bills itself as “the world’s longest, largest and oldest recreational bicycle touring event” was more like the world’s biggest traffic jam Sunday as riders, packed together in a sinewy stream of brightly colored jerseys and shorts, churned across the Loess Hills on the western edge of Iowa. It’s called RAGBRAI — the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa — and it promised to be bigger than ever this year, as the brainchild of two writers from The Des Moines Register celebrated its golden anniversary with a route similar to its first. That meant
July 24, 2023All anyone seemed to care about Brian Harman was his skill with a bow, not with a putter. How he could harvest elk and skin a deer, not dissect a landscape dotted with pot bunkers at Royal Liverpool. Instead of birdies, Harman can spin tales about hunting turkey. But there was no mistaking what mattered to him. Next to him on a table Sunday evening at the British Open was the silver claret jug, the oldest trophy in golf, his name now engraved on the base. “To win what I consider is the greatest prize in
July 24, 2023Novak Djokovic withdrew Sunday from the National Bank Open, opting for additional rest after his loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final. Tennis Canada announced that Djokovic pulled out of the only Canadian stop on the ATP Tour schedule due to fatigue. The 36-year-old, 23-time Grand Slam champion was set to begin his hard-court preparations for the U.S. Open after falling to the top-ranked Alcaraz last Sunday in a five-set final at Wimbledon. “I have always enjoyed my time in Canada but after speaking with my team, we believe this is the right decision to take,”
July 24, 2023Minneapolis is backing away from enforcing laws that criminalize buying psychedelic plants or using them in private. Mayor Jacob Frey on Friday ordered police to stop using taxpayer dollars to enforce most laws against hallucinogenic plants. Minneapolis still prioritizes enforcing laws against selling psychedelic plants, bringing them to schools or using them while driving. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara in a statement said he stands by the mayor’s decision. Announcing the order, Frey cited the potential for hallucinogenic plants to treat mental illnesses including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. “Experts are telling us that these plants help
July 23, 2023Anchor Brewing is open to a purchase offer from its employees but warned that time is running out as the 127-year-old trailblazer of craft beers prepares to cease operations, the San Francisco company said in a statement over the weekend. Spokesman Sam Singer confirmed Saturday that Anchor Brewing Company had received an email from Anchor’s union representative that workers are launching an effort to purchase the brewery. The effort is on behalf of a group of employees and not the union itself. He said the company would “gladly consider” an offer should they make one that
July 23, 2023When Chair Jerome Powell and other Federal Reserve officials gather this week for their latest decision on interest rates, they will do so on the cusp of achieving an elusive “soft landing” — the feat of curbing inflation without causing a deep recession. After the Fed began aggressively raising borrowing costs early last year, most economists predicted it would send the economy crashing as consumers cut spending and businesses slashed jobs and expansion plans. Yet even though the Fed is poised to raise its key rate on Wednesday for the 11th time since March 2022, to its
July 23, 2023First there was Gone Girl. Now there is Gone Goat. The search for a rodeo goat that has been missing for more than a week has the residents of a rural South Texas county enthralled as they are using horses, ATVs and even contemplating utilizing a helicopter to find the missing animal. Local businesses have donated nearly 90 prizes and gifts worth more than $5,000, including brisket, frescoes and salon service, as a reward for the person who finds the goat. “This has just gotten bigger than we ever dreamed. Our county is a really small
July 23, 2023Denny Hamlin returned to victory lane Sunday at Pocono Raceway a year after his first-place finish was thrown out, giving him a track-record seven wins and 50 overall in his Cup career. Hamlin also gave Toyota its 600th NASCAR victory. Hamlin passed Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon — for the second straight year — for most wins at the tri-oval track. Hamlin and his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch had their 1-2 finishes stripped a year ago by NASCAR for aerodynamics violations. That made Hamlin the first disqualified Cup winner since April 17,
July 23, 2023The greatest moment of Scott Rolen’s 17-year career didn’t come during his 2006 World Series run with the St. Louis Cardinals or even during his outstanding first full season in 1997 with the Philadelphia Phillies, which earned him unanimous National League Rookie of the Year honors. For Rolen, one of two players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, that honor was reserved for an unexpected moment with his parents after he was called up for his first major league game in 1996. “Seeing Mom and Dad walk to their seats from my position
July 23, 2023Alaska search and rescue divers recovered the bodies of a helicopter pilot and three scientists on Sunday from the sunken wreckage of their aircraft, which went down in a shallow lake last week on the remote North Slope, authorities said. The cause of the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The only way to raise the wreckage will be to use another helicopter because it’s in the middle of one of the many lakes scattered across the vast tundra, said Clint Johnson, the chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region.
July 23, 2023Josef Newgarden got one win on Saturday, but he said it felt like “50 percent of the battle.” Newgarden completed the doubleheader sweep he wanted at a track where he’s had plenty of success, winning the IndyCar Series race Sunday at Iowa Speedway. Newgarden, who led 212 of 250 laps, held onto the lead on a restart with three laps to go, beating Team Penske teammate Will Power by less than a second and slightly closing the gap behind series points leader Alex Palou with five races to go. “Today, I feel like we’re done now,”
July 23, 2023Shohei Ohtani’s next scheduled mound start for the Los Angeles Angels has been pushed back one day to Friday in Toronto. Angels manager Phil Nevin announced the decision Sunday on Ohtani, who had been tentatively scheduled to take his semiregular turn in the rotation on Thursday in Detroit. Ohtani instead will take the mound Friday night when the Angels open a weekend series against the Blue Jays, a fellow contender for the AL’s wild-card playoff spots. The mound start in Toronto will be the last for Ohtani before the trade deadline. The Angels must decide whether
July 23, 2023The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs held their first full-squad workout of training camp Sunday under a bright sunny sky and without All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones. Coach Andy Reid says he’s not worried yet about the absence of his star lineman, who has yet to report for camp. “We’ll just see how things go here down the road,” Reid said following Sunday’s practice. “There had been communication, we’ll see where it goes from here and we’ll take it. If you’re not here, we just keep moving, and that’s how we roll. We
July 23, 2023Once again, Rory McIlroy was roaming near the top of the leaderboard of a major on Sunday. Once again, he was nowhere to be seen during the trophy presentation. McIlroy failed to win a major for the 34th straight time on Sunday at the British Open. Still, he again finished well and picked up his seventh top-10 finish in the last eight majors he played, giving him reason to stay positive going forward. “Over the last two years would I have loved to have picked one of those off that I finished up there? Absolutely,” McIlroy
July 23, 2023If you’ve ever dreamed of standing naked in New York City with dozens of strangers while artists turn your skin into a work of art, you may have missed your chance. Sunday’s Bodypainting Day will be the final edition after more than a decade of artists turning nude bodies into works of art. Organizer Andy Golub expects more than 50 people will be painted over four hours in Manhattan’s Union Square. Golub decided this year’s event would be the last because it’s time to “move on and clear that plate.” He said he wants to find
July 23, 2023The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has suspended the status of Sweden’s special envoy over a string of Quran burnings in Stockholm that sparked anger and mass protests in a number of Muslim countries. The organization comprised of 57 Muslim-majority nations said Sunday that the suspension was due to the “ granting by the Swedish authorities of licenses that enabled the repeated abuse of the sanctity of the Holy Quran and Islamic symbols.” The Islamic holy book was burned or defaced during recent public demonstrations in the Swedish capital. An Iraqi man of Christian origin living in Sweden
July 23, 2023Cleveland Browns star Nick Chubb was one of several NFL running backs to take part in a Zoom call on Saturday night to discuss the current trend of their position being underpaid and devalued by some teams. Chubb is under contract through next season, but said he has already contemplated his future in a market increasingly becoming less friendly to running backs. Chubb said he was on the call with Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants, Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans and Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers. Barkley has threatened
July 23, 2023Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo passed a physical on his injured left foot and will begin training camp with the Las Vegas Raiders, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made. Training camp opens Wednesday. Garoppolo did not participate in organized team activities because of the foot injury, but coach Josh McDaniels expressed confidence from the beginning the newly signed quarterback would be ready for camp. “We’re always going to err at this time of the year
July 23, 2023Brian Harman turned back every challenge in the British Open, from big names to bad weather, and took his place among major champions Sunday with a victory that was never seriously in doubt at Royal Liverpool. Harman twice responded to a rare bogey with back-to-back birdies, leaving everyone else playing for second. He closed with a 1-under 70, making an 8-foot par putt on the last hole for a six-shot victory. At age 36, he is the oldest first-time major winner since Sergio Garcia was 37 when he won the Masters in 2017. That wasn’t a
July 23, 2023Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard has won the Tour de France for a second straight year as cycling’s most storied race finished Sunday on the famed Champs-Élysées. With a huge lead built up over main rival Tadej Pogačar, the 2020 and 2021 winner, Vingegaard knew the victory was effectively his again before the largely ceremonial stage at the end of the 110th edition of the Tour. Vingegaard drank champagne with his Visma-Jumbo teammates as they lined up together and posed for photos on the way to Paris. It had been a three-week slog over 3,405 kilometers (2,116 miles)
July 23, 2023New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge faced live pitching on Sunday for the first time since tearing a ligament in his right toe on June 3. In a simulated game against Jonathan Loáisiga, who is rehabbing from right elbow surgery, Judge saw 16 pitches. He did not put any balls in play but fouled off four pitches, including one to the upper deck behind home plate. “To be able to take pitches where your swing says no, those are tests that he’s got to go through in working his way back,” manager Aaron Boone said before
July 23, 2023Hundreds of people gathered Sunday in the Thai capital of Bangkok to demand that conservative senators stop blocking the naming of a prime minister belonging to a winning coalition formed from May’s general election, a stance that risks a potentially destabilizing political deadlock. Protesters braved heavy rain to show their anger and frustration toward the members of the Senate, who were appointed by the military and pride themselves as defenders of traditional royalist values, which they believe are under threat. The surprise election winner, the Move Forward Party, failed in two efforts to have its leader Pita
July 23, 2023Formula One champion Max Verstappen needed only a few seconds to stamp his authority on the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday and win his seventh straight race of a crushingly dominant season. Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton started from pole position ahead of Verstappen, who muscled him out at the first corner and never looked back. Red Bull’s 12th straight win, including the final race of 2022, broke McLaren’s record for consecutive team wins set in 1988. “That was so enjoyable to drive, 12 in a row that is unbelievable,” Verstappen said. “Unbelievable. I was really enjoying
July 23, 2023An intense heat wave has reached Italy, bringing temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many cities across the country. Associated Press photographer Andrew Medichini captured tourists cooling off at a fountain. Many could be seen filling water bottles and waving fans amid crowds. Wildfires raged in Greece for a sixth day amid high temperatures and dry conditions, requiring the evacuation of some 19,000 people from the island of Rhodes. Massive floods swept through a village in the Fuyang district of eastern China’s city of Hangzhou on Saturday, leaving at least five people dead and three missing.
July 23, 2023An international team is set to begin siphoning oil out of the hull of a decrepit tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen this week, a U.N. official said Sunday. It will mark the first concrete step in an operation years in the making aimed at preventing a massive oil spill in the Red Sea. More than 1.1 million barrels of oil stored in the tanker, known as SOF Safer, will be transferred to another vessel the United Nations purchased as a replacement to the rusting storage tanker, said Achim Steiner, administrator of the U.N. development
July 23, 2023Neighborhoods in northeast Paris have struggled for years with the scourge of crack cocaine and its use in public. The Summer Olympics, kicking off a year from Wednesday, are offering an impetus to tackle the problem. Yet despite a surge in arrests and new promises of tougher security around the 2024 Paris Games, some residents question whether the newfound focus is just pushing users elsewhere instead of treating medical and mental health problems, a lack of housing and jobs and other deeper ills at the root of the crack crisis. Residents in the 18th and 19th arrondissements,
July 23, 2023Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday called for new, more equal relationships between Europe and migrants’ countries of origin and transit as she convened a summit of some 20 nations, EU officials and international organizations aimed at stanching flows of illegal migration. The one-day conference is a Meloni initiative that aims to make Italy a leader in resolving issues impacting Mediterranean nations. Chief among them is migration, as Italy sustains hundreds of new arrivals daily on Europe’s southern border, but also energy as Europe looks to Africa and the Middle East to permanently replace Russian supplies. Human
July 23, 2023Australian Ariarne Titmus set a new world record on the way to a decisive victory in the women’s 400-meter freestyle on Sunday, the opening day of the world swimming championships, with silver for American Katie Ledecky and bronze for Erika Fairweather of New Zealand. Sixteen-year-old Summer McIntosh of Canada, the world-record holder in the event, finished fourth. Despite it falling on the first day, the race was seen by many as the most compelling matchup of the eight-day championships with 22-year-old Titmus and 26-year-old Ledecky both having held the world record before McIntosh. Titmus took the
July 23, 2023Ariarne Titmus has broken the world record in the women 400-meter freestyle in a star-studded race that featured three women who have held the mark. Titmus swam the distance in 3 minutes, 55.38 seconds to top the record set four months ago by Summer McIntosh of Canada of 3:56.08. The record fell on Sunday on the first day of eight in the pool at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka in southwestern Japan. Some billed it as the most compelling race of the entire championships. American Katie Ledecky finished second in 3:58.73 with bronze for Erika
July 23, 2023Hervé Renard knows all about World Cup shocks. He also knows an early setback can be overcome in international soccer. With that in mind, the France coach was not unduly concerned by his team’s 0-0 with Jamaica on Sunday, which was one of the biggest surprises so far at the Women’s World Cup. Renard led Saudi Arabia to a famous win against Argentina at the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year, before Lionel Messi’s team rebounded and went on to lift the trophy for their country. “I’ve already won competitions after drawing my first two games,”
July 23, 2023Environmentalists cautioned Britain’s main political parties on Sunday not to water down their climate change promises after a special election result widely seen as a thumbs-down from voters to a tax on polluting cars. The governing Conservatives suffered two heavy defeats in a trio of by-elections for House of Commons seats on Thursday. But they managed to win the third contest, for a suburban London district, by focusing on a divisive green levy imposed by London’s Labour Party mayor. The Ultra Low Emission Zone, or ULEZ, charges drivers of older gas and diesel vehicles 12.50 pounds ($16)
July 23, 2023Hundreds of rescuers have recovered 27 dead as they pushed on with a fourth day of searching for scores of people still missing after heavy monsoon rains triggered a massive landslide in a village in western India, an official said Sunday. Seventy-eight people are still unaccounted for since the landslide hit Irshalwadi village on Wednesday night in Raigadh district, nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Mumbai, the Maharashtra state capital. At least 17 of 48 houses in the village were fully or partially buried under the debris, officials said. Rescuers were mostly using rods and shovels.
July 23, 2023Brian Harman wants to make the right kind of history in the British Open. The American lefty takes a five-shot lead into the final round at Royal Liverpool. No one has lost a lead that large in the Open — or any major — since Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie in 1999. And even that required a triple bogey on the 72nd hole. Cameron Young will be alongside in the final group on a cloudy, breezy day. The wind forecast was such the R&A already has adjusted two pin positions on the fifth and 13th
July 23, 2023Some 19,000 people have been evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes as wildfires continued burning for a sixth day on three fronts, Greek authorities said on Sunday. The Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection said it was “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country.” Local police said that 16,000 were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea, from 12 villages and several hotels, with no casualties. Six people were briefly hospitalized with respiratory problems and were later released. On Sunday morning, 266 firefighters and 49 engines on the ground were joined by
July 23, 2023Heavy flooding from seasonal rains in Afghanistan killed at least 31 people and left dozens missing over the past three days, while in neighboring Pakistan 13 people died due to heavy rains and landslides. Shafiullah Rahimi, the ruling Taliban’s appointed spokesman for Afghanistan’s State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management, said Sunday that at least 31 people were killed, 74 were injured and 41 others were missing. Flash floods hit the capital, Kabul, the Maidan Wardak and Ghazni provinces. He added that the majority of the casualties were in west Kabul and Maidan Wardak. Rahimi also said around
July 23, 2023Brazil starts the Women’s World Cup trying to remain undefeated in opening matches, and then take superstar Marta deep into her sixth and final tournament. It shouldn’t be difficult to move to 9-0 in opening matches for the Selecao, who start Group F play on Monday against tournament newcomer Panama in Adelaide, Australia. Brazil is one of seven teams to qualify for all nine Women’s World Cups, while Panama is one of eight teams playing in the tournament for the first time. Marta’s sixth World Cup will be her last, but she has a chance
July 23, 2023British pop rock band The 1975 announced on Sunday it was canceling its shows in Jakarta and Taipei after the Malaysian government cut short a music festival in the wake of the band’s lead singer slamming the country’s anti-gay laws and kissing a male bandmate during their performance. The 1975 was scheduled to have a performance at We The Fest, Indonesia’s annual summer music festival, in Jakarta on Sunday night, part of their 2023 Asia tour. “The 1975 regret to announce that their forthcoming shows in Jakarta and Taipei will no longer be going ahead as
July 23, 2023Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again on Sunday, local officials said, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the attack in the early hours. Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said that four children were among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, a landmark Orthodox cathedral in the city. Russia has been launching persistent attacks on Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, since Moscow
July 23, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recovering in hospital on Sunday after an emergency heart procedure while opposition to his government’s contentious judicial overhaul plan reached a fever pitch and unrest gripped the country. Netanyahu’s doctors said on Sunday the heart pacemaker implantation went smoothly and that Netanyahu, 73, felt fine. According to his office, he was expected to be discharged later in the day. But tensions were surging as lawmakers were to begin a marathon debate Sunday morning over the first major piece of the overhaul, ahead of a vote in parliament enshrining it
July 23, 2023More than 30 people were injured when a deck collapsed at a country club overlooking Montana’s largest city, police said Sunday. The second-story patio floor of Billings’ Briarwood Country Club broke and gave way Saturday evening. The collapse caused head wounds, broken ribs and other injuries as people landed atop each other and debris and scraps of food scattered over the grass next to the club’s golf course. The police statement said there were no fatalities, although “multiple individuals” had injuries. The cause of the collapse has yet to be determined. At least 25 people were
July 23, 2023In a large hall at the headquarters of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party, women responded with roaring cheers when President Emmerson Mnangagwa described them as the party’s “backbone” whose votes are vital to victory in elections scheduled for August. At a recent opposition rally, women with the face of their male party leader emblazoned on dresses and skirts sang, danced and promised to vote for change — never mind that the election again represents a status quo where women are largely limited to cheerleading. It appears worse this year because the number of women candidates has plummeted,
July 23, 2023When Nouhaila Benzina steps onto the field for Morocco’s first match of the Women’s World Cup against Germany, she will make history — and not just as a player for the first Arab or North African nation ever in the tournament. The 25-year-old defender will be the first player to wear the Islamic headscarf at the senior-level Women’s World Cup. She and the Atlas Lionesses face two-time World Cup champions Germany in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday. “Girls will look at Benzina (and think) ‘That could be me,’” said Assmaah Helal, a co-founder of the Muslim Women
July 23, 2023Spanish voters go to the polls in a general election Sunday that could make Spain the latest European Union member to swing to the right. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election after his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and its far-left partner, Unidas Podemos, took a beating in local and regional elections in May. Sánchez has been premier since 2018. Most opinion polls for Sunday’s voting have put the ring-wing Popular Party, which won the May vote, ahead of the Socialists but likely needing the support of the extreme right Vox party if they want to
July 23, 2023In the national reckoning that followed the police killing of George Floyd three years ago, about 2,000 protesters took to the streets in a St. Louis suburb and urged the mostly white Francis Howell School District to address racial discrimination. The school board responded with a resolution promising to do better. Now the board, led by new conservative board members elected since last year, has revoked that anti-racism resolution and copies of it will be removed from school buildings. The resolution passed in August 2020 “pledges to our learning community that we will speak firmly against
July 23, 2023Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will flip from majority conservative to liberal control in August and Democrats have high hopes the change will lead to the state’s abortion ban being overturned and its maps redrawn to weaken GOP control of the Legislature and congressional districts. Democrats in the perennial battleground state focused on abortion to elect a liberal majority to the court for the first time in 15 years. The Democratic Party spent $8 million to tilt the court’s 4-3 conservative majority by one seat with the election of Janet Protasiewicz, who spoke in favor of abortion rights
July 23, 2023As the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan, in the summer of 2021, Fahima Sultani and her fellow university students tried for days to get into the Kabul airport, only to be turned away by gun-wielding extremists. “No education, just go back home,” she recalled one shouting. Nearly two years later, Sultani, now 21, is safely in the U.S. and working toward her bachelor’s degree in data science at Arizona State University in Tempe on a scholarship. When she’s not studying, she likes to hike up nearby Tempe Butte, the kind of outing she enjoyed in
July 23, 2023As the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, Fahima Sultani and her fellow university students tried for days to get into the Kabul airport, only to be turned away by gun-wielding extremists. “No education, just go back home,” she recalled one shouting. Nearly two years later, Sultani, now 21, is safely in the U.S. and working toward her bachelor’s degree in data science at Arizona State University in Tempe on a scholarship. When she’s not studying, she likes to hike up nearby Tempe Butte, the kind of outing she enjoyed in
July 23, 2023When he grew up dreaming about his first day in the major leagues, Sal Frelick never bothered imagining a scenario quite as remarkable as the debut he produced Saturday night. “I think this blew it out of the water,” Frelick said after going 3 for 3, driving in the go-ahead run and making two outstanding catches in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves. The 2021 first-round pick from Boston College was the first Brewer to have at least three hits and two RBIs in his debut and was the sixth player over the last
July 23, 2023RC Buford has spent nearly a decade plotting this. He’s been all over the world, visiting 200 places, seeing what works for other teams. Ideas kept coming, not just from the basketball landscape, but from skiing and soccer and eSports and cycling and even Formula One. Hour after hour, day after day, he became more consumed by the idea and more immersed into how to make it reality. His task is almost done. The San Antonio Spurs — just in time for No. 1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season — are about to get
July 23, 2023The United States’ 3-0 victory over Vietnam in the Women’s World Cup drew 6.26 million viewers, making it the most-watched soccer telecast in the U.S. since last year’s men’s World Cup final. It is also the largest combined English- and Spanish-language audience for a U.S. women’s group stage match. Saturday afternoon’s match in Auckland, New Zealand — which kicked off at 9 p.m. EDT Friday night — averaged 5,261,000 viewers on Fox, making it the second-most watched group stage telecast since Fox started covering it in 2015. Fox and Nielsen said the audience peaked at 6.5
July 23, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early Sunday that he was undergoing a procedure to receive a pacemaker. In a short statement, Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s leader would be placed under sedation. A top deputy, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, was to stand in for him. The procedure comes one week after Netanyahu was hospitalized for what his office described as dehydration. Netanyahu’s office made the announcement as Israel faces widespread street protests over Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan. The plan has triggered months of protests, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets Saturday night to demonstrate against it
July 22, 2023Hun Sen has been Cambodia’s autocratic prime minister for nearly four decades, during which the opposition has been stifled and the country has grown increasingly close to China. With his Cambodian People’s Party virtually guaranteed another landslide victory in this Sunday’s election, it’s hard to imagine dramatic change on the horizon. But the 70-year-old former communist Khmer Rouge fighter and Asia’s longest-serving leader says he is ready to hand the premiership to his oldest son, Hun Manet, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who heads the country’s army. Tens of thousands
July 22, 2023Cambodians go to the polls Sunday with incumbent Prime Minister Hun Sen and his party all but assured a landslide victory thanks to the effective suppression and intimidation of any real opposition that critics say has made a farce of democracy in the Southeast Asian nation. The longest-serving leader in Asia, Hun Sen has steadily consolidated power with his strongarm tactics over the last 38 years. But, at age 70, he has suggested he will hand off the premiership during the upcoming five-year term to his oldest son, Hun Manet, perhaps as early as the
July 22, 2023A Connecticut man has been convicted of murder in the stray-bullet killing of the mother of a two-time Olympian rifle shooter from Puerto Rico. A jury found Franklin Robinson, 40, guilty Friday in the death of Mabel Martinez Antongiorgi. The 56-year-old was in her sewing and crafts room in Waterbury when a bullet flew through a wall and hit her in the head on April 9, 2022. Martinez Antongiorgi’s daughter, Yarimar Mercado Martinez, competed for the family’s native Puerto Rico at the 2016 and pandemic-delayed 2020 Games. The athlete was in Brazil for a competition when her mother was killed.
July 22, 2023The loud “Aaron! Rodgers!” chants started almost as soon as the New York Jets quarterback stepped on the practice field. The cheers turned near deafening Saturday when Rodgers acknowledged the fans with a quick wave. “That’s my QB! Let’s go!” someone shouted. “Surreal!” said another. The Jets’ third practice of training camp marked the first session open to the public — giving about 2,000 ecstatic fans their first in-person glimpse of their team’s new quarterback. “It’s exciting, you feel the energy from the fans,” said Claudio Juarez, a 43-year-old native of the New York City
July 22, 2023An unusually long procession of intense thunderstorms dumped record amounts of rain across a wide swath of Canada’s Atlantic-coast province of Nova Scotia over the past two days, causing flash flooding, road washouts and power outages. Torrential downpours started on Friday afternoon across the Halifax region, dumping more than 200 millimeters of rain in some areas. The port city typically receives about 90-100 mm of rain during an average July. Based on radar estimates and unofficial observations, Environment Canada said on Saturday that some areas may have received more than 300 mm in 24 hours.
July 22, 2023Brian Harman has two victories in 335 tournaments over 12 years on the PGA Tour. Now he’s one round away from one of the grandest titles of all. Harman overcame an early wobble on a wet Saturday at the British Open, and then he steadied himself for a 2-under 69 that kept his lead at five shots on a Royal Liverpool links where the little lefty seems to do no wrong. His final act was an 8-foot par putt, with Harman lightly clenching his fist, that made it that much more difficult for Cameron Young, Jon
July 22, 2023Brexton Busch was just a preschooler when dad tossed him in the air in victory lane at Pocono. Kyle Busch is ready to toss Brexton the keys — OK, fine, NASCAR vehicles don’t use keys — to his truck at Kyle Busch Motorsports and have his son replace him behind the wheel. It just might take a few years. The 38-year-old Busch mapped out a succession plan that started with his retirement from the elite Cup Series when Brexton is 15 years old and ends with his son taking the full-time ride in Trucks once
July 22, 2023Florida A&M has banned its players from the team’s facilities after a rap video featuring some Rattlers was shot in their locker room without proper permission being granted. Coach Willie Simmons told The Associated Press on Saturday that the team facility, weight room and access to the stadium field were off-limits to all players until he and the administration could sort out who was involved in the video shoot. The only exception is players who need medical treatment from doctors and athletic trainers, he said. Simmons said they planned to meet with players who were visible
July 22, 2023A train derailment in northern Montana spilled freight and left 25 cars tangled up along a major east-west railroad corridor but caused no injuries. The accident comes less than a month after a railroad bridge collapse in southern Montana sent tanks cars with oil products plunging into the Yellowstone River, spilling molten sulfur and up to 250 tons of asphalt binder. The latest accident involved a BNSF Railway train that derailed while traveling Friday evening around a curve east of the small town of Havre. Cleanup and repair work continued Saturday and the cause was under
July 22, 2023All-Star shortstop Dansby Swanson was activated by the Chicago Cubs on Saturday after he had been sidelined by a bruised left heel. Swanson was in the starting lineup against St. Louis, batting sixth for his first big league game since he got hurt during a 4-3 win at Milwaukee on July 5. He is batting .258 with 10 homers and 36 RBIs in 83 games. The 29-year-old Swanson, who finalized a $177 million, seven-year contract with Chicago in December, played in 160 games in 2021 and 162 games last year in his final season with Atlanta. He
July 22, 2023Russian security forces on Saturday killed a heavily-armed gunman who broke into a private house in the suburbs of Moscow and fired at them, reportedly threatening to march on the Kremlin. The assailant was spotted by guards after he had broken into an unoccupied house located in an elite cottage village in the Istra region, about 45 kilometers (less than 30 miles) west of Moscow. When two guards and a police officer entered the house, the man held them at gunpoint, but the three later managed to escape, according to Russian media. For several hours, the authorities
July 22, 2023The hug Jon Rahm gave his parents after finishing his round at the British Open on Saturday felt a lot better than the one gave he gave them a day earlier. On Friday, he struggled just to make the cut. This time, he shot the lowest round ever at Royal Liverpool at the Open to put himself back in contention to win the claret jug. He will go into the final round in third place, six shots behind leader Brian Harman. “Today it wasn’t a consolation hug,” Rahm said after an 8-under 63 that was his
July 22, 2023Will Power put together two fast laps Saturday to win both pole positions for this weekend’s IndyCar Series doubleheader at Iowa Speedway. The lineups for the series’ lone doubleheader were determined by individual lap speeds — the first lap determined the lineup for Saturday’s 250-lap race, with the second lap setting the lineup for Sunday’s 250-lap event. Power’s first lap was 181.426 mph, and then he followed that with a lap of 181.578 mph. “It is very cool this year, because I’m trying to win this race,” said Power, the defending series champion who has never
July 22, 2023Tens of thousands of protesters marched on the main highway into Jerusalem on Saturday evening in a last-ditch show of force aimed at blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul. More than 100 of Israel’s former security chiefs signed a letter pleading with the Israeli premier to halt the legislation. The arrival of the marchers turned the city’s main entrance into a sea of blue and white Israeli flags as they completed the last leg of a four-day, 70 kilometer (45-mile) trek from Tel Aviv to Israel’s parliament. The marchers joined forces with hundreds of other
July 22, 2023The family of a 2-year-old girl swept away along with another child by a flash flood that engulfed their vehicle on a Pennsylvania road is expressing gratitude at the discovery of a body believed to be hers. The body was found early Friday evening in the Delaware River near a Philadelphia wastewater treatment plant about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from where Matilda Sheils was carried away, authorities said Friday night. The Philadelphia medical examiner’s office plans an autopsy. The search continues for Matilda’s 9-month-old brother, Conrad. “We are grateful that our little Mattie has been
July 22, 2023A large blaze burning on the Greek island of Rhodes for the fifth day has forced authorities to order an evacuation of four locations, including two seaside resorts. In previous days, the wildfire was confined to the island’s mountainous center, but aided by winds, very high temperatures and dry conditions, it spread Saturday toward the coast on the island’s central-eastern side. Local media reported the fires had reached three hotels, whose clients had already been evacuated. Fire department spokesman Yannis Artopios said Saturday afternoon that the residents of four localities were sent SMS messages to evacuate
July 22, 2023Just before the Tokyo Olympics, Sophia Smith got the disappointing phone call from U.S. women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski. No, she would not be accompanying the team to Japan. So instead, Smith got to work. She went on to be named the U.S. Soccer Player of the Year after leading the national team with 11 goals in 2022. She also was named the National Women’s Soccer League’s Most Valuable Player that year after scoring 14 goals and helping the Portland Thorns to the league title. “I remember obviously being sad and frustrated, but I
July 22, 2023Malaysia’s government Saturday cut short a music festival after the lead singer of British band The 1975 slammed the country’s anti-gay laws and kissed a male bandmate during their performance. Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil slammed Matty Healy’s conduct late Friday at the start of the Good Vibes Festival as “very rude.” Healey used profanity in his speech criticizing the government’s stance against homosexuality, before kissing bass player Ross MacDonald. Footage of the fiasco was posted on social media and sparked a backlash in the predominantly Muslim nation. After meeting the festival organizers Saturday,
July 22, 2023Russian attacks on 11 regions across Ukraine overnight killed at least eight civilians and wounded others, authorities said Saturday, as fierce fighting continues in Ukraine’s attempts to dislodge Russian forces from territory they have occupied. The regional prosecutor’s office in the eastern Donetsk region said that at least four people, including a married couple, were killed as Russian forces on Friday night shelled the settlement of Niu-York, south of the city of Bakhmut — the site of the war’s longest and bloodiest battle until it fell to Moscow in May. Three other Niu-York residents were hospitalized.
July 22, 2023Oceans of Israeli flags, steady drumbeats, cries of “Democracy!” Water cannons, police on horseback, protesters dragged off the ground. For seven straight months, tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in the most sustained and intense demonstrations the country has ever seen. The protesters are part of a grassroots movement that rose out of opposition to a contentious judicial overhaul spearheaded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies. The overhaul calls for sweeping changes aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, from limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to challenge parliamentary decisions,
July 22, 2023Jon Rahm did all he could to get himself back into the mix at the British Open. All it required was the lowest round ever at Royal Liverpool in its 13 times hosting the Open. Rahm birdied seven of his last 10 holes for a 63, by two shots the lowest score at Hoylake in the Open. The course was the only one on the modern rotation that had not yielded lower than a 65 until Saturday. Rahm holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 closing hole right about the time Brian Harman teed off
July 22, 2023Migrants in Tunisia’s port city of Sfax who are aiming to make Europe their new home are now sharing the burden and the blame for escalating tensions deeply tinged with racism, amid the fears of European leaders who are trying to stanch the numbers of people arriving at their shores. The antagonism that exploded this month in Sfax between Tunisians and mainly Black sub-Saharan migrants are widely seen as a turning point in how this North African nation deals with the issue of migration — and an opportunity to be seized by Europe. Hundreds of migrants
July 22, 2023Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and the seat of Iraq’s government, early Saturday following reports of the burning of a Quran carried out by a ultranationalist group in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen. They were pushed back by security forces, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the Green Zone, preventing them from reaching the Danish Embassy. The protest came two days after people angered by the planned burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Protesters occupied the
July 22, 2023At the morgue, the bullet was still lodged in Douglas Kalasinga’s head. His family said they couldn’t afford an autopsy. At least 35 civilians have been shot dead by police in Kenya this month during protests over new taxes and the rising cost of living, and Kalasinga’s loved ones believe he’s one of them. “It is as if the police wanted to kill him because they aimed straight at his head,” his uncle, David Wangila, told The Associated Press on Friday. An interior ministry spokesperson referred requests for comment to the police, who didn’t respond. Wangila
July 22, 2023Angels fans rose and roared when Shohei Ohtani walked toward the dugout after a tumultuous Friday night on the mound. The Big A echoed with “M-V-P!” chants for the unique talent who has revolutionized baseball over the last six seasons in Orange County. The chants and cheers had a melancholy note, however. Most of those fans were aware this might be their final chance to thank him. Ohtani’s future has been the talk of baseball all year long, and the forecast isn’t much clearer as the Los Angeles Angels reach the last 10 days before the
July 22, 2023Voters in Spain go to the polls Sunday in an election that could make the country the latest European Union member to swing to the populist right, a shift that would represent a major upheaval after five years under a left-wing government. Here’s what you need to know about the vote. ___ WHAT IS AT STAKE? Opinion polls indicate the political right has the edge going into the election, and that raises the possibility a neo-fascist party will be part of Spain’s next government. The extreme right has not been in power in Spain since the transition
July 22, 2023Russia has repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Ukrainian ports key to sending grain to the world. Moscow has declared large swaths of the Black Sea dangerous for shipping. Even the U.S. said ships are at risk of being targeted. There is still interest from ship owners in carrying Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea — if they can mitigate the risk, according to a major shipping group. And that’s a big if. Despite the warnings and port attacks, which have leveled grain infrastructure, “shipping has always been very, very resilient in the face of these sorts
July 22, 2023Four years after France fell flat in the Women’s World Cup as the host country, Les Bleus return to the global stage with a new coach determined to dethrone the United States. France hoped to contend for the 2019 tournament title but was eliminated by the Americans in the quarterfinals in Paris. The plan for a better result this year was nearly derailed in February when captain Wendie Renard quit the team “to protect my mental health” and two other players followed her exit. The French federation vowed to look into the situation and in
July 22, 2023I blink, and the edges of my eyelids feel like they are being singed. My cheeks burn as if they are being pressed with a hot iron ready to tackle a pile of wrinkled shirts. It is 4 p.m. I look at my 12-year-old son, whose face is flushed. He lets out a groan and puts his hand on his forehead to shield his eyes from the blistering sun. It is 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius). My family knows being in temperatures like this is dangerous. We’ve lived here for four years. This time, though, we
July 22, 2023No winner for the Mega Millions top prize has sent the jackpot soaring to an estimated $820 million. The numbers drawn late Friday night were: 29, 40, 47, 50, 57 and gold Mega Ball 25. The estimated $820 million in the next drawing would only be distributed to a winner who chooses an annuity paid over 29 years. Nearly all grand prize winners opt to take a cash payout, which for Tuesday night’s drawing is an estimated $422 million. Despite the game’s long odds of 1 in 302.6 million, players continue to purchase tickets as the
July 22, 2023Shohei Ohtani allowed four homers for the first time in his major league career while pitching six-hit ball into the seventh inning and earning the mound victory in the Los Angeles Angels’ 8-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night. Pirates rookie Henry Davis became the first major league player to homer twice off Ohtani. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft had three total hits off Ohtani, while Ji Man Choi and Jack Suwinski also homered in Pittsburgh’s power spree from the fourth to the sixth innings. Ohtani (8-5) had allowed three
July 22, 2023China sent dozens of warplanes, including fighter jets and bombers, toward Taiwan, the island’s Defense Ministry said Saturday, marking a forceful display days before the democracy plans to hold military exercises aimed at defending itself against a possible invasion. Taiwan is due to hold its annual Han Kuang exercise next week, during which its military will hold combat readiness drills for preventing an invasion. It will also conduct the annual Wan’an exercises aimed at preparing civilians for natural disasters and practicing evacuations in case of an air raid. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army sent 37 aircraft
July 22, 2023The Fargo police officer who was responding to a routine traffic crash when he was ambushed and fatally shot by a heavily armed man will be laid to rest Saturday. Jake Wallin, 23, was killed July 14 when a man armed with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, multiple guns and explosives began firing. Two other officers and a civilian were wounded before a fourth officer returned fire, killing gunman Mohamad Barakat. Police said the actions of that fourth officer likely spared the city from a bigger, bloodier attack. Wallin, who had been sworn in as a Fargo
July 22, 2023Shohei Ohtani has allowed four homers in a game for the first time in the two-way superstar’s major league career with the Los Angeles Angels. Rookie Henry Davis hit two of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ four homers off Ohtani on Friday night, connecting for solo shots in the fourth and sixth innings. Davis, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft, became the first major league player ever to hit two homers in the same game off Ohtani, and he also had an early single for a three-hit night. Ji Man Choi and Jack Suwinski also
July 22, 2023Texas Rangers All-Star shortstop Corey Seager went on the 10-day injured list Saturday with a sprained right thumb. Seager said an MRI showed no structural issues with the thumb that he hurt in the series opener Friday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers, his former team. X-rays after he exited the game were negative. “They said probably a week or so with just inflammation in general,” Seager said. “And then kind of pain tolerance from there. So I’m not overly worried about it.” The AL West-leading Rangers announced the IL move just minutes before Saturday’s game.
July 22, 2023Sophia Smith scored twice for the United States in the opening half and the two-time defending champions kicked off the Women’s World Cup with a 3-0 victory over tournament first-timers Vietnam on Saturday. Lindsey Horan added a goal for the favored Americans, who have won four World Cups overall and are vying for an unprecedented three-peat in this year’s tournament. Vietnam drew comparisons to Thailand, the team the Americans routed 13-0 in in their 2019 World Cup opening game. But Vietnam was surprisingly resilient, kept the game closer than expected, and goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim
July 22, 2023Bryce Harper flashed some glove with a stunning catch in his first career start at first base, but the Cleveland Guardians ended Philadelphia’s interleague winning streak at 12 games by edging the Phillies 6-5 on Friday night. José Ramírez had four hits and David Fry drove in two runs for Cleveland. J.T. Realmuto hit a two-run homer and Bryson Stott had a solo shot for Philadelphia, which squandered some early scoring chances and lost for just the fourth time in its last 19 road games. The Phillies also finished one win shy of matching the record of
July 22, 2023The body of a young girl was recovered Friday in the Delaware River and was believed to be a 2-year-old who was one of two children swept away from their family’s vehicle by a flash flood last weekend, authorities said. The body was found in the early evening near a Philadelphia wastewater treatment plant about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from where Matilda Sheils was carried away, authorities said in a nighttime news conference. By physical description, authorities believe the body to be Matilda’s. The Philadelphia coroner will conduct an autopsy Saturday. The search continues for
July 22, 2023Zach Eflin pitched seven strong innings to become the AL’s third 11-game winner, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 on Friday night in a matchup of the top teams in the American League. Baltimore, which won 4-3 in 10 innings on Thursday night in the opener of the four-game set, leads the AL East with a .608 winning percentage compared to Tampa Bay’s .604. The Orioles trailed the Rays by 6 1/2 games at the beginning of July. Eflin (11-5) allowed two hits, struck out eight and walked one, improving to
July 22, 2023In the winter of 2010, shortly after police discovered the remains of his roommate and three other women buried on a remote stretch of Long Island shoreline, Dave Schaller provided detectives with a description of the person he believed to be the killer. More crucially, Schaller told them about his truck. The man they were looking for was a towering, Frankenstein-like figure with an “empty gaze” who drove a first-generation Chrysler Avalanche, Schaller recalled telling investigators. The man’s size stuck out, as did his unusual pick-up truck, which he’d used to flee the house Schaller shared
July 22, 2023North Korea fired several cruise missiles toward its western sea Saturday, South Korea’s military said, marking the second launch event this week apparently in protest of the docking of a nuclear-armed U.S. submarine in South Korea. While adding to its barrage of missile launches in recent months, North Korea remained publicly silent for a fifth day on the fate of an American soldier who bolted into the North across the heavily armed Korean border this week. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches were detected beginning around 4 a.m. but did not immediately
July 21, 2023Sitting in a parked car with an arsenal of weapons and ammunition, the man who fired on police officers in North Dakota earlier this month chose to use the one gun in his vehicle that was modified with a binary trigger. The device allowed the gun to fire so rapidly that it sounded like an automatic weapon. The July 14 shooting in Fargo, which killed one officer and wounded two others and a civilian, has put a spotlight on the device and other trigger modifications that are a growing concern for law enforcement. Mohamad Barakat, 37, opened fire on the
July 21, 2023Josh Harris kept his remarks brief when he took the stage at a pep rally at FedEx Field. He didn’t have to say much. Eventually, the crowd of Washington Commanders fans began chanting: “Thank you Josh! Thank you Josh!” They used to have parades around here for Super Bowl titles, but for now this cathartic scene Friday will suffice. After a quarter-century of ineptitude on the field and embarrassment off it under owner Dan Snyder, Harris and his group offer Washington a chance at a fresh start. Few football towns have ever needed one more. “We’re
July 21, 2023Presidential candidate and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis wants Florida to investigate its investments in the company that makes Bud Light because of conservative backlash over a transgender social media influencer marketing the beverage. DeSantis said Thursday in a letter to the State Board of Administration that “all options are on the table” in its response to Dylan Mulvaney’s Instagram post of a video of her opening a Bud Light with her face on the can. The governor said that due to the the backlash over the post, Anheuser-Busch InBev has suffered sales losses that could affect
July 21, 2023A high-profile Egyptian activist who was released from prison this week said Friday he plans to travel to Italy, where his case garnered significant attention. He said he will continue to work in the field of human rights and live between the two countries. In an interview with The Associated Press, Patrick George Zaki, who received a presidential pardon on Wednesday, said he hopes that other prominent jailed dissidents would be let go soon, including one of the most famous, Alaa Abdel Fattah. “We hope that in the coming period there will be a presidential pardon for
July 21, 2023Tar balls have shown up 100 miles (161 kilometers) downstream of a railroad bridge collapse last month that sent numerous tank cars carrying petroleum products plummeting into Montana’s Yellowstone River, officials said Friday, as dropping water levels and rising temperatures hinder cleanup work. More than 66 tons (60 metric tonnes) of the black, gooey stuff have been removed from the river since the June 24 accident, officials said. Most of the spilled material — a binder for asphalt that sticks to river rocks and gets harder to handle as it warms — is expected to get
July 21, 2023With ropes, a harness, a hammock and a bucket pulley system, masked activists in Seattle have taken residence in the branches of an old, thick cedar tree to prevent it from being cut down to make way for new homes. The protest on a private lot is the latest episode highlighting tensions behind tree policy in Seattle as climate change increases temperatures and urban canopy decreases. The Western red cedar, dubbed “Luma,” is about 80 feet (24.4 meters) tall, with two trunks that are each about 4 feet (1.2 meters) in diameter. Its age is not known,
July 21, 2023The Carolina Panthers and No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young agreed to a four-year contract, the team announced Friday. A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press the fully guaranteed deal is worth $37.9 million. The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the terms publicly. The deal comes just four days before the Panthers are to report to training camp in Spartanburg, South Carolina. All of Carolina’s draft picks are now under contract heading to camp. The Panthers traded up with the Chicago Bears
July 21, 2023More and more couples are throwing out the playbook for a traditional wedding — and posing new challenges for the people they hire to create the perfect images of their big day. Getting married has traditionally involved a large reception, and rituals like cake cutting, multiple toasts and time for dancing. A wedding photographer would capture it all — and the newly hitched couple would then wait weeks or months for the pictures. The pandemic and social media have upended those traditions. During the pandemic, many weddings turned into elopements. Social media images and videos took
July 21, 2023Russia came under pressure at the U.N. Security Council on Friday from its ally China and developing countries as well as Western nations to avert a global food crisis and quickly revive Ukrainian grain shipments. Moscow was criticized by the U.N. and council members for attacking Ukrainian ports after pulling out of the year-old grain deal on Monday and destroying port infrastructure — a violation of international humanitarian law banning attacks on civilian infrastructure. In response to Russia declaring wide areas in the Black Sea dangerous for shipping, the U.N. warned that a military incident in
July 21, 2023Bryce Harper has another career first. Philadelphia’s star slugger is making his first start at first base Friday night for the Phillies, who want to see if Harper can handle the position before they make any moves ahead of the trade deadline. Manager Rob Thomson said the initial plan is for the two-time MVP to play in the field every other game. Harper will be the designated hitter when he’s not at first. Harper, who has made a quick recovery from Tommy John surgery last year, has played 1,258 games __ mostly in the outfield. He had
July 21, 2023FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is harassing a key witness against him at his upcoming trial by giving a newspaper personal things she wrote while she was the chief executive of his cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm, prosecutors say. They asked a judge late Thursday to order trial participants not to make statements that might taint the yet-to-be-chosen jury in a criminal case over allegations that Bankman-Fried and other top executives cheated investors and looted FTX customer deposits, in part to fund lavish lifestyles. In a letter to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried gave some
July 21, 2023As the U.S.-Mexico border region baked in a heat wave, Associated Press photographer Gregory Bull took to the streets of cities there. Bull photographed a homeless man talking with Maribel Padilla of the Brown Bag Coalition after receiving a wet towel in Calexico, Calif. Once temperatures hit 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 Celsius), Padilla’s nonprofit provides cool towels and refreshments to unhoused people. In India, rescuers found five more bodies Friday in western Maharashtra state, raising the death toll from a landslide triggered by torrential rains to at least 21 with many others feared trapped under the debris. And in Switzerland,
July 21, 2023Trainer Bob Baffert will look to add another Haskell Stakes and big payday to his collection when the lightly raced Arabian Knight takes on Kentucky Derby winner Mage and six others in the $1 million showcase event of the summer meet at Monmouth Park. The 70-year-old Hall of Famer has already won the Grade 1 stakes at the New Jersey Shore track a record nine times and finished second six other times. The field of eight 3-year-olds for Saturday’s 1 1/8 mile race also includes Belmont Stakes third-place finisher Tapit Trice and trainer Steve Asmussen’s Extra
July 21, 2023The clock is ticking. As the deadline to reach a new contract nears, a potential UPS strike feels closer than ever. Negotiations broke down earlier this month and unionized workers have been holding rallies and practice pickets across the country. The Teamsters, which represent more than half of the company’s workforce, will resume talks with UPS on Tuesday. That leaves less than a week to come to an agreement before the current contract expires on Monday, July 31. The union has authorized a strike and Sean M. O’Brien, a fiery leader elected last year to lead
July 21, 2023Aaron Rodgers might be sticking around with the New York Jets a bit longer than many first thought. The 39-year-old quarterback has not committed beyond this season, but he has strongly hinted several times his first year with the Jets won’t be his last. Rodgers reiterated that sentiment Friday during an appearance on the “DiPietro & Rothenberg” show on ESPN Radio in New York. “The Jets gave up a lot for me, so to play just one year. I think, would be a disservice,” Rodgers said. “Now if that one year turns out to be
July 21, 2023An Arizona woman who suffered fractured vertebrae and collapsed lungs after being gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park has said “yes” to her boyfriend’s hospital proposal. Chris Whitehill said he planned to propose to Amber Harris during their vacation in the park this week, but after spending just one night there, an encounter with a bison upended those plans. The couple from the Phoenix area had walked to a lodge for some coffee on Monday and decided to walk through a field to Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming, Harris posted on Facebook the next day. They
July 21, 2023Bright green vines snake upwards 20 feet (six meters) toward an umbrella of solar panels at Josef Wimmer’s farm in Bavaria. He grows hops, used to make beer, and in recent years has also been generating electricity, with solar panels sprawled across 1.3 hectares (32 acres) of his land in the small hop-making town of Au in der Hallertau, an hour north of Munich in southern Germany. The pilot project — a collaboration between Wimmer and local solar technology company Hallertauer Handelshaus — was set up in the fall of last year. The
July 21, 2023Thandiwe Newton starring in a thriller, the return of the TV family wrestling drama “Heels” and a new album from Post Malone are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are comedian Chris Estrada’s series “This Fool” returning for a second season and Zach Galifianakis starring in a movie about the creation of the ultra-collectable Beanie Babies. NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — Zach Galifianakis takes on a different kind of role in “The Beanie Bubble,” playing Ty Warner, the
July 21, 2023The military-controlled government of strife-torn Myanmar on Friday showed off a new giant statue of a sitting Buddha that is scheduled to be consecrated on Aug. 1, a powerful symbol of nationalism in a very devout nation. Journalists were given a preview of the 228-acre (92-hectare) site in the capital, Naypyitaw, which includes small pagodas, ordination halls, rest houses, water fountains, lakes and a park. The military government’s head, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who is also the project’s patron, supervised installation of various parts of the project, even as a civil war has raged, killing thousands,
July 21, 2023Brian Harman found himself in elite company through two rounds at Royal Liverpool, tying the 36-hole record also held by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Even better was having no company at all atop the leaderboard Friday in the British Open. Harman seized control early with four straight birdies, and saved his best for the final hole. He ripped a 5-iron to 15 feet for eagle, giving him a 6-under 65 and setting a daunting target for Tommy Fleetwood and everyone else in the afternoon to catch. The 65 matched the lowest score for Royal Liverpool,
July 21, 2023A former investigative journalist for ABC News pleaded guilty Friday to federal child pornography charges. James Gordon Meek, 53, of Arlington, Virginia, admitted in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that he illegally possessed and transported child pornography. He covered national security issues for the network until he resigned last year. Court papers indicate the investigation began when the FBI received a tip from Dropbox about videos showing the sexual abuse of children in an account associated with Meek. As part of a plea agreement, Meek admitted he used an iPhone to exchange child pornography, including a
July 21, 2023A U.N.-backed human rights advocate says hundreds of boys — some as young as 11 — held in detention camps run by U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria have been wrongly separated from their mothers on the “unproven” belief that they pose a security risk. Fionnuala Ni Aolain, an independent U.N. rapporteur on the protection of rights while countering terrorism, aired concerns Friday about lingering “mass arbitrary detention” in the infamous al-Hol camp and others like it that she saw during her trip to the region this week — billed as the first visit of its kind
July 21, 2023Homicides are declining in a cross-section of American cities, though their numbers remain higher than before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, according to a new report analyzing data from 30 U.S. cities. Homicides on average dropped 9.4% during the first half of 2023 as compared to the same period last year, the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice found in a report released this week. The numbers remained about 24% higher than they were in 2019, and motor vehicle thefts were up sharply in the analyzed cities. “We’re seeing a continuing decline in homicides, but most cities are
July 21, 2023Caeleb Dressel failed to qualify for the biggest swim meet of the year. Simone Manuel didn’t even try. Adam Peaty is taking an extended break to deal with mental health issues. Kristóf Milák decided he was in no shape — mentally or physically — to compete this summer. Some of the world’s greatest swimmers are missing the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, as they deal with burnout and the enormous toll the sport takes on their bodies and minds. “It’s hard to see when people go down with mental health and are not happy with themselves,” English swimmer James Guy
July 21, 2023Texas A&M University on Friday announced the resignation of its president in the fallout over a Black journalist who said her celebrated hiring at one of the nation’s largest campuses quickly unraveled over pushback to her past work promoting diversity. President Katherine Banks said in a resignation letter that she was retiring immediately because “negative press has become a distraction” at the nearly 70,000-student campus in College Station. Her departure after two years as president followed weeks of turmoil at Texas A&M, which only last month had welcomed professor Kathleen McElroy with great fanfare to revive
July 21, 2023When Zimbabwe released more than 4,000 prisoners in May in a nationwide amnesty, one man with a white beard and without front teeth stood out among those vigorously celebrating as they walked out of a jail. He grinned and waved his hands in the air, and shouted the praises of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who ordered the amnesty for some offenders to ease congestion in prisons. “Mnangagwa is honey, my friend. Mnangagwa is sweet,” the man yelled as he attracted the attention of television news cameras at Harare Central Prison in the capital city. But what
July 21, 2023Lionel Messi’s debut gameday with Inter Miami has arrived. Messi was expected to play Friday night when Inter Miami hosted Cruz Azul in a Leagues Cup match at his new home stadium. Team officials said all tickets — about 21,000, in a newly expanded stadium — had been sold, though plenty were available for resale in the hours leading up to the match. Messi arrived with the team about two hours before game time, dressed in the team colors — pink T-shirt, black shorts. He stopped for a few photos and handshakes as he entered
July 21, 2023A 13-year-old girl kidnapped in Texas was rescued in Southern California when passersby saw her hold up a “help me” sign in a parked car, police said. The rescue occurred July 9 in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, when officers responded to a trouble call and found the “visibly emotional and distressed girl,” police said in a press release Thursday. “Through their investigation, officers learned the Good Samaritans were in a parking lot when they saw the victim in a parked vehicle holding up a piece of paper with ‘help me’ written on it.
July 21, 2023A prominent Russian hard-liner who accused President Vladimir Putin of weakness and indecision in Ukraine was detained Friday on charges of extremism, a signal the Kremlin has toughened its approach with hawkish critics after last month’s abortive rebellion by the Wagner mercenary company. Igor Strelkov, a retired security officer who led Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and also was implicated by the Netherlands in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that year, has argued that a total mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory. He recently criticized Putin as a “nonentity.” The
July 21, 2023American Express saw its profit and revenue climb in the second quarter and credit card use is climbing, but the company’s stock slipped before the market open as it set aside more money for possible defaults on payments. American Express earned $2.17 billion, or $2.89 per share, topping Wall Street expectations for $2.80, according to analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. A year earlier the company earned $1.96 billion, or $2.57 per share. Total provisions for credit losses were $1.2 billion. In the prior-year period it was $410 million, theNew York company said, citing higher net write-offs and a net
July 21, 2023Amsterdam wants to move a cruise liner terminal out of the heart of the historic capital city as the latest step in its ongoing battle against pollution and hordes of tourists clogging its narrow, cobbled streets. The Dutch capital is one of the many picturesque European cities — from Rome to Venice to Paris — grappling with how to manage visitor numbers that are again soaring in the aftermath of shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. Aldermen at Amsterdam’s municipality voted Thursday in favor of a motion calling on the city to move the terminal away from its
July 21, 2023A Cyprus court on Friday found a British man who killed his ailing wife in their home guilty of manslaughter, saying that the prosecution didn’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that the 76-year-old man committed premeditated murder. In a unanimous decision, the three-judge bench said that David Hunter’s decision to suffocate his 74-year-old wife Janice as she was sitting in a recliner in December 2021 was a spur-of-the-moment decision: he snapped as he could no longer stand seeing her weeping in pain. The court accepted witness testimony that Janice feared her blood ailment would develop into full-blown
July 21, 2023Sri Lanka and India signed a series of energy, development and trade agreements on Friday, signaling growing economic ties between the neighboring countries. Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived in New Delhi a day earlier for the official visit, his first since taking up the top job last year after an economic meltdown forced his predecessor to flee. On Friday, he held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two leaders unveiled agreements on technology, renewable energy and greater connectivity designed to deepen bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka. “My visit to India
July 21, 2023Katie Ledecky has almost never gone home with anything other than a gold or silver medal in the Olympics or world championships dating from the 2012 London Games. But it might happen again Sunday in the women’s 400-meter freestyle on the opening night in the pool of the World Aquatics Championships. This is perhaps the most anticipated race of the entire eight-day program. One of the greatest freestylers the sport has ever seen, Ledecky is up against two younger stars: 16-year-old Summer McIntosh of Canada, and 22-year-old Ariarne Titmus of Australia. “Of course Summer and, of
July 21, 2023Megan Rapinoe’s final run on the global stage begins Saturday when the United States opens its quest to win an unprecedented third consecutive Women’s World Cup title. The 38-year-old American said this month she will retire after the tournament — an announcement timed to help the squad avoid distracting questions about Rapinoe’s future. “I’m just grateful to be able to do it in this way,” Rapinoe said. “I understand that it is incredibly rare for athletes of any stature to be able to go out in their own way, on their own terms, at the
July 21, 2023U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said Friday that the major multination military training exercise launched in Australia sends a message to China that America’s allies are cooperating to defend their security and democratic values. Talisman Sabre began in 2005 as a biennial joint exercise between the United States and Australia but has expanded this year to 13 nations and more than 30,000 military personnel. Del Toro and his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, welcomed ever-closer closer bilateral military ties as they launched the exercise at a Sydney naval base. Del Toro said land, sea and air
July 21, 2023A Hong Kong court will hand down a closely-watched decision over whether to ban the broadcast and distribution of “Glory to Hong Kong,” a protest song after the government asked it to do so in the name of national security. The song was written during the 2019 anti-government protests and its lyrics call for democracy and liberty. But it has been mistakenly played at several international sporting events instead of China’s national anthem, “March of the Volunteers.” The decision is expected next Friday. Critics worry a ban will further shrink the city’s freedom of expression, which
July 21, 2023Russian cruise missiles, flying low and hugging the terrain to dodge Ukrainian air defenses, destroyed farm storage buildings in the Odesa region early Friday, Ukrainian officials said, as the Kremlin’s forces expanded their targets following three days of bombardment of the region’s Black Sea port infrastructure. Two missiles struck the storage facility, starting a fire, and while workers fought to put it out another missile hit, destroying farm and firefighting equipment, the southern Odesa region’s Gov. Oleh Kiper said. The attack injured two people and destroyed 100 metric tons of peas and 20 metric tons of
July 21, 2023Thousands of Israelis joined a march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Friday in the latest protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to push through a controversial overhaul of the judiciary system. Hundreds of protesters became thousands as Israelis joined the 70-kilometer (roughly 45-mile) march throughout the day in a demonstration against one of Israel’s most far-right governments in history. The demonstrators planned to camp overnight at Shoresh, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from Jerusalem, before making their way to Israel’s parliament on Saturday, the Jewish holy day of Shabbat. The march comes a day after
July 21, 2023Goodbye, sun. Hello, traditional British Open weather. Thick clouds, wind and a few rain drops greeted the second round at Royal Liverpool on Friday. The demanding test remains the same. Emiliano Grillo, Tommy Fleetwood and South African amateur Christo Lamprecht shared the lead at 5-under 66. Grillo was the only one playing in the morning. The wind is typical, and so is the rain this year. The test after one day is the bunkers. They must be avoided at all costs. Rory McIlroy also plays in the morning. He
July 21, 2023The two men who were killed at a New Zealand construction site were in their 40s and had worked alongside the gunman before he went on his rampage, police said Friday. Court records also detailed the gunman’s violent past. New Zealanders were still in shock at Thursday’s shooting, which closed part of downtown hours before the opening game of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, which was held under increased security. The gunman stormed the high-rise building in the early morning, opening fire on terrified workers before dying after a police shootout. An officer who
July 21, 2023Experts on animal tracks joined the hunt Friday for an elusive and potentially dangerous animal — suspected to be a lioness — spotted on the edge of Berlin as the search stretched into a second day, authorities said. Police used helicopters, drones and infrared cameras to search for the animal, with a vet and hunters also part of the effort. They were first alerted to the animal in Kleinmachnow, just outside Berlin’s city limits, around midnight on Wednesday when people reported what appeared to be a big cat chasing a wild boar. The informants also provided a
July 21, 2023Muslim-majority nations expressed outrage Friday at the desecration of a copy of the Quran in Sweden. Some prepared for street demonstrations following midday prayers to show their anger. In Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, protesters planned demonstrations after Swedish police permitted a protest Thursday in which an Iraqi Christian living in Stockholm kicked and stood on a Quran, Islam’s holy book, outside of the Iraqi Embassy. Hours before that, demonstrators in Baghdad broke into the Swedish Embassy and lit a fire to show their anger at his threats to burn the book. Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani has
July 21, 2023Doug Emhoff, the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, met with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Friday to discuss ways to combat online hate and extremism. Emhoff was in Auckland to lead a delegation to the FIFA Women’s World Cup and meet with officials. He told a meeting of the Christchurch Call the world was witnessing a “global epidemic of hate.” Emhoff, who is Jewish, said he was “working against this scourge of anti-Semitism and this epidemic of hate in general. So this work is very, very personal to me.” “But my
July 21, 2023Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative politician who polls suggest is poised to become Spain’s next prime minister, likes to recall that at heart, he is just a mild-mannered “village boy” from the country’s rural northwest. A humble, forthright, even boring guy, as he likes to describe himself. The conservative Popular Party candidate for Sunday’s general election is mostly unknown outside Spain, but he has been the country’s most solid regional leader so far this century and has never lost an election. Feijóo was a political steamroller during the 13 years in which he governed Spain’s northwestern
July 21, 2023For two years, Toveet Israel and dozens of other residents of the Village of Peace have lived in fear. Dimona, a city on the edge of the nation of Israel’s Negev Desert, has been her home for 24 years. Her eight children were born here and know no other country. Now, she and 44 other undocumented members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem face deportation. Receiving the order to leave two years ago was a “moment of disbelief” for Israel, 53. “I feel like the government has been merciless to me and my children,” she
July 21, 2023Alabama plans to execute an inmate Friday morning for the 2001 beating death of a woman, in what would be the first lethal injection since the state paused executions following a string of problems with inserting the IVs. James Barber, 64, is scheduled to be put to death at a south Alabama prison. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Barber’s request for a stay shortly after midnight and cleared the way for the execution to begin. It is the first execution scheduled in the state since Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions in November to conduct an internal
July 21, 2023Lottery dreamers are setting their sights on the growing Mega Millions jackpot drawing on Friday after a ticket worth more than $1 billion was sold for the Powerball lottery. Here’s a look at how this drawing compares to other jackpots and why these winnings have become so high. HOW DOES THIS LATEST MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT STACK UP? The new jackpot for the Mega Millions drawing has reached an estimated $720 million, making it the game’s fifth highest. It hasn’t yet broken into the top 10 highest lottery jackpots in U.S. history, though. If someone picks all five numbers, plus the
July 21, 2023Shares were mixed Friday in Asia after the latest rally on Wall Street fizzled, with big declines for Tesla, Netflix and other big tech-oriented stocks. Hong Kong, Seoul and Bangkok advanced while Tokyo, Shanghai and Sydney declined. U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices also climbed. Taiwan’s Taiex 0.8% fell after TSMC, the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips, said it expects its sales to fall 10% this year as demand wanes. It also said it would not meet a 2024 target for starting production at a factory under construction in Arizona. TSMC’s shares fell 3.1%. Japan
July 21, 2023Lake Tahoe tourism officials were surprised, and a bit miffed, when a respected international travel guide put the iconic alpine lake straddling the California-Nevada line on its list of places to stay away from this year because of the harmful ecological effects of overtourism. But with an influx of visitors and new full-time residents due to the COVID-19 pandemic already forcing local leaders to revisit the decades-old conversation about overcrowding, “Fodor’s No List 2023” may have served as a wake-up call that some sort of change is necessary. “I can’t go to my own beaches
July 21, 2023So what will North Korea do about the first U.S. soldier in decades to flee into its territory? Its official media have yet to mention Pvt. Travis King, there’s little precedent for his situation and guesses about the country’s next steps vary widely. Unauthorized crossings across the Koreas’ heavily fortified border are extremely rare. The few Americans who crossed into North Korea in the past were a few soldiers, missionaries, human rights advocates or those simply curious about one of the world’s most cloistered societies. North Korea has used a varied playbook in its handlings
July 21, 2023Alabama lawmakers say they’re trying to satisfy a landmark Supreme Court order to draw a new district giving a voice to Black voters, but with hours to go before a court-ordered deadline Friday, experts say Republican proposals fall far short of what the law requires. The Republican-controlled state House and Senate will meet Friday and could advance separate plans increasing the share of Black voters in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. Legislative leaders say they intend to meet the deadline, meaning the two chambers must compromise on one plan. Both plans preserve the current Black majority of
July 21, 2023It was a routine collision on a busy Fargo street. But after Mohamad Barakat drove past, armed with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, numerous firearms and a grenade, tragedy ensued. After the shooting ended on July 14, one police officer was dead, and two other officers as well as a woman in the crash were wounded, leaving authorities wondering what further carnage Barakat might have been planning. Officer Zach Robinson, the only officer in the melee who was not wounded, fatally shot Barakat with bystanders crouched nearby. More details are expected at a briefing Friday. Barakat, a
July 21, 2023By pulling out of a landmark deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a gamble that could badly damage Moscow’s relations with many of its partners that have stayed neutral or even been supportive of the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbor. Russia also has played the role of spoiler at the United Nations, vetoing a resolution on extending humanitarian aid deliveries through a key border crossing in northwestern Syria and backing a push by Mali’s military junta to expel U.N. peacekeepers — abrupt moves that reflect Moscow’s readiness to raise the
July 21, 2023A court hearing to determine whether Northern California police officers who traded racist text messages violated a state law aimed at eliminating racism in the criminal justice system adjourned Friday without any officers taking the stand to answer questions about the scandal that has roiled the San Francisco Bay Area city. Defense attorneys for four men charged with murder and attempted murder in a 2021 shooting had subpoenaed the Antioch police officers to testify about heavily redacted text messages made public in April by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office. The attorneys were expected to
July 21, 2023Cambodia’s Hun Sen has been his country’s autocratic prime minister for nearly four decades, during which the opposition has been stifled and the country has grown increasingly close to China. With his Cambodian People’s Party virtually guaranteed another landslide victory in this Sunday’s election, it’s hard to imagine dramatic change on the horizon. But the 70-year-old former communist Khmer Rouge fighter and Asia’s longest-serving leader says he is ready to hand the premiership to his oldest son, Hun Manet, a four-star general who heads the country’s army. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at
July 21, 2023Britain’s governing Conservative Party avoided a drubbing Friday in a trio of special elections, managing to hold onto former premier Boris Johnson’s seat in suburban London. Though the main opposition Labour Party and the smaller centrist Liberal Democrats overturned massive Conservative majorities to win a seat apiece, the Conservatives found some crumbs of comfort in their narrow success in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London. Labour won the seat of Selby and Ainsty in northern England while the Liberal Democrats took Somerton and Frome in southwest England, with voters from both parties clearly backing the party
July 21, 2023Rescue efforts resumed Friday after an overnight halt in India’s western Maharashtra state where a landslide triggered by torrential rains killed at least 16 people, with many others feared trapped under debris, officials said. Scores of rescuers and trained trekkers have been deployed to find people trapped by the landslide, which occurred late Wednesday night, the state’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted. Harsh weather conditions have hampered rescue efforts and authorities have sent in medical teams to help the injured, he added. Search operations were suspended on Thursday night due to heavy rainfall plus the
July 21, 2023Well before it was warm enough to plant seedlings in the ground, farmer Micah Barritt began nursing crops like watermelon, eggplant and tomatoes — eventually transplanting them from his greenhouse into rich Vermont soil, hoping for a bountiful fall harvest. Within a few hours last week, those hopes were washed away when flood waters inundated the small farm, destroying a harvest with a value he estimated at $250,000. He still hopes to replant short-season crops like mustard greens, spinach, bok choy and kale “The loss of the crops is a very tangible way to measure the flood, but the loss
July 21, 2023Authorities on Friday announced the end of the “brutally cruel” dog and cat meat slaughter at a notorious animal market on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi following a years-long campaign by local activists and world celebrities. The Tomohon Extreme Market will become the first such market in Indonesia to go dog and cat meat-free, according to the anti-animal cruelty group Humane Society International, or HSI. Images of dogs and cats being bludgeoned and blow-torched while still alive had sparked outrage. The permanent end of the slaughter and trade was announced on Friday by the mayor of
July 21, 2023Colton Cowser hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, and the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series between the American League’s top teams. Baltimore started the day in first place for the first time after the All-Star break since Aug, 15, 2016. The Orioles, who started July 6½ games back, now have a one-game lead. Aaron Hicks opened the 10th at second as the automatic runner. He advanced on pinch-hitter Adam Frazier’s sacrifice bunt and scampered home on Cowser’s fly
July 21, 2023Almost 140 bearded men who resemble Ernest Hemingway converged on Key West, the late author’s home during the 1930s, to compete in the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest that began Thursday evening. The challenge is a highlight of the island’s Hemingway Days festival that salutes the literary talent and adventurous life of the Nobel Prize-winning writer. During his Key West years, Hemingway penned classics including “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not.” The three-night look-alike competition is held at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, where Hemingway often spent time with local and literary friends. Closely
July 21, 2023Kevin Maxen, an associate strength coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars, has become the first male coach in a major U.S.-based professional league to come out as gay. Maxen spoke about his sexual orientation in an interview published Thursday by Outsports. “I don’t want to feel like I have to think about it anymore,” Maxen said. “I don’t want to feel like I have to lie about who I am seeing, or why I am living with someone else. “I want to be vocal in support of people living how they want to live, but I also
July 21, 2023Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw team executives who deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs, and he has agreed to pay a $60 million fine, the league announced Thursday. The NFL released a 23-page report detailing the findings of an independent investigation into Snyder’s conduct just minutes after its owners unanimously approved the sale of the Commanders to Josh Harris for a record $6.05 billion. The fine represents 1% of the sale price; Snyder bought the team, then known as the Redskins, for $800 million. The investigation was led by
July 20, 2023A man who worked as a politically appointed State Department official in former President Donald Trump’s administration was convicted Thursday of charges that he attacked police officers during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. District Judge Judge Trevor McFadden heard testimony without a jury before he convicted the former official, Federico Guillermo Klein, and a co-defendant, Steven Cappuccio, of assault charges and other felony offenses stemming from the riot at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. Klein and Cappuccio were among nine co-defendants charged with crimes related to one of the most
July 20, 2023Fewer shipping container deliveries this spring slowed railroad CSX’s second-quarter profit and offset a sharp increase in shipments of automobiles. CSX said Thursday that it earned $996 million, or 49 cents per share, during the second quarter. That’s down 15% from a year ago when the Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad’s results were helped by a $122 million land sale. Last year, CSX reported earnings of $1.18 billion, or 54 cents per share. That was in line with what analysts surveyed by FactSet Research expected. The total number of shipments CSX delivered slipped 3% in the quarter as
July 20, 2023Pausing at the microphone, 6-year-old Noah took a breath and softly stated, “I don’t want any guns today or any day in my school.” His mom, Sarah Shoop Neumann, wiped away tears as she held the young boy. It had been more than four months since a shooter indiscriminately opened fire while Noah was at a private elementary school in Nashville, killing three of his schoolmates and three adults. And Neumann wanted action. Joining a group of families from The Covenant School, Neumann and others on Thursday announced that they had created two nonprofits to not
July 20, 2023The British Open showed again Thursday that even after 163 years, golf’s oldest championship can still deliver a few surprises. It started with Christo Lamprecht, the South African amateur as tall as a flag stick and almost as thin, making three birdies over his last six holes and posting a 5-under 66 to become the first amateur in 12 years to share the 18-hole lead at the Open. Curiosity about the 22-year-old amateur turned to glee at the site of local hero, Tommy Fleetwood, running off three straight birdies on the back nine at Royal Liverpool
July 20, 2023He quit his corporate job and moved to Mexico to pursue his dream of sailing solo across the ocean. Australian Timothy Shaddock, 54, bought his 30-foot catamaran two years ago in the Mexican Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta. He needed a place to live and he liked the isolation. “Of course, living on a boat and sailing on a boat is two different things and that was more of a challenge,” Shaddock told The Associated Press Wednesday after stepping onto land for the first time in months. As his training ground Shaddock chose the Sea of
July 20, 2023Anonymous comments with racist, sexist and abusive messages that were posted for years on a jobs-related website for economists originated from numerous leading U.S. universities, according to research released Thursday. Some economists have long condemned the website, Economics Job Market Rumors, for its toxic content. The site, known by its acronym EJMR, is run by an anonymous individual and is not connected to a university or other institution. That fact had fed speculation that those who posted hateful messages on it were mostly online cranks who might not be economists. Yet the new research indicates that users
July 20, 2023The New York Jets traded wide receiver Denzel Mims to the Detroit Lions on Thursday, parting ways with the disappointing 2020 second-round draft pick who requested to be dealt last summer. The Jets, who announced the teams agreed to terms on the trade, also sent a 2025 conditional seventh-round pick to the Lions for a conditional sixth-rounder in 2025. New York told Mims it would release him if the Jets couldn’t find a trade partner, two people with knowledge of the situation said Wednesday. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity
July 20, 2023A sea otter launched into the national spotlight after images of her aggressively wresting surfboards away from surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California circulated on social media is building a fan club as she continues to evade capture. A team of wildlife experts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium have been trying to capture the 5-year-old animal, known as otter 841, since last week because they say she poses a public safety risk. They say they want to examine her and relocate her at a
July 20, 2023The first auction of offshore leases for wind power development in the Gulf of Mexico will take place Aug. 29 for tracts off the Louisiana and Texas coasts, the Biden administration announced Thursday. The Department of the Interior said the lease sale will involve more than 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares). That includes a 102,480-acre (41,470-hectare) area off the southwest Louisiana coast, and areas covering 102,480 acres (41,470 hectares) and 96,786 acres (39,160 hectares) off Galveston, Texas. Plans for the sale come as wind energy projects are already taking shape in the Northeast. Earlier this month, the
July 20, 2023A former Venezuelan spy chief and longtime adviser to the country’s late leader Hugo Chávez pleaded not guilty Thursday in a New York courtroom to decade-old drug trafficking charges, a day after his extradition from Spain. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal, 63, agreed during an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court to remain behind bars while his lawyers prepare a bail proposal to present to the judge who will handle his case. Prosecutors want him to remain behind bars. Carvajal, in a white shirt and beige pants, did not speak during the brief court proceeding except
July 20, 2023Jarred Kelenic’s emotional outburst after a tough at-bat resulted in a damaged water cooler, a broken bone in his left foot and had the Seattle Mariners young left fielder apologizing for his actions. Kelenic was placed on the 10-day injured list on Thursday, a day after he kicked a water cooler following a ninth-inning strikeout in Seattle’s loss to Minnesota. Kelenic was apologetic fighting through tears for letting his emotions get out of hand and expressing his frustration. “I made a mistake. I let the emotions get the best of me there. I just feel terrible, especially
July 20, 2023United States winger Tim Weah has a lot to live up to after joining Juventus from Lille. Not only is he the son of one of the top players to have plied his trade in Italian soccer — former FIFA Player of the Year and current Liberian President George Weah — but the 23-year-old will have to replace Juan Cuadrado. The Colombia international signed a one-year deal with Inter Milan on Wednesday after eight seasons at Juventus. “Definitely a responsibility, because what he’s done at the club has been amazing, I mean for me he’s a
July 20, 2023Kevin Mitnick, whose pioneering antics tricking employees in the 1980s and 1990s into helping him steal software and services from big phone and tech companies made him the most celebrated U.S. hacker, has died at age 59. Mitnick died Sunday in Las Vegas after a 14-month battle with pancreatic cancer, said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of the security training firm KnowBe4, where Mitnick was chief hacking officer. His colorful career — from student tinkerer to FBI-hunted fugitive, imprisoned felon and finally respected cybersecurity professional, public speaker and author tapped for advice by U.S. lawmakers and global corporations — mirrors the evolution
July 20, 2023A recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Sweden has sparked an angry reaction in Muslim countries and raised questions – including in Sweden – about why such acts are allowed. In the latest such incident, an Iraqi living in Sweden on Thursday stomped on and kicked Islam’s holy book in a two-man rally outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm. The protest was authorized by Swedish police, who kept a handful of agitated counterdemonstrators at a safe distance. The same Iraqi man burned a Quran outside a Stockholm mosque
July 20, 2023The chief executive of U.K. bank NatWest Group apologised Thursday to populist politician Nigel Farage after he complained that his bank account was shut down because the banking group didn’t agree with his political views. Farage, a talk show presenter and former leader of the pro-Brexit U.K. Independence Party, said his account with the prestigious private bank Coutts, owned by NatWest Group, was closed down unfairly. He shared documents he obtained from the bank with Mail Online, the Daily Mail tabloid’s online outlet, that allegedly showed bank officials writing that continuing to retain Farage as a customer
July 20, 2023Three of Kevin Spacey ‘s accusers are liars, his lawyer told jurors Thursday at the actor’s sexual assault trial, and he suggested they not convict him for making a “clumsy pass” at a fourth man. Spacey was an easy mark for men who hopped on a “bandwagon” and fabricated stories in hopes of a payout, attorney Patrick Gibbs said. “A man who is promiscuous, not publicly out, although everyone in the business knows he’s gay, who wants to be just a normal guy,” Gibbs said in describing his famous client. “It’s a life that makes you an
July 20, 2023The eleven-year-old daughter of a prominent Kashmiri rebel leader who was sentenced to life in prison in neighboring India issued an emotional appeal on Thursday, urging New Delhi to allow her to meet her ailing father. Razia Sultan, the daughter of Mohammed Yasin Malik, 57, made this emotional demand after she was allowed to address the regional legislative assembly in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. “I was only two years old when I met my father. I have now turned 11,” she said in a televised speech. “I miss my father like anything. I crave to
July 20, 2023Back in 2015, California’s dry earth was crunching under a fourth year of drought. Then-Governor Jerry Brown ordered an unprecedented 25% reduction in home water use. Farmers, who use the most water, volunteered too to avoid deeper, mandatory cuts. Brown also set a goal for the state to get half its energy from renewable sources, with climate change bearing down. Yet when Jordan Harris and Robin Raj went knocking on doors with an idea that addresses both water loss and climate pollution — installing solar panels over irrigation canals — they couldn’t get anyone to commit. Fast
July 20, 2023Stewart Cink wouldn’t seem to have a lot going for him at this British Open, least of all the fact he turned 50 two months ago and is eligible for the PGA Tour Champions. Throw in the fact his flight from Atlanta was delayed by one day and he didn’t see Royal Liverpool until Tuesday after a long flight. Or the fact he only has two top 10s in his 23 previous times playing the British Open. One of those, of course, was a victory at Turnberry in 2009. That has not been forgotten by Cink,
July 20, 2023As the planet warms, mosquitoes are slowly migrating upward. The temperature range where malaria-carrying mosquitoes thrive is rising in elevation. Researchers have found evidence of the phenomenon from the tropical highlands of South America to the mountainous, populous regions of eastern Africa. Scientists now worry people living in areas once inhospitable to the insects, including the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the mountains of eastern Ethiopia, could be newly exposed to the disease. “As it gets warmer at higher altitudes with climate change and all of these other environmental changes, then mosquitoes can survive higher up the mountain,” said Manisha
July 20, 2023Travelers, considered a bellwether for the insurance industry due to its size, said catastrophe losses doubled in its most recent quarter and the company swung to a loss as severe wind and hailstorms in a number of regions led to rising coverage claims. The increasing frequency of extreme weather from hurricanes and wildfires to high winds and hail, are leading to disruptions in the insurance industry with some companies pulling out of states that are getting hit hard, such as Florida and California. Catastrophe losses at Travelers jumped to $1.48 billion for the three-month period ending on June 30, up
July 20, 2023The amount of public funding for King Charles III and the royal family’s official duties has been recalculated for next year because of an unexpected profit boost from offshore wind farms on the monarch’s Crown Estate, the U.K. Treasury said Thursday. Treasury officials say they will halve the proportion of the crown estate’s profits paid to the royals from 25% in recent years to 12% next year. Charles and the royal family receive an annual Sovereign Grant from the Treasury that is based on a proportion of profits from the crown estate, a vast collection of land
July 20, 2023Russian prosecutors have asked a court to sentence imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 20 years in prison on extremism charges, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said Thursday. According to Zhdanov, the trial against Navalny, which has been held behind closed doors in the prison where the politician is serving another lengthy sentence, is scheduled to conclude with a verdict on Aug. 4. If the court finds Navalny guilty, it will be his fifth criminal conviction, all of which have been widely seen as a deliberate strategy by the Kremlin to silence its ardent opponent. In his
July 20, 2023Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen reactivated his Facebook account Thursday, three weeks after announcing he was forsaking the social media giant in favor of posting on Telegram, a popular messaging app that also serves as a blogging tool. Hun Sen’s return to the Facebook fold came three days before a general election in which his ruling Cambodian People’s Party is virtually guaranteed a landslide victory. Hun Sen said at the end of June that he would stop posting new material on his Facebook page but leave the account online. He said he was switching to
July 20, 2023A South Florida jury awarded $800,000 in damages to a little girl who received second-degree burns when a hot Chicken McNugget fell on her leg as her mother pulled away from the drive-thru of a McDonald’s restaurant. Lawyers for the family of Olivia Caraballo, who was 4 when she was burned in 2019, were seeking $15 million in damages. Jurors reached their verdict after deliberating for less than two hours on Wednesday, the South Florida SunSentinel reported. The jury’s verdict form allotted $400,000 in damages for the past four years, and another $400,000 for the
July 20, 2023Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week with the labor market continuing to cruise along despite higher interest rates intended to cool hiring. U.S. applications for jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 228,000 for the week ending July 15, from 237,000 previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, fell by 9,250 to 237,500. Jobless claim applications are viewed as reflective of the number of layoffs in a given week. Overall, 1.75 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended July 8, about 33,000
July 20, 2023Nearly 40% of the money raised by the WHO Foundation in its first two years came from anonymous sources, worrying some that donors may be trying to influence the World Health Organization and its role in shaping global health policy with their gifts. The foundation, launched in 2020 to help raise private sector funds for the WHO, said it received $66 million in direct gifts through 2022, with $26 million coming from donors who chose not to be publicly named. Anil Soni, WHO Foundation CEO, told The Associated Press the foundation’s board, which includes a representative from the WHO, knows
July 20, 2023Rocked by the late withdrawal of Sam Kerr through injury, Australia needed time to settle before getting off to a winning start at the Women’s World Cup on Thursday with a 1-0 victory over Ireland. Steph Catley swept home a 52nd-minute penalty to end Ireland’s resistance and spark an eruption of joy from fans inside Stadium Australia. There was also no shortage of relief from the majority of the 75,784-strong crowd after the tournament co-hosts struggled to cope without the country’s all-time leading scorer Kerr, who will also miss the second game of Group B against Nigeria
July 20, 2023Thousands of senior doctors in England began a 48-hour walkout Thursday to demand better pay and conditions, paralyzing hospitals and leaving only emergency care covered. The severe disruptions are the latest in months of industrial action by public sector workers amid U.K.’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis. They come just two days after junior doctors staged the longest strikes in the history of the state-funded National Health Service. Thousands of operations and appointments have been canceled, and health officials say the impact of the latest round of strikes to hit the country’s public health system is likely to be
July 20, 2023Greece’s Fire Service intensified water drops west of Athens where a huge blaze was contained overnight, as authorities braced Thursday for a new round of extreme weather. Seven firefighting planes and nine helicopters were operating in the area, including four planes sent from Italy and France as part of a European Union support mechanism. Searing heat across Europe’s Mediterranean south has maintained a high or very high risk of fires in Spain, Italy and Greece. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the Fire Service and civil protection authority would remain on alert as a new heat
July 20, 2023American Airlines is reporting a $1.34 billion profit for the second quarter, boosted by strong ticket sales and a huge drop in the price of jet fuel, and the airline raised its profit expectations for the year. Revenue rose 5% to a quarterly record of $14.06 billion. International travel in particular is picking up, and that is helping American, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Thanks to lower fuel prices, the carrier’s spending at the pump plunged 32%, saving the American about $1.3 billion compared with a year earlier. American now expects to earn between $3 and
July 20, 2023A pink phone. A New York mission. Swedish diplomats. A North-South Korean hotline. The United States and reclusive North Korea have no diplomatic ties — but they still have ways to contact each other. An American official said Wednesday that the U.S. government had reached out to the North as it tries to discuss a U.S. soldier who dashed into North Korea during a tour of a border area this week. The North has not yet responded, according to the U.S. Here’s a look at possible channels the rivals could use to discuss Pvt. Travis
July 20, 2023Police in Kenya say they have been ordered not to report deaths amid demonstrations against the rising cost of living, but an independent watchdog says at least six people were shot dead by police on Wednesday and 27 were shot dead in such protests earlier this year. A police official told The Associated Press they were told this week not to report any deaths in the demonstrations that the political opposition has called through Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear who issued the order. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak
July 20, 2023Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate Thursday, another sign of commitment to a traditional path of battling inflation but still falling below expectations after critics blamed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s economic policies for inflaming a cost-of-living crisis. The 2.5 percentage point hike — putting the rate at 17.5% — came a month after the bank unleashed a 8.5% increase, a reversal after more than a year of rate-cutting prompted by Erdogan. He believes lowering interest rates fights inflation, contradicting traditional economic theory that says the opposite. Central banks around the world have been hiking rates
July 20, 2023Mercenaries from Russia’s military company Wagner on Thursday launched joint drills with the Belarusian military near the border with Poland following their relocation to Belarus after their short-lived rebellion, a move that prompted Warsaw to redeploy its troops. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said that the weeklong maneuvers will be conducted at a firing range near the border city of Brest and will involve Belarusian special forces. The ministry added that Wagner’s combat experience will help modernize the Belarusian military. A video released Wednesday appeared to show Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for the first time since he led
July 20, 2023A prominent Egyptian rights activist with ties to Italy was released from jail Thursday, days after he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, according to his family and a rights defender. Patrick George Zaki, a postgraduate student in Italy, was pardoned by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi along with five other people on Wednesday, according to the country’s Official Gazette. Zaki’s release was announced by Hossam Bahgat, founder of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who posted a picture of him on Facebook on Thursday afternoon. His sister, Marise Zaki, also confirmed his release, posting a photo on
July 20, 2023Alabama plans to execute an inmate on Thursday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state seeks to carry out its first lethal injection after a pause in executions following a string of problems with inserting the IVs. James Barber, 64, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison. It is the first execution scheduled in the state since Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions in November to conduct an internal review. Ivey ordered the review after two lethal injections were called off because of difficulties inserting
July 20, 2023The former head of Israel’s internal security agency voiced support on Thursday for military reservists refusing to serve in protest of the government’s planned judicial overhaul, drawing fierce criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultranationalist allies days before parliament was set to vote on a key piece of legislation. A parliamentary committee approved late Wednesday a bill that would curtail the high court’s remit in using the “reasonability standard,” a legal yardstick allowing judges to overturn decisions made by elected officials deemed beyond the pale. The bill, which will come up for a final vote in parliament
July 20, 2023Voters went to the polls Thursday in three electoral districts of England, with the governing Conservative Party braced for a drubbing over a cost-of-living crisis and a morale-sapping string of political scandals. The elections for House of Commons seats are being closely watched because they let voters in three distinct areas of England — a small town in the north, the rural southwest, and the London suburbs — deliver a verdict on the party that has governed Britain since 2010, ahead of a national election due next year. Three opinion polls this week gave the left-of-center Labour
July 20, 2023Pop star Shakira is facing more trouble from Spain’s tax office after a court near Barcelona said Thursday that it had agreed to open an investigation into a second case of alleged tax fraud by the Colombian singer. Shakira is already set to face trial at a date to be determined for allegedly failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($13.9 million) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and 2014. The entertainer has denied any wrongdoing. Now, a Spanish judge has agreed with state prosecutors to probe two possible cases of tax fraud by Shakira from
July 20, 2023A Croatian firefighter has died during a deadly storm that swept the Balkans after a heatwave, brining the death toll to six, officials said Thursday. Emergency services in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia scrambled Thursday to restore electricity and clear the debris left over after Wednesday’s chaos. Meteorologists said the storm was extremely powerful as it was formed after a string of very hot days. Experts say extreme weather conditions are likely fueled by climate change. Elsewhere in Europe, a continuing heat wave caused wildfires and public health warnings. Throughout the Balkan region, authorities reported hundreds
July 20, 2023China does not want a trade war with the United States but will retaliate against any further U.S. restrictions on technology and trade, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. said. Ambassador Xie Feng criticized U.S. curbs on the sale of microchips and chipmaking equipment to China that were imposed last year by the Biden administration. Beijing has described the measure as part of an effort to “contain” China. “China does not shy away from competition, but the definition of competition by the U.S. side I think is not fair,” Xie said Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum, a security and
July 20, 2023One man died and at least 48 people were injured after a suspected underground gas explosion ripped open roads and flipped vehicles in the heart of South Africa’s biggest city, authorities and emergency services said Thursday. Firefighters found the man’s body found under a vehicle. The cause of the blast at evening rush hour Wednesday in downtown Johannesburg remained unclear. The company that supplies gas to that part of the city said it did not believe its underground pipelines were responsible, as authorities first thought. An investigation was underway as city authorities brought in specialists to determine
July 20, 2023Senior officials from Japan, the U.S. and South Korea condemned North Korea over its recent ICBM-class ballistic missile launches and vowed to step up their trilateral cooperation to strengthen deterrence and sanctions against the North, while stressing the need for dialogue with Pyongyang. Their meeting Thursday in the central Japanese city of Karuizawa comes days after North Korea’s solid-fuel ICBM launch last week, which landed in the water off the western coast of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido and one day after the launch of two missiles on Wednesday. The U.S. special representative for North Korea,
July 20, 2023The U.S. considers building strong economic and security ties with Vietnam a priority, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday as she met with Vietnamese officials in a visit aimed at fortifying America’s relations across Asia. Yellen arrived in Vietnam after visits to Beijing and to India, where she attended financial meetings of the Group of 20 major industrial economies. “The United States considers Vietnam a key partner in advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Yellen told Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to remarks provided by the U.S. Treasury Department. A “free and open Indo-Pacific”
July 20, 2023An eighth cheetah death in India’s Kuno National Park last Friday has raised new questions about a project that reintroduced the big cats to the country 10 months ago and has been mired in controversy since its inception. The latest death was caused by an infestation under a cheetah’s radio collar due to humid and wet weather conditions in central India, according to veterinarians from South Africa who are closely involved with the project. The Indian government said the cheetah deaths being caused by an infection under their radio collar is “speculation and hearsay.” Maggot wounds,
July 20, 2023The most prolific scorer in international soccer begins play in her sixth Women’s World Cup when Christine Sinclair leads Canada against Nigeria in a Friday match played in Melbourne. It will likely be a last World Cup for Sinclair, who gets the same anxiousness at age 40 as she did when she made her global debut 20 years ago. “It’s the same as my first World Cup. I still get those nerves, those butterflies of excitement as I did back in 2003 in my first one,” Sinclair said. “This is why you play, this is
July 20, 2023Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke more than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two women as they were being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur state were unforgivable. A video showing the assaults triggered massive outrage and went viral late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists being locked out in the remote state. It shows two naked women being surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field. “The guilty will not be
July 20, 2023A third night of Russian air attacks targeted Ukraine’s southern cities, including the port city of Odesa, and wounded at least 21 people, Ukrainian officials said Thursday. At least 19 people were injured in Mykolaiv, a southern city close to the Black Sea, the region’s Governor Vitalii Kim said in a statement on Telegram. Russian strikes destroyed several floors of a three-story building and caused a fire that affected an area of 450 square meters (4,800 square feet) and burned for hours. Kim said two people were hospitalized, including a child. In the port city of
July 20, 2023German authorities warned people in Berlin’s southern suburbs on Thursday to watch out for a potentially dangerous animal, suspected to be a lioness, that was on the loose. Police in Brandenburg state, which surrounds the capital, issued a warning in the early morning hours of an “escaped wild animal” and asked people in and around Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf — just outside Berlin’s city limits — not to leave their houses and to bring their pets indoors. The warning was later extended to southern areas of Berlin and an alert was sent on an official warning app
July 20, 2023Asian shares were mixed Thursday after Japan reported weaker than expected trade data for June, with imports falling nearly 13% from a year earlier. Shares rose in Sydney and Hong Kong but fell in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul. U.S. futures slipped and oil prices were little changed. Japan logged a trade surplus in June for the first time in nearly two years as imports sank, largely due to lower oil prices. Exports rose only 1.5% from a year earlier despite sharp increases in shipments of vehicles as supply chain problems eased. Economists say they anticipate weaker exports
July 20, 2023Spain’s elections Sunday will be a battle between two leftist and two rightist parties that are teaming up to form potential coalitions. Here is a glance at the four leaders of those parties. ___ PEDRO SÁNCHEZ Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister since 2018, is facing reelection with recent ballots and most of polls against him. The Socialist party leader has steered Spain through the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a successful vaccination program and dealt with an inflation-driven economic downturn made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But his dependency on fringe parties, including separatist forces from Catalonia
July 20, 2023Matthew Jordan has played Royal Liverpool hundreds of times. Thursday morning was unlike any other. He hit the opening tee shot in the 151st edition of the British Open. Jordan received a rousing ovation from the grandstand behind the first tee, and then hit driver just left of the pot bunker into the rough. He put his next shot into a bunker left of the green and holed an 8-foot par putt. It’s not unusual for the R&A to have the first shot struck by a player with local connections. Jordan is different. He is a
July 20, 2023A recent Saturday evening Mass at Sagrada Familia parish had all the hallmarks of a neighborhood worship service, from prayers for ill and deceased members to name-day wishes for two congregants in the pews. But it also featured security checks to get in and curious tourists peering down to take photos of the worshippers from above. The regular Mass is held in the crypt of modernist architect Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece church, one of Europe’s most visited monuments. With tourism reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic records in Barcelona and across southern Europe, iconic sacred sites are struggling to
July 20, 2023Abdikadir Omar was trapped in an extremist-controlled town in Somalia for years until May, when he slipped out to make a 12-day journey with his wife and seven children to neighboring Kenya in search of food and safety. To his surprise, “I found peace but no food,” the 30-year-old told The Associated Press. He stood near the withered maize he tried to plant around his family’s makeshift shelter of branches and plastic sheeting outside one of the world’s largest refugee camps. As global food insecurity suffers another shock with Russia’s termination of a deal to keep
July 20, 2023A landslide triggered by torrential rains in India’s western Maharashtra state killed 10 people, with many others feared trapped under piles of debris, officials said Thursday. A team of 60 rescuers and trained trekkers has been deployed to help save people trapped by the landslide, which occurred late Wednesday night, the state’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted. Harsh weather conditions have hampered rescue efforts and authorities have sent in medical teams to help the injured, he added. While 75 people have been rescued, many others are still stuck, an official told the Press Trust of
July 20, 2023As Jordan hosted regional talks this spring aimed at ending Syria’s isolation after more than a decade of civil war, Syrian refugee Suzanne Dabdoob felt a deep pressure in her brain and in her ears, she said, a fear she hadn’t felt since arriving to Jordan 10 years ago. Ahead of the meeting, Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed that 1,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan would be allowed to safely return home — a test case for the repatriation of far greater numbers. Jordan’s top diplomat spoke only of voluntary returns. But panic spread through working-class
July 20, 2023A winning ticket has been sold in California for the Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the 3rd largest in the history of the game. The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and red Powerball 24. The California Lottery said on Twitter that the winning ticket was sold in Los Angeles at Las Palmitas Mini Market. Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate of $1 billion to $1.08 billion at the time of the drawing, moving it from the seventh largest
July 20, 2023Carlos Rodón and Tommy Kahnle visibly displayed the New York Yankees’ struggles. Rodón sarcastically blew a kiss while walking to the dugout after the second inning and Kahnle took out his frustrations on a cooling fan in the dugout on Wednesday during the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels. The loss marked the first time in 14 years New York was swept in a three-game series by the Angels, The Yankees completed a 1-5 trip that saw them drop to last place in the AL East. They have lost four straight and nine of
July 20, 2023A young girl chatters to her mother as they descend Mount Pierce, her voice as bright and bouncing as her footsteps. “You’re amazing!” she calls out to a slower couple she passes on the trail. Until then, the couple has been focused on the physical effort of hiking, the precision required to step just so onto the rocks and around the roots. Motion, yes. Emotion, no. But just for a moment, watching the girl disappear from view reminds them of their daughter. How could it not? ___ No one would blame Jorge Sotelo and Olivera
July 20, 2023Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man Thursday for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center. Jemaine Cannon, 51, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. It will be the second execution in Oklahoma this year and the ninth since the state resumed lethal injections in 2021. Cannon was convicted of killing 20-year-old Sharonda Clark, a mother of two with whom Cannon had been living at an apartment in Tulsa after his escape
July 20, 2023New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 1,300 people who were arrested or beaten by police during racial injustice demonstrations that swept through the city during the summer of 2020. If approved by a judge, the settlement, which was filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, would be among the most expensive pay-outs ever awarded in a lawsuit over mass arrests, experts said. The lawsuit focused on 18 of the many protests that erupted in New York City in the week following
July 20, 2023Newly acquired midfield star Declan Rice came on as a second-half substitute and helped Arsenal finish off a 5-0 victory over the MLS All-Stars on Wednesday night. Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz all scored — and those weren’t the only highlights for the many red-clad Arsenal supporters in the crowd at Audi Field. Rice moved from West Ham to the Gunners for a British-record transfer fee last weekend, reported to be 105 million pounds ($138 million). The crowd roared when he came in just over an hour into the match, and cheered
July 20, 2023Protesters angered by the burning of a copy of the Quran stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire. Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada Sadr. It wasn’t clear if there were any staff inside the complex at the time. The Swedish Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The videos showed dozens of men climbing over the fence at the complex, with the sound of them trying to
July 20, 2023Even though they’re in opposing dugouts this week, New York Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco and Chicago White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks are part of the same inspiring club. Fellow cancer survivors, they teamed up Wednesday to host pediatric cancer patients from Cohen Children’s Medical Center at Citi Field as part of Carrasco’s program called Cookie’s Kids. “It was really nice,” Carrasco told MLB.com. “He came over and he wanted to do this. There’s a lot of people who can see that (and realize) if we can make it, they can make it, too.” The kids were
July 20, 2023It took 61 years for Roger Maris’ American League season home run record to be broken. Aaron Judge’s hold on the mark could be ended by Shohei Ohtani after one year. “Records are meant to be broken, It would be exciting for the game if he we went out there and got 63-plus. So, we’ll see what happens,” Judge said Wednesday before the Yankees faced the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani went into Wednesday with 35 homers in 94 games, on pace to hit 60. Judge hit 62 last year, one more than Maris in 1961. Ohtani
July 20, 2023A man charged with killing two teenage girls will remain held at a northern Indiana prison after a judge concluded Wednesday he’s being treated better there than other inmates. Special Judge Fran Gull denied a request from attorneys for Richard Allen to relocate him from the Indiana Department of Correction’s Westville Correctional Facility because of what they said were his deteriorating health and poor living conditions at the prison where he has been held since last November. His lawyers argued, among other things, that Allen sleeps on a pad on a concrete floor; must wear the
July 20, 2023Security will be heightened ahead of Thursday night’s opening Women’s World Cup game after a gunman killed two people at a downtown construction site in Auckland, roughly 12 hours ahead of co-host New Zealand’s match against Norway. Norway’s team hotel was located within a short distance of the shooting, which occurred in the tourist area of the city near the harbor ferry terminal. Norway captain Maren Mjelde said teammates were awakened by a helicopter hovering outside the hotel. “We felt safe the whole time,” Mjelde said in a statement. “FIFA has a good security system
July 19, 2023In a post-lunch session at Warriors youth basketball camp, 11-year-old Vanessa Lewis stood and beamed as she asked a very important question to a pair of very important guests: “Have you seen your rings yet?” Nope, answered Nemanja Bjelica and Chris Chiozza. Then, moments later Wednesday, fellow campers Amari Chiefelk and Will McCloskey appeared from around the blue Golden State Warriors partition and handed each man a box containing his sparkling 2022 championship ring. Awestruck, their eyes lit up immediately. “I didn’t realize it was going to be that big,” said an emotional Bjelica, who traveled
July 19, 2023Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with top officials Wednesday after the longshore union renewed a 72-hour strike notice. The noticed was later rescinded by the union which had earlier blocked shipments in and out of ports in Canada’s west coast region of British Columbia for nearly two weeks. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada said late Wednesday in a brief note to its locals that strike notice set for July 22 at 9 a.m. “has now been removed.” With the 72-hour notice lifted, the union can’t resume strike action unless it files another notice,
July 19, 2023A gunman killed two people at a construction site in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland on Thursday, as the nation prepared to host games in the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, authorities said. Police said there were also multiple injuries during the incident, which took place near the hotel where Team Norway has been staying. New Zealand Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said the tournament would go ahead as planned. “Clearly with the FIFA World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland,” Hipkins said. “The government has spoken
July 19, 2023It all now seems officially real for the New York Jets. Aaron Rodgers strolled into the team’s facility Wednesday with the rest of his raring-to-go teammates — veterans and rookies — and reported for training camp for the first time with the franchise that made the stunning trade for him in April. The Jets tweeted a photo of Rodgers wearing his green and white jersey — instead of the red no-contact practice version he wore during offseason workouts — for the first time, adding: “This is not an AI-generated photo.” Nope, no more clever edits
July 19, 2023Alex Speas struck out his first three batters in his big league debut for the Texas Rangers, getting two outs with his first one when All-Star catcher Jonah Heim threw out a runner trying to steal second base. That relief from Speas, a second-round draft pick in 2016, came before Heim’s big three-run homer in the eighth inning as the AL West leaders stretched their winning streak to six games with a 5-1 victory over the slumping Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday. So much for Texas manager Bruce Bochy looking for a soft landing spot for
July 19, 2023Family members of the U.S. Army private whosprinted across the border into North Korea said Wednesday that he may have felt overwhelmed as he faced legal troubles and his possible looming discharge from the military. Relatives described Pvt. Travis King, 23, as a quiet loner who did not drink or smoke and enjoyed reading the Bible. After growing up up in southeast Wisconsin, he was excited about serving his country in South Korea. Now King’s family is struggling to understand what changed before he dashed into a country with a long history of holding Americans and
July 19, 2023Elon Musk’s big bet that Tesla price cuts could boost sales and profits amid increasing competition and poor economic sentiment appears to be yielding mixed results. The company beat analyst expectations for net income in the April-June quarter, although its shares barely budged. The Austin, Texas, maker of electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries reported net income of $2.7 billion in the quarter, a 20% increase from a year ago. Earnings per share also rose 20% to 78 cents when measured via generally accepted accounting principles. Analysts, however, tend to focus on Tesla’s own measurement of
July 19, 2023Netflix enjoyed its biggest springtime spurt in subscribers since the early days of the pandemic three years ago, providing the latest sign that a recent crackdown on password sharing and the rollout of a cheaper version of its video streaming service are paying off. The video streaming service added 5.9 million subscribers during the April-June period, according to numbers released Wednesday along with its latest quarterly financial results. The gains easily surpassed the roughly 2.2 million additional subscriber that analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had anticipating. Netflix ended June with 238.4 million worldwide subscriber. The performance
July 19, 2023There’s no shaking it. Your chances of winning the lottery are extremely slim — even as more and more eye top prizes soaring to jaw-dropping heights. Ahead of Wednesday night’s drawing, the estimated jackpot for Powerball reached $1 billion — marking the seventh largest prize across U.S. lottery history. And Mega Millions’ jackpot grew to an estimated $720 million after there was no winner Tuesday. But don’t plan on entering a new tax bracket anytime soon. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot — no matter the size — stand near 1 in 292.2 million. Chances
July 19, 2023United Airlines said Wednesday it earned more than $1 billion in the second quarter despite canceling 3,800 flights in the last two weeks of June, when it struggled to recover from storms that crippled its key operation in the New York City area. United indicated that it sees no let-up in strong demand for tickets: It raised its forecast of third-quarter and full-year profit. The report underscores how airline revenue and profits are soaring as travel bounces back after the pandemic. Big carriers like United are benefitting especially from the strong recovery in international travel after the lifting of COVID-19-related
July 19, 2023When intense heat hits, the elderly are often its first targets. As southern Europe bakes under a heat wave, Associated Press photographer Andrew Medichini recorded Sant’Egidio Catholic group volunteer Michela Tassani checking up on 98-year-old Armando Frajegari at his home in Rome on Wednesday. Temperatures in many Italian cities were closing in on 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Alongside the heat, firefighters in Greece continued battle Thursday with wildfires near Athens that have prompted days of evacuations. Aircraft and crews from other countries were heading to join the fight. Heat in southern Greece was expected to grow worse later this
July 19, 2023The seats at DRV PNK Stadium filled up quickly with fans eager to get a glimpse at Inter Miami’s new superstar. Lionel Messi — arguably the greatest soccer player ever — stood on a runway in the middle of the field looking out at his new home. “Thank you Miami,” Messi said to the crowd. “I’m happy to be here with you all.” The next chapter of the 36-year-old’s storied career will begin here. Not at Camp Nou in Barcelona or Parc des Princes in Paris. At Inter Miami’s DRV PNK Stadium — a cozy
July 19, 2023A suspected underground gas explosion during Johannesburg’s evening rush hour ripped open roads and flipped more than 20 cars in South Africa’s biggest city Wednesday, injuring at least nine people, authorities said. The nine were sent to the hospital with injuries that authorities said were not life threatening. Other people were evacuated from the area due to fears of a second explosion or that multi-story buildings in a downtown section of the city that has become rundown in places might collapse. “Buildings are in danger of collapsing,” Panyaza Lesufi, the premier of Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is
July 19, 2023Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s first open call for grants yielded 6,353 applications from nonprofits — meaning candidates have at least a 4% chance of being selected for a $1 million grant. Lever for Change, the nonprofit overseeing the application process, said Wednesday that the applications came from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The 250 winners will be announced in early 2024. Scott has shaken up philanthropic giving since 2019, dropping large, unrestricted and unexpected donations on nonprofits when she began giving away the fortune she came into after divorcing Amazon founder
July 19, 2023The onslaught of searing temperatures and rising floodwaters struck parts of the United States again on Wednesday with Phoenix breaking an all-time temperature record and rescuers pulling people from deluged homes and vehicles in Kentucky. Forecasters said there was little relief in sight from days of extreme weather for some areas of the country. Miami has endured a heat index of at 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or more for weeks, with temperatures expected to rise this weekend. In Kentucky, meteorologists warned of a “life-threatening situation” in two communities, Mayfield and Wingo, where more rain was
July 19, 2023Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his conviction for second-degree murder in the killing of George Floyd, now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has declined to hear the case, his attorney said Wednesday. The state’s highest court without comment denied Chauvin’s petition in a one-page order dated Tuesday, letting Chauvin’s conviction and 22 1/2-year sentence stand. Chauvin faces long odds at the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears only about 100 to 150 appeals of the more than 7,000 cases it is asked to review every year. Floyd, who was
July 19, 2023The federal trial of a 50-year-old truck driver convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history is in its third and final phase, in which jurors must decide whether to sentence him to death. The jury convicted Robert Bowers in June after three weeks of testimony about how he stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 and shot anyone he saw. He killed members of three congregations that were sharing the building, and wounded two worshippers and five police officers. During the second phase of the
July 19, 2023Authorities in Alabama cast doubt Wednesday on the story of a woman who set off a frantic search when she disappeared for two days after calling 911 to report a toddler wandering on the highway. Carlee Russell told investigators she was abducted and forced into a car Thursday, but they have been unable to verify her account, police said. The 25-year-old’s return home Saturday prompted intense speculation about where she had been and what had happened to her. Carlee Russell’s mother, Talitha Russell, told NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday that her daughter was abducted and fought for her life when
July 19, 2023A video released Wednesday appears to show Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for the first time since he led a short-lived rebellion last month, and he is seen telling his troops they will spend some time in Belarus training its military before deploying to Africa. Messaging app channels linked to Prigozhin’s Wagner private military company said he spoke at a field camp in Belarus and ran a blurry video purported to show him there, his silhouette seen against the sky at dusk. His gravelly voice was clearly distinguishable. “Welcome guys! I am happy to greet you all.
July 19, 2023The president of Stanford University said Wednesday he would resign, citing an independent review that cleared him of research misconduct but found flaws in some papers he authored. Marc Tessier-Lavigne said in a statement to students and staff that he would step down Aug. 31. The resignation comes after the board of trustees launched a review in December following allegations he engaged in fraud and other unethical conduct related to his research and papers. Tessier-Lavigne, a neuroscientist, says he “never submitted a scientific paper without firmly believing that the data were correct and accurately presented.” But
July 19, 2023With lottery jackpots for Powerball and Mega Millions cumulatively approaching $2 billion for this week’s drawings, millions of people across the country will be lining up at convenience store, grocery and gas station counters hoping to hit it big. HOW DOES THIS LATEST POWERBALL JACKPOT STACK UP? The new jackpot for Wednesday’s Powerball drawing would be the seventh highest in U.S. history and the third largest for the game. If a sole player picks all five numbers plus the Powerball number drawn, they have the option of taking the $1 billion prize in yearly increments paid
July 19, 2023With the future of LIV Golf still uncertain, Joaquin Niemann was among players who arrived for the British Open facing the prospect of no more majors in his immediate future. LIV Golf still doesn’t get world ranking points, and players have been dropping. With the next major not until April in the Masters, some of them might not have a way back except through qualifying for the U.S. Open or British Open. It remains unclear when — or if — the recent proposal of a partnership with the PGA Tour would change anything. “This might be
July 19, 2023A man armed with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, a grenade and other explosives in his car ambushed officers who were investigating a crash, killing one and wounding two before a fourth stopped him, thwarting what authorities described as plans for further mayhem, officials said Wednesday. Mohamad Barakat, 37, shot Officers Jake Wallin, Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes from inside his car on Friday before they could even draw their guns, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said at a news conference. Wallin was killed while Dotas and Hawes remain hospitalized in critical condition. Wrigley said Barakat also shot and injured
July 19, 2023Scottie Scheffler’s first look at Royal Liverpool was courtesy of video. He watched replays of the last two British Opens on these links and saw what looked to be two courses — Tiger Woods won when the grass was brown in 2006, Rory McIlroy when it was green in 2014. That describes the last five weeks at Royal Liverpool. Martin Slumbers, the CEO of the R&A, was delighted by a heat wave last month that made these century-old links dry and crusty, the most testing conditions because of how far the golf ball goes once it
July 19, 2023IndyCar will implement a new, stronger piece of hardware designed to keep rear wheels attached to the car during a wreck after a tire flew off Kyle Kirkwood’s car and narrowly missed a packed grandstand during the Indianapolis 500. The series said Wednesday that chassis manufacturer Dallara had designed a retaining nut that is more than 60% stronger than the previous design. The updated retaining nut will be mandatory beginning with this weekend’s races at Iowa Speedway. “Their thorough review process of the incident between the No. 6 and No. 27 (cars) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway began immediately and included
July 19, 2023Cracks are emerging in Israel’s military. The Middle East’s best equipped and most powerful force is under one of the worst assaults it has encountered — a battle within its own ranks. A contentious government plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary has cleaved deep rifts within Israeli society. Those rifts have infiltrated the military, where reservists in key units have pledged not to show up for duty if the legislative changes are pushed through. The letters, signed by thousands of reservists over the last seven months, have up to now mostly remained threats. But this week, 161
July 19, 2023The In-N-Out burger chain will bar employees in five states from wearing masks unless they have a doctor’s note, according to internal company emails leaked on social media. In the memo announcing new guidelines for Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Utah workers, the fast food chain pointed to “the importance of customer service and the ability to show our Associates’ smiles and other facial features while considering the health and well-being of all individuals.” The policy, which goes into effect August 14, applies to all In-N-Out employees in those states, except for those who need to
July 19, 2023British voters face a crowded field of 13 candidates in an upcoming special election for a Parliament seat. One, independent Andrew Gray, used artificial intelligence to come up with campaign promises that he says reflect what residents want. Gray, who says he has no policies of his own, crowdsourced constituents’ sentiments and used machine learning to come up with his political manifesto. He calls the technology a faster and fairer way for politicians to widely reflect views of the people they represent. “We can interact with our constituents in a whole new way,” Gray said. “It doesn’t
July 19, 2023A German woman convicted on charges that she and her husband allowed the death by thirst of a 5-year-old Yazidi girl she and her husband kept as a slave when they were members of the Islamic State group in Iraq expressed remorse as a new sentencing hearing opened on Wednesday. A federal court in March ordered judges in Munich to reconsider the sentence of the 32-year-old, who has been identified only as Jennifer W. in line with German privacy rules. She risks a more severe sentence than the 10 years she was given at her original trial.
July 19, 2023High-water rescue crews pulled people from flooded homes and vehicles in Kentucky Wednesday, where waves of thunderstorms prompted flash flood warnings and watches. A search continued for two children swept away after torrential rains in the northeast. The National Weather Service estimated that as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain could fall in the area where Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri meet at the convergence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Atmospheric scientists say the global warming responsible for unrelenting heat in the Southwest also is making this kind of extreme rainfall a more frequent
July 19, 2023Five European Union countries will extend their ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect their farmers’ interests, their agriculture ministers said Wednesday, but food can still move through their land to parts of the world in need after Russia pulled out of a deal safeguarding Black Sea shipments. The ministers of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria signed a joint declaration ahead of EU discussions on the matter planned next week in Brussels. The declaration said they support continuing to allow Ukraine’s grain to move through their borders by road, rail and river to destinations where
July 19, 2023The deadline for Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard has been extended as the companies seek to close a deal that has been challenged by regulators in the U.S., as well as by U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority. Microsoft believes that pushing back the deadline to Oct. 18 will provide enough time to work through the remaining regulatory issues, said Brad Smith, the company’s president. “We are confident about our prospects for getting this deal across the finish line,” Smith said. The extension comes with a bigger termination fee, should the deal be called off, and
July 19, 2023It was more than a coincidence that three of Kevin Spacey ‘s four accusers described similar crotch-grabbing incidents, a prosecutor said Wednesday in her closing argument at his sexual assault trial. Prosecutor Christine Agnew told a London jury that Spacey seized brief moments for an “opportunity grab” and was able to get away with it for years because he was a celebrity. The two-time Oscar winner long had benefited from a “trinity of protection,” knowing that men he attacked would not complain. If they did, he knew they wouldn’t be believed; if they were believed, he knew
July 19, 2023Rising water from the Yamuna river on Wednesday reached the outer boundary walls of the iconic Taj Mahal and submerged one of its adjacent gardens after record monsoon rains swelled rivers across northern India over the last three weeks. The flooding at the 17th-century white marble monument in Agra city came as heavy floods had killed at least 100 people in parts of north India, swept away houses and bridges and resulted in deadly landslides. On Wednesday, the red sandstone boundary walls of the Taj Mahal were surrounded by brown, muddy water, even as a flock
July 19, 2023U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologized Wednesday for the treatment of gay veterans, saying that a previous ban on LGBTQ+ people serving in the U.K. military was “an appalling failure of the British state.” The apology came after an independent review published Wednesday estimated that hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans were dismissed or suffered under an official ban on homosexuality in the U.K. armed forces that was enforced until 2000. “As today’s report makes clear, in that period many endured the most horrific sexual abuse and violence, homophobic bullying and harassment, all while bravely serving this
July 19, 2023Carrol Johnston counted her blessings as she stood on the barren site where her home was destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire that forced her to flee her northern Alberta community two months ago. Her family escaped unharmed, though her beloved cat, Missy, didn’t make it out before a “fireball” dropped on the house in early May. But peony bushes passed down from her late mother survived and the blackened May Day tree planted in memory of her longtime partner is sending up new shoots — hopeful signs as she prepares to start over
July 19, 2023Computer chip and software maker Broadcom’s $69 billion plan to buy cloud technology company VMware cleared another hurdle Wednesday after Britain’s competition regulator gave the deal provisional clearance. The Competition and Markets Authority said its investigation found the deal “would not substantially reduce competition” in the supply of hardware components for computer servers in the U.K. The deal also would be unlikely to harm innovation, the regulator said. Thousands of British businesses and public bodies, including major banks, big retailers, telecom operators and government departments, rely on Broadcom gear and VMware software, the regulator said. Both companies
July 19, 2023Dozens of Afghan women protested a beauty salon ban on Wednesday after the Taliban ordered their closure nationwide. Security forces used fire hoses, tasers and shot their guns into the air to break up the protest. The Taliban said earlier this month they were giving all salons in Afghanistan one month to wind down their businesses and close shop, drawing concern from international officials worried about the impact on female entrepreneurs. The Taliban say they are outlawing salons allegedly because they offer services forbidden by Islam and cause economic hardship for grooms’ families during wedding festivities. The ruling came from
July 19, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the BRICS economic summit in Johannesburg next month, the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement Wednesday. The decision means South Africa will not face the dilemma of whether it should carry out an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against the Russian leader. South Africa is a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC and would have been obliged under that to arrest Putin, although the country had given strong hints that it would have likely not executed the arrest warrant. But
July 19, 2023Sarah Leslie thought she was witnessing a stunt when she saw an American soldier start sprinting toward North Korea. Leslie and her father, tourists from New Zealand, were part of a group that left Tuesday morning from Seoul to visit the Demilitarized Zone that divides South and North Korea. Private 2nd Class Travis King was among the group of 43 tourists, Leslie told The Associated Press, although he was casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and she had no idea at the time that he was a soldier, or in legal trouble. King, 23,
July 19, 2023A federal judge on Wednesday denied a motion to move the trial of a man charged in last year’s attack against former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband out of San Francisco, saying she wasn’t convinced the court wouldn’t be able to find impartial and fair jurors in the San Francisco Bay Area. David DePape’s defense attorneys argued that the intense publicity the case has received means he won’t get a fair trial in the city. They had asked Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley to move the trial to Eureka, a city near the border with Oregon.
July 19, 2023Blue-roofed huts, a raised slab of concrete and some raked gravel are all that separate the rival Koreas at Panmunjom, a rare point of close contact along the most heavily armed border in the world. People have stepped across that thin dividing line, but only under very special circumstances, passing between two nations that are still technically at war. Former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did it. Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in walked hand-in-hand with Kim across the border. In 2017, a defecting North Korean soldier stumbled across nearby, under
July 19, 2023At least four protesters were injured in Kenya Wednesday as police clashed with demonstrators who are calling for the government to lower the cost of living. The opposition has called for three days of countrywide protests starting Wednesday in a new wave of demonstrations aimed at forcing the president to address the rising cost of living. President William Ruto had vowed that no protests would take place in the country, saying he would take on opposition leader Raila Odinga “head-on.” Four protesters were injured in the capital, Nairobi’s Mathare area, according to a police officer who
July 19, 2023Amid a steep downturn in relations with the United States, China has looked to a meeting with former U.S. national security adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to revive positive momentum. The 100-year-old Kissinger met Wednesday with the ruling Communist Party’s diplomat Wang Yi, who said it was “impossible” to transform, encircle or contain China, reiterating top Chinese leaders’ statements on what they say the U.S. is trying to do based on differences over trade, technology, Taiwan and China’s human rights record. On Tuesday, Kissinger held talks with Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who is barred from
July 19, 2023New evacuations were ordered Wednesday as wildfires raged near the Greek Capital after a second heat wave hit the Mediterranean country from the west following days of record-high temperatures that baked southern Europe. In a round-the-clock battle to preserve forests, industrial facilities, and vacation homes, evacuations continued for a third day along a highway connecting Athens to the southern city of Corinth. Water-dropping planes and helicopters resumed operation at first light. Fires continued to burn on three fronts around Athens, gutting homes and farms, with strong gusts of wind advancing the flames over hilly terrain
July 19, 2023China said Wednesday it has dispatched navy ships in preparation for joint exercises with Russia’s sea forces, in a sign of Beijing’s continuing support for Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. The move comes despite the growing economic and humanitarian repercussions of the bloody 16 month-old air, sea and ground assault. China claims to be neutral in the conflict, but has accused the U.S. and its allies of provoking Russia and has maintained robust economic, diplomatic and trade ties with Moscow. The exercise involves more than 10 ships and 30-plus aircraft, according to China’s Xinhua News Agency. The ministry and Xinhua
July 19, 2023Chinese e-commerce retailer Temu has filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts accusing its rival Shein of violating U.S. antitrust law by preventing garment makers from working with it. Temu, which is owned by popular Chinese e-commerce site Pinduoduo Inc., is alleging that Shein has compelled clothing manufacturers to submit to unfair supply chain arrangements preventing them from working with Temu after it entered the U.S. market in 2022. Shein (SHE-in) and Temu (TEE-mu) are fast-rising online shopping platforms. Shein has grabbed the largest share of the fast fashion market in the U.S., at over 50%, according to
July 19, 2023London’s Metropolitan Police apologized Wednesday to the family of private investigator Daniel Morgan, who was killed with an ax in a pub car park 36 years ago, for the force’s failure to bring those responsible to justice. The Met, which has been embroiled in a series of scandals over many years that have led to it being labelled racists, misogynistic and homophobic, admitted that its investigation had been “marred by a cycle of corruption, professional incompetence and defensiveness.” “I unequivocally and unreservedly apologize for the failure of the Metropolitan Police Service to bring those responsible for the
July 19, 2023Asian shares were mostly higher on Wednesday after a rally on Wall Street fueled by the frenzy around artificial intelligence. U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices fell. The Asian Development Bank issued an update on regional economies noting that exports have weakened as growth has slowed in China and other major economies. Demand for key technology exports fell sharply, the report by the regional development lender said. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.3% to 18,968.45, partly due to selling of property shares after troubled developer China Evergrande reported its total debts rose in the
July 19, 2023One day after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized her appointment because of her nationality, the American candidate to become one of the European Union’s chief economists will now not take up the position because of the political controversy it stirred, the bloc announced Wednesday. In a letter to the EU’s executive Commission released early Wednesday, Yale economics professor Fiona Scott Morton wrote that she had “determined that the best course of action is for me to withdraw and not take up the Chief Economist position.” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who had pushed through the decision to
July 19, 2023In a country known more for its love of rugby than women’s soccer, New Zealand is aiming to win fans as well as matches. The Football Ferns kick off the Women’s World Cup on Thursday night with a Group A match against Norway. The Ferns got the nod for the tournament opener just an hour ahead of co-host Australia’s match against Ireland in Sydney. “I hope there will be a lot of people here for not just our games, but all of the games. It’s a world tournament and something we’ve been so excited to
July 19, 2023Abubakar Salisu was terrified when he discovered arid sand in the middle of his farmland, rendering a broad strip unfit for crops. Now, extreme heat is killing his wheat before it is ready for cultivation. Wheat normally requires heat, but in the last three years, farmers in Nigeria’s far north, part of Africa’s Sahel region that largely produces the country’s homegrown food, have seen an “alarming” increase in heat — much more than required, said Salisu, a local leader of wheat farmers in Kaita, Katsina State. Plus, rain is irregular. “The unpredictable rain pattern is affecting
July 19, 2023Inflation in the U.K. has fallen by more than anticipated to a 15-month low, official figures showed Wednesday, a development that may ease the pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates sharply over the coming months to the potential relief of struggling households. The Office for National Statistics said that inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index, fell to 7.9% in the year to June from 8.7% the previous month. Most economists had expected a more modest decline to 8.2%. The statistics agency said the falling of fuel prices was the biggest driver
July 19, 2023Russia launched an intense series of night-time air attacks sending drones and missiles toward places across Ukraine, and targeting the southern port city of Odesa for a second night in a row, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Russian emergency officials in Crimea said that over 2,200 people were evacuated from four villages because of a fire at a military facility. The fire also caused the closure of an important highway, according to Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of the region, which was annexed in 2014. He did not specific a cause for the fire at the
July 19, 2023Eleven workers were killed early Wednesday after a portion of the outer wall of a sprawling compound collapsed after being weakened by rains near an under-construction bridge on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, police and rescue officials said. The wall fell while the workers sat inside their roadside tents at the construction site. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement expressed his sorrow and grief over the deaths. Local police official Mohammad Akram and Emergency Service Rescue 1122 said the collapse happened amid the monsoon rains near the neighborhood of Golra and that the bodies of
July 19, 2023Bad things may come in threes for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative Party faces a trio of unwanted verdicts from voters this week. The U.K. is holding three special elections for House of Commons seats on Thursday that will let a broad cross-section of voters — in northern England, southwest England and on London’s suburban fringe — deliver a verdict on the party that has governed Britain since 2010. The Tories are bracing for the worst. “Midterm by-elections for incumbent governments are always difficult,” Sunak said Monday. “I don’t expect these to be any different
July 19, 2023Artificial intelligence will change the world of espionage, but it won’t replace the need for human spies, the head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency says in prepared remarks released Wednesday. Richard Moore, director of the U.K.’s foreign intelligence agency, is set to speak in Prague on evolving threats to the West from Russia and Iran, and argue that the “human factor” will remain crucial in an era of rapidly evolving machine learning. “AI is going to make information infinitely more accessible and some have asked whether it will put intelligence services like mine out of business,” he
July 19, 2023Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been prematurely counted out more than once in his relatively short but action-packed political career. Battered and bruised after seeing his Socialists take a drumming in local and regional elections in May, Sánchez took no time to lick his wounds. The very next day he stunned his buoyant rivals by bringing forward general elections from December to this Sunday, smack in the middle of the sweltering Spanish summer. Translated from politics to street talk that was the equivalent of saying: Let’s settle this, once and for all. Most polling points
July 19, 2023Lost at sea for months on a disabled catamaran, with no way to cook and no source of fresh water but the rain, Australian Timothy Shaddock said he expected to die. There was a lot to like about the experience, he said. Like when he would plunge into the sea for a swim, or when his dog, Bella, would stir him to keep going. “I did enjoy being at sea, I enjoy being out there,” he said. He recalled the full moon in early May that illuminated his turn away from the Baja Peninsula, his last
July 19, 2023The Mega Millions jackpot has risen to an estimated $720 million after no winning ticket was sold — again. It’s now one of two national lotteries with enormous jackpots but equally enormous odds against winning them. No ticket for Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing matched the white balls 19, 22, 31, 37, 54 and the gold Mega Ball 18. The new jackpot is Mega Million’s 7th largest-ever, the lottery said in a news release. On Monday, the nation’s other big lottery game — Powerball — also went without a winner, and its jackpot now stands at an
July 19, 2023Major League Baseball had a night of offense not seen in 129 years, with 12 teams scoring double-digit runs. Three games ended 11-10 on the same day for the first time. Twelve teams tied May 30, 1884, for the second-most with double-digit runs in one day, trailing only 13 on July 4, 1894, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Chicago Cubs topped the scoring Tuesday night by routing Washington 17-3 and Arizona outlasted Atlanta 16-13. San Francisco beat Cincinnati, the New York Mets topped the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City edged Detroit, all by
July 19, 2023The announcement that authorities are holding a person of interest in the case of four women found dead this year around Portland has mothers of the victims hoping they may finally get answers about what happened to their daughters. One of the victims was Charity Lynn Perry, 24, whose body was discovered April 24 in a state park along the Columbia River Gorge. Her mother, Diana Allen, said Tuesday that she learned the news about the person of interest from traditional and social media, although she is in communication with a detective on the case. “I’m
July 19, 2023Northwestern has been added to a long list of American universities to face a scandal in athletics and may eventually join the trend of making large payouts following allegations of sexual abuse. A former Wildcats football player filed the first lawsuit against Pat Fitzgerald and members of the school’s leadership on Tuesday, seeking damages stemming from a hazing scandal that cost the former football coach his job. More lawsuits, filed by multiple law firms, are expected to follow from former football and baseball players as well as from student-athletes who played other sports for the private school. The private, Big
July 19, 2023A judge will hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit opposing an asylum rule that is a key part of the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Critics say the rule endangers migrants trying to cross the southern border and is against the law, while the administration argues that it encourages migrants to use lawful pathways into the U.S. and prevents chaos at the southern border. The new rule took effect May 11 with the expiration of a COVID-19 restriction known as Title 42 that had limited asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The new rule makes it extremely difficult
July 19, 2023Honduras plans to build the only island prison colony in the Western Hemisphere and send its most-feared gangsters there, tearing a page from neighboring El Salvador’s unforgiving approach to murder, robbery, rape and extortion. Honduras’s progressive president once promised to address gang violence through systemic reforms to governance and the criminal justice system. Now, President Xiomara Castro plans to build an isolated prison for 2,000 gang leaders on the Islas del Cisne archipelago 155 miles off the coast, part of a larger crackdown following the gang-related massacre of 46 women in one prison. Island prisons once
July 19, 2023FIFA President Gianni Infantino could make no guarantee Wednesday that the member federations will distribute the $30,000 payments promised to every player at the Women’s World Cup. He said at a news conference ahead of the tournament opener that he’s engaging with member federations on the issue. The payments are made the individual federations, which are expected to pay the players. But there is no mechanism to directly pay the players the money, which could be life-changing for some. “We are moving of course in the right direction, we have been consulting with associations, with players, to try to go
July 19, 2023In the dusty mountains of eastern India, workers at the country’s largest chromium deposit have mined for the essential ore, rain or shine, for around 60 years. The industry is fruitful in some ways — hundreds of trucks stacked with mineral-rich soil journey back and forth regularly between the mine and processing plants — but it is damaging in others. Farmers say their fields are stripped of fertile earth and livestock desperately comb through now-barren lands for feed. “We used to grow chilies and other vegetables earlier but now when it rains all the soil from
July 19, 2023Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s first major league hit was a pinch-hit, three-run homer that gave the Cincinnati Reds an 8-7 lead against the San Francisco Giants in the fifth inning Tuesday night. The Reds promoted Encarnacion-Strand on Monday and he went 0 for 3 in his big league debut, a game that was suspended because of rain and completed on Tuesday. In Tuesday’s second game, Encarnacion-Strand entered for Jake Fraley in the fifth and launched an 0-2 slider from Mauricio Llovero 426 feet into the second deck in left field. The Reds called up Encarnacion-Strand in hopes of sparking
July 19, 2023Geraldo Perdomo gave Arizona the lead with a two-run double in the ninth inning and the Diamondbacks took advantage of Atlanta’s worst pitching effort of the season to beat the Braves 16-13 on Tuesday night. It was Arizona’s first game in which each team had at least 13 runs and the first in the majors since the Chicago White Sox beat the Cubs 17-13 on Aug. 27, 2021. The NL East-leading Braves have lost three straight. Arizona snapped a four-game losing streak. Christian Walker homered twice and had three hits and five RBIs for Arizona. Corbin Carroll
July 19, 2023A flawed policy at California State University, the largest higher education system in the country, contributed to the closure of nearly a dozen sexual harassment cases without thorough explanation, according to a state audit reviewing 40 cases over the span of seven years. The audit, released Tuesday, examined allegations of harassment between 2016 and 2022 against employees at the university system’s chancellor’s office and three of 23 campuses: California State University, Fresno, San José State University and Sonoma State University. It found that the colleges failed to discipline people found responsible for misconduct, including one case
July 19, 2023An Alaska man inadvertently filmed his own drowning on a glacial lake with a GoPro camera mounted on his helmet, but authorities who recovered the camera have not yet found his body, officials said Tuesday. Alaska State Troopers said teams would continue to search Mendenhall Lake for the body of Paul Rodriguez Jr., 43, of Juneau. Troopers said a helmet with a camera attached to it that was confirmed to have belonged to Rodriguez was recording on July 11 when his kayak overturned and he went into the water. “The recording continued showing that the kayak
July 19, 2023Wildfires have already burned a record amount of area in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the situation will probably get worse due to more hot, dry weather, government officials said Tuesday. The fires are responsible for at least two deaths in the province and, combined with a severe drought, will impact farmers and cattle producers. Bowinn Ma, B.C.’s minister of emergency management, told a news conference 391 wildfires are currently active in the province with over half of them out of control. There have been 235 wildfires start in the last seven days.
July 18, 2023The handful of big tech companies leading the race to commercialize AI can’t be trusted to guarantee the safety of systems we don’t yet understand and that are prone to “chaotic or unpredictable behavior,” an artificial intelligence company executive told the first U.N. Security Council meeting on AI’s threats to global peace on Tuesday. Jack Clark, co-founder of the AI company Anthropic, said that’s why the world must come together to prevent the technology’s misuse. Clark, who says his company bends over backwards to train its AI chatbot to emphasize safety and caution, said the most
July 18, 2023A heat wave that has consistently pushed temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) across much of Texas this summer had family members of inmates on Tuesday calling for lawmakers to ensure that all of the state’s prisons are fully air conditioned. “They’re cooking our inmates in the Texas prison system,” said Tona Southards Naranjo, who believes the death last month of her son, Jon Southards, was caused by excessive heat in his prison, the Estelle Unit in Huntsville. Naranjo was one of more than 60 people who attended a rally outside the Texas
July 18, 2023Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration said Tuesday that it has finalized new policies on the treatment of transgender students, guidance that will direct school districts to roll back some current accommodations and increase parental notification requirements about certain discussions involving gender identity. Youngkin said the guidelines, which have been sharply criticized by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups since they were first unveiled last year, will empower parents while prohibiting discrimination and creating a safe learning environment. “This is about doing what’s best for the child,” Youngkin said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And oh, by the
July 18, 2023A Baltimore teenager acted in self-defense when he allegedly shot and killed a baseball bat-wielding driver who approached youths washing windshields at a busy downtown intersection last summer, attorneys for the teen argued as his murder trial got underway Tuesday. The high-profile tragedy reignited longstanding debate about Baltimore’s squeegee workers, mostly Black youths from disadvantaged backgrounds looking to make fast cash. City leaders have since banned the practice at certain high-traffic intersections and stepped up efforts to connect squeegee workers with above-board job opportunities. “The state would have you believe this case is about squeegee boys,” defense
July 18, 2023Louisiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature overturned Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ recent veto of a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors on Tuesday. Louisiana, where the ban is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2024, will join 20 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care, which includes puberty-blockers, hormone treatment and gender-reassignment surgery. Most of those states face now lawsuits, and in some places the bans have been temporarily blocked by federal judges. Like statehouses across the country, for the last three months Louisiana lawmakers have heard and held debates
July 18, 2023North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea early Wednesday in what appeared to be a statement of defiance as the United States deployed a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades. The launches came as the U.S.-led United Nations Command tries to secure the release of a U.S. soldier who fled to North Korea from the South Korean side of a border village Tuesday afternoon. Private 2nd Class Travis King, in his early 20s, had just been released from a South Korean prison where he was held
July 18, 2023MLS Commissioner Dan Garber figures Lionel Messi’s arrival is just the start of an exciting few years for soccer in North America. The United States, Mexico and Canada are hosting the World Cup in 2026, and before that, the 2024 Copa America and 2025 Club World Cup come to the U.S. “North America is driving a lot of the energy and a lot of the potential value of soccer on a global basis, and we believe that MLS is one of the drivers of all of that energy,” Garber said. “All of the opportunity and energy and
July 18, 2023A first-generation iPhone sold at auction Sunday for $190,373, almost 380 times its original price of $499 when the groundbreaking device went for sale in 2007. LCG Auctions, which hosted the sale, said the 4GB iPhone model was 20 times rarer than the 8GB model released at the same time for $599. That’s largely because the 4GB model was discontinued two months after launch given customer preference for the larger memory size. “A new bar was set Sunday night,” said Mark Montero, the founder of LCG Auctions. “We are thrilled to be a part of this fantastic record breaking sale.”
July 18, 2023Juveniles held in a former death row building at a Louisiana prison for adults are suffering through dangerous heat and psychologically damaging isolation in their cells with little or no mental health care, inadequate schooling and foul water, advocates say in a federal court filing asking a judge to order that the youths be moved. The document, filed in Baton Rouge and dated Monday, says state officials have broken promises to provide constitutionally acceptable facilities for young people housed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola — a remote prison farm with a notorious history of
July 18, 2023Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s escalating measures to stop migrants along the U.S. border with Mexico came under a burst of new criticism Tuesday after a state trooper said migrants were left bloodied from razor-wire barriers and that orders were given to deny people water in sweltering heat. In one account, Texas Trooper Nicholas Wingate told a supervisor that upon encountering a group of 120 migrants on June 25 — including young children and mothers nursing babies — in Maverick County, a rural Texas border county, he and another trooper were ordered to “push the people back
July 18, 2023Human waste leaking from a tractor trailer on a Connecticut highway caused crashes including one involving two state police cruisers as vehicles spun out of control, authorities said. No major injuries were reported in Monday night’s mayhem on Interstate 95 in Bridgeport. Troopers arrested the truck driver on several charges, alleging he knew there was a leak but kept driving. The wrecks began shortly after 11 p.m. when the leaking waste caused extremely slick conditions in the northbound lanes, state police said. A motorcycle rider lost control and fell onto the road, ending up in a
July 18, 2023With the Powerball jackpot topping $1 billion for this week’s drawing, millions of people across the country will be lining up at convenience stores, grocery and gas station counters hoping to hit it big. HOW DOES THIS LATEST POWERBALL JACKPOT STACK UP? The new jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing would be the seventh highest in U.S. history and the third largest for Powerball. If a sole player picks all five numbers plus the Powerball number drawn, they have the option of taking the $1 billion prize in yearly increments paid out over 29 years or a $516.8
July 18, 2023With the frenzied summer travel season in full swing and the aviation system straining to keep up, Congress is expected to vote on legislation that over the next five years will shape the agency responsible for safely managing the nation’s airspace and regulating its airlines. Lawmakers this week will fight over the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules on everything from how pilots are trained to how long they can work and whether travelers will get more compensation for canceled and delayed flights. The White House weighed in on Monday, asking House members to keep an Obama-era requirement that advertised airfares must
July 18, 2023Former Arizona Coyotes player Alex Galchenyuk is entering the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program and apologized for hurling threats at officers during his arrest earlier this month. Galchenyuk tweeted a letter on Tuesday apologizing for repeatedly using racial slurs toward an officer in training and threated to have two officers killed following a July 9 traffic stop. “I am deeply ashamed of my recent behavior and I am beyond sorry to everyone I offended and hurt,” he wrote. “It was uncalled for, it was horrific and it has ruined this great new opportunity I was given by
July 18, 2023Authorities in Nevada confirmed Tuesday that they served a search warrant this week in connection with the long-unsolved killing of rapper Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago. Shakur, one of the most prolific figures in hip-hop, was killed on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He was 25. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the search warrant was executed Monday in the nearby city of Henderson. Department spokesperson Aden OcampoGomez said he could not provide further details on the latest development in the case, including whether it was
July 18, 2023The leader of Thailand’s Move Forward Party, which won a surprise first-place finish in May’s general election, is expected to have a last chance Wednesday to get the country’s parliament to confirm him as the next prime minister after he was rebuffed in a first round of voting. Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat fell short last week when he failed to get enough support from the non-elected Senate, whose members made clear they would not vote for him because of his party’s platform. The party campaigned with a promise to try to amend a law that
July 18, 2023The key factor in weighing the IOC’s ultimate decision on letting Russians participate at the 2024 Paris Games is how well athletes behave in international competitions, the Olympic body’s president Thomas Bach said Tuesday. “It’s too soon to draw final conclusions,” Bach said, adding “we have the responsibility not to punish athletes for the acts of their government.” The International Olympic Committee has pushed sports governing bodies this year to approve some athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus competing as neutrals for international competitions including Paris qualifying events. Bach has previously said the IOC can
July 18, 2023Water: important always, but a life-or-death substance at this moment as the planet grapples with extreme heat. In this arresting image from Phoenix, the sun beats down on the parched earth as Associated Press photographer Ross Franklin captures Tony Berastegui Jr., 15, right, and his sister Giselle Berastegui, 12, drinking bottled water in temperatures that soared to 115 degrees. It’s a week of extremes across the world as midsummer heat and bad rain buffet parts of the planet. Here’s what’s happening related to extreme weather and the climate right now: — Whether you live in the Mediterranean or are just
July 18, 2023AAA won’t renew “a very small percentage” of homeowners and auto insurance policies in hurricane-wracked Florida, joining other insurers in limiting their exposure in the Sunshine State despite efforts by lawmakers to calm the volatile insurance market, the company said Tuesday. AAA said in a statement that it wasn’t leaving Florida, but that last year’s devastating hurricane season had led to an “unprecedented” rise in reinsurance rates, making it more costly to operate. Officials with the company refused to say how many policies in Florida wouldn’t be renewed but said that they were “higher exposure” package
July 18, 2023The Ukrainian veteran’s gravestone carries his photograph and birthday, but the date Roman Shadlovskyi died is a broad estimate: March 2022, the month Russian forces brutally killed both civilians and military personnel before ending their occupation of Bucha. Shadlovskyi’s body was found about three months later in a mass grave along with the remains of six other people in a forest outside the city near Ukraine’s capital. Residents and relatives gathered at a Bucha cemetery on Tuesday to give him a proper burial. “They took him on the fourth of March, but we don’t know when
July 18, 2023Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges apologized Tuesday for “the pain and embarrassment” caused by the domestic violence investigation that kept him out of the league last season. Bridges, speaking publicly for the first time since signing a one-year, $7.9 million contract to return to the Hornets, vowed to rebuild relationships with teammates and become more active in the Charlotte community. He pleaded no contest in November to a felony charge that stemmed from accusations that he assaulted the mother of his children in front of them. The 25-year-old was sentenced to three years of probation. “I
July 18, 2023Facebook parent company Meta Platforms has built an artificial intelligence system that rivals the likes of ChatGPT and Google’s Bard but it’s taking a different approach: releasing it for free. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that the company is partnering with Microsoft to introduce the next generation of its AI large language model and making the technology, known as LLaMA 2, free for research and commercial use. Much like tech peers Google and Microsoft, the social media company has long had a big research team of computer scientists devoted to advancing AI technology. But
July 18, 2023TikTok needs to do more to get ready for new European Union digital rules designed to keep users safe online, a top official said Tuesday. The results of a “stress test” that the popular video-sharing platform carried out at its Dublin office showed that “more work is needed to be fully ready” for when the Digital Services Act takes effect next month, European Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement. Breton, who oversees the 27-nation bloc’s digital policy, tweeted a silent video of himself discussing the results by video call with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. “TikTok
July 18, 2023With three wins, a lead in the points standings, and a NASCAR championship push ahead, the good times are rolling again for Martin Truex Jr. So why quit now? Joe Gibbs asked himself the same question about Truex as the Hall of Fame owner tries to keep Monday’s winner at New Hampshire in the fold of his eponymous race team for one more season. The 82-year-old Gibbs playfully nudged Truex to make the call soon: Retire or give it another run at JGR. “He tells me the same thing every year, that I’m right in the
July 18, 2023Natural gas leaked from a defective fitting at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory where a powerful explosion leveled one building, heavily damaged another and killed seven people, federal safety investigators said Tuesday, while noting they have yet to determine the cause of the blast. The leak at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading was traced to a gas fitting that was installed in 1982 and was determined to have fractured, according to an investigative update released by the National Transportation Safety Board. The fitting, made by DuPont, had a known tendency to crack, and was added to a federal
July 18, 2023After the most prolific season of his career, Marcus Rashford committed himself to five more years at Manchester United on Tuesday. The England forward ended speculation about his future by signing a new long-term deal that will keep him at Old Trafford through to 2028. Rashford scored 30 goals in all competitions last season, with his form helping fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit in November as he established himself as a key part of a United team which qualified for the Champions League and won the English League Cup. “I joined Manchester United
July 18, 2023Low-slung buildings, blue huts and somber soldiers dot the border village of Panmunjom inside the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, the swath of land between North and South Korea where a U.S. soldier on a tour crossed into the North under circumstances that remain unclear. The soldier was on a tour of the storied border town, inside the heavily fortified 154-mile-long (248-kilometer-long) DMZ, when the crossing happened, U.S. officials said Tuesday. It remained unknown what prompted the soldier’s actions or what the motivations might have been. The soldier was believed to be in North Korean custody. The DMZ is lined with
July 18, 2023People around the world are living longer, healthier lives than they were just half a century ago. Climate change threatens to undo that progress. Across the planet, animals — and the diseases they carry — are shifting to accommodate a globe on the fritz. And they’re not alone: Ticks, mosquitos, bacteria, algae, even fungi are on the move, shifting or expanding their historical ranges to adapt to climatic conditions that are evolving at an unprecedented pace. These changes are not happening in a vacuum. Deforestation, mining, agriculture, and urban sprawl are taking bites out of the
July 18, 2023Amazon and Apple were fined a total of 194 million euros ($218 million) Tuesday for colluding to box out competitors by favoring sales of Apple products directly from the online retail giant, Spain’s antitrust watchdog said. Amazon and Apple reached agreements in 2018 that limited the free competition of third-party sellers who hawk Apple goods through Amazon’s platform for smaller retailers, according to Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission, which oversees Spanish markets for antitrust violations. “The investigated behaviors could be restricting competition in the sectors of the Internet sale of electronic products, and the provision of
July 18, 2023A meeting of finance chiefs and central bank governors of the Group of 20 leading economies ended on Tuesday in India without a consensus because of differences between countries over the war in Ukraine. Following two days of talks, there was no final communique. Instead, India, as the host nation, was forced to issue the G20 Chair’s summary and an outcome document. Speaking to reporters after the meeting concluded in Gandhinagar, a city in the western state of Gujarat, India’s finance minister said the reason for the chair statement was “because we still don’t have a
July 18, 2023Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli was sentenced Tuesday to more than 10 years in prison for money laundering. Martinelli, 71, had been trying to mount a political comeback in next year’s general elections, but a judge sentenced him to 128 months in prison in a case that revolved around the purchase of a media company. Martinelli’s lawyers said they would appeal, arguing again that the media company was purchased with the president’s own legally obtained funds. Martinelli is the first former president convicted of a crime in Panama. The supermarket magnate who governed Panama from 2009
July 18, 2023An Australian sailor who was rescued by a Mexican tuna boat after being adrift at sea with his dog for three months will step foot on dry land Tuesday for the first time since their ordeal began. Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, 54, was aboard his crippled catamaran Aloha Toa in the Pacific Ocean about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) from land when the crew of the fishing boat from the Grupomar fleet spotted them, the company said in a statement. Shaddock and his dog, Bella, were in a “precarious” state when found, lacking provisions and shelter, and the
July 18, 2023The U.S.-led United Nations Command is trying to secure the release of an unidentified American soldier who entered North Korea from the South Korean side of a border village. It’s not immediately clear what motivated the soldier to cross into North Korea during a time of high tensions as the pace of both the North’s weapons demonstrations and U.S.-South Korean joint military training have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat. There have been cases of Americans crossing into North Korea over the past years, including a small number of U.S. soldiers. Some of the Americans
July 18, 2023The most telling comment from Rory McIlroy about this British Open, and his hopes of ending an astonishing nine-year drought in the majors, is that he said nothing at all. For the second straight major, McIlroy removed himself from the lineup of pre-tournament news conferences, instead offering a few vague quotes through the R&A and random interviews. The attention on him is greater than ever, on and off the golf course. He has been the strongest voice for the PGA Tour in its battle with LIV Golf, now shockingly a proposed partnership. Inside the ropes, he
July 18, 2023Illinois became the first state in the nation to eliminate cash bail as a condition of pretrial release from jail on Tuesday when the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionally of the law abolishing it. The 5-2 ruling overturns a Kankakee County judge’s opinion in December that the law violated the constitution’s provision that “all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties.” Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, writing for the majority, decreed that the law honors the constitution’s balance between the rights of victims and defendants. Proponents of eliminating cash bail describe it as a penalty
July 18, 2023A broad effort to find two young siblings who were swept away from their car during flash flooding in the Philadelphia suburbs over the weekend may soon pivot to underwater searching, authorities said Tuesday. Upper Makefield Fire Chief Tim Brewer provided an update near the search area, saying the team was still looking for Matilda Sheils, 2, and her 9-month-old brother Conrad Sheils. If the children are not located by day’s end, Brewer said, the focus will be on the water, using dive teams. With the search in a fourth day, officials acknowledged the many
July 18, 2023Lionel Messi jogged a lap with his new teammates, took part in a warmup drill of players making short passes in a tight circle and before long tapped his left foot at a ball that wound up in the back of an open net. Inter Miami’s new star wasted no time fitting right in. The World Cup winner and seven-time Ballon d’Or recipient as the world’s best player took part in a training session with his new Major League Soccer club for the first time on Tuesday, three days after signing a 2 1/2 year
July 18, 2023A former Northwestern football player filed the first lawsuit against Pat Fitzgerald and members of the school’s leadership, seeking damages stemming from a hazing scandal that cost the former football coach his job. The player, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe, alleged Tuesday in the Cook County Court in Chicago that Fitzgerald, Northwestern University President Michael Schill, the board of trustees and athletic director Derrick Gragg enabled and concealed sexual misconduct and racial discrimination. The player, who was on the football team from 2018 to 2022, had his filing submitted by the Chicago-based Salvi Law Firm. “It wasn’t just
July 18, 2023Americans increased their spending modestly last month as inflation eased in many areas and the job market remains remarkably strong. Retail sales rose 0.2% from May to June, a bit smaller than what analysts were expected. The gain followed a revised 0.5% increase the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Excluding autos and gas, sales rose a modest 0.3%. Sales at grocery stores fell 0.7%, while business at clothing stores rose 0.6%. At restaurants, sales rose 0.1%. Online sales rose 1.9%. The uptick in sales follows an increase in May that pointed to an economy
July 18, 2023The number of people who died in connection with Kenya’s doomsday cult has crossed the 400 mark as detectives exhumed 12 more bodies on Monday believed to be followers of a pastor who ordered them to fast to death in order to meet Jesus. Pastor Paul Mackenzie, who is linked to the cult based in a forested area in Malindi, coastal Kenya, is in police custody, along with 36 other suspects. All have yet to be charged. Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha on Monday said the number of those who died has risen to 403, with
July 18, 2023Dutch bicycle maker VanMoof has been declared bankrupt, slamming the brakes on a company that won design awards for its stylish, minimalist electric bikes but struggled to meet soaring demand and fix glitches with the app powering its service. The Amsterdam-based company, started in 2009 by brothers Taco and Ties Carlier, posted a statement on its website informing clients that an Amsterdam court declared VanMoof bankrupt on Monday. The company headquarters in Amsterdam was closed Tuesday. One man parked his VanMoof outside the building to take a picture of the bike with the company logo in the
July 18, 2023A barge that will house up to 500 asylum-seekers arrived Tuesday in England after Parliament passed its long-debated bill to curb migration. The Bibby Stockholm was pulled by a tug into Portland after the government’s controversial legislation won passage after overcoming resistance in the House of Lords. The boat and the bill are both parts of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s strategy to stop migrants from making risky English Channel crossings in small boats. The legislation will become law after receiving the assent of King Charles III. The Conservative government has pledged to “stop the boats” — overcrowded
July 18, 2023A court in Romania’s capital on Tuesday ruled to extend by another 30 days the house arrest of Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer who is charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The decision at the Bucharest Tribunal comes a month after prosecutors formally indicted the 36-year-old social media star along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women in the same case. All four defendants — who were arrested in late December near Bucharest and have denied the allegations against them — will remain under house
July 18, 2023Officials warned residents and tourists packing Mediterranean destinations on Tuesday to stay indoors as a second heat wave in as many weeks hit the region and Greece, Spain and Switzerland battled wildfires. In Italy, Red Cross teams checked on the elderly by phone while in Portugal they took to social media to warn people not to leave pets or children in parked cars. In Greece, volunteers handed out drinking water, while in Spain they reminded people to protect themselves from breathing in smoke from fires. Several countries in southern Europe are sweating through a new heat wave,
July 18, 2023Bank of America said its profits grew 19% in its most recent quarter, the latest of the big banks to see its bottom line boosted by higher interest rates. The nation’s second-largest bank by assets said Tuesday that it posted a profit of $7.4 billion in the three months ended June 30, up from $6.2 billion in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, BofA earned 88 cents, compared with 73 cents one year ago. Analysts were expecting profit of 84 cents per share, according to a poll by FactSet. Revenue of $25.2 billion came in just
July 18, 2023An American has crossed the heavily fortified border from South Korea into North Korea, the American-led U.N. Command overseeing the area said Tuesday. The U.N. Command tweeted that the U.S. citizen was on a tour to the Korean border village of Panmunjom and crossed the border into the North without authorization. It said he is currently in North Korean custody and that the U.N. Command is working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident. It gave no further details on who the person is or why he crossed the border. Cases of Americans
July 18, 2023Ukrainian forces shot down scores of exploding drones and six cruise missiles from a pre-dawn Russian attack on the port of Odesa on Tuesday, Ukrainian authorities said, a day after Moscow broke off a deal that had allowed Kyiv to ship vital grain supplies from the Black Sea city during the war. The Russians first sought to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses with the drones and then targeted Odesa with six Kalibr cruise missiles, the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command said. All six missiles and 25 drones were shot down by air defenses in the Odesa region
July 18, 2023High anxiety set in on the closing day of a summit between European Union and Latin American leaders that was supposed to be a love-in but turned into a diplomatic fracas over the war in Ukraine. Ambassadors worked through much of the night and into Tuesday morning to find even the blandest text to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, with talks hung up over the reservations of some Central and South American nations like Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, an EU official said. “We still need to pinpoint it as close as possible to Ukraine,” said
July 18, 2023Rescuers searched Tuesday for about 10 people still missing in landslides and other incidents caused by more than a week of torrential rains in South Korea, as the country’s military dispatched more than 10,000 troops to support rescue works. The downpours pounding South Korea since July 9 have left 41 people dead, nine missing and 35 others injured. The rainfall has also forced about 12,780 people to evacuate and left about 28,600 households without power. During a Cabinet Council meeting Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered officials to mobilize all available resources to rescue any
July 18, 2023Authorities were investigating on Tuesday whether a cylindrical object about the size of a small car that washed up on a remote Australian beach is space junk from a foreign rocket. Police had cordoned off the object after it was discovered at Green Head about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the city of Perth late Sunday. The Australian Space Agency said it was liaising with other space agencies to identify the object, which appears to be partly made of a woven material. “The object could be from a foreign space launch vehicle and we are
July 18, 2023Israeli protesters blocked highways and gathered outside Tel Aviv’s stock exchange and military headquarters on Tuesday in the latest countrywide demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned judicial overhaul. The latest “day of disruption” came as longtime allies of the prime minister pushed a contentious piece of legislation through a parliamentary committee ahead of a vote expected next week. Additional protests are planned throughout the day. Demonstrators, many of them military reservists, created human chains and blocked one of the entrances to the Kirya, Israel’s military headquarters in central Tel Aviv. Outside the Tel Aviv stock exchange,
July 18, 2023A pack of dingoes drove a woman who was jogging into the surf and attacked her in the latest clash between native dogs and humans on a popular Australian island, sparking new warnings Tuesday to visitors venturing out. The 24-year-old woman was attacked by three or four dingoes on Monday while she was jogging on a beach at Queensland state’s K’gari, the world’s largest sand island formerly known as Fraser Island, officials said. The World Heritage-listed national park is home to some of Australia’s purest dingoes, which are also known by their Indigenous name wongari, because
July 18, 2023Spain’s general election on Sunday could make the country the latest European Union member swing to the populist right, a shift that would represent a major upheaval after five years under a left-wing government. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election after his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and its small far-left coalition partner, Unidas Podemos (“United We Can”), took a beating in local and regional elections. The center-right Popular Party emerged from the May 28 elections with the most votes. Polls for the general election have consistently put the PP in first place — but likely
July 18, 2023French lawmakers plan to vote Tuesday on a sweeping justice reform bill that includes a provision for allowing law enforcement agents to remotely tap into the cameras, microphones and location services of phones and other internet-connected devices used by some criminal suspects. The proposed law plainly stipulates that the procedure can be executed “without the knowledge or consent of its owner or possessor” but is limited to suspects involved in terrorism, organized crime and other illegal activities punishable by five or more years in prison. The language authorizing eavesdropping is contained in a broader reform bill aimed
July 18, 2023For Sadie James, the cost-of-living crisis in Britain just never seems to ease. First, it was skyrocketing energy and food costs stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now, the 61-year-old worries whether she can keep a roof over her head. James, who lives in south London, has struggled for years to stay on top of her finances. Just as she was starting to clear her debts, she’s back to square one: Her rent keeps rising, and on top of higher food and energy bills, her welfare payments just can’t keep up. “I’m actually in a meltdown each
July 18, 2023Shares were mostly lower Tuesday in Asia as optimism over a Wall Street rally was countered by worries about the Chinese economy. Shares rose in Tokyo but fell in most other regional markets. Hong Kong’s benchmark lost nearly 2% as it reopened after a weather related closure on Monday. On Monday, China reported weaker economic growth for the spring than most economists had expected. Its recovery following the removal of anti-COVID restrictions has fallen short of forecasts. That has helped to limit inflation globally but it also is hindering a main engine of growth for the world
July 18, 2023Even with constant questions about his future, Shohei Ohtani continues to produce at an amazing clip for the Los Angeles Angels. The two-way star tied the score in the seventh inning with his major league-leading 35th home run. That set the stage for pinch-hitter Michael Stefanic’s game-ending single in the 10th that gave the Angels a 4-3 win over the New York Yankees on Monday night. Los Angeles trailed 3-1 when Ohtani hit a two-run drive off Michael King, then made a demonstrative flip of his bat. Ohtani has homered in three straight games for the
July 18, 2023U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told China’s top diplomat on Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s administration is “very committed” to stabilizing relations between the world’s two biggest economies. On his second day of talks in Beijing, Kerry met with the ruling Communist Party’s head of foreign relations Wang Yi, telling him Biden hoped the two countries could “achieve efforts together that can make a significant difference to the world.” Ties between the countries have hit a historic low amid disputes over tariffs, access to technology, human rights and China’s threats against self-governing Taiwan. In his opening remarks,
July 18, 2023A bilateral consulting group of South Korean and U.S. officials met Tuesday in Seoul to discuss strengthening their nations’ deterrence capabilities against North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats. The Nuclear Consultative Group was established as part of agreements Presidents Joe Biden and Yoon Suk Yeol made when they met in April. Seoul officials say the body is tasked with sharing information on nuclear and strategic weapons operation plans and discussing joint operations. The U.S. would retain operational control of U.S. nuclear weapons, and Washington officials say the group’s establishment and other steps announced in April were
July 18, 2023An Australian sailor who had been adrift at sea with his dog for three months has been rescued by a Mexican tuna boat in international waters, the fishing vessel’s owner said Monday. Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, 54, was aboard his incapacitated catamaran Aloha Toa in the Pacific about 1200 miles (1900 kilometers) from land when the crew of the boat from the Grupomar fleet spotted them, the company said in a statement. The company said Shaddock and his dog Bella were in a “precarious” state when found, lacking provisions and shelter. The tuna boat’s crew gave them
July 18, 2023Several civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on Monday challenging Florida’s new immigration law. The Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice and the American Immigration Council filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Statewide Prosecutor Nicholas B. Cox on behalf of the Farmworker Association of Florida and others, according to court records. The legislation that DeSantis, a Republican, signed into law in May bolsters his migrant relocation program and limits social services for immigrants lacking permanent legal
July 18, 2023The Las Vegas Aces are on a historic pace heading into the second half of the season and have shown no signs of letting up. With 19 wins in their first 21 games, the Aces sit atop the WNBA standings and have the top offense and defense in the league. “Just staying focused on what we’ve been doing up to this point,” point guard Chelsea Gray said. “Trust in each other, playing for each other and with each other and just having fun doing it. We never take anybody for granted.” Gray, one of four Las Vegas players in the
July 17, 2023The latest bid by conservationists and tribal leaders to block construction of a huge lithium mine already in the works along the Nevada-Oregon line was denied by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. A three-panel judge of the San Francisco-based appellate court rejected a half-dozen arguments the opponents had put forth in their appeal seeking to overturn federal land managers’ approval of the project. That included claims it violates multiple environmental laws and would destroy lands tribal members consider sacred because they say dozens of their ancestors were massacred there in 1865. Lithium
July 17, 2023Union Pacific will renew its push for one-person train crews later this summer when the railroad tests out the idea of having a conductor in a truck respond to problems on trains in Nebraska and Colorado. The railroad will continue using two crew members on its trains during the test, but officials say this could bolster their case in future negotiations for cutting crew size if it is successful. UP’s Jason Pinder confirmed the pilot program Monday when he testified against a proposed Kansas rule that would require two-person crews. The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad has long
July 17, 2023Five people were killed and eight others were injured Monday when a Cessna 208 plane crashed into a hangar at a sky diving center during bad weather, authorities said. The plane’s pilot and four people sheltering in the hangar from stormy weather died in the afternoon crash in Chrcynno in central Poland, firefighters spokesperson Monika Nowakowska-Brynda said. An additional eight people were injured, two of them seriously, police said. A child was among the injured, the provincial governor, Sylwester Dabrowski, said. Chrcynno is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of Warsaw. Firefighters and airborne ambulances took
July 17, 2023An ongoing petition drive to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training center is “futile” and “invalid,” attorneys for the city of Atlanta argued in a court filing Monday, as they sought to prevent the proposed referendum from appearing on November’s ballot. For the past month, activists with the “Stop Cop City” movement have been trying to gather the signatures of more than 70,000 registered Atlanta voters by Aug. 15 to force a referendum. It would allow voters to decide the fate of the project that has seen significant pushback and become a flashpoint in
July 17, 2023The Powerball jackpot rose yet again to an estimated $1 billion after no winning ticket was sold for the latest drawing. No ticket for Monday’s drawing matched the white balls 5, 8, 9, 17, 41 and red Powerball 2. The jackpot was estimated at $900 million. The new jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing would be the third highest in U.S. history and will keep growing until someone wins. Ticket buyers have a chance at $1 billion paid out in yearly increments or a $516.8 million one-time lump sum before taxes. Three people won $2 million after
July 17, 2023Martin Truex Jr. mastered another Monday matinee to win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the first time in 30 career Cup tries at the same track where as a kid he watched from the grandstands while his father raced. Thanks to rain postponements, Truex won his second Monday race of the season — he also won at Dover — and fourth of his career. Truex dominated in the No. 19 Toyota en route to his third win of the season. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver secured one of the few wins he desperately wanted in
July 17, 2023Matthew Jordan has been given the honor of hitting the first tee shot at the 151st British Open. He’ll know exactly where to put it. The 27-year-old Jordan lives in Hoylake and is a member at Royal Liverpool. No surprise, then, that he has been approached by a number of players about the optimal way to get around the course. He hasn’t been giving much away. “I might pick and choose what I tell people,” Jordan said Monday. For the two British Opens staged at Hoylake since the turn of the century — won by Tiger
July 17, 2023Alabama Republicans, under orders of the U.S. Supreme Court to redraw congressional districts to give minority voters a greater voice in elections, rejected calls Monday to craft a second majority-Black district and proposed a map that could test what is required by the judges’ directive. Lawmakers must adopt a new map by Friday after the high court in June affirmed a three-judge panel’s ruling that Alabama’s existing congressional map — with a single Black district out of seven statewide — likely violated the Voting Rights Act. In a state where more than one in four residents
July 17, 2023Benjamin Franklin was so busy as an inventor, publisher, scientist, diplomat and U.S. founding father that it’s easy to lose track of his accomplishments. So add one more to the roster: his early work in printing colonial paper currency designed to counter a constant threat of counterfeiting. Franklin was an early innovator of printing techniques that used colored threads, watermarks and imprints of natural objects such as leaves to make it far harder for others to create knockoffs of his paper bills. A team at the University of Notre Dame has shed new light on his
July 17, 2023The gunman who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue targeted them because of their faith and has never once expressed remorse, a federal prosecutor said Monday in asking jurors to impose a death sentence. The defense argued that life in prison is sufficient punishment for the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack. Opening statements Monday in the sentencing phase of Robert Bowers’ federal trial painted dueling portraits of the man who opened fire during religious services in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community: That of an unrepentant killer motivated by his hated of Jews, and of a psychologically
July 17, 2023A prosecutor added felony charges, including attempted sexual assault, Monday against a man accused of attacking Connecticut’s first Muslim state representative after a prayer service, but did not file hate crime allegations demanded by the lawmaker’s supporters. The case of Andrey Desmond, 30, went before a judge in Hartford Superior Court, where supporters of state Rep. Maryam Khan, including local imams, also gathered. “It continues to be a mystery to me why the state isn’t bringing bias crimes in this type of incident,” said Farhan Memon, chairman of the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
July 17, 2023The bodies of four women began appearing in wooded areas in northwest Oregon in February, though police initially said the cases appeared to be unconnected. But on Monday, prosecutors dropped a bombshell, saying they are linked and “at least one person of interest” has been identified. The state medical examiner has not determined the cause or manner of death for any of the women, prosecutors said in a statement. Officials did not use the words “serial killer” in announcing the connection between the deaths. But, in an about-face from a June 4 Portland Police Bureau statement
July 17, 2023Ronald Acuña Jr. is on pace to do more than just join an elite 40-40 club in baseball history. The Braves outfielder is threatening to obliterate the previous high mark for power-speed combination in a season. Of the four players who have delivered seasons with at least 40 homers and 40 stolen bases, none accomplished the feat with more than 46 steals. Acuña is on pace for 41 homers and 77 steals. He could become the charter member of baseball’s 40-50, 40-60 and 40-70 clubs. “It would mean a lot to me personally just because I feel
July 17, 2023The 40-year-old man who shot four people in the country’s 31st mass killing this year needed mental help for nearly a decade but his family and officials couldn’t force him to get treatment, his mother said. Andre Longmore walked through his neighborhood in the semi-rural suburb of Hampton, Georgia on Saturday and fatally shot four neighbors, all senior citizens. The killings set off a manhunt that ended Sunday with Longmore dead in a shootout in another suburb about 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of Hampton. The shooting wounded a sheriff’s deputy and two police officers, who
July 17, 2023The chill Aussie vibe of Cameron Smith gave way to more emotion than he expected Monday while taking part in one of many royal and ancient traditions at the British Open. As the defending champion, he had to return the claret jug. “I was actually holding back some tears. A bit of a moment, I guess, that crept up on me,” Smith said. “It wasn’t hard to hand it back. I wasn’t like, ‘Not letting it go.’ But it was a moment that I guess you don’t think about, and then all of a sudden it’s
July 17, 2023The family of a teen killed in a boat crash, which prosecutors say began the financial downfall of double murderer Alex Murdaugh, has reached a $15 million deal to settle a lawsuit against a convenience store chain that sold Murdaugh’s son alcohol while underage. Sunday’s deal came after a judge refused to allow the Parker’s Kitchen chain to be separated from Murdaugh in a wrongful death trial next month in Hampton County, South Carolina, where Murdaugh was once a powerful and well-known attorney. Murdaugh is serving a life sentence without parole the 2021 killing of his
July 17, 2023A review of the status of a vanishing species of whale found that the animal’s population is in worse shape than previously thought, federal ocean regulators said Monday. The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 350, and it has been declining in population for several years. The federal government declared the whale’s decline an “unusual mortality event,” which means an unexpected and significant die-off, in 2017. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data that 114 of the whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sub-lethally injured or sick since the start
July 17, 2023Microsoft and British regulators sought more time from a court Monday as the U.S. tech company uses a rare second chance to overcome opposition to its $69 billion bid for video game maker Activision Blizzard. Lawyers for Microsoft and the Competition and Markets Authority tried to persuade a judge to delay an hearing planned after the CMA rejected the deal and Microsoft appealed. The regulator later gave Microsoft more time to make its case for the blockbuster purchase of the Call of Duty game maker to go through. The deal has already won approval in the European
July 17, 2023Detectives investigating the long-unsolved murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings searched a storage facility in the Long Island community of Amityville over the weekend, police said. Suffolk County police confirmed Monday that detectives executed a search warrant at Omega Self Storage on Sunrise Highway related to the investigation that led to last week’s arrest of architect Rex Heuermann. He was charged Friday with murder in the deaths of three of the 11 victims whose remains were found buried along a remote beach highway. Heuermann, who has lived for decades across a bay from where the
July 17, 2023The U.N.’s World Food Program announced Monday that it is facing a shortage of funds and won’t be able to help 100,000 people in Haiti this month who urgently need assistance. The 25% cut comes as a record 4.9 million people in the country of nearly 11 million need help with finding food, the agency said. “These cuts could not come at a worse time, as Haitians face a multi-layered humanitarian crisis, their lives and livelihoods upended by violence, insecurity, economic turmoil and climate shocks,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, the agency’s director for Haiti. The
July 17, 2023Wildfires outside Athens forced thousands to flee seaside resorts, closed highways and gutted vacation homes Monday, as high winds pushed flames through hillside scrub and pine forests parched by days of extreme heat. Authorities issued evacuation orders for at least six seaside communities as two major wildfires edged closer to summer resort towns and gusts of wind hit 70 kph (45 mph). The army, police special forces and volunteer rescuers freed retirees from their homes, rescued horses from a stable, and helped monks flee a monastery threatened by the flames. Before nightfall, water-dropping planes and helicopters
July 17, 2023An already saturated Northeast began drying out Monday after a second round of heavy rain in a week, including a flash flood in Pennsylvania that claimed at least five lives over the weekend. A 9-month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister remained missing in Upper Makefield Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which is along the Delaware River, after they were swept away late Saturday afternoon while traveling in a vehicle. Fire Chief Tim Brewer said the area got about 6 1/2 to 7 inches of rain (about 18 centimeters) in 45 minutes. The children are part
July 17, 2023The bridge connecting Russia-annexed Crimea and Russia carries heavy significance for Moscow both logistically and psychologically, as a key artery for Russian military and civilian supplies bound for Crimea and as an assertion of Russia’s control of the peninsula. An explosion that hit the bridge before dawn on Monday, killing a couple and seriously injuring their daughter, left a span of the roadway hanging perilously. The damage initially appeared to be less severe than that caused by a blast in October, but highlighted the bridge’s vulnerability. Russia blamed Ukraine for both Monday’s blast and the October explosion. A spokesman for
July 17, 2023A freight train derailment in southeast Pennsylvania early Monday spurred precautionary evacuations, but officials said no injuries were reported and there was no known hazard to the public. The 40-car CSX train, which was operating on tracks owned by Norfolk Southern, derailed around 4:50 a.m. in Whitemarsh Township. More than a dozen cars appeared to be off the tracks. Silicone pellets were leaking from at least one train car, Whitemarsh police said, but they posed no risk to the public. It wasn’t immediately known what was inside the other derailed cars, and hazmat teams were
July 17, 2023Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the United Arab Emirates on Monday as part of a swing through the Arab Gulf states focused on energy and commerce. He met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the president of the UAE, which will be hosting the COP28 U.N. climate summit later this year. Kishida visited Saudi Arabia over the weekend, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The two launched a joint initiative aimed at promoting clean energy. He will visit gas-rich Qatar on Tuesday. Japan is the fifth-largest oil consumer in the
July 17, 2023More mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner military contractor rolled into Belarus Monday, a monitoring group said, continuing their relocation to the ex-Soviet nation following last month’s short-lived mutiny. Belaruski Hajun, a Belarusian activist group that monitors troops movements in Belarus, said that a convoy of about 20 vehicles carrying Russian flags and Wagner insignia entered the country Monday heading toward a field camp that Belarusian authorities had offered to the company. The group said it was a third Wagner convoy entering the country since last week. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered a deal that ended last month’s rebellion launched by
July 17, 2023Pope Francis’ peace envoy was traveling to Washington on Monday as part of the Holy See’s peace initiatives for Ukraine, hoping to support humanitarian operations especially concerning children, the Vatican said Monday. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi’s visit, which lasts through Wednesday, follows his recent mission to Moscow and an earlier stop in Kyiv, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zuppi is a veteran of the Catholic Church’s peace initiatives and has been tasked by Francis to try to find “paths of peace” between the warring sides. In Moscow, Zuppi met with Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s
July 17, 2023Ryan Reynolds has already taken Hollywood to Wrexham. Now the Welsh soccer team is on its way to Tinseltown. The club, which was down on its luck and languishing in the fifth tier of English soccer before being given the A-list treatment by Reynolds and co-owner Rob McElhenney, is embarking on a U.S. tour this month, when fans of the globally-streamed docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” will get to see its unlikely stars in the flesh. The series has made household names of the likes of manager Phil Parkinson, a coach who has spent his entire career
July 17, 2023Elton John testified Monday for the defense in Kevin Spacey ’s sexual assault trial. John appeared remotely from Monaco to testify after his husband, David Furnish, said Spacey only once attended the annual gala the singer held at his Windsor home. One of the alleged victims accused Spacey of aggressively grabbing his crotch while he was driving with him to the ball in 2004 or 2005. Spacey testified that he only attended the event in 2001. Furnish testified earlier that he had checked photographs and that was the only year Spacey attended. John said Spacey spent the
July 17, 2023Italian health officials intensified heat warnings as southern Europe began a brutally hot week on Monday with temperatures expected to top 40 C — or 104 F — in multiple cities already overburdened by tourists. The health ministry issued 10 recommendations to protect elderly people, the sick and pets from the heat, urging people to stay indoors during the hottest hours, drink at least 1.5 liters (nearly half a gallon) of water a day and refrain from strenuous exercise at peak daylight times. The culprit was a high-pressure anticyclone dubbed Cerberus, the multi-headed dog that guards gates
July 17, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to Saudi Arabia on Monday in a three-stop tour of Gulf states to seek trade and investment opportunities for Turkey’s floundering economy. The president will arrive in Jeddah accompanied by an entourage of some 200 businesspeople, according to the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey. He is expected to meet King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Business forums have been arranged in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates during Erdogan’s three-day trip. The visit comes as Turks are hit with sales and fuel tax hikes that Finance
July 17, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to Saudi Arabia on Monday in a three-stop tour of Gulf states to seek trade and investment opportunities for Turkey’s floundering economy. The president will arrive in Jeddah accompanied by an entourage of some 200 businesspeople, according to the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey. He is expected to meet King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Business forums have been arranged in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates during Erdogan’s three-day trip. The visit comes as Turks are hit with sales and fuel tax hikes that Finance
July 17, 2023Israel’s governing coalition pushed ahead on Monday with its contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, despite growing opposition from within the country’s military and a wave of mass protests expected this week. A parliamentary committee was preparing a bill that would limit judicial oversight on some government decisions, legislation that has sparked intensifying criticism from military reservists in elite units, including the air force and cyberwarfare. Many have warned they will not show up for duty if the overhaul moves ahead. Reservists, who make up the backbone of the country’s mostly compulsory military, played
July 17, 2023Israel’s governing coalition pushed ahead on Monday with its contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, despite growing opposition from within the country’s military and a wave of mass protests expected this week. A parliamentary committee was preparing a bill that would limit judicial oversight on some government decisions, legislation that has sparked intensifying criticism from military reservists in elite units, including the air force and cyberwarfare. Many have warned they will not show up for duty if the overhaul moves ahead. Reservists, who make up the backbone of the country’s mostly compulsory military, played
July 17, 2023Russia halted an unprecedented wartime deal on Monday that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Russia would suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative until its demands to get its own agricultural shipments to the world are met — even though the country has been shipping record amounts of wheat and its fertilizers also have been flowing. “When the part of the Black Sea deal related to Russia
July 17, 2023Finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations meeting in India on Monday are poised to address critical global economic challenges, including the threats posed by climate change and rising debt among low-income countries. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the two countries were working together to further the G20 agenda. They spoke after holding talks on the sidelines of the summit, a sign of the importance of their countries’ relationship at a time of tension with China. “The world is looking to the G20 to make progress on key
July 17, 2023Leaders from the European Union and Latin America are gathering for a major summit of long-lost relatives starting on Monday. Whether it will be a joyful meeting of long-lost friends remains to be seen. Their last such encounter was eight years ago. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic and Brazil’s three-year departure from the 33-nation Community of Latin American and Caribbean States — or CELAC — had made the Atlantic Ocean separating the two sides seem wider. And division ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine to trade, deforestation and slavery reparations has given extra spice to a two-day
July 17, 2023Snicker if you wish. Guffaw for good measure. Bill May and other male synchronized swimmers — now called artistic swimmers — have heard the putdowns before. But they’re getting the last laugh. Men have competed in synchro at the lower levels for decades. Now they’re being included in the Olympics, meaning next year’s Summer Games in Paris. “I think it’s a huge opportunity for the sport to grow and attract more men,” May told the Associated Press at the World Aquatics Championships. “By keeping men out you’re limiting the sport. By including men you’re going to
July 17, 2023Heavy downpours lashed South Korea a ninth day on Monday as rescue workers struggled to search for survivors in landslides, buckled homes and swamped vehicles in the most destructive storm to hit the country this year. At least 40 people have died, 34 others are injured and more than 10,000 people have had to evacuate from their homes since July 9, when heavy rain started pounding the country. The severest damage has been concentrated in South Korea’s central and southern regions. In the central city of Cheongju, hundreds of rescue workers, including divers, continued to
July 17, 2023Asian shares were mostly lower on Monday after China reported weaker growth than forecast in the last quarter. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday and Hong Kong’s market closed due to a typhoon. U.S. futures and crude oil prices were lower. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.2% to 3,199.17 after China reported its economy grew at a 6.3% annual pace in April-June. That’s better than the 4.5% expansion in the January-March quarter but well below forecasts of over 7%. The economy is expected to slow further in coming months, though investors will be expecting moves
July 17, 2023Schools and the stock market were closed in Hong Kong on Monday as Typhoon Talim swept south of the city. As the financial hub braced for rainy and windy weather, more than 100 people sought refuge at temporary shelters. Some government and ferry services were halted and various events were postponed. The city’s airport authority said 16 flights were canceled. The Hong Kong Observatory raised a No. 8 typhoon signal, the third-highest warning under the city’s weather system, at 12:40am on Monday. It was the first signal of its kind hoisted this year. The weather forecaster
July 17, 2023Kerry Bowie’s daughters have dreams. Big ones. His 15-year-old wants to go to law school, maybe dabble in politics. His 12-year-old plans to be a business magnate. And while their schedules are jammed with everything from piano and violin lessons to soccer and volleyball tournaments, at some point this summer Bowie plans to take them to Franklin Park in the heart of Boston, place a golf club in their hands and have them learn about a game whose influence extends far beyond fairways and greens. “There are some things people miss out on by not doing it,” Bowie says. “To
July 17, 2023Mike Berent has spent more than 27 years rushing into burning houses in Detroit, pulling people to safety and ensuring his fellow firefighters get out alive. But as the 52-year-old Detroit Fire Department lieutenant approaches mandatory retirement at age 60, he says one thing is clear: He will need to keep working to make ends meet. “I’m trying to put as much money away as a I can,” said Berent, who also works in sales. “A second job affords you to have a little bit of extra.” Thousands of city employees and retirees lost big on July
July 17, 2023When Alicia Griggs steps outside her suburban Fort Lauderdale home, Florida’s latest invasive species comes a-hoppin’ down the street: lionhead rabbits. The bunnies, which sport an impressive flowing mane around their heads, want the food Griggs carries. But she also represents their best chance of survival and moving where this domesticated breed belongs: inside homes, away from cars, cats, hawks, Florida heat and possibly government-hired exterminators. Griggs is spearheading efforts to raise the $20,000 to $40,000 it would cost for a rescue group to capture, neuter, vaccinate, shelter and then give away the estimated 60
July 17, 2023Traffic on the key bridge connecting Crimea to Russia’s mainland has been halted amid reports of explosions. The governor of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, announced the closure early Monday but did not specify the reason. News reports said local residents heard explosions before dawn, but there was no confirmation. The 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge that was opened in 2018 is the main land connection between Russia and the Crimean peninsula. The bridge that spans the Kerch Strait was damaged in October by a truck bomb and required months of repairs before resuming full
July 17, 2023As Tokyo plans to discharge treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, Japanese restaurant operator Sam Lam is busy finding substitutes for Japanese seafood that could soon be banned from entering Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government said last Wednesday that the city would immediately bar the import of aquatic products from 10 Japanese prefectures if wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant is released into the Pacific Ocean. Lam said his team could get seafood from other sources and change menus to adjust to the ban, but he predicted that revenues could nevertheless drop from 10%
July 17, 2023In a modest gym in the heart of Kyiv, boxer Anna Lysenko dedicates long hours preparing for next year’s Paris Olympics despite the unsettling sounds of explosions booming outside. Lysenko already has Olympic experience, nearly winning a medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, but her training routine this time has been disrupted by the war in Ukraine — that started nearly 17 months ago when Russia invaded her country. In a well-lit, spacious gym with high windows, she often hears bombs exploding outside as the capital remains a target for the Russian army. “It’s stifling.
July 17, 2023Santiago Giménez scored after an electrifying sprint in the 88th minute, and Mexico won the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the record ninth time with a 1-0 victory over Panama on Sunday night. After Edson Álvarez slid to block Iván Anderson’s cross in the Mexico penalty area, Orbelín Pineda dribbled away and made a tremendous pass into the center circle. Giménez, 22-year-old Feyenoord forward, dribbled past Harold Cummings and outraced Cummings and Fidel Escobar into the penalty area. Giménez scuffed a bouncing left-foot shot over goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera for his fourth goal in 18 international appearances and
July 17, 2023China’s economy grew 6.3% in the second quarter of the year after near-stagnant growth a year earlier, missing analyst expectations even as momentum is expected to weaken in the coming quarters. The 6.3% growth in China’s gross domestic product from April to June compared to the same period in 2022 was the fastest in the past year, and outpaced the 4.5% growth in the previous quarter, according to government data released Monday. The GDP in the second quarter was up 0.8% compared to the first three months of the year. The surge in growth is largely due
July 17, 2023Linn Grant won her first LPGA Tour title after an outstanding start to her career in Europe, enduring a charge from U.S. Women’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz and closing with a 3-under 68 for a three-shot victory in the Dana Open on Sunday. The 24-year-old Grant has five victories on the Ladies European Tour — including a history-making nine-shot victory last year against a field of men and women in the Scandinavian Mixed — and earned LPGA membership starting last season. But she did not play in the United States until this year, when the U.S.
July 16, 2023The head of the Teamsters said Sunday that he has asked the White House not to intervene if unionized UPS workers end up going on strike. Negotiations between the delivery company and the union representing 340,000 of its workers have been at a standstill for more than a week with a July 31 deadline for a new contract approaching fast. The union has threatened a strike if a deal is not reached by the time the collective bargaining agreement expires. Asked during a webcast with members Sunday on whether the White House could force a contract
July 16, 2023One person died and another was critically injured when they were knocked out of a sightseeing gondola Sunday at the popular Mont-Tremblant resort, authorities said. Quebec provincial police said the crash occurred shortly before noon when a piece of construction equipment struck the gondola at the mountain resort around 105 kilometers (65 miles) northwest of Montreal. Police said in an email that the other passenger was taken to a Montreal-area hospital with life-threatening injuries. Investigators from the major crimes division were sent to the scene. The Tremblant Resort Association declined to comment on the accident, but said
July 16, 2023Regrets? Novak Djokovic has two. There was that tiebreaker pretty early in the Wimbledon final on Sunday, when the 36-year-old Serb was one point from taking a two-sets-to-none lead over his 20-year-old opponent, Carlos Alcaraz. And then there was that missed volley on break point early in the fifth set with all the momentum at that stage going the seven-time Wimbledon champion’s way. “Some regrets,” Djokovic said after losing 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in a high-energy and highly entertaining championship match on Centre Court. “I had my chances. I think I could have closed
July 16, 2023Funny Cide, the “Gutsy Gelding” who became a fan favorite after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2003, has died from complications of colic. He was 23. Kentucky Horse Park, the Lexington farm where Funny Cide lived for his final 15 years, confirmed the thoroughbred died Sunday, as did Sackatoga Stable, the group of 10 friends from a small town in upstate New York who owned the gelding. “We are heartbroken at the news of Funny Cide’s passing this morning. What a ride The Gutsy Gelding took us on winning @KentuckyDerby & @PreaknessStakes. We are
July 16, 2023Tour de France overall leader Jonas Vingegaard is calling on fans to behave better at cycling’s biggest race after another mass crash marred the 15th stage on Sunday. “I’d like to tell the spectators to enjoy the race and be there to cheer for us without standing on the road or pouring beers on us,” Vingegaard said. “Please, just enjoy the race.” The Danish rider leads Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia by only 10 seconds with the race about to enter its final week. The incident, which involved around two dozen riders, led to appeals from
July 16, 2023The Tennessee Titans hope they’ve filled their major need at wide receiver with three-time All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, agreeing to terms on a two-year deal worth $26 million with incentives that could push that to $32 million, a person familiar with the agreement said Sunday. The Titans had the advantage of being the first NFL team Hopkins visited after being released by Arizona in May. Hopkins arrived in Nashville in June and documented on social media his visit to CMA Fest’s final night at Nissan Stadium, where the Titans play. Hopkins also visited the New
July 16, 2023Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point Sunday on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said. Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, were forecast to reach 128 degrees (53.33 degrees Celsius) on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said. The hottest temperature ever record was 134 degrees (56.67 degrees Celsius) in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, the
July 16, 2023European leaders and Tunisia’s president announced progress on Sunday in the building of hoped-for closer economic and trade relations and on measures to combat the often lethal smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea. The leaders of Italy, the Netherlands and the European Commission made their second visit to Tunis in just over a month. They expressed hope that a memorandum newly signed with Tunisia during the trip would pave the way for a comprehensive partnership. On their last visit in June, the leaders held out the promise of more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion)
July 16, 2023Cameron Young is playing only his second British Open, so Royal Liverpool is a new links for him to learn. After flying in Sunday morning, he kept his day short by skipping over from the 14th green to the 18th tee. That’s when his caddie, Paul Tesori, became part tour guide, part historian. Pointing to a small grandstand behind the 17th tee, Tesori told Young it previously was the 15th green. The old 15th tee — a par 3 — now is a 620-yard par 5 — the longest in Open history — that heads back
July 16, 2023Many questions remained Sunday about what led a gunman in Fargo, North Dakota, to open fire on police officers as they were responding to a traffic crash. One officer was killed and two others were critically wounded before the gunman was killed by a fourth officer. The shooting happened Friday afternoon along a busy street, and roughly nine hours passed before authorities told the public that officers were shot. On Saturday, Fargo’s police chief released the names of the officers and the name of the gunman, but said the motive was unclear and that the 37-year-old man opened fire for
July 16, 2023A neighborhood south of Atlanta crawled with police on Sunday as Georgia authorities hunted for a man suspected of gunning down three men and a woman in the subdivision before fleeing. Andre Longmore, 40, is accused of fatally shooting the victims Saturday morning before driving away from the Dogwood Lakes subdivision in Hampton on Atlanta’s outskirts, police said. Longmore is wanted on four counts of murder in the deaths. Police haven’t disclosed a motive. Hampton Police Capt. Chaundra Brownlee said in a news release Sunday that investigators are seeking information on Longmore’s whereabouts and “actively receiving
July 16, 2023Microsoft has signed an agreement with Sony to keep the Call of Duty video game series on the PlayStation console after the tech giant acquires video game maker Activision Blizzard. The announcement was made Sunday in a Twitter post by Phil Spencer, who heads up Microsoft’s Xbox division. “We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games,” Spencer said in the post. Call of Duty has been at the center of a corporate tug-of-war between Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation over Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard,
July 16, 2023Tight end Evan Engram and the Jacksonville Jaguars agreed Sunday to a three-year, $41.25 million contract that includes $24 million guaranteed, according to a person familiar with negotiations. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been signed or made public. His agent, Mike McCartney, announced via Twitter that the deal had been reached. Engram weighed in a few minutes later by posting a picture of himself at Everbank Field with the caption “I’m home” along with a praying hands emoji. The sides beat a Monday afternoon deadline
July 16, 2023The stage is set. Lionel Messi is about to meet his new fans at Inter Miami. An event billed as “The Unveil” — or “La PresentaSíon,” as the club is calling it — is Sunday night at the team’s stadium in Fort Lauderdale. It comes one day after Messi, Major League Soccer and Inter Miami finalized his signing through the 2025 season. It’s the start of a busy week of events for Messi with his new club. A news conference is scheduled for Monday, his first official training session is set for Tuesday and —
July 16, 2023Kevin Harvick has one final chance to set the record for most career wins by a Cup driver at New Hampshire. Take the checkered flag, and Harvick would take home the roughly 20-pound lobster awarded to the winner — his young son once kissed the crustacean in victory lane and also playfully chased a family friend with the claw. But Harvick might have to surrender his musket. Harvick was the recipient of the curly ash wood, custom-designed handmade musket at the track as a final thank-you from the track for all his success before he retires
July 16, 2023Heavy rains pounded an already saturated Northeast on Sunday for the second time in a week, spurring another round of flash flooding, cancelled airline flights and power outages. In Pennsylvania, a sudden flash flood late Saturday afternoon claimed at least five lives. Officials in Bucks County’s Upper Makefield Township in Pennsylvania said torrential rains occurred around 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the Washington Crossing area, sweeping away several cars. At least five people died and two childen, a 9-month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister, remained missing, authorities said. Other parts of the East Coast were experiencing
July 16, 2023Rory McIlroy birdied the last two holes in whipping wind Sunday for a 2-under 68 to win the Genesis Scottish Open, his first victory on Scottish soil, and take a load of confidence into the final major of the year. McIlroy was one shot behind Robert MacIntyre when he played the slope to near perfection on the par-3 17th for a 4-foot birdie putt to tie for the lead. Then, he delivered what McIlroy called his best shot of the year — a 2-iron into the wind to 10 feet for a final birdie. It was
July 16, 2023Kate, the Princess of Wales, was back again at Wimbledon on Sunday— this time with her family in tow. The princess, wearing a green dress to match the green grass of the All England Club, was accompanied by her husband, Prince William, and their two oldest children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Prince William, who was wearing a gray blazer, is the heir to the British throne. The royal family was in the Royal Box for the men’s final between seven-time champion Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, with Kate set to present the trophy to the
July 16, 2023Actress and singer Jane Birkin, who charmed France with her English grace, style and accented French and made the country her home, has died at age 76, according to France’s Culture Ministry and French media. The London-born star was widely admired for her fashion style and known for her musical and romantic relationship with French singer Serge Gainsbourg. Their songs notably included the steamy “Je t’aime moi non plus,” with Birkin’s ethereal, British-accented singing voice interlacing with his gruff baritone. She was also celebrated in France for her political activism. In 2022, she joined other screen and
July 16, 2023More favorable weather conditions have helped firefighters slow down the advance of a wildfire on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands that has forced the evacuation of more than 4,000 residents, authorities said Sunday. The blaze, which started Saturday, has affected an area of about 4,600 hectares (11,300 acres) and burned some 20 houses and buildings. Authorities urged people not to go near the area on the northwest side of the island. Tourism Minister Héctor Gómez told reporters that thanks to the efforts to combat the blaze overnight, the outlook for bringing it under control had improved.
July 16, 2023Under the tall prairie grass outside this southwestern Minnesota town lies a precious seam of dark red pipestone that, for thousands of years, Native Americans have quarried and carved into pipes essential to prayer and communication with the Creator. Only a dozen Dakota carvers remain in the predominantly agricultural area bordering South Dakota. While tensions have flared periodically over how broadly to produce and share the rare artifacts, many Dakota today are focusing on how to pass on to future generations a difficult skillset that’s inextricably linked to spiritual practice. “I’d be very happy to teach
July 16, 2023Britain on Sunday officially joined an Asia-Pacific trade group that includes Japan and 10 other nations during a meeting in New Zealand. The trade bloc covers more than 500 million people and 15% of the world’s economy. For Britain, it represents the largest trade deal it has struck since leaving the European Union more than three years ago. Britain first announced in March it had reached an agreement to join the bloc, which was created in 2018, after more than two years of negotiations. It is the first new member to join the bloc, called
July 16, 2023Iranian authorities on Sunday announced a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf and morality police returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody sparked nationwide protests. The morality police had largely pulled back following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September, as authorities struggled to contain mass protests calling for the overthrow of the theocracy that has ruled Iran for over four decades. The protests largely died down earlier this year following a heavy crackdown in which over 500 protesters were killed
July 16, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Sunday that Russia has a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster munitions, and warned that Russia “reserves the right to take reciprocal action” if Ukraine uses the controversial weapons. In his first comments on the delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine from the U.S., Putin said that Russia has not used cluster bombs in its war in Ukraine so far. “Until now, we have not done this, we have not used it, and we have not had such a need,” he said, although the use of cluster bombs by
July 16, 2023A 7.2 magnitude earthquake triggered a brief tsunami advisory for southern Alaska late Saturday, but the advisory was cancelled about an hour later, monitoring bodies reported. The earthquake was felt widely throughout the Aleutian Islands, the Alaskan Peninsula and Cook Inlet regions, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. In Kodiak, Alaska, sirens warned of a possible tsunami and sent people driving to shelters late at night, according to video posted to social media. The United States Geological Survey wrote in a social media post that the earthquake occurred 106 kilometers (65.8 miles) south of Sand Point, Alaska, at 10:48 p.m.
July 16, 2023A Palestinian gunman opened fire on a car in the occupied West Bank on Sunday wounding three Israelis, including two girls, before fleeing, Israeli authorities said. The bloodshed was the latest in a relentless cycle of violence that has gripped the region, driving up the death toll and sparking the worst fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades. The Israeli military said the gunman opened fire on a car from a passing vehicle. Israel’s rescue service MDA said three Israelis were wounded, including a 35-year-old with gunshot wounds
July 16, 2023Another Powerball drawing ended with no winner Saturday night, sending the jackpot soaring to an estimated $900 million. No ticket for Saturday’s drawing matched the winning combination: white balls 2, 9, 43, 55, 57 and red Powerball 18. The jackpot was estimated at $875 million. Ticket buyers for Monday’s drawing have a chance at either $900 million paid out in yearly increments or a $465.1 million, one-time lump sum before taxes. The top prize is the third biggest Powerball jackpot and the seventh largest in U.S. lottery history, Powerball said in a statement early Sunday. While there was no jackpot
July 16, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still undergoing tests in hospital on Sunday after a dizzy spell but was expected to be released later in the day, his office said. Netanyahu, 73, was rushed to hospital on Saturday after feeling mild dizziness. His office said test results on Sunday were normal and that Netanyahu was feeling “very good.” His office said he had spent the previous day at the Sea of Galilee, a popular vacation spot in northern Israel where temperatures climbed to about 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) amid a stifling country-wide heat
July 16, 2023The first phase of Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory began weeks ago without fanfare. Apart from claiming that its troops are edging forward, Kyiv has not offered much detail on how it’s going. Taking place mostly out of sight of impartial observers, the fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine pits troops equipped with new Western-supplied weapons against Kremlin forces that spent months digging formidable defenses and honing tactics. Here’s a look at what’s happening after more than 16 months of war: WHAT ARE UKRAINE’S TACTICS? Fighting has intensified at multiple points along the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line. Ukrainian forces
July 16, 2023Novak Djokovic is bidding for his record-tying eighth Wimbledon singles championship and fifth in a row. Carlos Alcaraz is trying for his first trophy at the All England Club. Djokovic wants his 24th Grand Slam title. Alcaraz wants his second. There is plenty on the line when Djokovic and Alcaraz meet each other at Centre Court in the Wimbledon final on Sunday. There’s also this: Alcaraz, a 20-year-old from Spain, is ranked No. 1, and Djokovic, a 36-year-old from Serbia, is ranked No. 2. In addition to the Wimbledon trophy, the winner will have the top
July 16, 2023The Los Angeles Angels rallied from a six-run deficit in the seventh inning and a three-run deficit in the ninth before they walked off in the 10th on an unlikely Astros error. The Halos can only hope their next win is a little bit less grueling than the 13-12 victory that snapped their six-game losing streak Saturday night. Shohei Ohtani hit his major league-leading 33rd homer to key the Angels’ ninth-inning rally, and rookie Trey Cabbage scored on rookie shortstop Grae Kessinger’s throwing error in the 10th. Kessinger threw wide of first base while attempting to
July 16, 2023The trail had gone cold as clues suddenly dwindled. For a time, doubts swirled about whether a killer who dumped the remains of his female victims along remote stretches of coastline on New York’s Long Island would ever be caught. Then finally, after more than a dozen long years, bereaved families of the victims were provided with a whiff of relief Friday when authorities announced the arrest of a 59-year-old architect who they believe is responsible for their deaths. The arrest rekindled anger and grief — but also brought the prospect of closure — for family
July 16, 2023Brittney Griner made an emphatic and emotional return to the WNBA’s mid-season showcase event. She scored her team’s first six points, put down two dunks and finished with 18 points in the league’s All-Star Game on Saturday night. The sellout crowd roared when Griner was introduced, and clearly moved by the ovation, she tapped her heart with her right hand. There was no doubt, a year after forcefully being absent from this event, that Griner was the star of the show. “I didn’t think I’d be here today,” Griner said. “Everyone sending the letters and the
July 16, 2023LeBron James is not only coming back for a 21st season, he’s coming back in his original uniform number. James will return to No. 23 next season, a move the Los Angeles Lakers revealed Saturday by tweeting a picture of his back with James’ name and number showing on the gold jersey. James has alternated between No. 23 and No. 6 after wearing 23 when he entered the NBA in 2003 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was in No. 6 while becoming the NBA’s career scoring leader last season, a number now retired by the league
July 16, 2023South Korean rescue workers pulled six bodies from vehicles trapped in a flooded tunnel, as days of heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides and destroyed homes, leaving more than 30 people dead and forcing thousands to evacuate, officials said Sunday. Nearly 400 rescue workers, including divers, were searching the tunnel in the central city of Cheongju, where around 15 vehicles, including a bus, got swept away in a flash flood Saturday evening, Seo Jeong-il, chief of the city’s fire department, said in a briefing. Nine survivors were rescued from the tunnel, but the total
July 16, 2023A federal judge has ruled Oregon’s voter-approved gun control measure – one of the toughest in the nation – is constitutional. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut ruled that banning large capacity magazines and requiring a permit to purchase a gun falls in line with “the nation’s history and tradition of regulating uniquely dangerous features of weapons and firearms to protect public safety,” Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. The decision comes after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment that has upended gun laws across the country, dividing judges and sowing confusion over what firearm
July 16, 2023Linn Grant missed a chance to become the second LPGA Tour player to break 60. Putting herself in position for a breakthrough victory in the Dana Open was a big consolation on a long, rainy Saturday at Highland Meadows. Nine under on her first 13 holes, Grant played the final five in even par for a 9-under 62. Fellow Swede Annika Sorenstam is the lone LPGA Tour player to shoot 59, accomplishing the feat in the 2001 Standard Register Ping at par-72 Moon Valley in Phoenix. “There was a spectator who called it out in my
July 16, 2023Nearly a thousand migrants that recently crossed from Guatemala into Mexico formed a group Saturday to head north together in hopes of reaching the border with the United States. The group, made up of largely Venezuelan migrants, walked along a highway in southern Mexico, led by a Venezuela flag with the phrase “Peace, Freedom. SOS.” The men, women, children and teenagers were followed by Mexican National Guard patrols. Migrants told The Associated Press they crossed into Mexico illegally through a river dividing the two countries. They said they decided to organize the group and start out
July 16, 2023The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game is headed to Phoenix, setting up as a home game for Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi and a sendoff to the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Saturday that the event would be hosted by the Phoenix Mercury. “Since I’ve been in the league, they’ve done so much,” Engelbert said. “They are so great to work with under the new ownership with Mat Ishbia.” Ishbia, who took ownership of the Mercury and the Suns in February, was thrilled to have a chance to host the game that’s being played this weekend
July 15, 2023Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half. In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.” “Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” he concluded. Ever since he took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal last fall, Musk has tried to reassure advertisers who were concerned about the ouster of top executives, widespread layoffs and a different approach to content moderation. Some high-profile users
July 15, 2023John Hunter Nemechek survived a wreck-marred NASCAR race Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and won for the fourth time this season in the Xfinity Series. The 26-year-old Nemechek followed last week’s win at Atlanta with another dominant performance for Joe Gibbs Racing. Nemechek pulled away off the final caution, the perfect spot to avoid one more final wipeout behind him. Nemechek rolled in the No. 20 Toyota to the finish line under caution — the 10th of race — that ended the race under the white flag. It’s a familiar path to victory lane for
July 15, 2023United Airlines and the union representing its pilots said Saturday they reached agreement on a contract that will raise pilot pay by up to 40% over four years. The union valued the agreement at about $10 billion. It followed more than four years of tumultuous bargaining that included picketing and talk of a strike vote. The deal reflects the leverage enjoyed by labor groups, especially pilots, as airline revenue soars on the strong recovery in travel. The Air Line Pilots Association said the agreement, which is subject to a ratification vote, would put United pilots on par with counterparts at
July 15, 2023Stephen Curry, from way downtown! The Golden State Warriors star Curry made a hole-in-one Saturday at a celebrity golf tournament, draining his tee shot on the 152-yard par-3 seventh hole at Edgewood Tahoe. Fans roared as Curry hit the shot, ripped off his hat, held a finger in the air and sprinted to the hole, smacking the flag like a runner crossing the finish line. “That was my second one ever,” Curry told an NBC/Peacock TV reporter, still panting from his celebration. “I’m locked in right now but to do it on this hole is unbelievable,
July 15, 2023Authorities are asking hikers and others to keep an eye out for signs of provisions or campsites that might have been left by a homicide suspect who used bed sheets to escape from a northwestern Pennsylvania jail earlier this month. Michael Burham, 34, fled the Warren County jail in the late evening hours of July 6 by climbing on exercise equipment, going through a window and scaling down a rope fashioned from jail bedding, authorities have said. He was being held on $1 million bail and was charged with kidnapping, burglary and other counts. Authorities have
July 15, 2023Embattled freshman U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York charged with a host of financial crimes, including embezzling money from his campaign, withdrew $85,000 from his campaign to help repay hundreds of thousands of dollars he loaned himself to get elected in 2022. Congressional campaign records released Friday show Santos raised a relatively paltry $138,000 during the last three months for a reelection bid that is expected to be one of the country’s most-watched and hotly contested races in 2024. The records show he spent nearly $118,000, the bulk of it to begin repaying
July 15, 2023The FBI has opened criminal investigations into violent encounters involving Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, including one in which a deputy punched a woman in the face as she held her baby. Federal authorities visited the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department headquarters to take documents related to the probes, according to an email obtained by the newspaper, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. Department officials confirmed the visit and told the newspaper they planned to cooperate with investigators. The second case being scrutinized by the FBI involves a deputy who threw a woman to the ground
July 15, 2023Martin Truex Jr. stood with his back to a table where hours earlier Kevin Harvick had been gifted a colonial musket from New Hampshire Motor Speedway in honor of the driver’s final race at the track. Harvick made his retirement call ahead of the Daytona 500 and has been feted with gifts and tributes throughout his last NASCAR season. The 43-year-old Truex has yet to make a decision — at least, publicly — on if he’ll return for another season at Joe Gibbs Racing or hang up the helmet and end a career that included the
July 15, 2023Authorities in Georgia hunted Saturday for a man who remained at large hours after he was suspected of gunning down three men and a woman in a suburban neighborhood south of Atlanta. Andre Longmore, 40, is believed to be armed and dangerous, Hampton Police Chief James Turner said during a news conference. The shootings happened late Saturday morning in a subdivision in Hampton, a city of roughly 8,500 people. Officials released few details about the killings. Turner said detectives were investigating at least four crime scenes near one another in the same neighborhood. He said Longmore
July 15, 2023Lionel Messi has finalized his deal to join Major League Soccer, and after years of planning and pursuing, Inter Miami has landed a global icon. Messi’s contract became official Saturday, a little more than five weeks after he declared that he would be coming to Inter Miami. The team will introduce him on Sunday night at its stadium in Fort Lauderdale, and the first home match of the Messi era could be as early as Friday — a Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul. A formal news conference is scheduled for Monday, and his first training session with his new
July 15, 2023The Rev. Jesse Jackson announced Saturday that he will step down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Chicago-based civil rights group he founded more than 50 years ago. Jackson, 81, announced his resignation during a quiet farewell speech at the organization’s annual convention, where the group paid tribute to him with songs, kind words from other Black activists and politicians, and a video montage of Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. Jackson, who has dealt with several health problems in recent years and uses a wheelchair, capped the proceedings with muted remarks. Flanked by his
July 15, 2023Tesla says its first production Cybertruck electric pickup has rolled off the assembly line, nearly two years behind the original schedule. The company tweeted a photo on Saturday showing scores of workers in helmets and yellow vests surrounding the truck. “First Cybertruck built at Giga Texas!” Tesla tweeted, including a cowboy hat-wearing emoji. Owner Elon Musk retweeted the post. Musk unveiled the truck in late 2019, and Tesla had said production would start in late 2021, although the company has since cautioned that production would begin slowly and in smaller numbers than Tesla’s other vehicles. With its wedge shape and
July 15, 2023The United Nations agency responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid has described conditions placed by the Syrian government on aid deliveries from Turkey to northwest Syria as “unacceptable.” The future delivery of aid across Syria’s northern border was thrown into question Tuesday after the U.N. Security Council was unable to agree on either of two competing proposals to extend the mandate for bringing aid from Turkey by way of the Bab al Hawa border crossing. Two days later, Syria’s ambassador to the U.N. said Damascus would give voluntary permission for the U.N. to use the crossing for six
July 15, 2023Ons Jabeur used a white kleenex to wipe away tears as she walked to her post-match news conference 1 1/2 hours after falling to 0-3 in Grand Slam finals by coming up short against Marketa Vondrousova in the Wimbledon final Saturday. Jabeur called it “the most painful loss of my career,” and was grateful for the consoling embrace she received from Kate, the Princess of Wales, during the trophy presentation at Centre Court — “Hugs are always welcome,” the 28-year-old Tunisian said — and the comforting words she heard later from Kim Clijsters, the International Tennis
July 15, 2023Thousands of participants of the Budapest Pride march wound through the streets of the Hungarian capital on Saturday with marchers voicing their anxiety over the increasing pressure on the LGBTQ+ community from the country’s right-wing government. The 28th annual event comes as the country’s laws, which ban the depiction of homosexuality or gender transition, to minors under 18 have begun to be applied with increasing regularity, resulting in fines and other penalties for those who disseminate LGBTQ+ content. Before the march, which began in Budapest’s city park, Pride organizer Jojo Majercsik said that while the laws,
July 15, 2023The game is not going to be against the rival Mexico expected, but seven and a half months after the country’s worst performance in a World Cup in 44 years, Mexico will seek to restore a bit of its tarnished image when it plays the surprising Panama in the Gold Cup final. With Jaime Lozano, their third coach in less than a year, the Mexicans will try to win their ninth Gold Cup title on Sunday. Panama beat the U.S. to advance to its first final since 2013. The country is looking for its first Gold
July 15, 2023Scorching temperatures across Europe forced the closure of the Acropolis in Athens for a second day as officials warned Saturday of even hotter weather next week, when the mercury is forecast to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in several popular Mediterranean tourist destinations. Elderly people, young children and dogs were most at risk, experts said, urging precautions against the heat wave caused by Cerberus, a high-pressure anticyclone coming from the south and named after the three-headed dog in ancient Greek mythology who guarded the gates to the underworld. Fifteen cities in Italy, most of them
July 15, 2023Rory McIlroy made just enough birdie putts for a 3-under 67 in increasingly windy conditions Saturday to keep his one-shot lead over Tom Kim in the Genesis Scottish Open. McIlroy still didn’t make as many as he expected, a common refrain for most players, though he has raw numbers supporting him. One day after missing nine putts from 10 feet or closer, he missed an eagle attempt from just over 3 feet and a birdie putt from 5 feet as he was trying to build a cushion at The Renaissance Club. “I’m still in a really
July 15, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushed to a hospital on Saturday, but was in “good condition” as he undergoes a medical evaluation, his office said. The Israeli leader’s office said he was being treated at Israel’s Sheba Hospital, near the coastal city of Tel Aviv, but gave no further details. Walla, a leading Israeli news site, quoted an unnamed official close to Netanyahu as saying he had fainted but was fully conscious at the hospital. The report could not immediately be confirmed. Netanyahu, 73, is Israel’s longest serving leader. He has served multiple terms stretching over
July 15, 2023Kobe Brown thought he deserved to go higher in the NBA draft, and he’s beginning to show why. Brown, the final pick in the first round at No. 30 overall, is proving he has a chance to make an impact as a rookie for the Los Angeles Clippers after putting together one of the more complete game lines in Las Vegas. He scored 35 points on seven 3-pointers Friday night to go along with eight rebounds, four steals, three assists and two blocks in a 102-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Through four games, the Missouri product named after former
July 15, 2023A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early Saturday, a monitoring group reported after the country’s Defense Ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills. The independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun, which tracks the movements of armed forces in Belarus, said at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police. The group did not immediately provide photos or videos of the vehicles but said they had license plates from Russian-occupied areas of
July 15, 2023Kate, the Princess of Wales, was back in the Royal Box at Wimbledon on Saturday for the women’s final, along with several former champions and some stars of the entertainment world. The princess, wearing a pale green outfit, will present to the trophy to either Ons Jabeur or Marketa Vondrousova following the match on Centre Court. Former champions Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Ann Jones, Marion Bartoli and Conchita Martinez were also in the Royal Box, along with Academy Award winning actor Maggie Smith, Priyanka Chopra and Lin-Manuel Miranda. ___ AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
July 15, 2023Nylla Miller didn’t dwell on the shortcomings of her education when she spoke at her high school graduation. Instead she talked about all she and her classmates had accomplished. They had achieved at high levels even in cramped classrooms with no air conditioning that got stuffier as the summer months approached — a reversal from earlier in the year, when the heat wasn’t working and it was almost too cold to focus. Athletes had set new records, even on a dirt track that doesn’t meet state standards. Miller praised the Penn Wood High School Class of ’23
July 15, 2023More than 2,000 people were evacuated as a wildfire rages “out of control” on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands on Saturday, destroying around a dozen homes, authorities said. The blaze has affected an area of about 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) and officials warned residents that the situation could worsen because a heat wave has made the terrain tinder-dry. “The fire has spread very fast,” Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo said. “The fire is out of control.” He said that some residents didn’t want to abandon their homes, and he appealed for people to be
July 15, 2023One early morning this week in ocean waters off the coasts of Rhode Island and New York, signs of the nascent wind industry were all around. Giant upright steel tubes poked from the water, waiting for ships to hoist up turbines that will make electricity driven by wind. A battleship-gray vessel was on the prowl. In this ramp-up for U.S. offshore wind, American marine companies and mariners fear they’ll be left behind. So Aaron Smith, president of the Offshore Marine Service Association, was looking through binoculars to see whether ships servicing the new wind farms
July 15, 2023Novak Djokovic paid quite a compliment to Carlos Alcaraz. Before they’ll face each other in the Wimbledon final on Sunday, Djokovic was asked to size up Alcaraz — and he compared the kid to himself. Pretty good company. “He’s been incredibly successful in adapting to the surfaces and (to the) demands and challenges of opponents on a given day,” Djokovic said. “I see this as a great trait, as a great virtue. I see this as one of my biggest strengths throughout my career, that I was able to constantly develop, adapt and adjust my game,
July 15, 2023Hundreds of flights across Italy were canceled Saturday, forcing travelers at the peak of tourist season to make alternate plans, after air transport unions went ahead with a planned work stoppage two days following a train strike that paralyzed rail service. Summertime in Italy is often the peak season for transport strikes, stranding commuters and tourists alike as unions press demands for better work contracts and conditions. This year, the strikes are taking their toll amid a tourism boom following two years of pandemic losses. National carrier ITA said it canceled 133 flights, most of them domestic
July 15, 2023South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday, offering an apparent show of support for the country in its war with Russia. Yoon’s office said he traveled to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Keon Hee, following trips to Lithuania for a NATO summit and to Poland. It’s his first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 17 months ago. Yoon toured Bucha and Irpin, a pair of small cities near Kyiv where bodies of civilians were found in the streets and mass graves after Russian troops retreated from the capital region
July 15, 2023One police officer died and two others were critically injured after a suspect began shooting on a busy street in Fargo, North Dakota, on Friday afternoon, police said. Officers returning fire killed the suspect during the shooting that occurred before 3 p.m. A civilian also was seriously wounded, police said in a late-night statement that provided no details on a possible motive. The Fargo Police Department said the investigation is ongoing and withheld the identities of the officers and the suspect pending notification of their families. North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the state Bureau
July 15, 2023Agreements that the United Nations and Turkey brokered with Ukraine and Russia to allow food and fertilizer to get from the warring nations to parts of the world where millions are going hungry have eased concerns over global food security. But they face increasing risks. Moscow has ramped up its rhetoric, saying it may not extend the deal that expires Monday unless its demands are met, including ensuring its own agricultural shipments don’t face hurdles. The Black Sea Grain Initiative has allowed 32.8 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since
July 15, 2023Two days of heavy rain in South Korea killed at least seven people and left two others missing in landslides and floods, the government said Saturday. Additionally, eight people were trapped following landslides in central areas earlier in the day. Three people were killed Saturday after landslides caused by torrential downpours buried their houses in two central towns, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said in a report. It said two other people were also found dead elsewhere Saturday in landslide-related accidents, and two other people died in a building collapse caused by landslides
July 15, 2023Ons Jabeur or Marketa Vondrousova will become a first-time Grand Slam champion when they play each other in the Wimbledon women’s final. They go into Saturday’s title match with a combined record of 0-3 in major finals. The No. 6-seeded Jabeur, a 28-year-old from Tunisia, was the runner-up at the All England Club and at the U.S. Open last season. She is the only Arab woman or North African woman to participate in a Grand Slam singles final. The unseeded Vondrousova, a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, lost in the 2019 French Open final as a
July 15, 2023First, it was the banana-randomberry-wheat grass smoothies. Then the cold brew, triple-shot, something-milk lattes, the German-word craft beers, the small-batch, barrel-aged Prohibition cocktails. Now a new bar in Dubai, the Middle Eastern hub of all things cutting-edge, is serving “gourmet water.” Thirty varieties of it. The Aqua Water Bar by Luqel harvests its water the old-fashioned way — from the faucet. The government says tap water is safe to drink and meets international standards, though many Dubai residents prefer bottled water. Then they use a micro-dosing system designed by the German water filtration company
July 15, 2023Authorities on Long Island are vowing to continue investigating a string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders after charging an architect in the deaths of three of the 11 victims. Rex Heuermann, 59, is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello over a decade ago. He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of another woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Their bodies were bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway across the bay from the Massapequa Park community where Heuermann has lived all his life. Investigators have
July 15, 2023The Mega Millions top prize has grown again to an estimated $640 million after there was no winner of the lottery’s latest giant jackpot. The numbers drawn late Friday night were: 10, 24, 48, 51, 66 and gold Mega Ball 15. The estimated $640 million jackpot in the next drawing would only be distributed to a winner who chooses an annuity paid over 29 years. Nearly all grand prize winners opt to take a cash payout, which for Tuesday night’s drawing is an estimated $328 million. Despite the game’s long odds of 1 in 302.6 million, players continue to purchase
July 15, 2023Shohei Ohtani left the mound with finger pain for his third straight start Friday night. With his Los Angeles Angels in freefall and his future uncertain before the trade deadline, the two-way superstar is struggling against a host of challenges even more daunting than the blister and cracked fingernail that are preventing him from pitching at his unique peak. Ohtani allowed four earned runs on five hits and left the mound in the sixth inning shortly before Mauricio Dubon’s tiebreaking two-run single in the Houston Astros’ 7-5 victory over the Angels. Ohtani (7-5) was pulled after
July 15, 2023The Marshfield Village Store, which sits at the junction of two country highways in a tiny Vermont town, has become a little bit of everything in recent days as residents struggle to recover from historic floods that battered the state. First the shop in Marshfield, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) east of the state’s biggest city, Burlington, served as a shelter for about three dozen people. By Friday it was a distribution center for much-needed fresh water and a go-to for supplies. “We’re about to start putting it out more formally, if there are other folks who haven’t been able
July 15, 2023Corbin Burnes struck out the side in the sixth inning after nearly collapsing in the fifth in oppressive humidity, Victor Caratini singled in a run in the seventh and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 on Friday night. After his 10th strikeout, Burnes squatted behind the mound with his head lowered as teammates and trainers rushed over. “He just got light-headed, essentially,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “The trainers don’t think it was a hydration issue. Just like you lift something heavy and get a little light-headed from that. He just needed a minute to
July 15, 2023Bo and Josh Naylor of the Cleveland Guardians became the first brothers major league history to hit multi-run homers in the same inning for the same team when each hit a two-run shot during the third inning at Texas on Friday night. Bo Naylor hit a 1-0 changeup from Rangers starter Jon Gray an estimated 435 feet to right field at Globe Life Park with no outs in the third. Four batters later, Josh hit a 3-1 slider from Gray down the right-field line and it barely stayed fair to make it 4-0. The last brothers
July 15, 2023A U.S. appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by federal regulators to block Microsoft from closing its $68.7 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard, paving the way for the completion of the biggest acquisition in tech history after a legal battle over whether it will undermine competition. In a brief ruling, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded there were no grounds for issuing an order that would have prevented Microsoft from completing its nearly 18-month-old deal to take over the maker of popular video games such as Call of Duty.
July 14, 2023Visitors to Las Vegas on Friday stepped out momentarily to snap photos and were hit by blast-furnace air. But most will spend their vacations in a vastly different climate — at casinos where the chilly air conditioning might require a light sweater. Meanwhile, emergency room doctors were witnessing another world, as dehydrated construction workers, passed-out elderly residents and others suffered in an intense heat wave threatening to break the city’s all-time record high of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 degrees Celsius) this weekend. Few places in the scorching Southwest demonstrate the surreal contrast between indoor and outdoor
July 14, 2023Annie Park birdied seven of the last 10 holes Friday in the Dana Open for an 8-under 63 and a two-stroke lead over U.S. Women’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz, Linn Grant and Jaravee Boonchant. Park closed her opening nine at Highland Meadows with a birdie on No. 18 and added birdies on the first four holes on the front nine. She also birdied Nos. 7 and 8, playing her final nine in 6-under 28 to reach 11-under 131. “I just had some really good shots out there,” Park said. “Recovered well from bad shots. Overall, I played really well.” The
July 14, 2023Mexico’s top diplomat said Friday her country has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government expressing concern that Texas’ deployment of floating barriers on the Rio Grande may violate 1944 and 1970 treaties on boundaries and water. Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Mexico will send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see whether any of the barrier extends into Mexico’s side of the border river. She also complained about U.S. efforts to put up barbed wire on a low-lying island in the river near Eagle Pass, Texas. Bárcena said that if the
July 14, 2023In a reversal that marks a significant victory for conservationists, federal officials have decided to “revisit” the 2021 environmental review that cleared the way for construction of a geothermal power plant in Nevada where an endangered toad lives. Environmentalists and tribal leaders suing to block the project said the move will trigger an unprecedented third review of the partially built power plant that they say the Bureau of Land Management illegally approved in December 2021. “This vindicates what we’ve been saying for years,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The
July 14, 2023Kentucky’s ban on gender-affirming care for young transgender people was restored Friday when a federal judge lifted an injunction he issued last month that had temporarily blocked the restrictions. The latest ruling by U.S. District Judge David Hale means the Kentucky prohibition goes into effect, preventing transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who had asked that the injunction be lifted, applauded the ruling, while transgender rights advocates denounced it. “What the courts are allowing to happen to LGBTQ people right now is an American tragedy, one that
July 14, 2023Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock were among scores of mourners who paid tribute Friday at the Capitol to the late Christine King Farris, who was the last living sibling of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Farris’ casket lay under the building’s gold dome — an honor usually reserved for prominent political figures that has been bestowed on few African Americans. She died last month at the age of 95. Kemp said Farris was instrumental in preserving her brother’s memory, but also an influential civil rights leader herself. Farris helped Coretta Scott King
July 14, 2023New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu electrified the crowd Friday by scoring a record 37 of a possible 40 points to easily win the 3-point shooting contest at the WNBA All-Star Game. She beat the Seattle Storm’s Sami Whitcomb and the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale in the final. Whitcomb had 24 points and Ogunbowale 11. “I knew they were going in,” Ionescu said. “I was telling my agents over there, I didn’t even wait for the ball to get through the net. As soon as I shot it, it looked good and I just went down
July 14, 2023India is close to buying new French warplanes and submarines and played a starring role in France’s Bastille Day celebrations Friday. But for all the camaraderie on display this week between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, their two countries remain sometimes-awkward allies. Macron skirted around concerns about threats to rights and freedoms under Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. Modi called for peace efforts in Ukraine to end Russia’s war and resulting grain shortages, and India has increased imports of sanctioned Russian oil; Macron’s France is boosting weapons supplies to Ukraine for its counteroffensive.
July 14, 2023Thirteen Republican state attorneys general are cautioning CEOs of the 100 biggest U.S. companies on the legal consequences for using race as a factor in hiring and employment practices, demonstrating how the Supreme Court’s recent ruling dismantling affirmative action in higher education may trickle into the workplace. The state attorneys general sent a letter to the CEOs on Thursday arguing that the controversial June ruling declaring that race cannot be a factor in college admissions — consequently striking down decades-old practices aimed at achieving diverse student bodies — could also apply to private entities, like employers.
July 14, 2023Central America is experiencing a wave of unrest that is remarkable even for a region whose history is riddled with turbulence. The most recent example is political upheaval in Guatemala as the country heads for a runoff presidential election in August. A look at various events roiling Central American countries: Guatemala Guatemala is locked in the most troubled presidential election in the country’s recent history. The first round of elections in June ended with a surprise twist when little known progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo of the Seed Movement party pulled ahead as a front-runner. Now headed
July 14, 2023A federal jury convicted a Las Vegas police officer Friday on all counts of stealing nearly $165,000 during a trio of casino heists, including one where he was armed with a department-issued weapon that was loaded. Caleb Rogers, 35, faces life in prison upon sentencing because he brandished a revolver during the third casino heist he carried out in February 2022. U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon set his sentencing for October. The jury reached a verdict after just over three hours of deliberation. Jurors used common sense to decide the case, Lloyd Dickerson, one of the
July 14, 2023Brittney Griner didn’t know what to expect when the WNBA season began, how she would respond after the trauma she experienced of being incarcerated in Russia that also forced her off the court for many months. Griner surprised herself, playing well enough to become a starter in Saturday’s All-Star Game. “I just wanted to get out there and try my best not to get hurt, give it the best I’ve got,” Griner said. “I was a little shocked, actually, how it was once I got on the court, so I’m happy with it. “It was definitely
July 14, 2023Rory McIlroy felt he had no choice but to be pleased with a 4-under 66 that gave him a one-shot lead in the Scottish Open on Friday. He also couldn’t help but wonder how much lower his score could have been. McIlroy missed nine putts from 10 feet or closer — eight of those birdie chances — and then holed a 5-foot par on the 18th to take a one-shot lead over Tyrrell Hatton, Tom Kim and Byeong Hun An at The Renaissance Club. “I thought I hit the ball really well tee to green,” McIlroy
July 14, 2023Brenda Sepulveda stopped Friday at a suburban Philadelphia convenience store to buy lottery tickets as the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots soared to some of their heftiest in the history of the games. “I think that people are drawn to this kind of lottery because we all hope and pray that we might be the lucky one, that maybe we weren’t born into wealth, but you never know,” she said, as she dreamed of paying off student loans, and her and her mother’s cars. The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday night’s drawing has grown to $560
July 14, 2023The Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to step down from leading the Chicago civil rights organization Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded in 1971, his son’s congressional office said Friday. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson confirmed the long-time civil rights leader would be retiring from the organization. The elder Jackson, a civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, plans to announce his decision on Sunday during the organization’s annual convention, Rep. Jackson told the Chicago Sun-Times. Jonathan Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, said his father “has forever been on the scene of justice and has never stopped fighting
July 14, 2023Five people leaving a cemetery after a funeral were shot and wounded Friday by someone firing into their car from a second vehicle in a Maryland suburb of the nation’s capital, police said. No arrests were immediately made, and the five victims were all taken to area hospitals as authorities pleaded for the help of passing motorists in identifying suspects from the brazen daylight attack in busy traffic. The shooting site is near a bridge that crosses the Anacostia River in Bladensburg, about a mile (.6 kilometer) east of the Maryland border with Washington, D.C. Bladensburg
July 14, 2023Big rig driver David Cherno was hauling Jimmy Dean sausages on Interstate 70 when he had to stop for the night or risk violating federal regulations limiting driving time for truckers. An Illinois rest area was full, so Cherno parked on the wide shoulder of the exit ramp leading to it — a common practice for truck drivers. Just before 2 a.m. Wednesday, Cherno was awakened to a frightening jolt that sent him airborne into his dash. He got out and saw the horror: A burning Greyhound bus jammed into his trailer, passengers pushing and kicking
July 14, 2023An Illinois judge on Friday set a Nov. 6 trial date for a father charged with helping his son obtain a gun license three years before the son allegedly shot dead seven people at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago last year. The father, Robert Crimo Jr., told Judge George Strickland at a hearing in Waukegan — north of Highland Park, where the shooting occurred — that he was waiving his right to a jury trial. That means Strickland will hear evidence and issue verdicts at the end of the bench trial. Earlier this year,
July 14, 2023A little more than a week after contract talks between UPS and the union representing 340,000 of its workers broke down, UPS said it will begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike, which the union has vowed to do if no agreement is reached by the end of this month. UPS said Friday that the training is a temporary plan that has no impact on current operations. “While we have made great progress and are close to reaching an agreement, we have a responsibility as an essential service provider to take steps
July 14, 2023Alex Galchenyuk repeatedly used racial slurs toward a police officer in training and threatened to have two officers killed during a traffic stop last weekend, police said in a report, actions that led the Arizona Coyotes to terminate the player’s contract on Friday. A Scottsdale Police Department report said Galchenyuk was erratic and aggressive toward officers after apparently crashing a car into a sign. Galchenyuk cited connections in Moscow while saying “I’m gunna chop you, your wife, your daughter” and “One phone call and you’re all dead, your whole family, your blood line is dead,” police
July 14, 2023Falling crude oil prices and lingering worries about the global economy have been sapping power from energy stocks throughout 2023. The sector, which includes oil and oilfield exploration companies, is coming off of two years or rising oil prices and inflation. Now the S&P 500 has broken free from the bear market, but the energy sector is among the biggest laggards with a 7.4% dip. “Given that energy is one of the most cyclical sectors in the market, ongoing fears of a slowdown both here and abroad are likely weighing on the price of oil and
July 14, 2023Christian and Muslim leaders in Kenya are urging President William Ruto to repeal a finance bill whose new taxes have sparked protests and police killings of civilians, warning that Kenyans face a level of hopelessness that “can easily inspire insurrection.” Friday’s statement by national religious organizations came as the main political opposition group announced the next protest would take place next Wednesday, and as Ruto declared it would not be allowed. Human rights watchdogs have asserted that police killed as many as 10 people in the latest protests this week, while a police official told The
July 14, 2023The NCAA fined Tennessee more than $8 million on Friday and issued a scathing report outlining more than 200 infractions during the three-year tenure of former coach Jeremy Pruitt. The Volunteers escaped a postseason ban. The sprawling report said Tennessee committed 18 Level I violations, the most severe, and said most involved recruiting infractions and direct payments to athletes and their families – benefits that totaled approximately $60,000. The NCAA praised Tennessee for its cooperation and the Vols escaped the postseason ban penalty. But the infractions panel noted that decision was a difficult one given the
July 14, 2023Moldova’s prime minister said Friday that he accepted the resignations of three ministers, including the interior minister, which comes two weeks after a shooting at the country’s main international airport that left two security officers dead. Prime Minister Dorin Recean said in a media briefing that Interior Minister Ana Revenco, the infrastructure and regional development minister, Lilia Dabija, and Science and Education Minister Anatolie Topal all handed in their resignations on Thursday, but he didn’t say why they quit. The opposition, however, had demanded that Revenco resign in the wake of a deadly shooting at Chisinau
July 14, 2023Padraig Harrington is not ruling out the idea of playing in another Ryder Cup, even at age 51, depending on how he fares in his two weeks against the world’s best players. That hope was emboldened Friday in the Scottish Open after a 4-under 66 at The Renaissance Club, leaving him two shots off the early pace set by Tyrrell Hatton and Tom Kim. Harrington said European captain Luke Donald called him after he won two weeks ago on the PGA Tour Champions to say he was watching. But the Irishman doesn’t believe his performance on
July 14, 2023China’s fast fashion retailer Shein is facing a lawsuit that claims the clothing maker’s copyright infringement is so aggressive, it amounts to racketeering. The filing this week claims that Shein is in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO, a law originally crafted to prosecute organized crime. “Shein has grown rich by committing individual infringements over and over again, as part of a long and continuous pattern of racketeering, which shows no sign of abating,” the filing says. In an organized effort to create as many as 6,000 new items per day, Shein uses
July 14, 2023The political party that captured first place in Thailand’s general election two months ago — only to see the country’s unelected Senators block its expectations of taking power — announced Friday it’s fighting back, seeking to change the law to take away the Senate’s de facto veto over who can form a new government. After the surprise May 14 victory of the progressive Move Forward Party, it assembled an eight-party coalition that captured a combined 312 seats — a clear majority in the House of Representatives. On that basis, it has the right to try to form
July 14, 2023Female transgender athletes who transitioned after male puberty will no longer be able to compete in women’s races, world cycling governing body the UCI said Friday. The International Cycling Union joined the governing bodies in track and field and swimming as top-tier Olympic sports addressing in this way the issue of transgender athletes and fairness in women’s events. The UCI’s decision came after American rider Austin Killips became the first openly transgender woman to win an official cycling event in May. “From now on, female transgender athletes who have transitioned after (male) puberty will be prohibited
July 14, 2023Disgruntled tourists bemoaned the temporary closing of the Acropolis in Athens on Friday as Greek authorities proactively shut the world monument’s gates between midday and early evening amid a heat wave that continues to grip southern Europe. Red Cross staff handed out bottled water to tourists wilting in long lines hoping to beat the closure and scale the steps up to the gleaming Parthenon temple as temperatures were expected to peak above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in the Greek capital. Some visitors were frustrated at being left in the lurch because they were unaware of
July 14, 2023A suspect has been taken into custody on New York’s Long Island in connection with a long-unsolved string of killings, known as the Gilgo Beach murders, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Friday. The case has drawn immense public attention since human remains were found along a New York beach highway more than a decade ago. The mystery attracted national headlines for many years and the unsolved killings were the subject of the 2020 Netflix film “Lost Girls.” The suspect was taken into custody in Massapequa late Thursday and investigators were at a
July 14, 2023A rocket being developed by the Japanese space agency exploded during testing on Friday, but there were no reports of injuries, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. The cause of the accident at the facility in Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan, was still being investigated, the agency, JAXA, said. It was unclear and when testing for the Epsilon S rocket could resume. Japanese TV news footage from the site shows the test starting normally, with white smoke shooting out at the side. About a minute later, flames and gray smoke burst upward in an explosion, and the roof
July 14, 2023Disney is asking a Florida judge on Friday to toss out a lawsuit against the company’s efforts to neutralize a takeover of Disney World’s governing district by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his appointees. The hearing scheduled for an hour in state court in Orlando involves one of two cases between the Disney and DeSantis or his governing district appointees stemming from the takeover, which was retaliation for the company’s public opposition to the so-called Don’t Say Gay legislation championed by DeSantis and Republican state lawmakers. Disney and DeSantis have been engaged in a yearlong feud that
July 14, 2023When James Bergen steps from a plane and plummets toward fire below, he’s not scared. Instead, he says, he gets a rush from not knowing exactly what he’ll face when he parachutes in as one of the smokejumpers confronting the wildfires that have scorched Canada this spring and summer. One call may mean a drop and a hike to a meadow to put out a single burning tree. “Next day you go to a fire and it’s a giant roaring beast threatening a community,” said Bergen, a solidly built 46-year-old with graying stubble.
July 14, 2023Novak Djokovic closed in on a record-tying eighth title at Wimbledon and fifth in a row by repeatedly serving his way out of potential trouble to beat Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the semifinals on Friday. Djokovic saved all six break points he faced — including a pair that were set points for the eighth-seeded Sinner at 5-4 in the third — and reached his ninth final at the All England Club. It’s also his 35th final at all Grand Slam tournaments, more than any man or woman in tennis history. He is seeking
July 14, 2023JPMorgan Chase & Co. said second-quarter profits rose by 67% as the nation’s largest bank made more loans to customers and took advantage of higher interest rates and its recent acquisition of First Republic. JPMorgan said Friday that it earned $14.5 billion in the three months ended June 30, compared to a profit of of $8.65 billion in the same period a year earlier. On a per share basis, the bank earned $4.75 a share. Revenue rose to $42.4 billion from $31.6 billion a year ago. The results beat Wall Street forecasts, with analysts surveyed by
July 14, 2023China on Friday criticized a German government call for reducing dependency on Chinese products and decreasing other potentially unstable factors in bilateral relations, calling it a form of protectionism. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that a long-awaited German government strategy for relations with China that pointed to a “systemic rivalry” went “against the trend of the times, and will only aggravate divisions in the world.” Wang said the two countries were “partners rather than rivals,” a typical ruling Chinese Communist Party formulation for dismissing criticism. “We believe that to engage in competition and protectionism in the
July 14, 2023German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed optimism Friday that support for a far-right party which has been surging in the polls lately will shrink to previous levels again by the time of the next national election in 2025. The far-right Alternative for Germany party received 10.3% of the vote in the last national election in 2021 — a slight decline from 2017, when it got 12.6% in the wake of an influx of migrants to Europe. Recent polls have shown support for the party, known by its German acronym AfD, at around 20% and ahead of Scholz’s center-left
July 14, 2023Hundreds of thousands of British vacationers face potential disruption to their travel plans at the start of the school summer holidays, after almost 1,000 workers at London’s Gatwick Airport voted to strike in a dispute over pay. The Unite union said Friday that members, including baggage handlers and check-in staff, who are employed by four private contractors will walk out for four days from July 28 and again for a subsequent four-day stretch from Aug. 4. The union said the action will “inevitably” cause disruption to flights at the height of the summer holiday season after the
July 14, 2023U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China’s top diplomat Friday to discuss thorny issues as part of efforts to nurture talks on the sidelines of regional diplomatic meetings in Indonesia, whose president called on rival powers to avoid turning the region into a “competition arena.” Blinken stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and raised concerns by Washington and its allies over China’s actions in his late-Thursday meeting with Wang Yi, who heads the ruling Communist Party’s Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, U.S. officials
July 14, 2023A man who died as a result of a drowning accident in his home is Vermont’s first death related to recent storms and historic flooding, the state’s emergency management agency said. Stephen Davoll, 63, of Barre, died on Wednesday, said Mark Bosma, spokesperson for Vermont Emergency Management. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner investigated the death, in cooperation with local police, Bosma said in a news release late Thursday afternoon. He said Vermonters are urged to continue to take extra care as they return to their homes and repair damage. “The loss of a Vermonter is always painful, but
July 14, 2023South Africa deployed the army in four of its provinces Friday after at least 21 trucks carrying goods were set on fire in various parts of the country over the past week. The move came amid concerns of more unrest over a court decision that could send former president Jacob Zuma back to jail, although authorities have denied they are connected. The deployment of soldiers to support police in some parts of the country came a day after South Africa’s apex Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma’s release on medical parole in 2021 was invalid.
July 14, 2023France is celebrating its national holiday Friday with whizzing warplanes and a grand Bastille Day parade in Paris — and with more than 100,000 police deployed around the country to prevent a new outbreak of unrest in underprivileged neighborhoods. This year, the annual events celebrating the start of the French Revolution on July 14, 1789 come in the wake of the nation’s most serious rioting in nearly 20 years, following the fatal police shooting of a teen with North African roots that laid bare anger over entrenched inequality and racial discrimination. India is the guest of honor
July 14, 2023Southeast Asian foreign ministers renewed their alarm over — and condemnation of — air strikes, artillery shelling, and other acts of deadly violence in Myanmar, but struggled Friday to overcome differences on how to address the prolonged civil strife. The Myanmar crisis was high on the agenda when top diplomats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met Tuesday and Wednesday in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. The 10-nation bloc includes Myanmar, but its foreign minister was again barred from attending this week’s meetings due to the military government’s failure to comply with a five-point emergency
July 14, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Wagner private military company “simply doesn’t exist” as a legal entity, in comments adding to the series of often bizarre twists that have followed the group’s abortive revolt last month — the most serious threat to Putin’s 23-year rule amid the war in Ukraine. “There is no law on private military organizations. It simply doesn’t exist,” Putin told a Russian newspaper late Thursday, referring to the Wagner group. Putin recounted to Kommersant his own version of a Kremlin event attended by 35 Wagner commanders, including the group’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 29.
July 14, 2023The little village of Ghajar has been a sore point between Israel and Lebanon for years, split in two by the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. But after a long period of calm, the dispute has begun to heat up again. Israel has been building a wall around the half of the village in Lebanese territory, triggering condemnation from the Lebanese militiant force Hezbollah, accusing Israel of moving to annex the site. A recent exchange of fire in the area raised alarm that the dispute could trigger violence. The growing tensions over
July 14, 2023Asian shares mostly surged Friday after Wall Street’s winning streak barreled into a fourth day, buoyed by the latest signal that inflation may be easing. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost earlier gains, ending down 0.1% at 32,391.26. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.9% to 7,308.50. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.3% to 2,623.83. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.4% to 19,433.22, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.1% to 3,240.96. “Positive sentiment within Asian equity markets gathered pace as investors welcomed the easing inflation momentum,” Anderson Alves at ActivTrades said in a commentary. Market watchers are also looking ahead
July 14, 2023In a sunlit art studio in Kyiv filled with easels and canvases, Iryna Farion puts the finishing touches on an oil painting with a predominantly dark color palette in shades of blue and brown. The artwork depicts two intertwined trees held together by their roots, as though in embrace, and a radiant yellow sun shining against a moody blue background. “I feel like it’s me and my husband, who was killed in the war,” Farion says of the trees. “They are like two souls, like two hearts, like one body.” Farion is among thousands of Ukrainian
July 14, 2023As uninviting as it sounds, Death Valley National Park beckons. Even as the already extreme temperatures are forecast to climb even higher, potentially topping records amid a major U.S. heat wave, tourists are arriving at this infamous desert landscape on the California-Nevada border. Daniel Jusehus snapped a photo earlier this week of a famed thermometer outside the aptly named Furnace Creek Visitor Center after challenging himself to a run in the sweltering heat. “I was really noticing, you know, I didn’t feel so hot, but my body was working really hard to cool
July 14, 2023Two former officers of a federal women’s prison in California pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple counts of sexual abuse, the latest to be prosecuted following an Associated Press investigation last year resulting in prison sentences for the former warden and chaplain. Andrew Jones, a former cook supervisor at Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, pleaded guilty to six felony charges of sexual abuse of three women he supervised, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. Nakie Nunley, a guard at the prison call center, pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual abuse and five lesser felonies of abusive
July 14, 2023North Korea’s U.N. ambassador defended his country’s recent long-range missile launch in a rare appearance at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday where he also accused the United States of driving the situation in northeast Asia “to the brink of nuclear war.” Kim Song told the council that Wednesday’s test-flight of the developmental Hwasong-18 missile was a legitimate exercise of the North’s right to self-defense. He said the United States was raising regional tensions with nuclear threats and deploying a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea for the first time in 14 years. Kim said the missile
July 14, 2023(asterisk)(asterisk) TO MOVE AT 0400 GMT(asterisk)(asterisk) The Guatemalan government’s clumsy interference with its presidential election has tturned a global spotlight on a country whose struggles with deep corruption had received limited international attention. President Alejandro Giammattei was deeply unpopular at home, but other than occasional statements of reprobation from the United States and Europe, had managed to consolidate his control of the justice system with little consequence. It was a dramatic transformation for a country that until four years ago hosted an aggressive and productive anti-corruption effort supported by the United Nations. But since that mission
July 14, 2023The founder of student aid startup Frank shook her head repeatedly Thursday as a prosecutor claimed that she tricked J.P. Morgan Chase into paying $175 million for her business by lying about its client base. Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah Fergenson described criminal charges against Frank founder Charlie Javice and codefendant Olivier Amar, the company’s chief growth officer, to a federal judge at a pretrial hearing during which each of them entered pleas of not guilty to an indictment unveiled Wednesday. Fergenson said the deal two years ago was consummated only after Javice and Amar “created a
July 14, 2023Some Republican members of Congress on Thursday denounced the Biden administration’s recent move to withdraw hundreds of square miles of federal land in New Mexico from oil and gas development, offering their support instead to legislation that would unravel the ban. U.S. Rep. Eli Crane was among those to speak out during a congressional subcommittee hearing on the legislation that he and fellow Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar recently introduced to nullify what they consider overreach by the federal government. Crane’s district includes part of the vast Navajo Nation, which spans portions of Arizona, New Mexico
July 14, 2023The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into ChatGPT creator OpenAI and whether the artificial intelligence company violated consumer protection laws by scraping public data and publishing false information through its chatbot, according to reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times. The agency sent OpenAI a 20-page letter requesting detailed information on its AI technology, products, customers, privacy safeguards and data security arrangements, according to the reports. The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FTC’s move represents the most significant regulatory threat so far to the nascent but fast-growing AI
July 13, 2023Jaravee Boonchant holed out from 128 yards for eagle on her second shot of the round and had a 7-under 64 on Thursday for a share of the first-round lead with Linn Grant in the LPGA Tour’s Dana Open. “I was just like on the first cut and I was like, `OK, this shot, just anywhere on the green,’” Boonchant said about the eagle on No. 10. “… and the ball just happened to hit one bounce and hop in the hole.” Boonchant also had seven birdies and two bogeys at Highland Meadows. The 24-year-old Thai player is winless on
July 13, 2023A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Mississippi woman who says she was hit by a stray police bullet while lying in bed. Latasha Smith, 49, was in bed on Dec. 11 when an officer from the state-run Capitol Police fired several bullets at a suspect running through her Jackson apartment complex, according to her federal complaint. A stray bullet entered Smith’s apartment and struck her arm. Smith, who said her teenage daughter was home during the episode, was taken to a hospital. In April, Smith sued Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell
July 13, 2023At least one tornado hit a suburb of Canada’s capital Thursday, damaging more than 100 homes, authorities said. Kim Ayotte, general manager of emergency and protective services for the city of Ottawa, said 125 homes were damaged in Half Moon Bay, a neighborhood in the southern end of the Barrhaven suburb. He said most damage involved roofs being ripped, windows broken or damage inflicted by falling trees. “It’s a variety of damage from small damage to quite substantial damage,” he said. He said only one minor injury had been reported involving someone whose foot was cut.
July 13, 2023The Democratic governor in Kansas is defending changes in the sex listings on transgender people’s birth certificates in a federal court filing arguing that continuing the changes doesn’t violate a new state law rolling back transgender rights. An attorney for Gov. Laura Kelly’s office also argued in the filing this week that the new Kansas law is discriminatory and “represents a willful failure of the Kansas Legislature” to protect people’s rights. It took effect July 1 and defines male and female based on a person’s sex assigned at birth for any other state law or regulation,
July 13, 2023Undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney was arrested on a felony weapons charge Thursday in Los Angeles, according to police. Haney, 24, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle and released on $35,000 bond. An Aug. 3 municipal court date was set, online court records showed. Haney was in the back seat when police conducted a traffic stop, Bill Haney, the boxer’s father, trainer and manager, told ESPN. The elder Haney said the charge is “a misunderstanding that will be solved when Devin goes to court. It’s unfortunate that he was arrested with his
July 13, 2023The PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of LIV Golf responded to a Justice Department inquiry by dropping a provision in their agreement that would have prohibited the poaching of players, the PGA Tour said Thursday. The New York Times first reported the development, which stems from the Justice Department’s antitrust review that began last summer and expanded when the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund agreed to become business partners. The non-solicitation clause was part of the framework agreement announced June 6 and signed by the PGA Tour, European tour and Public Investment Fund. The agreement, still
July 13, 2023Houston plans to spend millions of dollars to relocate residents from neighborhoods located near a rail yard polluted by a cancer-linked wood preservative that has been blamed for an increase in cancer cases, the city’s mayor announced Thursday. Texas health officials in 2019 identified a cancer cluster in Houston’s historically Black Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens neighborhoods. A second cluster was identified in 2021. Health officials have found higher rates of respiratory cancers as well as childhood cancers, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Residents and local officials have long blamed the high number of cancer cases on contamination
July 13, 2023Wildlife officials were trying to capture a wayward sea otter Thursday that has been wrestling surfboards away from surfers and aggressively approaching kayakers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California. The 5-year-old female otter has shown aggression toward people for several weeks and poses a public safety risk, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement. Video and photographs shared on social media show the marine mammal getting on top of different surfboards — on at least one occasion biting and tearing chunks off a board — and aggressively approaching surfers. A team of
July 13, 2023Guatemala sank deeper into political turmoil Thursday as prosecutors targeted a progressive presidential candidate who proved to be surprisingly popular, prompting his opponent to suspend her campaign, saying the playing field was no longer even. The government’s actions against candidate Bernardo Arévalo — first suspending his Seed Movement party, then raiding the country’s election tribunal offices after it certified election results — sparked other objections as well, from within and outside Guatemala. U.S. officials called them a threat to the country’s democracy. By Thursday afternoon, those actions appeared to have backfired. Candidates left and right warned
July 13, 2023St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, one of the most hawkish members of the central bank since it started it aggressive rate-hiking campaign, is stepping down. Bullard is leaving his position as president and CEO of the St. Louis Fed to become the inaugural dean of the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business at Purdue University next month, the bank announced Thursday. While he’ll be available in an “advisory capacity” to the Fed until Aug. 14, Bullard has recused himself from his role on the central bank’s committee that determines the direction of interest rates and other
July 13, 2023Nigeria’s new President Bola Tinubu has announced his government’s plan to pay $10 a month to poor households to ease the growing hardship caused by the scrapping of subsidies on gasoline. In a letter to the Nigerian Senate, which was read during Thursday’s sitting, Tinubu said 12 million households will benefit from the handout for a period of six months. The government plans to fund it through an $800 million World Bank loan for which Tinubu is seeking legislators’ approval. “It is expected that the program will stimulate economic activities in the informal sector and improve
July 13, 2023The International Criminal Court prosecutor said Thursday he is investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s western Darfur region during the current conflict that has killed and displaced thousands. Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council that fighting between government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Security Forces has spilled into Darfur where war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed back in 2003. He said the country is now “in peril of allowing history to repeat itself,” Khan said. In 2005, the Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC
July 13, 2023The legal headaches could only be starting for Pat Fitzgerald and Bob Huggins — and their schools. Fitzgerald was fired this week as Northwestern’s football coach following hazing allegations —- but after the school had first announced a two-week suspension. West Virginia said Huggins had resigned after the Hall of Fame basketball coach’s arrest last month on a drunken-driving charge — but he now says he made no such decision. Attorneys are looking to sort it all out, a process that requires a precise review of their contracts, but industry observers are stunned by the awkward-at-best handling of two high-profile
July 13, 2023Byeong Hun An played well enough in the Scottish Open on Thursday that he had reason to hope he can stick around for more links golf next week. An ran off four straight birdies early in his round at The Renaissance Club and closed with a 25-foot birdie putt on the tough par-3 ninth hole for a 9-under 61, giving him a two-shot lead over Davis Riley. An had his best score on the PGA Tour — the Scottish Open is co-sanctioned with the European tour — and it came at just the right time. This
July 13, 2023At first, Josiah Rogers said he thought his older brother, a Las Vegas police officer, was joking when he brought up the idea of robbing a casino. But then the conversation took a turn, and soon they were putting a plan together for a heist in November 2021, he said. Rogers revealed details of the extensive planning that went into the robbery when he took the stand Thursday and testified for several hours against his brother, Caleb Rogers, who was on trial this week over a trio of casino heists in late 2021 and early 2022.
July 13, 2023A tentative deal was reached Thursday between employers and workers in a strike that has halted shipments in and out of ports in Canada’s west coast region of British Columbia for nearly two weeks. A statement from the BC Maritime Employers Association said it had reached a tentative agreement with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The strike by 7,400 members of the union began July 1 and shut down more than 30 west coast ports, including Canada’s largest, the Port of Vancouver. The tentative deal comes after federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan ordered a
July 13, 2023The cellphone of a 20-year-old man who fatally shot three people last year at an Indianapolis-area mall contained photos of Adolf Hitler, Nazi propaganda, firearms and “extremely graphic” videos of previous mass killings, police said Thursday. Police said the FBI found nothing on the phone about the mall or plans for last year’s mass shooting, but it contained what appeared to be a suicide note Jonathan Douglas Sapirman had written more than two years before the attack. Greenwood police said the FBI was able in May to unlock the phone, which Sapirman dropped into a mall toilet
July 13, 2023It’s not just you. Sriracha is hard to come by these days — at least for one popular brand. The shortage of Huy Fong Foods’ Sriracha, the beloved red hot sauce packaged in those green-capped bottles, isn’t new — with the company pointing to a scarcity of chile pepper supply for several years now. And as frustrated fans continue to face store shelves missing the Huy Fong name, third-party resellers are punching up prices. Huy Fong Sriracha, which used to go for under $5 or $10 a bottle, is now selling for shocking amounts in some
July 13, 2023All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and the New York Jets agreed Thursday to a four-year contract extension worth $96 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. Williams is now the second-highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL behind only the Rams’ Aaron Donald, who is making $31.7 million per year. The deal for Williams includes $66 million in guaranteed salary, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team didn’t announce terms of the contract. The guarantee is the largest in Jets history, surpassing the $51 million linebacker C.J.
July 13, 2023Controversial social media personality Andrew Tate and his brother are suing a Florida woman, saying she falsely accused them of imprisoning her in Romania, leading to their arrest there on human trafficking charges. The widely followed former professional kickboxer and his brother, Tristan, are seeking at least $5 million in the lawsuit, which was filed in Palm Beach County against the woman, her parents, another woman who lived at the Tates’ Bucharest estate and a male friend of the woman. The Tates say the five conspired to falsely accuse them of human trafficking and rape,
July 13, 2023The Biden administration has quietly ditched a key gauge used for decades to measure success in the war on drugs, suspending satellite monitoring of coca crops in Colombia as cocaine production surges in South America. A State Department spokesperson said the move was “temporary” but gave no timeframe for data collection to resume or explain why it was suspended in the first place. It was also unclear whether satellite surveys would continue in Peru and Bolivia, which together account for about half of coca production in the Andean region. The move, first reported by Colombia’s El Tiempo
July 13, 2023Vermont prepared for the next round of storms — and possibly a tornado — as people took advantage of calm weather Thursday to clean up from historic flooding that damaged thousands of homes, businesses and roads, and left some residents stranded. As floodwaters receded, the good news was that there were no new rescue missions, dams were holding up and more roads reopened. The bad news was that strong thunderstorms were expected to move into parts of the state by Thursday night, which could cause more flash flooding, Gov. Phil Scott said at a news conference. Conditions could spawn a
July 13, 2023It’s bright and early at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and the penguin population’s newest member is ready for a wellness check. A fuzzy brown southern rockhopper chick is gently plopped onto a scale in an exam room and Shedd’s penguin team members are happy with the results. So, it seems, is the chick, who waves its flippers in the air and stretches out its neck. “You’re doing the happy flaps!” says senior trainer Katy Roxbury, who offers the chick bits of herring. The first southern rockhopper penguin hatched at Shedd in eight years came out of its shell
July 13, 2023A man charged with attacking a flight attendant with a broken metal spoon and attempting to open an airliner’s emergency door on a cross-country flight in March is not currently competent to stand trial, a federal judge ruled. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein, basing her decision on a mental health evaluation of Francisco Severo Torres and her own observations in court, determined Wednesday that further treatment is warranted, according to court records. “The Court hereby finds … that the defendant is presently suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he
July 13, 2023Memphis Grizzlies forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. is among several undrafted players making an impact in the Las Vegas summer league. The former Louisiana Tech standout who was not selected in 2022 is averaging 20.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in three games while shooting 58% from the field. Lofton uses his 6-foot-6, 275-pound frame to seemingly score at will. He was the G-League Rookie of the Year for the Memphis Hustle last season and later got his two-way contract converted into a regular deal. He took advantage of a call-up to the Grizzlies and had 42 points and 14 rebounds against
July 13, 2023ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and The Associated Press said Thursday that they’ve made a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories. “The arrangement sees OpenAI licensing part of AP’s text archive, while AP will leverage OpenAI’s technology and product expertise,” the two organizations said in a joint statement. The price of the deal was not disclosed. “Both organizations will benefit from each other’s established expertise in their respective industries, and believe in the responsible creation and use of these AI systems,” the statement said. The two companies said they are also examining
July 13, 2023A drug cartel bomb attack that allegedly used a fake report of a mass grave to lure police into a deadly trap has had devastating collateral damage: It has led some authorities to abandon the volunteers who search for Mexico’s 110,000 missing people. Most of the searchers are distraught mothers looking for the bodies of the thousands of victims of kidnapping gangs and drug cartels, who dump their bodies in clandestine graves. A day after Tuesday’s attack that killed four police officers and two civilians in Jalisco state, Gov. Enrique Alfaro announced that he was temporarily
July 13, 2023A First Amendment group sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and others on Thursday over the state’s TikTok ban on official devices, arguing the prohibition – which extends to public universities – is unconstitutional and impedes academic freedom. The complaint was filed by The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, a free speech group in New York that’s suing on behalf a coalition of academics and researchers who study technology’s impact on society. The lawsuit said the state’s decision to restrict access to TikTok on official devices, as well as on personal devices used to conduct
July 13, 2023The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network was freed on $40 million bail Thursday after pleading not guilty to federal fraud charges alleging that he schemed to defraud customers by misleading them about key aspects of the business. Alexander Mashinsky, 57, of Manhattan, was charged with securities, commodities and wire fraud in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. He was also charged with illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices. Mashinsky left the court without commenting after an
July 13, 2023The European Union and Japan celebrated their close cooperation with Thursday’s announcement that the 27-nation bloc will lift the food import restrictions it had imposed in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a short summit with EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, further cementing a diplomatic unity that was only reinforced since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “We know that the Pacific security and European security are indivisible,” von der Leyen said after both leaders discussed their joint strategic challenges at the NATO summit in Vilnius,
July 13, 2023Guatemala sank deeper into political turmoil Thursday as prosecutors targeted a progressive presidential candidate who proved to be surprisingly popular, prompting his opponent to suspend her campaign, saying the playing field was no longer even. The government’s actions against candidate Bernardo Arévalo — first suspending his Seed Movement party, then raiding the country’s election tribunal offices after it certified election results — sparked other objections as well, from within and outside Guatemala. U.S. officials called them a threat to the country’s democracy. By Thursday afternoon, those actions appeared to have backfired. Candidates left and right warned
July 13, 2023The United Nations’ top court on Thursday rejected a case brought by Nicaragua in a decades-long dispute with Colombia over maritime borders and entitlements in the Caribbean. The International Court of Justice dismissed Nicaragua’s bid to gain economic rights over an area of the Caribbean sea that lies more than 200 nautical miles (380 kilometers) from its shores. Nicaragua wanted the international court to review the limits of its continental shelf, and determine new maritime boundaries for the Central American nation. Colombia already claims exclusive economic rights in much of the area that lies to
July 13, 2023No fingerprints or DNA turned up on the baggie of cocaine found in a lobby at the White House last week despite a sophisticated FBI crime lab analysis, and surveillance footage of the area didn’t identify a suspect, according to a summary of the Secret Service investigation obtained by The Associated Press. There are no leads on who brought the drugs into the building. U.S. Secret Service agents found the white powder during a routine White House sweep on July 2, in a heavily trafficked West Wing lobby where staff go in and out and tour groups
July 13, 2023There was a time when Ons Jabeur might not have recovered from the deficit she found herself in during the Wimbledon semifinals. Down a set. Down a break. So close to being just a game from defeat. She credits her sports psychologist with helping her understand how to deal with those on-court situations, with managing to keep her focus, keep her strokes on-target. Thanks in part to that, and a steadiness down the stretch at Centre Court on Thursday, Jabeur is on her way to a second consecutive final at the All England Club and her
July 13, 2023The gunman who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 is eligible for the death penalty, a federal jury announced Thursday, setting the stage for further evidence and testimony on whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. The government is seeking capital punishment for Robert Bowers, who raged against Jewish people online before storming the Tree of Life synagogue with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons in the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack. The jury agreed with prosecutors that Bowers — who spent six months planning the attack and has since expressed
July 13, 2023The Federal Trade Commission says it is appealing a judge’s ruling that would have allowed Microsoft to close its deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard. A Wednesday court filing from the FTC says it is appealing it to the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Antitrust enforcers at the FTC have been trying to stop Microsoft’s $68.7 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, maker of popular game franchises like Call of Duty, arguing it will harm competition in the video game industry. But in a Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the
July 13, 2023Tourists in central Athens huddled under mist machines, and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit popsicles and chunks of frozen food, as southern Europeans braced for a heat wave Thursday, with a warning of severe conditions coming from the European Union’s space agency. Emergency measures – including staffing changes, cellphone alerts, and intensified forest fire patrols – were readied or put into effect in several countries as temperatures in parts of Mediterranean Europe were set to reach 45 degrees Celsius (113F) Friday and into the weekend. In Athens and other Greek cities, working hours were
July 13, 2023Russia and Belarus will not get a formal invitation to the 2024 Paris Olympics when more than 200 national teams receive their traditional invites later this month, the IOC said Thursday. It is an International Olympic Committee tradition exactly one year before a Summer Games or Winter Games opens to invite all the national teams worldwide to the event. Despite the protocol move, some Russian and Belarusian athletes could still compete in Paris despite their countries’ war on Ukraine. Their national teams will not yet be asked to come. The IOC said Thursday that 203 eligible
July 13, 2023Bob Iger will remain as CEO of The Walt Disney Co. through the end of 2026, agreeing to a two-year contract extension that will give the entertainment and theme park company some breathing room to find his successor. Shares climbed before the market open on Thursday. Iger rejoined Disney as CEO in November, taking over control of the company from Bob Chapek. He had previously served as CEO and chairman from 2005 to 2020 and then as executive chairman and chairman through 2021. Chapek’s short tenure was met by much criticism, particularly from Disney park loyalists who openly criticized Chapek
July 13, 2023The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell again last week as the labor market continues defy the Federal Reserve’s attempt to cool it through higher interest rates. U.S. applications for jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 237,000 for the week ending July 8, from 249,000 previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week ups and downs, fell by 6,750 to 246,750. Jobless claim applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week. Overall, 1.73 million people were collecting unemployment benefits
July 13, 2023Wholesale prices in the United States decelerated again last month, the latest sign that inflationary pressures are easing in the face of the Federal Reserve’s streak of interest rate hikes. The government’s producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose just 0.1% last month from June 2022, the smallest such increase since August 2020. And from May to June, prices rose an identical 0.1% after having fallen 0.4% from April to May. The index that the Labor Department issued Thursday reflects prices charged by manufacturers, farmers and wholesalers. It can provide an
July 13, 2023Russian lawmakers on Thursday approved a toughened version of a bill that outlaws gender transitioning procedures, with added clauses that annul marriages in which one person has “changed gender” and bar transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents. The bill received swift, unanimous approval of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in its key second reading, and lawmakers scheduled the third and final reading for Friday. There is little doubt that the bill, a crippling blow to Russia’s oppressed LGBTQ+ community, will be adopted amid the Kremlin’s crusade to protect what it views
July 13, 2023France’s parliament on Thursday approved a multi-billion-euro boost to military spending through the rest of this decade, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine and fast-growing global threats. President Emmanuel Macron pushed for the bigger budget, which would spend 413 billion euros ($450 billion), the most significant spending hike in half a century. The money would modernize France’s nuclear arsenal, augment intelligence spending and develop more remote-controlled weapons. He has argued the boost was needed to ensure “our freedom, our security, our prosperity, our place in the world.” The defense minister has compared it to France’s push in
July 13, 2023Commuters and tourists alike were stranded by a major train strike across Italy on a sweltering Thursday, with cancellations affecting even high-speed lines that are usually guaranteed during Italy’s frequent work stoppages. Transport Minister Matteo Salvini signed a decree ordering the two-day strike be cut in half, but even that truncated stoppage forced the cancellation of service up and down the peninsula on a weekday, at the height of Italy’s booming high tourist season. At Milan’s main rail station, for example, eight of 20 scheduled Trenitalia trains scheduled between 10:30-11:30 a.m. were canceled. State-run Trenitalia warned of
July 13, 2023A brawl erupted in the Kosovo parliament on Thursday after an opposition lawmaker threw water on Prime Minister Albin Kurti while he was speaking about government measures to defuse tensions with ethnic Serbs in the country’s north. Kosovo opposition parties have criticized Kurti’s policies in the north that have strained relations with key Western allies. The United States and the European Union have pressured Kurti to help calm the situation after violence broke out in May after police-backed ethnic Albanian mayors took office following an election that the ethnic Serb majority in the area had widely
July 13, 2023The Powerball jackpot soared to an estimated $875 million after no winning ticket was sold for the latest drawing. No ticket for Wednesday’s $750 million jackpot matched the white balls 23, 35, 45, 66, 67 and red Powerball 20. The new jackpot for Saturday’s drawing is the third highest in the history of the game. Ticket buyers have a chance at either $875 million paid out in yearly increments or a $441.9 million one-time lump sum before taxes. The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that draw
July 13, 2023Europe’s top court ruled on Thursday that suspension in Poland of a judge who had criticized the government is against the EU’s law and he should be returned to the bench with full pay. The decision was the latest in a string of European Union decisions ordering Poland’s right-wing government to roll back changes to the judiciary that the EU says are in violation of the rule of law. Judge Igor Tuleya was suspended in 2020 and had his pay reduced by a judicial disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court, a body created and controlled by
July 13, 2023Delta Air Lines reported unprecedented quarterly profit and revenue Thursday and raised its expectations for a year after travelers took to the skies in huge numbers, defying some forecasts of a pullback in spending. Revenue soared almost 13% to $15.58 billion, a surprising jump even for a carrier that has outperformed consistently. Shares rose almost 5% before the opening bell, on a trajectory to set a new 52-week high, and pulled major carriers higher with it. “Robust demand is continuing into the September quarter where we expect total revenue to be similar to the June quarter, up 11 percent to
July 13, 2023Higher prices lifted PepsiCo’s revenue in the second quarter but dented consumer demand, and the company said Thursday that price increases could start to moderate in the second half of this year. Snack food volumes fell 3% in the April-June period, while beverage volumes dropped 1%. Yet net pricing rose 15%, the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit price increases from PepsiCo. The Purchase, New York, company reported better-than-expected revenue and raised its full-year earnings forecasts. Pepsi’s revenue rose 10% to $22.3 billion, topping Wall Street’s projections for $21.7 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet. PepsiCo shares were flat in
July 13, 2023The German government on Thursday presented a long-awaited strategy for relations with China that points to a “systemic rivalry” with the Asian power and a need to reduce risks of economic dependency, but highlights Berlin’s desire to work with Beijing on challenges such as climate change and maintain trade ties. The 64-page document approved by Chancellor OIaf Scholz’s Cabinet builds on Germany’s first national security strategy, issued a month ago. Scholz’s three-party coalition had pledged when it took office in late 2021 to draw up a “comprehensive China strategy.” Germany has Europe’s biggest economy and is the
July 13, 2023A Russian general in charge of forces fighting in southern Ukraine has been relieved of his duties after speaking out about the problems faced by his troops in a move that reflected new fissures in the Russian military command following a brief rebellion by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, the commander of the 58th Army fighting in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, which is a focal point in the Ukrainian counteroffensive, said in an audio statement to his troops released late Wednesday that he was dismissed after a meeting with the top military brass. Popov
July 13, 2023Google said Thursday that it’s rolling out its AI-powered chatbot Bard across Europe and in Brazil, expanding its availability to hundreds of millions more users. The company also said it’s adding more features to Bard as it scrambles to keep up with rival Microsoft — which uses OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT service in its Bing search engine — in the race to develop pivotal artificial intelligence for commercial use. Google launched Bard in February, but its planned rollout last month in the European Union was delayed as regulators checked whether the service complied with the 27-nation bloc’s strict
July 13, 2023Kevin Spacey testified Thursday in his sexual assault trial, swearing in a clear and loud voice to tell the “full truth and nothing but the truth” in what could be the most consequential speaking part of his life. Spacey began by discussing how he got involved in the theater, joking that his mother would say he began acting the moment he emerged from the womb. The testimony provided some light history on his life before delving into the serious matter before the court. Four men have accused the two-time Oscar winner of sexually assaulting them between 2001
July 13, 2023Britain’s state-funded health care service is facing what is being described as its longest-ever strike as tens of thousands of doctors in England commenced a five-day walkout over pay on Thursday. So-called junior doctors, those who are at the early stages of their careers in the years after medical school, started their strike at 7 a.m., with many of them making their case for a 35% pay rise in picket lines outside hospitals across England. The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, has asked for a 35% pay rise to bring junior doctors’ pay back to 2008
July 13, 2023Maria Corina Machado has been a longtime foe of Venezuela’s government, and not exactly a unifying figure for its critics. But the government’s move to ban her from public office has helped rally the fractured opposition and focus much-needed attention on their effort to hold an independent presidential primary. The ban was issued just days after she entered the race, and Machado says it shows that the government knows that it could face defeat. “If anyone had doubts about the strategic importance, the value, of the primaries, … the actions of the regime have made this
July 13, 2023Schools and colleges were closed after record monsoon rains led to massive waterlogging, road caves-in, collapsed homes and gridlocked traffic in large parts of northern India this week, killing more than 100 people, officials said Thursday. At least 88 people died and more than 100 were injured in the worst hit-mountainous Himachal Pradesh state where cars, buses, bridges and houses were swept away by swirling flood waters, a state government statement said. The region is nearly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of New Delhi. Twelve people have died of rain-related incidents since Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh
July 13, 2023China and Southeast Asian nations agreed Thursday to try and conclude within three years a long-delayed nonaggression pact aimed at preventing the frequent territorial spats in the busy South China Sea from turning into a major armed conflict. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed Thursday during a meeting between the 10-nation bloc’s foreign ministers and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to guidelines to complete their code of conduct negotiations before fall 2026, a Southeast Asian diplomat involved in the meetings told The Associated Press. The diplomat spoke
July 13, 2023The bodies of dozens of people allegedly killed by Sudanese paramilitary forces and an allied militia have been uncovered in a mass grave in West Darfur, the United Nations said Thursday. According to “credible information” obtained by the U.N. Human Rights Office, at least 87 people — some of them from the ethnic African Masalit tribe — were killed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and an affiliated Arab militia. Their bodies were dumped in a one-meter (around three-foot) grave just outside the West Darfur city of Geneina, the agency said. Sudan has been rocked by violence
July 13, 2023Climate activists blocked a runway at Hamburg airport early Thursday, causing numerous flights to be canceled on the first day of the school vacation in the north German city. The group Last Generation said several of its members entered the grounds of Hamburg airport around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) and glued themselves to the runway. “It can’t yet be predicted when operations can resume,” the airport operators said. “According to current information about a dozen flights have had to be canceled. Further cancelations and diversions aren’t ruled out.” Members of the group also cut through a security
July 13, 2023Egypt’s president and Ethiopia’s prime minister have met to discuss bilateral relations, including construction of a giant dam on the Blue Nile, ahead of a summit in Cairo to discuss potential resolutions to the deadly 12-week conflict in Sudan. Their rare meeting at Cairo’s Al-Ittihadiya Palace Wednesday preceded a summit that President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is hosting on Sudan. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is set to attend Thursday’s high-stakes meeting, along with leaders from South Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, Central African Republic and Libya. “The two leaders discussed on key bilateral & regional issues of interest to
July 13, 2023A United Nations expert group is calling for the immediate release of a Cambodian-American human rights activist, saying an investigation it conducted has concluded she was being “arbitrarily detained in violation of international law.” The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a judgment late Wednesday that while attorney Theary Seng had been convicted of conspiracy to commit treason and other charges last year, she was in reality being punished for “making two posts on Facebook critical of Hun Sen,” Cambodia’s autocratic prime minister. The judgment comes a little more than a week
July 13, 2023Asian shares rose Thursday, boosted by Wall Street’s return to its highest level in more than a year after a report showed U.S. consumer inflation cooled a bit more than expected last month. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5% in afternoon trading to 32,425.69. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.6% to 19,357.96, while the Shanghai Composite gained 1.3% to 3,236.86, even as China reported a slump in trade in June. Chinese exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation even as Chinese leaders struggled
July 13, 2023Tourists are waiting more than two hours to visit the Acropolis in Athens. Taxi lines at Rome’s main train station are running just as long. And so many visitors are concentrating around St. Mark’s Square in Venice that crowds get backed up crossing bridges — even on weekdays. After three years of pandemic limitations, tourism is expected to exceed 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations this summer, from Barcelona and Rome, Athens and Venice to the scenic islands of Santorini in Greece, Capri in Italy and Mallorca in Spain. While European tourists edged
July 13, 2023Lisa Wrightsman was a former college soccer player whose life was derailed by drug addiction before she eventually made her way back to the sport through a tournament for players from around the globe who have experienced homelessness. Wrightsman qualified for the Homeless World Cup in Brazil. It was a competition that would forever change her life. When she returned to Sacramento, friends at the sober living facility where Wrightsman lived told her they wanted “to feel the way you look right now.” “I actually started to feel value,” she said. “The whole tournament kind of
July 13, 2023An online influencer has been arrested in Dubai over a satirical TikTok video in which he portrays a brash Emirati on a spending spree inside a luxury car showroom. The comedic sketch, in which he tosses stacks of bills at bewildered employees and offers to buy the most expensive car — a $600,000 Ferrari SF90 — poked fun at the lavish lifestyles on display in the city, known for its gleaming skyscrapers and over-the-top tourism attractions. Dubai is more socially lenient than much of the Middle East, with a relaxed dress code, bars and
July 13, 2023A misplaced naval ship in California. Overlooked college students in New York City. Missed inmates in Texas. These are some of the reasons why the two most populous states and the largest city in the U.S. filed last-minute requests for corrections to their 2020 census figures right before the deadline at the end of last month. California, Texas and New York City were joined by a dozen and a half other stragglers, including Illinois and New Orleans, that made down-to-the-deadline appeals over the numbers that help determine political power and the annual distribution of $2.8 trillion in federal funding. In
July 13, 2023China’s exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation even as Chinese leaders struggled to keep a post-COVID recovery from faltering. Customs data released Thursday showed imports slid 6.8% to $214.7 billion. Exports edged up slightly from the month before, totaling $285.3 billion. The trade surplus was $70.2 billion, rising from $65.8 billion in May. Trade weakness adds to downward pressure on the world’s second-largest economy. Global consumer demand has weakened after the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia raised
July 13, 2023Kazuya Nakamura says he was 15 when one of the most powerful men in Japanese entertainment history forced him to have sex while he was part of a troupe of backup dancers managed by the legendary talent agent. At least a dozen other men have come forward this year to say they were sexually assaulted as teenagers by boy band impresario Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, beginning with three who spoke anonymously to the BBC for a documentary broadcast in March. The story has all the elements of a major Me Too reckoning, but in Japan,
July 13, 2023The Black Lives Matter movement hits a milestone on Thursday, marking 10 years since its 2013 founding in response to the acquittal of the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Gunned down in a Florida gated community where his father lived in 2012, Martin was one of the earliest symbols of a movement that now wields influence in politics, law enforcement and broader conversations about racial progress in and outside the U.S. BLM activists and organizations plan to mark a decade of the movement with in-person and virtual events. Calls to action include a renewed push to defund police
July 13, 2023After a historically wet winter and a cloudy spring, California’s summer was in full swing Thursday as a heat wave that’s been scorching much of the U.S. Southwest brings triple digit temperatures and an increased risk of wildfires. Blistering conditions will build Friday and throughout the weekend in the central and southern parts of California, where many residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year, the National Weather Service warned. Midday highs were mostly expected to be above 100 degrees (37.7 C), and desert areas could reach 120 (48.8 C), forecasters said. Little relief
July 13, 2023Russian forces unleashed a barrage of self-exploding Iranian-made Shahed drones early Thursday morning, according to the Kyiv City Administration. Nearly ten drones were identified and shot down, the municipal authorities wrote on Telegram. Explosions were heard in different parts of the city, and debris from intercepted drones fell on five districts of the Ukrainian capital. Some buildings were damaged, and two people hospitalized with shrapnel wounds. Volodymyr Motus, a 22-year-old resident of an east Kyiv building hit by drone debris, carefully picked his way across the floor a destroyed apartment, his footsteps accompanied by the sound
July 13, 2023A Japanese tourist reaches into a baggie of cannabis he’s just bought in a central Bangkok weed shop, pulling out a gram of buds to chop down in a small black grinder, before rolling them neatly into a joint. Only the slight spillage onto the smoking lounge’s table — and his cough as he lights up and inhales deeply — betray the fact that until two weeks ago, he’d never tried marijuana. Most Asian nations have strict drug laws with harsh penalties, and Thailand’s de facto legalization of marijuana last year has brought a wave of tourists
July 13, 2023After winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup with its junior varsity two years ago, the United States failed to repeat. Adalberto Carrasquilla converted the decisive penalty kick after Cristian Roldan was stopped in his attempt, and Panama beat the Americans 5-4 in a shootout following a 1-1 tie on Wednesday night to reach the CONCACAF Gold Cup final against Mexico or Jamaica. “There’s a lot of learning lessons that we’re all going to take away as we now continue our preparation to the path of 2026,” U.S. interim coach B.J. Callaghan said, looking ahead to the Americans
July 13, 2023Thai lawmakers are gathering Thursday to select a new prime minister, a process whose outcome is far from certain even though the country’s most progressive party won both the popular vote and the most seats in the House of Representatives in the most recent election. Thailand’s May 14 election was regarded as a major political turning point. The reformist Move Forward Party’s victory appeared to spell an end to nine years of unpopular army-supported rule. Two months later, it is unclear if that mandate for change will be honored. Parliament is due to vote on whether to
July 13, 2023Guatemala’s troubled presidential election was thrown into even greater turmoil Wednesday when the country’s top electoral tribunal confirmed the results of the June 25 vote while the Attorney General’s Office announced that the second place party had been suspended. The seemingly contradictory moves fed more than two weeks of rising tensions and suspicions after the first round of voting, which had seemingly sent conservative Sandra Torres and progressive Bernardo Arévalo into a Aug. 20 presidential runoff. There were immediate calls Wednesday for Guatemalans to take to the streets in protest and demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme
July 13, 2023Longtime ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale says he has been diagnosed with cancer for a third time. Vitale tweeted Wednesday that he had surgery in Boston this week, and tests revealed that he has vocal cord cancer. He said he will undergo six weeks of radiation treatments. “I plan to fight like hell to be ready to call games when the college hoops season kicks off in the fall,” Vitale tweeted, adding that his doctor “feels that scenario is entirely possible.” The 84-year-old Vitale has previously been treated for melanoma and lymphoma. He celebrated being cancer-free in April of
July 13, 2023A caffeinated energy drink being promoted by American social media influencers is set to be recalled in Canada. Health Canada said Wednesday that at 200 milligram of caffeine per can, Prime Energy exceeds the regulator’s acceptable caffeine limit of 180 milligram per serving and should not be sold. On Sunday, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer called on the Food and Drug Administration to investigate PRIME, a beverage brand founded by the YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI that has become something of an obsession among the influencers’ legions of young followers. Health Canada said it’s aware that
July 13, 2023The National Weather Service says a tornado has touched down near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport following warnings of severe weather for the city. A confirmed tornado was on the ground around 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Chicago. “This tornado has been touching the ground intermittently so far and is moving east. There are additional circulations along the line south of O’Hare. Seek shelter if in the warned area,” it said. The National Weather Service had issued two tornado warnings for portions of the city Wednesday evening. Tornado sirens sounded at least twice
July 13, 2023Millions of people across the Southwest are living through a historic heat wave, with even the heat-experienced desert city of Phoenix being tested since temperatures have hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) for more than a dozen consecutive days. More than 111 million people across the United States were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings, The National Weather Service reported Wednesday. Huge swaths of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California were experiencing temperatures above 90 degrees F (32 C). “To underscore just how expansive this heat is, based off the current forecast approximately 27
July 12, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further bolster his country’s nuclear fighting capabilities as he supervised the country’s second test-flight of a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the mainland U.S., state media reported Thursday. Kim’s statement suggested North Korea would ramp up weapons testing activities to expand its arsenals in response to recent U.S. steps to enhance its security commitment to ally South Korea. “The present unstable situation in which the security environment on the Korean peninsula is being seriously threatened by the hostile forces every moment,” Kim said, according to
July 12, 2023A hamburger and drink combination called the Lionel Messi. A huge sketch of the soccer star’s smiling face on a restaurant wall beside a viral meme from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. A beer with a pink label matching the color of the Inter Miami jersey he will wear. Wherever you turn in Miami these days something reminds you of the imminent arrival of the Argentine soccer legend. There is no hiding the euphoria generated by Messi in Miami as he begins the new Major League Soccer phase of his career in one of the most
July 12, 2023On a hazy, 80-degree afternoon in April, Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette practiced with Julia Grabher about 24 hours before each would win a second-round match on the green clay of the WTA’s Charleston Open. While one of Linette’s two coaches, Iain Hughes, offered her instruction, the other, Mark Gellard, stood in a corner, keeping an eye on the workout while chatting with Lan Yao-Gallop. She is one of 10 members of the women’s professional tennis tour’s Coach Inclusion Program, which is in its first full year of trying to help female coaches break into the
July 12, 2023Dockworkers and the governor in the state with the lowest percentage of unionized workers are digging in their heels over a labor dispute that has left the newest container terminal at the East Coast’s deepest harbor largely inactive. Pending before a federal appeals court is a National Labor Relations Board decision that upheld unionized dockworkers’ right to exclusively staff the cranes at Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal in Charleston, South Carolina, under a 2012 master contract. The alternative is a so-called hybrid model implemented by other South Carolina terminals backed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster where loading
July 12, 2023Wednesday and Thursday are the last two days of Manhattanhenge, the biannual alignment of the setting sun with the city’s east-west streets that brings New Yorkers out of their apartments to watch it bathe the urban canyons in a rosy glow. With forecasters predicting gloomy weather, fans of the spectacle will have to hope the clouds part at the right time. “We have had luck in the past when the weather clears,” said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History whose sold-out lecture on Manhattanhenge on Thursday will be followed by a
July 12, 2023A federal lawsuit alleges police in Washington state had no plan other than to use deadly force against a fugitive who was on the run in 2020 after shooting a supporter of a far-right group during clashes between supporters of then-President Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter in the streets of Portland, Oregon. “The actions of the officers, before, during, and after the shooting, show that they either had no plan to arrest the man without injury, made no effort to follow such a plan, or planned to use deadly force from the start,” said the
July 12, 2023Ask ChatGPT about comedian Sarah Silverman’s memoir “The Bedwetter” and the artificial intelligence chatbot can come up with a detailed synopsis of every part of the book. Does that mean it effectively “read” and memorized a pirated copy? Or it scraped so many customer reviews and online chatter about the bestseller or the musical it inspired that it passes for an expert? The U.S. courts may now help sort that out after Silverman sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for copyright infringement this week, joining a growing number of writers who say they unwittingly built the foundation for Silicon Valley’s red-hot AI boom.
July 12, 2023Federal prosecutors will not pursue the death penalty against two men charged with the prison killing of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, according to court papers filed Wednesday. Prosecutors said in a court filing that in the event Fotios “Freddy” Geas, a former Mafia hitman, and Paul J. DeCologero, a Massachusetts gangster, are convicted of murder in Bulger’s killing, they will not seek a death sentence. Geas also faced a possible death sentence if found guilty of an additional charge of murder by a federal prisoner serving a life sentence. But prosecutors said they would not
July 12, 2023Patrick Mahomes already is a two-time Super Bowl MVP and AP NFL MVP before turning 28, compiling an impressive Hall of Fame-worthy resume in only six seasons. If any player is ever going to challenge Tom Brady for GOAT — greatest of all time — status, Mahomes has the best chance. Like Brady and other superstar athletes, Mahomes still works to improve, aiming to keep the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl contention. “I think everybody thinks about legacy and how they’re remembered, but you have to think about that at the same time, valuing every day and how you
July 12, 2023A prisoner suspected of stabbing Larry Nassar at a federal penitentiary in Florida said the disgraced former sports doctor provoked the attack by making a lewd comment while they were watching a Wimbledon tennis match on TV, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The inmate, identified as Shane McMillan, was previously convicted of assaulting a correctional officer at a federal penitentiary in Louisiana in 2006 and attempting to stab another inmate to death at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado in 2011, court records show. McMillan attacked Nassar in his cell Sunday
July 12, 2023There’s no evidence a BBC presenter who allegedly paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos committed a crime, London police said Wednesday as the broadcaster’s wife publicly identified him for the first time as veteran news anchor Huw Edwards. Metropolitan police said it made its decision after speaking with the alleged victim and that person’s parents. The parents told The Sun newspaper last week that the presenter had been allowed to remain on air after the mother complained to the BBC in May that he paid the youth 35,000 pounds ($45,000) starting in 2020 when the person
July 12, 2023Mercenaries of the Wagner Group are completing the handover of their weapons to the Russian military, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday, a move that follows the private army’s brief rebellion last month that challenged the Kremlin’s authority. The disarming of Wagner reflects efforts by authorities to defuse the threat it posed and also appears to herald an end to the mercenary group’s operations on the battlefield in Ukraine. The actions come amid continued uncertainty about the fate of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and the terms of a deal that ended the armed rebellion by offering amnesty for
July 12, 2023The gunman who committed the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history should be deemed eligible for the death penalty because he intentionally planned the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre and preyed on vulnerable victims as they were beginning Sabbath worship, a prosecutor urged jurors on Wednesday. “On Oct. 27, 2018, this defendant violated the safe, holy sanctuary that was the Tree of Life synagogue. He turned it into a killing ground,” prosecutor Soo Song told jurors in the sentencing phase for Robert Bowers, who was convicted last month in the attack that claimed 11 lives. But Bowers’ defense
July 12, 2023The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a much-awaited $3 billion bailout for Pakistan, the global lender said, a move that’s likely to save the impoverished Islamic nation from defaulting on its debt repayments. The IMF said its executive board approved an agreement to release the funds over a nine-month period to support Pakistan’s economic stabilization program. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Pakistan and the IMF agreed to the nine-month plan following a series of meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and other officials. “The arrangement comes at a challenging
July 12, 2023The future of a lawsuit accusing Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant of assaulting a teenager during a pickup basketball game hinges on whether Morant will be allowed to say that he was acting in self defense and can receive immunity under Tennessee law. A judge on Wednesday ruled that Morant’s lawyers can proceed for now with their argument that Morant was acting in self defense when he punched Joshua Holloway during a game at the All-Star player’s Memphis-area home in July 2022. Morant’s lawyers have acknowledged he punched Holloway one time after Holloway threw a basketball
July 12, 2023A legal challenge was filed Wednesday to block Iowa’s new legislation banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, launching what will likely be a lengthy and emotional court battle just hours after the Legislature’s late-night vote. The bill was passed with exclusively Republican support in a rare, one-day legislative burst lasting more than 14 hours. That’s despite the vocal — and sometimes tense — objections from Democratic lawmakers and abortion advocates protesting at the Capitol. Gov. Kim Reynolds says she will sign the bill, which would take immediate effect, on Friday. The challenge,
July 12, 2023Chet Holmgren made it two big nights in a row for No. 2 picks. A night after Brandon Miller had his best game in Las Vegas, Chet Holmgren was dominant on both ends to lead the Oklahoma City to a 98-87 victory over Indiana on Wednesday night. Holmgren had 25 points, nine rebounds and five blocks, continuing his strong return after missing the 2022-23 season following surgery on his right foot. The No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft got back on the court when the Thunder played in the Salt Lake City Summer League, then
July 12, 2023Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Wednesday that his department will invest $300 million to improve the measurement and reporting of planet-warming emissions by the country’s agriculture and forestry sectors. The investment — which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S.’s climate law — will create a research network to monitor carbon levels in soil, which is crucial for understanding how much of the greenhouse gas is stored in the ground. It will also expand the agency’s data management capacity and improve the research methods used to quantify and analyze greenhouse gases. Agriculture contributed about 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas
July 12, 2023A former Mozambique finance minister who has been held in prison in South Africa for nearly five years was extradited Wednesday to the United States to face a fraud and corruption trial over a $2 billion scandal involving fraudulent government loans. South African authorities said that Manuel Chang, who was Mozambique’s finance minister from 2005 to 2015, was handed over to U.S. authorities after his last-ditch court effort to avoid extradition failed in May. Chang is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Chang’s attorney, Adam Ford, said his client is “relieved to
July 12, 2023A 64-year-old man has been arrested in southern Russia for the shooting death of a former submarine commander who is alleged by some in Ukraine to have killed more than 20 civilians in a long-range missile strike last year. Sergei Denisenko was detained on suspicion of shooting former 2nd Capt. Stanislav Rzhitsky, reportedly during a morning jog in the city of Krasnodar on July 10. Denisenko was found in possession of a pistol and silencer, officials said. Some Russian media outlets identified him as a native of Sumy, a city in Ukraine. Rzhitsky, 42, was attacked near the city’s Olimp
July 12, 2023San Francisco’s 127-year-old Anchor Brewing Co. will shut down and liquidate after years of declining sales, citing tough economic conditions. Anchor was been a trailblazer in the U.S., brewing craft beers when most Americans were loyal to one of the few major breweries. The brewery teetered on insolvency in the 1960s, when it was acquired by Stanford grad Fritz Maytag, according to Anchor Brewing. Maytag implemented new brewing practices such as dry hopping, and began bottling the beer in 1971. By the mid 1970s Anchor Brewing had assembled a solid portfolio of respected brews including Anchor Porter, Liberty Ale, Old
July 12, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts wrapped up a two-day summit Wednesday with pledges of long-term support for Ukraine but no offer of the country’s protection under the alliance’s security umbrella. Results from the meeting in Lithuania, a nation on NATO’s eastern flank that borders Russia, were mixed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky was grateful for the pledges of more arms and ammunition but disappointed that his country has no clear time frame for joining the world’s biggest security alliance. After an evening of pre-summit intrigue, Sweden took a big step toward becoming NATO’s 32nd
July 12, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have gotten support and vague assurances from NATO leaders in Vilnius this week, but he ultimately returns home without a clear commitment that his country will be joining the club any time soon. Instead, the alliance leaders said they were removing obstacles on Ukraine’s membership path so that it can join more quickly once the war with Russia is over. For many, that argument gives Russia’s president a pretext to prolong the war, which President Vladimir Putin ostensibly launched to keep Ukraine from joining NATO. But if Ukraine joins NATO in
July 12, 2023Decades after many other rich countries stopped forcibly sterilizing Indigenous women, numerous activists, doctors, politicians and at least five class-action lawsuits say the practice has not ended in Canada. A Senate report last year concluded “this horrific practice is not confined to the past, but clearly is continuing today.” In May, a doctor was penalized for forcibly sterilizing an Indigenous woman in 2019. Indigenous leaders say the country has yet to fully reckon with its troubled colonial past — or put a stop to a decades-long practice that is considered a type of genocide. There are no
July 12, 2023Greece is ready to “reset” relations with neighbor Turkey in an effort to bypass decades-old disputes between the two NATO members, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday. Mitsotakis held an hourlong meeting Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, and told reporters they had agreed to continue high-level contacts. “Our problems have not been magically resolved,” Mitsotakis said. “But today’s meeting confirmed my intention and that of President Erdogan to reset Greek-Turkish relations.” Cabinet ministers from the two sides are due to meet after the summer
July 12, 2023A drug cartel set off a coordinated series of seven roadway bombs in western Mexico that killed four police officers and two civilians, officials said Wednesday, with a governor describing the violence as “a trap” for law enforcement personnel escorting volunteers to a supposed mass grave. Luis Méndez, the chief prosecutor of Jalisco state, said the blasts late Tuesday in the township of Tlajomulco were so powerful they left craters in the road, destroyed at least four vehicles and wounded 14 other people. It appeared to be the first time that a Mexican cartel killed law
July 12, 2023If you can’t beat them, join them. In a major reversal, Domino’s Pizza said Wednesday it’s partnering with Uber Eats to make deliveries in the U.S. and 27 international markets. While franchisees in a handful of international markets like the Netherlands have been working with third-party apps for years, Domino’s has long said that partnering with delivery companies didn’t make economic sense in its 6,600 U.S. stores. Under the agreement, uniformed Domino’s drivers will still make the deliveries that customers order via Uber Eats, and Uber Eats will share data with Domino’s on delivery efficiency and incremental sales. Ann Arbor,
July 12, 2023Aryna Sabalenka reached the semifinals at Wimbledon for the second straight time, with a one-year break in between because she was banned from the tournament in 2022. Sabalenka, a Belarusian who is seeded second at the All England Club, had to sit out last year’s competition along with other players from her country and from Russia because of the war in Ukraine. She advanced Wednesday by beating Madison Keys 6-2, 6-4 on No. 1 Court. “It really feels amazing to be back in the semifinals. I can’t wait to play in my second semifinal at Wimbledon,”
July 12, 2023Prosecutors rested their sexual assault case against Kevin Spacey in a London courtroom Wednesday after four men testified in the past two weeks that the Oscar winner preyed on them. Prosecutors read jurors statements Spacey gave investigators denying that he aggressively grabbed three men by the crotch and performed a nonconsensual sex act on a fourth. The defense is scheduled to begin presenting its case Thursday in Southwark Crown Court. The stakes are high, with Spacey facing a possible prison term if convicted. The 63-year-old American actor has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges that include sexual
July 12, 2023A week after Princess Kate graced Centre Court at Wimbledon by taking a seat in the Royal Box, Queen Camilla made an appearance at the Grand Slam tennis tournament on Wednesday. The queen, the wife of King Charles III, was wearing a white dress at the All England Club, where the players on court dress all in white. When she arrived at the club, Camilla met with some ball boys and ball girls — the kids who run across the court chasing stray balls after a point is finished or a serve goes awry. The first
July 12, 2023A Greyhound passenger bus crashed into three tractor-trailers parked along a highway exit to a rest area early Wednesday in southern Illinois, killing three people and injuring 14 others, some seriously, state police said. The bus was traveling westbound along Interstate 70 in Madison County around 1:55 a.m. when it crashed into the three semis, Illinois State Police said, citing an initial investigation. Four people were taken to the hospital by helicopter and at least 10 others were taken by ambulance, state police said in a news release. Police did not immediately release details about those
July 12, 2023The U.N.’s top human rights body overwhelmingly approved a measure calling on countries to do more to prevent religious hatred in the wake of Quran burnings in Europe, over the objections of Western countries who fear tougher steps by governments could trample freedom of expression. Applause broke out in the cavernous chamber of the Human Rights Council on Wednesday after the 28-12 vote, with seven abstentions, on a measure brought by Pakistan and Palestine that was backed by many developing countries in Africa, as well as China and India, and Middle Eastern countries. The resolution comes in
July 12, 2023A police official said officers killed six people Wednesday during new protests in Kenya against the rising cost of living, while a health worker said more than 50 schoolchildren in the capital, Nairobi, were tear-gassed. The opposition leader behind the demonstrations vowed they would continue until a new law imposing more taxes is repealed. The police official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said three people were killed in Mlolongo city in Machakos county, two in Kitengela town near Nairobi, and one in the
July 12, 2023Kosovo’s government on Wednesday will reduce the number of special police officers stationed outside four municipal buildings in ethnic Serb-majority areas and hold new mayoral elections in each of the towns, in a bid to defuse tensions with neighboring Serbia that flared anew in May. Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that one-fourth of the special police forces would be moved away from the sites “taking into consideration that the situation at the municipal buildings has been comparatively much quieter in the last two weeks.” He added that more officers would be withdrawn based on the
July 12, 2023Spain sweltered under an unrelenting heat wave Wednesday as temperatures started to build toward what is forecast to be a torrid weekend across southern Europe. Spain’s weather service said thermometers could potentially hit 45 C (113 F) in southeastern areas of the Iberian Peninsula, which are under alert for extreme heat. That mark was reached Monday in the village of Loja near Granada at the start of the heat wave that is causing restless nights across the country. More than 100 weather stations registered temperatures of at least 35 C (95 F) as early as 6
July 12, 2023Youssef al-Ramadan says he always feels guilty for having to put his wife and three children to work in order to survive — and now they might not be able to get by since international aid could stop flowing from Turkey. Standing outside his tent in a displacement camp in northern Idlib, he is worried that their income might not be sufficient to make ends meet if the United Nations Security Council cannot renew a humanitarian border crossing that has been a critical lifeline for him and some 4.1 million people in Syria’s rebel-held northwest. The
July 12, 2023Bulgari has become the latest international brand to apologize to China after listing Taiwan as a country on its website. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, and both the government and Chinese internet users have a history of scolding or boycotting international brands that have referred to Taiwan as a separate country. Late Tuesday, Bulgari posted an apology on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, saying it “steadfastly and always” respected China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “Our brand has immediately corrected the mistakenly marked store addresses and map indications on the overseas official website, which resulted
July 12, 2023A raging conflict in Sudan has driven more than 3.1 million people from their homes, including over 700,000 who fled to neighboring countries, the United Nations said Wednesday, amid growing concerns that the country is sliding into a “full-scale civil war.” Sudan has plunged into chaos since mid-April when monthslong tensions between the military and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the northeastern African nation. The conflict derailed Sudanese hopes of restoring the country’s fragile transition to democracy, which had begun after a popular uprising
July 12, 2023Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp Wednesday in the wake of a devastating Israeli offensive last week, marking his first visit to the camp since 2005. The visit came at a time of seething discontentment among Palestinians in the West Bank for Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, the autonomous government which administers parts of the West Bank but whose forces have largely lost control over several militant strongholds in the region — including Jenin. The 87-year-old president is widely seen as out of touch with the public and rarely ventures outside
July 12, 2023Follow along for updates on the summit of the NATO military alliance in Lithuania’s capital: What to know: — NATO backs Ukraine’s fight vs. Russia but doesn’t invite Kyiv to join — Sweden’s rocky road from neutrality toward NATO membership — What is NATO doing to help Ukraine in the war with Russia? —— The Kremlin considers plans by G7 nations to offer Ukraine security guarantees “extremely ill-judged and potentially very dangerous,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. Britain issued a statement a day earlier on plans by the G7 — made up of Britain,
July 12, 2023Hong Kong would immediately ban the import of aquatic products from Fukushima and other Japanese prefectures if Tokyo discharges treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a top official in the city said Wednesday. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said although the wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant would be treated before discharging into the Pacific Ocean, any errors in the process would significantly affect ecology and food safety. The concern stems from Japan’s U.N.-endorsed, but controversial, plan to gradually release the treated water. “Our assessment shows prefectures near Fukushima have higher risks, so
July 12, 2023Milan Kundera, whose dissident writings in communist Czechoslovakia transformed him into an exiled satirist of totalitarianism, has died in Paris at the age of 94, Czech media said Wednesday. Kundera’s renowned novel, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,’’ opens wrenchingly with Soviet tanks rolling through Prague, the Czech capital that was the author’s home until he moved to France in 1975. Weaving together themes of love and exile, politics and the deeply personal, Kundera’s novel won critical acclaim, earning him a wide readership among Westerners who embraced both his anti-Soviet subversion and the eroticism threaded through many of
July 12, 2023United States forward Christian Pulisic arrived in Italy on Wednesday for a medical with AC Milan before an expected transfer from Chelsea. The 24-year-old Pulisic, who has one year left on his contract at Chelsea, is expected to sign a four-year deal with the Rossoneri and become the third American to play for the club after Oguchi Onyewu and Sergiño Dest. “I’m very happy to be here. I’m excited. I’m excited to start with this historic club,” Pulisic told reporters waiting for him at Milan’s Malpensa airport. “It’s legendary and I’m really excited to come here and
July 12, 2023Widespread riots in France sparked by the police killing of a teenager with North African roots have revealed the depth of discontent roiling poor neighborhoods — and given a new platform to the increasingly emboldened far right. The far right’s anti-immigration mantra is seeping through a once ironclad political divide between it and mainstream politics. More voices are now embracing a hard line against immigration and blaming immigrants not only for the car burnings and other violence that followed the June 27 killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, but for France’s social problems as well. “We know the
July 12, 2023Investigators found traces of subsea explosives in samples taken from a yacht that has been one aspect of a probe into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last year, European diplomats have told the United Nations Security Council. They say that the investigation hasn’t yet established who the perpetrators were and whether a state was involved. Denmark, Sweden and Germany have been investigating the Sept. 26 attack, and the Danish Foreign Ministry tweeted a letter Tuesday from the three countries’ U.N. ambassadors to the president of the Security Council with information
July 12, 2023A China-based hacking group has breached email accounts linked to government agencies in Western Europe, Microsoft Corp. says. In a blog post published Tuesday, Microsoft said the group, which it identified as Storm-0558, focuses on acts such as espionage and data theft. The group gained access to email accounts affecting about 25 organizations including government agencies and to accounts of individuals linked to these organizations, and had gone undetected for about a month until customers complained to Microsoft about abnormal mail activity. “We assess this adversary is focused on espionage, such as gaining access to email
July 12, 2023The Bank of England warned Wednesday that households across the U.K. are facing increasing problems from the sharp increase in interest rates but found that the country’s biggest banks are resilient enough to offer more help than they were able to before the global financial crisis 15 years ago.. In its regular health check of the economy, the central bank said British households are facing higher debt burdens as a result of rising interest rates, particularly those whose fixed-rate mortgage deals have come to an end or soon will be. However, it said there are several factors
July 12, 2023Asian shares were mixed Wednesday after stocks advanced on Wall Street ahead of an update on U.S. inflation that investors hope will show a smaller increase in pain for everyone. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 0.9% to 18,827.66 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 0.4% to 7,135.70. In Seoul, the Kospi rose 0.5% to 2,574.72. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.8% to 31,943.93 after North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters Wednesday, two days after the North threatened “shocking” consequences to protest what it called provocative U.S. reconnaissance activity near its territory.
July 12, 2023Thailand’s top diplomat said Wednesday that he met ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in detention over the weekend and she conveyed her openness to engage in talks to resolve the crisis in her strife-torn nation. Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai is the only government official outside of Myanmar to have met Suu Kyi since she was detained with other officials when the army seized power from her elected government on Feb. 1, 2021. He told his counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, who are meeting in Indonesia’s capital, that Suu Kyi was
July 12, 2023Concerns are growing that Russia will not extend a United Nations-brokered deal that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to parts of the world struggling with hunger, with ships no longer heading to the war-torn country’s Black Sea ports and food exports dwindling. Turkey and the U.N. negotiated the breakthrough accord last summer to ease a global food crisis, along with a separate agreement with Russia to facilitate shipments of its food and fertilizer. Moscow insists it’s still facing hurdles, though data shows it has been exporting record amounts of wheat. Russian officials repeatedly say there are
July 12, 2023Iran’s president has begun a rare visit to Africa as his country, which is under heavy U.S. economic sanctions, seeks to deepen partnerships around the world. President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Kenya on Wednesday is the first to the African continent by an Iranian leader in more than a decade. He is also expected to visit Uganda and Zimbabwe and meet with the presidents there. Africa is a “continent of opportunities” and a great platform for Iranian products, Raisi told journalists in a briefing. He didn’t take questions. “None of us is satisfied with the current
July 12, 2023Thailand’s state Election Commission said Wednesday it concluded there is evidence that the top candidate to become the country’s next prime minister, Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat, violated election law and referred his case to the Constitutional Court for a ruling. The commission’s decision, announced in a press release, means the court could order Pita to be suspended from his duties as a Member of Parliament until the ruling is issued. In theory it does not rule out him being nominated to become prime minister by Parliament on Thursday, because the post does not have to
July 12, 2023Over half a century, Nissim Kahlon has transformed a tiny cave on a Mediterranean beach into an elaborate underground labyrinth filled with chiseled tunnels, detailed mosaic floors and a network of staircases and chambers. He lives in the one-of-a-kind artistic creation, which is a popular destination for local curiosity seekers, and Kahlon, 77, is quick to welcome visitors into his subterranean home. Now, Israel’s government wants him out. Fifty years after Kahlon moved into the home, Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry has served him an eviction notice, saying the structure is illegal and threatens Israel’s coastline. “Instead
July 12, 2023Elias Díaz may be the most unlikely All-Star MVP. Just 3 1/2 years after Pittsburgh failed to offer a contract and allowed him to become a free agent, Diaz hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off Félix Bautista in the eighth inning to lift the National League over the American 3-2 on Tuesday night. A first-time All-Star at age 32, the Colorado catcher put his name on an award won by Willie Mays, Joe Morgan, Frank and Brooks Robinson, both Ken Griffeys and Mike Trout. “I honestly can’t believe that my name is going to be next to
July 12, 2023In 1969, Charles Manson dispatched a group of disaffected young followers on a two-night killing rampage that terrorized Los Angeles. The killings remain etched in the American consciousness. On Tuesday, Leslie Van Houten was released after spending more than 50 years in prison for two of those murders. She’s the only one of Manson’s followers who participated in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders to go free. Members of the Manson “family” arrived at the Hollywood Hills home of Sharon Tate on Aug. 8, 1969, where they stabbed, beat and shot to death the young actress and her
July 12, 2023Electronics giant Foxconn backed out of a $19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with Indian mining conglomerate Vedanta Ltd. due to “external issues unrelated to the project.” Hon Hai Technology, known internationally as Foxconn, and Vedanta Limited announced their joint venture to manufacture chips and display panels in India in February 2022. On Monday, Foxconn announced it mutually agreed to part ways with Vedanta Limited. “This is not a negative. There was recognition from both sides that the project was not moving fast enough, there were challenging gaps we were not able to smoothly overcome, as well
July 12, 2023Floodwaters receded in Vermont cities and towns pummeled by a storm that delivered two months of rain in two days, allowing officials to focus on recovering from a disaster that trapped residents in homes, closed roadways and choked streets and businesses with mud and debris. In the capital city of Montpelier, where streets were flooded Tuesday by the swollen Winooski River, officials said that water levels at a dam just upstream appeared to be stable. “It looks like it won’t breach. That is good. That is one less thing we have to have on our front
July 12, 2023Shohei Ohtani had an entire stadium asking him in unison to come to Seattle in free agency. “Never experienced anything like that, but I definitely heard it,” the two-position star said through his interpreter. “But I was trying to focus on my at-bat.” Ohtani was the biggest star of the All-Star Game on Tuesday night, even if his appearance was rather uneventful. Ohtani struck out and walked in his two at-bats as the American League saw its nine-game win streak come to an end with a 3-2 loss to the National League. But it was what happened
July 12, 2023The Biden administration calls it a “student loan safety net.” Opponents call it a backdoor attempt to make college free. And it could be the next battleground in the legal fight over student loan relief. Starting this summer, millions of Americans with student loans will be able to enroll in a new repayment plan that offers some of the most lenient terms ever. Interest won’t pile up as long as borrowers make regular payments. Millions of people will have monthly payments reduced to $0. And in as little as 10 years, any remaining debt will be canceled.
July 12, 2023Elias Díaz hit a two-run homer off Félix Bautista in the eighth inning, and the National League snapped a nine-game losing streak in the All-Star Game with a 3-2 win over the American League on Tuesday night. The NL won for the first time since an 8-0 victory in 2012 in Kansas City thanks to Díaz, a catcher who became the first Rockies player to win the All-Star MVP award. Díaz, who was non-tendered by the Pirates at the end of 2019, drove a 2-2 pitch from Baltimore’s hard-throwing closer deep to left to put the NL
July 12, 2023An American woman said she told her new husband she loved him and was certain they would die when a New Zealand volcano erupted in 2019 killing 22 people. Lauren, 35, and Matt Urey, 39, returned to New Zealand from their home in Richmond, Virginia, to testify in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday in the trial of three tourism companies and three directors charged with safety breaches over the White Island disaster on Dec. 9. The honeymoon couple were among 47 people on White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Indigenous Maori name, Whakaari,
July 12, 2023Northwestern has decided to retain its assistant coaches and support staff for the 2023 season after it fired head coach Pat Fitzgerald amid a hazing scandal. Athletic director Derrick Gragg informed the coaches and staff of the decision during a meeting on Tuesday. There was no announcement by the school when it comes to the leadership of the program after Fitzgerald’s dismissal. The first game of the season is Sept. 3 at Rutgers. The 48-year-old Fitzgerald was fired on Monday by Northwestern President Michael Schill, who wrote in an open letter to the university community that
July 12, 2023U.S. inflation is expected to post its lowest level in more than two years in a highly anticipated report being released Wednesday — a slowdown that, if sustained, could lead the Federal Reserve to halt its interest rate hikes later this year. The monthly report from the government will probably show that consumer prices rose just 3.1% in June from 12 months earlier, according to a survey of economists by the data provider FactSet. A figure that low would mark the mildest year-over-year increase since March 2021, when the current bout of painfully high inflation began as
July 12, 2023North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters Wednesday, its neighbors said, two days after the North threatened “shocking” consequences to protest what it called a provocative U.S. reconnaissance activity near its territory. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch was made on Wednesday morning but gave no further details such as how far the weapon flew. Japan’s Defense Ministry said it also detected a possible ballistic missile launch by North Korea. The launch, the North’s first weapons firing in about a month, came after North Korea earlier this week released
July 12, 2023EDITOR’S NOTE — On Jan. 26, 1971, Charles Manson and three members of his California cult were convicted for the murders of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate. On Tuesday, one of those three followers, Leslie Van Houten, was released from a California prison after serving more than 50 years for the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles; and his wife, Rosemary. Van Houten is the only one of Manson’s followers involved in the murders to be let out of prison. The Associated Press is republishing a version of its original
July 11, 2023Investigators probing disgraced former sports doctor Larry Nassar’s stabbing Sunday at a federal penitentiary in Florida are lacking a key piece of evidence: video of the assault. Nassar was attacked inside his cell, a blind spot for prison surveillance cameras that only record common areas and corridors, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. In federal prison parlance, because of the lack of video, it is known as an “unwitnessed event.” It’s the second time Nassar, the former U.S. women’s gymnastics team doctor, has been assaulted in federal custody while he’s serving decades in prison for sexually
July 11, 2023Two advocacy groups and an attorney who works with sexual assault victims are suing Idaho over a new law that makes it illegal to help minors get an abortion without their parents’ consent. Abortion is already banned in Idaho at all stages of pregnancy. But the law enacted in May — dubbed a “travel ban” by the advocacy groups and an “abortion trafficking ban” by the lawmakers who passed it — seeks to prevent minors who don’t have parental approval from getting abortions in states where the procedure is legal. Violating the law is a felony,
July 11, 2023Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has no intention of altering Pete Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball, and said the sport’s commercial deals with gambling companies have no impact on the status of the career hits leader. Rose agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation for Major League Baseball by lawyer John Dowd found Rose placed numerous bets on the Cincinnati Reds to win from 1985-87 while playing for and managing the team. The Hall of Fame’s board decided in 1991 that players on the permanently ineligible list also may not appear on the Hall ballot.
July 11, 2023Coach Kirby Smart acknowledged Tuesday that he is still struggling to find a way to persuade his Georgia players to slow down when driving, even after a player and employee were killed in a January crash. Smart has led Georgia to back-to-back national championships for the first time in school history, but the offseason has been marred by off-the-field problems, including a string of reckless driving and speeding offenses. Only hours after the Bulldogs celebrated their latest title with a parade and ceremony at Sanford Stadium, a Jan. 15 crash dramatically changed the tone of the
July 11, 2023New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge stemming from a fight last year that left a man unconscious at a Las Vegas nightclub, his attorney said Tuesday. Kamara and three other men faced felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly punching, kicking and stomping on Darnell Greene Jr. of Houston outside an elevator at the club. The altercation came a day before the NFL’s 2022 Pro Bowl. Kamara played in the Pro Bowl and was arrested after the game. A felony battery charge carried up to a five-year sentence. Kamara
July 11, 2023Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten walked out of a California prison Tuesday after serving more than 50 years of a life sentence for her participation in two infamous murders. Van Houten “was released to parole supervision,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement. She left the California Institution for Women in Corona, east of Los Angeles, in the early morning hours and was driven to transitional housing, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said. “She’s still trying to get used to the idea that this real,” Tetreault told The Associated Press. Days earlier
July 11, 2023Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred will consider increasing time on the pitch clock for the postseason but is reluctant to adjust an innovation the sport considers a great success. In the first season of the clock, the average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 38 minutes, on track to be the fastest since 1984. It is down from 3:04 last year and 3:09 in 2021, the last season before PitchCom was introduced. “We’re going to continue to talk to the players,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “I think you ought to
July 11, 2023As Novak Djokovic pursues more history-making victories and more milestones, he is well aware that every opponent he faces would love nothing more than to stop him. “I know they want … to win. But it ain’t happening, still,” he told the crowd at Wimbledon on Tuesday after reaching a 46th Grand Slam semifinal to tie Roger Federer’s record for men. Hearing the spectators’ loud reaction to that boast, Djokovic laughed and observed about himself: “Very humble.” His 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Andrey Rublev was the 33rd in a row at the All England
July 11, 2023Dozens of insurance companies are suing Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy to recoup money paid out to homes and businesses lost in Colorado’s most destructive wildfire in 2021. The lawsuit was filed Thursday, a few weeks after investigators announced that a sparking power line owned by Xcel was one of the causes of a fire that, fanned by high winds, destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and left two people dead. Embers from a smoldering scrap wood fire set days before on a nearby property used by a Christian religious communal group was also found to have been another cause. The two fires combined
July 11, 2023The Oakland Athletics have started the process of applying to Major League Baseball to move to Las Vegas. MLB last month established a relocation committee to evaluate the move, a group headed by Milwaukee Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio. Philadelphia Phillies CEO John Middleton and Kansas City Royals CEO John Sherman were also on the committee. “They have begun to submit information related to their relocation application,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “It’s not complete at this point.” Nevada’s Legislature approved providing $380 million in public financing for a proposed
July 11, 2023The trouble between Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift’s“Eras” tour isn’t over — with the latest snafu impacting fans hoping to score tickets in France. On Tuesday, after some fans reported issues with accessing Ticketmaster’s site, sales for six of Swift’s upcoming shows in Paris and Lyon were abruptly postponed. An explanation wasn’t immediately clear, but in posts on Ticketmaster’s French Twitter several hours after the pause began, the ticket seller cited a problem with a third-party provider. Ticketmaster directed The Associated Press to the Twitter statement. In the posts, Ticketmaster maintained that tickets to the France shows
July 11, 2023A dissenting group composed of some former members of the fledgling union that successfully organized an Amazon warehouse in New York has filed a lawsuit accusing the union of violating its own constitution and is asking a court to step in and force an election for union officers. The complaint, filed Monday in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York, comes as the upstart Amazon Labor Union – the only certified group representing Amazon workers – struggles to capture the momentum that led to its surprising victory last year following a series of
July 11, 2023Turkey made a surprise pledge to drop its opposition to Sweden joining NATO, paving the way for the Nordic country to become a member of the Western military alliance. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg heralded the agreement Monday after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Stoltenberg said Turkey had agreed to support Sweden’s NATO bid – by putting the issue to a vote in Parliament — in return for deeper cooperation with Sweden on security issues and a pledge from Sweden to revive Turkey’s quest for EU membership. The agreement
July 11, 2023A Romanian man who was part of an international human smuggling ring was sentenced Tuesday to more than 12 years in prison for the deaths of 39 migrants from Vietnam who suffocated in a truck trailer on their way to England in 2019. Marius Mihai Draghici was the ringleader’s right-hand man and an “essential cog” in an operation that made huge profits exploiting people desperate to get to the U.K., Justice Neil Garnham said in the Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey. Victims, who paid about 13,000 pounds ($16,770) for so-called VIP service, died after
July 11, 2023A multi-billion dollar agreement signed with France’s TotalEnergies could help resolve Iraq’s longstanding electricity crisis, attract international investors and reduce its reliance on gas imports from neighboring Iran, a point of tension with Washington. The $27 billion agreement signed in Baghdad on Monday after years of negotiation marks the largest foreign investment in Iraq’s history. It could even help combat climate change by reducing oil flares, and relieve some of the stress on Iraq’s dwindling waterways through a new desalination plant. But that’s only if the parties implementing the agreement can overcome the endemic corruption and political
July 11, 2023Rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama and many of the highest 2023 draft picks are out for the rest of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, but several other players are worth watching. Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George, this year’s No. 16 overall pick from Baylor, is second in the league with 29.5 points and third with 8.5 assists per game. He opened with 33 points and 10 assists Saturday in a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. On Monday in a win over Minnesota, he scored 26 points on 9-for-15 shooting and had seven assists. Others who are off to
July 11, 2023A pair of Amtrak train cars derailed Tuesday morning outside of Washington D.C.’s Union Station, causing delays but no significant injuries, according to authorities. The incident took place before 9 a.m. in a tunnel near the Union Station entrance, and involved an incoming train arriving from Norfolk, Virginia. Both derailed train cars remained upright. Fire officials and medics boarded the train but reported no serious injuries among the passengers, although one Amtrak employee was taken to a medical facility for a minor issue. Union Station is a major regional hub and the derailment has caused delays and
July 11, 2023In a cramped municipal building in a residential area of the Ukrainian capital, a group of people take turns training to shoot using a replica of a machine gun with the help of a weapons training simulator relying on virtual reality. The nearly 20 participants — all of them civilians and most of them women — have never held a weapon before. With Russia’s war on Ukraine in its 17th month, the Kyiv City Administration has opened up training for civilians who want to learn survival skills, including how to shoot, provide first aid and recognize
July 11, 2023Breanna Stewart has already won one Commissioner’s Cup championship. She hopes to get New York to this year’s in-season tournament title game to have a chance at another one. The Aces have already clinched a spot in the final which will be played in Las Vegas on Aug. 15. The Aces won the Cup last year and are looking to defend their title. The Liberty need a victory over Indiana on Wednesday or a loss by Connecticut in Chicago to earn a trip to Las Vegas to play the Aces in the championship game. New York
July 11, 2023Some three dozen South African firefighters, clad in their bright yellow jackets and dark blue pants, danced, sang and cheered in a sprawling parking lot close by the majestic woods of central Alberta. The mood was light as the men and women smiled and clapped, some taking out smartphones to record video of their dancing colleagues before heading off to another day battling the fires raging through Canada. The group gathered on an early July day in the small town of Fox Creek had traveled nearly 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) to help fight the hundreds
July 11, 2023U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts on Tuesday endorsed the biggest shakeup since the Cold War of the way the military alliance would respond to any attack on its territory by Russia. Inspired in part by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the highly-secretive defense plans lay out which of the 31 member countries would be called on to respond an attack anywhere from the Arctic and Baltic Sea regions through the northern Atlantic and south to the Mediterranean and Black Seas. “Peace in the Euro-Atlantic area has been shattered,” the leaders said in a statement,
July 11, 2023Boxing heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and ex-UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou will fight Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia, promoters announced Tuesday. The latest high-profile crossover boxing match between a mixed martial artist and a professional boxer will take place in a regulation ring, with three ringside judges using the 10-point scoring system. The fight announcement by promoter Top Rank didn’t specify whether the bout will count on the fighters’ professional boxing records or whether Fury’s WBC heavyweight title will be on the line. Fury and Ngannou have talked about a potential meeting for more than
July 11, 2023Amazon is disputing its status as a big online platform that needs to face stricter scrutiny under European Union digital rules taking effect next month, the first Silicon Valley tech giant to push back on the pioneering new standards. The online retailer filed a legal challenge with a top European Union court, arguing it’s being treated unfairly by being designated a “very large online platform” under the 27-nation bloc’s sweeping Digital Services Act. Amazon, whose filing to the European General Court was made available Tuesday, is the second company to protest the classification. German online retailer Zalando
July 11, 2023A federal judge has handed Microsoft a major victory by declining to block its looming $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard. Regulators are seeking to ax the deal because they say it will hurt competition. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said in a ruling that the “FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content.” Microsoft appeared to have the upper hand
July 11, 2023The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday failed to renew authorization of the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest from neighboring Turkey, officially ending a U.N. operation that had been vital to helping a region of 4.1 million people. The council failed to adopt either of two rival resolutions to authorize further deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, where the latest six-month mandate expired on Monday. Syrian President Bashar Assad opened two additional crossing points from Turkey at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai to increase the flow of assistance to victims of the devastating magnitude
July 11, 2023Three months after returning from maternity leave, Elina Svitolina reached the Wimbledon semifinals by beating top-ranked Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 Tuesday. The 28-year-old Ukrainian gave birth to her daughter in October and returned to the WTA tour in April. Swiatek, a four-time major champion, won the French Open last month but was playing in the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time. ___ AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
July 11, 2023A new casino resort touted as the largest of its kind in Europe has opened its doors in Cyprus, aiming to transform the east Mediterranean island nation into a year-round destination for luxury tourism, officials said Tuesday. The 600 million euro ($659 million) City of Dreams Mediterranean is one of the largest development projects ever undertaken in the eastern Mediterranean island nation. The resort boasts a 14-story, 500-room hotel replete with a casino, sporting facilities, a family adventure park, the island’s largest pool complex, an outdoor amphitheater, eight restaurants and bars, and a conference center. Lawrence
July 11, 2023The negotiators of a business deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi funders of LIV Golf discussed ousting LIV chief executive Greg Norman and giving Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy their own LIV teams, according to documents obtained by Congress. Those were among the many proposals to unify golf’s rival factions that representatives of the PGA Tour and the Saudi government discussed during their hasty negotiations this spring. The talks culminated in a framework agreement announced last month between the tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. The deal to bring Saudi investment into the PGA
July 11, 2023Japan’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that restrictions imposed by a government ministry on a transgender female employee’s use of restrooms at her workplace are illegal, in a landmark decision that could promote LGBTQ+ rights in a country without legal protections for them. It was the court’s first ruling on the working environment for LGBTQ+ individuals. The judges said in a unanimous ruling that the Economy and Trade Ministry’s restrictions, which forced the plaintiff to use either a nearby men’s room or women’s restrooms that were at least two floors away, were “extremely inappropriate.” It said the approval
July 11, 2023Bank of America must pay more than $100 million to customers for doubling up on some fees, withholding reward bonuses and opening accounts without customer consent. Bank of America will pay $90 million in penalties to its organization and $60 million in penalties to the OCC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found the bank’s double-dipping on fees was illegal. Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, serves 68 million people and small business clients. The bank had $2.4 trillion in consolidated assets and $1.9 trillion in domestic deposits as
July 11, 2023Germany’s conservative opposition leader said Tuesday that large-scale migration is one of the country’s biggest problems and the main reason for a recent surge in support for the far right. But Friedrich Merz ruled out cooperating at the state or national level with the Alternative for Germany party that has overtaken his center-right Christian Democratic Union in polls for three state elections in the east next year — to the alarm of mainstream politicians. One senior security official of Jewish origin told The Associated Press that he would leave the country if the far-right party, known by
July 11, 2023Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who served almost nine years in office after seizing power in a 2014 military coup, said Tuesday that he is leaving politics. His announcement came after the political party for which he served as a prime minister candidate this year finished fifth in May’s general election, capturing just 36 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. Prayuth, 69, a former army commander, made the announcement on the Facebook page of Ruam Thai Sang Chart, or the United Thai Nation Party. He had been their nominee to return as prime minister. “I would
July 11, 2023Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is unwell and the country’s senior diplomat will take his place at a two-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this week in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details of what was ailing Qin, who has not been seen in public in more than two weeks. “State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang is unable to attend this series of foreign ministers’ meetings due to health reasons,” Wang said at a daily briefing Tuesday. Wang Yi, a former foreign minister and
July 11, 2023Authorities in Iceland on Tuesday warned tourists and other spectators to stay away from a newly erupting volcano that is spewing lava and noxious gases from a fissure in the country’s southwest. The eruption began Monday afternoon after thousands of earthquakes in the area, meteorological authorities said. This one comes 11 months after its last eruption officially ended. The eruption is in an uninhabited valley near the Litli-Hrútur mountain, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik. The area, known broadly as Fagradalsfjall volcano, erupted in 2021 and 2022 without causing damage or disruptions
July 11, 2023Israeli authorities on Tuesday evicted a Palestinian family from their contested apartment in Jerusalem’s Old City, the family said, capping a decades-long legal battle that has come to symbolize conflicting claims to the holy city. Activists say the Ghaith-Sub Laban family’s eviction is part of a wider trend of Israeli settlers, backed by the government, encroaching on Palestinian neighborhoods and cementing Israeli control by seizing property in east Jerusalem. Israel describes it as a simple battle over real estate, with settlers claiming the family are squatters in an apartment formerly owned by Jews. Earlier this year, Israel’s
July 11, 2023Follow along for updates on the summit of the NATO military alliance in Lithuania’s capital: What to know: — Turkey’s decision to end opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership boosts summit — Sweden’s rocky road from neutrality toward NATO membership — What is NATO doing to help Ukraine in the war with Russia? — Ukraine, defense plans and Sweden’s membership top summit agenda —— Lithuania and several of its allies have beefed up security for the NATO summit, with as many as 12,000 troops backed by warships, air defense systems and artillery deployed for the two-day meeting.
July 11, 2023Taiwan is facing a long-delayed reckoning with sexual harassment and sexual violence. In the past month, people have stepped forward with accusations, one after the other, leading to criminal investigations, resignations at different levels of government, and a society-wide discussion of the unspoken rules that govern gender norms in society. Taiwan’s #MeToo movement, which had a brief wave of accusations in 2017 as the #MeToo movement swept the globe, reignited on May 31 when a woman named Chen Chien-jou who worked for the Democratic Progressive Party, the party in power, accused film director Hsueh Chao-hui of
July 11, 2023Double Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won an appeal against track and field’s testosterone rules on Tuesday when the European Court of Human Rights ruled she had been discriminated against. The ruling could force sport’s highest court to re-examine the regulations that force Semenya and other female athletes to artificially reduce naturally high testosterone levels in order to compete at top meets such as the Olympics and world champinships. The Strasbourg-based rights court ruled in Semenya’s favor by a 4-3 majority of judges. The court also ruled the South African runner was denied an “effective remedy” against that discrimination when
July 11, 2023Thousands of people from around Bosnia and abroad gathered in Srebrenica on Tuesday for the annual ritual of commemorating the 1995 massacre in the eastern town and to give a dignified burial to the victims unearthed from mass graves and only recently identified through DNA analysis. Twenty-eight years after they were brutally murdered in Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust, 27 men and three teenage boys will be laid to rest Tuesday at a vast and ever-expanding memorial cemetery just outside Srebrenica, joining more than 6,600 massacre victims already reburied there. Relatives of the victims
July 11, 2023The Solomon Islands has signed an agreement to boost cooperation with China on “law enforcement and security matters,” in a move likely to raise concerns among the South Pacific island’s traditional partners including Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The agreement, details of which were not immediately released, was contained in a joint statement made public Tuesday following a meeting Monday in Beijing between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. As part of efforts to build a “comprehensive strategic partnership” the sides agreed to: “Enhance cooperation on law enforcement and security matters.
July 11, 2023Wages in the U.K. are rising at a record high rate amid stubbornly high inflation, official figures showed Tuesday, bolstering expectations that interest rates will increase again — to the worry of homeowners who are seeing their mortgage payments spike. The Office for National Statistics said wages, excluding bonuses, rose by 7.3% in the three months to May, matching the highest rate since records began in 2001. The private sector was the main driver behind the increase. For months, workers have been seeking pay that keeps pace with high inflation, which is running at 8.7% despite declines
July 11, 2023Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher Tuesday ahead of an update on U.S. consumer prices that traders hope will show inflation is easing, reducing the need for more interest rate hikes. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Oil prices rose. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.2% on Monday following its second weekly decline in two months. Traders looked ahead to Wednesday’s update on U.S. consumer prices for signs of whether the Federal Reserve might decide inflation has cooled enough following a year of interest rate hikes. They hope the U.S. central bank will
July 11, 2023A group of players across the globe asked FIFA late last year to increase the prize money for this summer’s Women’s World Cup. There had been pleas from the women to boost those funds before, but this time it was different. The players not only wanted a prize pool equal with the men’s World Cup, they also sought a guarantee that a percentage of the prize money would go directly to the players themselves. While it wasn’t true equity with the men’s World Cup, FIFA indeed raised the prize pool for the women’s tournament by more than three times that
July 11, 2023As the Women’s World Cup approached, Jamaican players started to panic. They were uncertain about training camps, accommodations and even pay heading into what for many would be the biggest tournament of their careers. So they took to social media. A number of the Reggae Girlz, as they are affectionately known, went public with their concerns, pleading with the Jamaican Football Federation to address “subpar” conditions. The mother of one player took it a step further: She started a GoFundMe page to raise money to make sure the team and the support staff is provided what they need to be
July 11, 2023The dismembered body of a missing German businessman was found in a freezer inside a house in southern Thailand, police said Tuesday. Tawee Kudthalaeng, the police chief in the town of Nong Prue, said the body of 62-year-old Hans-Peter Mack was discovered at about 11 p.m. Monday. Mack had been missing for a week. Investigators located his body by using security camera footage from the area, Tawee said. He did not elaborate, but photos and video published by Thai media showed the freezer in the bed of a black truck with a man squatting next to it.
July 11, 2023When long-neutral Sweden applied for NATO membership together with Finland, both expected a quick accession process. More than a year later, Finland is in, but Sweden is still in the alliance’s waiting room. New entries must be approved by all existing members and as NATO leaders meet for a summit in Vilnius, Sweden is missing the green light from two: Turkey and Hungary. A major obstacle was overcome Monday when Turkey’s president agreed to send NATO’s accession documents to the Turkish Parliament for approval, something he had refused to do for more than a year. That
July 11, 2023A helicopter carrying foreign tourists went missing Tuesday in the Mount Everest area of Nepal and contact was lost with the aircraft. The helicopter was returning to the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday morning after bringing the five tourists on a sightseeing trip to the world’s highest peak. A search effort was underway involving another helicopter in the skies and police and soldiers on the ground. Much of the mountainous area is only accessible on foot with no roads. Airport official Sagar Kadel said weather conditions had caused changes to be made to the helicopter’s planned flight
July 11, 2023Israeli protesters blocked highways leading to Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv at the start of countrywide demonstrations Tuesday against the government’s planned judicial overhaul that has divided the nation. The demonstrations came the morning after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s parliamentary coalition gave initial approval to a bill to limit the Supreme Court’s oversight powers, pressing forward with contentious proposed changes to the judiciary despite widespread opposition. The legislation is one of several bills proposed by Netanyahu’s ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies. The plan has provoked months of sustained protests by opponents who say it is pushing the country
July 11, 2023Even Southwestern desert residents accustomed to scorching summers are feeling the grip of an extreme heat wave smacking Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Southern California this week with 100-degree-plus temps and excessive heat warnings. To add insult to injury, the region has been left high and dry with no monsoon activity, which can help offset the blazing temperatures. In Arizona, the monsoon season officially begins June 15 and can bring powerful storms with high winds, lightning and heavy bursts of rain. In Phoenix, Martin Brown and his black Labrador, Sammy, escaped the heat Monday in the lobby
July 11, 2023Major League Baseball’s quest for the crown of cool will be on display Tuesday when its top players strut down a red carpet show at Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market ahead of the All-Star Game. The fan-friendly event is as much an homage to baseball’s iconic place in street style — from the game’s signature caps and jerseys to the classic tees — as it is an indication that MLB is increasingly staking its claim on fashion as an entry to new audiences and pop culture reverence. “MLB gave me a stylist for this game,” said Corbin
July 11, 2023In a grim report, the U.N. warned Monday that at the current rate of global progress 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty and 84 million children won’t be going to school in 2030 – and it will take 286 years to reach equality between men and women. The report on progress in achieving 17 wide-ranging U.N. goals adopted by world leaders in 2015 to improve life for the world’s more than 7 billion people said that only 15% of some 140 specific targets that experts evaluated are on track to be reached
July 11, 2023At least one person was killed after an elevated road being built in Thailand’s capital collapsed, and two others were listed as missing, with rescue crews unable to access the site Tuesday for fear of a further collapse, authorities said. Another 12 people were injured in the accident on Monday, according to the department of disaster prevention and mitigation. It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse of the road on the west side of Bangkok, but Governor Chadchart Sittipan said it had been severely damaged and remained inaccessible. The body of the one confirmed fatality
July 11, 2023Iowa’s Legislature convenes Tuesday in a special session focused exclusively on abortion restrictions, where Republican lawmakers will work to push through a new ban on abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. The day will be a marathon of committee hearings and floor debates in both chambers, with votes likely to extend late into the night. Demonstrators for and against the bill are expected to rally at the capitol building throughout the day. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered the rare session after the state Supreme Court declined to reinstate a law she signed in 2018
July 11, 2023Swift water rescue teams and local officials across Vermont braced for more precipitation and flooding Tuesday after persistent heavy rains drenched the state and other parts of the Northeast, unleashing fast-moving waters that washed out roads, trapped residents in their homes and disrupted travel. One person was killed in New York as she tried to leave her inundated house. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths related to the flooding in Vermont, according to emergency officials. But dozens of roads were closed, including many along the spine of the Green Mountains. And the National
July 11, 2023Students across the U.S. fell further behind academically last school year despite extensive efforts to help them recover from pandemic learning setbacks, according to an analysis of test scores released Tuesday. The research by NWEA, a nonprofit group that administers standardized tests, lands as the 2024 deadline approaches quickly for schools to spend the last of the $190 billion in federal pandemic relief money. There are ways schools can take better advantage of their limited resources and time to boost learning, said Chase Nordengren, the group’s lead researcher for instructional strategies. He said schools could group students based on their
July 11, 2023Mariners star Julio Rodríguez hit a record 41 homers in the first round before his hometown fans, advancing to the semifinals of the All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday night along with Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena, Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Luis Robert of the Chicago White Sox. At 22 trying to become the youngest Derby winner, Rodríguez knocked out two-time champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, who hit 21. Rodríguez beat Corey Seager 32-24 in the first round last year at Dodger Stadium, then knocked out Alonso 31-23 before losing to Juan Soto 19-18
July 11, 2023Whenever the United Auto Workers union begins negotiating a new contract with Detroit’s three automakers, threats of a strike are typically heard on the floor of the old Chrysler transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana. This year, the talk is a little louder. Besides the usual haggling over wages, pensions and health care, the union has set its sights on a more consequential goal: It is determined to secure a foothold in the joint-venture plants that will manufacture electric vehicle batteries in the years and likely decades ahead. As the industry undergoes a historic transition from internal combustion
July 11, 2023Tourists received no health and safety warnings before they landed on New Zealand’s most active volcano ahead of a 2019 eruption that killed 22 people, a prosecutor said Tuesday. There were 47 people on White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Indigenous Maori name Whakaari, when superheated steam erupted on Dec. 9. Most of the 25 people who survived were severely burned. The island’s owners, brothers Andrew, James and Peter Buttle, their company Whakaari Management Ltd. and tour operators I.D. Tours NZ Ltd. and Tauranga Tourism Services Ltd. went on trial Tuesday in Auckland District
July 11, 2023Adley Rutschman added a new wrinkle to the Home Run Derby, even if it didn’t result in a victory. Rutschman displayed his power from both sides of the plate as a switch hitter, swatting a combined 27 homers in his first-round matchup on Monday night. Rutschman had the crowd roaring during the initial 3-minute round, hitting 21 homers left-handed. Rutschman’s longest homer left-handed was a 445-foot shot that reached the third level of right field at T-Mobile Park. For the bonus round, Rutschman flipped around and hit right-handed. Rutschman hit six out to left field in the
July 11, 2023A pilot escaped with only minor injuries after a single-engine plane crashed nose-first into the roof of a hangar Monday at a Southern California airport, authorities said. The crash happened around 2:30 p.m. while the pilot of the Cessna 172 was “practicing landings and takeoffs” at Long Beach Airport, south of Los Angeles, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. Video aired by ABC 7 showed the nose of the plane embedded in the hangar’s roof, with the tail sticking straight up. The pilot, who was the only person on board, had to be
July 11, 2023NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Monday that he believes all leagues have to continue keeping an incredibly close eye on gambling trends within their sport, mindful of issues that the NFL in particular has had to address in recent months. Silver — who has been a longtime proponent of legalized sports betting frameworks within sports — spoke in Las Vegas, part of a moderated discussion as part of the Associated Press Sports Editors convention. He said he draws the analogy to insider trading, and how leagues, he believes, are finding ways to stay ahead of major
July 11, 2023Northwestern has fired coach Pat Fitzgerald amid a hazing scandal that called into question his leadership of the program and damaged the university’s reputation after it mishandled its response to the allegations. Fitzgerald’s dismissal on Monday completed a rapid fall from grace for the former Northwestern linebacker. The 48-year-old Fitzgerald had been firmly entrenched at his alma mater, an annual fixture on any list of college coaches with the most job security. “The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team,” Northwestern President Michael Schill said in an open letter. “The hazing we
July 10, 2023A college student who authorities say admitted setting fire to a building slated to become Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, federal court documents showed Monday. Details of the proposed plea deal for Lorna Roxanne Green weren’t available to the public pending a judge’s approval of the agreement. Green, 22, pleaded not guilty to an arson charge in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne in June. Green faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The plea agreement means Green could avoid going to trial, set for July
July 10, 2023Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s parliamentary coalition gave initial approval early Tuesday to a contentious bill to limit the Supreme Court’s oversight powers, pressing forward with a judicial overhaul plan that has polarized Israel. The legislation is one of several bills proposed by Netanyahu’s ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies. The plan has provoked months of sustained protests by opponents who say it is pushing the country toward authoritarian rule. Mass protests were expected later Tuesday in response to the vote. Lawmakers held the first of three readings of a bill that would curb the high court’s ability to scrutinize
July 10, 2023Dusty Baker and the All-Star Game are tailor made for each other. After buying suits for his All-Star coaches last year, Baker purchased sports jackets for Tuesday night’s game. “We look like a band this year because we got ’em all the same blue blazer,” the 74-year-old Houston Astros manager said Monday. “And so the only thing is, as the leader of the band, I didn’t wear mine. So I just had to let people know I was leader of the band.” Baker wore a green and black flannel zippered jacket to Monday’s news conference. He is
July 10, 2023Amazon Prime Day is here. And, once again, experts are warning consumers of scams. Scams targeting online shoppers — often by impersonating companies like Amazon and other major retailers — are nothing new. But phishing attempts increase amid busy spending seen during significant sales events — from Black Friday to, of course, Prime Day, according to the Better Business Bureau. “This is a huge moment on the retail calendar,” Josh Planos, vice president of communications and public relations at the Better Business Bureau, told The Associated Press. “And because of that, it represents an enormous opportunity
July 10, 2023Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has picked a longtime aide to serve as the state’s second acting attorney general following Republican Ken Paxton’s historic impeachment on allegations of misconduct and crimes, the governor’s office announced Monday. Angela Colmenero will step in as the state’s top lawyer on an interim basis starting Friday while Paxton awaits a trial in the state Senate that could result in his permanent removal, the office said. The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 5. Colmenero, a lawyer and Abbott’s deputy chief of staff, will take over the role from John Scott, a former
July 10, 2023Record global ocean heating has invaded Florida with a vengeance. Water temperatures in the mid-90s (mid-30s Celsius) are threatening delicate coral reefs, depriving swimmers of cooling dips and adding a bit more ick to the Sunshine State’s already oppressive summer weather. Forecasters are warning of temperatures that with humidity will feel like 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius) by week’s end. If that’s not enough, Florida is about to get a dose of dust from Africa’s Saharan desert that’s likely to hurt air quality. The globe is coming off a week of heat not seen in modern
July 10, 2023A man accused of killing an 86-year-old and injuring three other people in a series of apparently random shootings while riding a scooter in New York City was arraigned Monday on charges including murder and attempted murder, prosecutors said. Thomas Abreu, 25, was arraigned in a hospital in five shootings that occurred in Queens over about 10 minutes late Saturday morning, a spokesperson for Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. An additional person was shot and injured in Brooklyn. “The streets of two boroughs were turned into scenes of terror as this defendant allegedly rode his
July 10, 2023Ons Jabeur is getting another shot at Elena Rybakina, a year after losing to her in the Wimbledon final. It’s just the quarterfinals this time around, but the Tunisian player has to go through the defending champion to have a chance of winning her first Grand Slam tournament. The sixth-seeded Jabeur routed two-time champion Petra Kvitova 6-0, 6-3 on Monday in the fourth round at the All England Club. “I’m probably going for my revenge,” Jabeur said on court. “It was a difficult final last year. It’s going to bring a lot of memories.” Jabeur has
July 10, 2023Damian Lillard wants to be traded to the Miami Heat. The Portland Trail Blazers know this yet haven’t abandoned hope that the seven-time All-Star changes his mind. And whether he does or not, the Blazers insist that they’re in no hurry. General manager Joe Cronin, at the news conference where the team unveiled its new five-year, $160 million contract with Jerami Grant, spoke at length about the impasse with Lillard. He offered no specifics on talks — not negotiating publicly — and revealed that he hasn’t spoken with Lillard since the franchise cornerstone asked to be
July 10, 2023Celebrities, lawmakers, brands and everyday social media users are flocking to Meta’s freshly minted app Threads to connect with their followers, including many Twitter refugees tired of the drama surrounding Elon Musk’s raucous oversight of that platform. But the real question is: Will they stay? Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post Monday that in the five days since its launch, 100 million people have signed up for Threads, which was rolled out as a companion app to Instagram. Ann Coleman is among them. The 50-year-old, who lives in Baltimore, said she joined Threads
July 10, 2023The New York Yankees have hired 12-year big league veteran Sean Casey as their hitting coach for the remainder of this season, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been formally announced. Casey, 49, has been working for MLB Network as an analyst. Casey’s hiring comes a day after the Yankees fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson following their 7-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs. New York is eight games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and has
July 10, 2023The catastrophic collapse of a dam in southern Ukraine has made Kyiv worried that Russia might stage an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to foment panic and quell Ukrainian advances on the frontline, Ukraine’s energy minister said Monday. Herman Halushchenko said the destruction of the dam while under Russian control in the Kherson region proved “there are no red lines” for Moscow. He said it warrants the level of alarm Ukraine’s leadership has been raising in recent weeks of an alleged Russian ploy to attack the nuclear plant in a possible false flag operation. Ukrainian
July 10, 2023Victor Wembanyama’s first, and likely last, Summer League is over. The San Antonio Spurs said Monday that they have seen all they needed from the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft and won’t play him during their remaining games in Las Vegas. Wembanyama’s final numbers from two games: 36 points, 20 rebounds, eight blocks and three assists on 41% shooting from the floor. He played about 54 minutes. The shutdown wasn’t a surprise; the Spurs never planned for Wembanyama to play the entirety of Summer League, and now they’ll have a chance to use the
July 10, 2023The New York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole will start Tuesday night’s All-Star Game for the American League and Arizona’s Zac Gallen will open on the mound for the NL. AL manager Dusty Baker of Houston and NL manager Rob Thomson of Philadelphia announced their starting lineups on Monday before the annual Home Run Derby. Cole will start for the first time in his sixth All-Star nod. He is 9-2 with a 2.85 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 117 innings. The 32-year-old right-hander joins Lefty Gomez (five times), Red Ruffing (twice), Hank Borowy, Spud Chandler, Roger Clemens, Whitey Ford,
July 10, 2023A Michigan judge narrowed the issues Monday in a dispute over Aretha Franklin’s estate, saying the only task for jurors is to decide whether a 2014 document handwritten by the Queen of Soul and found in couch cushions can be accepted as a valid will. The stipulation was made by attorneys for Franklin’s sons before a jury was seated in Oakland County Probate Court. Franklin died in 2018 at age 76. But five years later, the music superstar’s estate remains unsettled. A son, Ted White II, believes a 2010 handwritten will should mainly control the estate,
July 10, 2023The European Union signed off Monday on a new agreement over the privacy of people’s personal information that gets pinged across the Atlantic, aiming to ease European concerns about electronic spying by American intelligence agencies. The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework has an adequate level of protection for personal data, the EU’s executive commission said. That means it’s comparable to the 27-nation’s own stringent data protection standards, so companies can use it to move information from Europe to the United States without adding extra security. U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in October to implement the
July 10, 2023Mexico’s president has vowed to continue campaigning against the opposition front-runner for the 2024 presidential elections, breaking a longstanding tradition of Mexican presidents keeping out of the race to succeed them. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s target is Xóchitl Gálvez, a plain-talking senator and former indigenous affairs official. Gálvez hasn’t been nominated yet by opposition parties, but has been gaining momentum. Parties are still in primary season and the official campaigns do not formally start until September, so López Obrador’s criticism of Gálvez’s potential candidacy may not be technically illegal. But López Obrador suggested last week
July 10, 2023Until about a week ago, even Chris Eubanks did not really believe he was capable of this sort of thing — of beating the world’s best tennis players at Wimbledon, of reaching the quarterfinals at any Grand Slam tournament, of winning match after match after match on grass courts. “I would show up to tour events saying, ‘Oh, can I get through a couple rounds of here?’” he said during an interview the day before play began at the All England Club. “Now I genuinely can say, probably for the first time, I’m showing up to
July 10, 2023Sudan appears to be in a civil war “of the most brutal kind” and the world needs a new forum for talks in pursuit of a cease-fire, the United Nations humanitarian chief told The Associated Press on Monday. Martin Griffiths spoke as regional leaders met in neighboring Ethiopia following the breakdown of peace talks in Saudi Arabia in June. Egypt says it will host leaders from Sudan’s neighbors on Thursday in search of peace, with few details. “We don’t have a place, a forum, where the two parties are present … where we can broker the
July 10, 2023A dozen homes torn apart by earth movement on Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula during the weekend were likely to fall into an adjacent canyon, an official said. The homes in the Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates were hastily evacuated by firefighters on Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground. Walls and roofs began to fail as the land continued to slide, the county Fire Department showed in video released on social media. Significant land movement overnight completely destroyed the homes, Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles
July 10, 2023The European Court of Human Rights is expected to deliver what could be the final word Tuesday in Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya’s yearslong legal challenge against rules that force her and other female athletes to lower their natural hormone levels through medical intervention to be allowed to compete in women’s track and field races. The testosterone limits have effectively put a stop to Semenya’s career by barring her from running in her favored 800 meters event — where she is a two-time Olympic champion and three-time world champion — since 2019. The South African athlete has refused to follow
July 10, 2023A’ja Wilson is all too happy to show off her coveted corner locker and its creature comforts in Las Vegas’ new WNBA practice facility. But the two-time league MVP isn’t the only Aces player receiving preferential treatment these days. Their locker room, which includes a TV and mini computer at each player stall, is part of the $40 million, 64,000-square-foot facility the Aces opened before this season. Las Vegas officials say its the first built specifically for a WNBA team in the league’s 27-year history. Two courts are the centerpiece of the facility, which also includes
July 10, 2023Scientists say crushing temperatures that blanketed Europe last summer may have led to more than 61,000 heat-related deaths, highlighting the need for governments to address the health impacts of global warming. In their study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers examined official mortality figures from 35 European countries and found a marked increase in deaths between late May and early September last year compared with the average recorded over a 30-year period. The increase in heat-related deaths was higher among older people, women and in Mediterranean countries, they found. But the data also indicated that
July 10, 2023The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un alleged on Monday that the country’s warplanes repelled a U.S. spy plane that flew over its exclusive economic zone and warned of “shocking” consequences if the U.S. continues reconnaissance activities in the area. The U.S. and South Korean militaries did not immediately respond to the comments by Kim Yo Jong, one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, which were published in state media Monday evening. Earlier Monday, North Korea’s Defense Ministry issued a statement accusing the U.S. of flying spy planes into its “inviolable
July 10, 2023British detectives met representatives of the BBC on Monday over allegations that a leading presenter paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos. The U.K.’s publicly funded national broadcaster has suspended the male star, who has not been named, over allegations he gave a youth 35,000 pounds ($45,000) starting in 2020 when the young person was 17. Though the age of sexual consent in Britain is 16, it’s a crime to make or possess indecent images of anyone under 18. London’s Metropolitan Police force said detectives were “assessing the information discussed at the meeting and further enquiries are
July 10, 2023The presidents of Serbia and Montenegro agreed Monday to try to patch up strained relations between the historic Balkan allies. The two countries had formed a joint state until Montenegro split in 2006 following a referendum on independence. The former allies grew further apart after Montenegro recognized the 2008 declaration of independence by Serbia’s former province of Kosovo. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Montenegro’s new President Jakov Milatovic said after a meeting in Belgrade that they will work to improve political ties to match their countries’ economic cooperation. Milatovic’s visit to Belgrade was the first by
July 10, 2023Heavy rain washed out roads and forced evacuations in the Northeast on Monday as more downpours were forecast throughout the day. One person in New York drowned as she was trying to leave her home. The slow-moving storm reached New England in the morning after hitting parts of New York and Connecticut. Heavy downpours with possible flash flooding were forecast in parts of Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. One of the worst hit places was New York’s Hudson Valley, where rescuers found the body of a woman in her 30s whose home
July 10, 2023After a week of showing her maturity at her first Wimbledon, 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva showed her inexperience on Monday. The Russian qualifier, who had won all six of her matches on grass to reach the fourth round at the All England Club, let a big lead over 25th-seeded Madison Keys slip away in a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 loss on No. 2 Court. Andreeva took the first set and led 3-0 in the second — winning nine of 10 games in one stretch — before Keys turned things around. Frustrated at one point, Andreeva threw her
July 10, 2023Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said Monday that his country welcomes the Netherlands’ plan to return hundreds of colonial-era artifacts — including a bejeweled, ceremonial cannon — and said the Indian Ocean island is working to preserve the historic items. The Dutch government last week announced that it will return 478 objects of cultural significance to Indonesia and to Sri Lanka. It said the objects were wrongfully brought to the Netherlands during the colonial period, acquired under duress or by looting. Under the plan, Sri Lanka is to receive six artifacts, including the cannon and guns
July 10, 2023Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man during new unrest in the West Bank Monday, as a wave of violence in the occupied territory showed no signs of slowing. The Israeli military said troops stopped a motorist in Deir Nidham, a town west of Ramallah, to question him. It said the man got out of his car, threw a grenade and fired shots toward soldiers, who then opened fire. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that a 33-year-old man had been killed, but gave no further details. The death comes during a major spike in violence between
July 10, 2023Egypt’s annual inflation rate set a record high in June, as the most populous Arab country continues to battle price hikes and a depreciating currency, the Egyptian statistics bureau said Monday. The annual inflation rate reached 36.8% last month, up from 33.7% recorded in May, according to data released by the state-run Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics. Prices in Egypt rose across many sectors, from food items and medical services to housing and furniture following the Russia-Ukraine war, which unleashed a wave of inflation across the globe. In Egypt, food and beverage prices, the main drivers
July 10, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country could approve Sweden’s membership in NATO if European nations “open the way” to Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. Erdogan, whose country has been holding off its final approval to Sweden’s NATO membership, made the comments in Ankara on Monday before departing to the alliance’s summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania. “Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union. I am making this call to
July 10, 2023Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Netherlands’ longest serving premier, said Monday he will leave politics after a general election sparked by his government’s resignation. Rutte, the leader of the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, announced his decision at a hastily arranged parliamentary debate. “Yesterday morning I made a decision that I will not be available again as a leader of the VVD. When a new Cabinet takes office after the elections, I will leave politics,” he said. Rutte’s four-party ruling coalition resigned Friday after failing to agree on a package
July 10, 2023Chris Paul worked out with new teammate Stephen Curry in Atlanta on Sunday morning before traveling to Las Vegas. His assessment of the session: They didn’t miss too many shots. Evidently, Paul’s time with the Golden State Warriors is off to a flying start. The veteran point guard revealed more than a few things in his first official interview session as a member of the Warriors: He isn’t ready to concede that he’s no longer a starter, he doesn’t expect this to be his final season as a player and he gleans the same joy from
July 10, 2023Iran has sentenced a popular rapper to six years and three months in prison over his participation in protests that rocked the country last year, his supporters said Monday. A social media account run by supporters of Toomaj Salehi announced the sentence, as did Ye-One Rhie, a member of the German parliament who has campaigned on his behalf. There was no immediate word from Iranian authorities. Salehi was among thousands of mostly young Iranians who took to the streets last fall after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested
July 10, 2023A Russian airstrike on a school in southern Ukraine killed four adults as people gathered to receive humanitarian aid, the governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Monday, branding the incident “a war crime.” Three women and a man, all in their 40s, died in Sunday’s attack in the town of Orikhiv, Gov. Yuriy Malashko said. A guided aerial bomb caused an explosion at the school, Malashko said, without providing evidence. Eleven other people were wounded in the attack, he said. Overall, Russia fired on 10 settlements in the province over the course of a day, he
July 10, 2023Russia’s war in Ukraine will top the agenda when U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts hold a summit in Lithuania’s capital over two days starting Tuesday. They are expected to focus on ensuring that Ukraine has support as long as the conflict continues, how to bring the country even closer to NATO without actually joining, and security guarantees Kyiv might need to ensure that Russia doesn’t invade again after the war ends. The leaders meeting in Vilnius are set to endorse new defense plans in case Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to broaden Moscow’s
July 10, 2023When it comes to criticizing the NATO members who fail to spend enough on defense, tiny Luxembourg is an easy target. One of NATO’s richest countries, and routinely ranked at the top of Europe’s economic growth tables, the Grand Duchy currently spends 0.72% of gross domestic product on its armed forces, according to the organization’s estimates for this year. That puts it at the foot of the 31-nation military alliance’s charts. Still, the numbers are deceiving, and that goes for other members too, like Germany. Under a pledge made in 2014, after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula,
July 10, 2023Myanmar’s prolonged civil strife, tensions in the disputed South China Sea and concern over arms buildups in the region are expected to dominate the agenda when Southeast Asia’s top diplomats gather for talks this week in Indonesia. Russia’s year-old invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.-China rivalry will also be under the spotlight as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang participate as dialogue partners of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. North Korea has yet to say whether
July 10, 2023Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is happy his old team McLaren is competitive in Formula One again, even if it is at his expense. The seven-time champion lost an all-British tussle to McLaren’s Lando Norris for second place in their home Grand Prix on Sunday. Norris even overtook all-conquering Red Bull driver Max Verstappen at the start to lead the race briefly. Getting the better of Verstappen has been almost impossible this season. On the fast tracks like Silverstone, Norris said, “We’re almost on a par with what Red Bull can achieve.” The McLaren car was quick
July 10, 2023Less than a block from T-Mobile Park, the image of Julio Rodríguez plasters the side of a warehouse. The mural is an ode to the Emerald City’s young baseball star — one the Seattle Mariners plan to have in center field for the next decade. At only 22, he’s already the face of the franchise, the one whose No. 44 jersey floods the stands nightly, both home and road. He’s carrying the expectations as the next generational player watching over that sacred position of center field in Seattle. This All-Star week in Seattle was supposed to be
July 10, 2023The education of robot umpires has been complicated by an open secret in baseball for the past 150 years: The strike zone called on the field doesn’t match the one mapped out in the rule book. Before the Automated Ball-Strike System is ready for the major leagues, there has to be agreement on what a strike is. “You go in a rabbit hole where it might not be fair for some hitters,” Minnesota Twins star Carlos Correa said. “A pitcher has big curveballs that cross the zone and end up a ball, but the zone has it
July 10, 2023Asian shares got the week off to a slow start, with mixed trading Monday as China reported wholesale prices fell in June, amid other signs the economy is slowing. Benchmarks rose in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Mumbai but fell in Tokyo and Sydney. U.S. futures and oil prices declined. The decline in producer prices by 5.4% in June from a 4.6% drop in May suggests a further weakening of demand in many industries as activity in the world’s second largest economy slows and growth in the U.S. and Europe also tapers off under a barrage of interest
July 10, 2023The delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest from neighboring Turkey is virtually certain to get a green light to continue from the U.N. Security Council on Monday — but the big question is for how long. The council’s current authorization for aid deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing is set to expire Monday, but the council has two rival extension resolutions before it to vote on. A Russian resolution would continue aid deliveries for six months and a Brazil-Switzerland resolution backed by most council members and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would authorize a 12-month extension.
July 10, 2023President Nayib Bukele was officially nominated by his New Ideas party Sunday to run for reelection next year, brushing aside objections from legal experts and opposition figures who say El Salvador’s constitution prohibits his candidacy. New Ideas also announced that current Vice President Felix Ulloa would run for reelection in the ballot scheduled for Feb. 4, 2024. Bukele is highly popular among Salvadorans because of his harsh crackdown on street gangs, but he is considered controversial internationally. He announced in September that he planned to seek a second five-year term. That came after the
July 10, 2023Matt Turner stopped two penalty kicks, and the United States beat Canada 3-2 in a shootout after a 2-2 draw Sunday night for a berth in a CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal against Panama. In a game that was scoreless until the 88th minute, the U.S. tied the score when Canada’s Scott Kennedy had an own goal in the 115th minute, six minutes after Jacob Shaffelburg put Canada ahead. Brandon Vázquez gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead but Steven Vitória made it 1-1 in the third minute of stoppage time with a penalty kick after a hand ball
July 10, 2023Gabby Thomas held off Sha’Carri Richardson with the best time in the world this year to win the women’s 200 meters at the U.S. track and field championships on Sunday night. Thomas caught up to Richardson rounding the curve and powered to the finish in 21.60 seconds. Kayla White took third. The 26-year-old Thomas skipped the 100 to conserve her energy for the 200. She finished eighth at nationals last season as she dealt with a hamstring injury. “It felt really good,” Thomas said of her race. Richardson accomplished precisely what she wanted to at nationals
July 10, 2023Torrential rain has been pounding southwestern Japan, triggering floods and mudslides and leaving at least six people missing Monday. Rains falling on the regions of Kyushu and Chugoku since the weekend caused flooding along a number of rivers as well as mudslides, closing roads, disrupting trains and cutting the water supply in some areas. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued an emergency heavy rain warning for Fukuoka and Oita prefectures on the southern main island of Kyushu, urging residents in riverside and hillside areas to take maximum caution. More than 1.7 million residents in vulnerable areas were urged
July 10, 2023Victor Wembanyama was yelling in celebration, punching the air, even got a Band-Aid on his right cheek because of some physicality. For his second act in Las Vegas, Wembanyama showed some fire. The No. 1 pick in this year’s draft looked much more like himself in his second game of Summer League on Sunday. He finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds, but the Spurs lost 85-80 to the Portland Trail Blazers. “I was just getting going,” Wembanyama said. He was 9 of 14 from the floor, 7 of 12 from the line, blocked three shots
July 10, 2023William Byron won the rain-shortened NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night for his second win in Atlanta in the last two years and his fourth victory of the season. The threat of rain affected strategy as drivers fought to move toward the front of the field before weather delayed or ended the race. On lap 185, with 75 laps to go, NASCAR ordered cars to pit road due to rain and the possibility of lightning. Cars were covered while officials waited to see if the rain ended. Only six minutes later, fans were
July 10, 2023Heavy rain spawned extreme flooding in New York’s Hudson Valley that killed at least one person, swamped roadways and forced road closures on Sunday night, as much of the rest of the Northeast U.S. began bracing for potentially punishing rains. As the storm moved east, the National Weather Service extended flash flood warnings into Connecticut, including the cities of Stamford and Greenwich, before creeping into Massachusetts. Forecasters say some areas could get as much as 5 inches of rain. In New York’s Hudson Valley, rescue teams were attempting to retrieve the body of a woman in
July 10, 2023Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández, chosen by Pope Francis to head the Vatican office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy, conceded Sunday he made mistakes in handling a 2019 case of a priest accused of sexual abuse of minors. The case has drawn allegations by critics that Fernández tried to protect the priest, a charge that he has denied. “Today I would certainly act very differently and certainly my performance was insufficient,” he told The Associated Press during an interview after celebrating Mass in La Plata, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) south of Buenos Aires. Pope Francis appointed
July 10, 2023Allisen Corpuz became the first American in 20 years to make the U.S. Women’s Open her first LPGA title, closing with a 3-under 69 on Sunday and handling her historic moment at Pebble Beach as if she had been there before. Corpuz, a 25-year-old from Hawaii, pulled away with a big par putt and back-to-back birdies on the back nine to enjoy the most scenic walk in golf up the 18th fairway, the Pacific Ocean on her left and her place secured as the first U.S. Women’s Open champion at Pebble Beach. She won by
July 10, 2023Former AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson resigned from the PGA Tour’s policy board over concerns about the tour’s proposed partnership with Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The PGA Tour confirmed the resignation in a memo to its members, referring to Stephenson’s “exemplary service” for more than 12 years. Stephenson retired as chairman and CEO of AT&T in June 2020. The Post said it obtained a copy of his letter that was dated Saturday and said the tour’s framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund “is not one that I can objectively evaluate or in good
July 10, 2023A Brooklyn man accused of killing an 86-year-old and injuring three other men in a series of shootings while riding a scooter in New York City is charged with murder and attempted murder, police said Sunday. In all, six apparently random shootings occurred in Brooklyn and Queens on Saturday, according to police. The motive of the alleged gunman, identified Sunday as 25-year-old Thomas Abreu, was unknown, police said. Police arrested Abreu without incident Saturday. The New York Police Department pulled an image of the gunman from video and sent it to officers, who spotted him a
July 09, 2023Sepp Straka won the John Deere Classic on Sunday with a final-round 9-under 62 that could have been much better, making double bogey on the final hole but taking the title by two shots when Brendon Todd and Alex Smalley were unable to catch him. The 30-year-old Austrian who played in college at Georgia won for the second time on the PGA Tour, moved to No. 27 in the world and increased his chances of representing Europe in the Ryder Cup this fall in Rome. He shot 73 on Thursday but followed with rounds of 63,
July 09, 2023The Pittsburgh Pirates selected hard-throwing LSU right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes with the top pick in baseball’s amateur draft on Sunday night. Skenes went 12-3 as a pitcher with 209 strikeouts in 122 innings in helping lead the Tigers to the College World Series championship. The pick was announced by Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., the top pick of the 1987 draft by the Seattle Mariners. Skenes was the first college pitcher selection No. 1 overall since Casey Mize by Detroit in 2018. For the second time in three years, the Pirates held the top overall selection
July 09, 2023Philadelphia authorities investigating a Fourth of July holiday shooting spree that left five people dead now say the gunman killed one of the victims almost two full days before the mass shooting. Kimbrady Carriker, 40, was arraigned Wednesday morning on five counts of murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons counts of possession without a license and carrying firearms in public, prosecutors said. While authorities initially believed Carriker killed Joseph Wamah Jr., 31, in a home as part of a quickly orchestrated series of shootings, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Sunday that an error prevented police
July 09, 2023South Korea’s president says it’s time to clearly demonstrate strong international resolve to deter North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and he plans to discuss how to cope with the North’s expanding weapons arsenal with NATO leaders this week. Yoon Suk Yeol will attend the annual NATO summit being held this year in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a two-nation trip that includes a stop in Poland. “Now is the time to clearly demonstrate that the international community’s determination to deter North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is stronger than North Korea’s desire to
July 09, 2023Megan Rapinoe and Trinity Rodman stood side by side at the top of a stairwell waiting to return to the field for some final cheers and fanfare before the Americans departed for the Women’s World Cup Down Under. The Old Guard and Young Guard of U.S. Soccer are mixing, meshing. These women are still learning from each other and about each other. And U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski is confident the kinks will be worked out over the coming couple of weeks in training for the Americans to shine. Rising star Rodman scored for U.S. in
July 09, 2023Novak Djokovic will need to put in some work to get to the Wimbledon quarterfinals as he seeks a fifth consecutive title and eighth overall at the All England Club. Djokovic took the first two sets 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6) — after trailing in each tiebreaker — against 17th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz on Sunday night at Centre Court before their fourth-round match was suspended because it was getting too late to continue to play. They did not start until about 8:50 p.m. because the preceding match lasted about three hours. After Djokovic claimed the second set when
July 09, 2023Where and when to pop your Champagne is such a Wimbledon problem. Someone got the timing wrong Sunday at the oldest Grand Slam tournament, where the bubbly helps wash down the strawberries and cream. “Ladies and gentlemen, please, if you are opening a bottle of Champagne don’t do it as the player is about to serve. Thank you,” Australian umpire John Blom announced just after the start of a match on No. 3 Court. Anastasia Potapova smiled and nodded in approval. The 22nd-seeded player was serving to start her third-round match against teenager Mirra Andreeva. When
July 09, 2023More than six months after Northwestern began investigating allegations of hazing within its football team, and two days after announcing that coach Pat Fitzgerald had been suspended for two weeks without pay, the program remains shrouded in uncertainty even with the start of fall practices just weeks away. The school said Friday that Fitzgerald, a onetime star player and now the Wildcats’ winningest coach, was suspended after an investigation led by attorney Maggie Hickey of law firm ArentFox Schiff did not find “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff knew about ongoing hazing — though there were “significant opportunities” to find
July 09, 2023Wade Miley pitched six strong innings and the Milwaukee Brewers made a first-inning run stand up in a 1-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. The victory pulled the Brewers to within a game of the NL Central-leading Reds heading into the All-Star break. Milwaukee took two of three in the series. A trio of Brewers relievers – Elvis Peguero, Joel Payamps and Devin Williams – combined to complete the shutout. Williams retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his 20th save in 22 tries. Christian Yelich led off the Brewers half of
July 09, 2023Ryan Yarbrough won his first game back with Kansas City after being hit in the face by a line drive two months ago and the Royals finally beat Shane Bieber, snapping a six-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday. Yarbrough (2-4) suffered several facial fractures when he was hit on May 7 against Oakland by a line drive clocked at 106.2 mph. But the left-hander worked his way back from the scary incident and limited the Guardians to one run and six hits over six innings. Carlos Hernández pitched two scoreless
July 09, 2023Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Mexico’s veteran political chameleon who played a key role in the country’s democratic reforms, has died at age 89, his family announced Sunday. His relatives did not give a cause of death, but he had been in ill health for some time. Since entering politics in the 1970s, Muñoz Ledo was never far from the center of power, even if that meant changing parties. Tributes poured in from most of Mexico’s political parties; he had belonged to most of them at some point. And many of the tributes began with phrases like “despite
July 09, 2023British Open champion Cameron Smith held on to win his first golf tournament of the year on Sunday, closing with a 3-under 68 to win LIV Golf-London by one shot over Patrick Reed and Marc Leishman. The victory came less than two weeks before Smith defends his British Open title at Royal Liverpool. It was his first win since the LIV Golf-Chicago event last September. Smith led Reed by six shots at the turn when the American made six birdies on the back nine at Centurion Club and closed with a 65. Reed failed to
July 09, 2023With thunderstorms blanketing the Northeast again, the Seattle Storm had to alter their travel plans to get from New York to Washington for their game against the Mystics on Tuesday. Seattle was originally planning to fly to Washington on Sunday, but when their operations staff got to the airport ahead of the rest of the team they heard their flight was canceled because of incoming storms in the area. The next direct flight out they could get that would be able to accommodate their 24-person travel party was Wednesday — a day after the game. There
July 09, 2023Florida prosecutors seeking the death penalty for a plastic surgeon accused of killing a lawyer and dumping his body in the Everglades have laid out their case in new court filings. Authorities say Dr. Tomasz Kosowski killed attorney Steven Cozzi in the bathroom of Cozzi’s law office moments after both participated in a March 21 conference call about a lengthy, acrimonious legal battle over medical billing. Prosecutors said in court documents that Kosowski took the call from a Toyota pickup truck outside the office and that he had supplies to commit the killing, including trash
July 09, 2023Opposition party supporters in Zimbabwe chanted and sang freedom songs outside a courthouse Sunday following a decision to ban them from holding a rally six weeks before elections. The court in the town of Bindura upheld Friday’s police order that the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party could not hold the rally to officially launch its election campaign because the venue was unsuitable. The CCC had appealed in court against the order. The decision increased tensions in the southern African nation, which has a history of violent and disputed elections. The CCC immediately criticized the move
July 09, 2023When 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva needed some advice after losing in the third round at her first major tennis tournament, she didn’t have go far. Sure, her parents and coaches have played huge roles in helping her become the latest teen sensation in tennis. But Andreeva knows herself better than anyone else does, so the conversation after this year’s French Open stayed internal. “Honestly, after Paris I just had quite a long talk with myself, just me and myself, and that’s it. I talked to myself. I just talked,” Andreeva said. “I don’t know, just in my
July 09, 2023An Oklahoma judge has thrown out a lawsuit seeking reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, dashing an effort to obtain some measure of legal justice by survivors of the deadly racist rampage. Judge Caroline Wall on Friday dismissed with prejudice the lawsuit trying to force the city and others to make recompense for the destruction of the once-thriving Black district known as Greenwood. The order comes in a case by three survivors of the attack, who are all now over 100 years old and sued in 2020 with the hope of seeing what their attorney called “justice in their
July 09, 2023Canadian Michael Woods delivered an impressive solo effort to claim the biggest success of his career at the top of a legendary Tour de France climb on Sunday as two-time champion Tadej Pogacar further reduced the gap with overall leader Jonas Vingegaard. Woods, who rides for the Israel-Premier Tech team, has no ambition in the general classification and was part of an early breakaway that the main contenders allowed to form early in the ninth stage. He managed to catch American Matteo Jorgenson just 500 meters from the summit after his 24-year-old rival jumped
July 09, 2023Mexico’s armed forces are taking control of the capital’s main airport, and the government plans to give the military control of nearly a dozen more across the country as the president takes aim at corruption and mismanagement. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been setting the armed forces to a wide range of nontraditional tasks since he was elected in 2018, creating concerns about the separation of the military from civilian life. A new airport was built by the army outside Mexico City a year ago at a cost of $4.1 billion. It is run by
July 09, 2023Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson won’t get a second act in Las Vegas. There’s no Thompson twins show, either. Injuries have affected what shaped up to be the marquee games Sunday in the NBA Summer League, after two top players were hurt on opening night. Henderson, the No. 3 pick in the draft, and Amen Thompson, who went right after him to Houston, were hurt in the same game Friday. The Portland Trail Blazers announced that Henderson wouldn’t play Sunday against San Antonio because of a strained right shoulder. Nor will Amen Thompson go in the
July 09, 2023Max Verstappen recovered from a slow start to win the British Grand Prix on Sunday for his sixth Formula One win in a row as Lando Norris held off fellow British driver Lewis Hamilton in a thrilling battle for second. Starting on pole position, Verstappen was overtaken off the line by McLaren’s Norris but swept back into the lead on lap five and held on until the end. Norris had been expected to drop back after qualifying a surprise second on the grid, but instead remained Verstappen’s closest challenger throughout the race. After a safety-car restart,
July 09, 2023United States midfielder Brenden Aaronson will play in Germany’s top flight next season after joining Union Berlin on loan from Leeds on Sunday. Aaronson has agreed a season-long deal after Leeds was relegated from the Premier League last term. “We would like to wish Brenden good luck during his time at the Stadion An der Alten Forsterei,” his club said. The 22-year-old Aaronson made 36 Premier League appearances for Leeds last season after joining from Red Bull Salzburg for a fee close to 25 million pounds ($32 million) in the summer of 2022. He joins Union
July 09, 2023Kansas City Royals pitcher Ryan Yarbrough is returning to the mound Sunday to start against Cleveland in his first major league game since the left-hander was hit in the face with a line drive two months ago. Yarbrough was activated from the 60-day injured list before the series finale, the team’s last game before the All-Star break. The 31-year-old Yarbrough suffered multiple fractures around his eye when he was hit with a 106.2 mph smash by Oakland’s Ryan Noda on May 7. The ball ricocheted off Yarbrough to Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez, who threw Noda out
July 09, 2023A Vermont burglary suspect who led police on a high-speed chase and crashed his truck into two police cruisers, killing a 19-year-old officer and injuring two others, will be arraigned Monday on charges related to the crash, state police said. Tate Rheaume, 20, is facing charges of grossly negligent operation and attempting to elude, both with death resulting. Additional charges are possible, state police said. It was not immediately known if he is being represented by an attorney. Rutland City Police Officer Jessica Ebbighausen was killed on Friday afternoon. The crash happened as police chased a
July 09, 2023The leader of the conservative bloc in the European Parliament said in an interview published Sunday that his party would not cooperate with the far-right Alternative for Germany but expressed a willingness to work with Italy’s far-right premier to curb migration. Manfred Weber, the German EU lawmaker who heads the European People’s Party (EPP), dismissed suggestions that his bloc could drop its refusal to cooperate with Alternative for Germany at the state and federal level in the coming years amid growing support for the far-right party. “The firewall stands,” Weber told the Funke Medie Group, adding that
July 09, 2023Major League Baseball has made the games faster, the bases bigger and defense a little bit harder. Now, if it could only do something about those stubborn strikeouts. “Just move the mound back to about — oh, I don’t know — second base? Maybe fastballs only?” Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Jake McCarthy said, laughing. “I just think these pitchers are really good. “No one likes to strike out, but that’s how it goes.” There’s little doubt that MLB’s expansive new rules package this season has been a success, particularly when it comes to speeding up the action. But
July 09, 2023Sixteen-year-old Mirra Andreeva, playing at Wimbledon for the first time, earned the final spot in the fourth round of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament on Sunday. The Russian qualifier is the latest teen sensation in tennis, and she isn’t disappointing at the All England Club. Andreeva is the youngest player since Coco Gauff in 2019 to reach the women’s fourth round at Wimbledon. She reached the third round at this year’s French Open in her first major tournament. Despite trailing 4-1 in the second set, Andreeva beat 22nd-seeded Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5 on No. 3 Court.
July 09, 2023Russian-installed authorities in the Crimean peninsula on Sunday reported shooting down a cruise missile near the city of Kerch and briefly suspending traffic on the Kerch bridge that links the annexed territory to Russia. The Moscow-appointed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said the interception of the missile by Russian air defenses didn’t result in any damage or casualties. He didn’t offer any details, including the type of the missile and its origin. In the nearby Russian region of Rostov, authorities on Sunday also reported shooting down a missile. Gov. Vasily Golubev said the missile was Ukrainian, and its debris damaged
July 09, 2023Hundreds lined the Bosnian capital’s main street Sunday as a truck carrying 30 coffins passed on its way to Srebrenica, where newly identified victims of Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II will be buried on the 28th anniversary of the massacre. As the truck, covered with a huge Bosnian flag, briefly stopped in front of the country’s presidential building, members of the crowd tucked flowers into the canvas hiding the remains of victims found in mass graves and identified through DNA analysis. “It is devastatingly sad that hundreds of victims still have not been
July 09, 2023Syria’s Information Ministry has canceled the BBC’s media accreditation, accusing the British public broadcaster of biased and fake news in its coverage of the war-torn country. The announcement came days after BBC Arabic released an investigative documentary about the illicit drug trade in Syria, where they highlighted links between the estimated multibillion-dollar industry and the Syrian army as well as members of President Bashar Assad’s family. The Syrian Information Ministry in a statement late Saturday said the decision was made after“ warning the channel more than once that it has broadcasted its misleading reports relying on statements
July 09, 2023Pope Francis on Sunday announced he has chosen 21 new cardinals, including prelates from Jerusalem and Hong Kong — places where Catholics are a small minority. The pope announced his picks during his customary weekly appearance to the public in St. Peter’s Square, saying the ceremony to formally install the churchmen as cardinals will be held on Sept. 30. Among those tapped are several prelates holding or about to assume major Vatican posts, like Argentine Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, whom the pope just named to lead the office for ensuring doctrinal orthodoxy. The new cardinals also
July 09, 2023Senior British politicians on Sunday called on the BBC to rapidly investigate claims that a leading presenter paid a teenager for explicit photos. The government said Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer would hold urgent talks with the broadcaster’s director-general over the “deeply concerning” allegations. The publicly funded national broadcaster is under pressure after The Sun newspaper reported allegations that the male presenter gave a youth 35,000 pounds ($45,000) starting in 2020 when the young person was 17. Neither the star nor the youth was identified. Amid speculation on social media about the identity of the presenter, several of
July 09, 2023U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sudan is on the brink of a “full-scale civil war” as fierce clashes between rival generals continued unabated Sunday in the capital of Khartoum. Guterres warned late Saturday that the war between the Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary force is likely to destabilize the entire region, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the U.N. chief. Sudan descended into chaos after months of tension between military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and his rival, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open fighting in mid-April. Health
July 09, 2023A dash of pomp and a dose of politics are on the agenda during a stopover visit to the U.K. where President Joe Biden will discuss the environment with King Charles III and the war in Ukraine with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Biden flies to London on Sunday on his way to a NATO summit in Lithuania. He is scheduled to hold talks with Sunak at 10 Downing St. on Monday before heading to Windsor Castle to meet Charles for the first time since the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September. Though this is not a
July 09, 2023As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues with no end in sight, NATO’s much-celebrated unity faces fresh strains when leaders gather for their annual summit this week in Vilnius, Lithuania. The world’s biggest security alliance is struggling to reach an agreement on admitting Sweden as its 32nd member. Military spending by member nations still lags behind longstanding goals. And an inability to compromise over who should serve as NATO’s next leader forced an extension of the current secretary general’s term for an extra year. Perhaps most thorny are questions over how Ukraine should be eased into the
July 09, 2023Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said she agreed Washington will listen to Chinese complaints about security-related curbs on U.S. technology exports and might “respond to unintended consequences” as she ended a visit to Beijing aimed at reviving strained relations. Yellen defended “targeted measures” on trade that China’s leaders complain are aimed at hurting its fledgling tech industries. She said the Biden administration wants to “avoid unnecessary repercussions” but gave no indication of possible changes. Relations between the two biggest economies are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes about technology, security and other irritants.
July 09, 2023First came the supposed death of skinny jeans. Then, the resurgence of cargo pants, halter tops and baby tees. If there’s one thing retailers can agree on, it’s that Gen Z is hot for the early 2000s fashion trends now booming in popularity. College interns and young workers are donning wide-legged slacks at the office. The claw clip, a retro hair staple, is back; as are mesh tops, miniskirts and a host of colorful apparel that can make consumers look like they stepped out of a Disney Channel show from 2004. Fueled by social media platforms
July 09, 2023Natural disasters can be dramatic — barreling hurricanes, building-toppling tornadoes — but heat is more deadly. Chicago learned that the hard way in 1995. That July, a weeklong heat wave that hit 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius) killed more than 700 people. Most of the deaths occurred in poor and majority Black neighborhoods, where many elderly or isolated people suffered without proper ventilation or air conditioning. Power outages from an overwhelmed grid made it all worse. Initially slow to react, Chicago has since developed emergency heat response plans that include a massive push to alert the
July 09, 2023Alexander Volkanovski re-asserted himself as the featherweight champion with a technical knockout over Yair Rodriguez at 4:19 of the third round Saturday night in UFC 290. Rodriguez was the interim champion after Volkanovski temporarily moved up to lightweight, but the Australian left little doubt who the better fighter in running his record to 26-2 in what was scheduled as a five-round bout. “There was a bit of fear … knowing how dangerous he was,” Volkanovski said. “That’s the honest truth. I put in my head. This week, I flipped the switch because of the respect I
July 09, 2023Bob Huggins says he never resigned as West Virginia’s basketball coach following a drunken-driving arrest and wants his job back, according to a letter from his attorney to the university. Huggins’ Cleveland-based attorney, David A. Campbell, wrote to the university Friday that Huggins “never signed a resignation letter and never communicated a resignation to anyone at WVU,” according to the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday. The letter threatens a lawsuit if Huggins isn’t reinstated. Huggins’ demands were first reported by West Virginia network MetroNews. Huggins was charged with driving under the influence in Pittsburgh on
July 09, 2023Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is proving to be a quick study in her newest event. Very quick. McLaughlin-Levrone turned in a dominant performance to win the women’s 400 meters at the U.S. track and field championships on Saturday night. Known as the record-setting 400 hurdler, McLaughlin-Levrone is learning the nuances of the open 400 on the fly this season. McLaughlin-Levrone made it look easy by cruising across the line in a meet-record time of 48.74 seconds. She almost broke the American record of 48.70 set by Sanya Richards-Ross in 2006. Britton Wilson couldn’t quite close the gap on
July 09, 2023All-Star Spencer Strider struck out 11 and won his seventh straight decision, a 6-1 victory over the slumping Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday night that gave the majors-leading Atlanta Braves their 20th victory in 22 games. Strider (11-2) joined Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan and Arizona’s Zac Gallen as the only 11-game winners in the majors. He improved to 7-0 over his last eight starts and boosted his majors-leading strikeout total to 166. Sean Murphy homered for the third straight game, a career best for Atlanta’s All-Star catcher. His three-run shot finished a four-run, fourth-inning against
July 09, 2023The U.S. Women’s Open went prime-time from Pebble Beach. So did Nasa Hataoka. In gusts that topped 20 mph, Hataoka managed to play bogey-free Saturday with a 6-under 66 for the lowest score all week at Pebble Beach, giving her a one-shot lead over Allisen Corpuz going into the final round of the biggest event in women’s golf. At stake for Hataoka is a chance to wipe away two playoff losses in the majors, most recently two years ago in the U.S. Women’s Open up the California coast at Olympic Club. “It could be just
July 09, 2023Coming soon: the NBA Cup. The NBA unveiled the details Saturday of its inaugural in-season tournament, which will have a prize pool of about $18 million and will be capped by a championship game — which won’t count in the standings — in Las Vegas on Dec. 9. It’s an event that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wanted for years, giving teams a trophy to play for during the regular season. And now, it’s finally reality. “This is a concept that has been rumbling around the league office for about 15 years,” Silver said. “It’s not a
July 09, 2023Chase Elliott says he can’t rely on repeating last summer’s success, starting with his home track at Atlanta Motor Speedway, as his path to NASCAR’s playoffs. Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, has endured too much adversity in 2023 to assume he’ll extend his streak of seven consecutive appearances in the playoffs. He had more reason for self-doubt Saturday, when he qualified only 23rd. Aric Almirola won the pole to lead another strong Atlanta qualifying day for Ford. Elliott enters the Atlanta race Sunday night only 24th in the Cup Series standings. He won last summer’s
July 08, 2023Elly De La Cruz became the first Reds player since 1919 to steal second, third and home in the same inning, the latest electrifying play from the franchise-changing rookie, and Cincinnati beat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-5 on Saturday. De La Cruz broke a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning with a two-out RBI single off Elvis Peguero, then got to work making the reliever’s life miserable. He stole second. Then, on a 1-2 pitch from Peguero (1-2), he swiped third without a throw. The rattled reliever caught the ball from his catcher in front of the mound
July 08, 2023Victor Wembanyama freely acknowledged that he was often confused in his first NBA Summer League game, going as far as to say that there were times when he didn’t know what he was doing. He’s in good company. Wembanyama shared the stage for a conversation on Saturday at NBA Con with a pair of champions, Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Isiah Thomas. And they may have given the San Antonio Spurs rookie a bit of solace by revealing that when they were breaking into the league, they had moments when they were lost as well.
July 08, 2023Two years ago, it was Giovanny Gallegos’ hat. This time, it was rosin on his left arm. It’s just something about Gallegos and Chicago’s South Side. Gallegos pitched the eighth inning in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 3-0 victory over the White Sox on Saturday. But it wasn’t exactly a routine outing. It all started when plate umpire Lance Barrett saw Gallegos hit his left arm with the rosin bag after he warmed up. Barrett told Gallegos that was illegal and the umpire used a towel to clean off Gallegos’ arm. When the 31-year-old Gallegos did the same
July 08, 2023Gregg Popovich evidently doesn’t plan to leave the San Antonio Spurs anytime soon. The NBA’s winningest coach has signed a five-year contract to remain coach and president of the team, the Spurs announced Saturday. There has often been speculation about the 74-year-old Popovich’s future, though after the team landed the chance to draft Victor Wembanyama last month it was presumed that the five-time champion would continue coaching. And now, it’s official. The Spurs announced the move in a two-sentence release, not detailing any of the terms, without any quotes from Popovich or team personnel. Popovich took
July 08, 2023Corbin Carroll singled with the bases loaded in the 10th inning and the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks rallied to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Saturday. Alek Thomas homered to tie it in the eighth, then singled in the tying run in the 10th against David Bednar (3-1). The infield hit followed a throwing error by Bednar on a bunt and scored automatic runner Dominic Canzone, making his debut in the majors. After Geraldo Perdomo sacrificed, Ketel Marte was intentionally walked, and Carroll lined a single just fair down the right-field line to keep the Diamondbacks in
July 08, 2023Brendon Todd scrambled for par on the par-4 18th to take a one-stroke lead Saturday in the John Deere Classic, holing a 12-foot putt after drawing an awkward stance near a fairway bunker. Todd had a 5-under 66 in breezy conditions to reach 16-under 197 at TPC Deere Run. The three-time PGA Tour winner drove close to the left fairway bunker on 18, forcing him to hit with his left foot in grass and his right foot well below in the sand. He advanced it 65 yards to set up a 105-yard wedge. “Kept me bogey-free
July 08, 2023Three Detroit Tigers pitchers combined to no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays in a 2-0 win on Saturday. It was the first combined no-hitter in Tigers history. Matt Manning (3-1) pitched 6 2/3 innings and Jason Foley got four straight outs. Tigers closer Alex Lange came in for the ninth and struck out Bo Bichette on three pitches. Brandon Belt lined out to center field, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded out to third on an 0-2 pitch. The Tigers celebrated at the mound with Manning and Foley joining the crowd. Manning was replaced after walking Cavan Biggio with
July 08, 2023Hundreds of divers and snorkelers listened to an underwater concert that advocated coral reef protection Saturday in the Florida Keys. The Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival, which also spotlighted eco-conscious diving, took place at Looe Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary located about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of Big Pine Key. Established in 1990, the sanctuary protects 3,800 square miles (9,800 square kilometers) of waters including the barrier reef that parallels the 125-mile-long (201-kilometer-long) island chain. Participants swam among Looe Key’s colorful marine life and coral formations while
July 08, 2023Greece’s conservative government won a vote of confidence Saturday in Parliament to start its second four-year term, two weeks after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party handily won the election. The 300 lawmakers voted 158-142 to approve the government’s policy statement after a low-key three-day debate. The vote went as expected, with only lawmakers from New Democracy voting for the government. Mitsotakis’ New Democracy won the June 25 election with 40.56% of the vote, compared to 17.83% for the left-wing Syriza and 11.84% for the socialist PASOK. There are eight parties represented in Parliament, up
July 08, 2023The Detroit Tigers have a combined no-hitter through eight innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. Starting pitcher Matt Manning went the first 6 2/3 innings. Manning walked three batters and struck out five. He was pulled after walking Cavan Biggio with two outs in the top of the seventh. He threw 91 pitches. Jason Foley came on in relief and got Whit Merrifield to fly out to end the top of the seventh. Foley then retired the Blue Jays in order in the top of the eighth. The Tigers lead 2-0. Manning was aided by
July 08, 2023Giancarlo Stanton hit a mammoth homer in the first inning and added a two-run homer after a video review in the fifth and the New York Yankees beat the Chicago Cubs 6-3 Saturday. Josh Donaldson hit his 10th homer and Harrison Bader hit a two-run double as the Yankees avoided their third four-game losing streak this year. After being held to two singles in Friday’s series opener, the Yankees improved to 14-16 since losing Aaron Judge to a torn ligament in his right big toe on June 3. Gerrit Cole (9-2) allowed a two-run homer to
July 08, 2023A scooter-riding gunman killed an 87-year-old man and wounded three others in a string of random shootings that stretched across two New York City boroughs, police said Saturday. A 25-year-old man was taken into custody without incident and his identity was not revealed by police, Assistant Police Chief Joseph Kenny said at a news conference. A 9 mm handgun with an extended magazine and a scooter were recovered. The New York Police Department pulled an image of the gunman from video and sent it to phones of officers, some of whom spotted the suspect about two
July 08, 2023Israel’s anti-government protest movement gained new momentum on Saturday night as tens of thousands of people spilled into the streets of cities across the country to oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judicial system. The grassroots movement has staged protests for over six months since Netanyahu’s government unveiled the overhaul plan. But in recent weeks, the protests had shown signs of weakening. Plans by the government to push forward with the overhaul next week in parliament, coupled with the firing of Tel Aviv’s police chief, who was accused of being
July 08, 2023A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart made the WNBA All-Star draft about picking their current and former teammates. Wilson took her Las Vegas Aces teammates Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young with her first two picks in the draft Saturday. She drafted Kelsey Plum as her top reserve choice, keeping all four Aces players together for the game that will be played in Las Vegas next Saturday. Wilson’s team will be coached by the Aces’ Becky Hammon. “I mean, listen, you need to have a great point guard when it comes to games like this and I feel
July 08, 2023Days before heading to her fourth World Cup, Megan Rapinoe announced Saturday she’ll retire at the end of the National Women’s Soccer League season. Rapinoe, 38, made the announcement on Twitter, saying she “never could have imagined the ways in which soccer would shape & change my life forever.” “It is with a deep sense of peace & gratitude that I have decided this will be my final season playing this beautiful game,” the Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Cup champion said. The U.S. team is aiming for a third consecutive title when the Women’s World
July 08, 2023Hundreds of opponents of gay rights on Saturday swarmed the site of an LGBT festival in the capital of the country of Georgia, vandalizing the stage, setting fires and looting the event’s bar. Deputy Georgian Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said participants in the Tbilisi Pride Fest were safely evacuated from the scene. The event’s organizers called on people not to come to the lakeside park where the fest was to be held. Georgian news media estimated about 5,000 people marched toward the site. Many of them waved Georgian flags and carried religious icons. Animosity toward sexual
July 08, 2023Chet Holmgren has taken another positive step on his surgically repaired right foot. Holmgren had 16 points and 10 rebounds Saturday, helping the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks 91-80 in their NBA Summer League opener. The No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft missed the 2022-23 season after sustaining a Lisfranc injury in his right foot last summer. The 7-foot-1 Holmgren returned when the Thunder played three games in the Salt Lake City Summer League before heading to Las Vegas, finishing with 15 points, nine rebounds and four blocks Monday in a victory over
July 08, 2023Switzerland will import more cheese than it exports this year for the first time, according to the head of the country’s dairy association. The opening up of the Swiss milk market has put a squeeze on domestic producers in recent years, prompting some to give up, Boris Beuret told Geneva-based newspaper Le Temps in an interview published Saturday. Beuret said measures need to be taken to ensure Switzerland — famous worldwide for high-quality cheese varieties such as Gruyère and Emmentaler — can continue to produce for its own population. “If not, then we will end up importing
July 08, 2023An airstrike in a Sudanese city on Saturday killed at least 22 people, health authorities said, in one of the deadliest air attacks yet in the weekslong fighting between Sudan’s rival generals. The assault took place in a residential area of Omdurman, the neighboring city of the capital, Khartoum, according to a brief statement by the health ministry. The attack wounded an unspecified number of people, it said. The attack was one of the deadliest of the clashes in urban areas in the capital and elsewhere in Sudan between the military and a powerful paramilitary group known
July 08, 2023Six people were killed when a small plane crashed and burst into flames in a field near a Southern California airport before dawn Saturday, authorities said. The crash of the Cessna C550 business jet occurred around 4:15 a.m. in Murrieta, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It took firefighters more than an hour to extinguish the flames, which had engulfed the plane and charred about an acre of vegetation just north of French Valley Airport, said the Riverside County Fire Department. All six people on board died
July 08, 2023The struggle to certify the results of Guatemala’s first-round presidential election has suffered another reverse after the chief justice of the Supreme Court issued an order blocking the certification. Chief Justice Silvia Valdés Quezada issued the unusual order late Friday. She stipulated the process could not go forward until the electoral authorities that conducted a review of vote tally sheets from the June 25 election reported back to her on their methods and any inconsistencies found. Valdés Quezada said they had to do that within 12 hours. The reviews witnessed by the AP found improperly marked
July 08, 2023Max Verstappen shrugged off an unusual low-speed crash in the pits on Saturday to qualify in pole position for the British Grand Prix as his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez continued to struggle in qualifying with 16th place. Verstappen secured pole for the fifth straight race and for all of those Pérez has failed to qualify in the top 10. Verstappen made contact with the pit wall and broke his front wing while leaving his garage during a red-flag stoppage in the first part of qualifying. Red Bull replaced the wing and checked there was no
July 08, 2023A Vermont police officer was killed and two other officers were injured when a burglary suspect crashed into two police cruisers pursuing him, Vermont State Police said. Rutland City Police Officer Jessica Ebbighausen, 19, was killed on Friday afternoon. The crash happened as police chased a vehicle driven by Tate Rheaume, 20, a suspect in an attempted break-in at a house, state police said. Evidence indicates that Rheaume crossed the centerline and collided head-on with the Ebbighausen’s cruiser, police said. The suspect’s truck also hit another police cruiser. Ebbighausen was pronounced dead at the scene. Two
July 08, 2023Mark Cavendish will have to share the Tour de France record for most career stage wins at cycling’s biggest race. Competing in his final season, the ace sprinter from the Isle of Man who is known as “The Manx Missile,” crashed out of the race during the eighth stage on Saturday. Cavendish equaled Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour stage wins during the 2021 edition, 13 years after his first success, but was not selected last year. This edition was his last chance to become the outright record-holder after he announced in May during the Giro
July 08, 2023The rain returned to Wimbledon on Day 6 of the grass-court tournament, with only one match completed Saturday before play was suspended on all outside courts. Beatriz Haddad Maia, a 13th-seeded Brazilian who reached the semifinals at this year’s French Open, beat Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-2 in the third round on No. 3 Court. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova nearly made it in time, leading Natalija Stevanovic 6-3, 4-6 on No. 2 Court when the rain started. Only Centre Court and No. 1 Court have roofs at the All England Club. Play in those two stadiums
July 08, 2023Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appealed to China on Saturday for cooperation on climate change and other global challenges and not to let disagreements about trade and other irritants derail relations. In a meeting with her Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, Yellen defended U.S. restrictions on technology exports that rankle Beijing. She said the two governments shouldn’t let such disagreements disrupt thriving economic and financial relations. ″We also face important global challenges, such as debt distress in emerging markets and developing countries and climate change,” Yellen said. “We have a duty to both our own economies and
July 08, 2023A solemn peace march started on Saturday through forests in eastern Bosnia in memory of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II. The annual 100-kilometer (60-mile) march retraces a route taken by thousands of men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, made up primarily of Muslims, who were slaughtered as they tried to flee Srebrenica after it was captured by Bosnian Serb forces late in the 1992-95 war. The march is part of several events preceding the actual date commemorating the massacre on July 11. Nearly 4,000 people joined this
July 08, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the 500th day of the war Saturday by hailing the country’s soldiers in a video from a Black Sea island that became the symbol of Ukraine’s resilience in the face of the Russian invasion. Speaking from Snake Island, Zelenskyy honored the Ukrainian soldiers who fought for the island and all other defenders of the country, saying that reclaiming control of the island “is a great proof that Ukraine will regain every bit of its territory.” “I want to thank – from here, from this place of victory – each of our
July 08, 2023Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is visiting the king to turn in the resignation of his four-party coalition and set the deeply divided Netherlands on track for a general election later this year. King Willem-Alexander flew back from a family vacation in Greece to meet with Rutte on Saturday. The vexed issue of reining in migration that has troubled countries across Europe for years was the final stumbling block that brought down Rutte’s government Friday night, exposing the deep ideological differences between the four parties that made up the uneasy coalition. Now it is likely
July 08, 2023Japanese political and business leaders on Saturday marked one year since the assassination of Japan’s former leader, Shinzo Abe, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledging to tackle pressing political goals as a way of honoring Abe’s wishes. At a Buddhist temple Zojoji in Tokyo, Kishida and his governing Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers, as well as representatives from opposition parties and business leaders, attended a closed memorial service hosted by Abe’s widow Akie Abe and the family. Tables were set up at the temple for flower laying by the public later Saturday. Kishida, speaking to reporters Friday as
July 08, 2023A pair of colorful children’s scooters rest against the yellow tracks of a battle tank, parked in the shade of skyscrapers in the Vilnius business district. The area, usually busy with cars, cyclists and pedestrians, is closed to traffic and packed with heavy armored vehicles. “Never in its history was Lithuania this safe,” says Jonas Braukyla, an IT engineer, who brought his family to see the U.S.-made Abrams tanks, German Leopards and Marders and other military hardware brought out to project NATO power ahead of an alliance summit next week. “They are even bringing Patriot missile
July 08, 2023Mike Knoth is more than thrilled that a far-right populist party’s candidate recently won the county administration in his hometown in rural eastern Germany for the first time since the Nazi era. The gardener despises the country’s established parties, he doesn’t trust the media and he feels there are too many migrants in the country. The far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, he hopes, will improve everything that’s not going well in his eyes in Sonneberg, which is in the southeastern state of Thuringia. “I think the fact that so many people voted for Alternative
July 08, 2023Mily Trevino-Sauceda was 9 when her mother fell as she worked to move irrigation pipes along rows of potato and alfalfa on an Idaho farm. Mily’s 10-year-old brother splashed water over their mother’s face and body while her children looked on, scared and crying. Their mother had fainted from the heat, and could never again work as fast or as long in the sun. Decades later, the memory remains sharp for Trevino-Sauceda, who says few systemic changes have been made to safeguard farmworkers from extreme heat. “Knowing all this still happens, it angers,” said Trevino-Sauceda, now the executive director of
July 08, 2023For decades, the whiskey and bourbon makers of Tennessee and Kentucky have been beloved in their communities. The distilleries where the liquor is manufactured and barrelhouses where it is aged have complemented the rural character of their neighborhoods, while providing jobs and the pride of a successful homegrown industry. Now, the growing popularity of the industry around the world is fueling conflicts at home. In Kentucky, where 95% of the world’s bourbon is manufactured, counties are revolting after the legislature voted to phase out a barrel tax they have depended on to fund schools, roads and
July 08, 2023On Feb. 14, 1904, someone curious about the emerging possibilities of a key force of nature checked out James Clerk Maxwell’s “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” from the New Bedford Free Public Library. It would take 119 years and the sharp eyes of a librarian in West Virginia before the scientific text finally found its way back to the Massachusetts library. The discovery occurred when Stewart Plein, the curator of rare books at West Virginia University Libraries, was sorting through a recent donation of books. Plein found the treatise and noticed it had been part of the
July 08, 2023Moments after she was introduced on the starting line, Sha’Carri Richardson reached to her head, grabbed her trademark orange wig and flung it onto the ground behind her. Then, she took the next step on the long road to proving she’s the real deal. America’s most colorful sprint star won the U.S. 100-meter title in 10.82 seconds Friday night, marking a high point that comes two years after her national title was stripped because of a doping violation. After her victory, she conceded in a TV interview that she wasn’t ready for the moment at the
July 08, 2023China’s People’s Liberation Army sent 13 aircraft and 6 vessels into airspace and waters around Taiwan over the past 24 hours as of early Saturday, overlapping with United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to Beijing aimed at mending strained relations. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it is monitoring the situation from the air and sea, and land-based missile systems were prepared to respond. It said four Chinese aircraft — two SU-30 fighters, one BZK-005 reconnaissance plane and one Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane — crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait that serves as a de-facto border
July 08, 2023A brisk wind caught a Kevlar-fiber sail, sending it snapping as Bob Derby and Randy Atkin pulled lines to turn Red Stripe, their 25-foot boat, through the briny waters of the imperiled Great Salt Lake. Little could be heard beyond the low hum of trucks wheeling past a copper smelter on the lake’s shoreline — a respite from the bustle of Salt Lake City and its booming suburbs that push farther into Utah’s deserts and farmland each year. “Everything that happened today drifts off behind you and there’s nothing like it,’” said Derby,
July 08, 2023Israel’s United Nations ambassador called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to retract his condemnation of the country for its excessive use of force in its largest military operation in two decades targeting a refugee camp in the West Bank. U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said Friday the secretary-general conveyed his views on Thursday “and he stands by those views.” Guterres, angered by the impact of the Israeli airstrikes and attack on the Jenin refugee camp, said the operation left over 100 civilians injured, uprooted thousands of residents, damaged schools and hospitals, and disrupted water and electricity networks.
July 08, 2023Texas began rolling out what is set to become a new floating barrier on the Rio Grande on Friday in the latest escalation of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico, which already has included bussing migrants to liberal states and authorizing the National Guard to make arrests. But even before the huge, orange buoys were unloaded from the trailers that hauled them to the border city of Eagle Pass, there were concerns over this part of Abbott’s unprecedented challenge to the federal government’s authority over immigration enforcement. Migrant
July 08, 2023Scoot Henderson of the Portland Trail Blazers and Amen Thompson of the Houston Rockets, both top-four picks in the NBA draft, left their Summer League matchup early Friday with injuries. Both of their coaches said they didn’t know the severity of the players’ injuries. Top players often are shut down early in Summer League as a precaution. Henderson injured his right shoulder and Thompson his left ankle in the Rockets’ 100-99 victory over Portland. Thompson said his ankle was sore, but Henderson was not made available to the media. He didn’t appear concerned in the arena
July 08, 2023Canadian consumers aren’t yet feeling the impact of the weekold port strike in British Columbia, but businesses are beginning to be pinched by the shutdown of docks that handle 25% of the country’s foreign trade, experts said Friday. The strike by 7,400 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada began July 1 and shut down more than 30 west coast ports. Robin Guy, vice president and deputy leader of government relations at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the affected ports handle cargo worth over 800 million Canadian dollars ($600 million) every day.
July 08, 2023Jameson Taillon made a triumphant return to Yankee Stadium, allowing one hit in eight innings to outpitch Carlos Rodón in the All-Star’s injury-delayed Yankees debut and lift the Chicago Cubs over New York 3-0 on Friday night for their first-ever victory in the Bronx. Taillon (3-6) limited the Yankees to just Gleyber Torres’ single to center in the first and a pair of walks. He struck out four, set his season high for innings and didn’t allow a runner past first base in his first victory since June 13. A 31-year-old right-hander, Taillon spent two seasons
July 08, 2023Sean Murphy hit a two-run homer and the red-hot Atlanta Braves began a weekend series between teams with the best records in the major leagues with a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. With right-hander Charlie Morton (9-6) pitching into the seventh inning and Murphy extending a power surge that has seen Atlanta homer in 24 straight outings, the Braves won for the 19th time in 21 games to improve baseball’s best mark to 59-28. The AL-best Rays (57-34) have lost a season-high six straight, although that wasn’t the lone reason
July 08, 2023All-Star rookie Corbin Carroll was back in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ lineup Friday, a day after coming out because of a second recent shoulder scare. An MRI taken early Friday showed no structural damage, and Carroll and Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said it mirrored all previous assessments of the right shoulder that was surgically repaired after the outfielder had a torn labrum in May 2021. Carroll came out Thursday night against the New York Mets after a swing, the second time in a week he left due to pain in the shoulder. “We got some unbelievable news,” Lovullo
July 08, 2023Cameron Young shot a 7-under 64 on Friday to take a two-stroke lead halfway through the John Deere Classic and put himself into position to erase an unwelcome distinction from his PGA Tour resume. Young was at 13-under 129 at TPC Deere Run, with Garrick Higgo (66), Adam Schenk (66) and Brendon Todd (65) chasing at 11 under. The 26-year-old Young did everything but win last season en route to being named the tour’s rookie of the year. He was the runner-up at the British Open, tied for third at the PGA Championship and played on
July 08, 2023Bailey Tardy picked a good time and a beautiful location to play her best golf. Tardy made eagle on the par-5 sixth hole at Pebble Beach for the second straight day as part of a torrid start to her second round Friday in the U.S. Women’s Open, and she held steady the rest of the way for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot lead among the early starters. She fit the profile of a 36-hole leader at a historic Women’s Open in which the stars have been nearly as absent as the sun behind a
July 08, 2023In the weeks before Kimbrady Carriker opened fire at random with an AR-15 in southwest Philadelphia killing five people and wounding four others including several children, the few people close to him had watched him grow increasingly agitated and erratic, sometimes pacing the house wearing a bulletproof vest, prosecutors and others have said. Now, in the wake of Monday’s bloodshed, officials are urging people to call police or the city’s mental health resource line when they see suspicious social media posts or think somebody might need help. And as Carriker’s possible mental health issues increasingly come into
July 08, 2023California’s governor announced Friday that he won’t ask the state Supreme Court to block parole for Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, paving the way for her release after serving 53 years in prison for two infamous murders. In a brief statement, the governor’s office said an appeal was unlikely to succeed. Newsom is disappointed, the statement said. “More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal killings, the victims’ families still feel the impact,” the statement said. Van Houten, now in her 70s, is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and other
July 08, 2023PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is returning to work just over a month after he stepped away for a “medical situation,” saying a two-year battle that ended in a surprise agreement with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf had been “grueling for all of us.” Monahan informed the PGA Tour’s policy board, players and staff Friday evening that he will return to his role on July 17, the week of the British Open. He said June 13 he was turning over day-to-day duties to two of his executives, just one week after announcing the commercial agreement with Saudi Arabia’s national
July 07, 2023Matthew Wolff says it was “heartbreaking” to hear his LIV Golf captain Brooks Koepka call him a quitter, issuing a statement to Sports Illustrated on Friday that said he continues to deal with mental health challenges on and off the course. “While my 2023 season has not been all I had hoped for to this point, I have made positive strides in managing my life and feel like my game is turning for the positive,” Wolff said in his statement to SI. “To hear through the media that our team leader has given up on
July 07, 2023Two men were arrested Friday in a shooting that killed three people and injured eight others as a crowd of hundreds gathered in a Texas neighborhood on the eve of the Fourth of July, police said. Christopher Redic Jr., 20, and Brandon Williams, 19, were both taken into custody on murder charges related to the shooting late July 3 in the Fort Worth neighborhood of Como, Fort Worth police Chief Neil Noakes said. Noakes said investigators believe the shooting was gang-related and followed some kind of altercation. He said there could be additional arrests. Police had previously
July 07, 2023Skateboarding is more than just a way of life for Reese Nelson, it’s all she’s ever known. The 10-year-old Canadian can’t remember when she first started skating or when she first dropped into a halfpipe, it’s just been omnipresent. Given that, it’s no surprise she has caught the attention of skateboarding great Tony Hawk. Nelson, from Calgary, Alberta, will be competing in the women’s vert and the best trick events at the upcoming X-Games. Skating in the women’s vert is especially important for Nelson, because that event hasn’t been held at the X-Games since 2010, three years before she was
July 07, 2023Texas will become the first team in 47 years to have five position players start in the All-Star Game after the Rangers’ Adolis García and the Baltimore Orioles Austin Hays were picked Friday to join the American League lineup as injury replacements. The pair take over from the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge and the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout. García joins Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, second baseman Marcus Semien, shortstop Corey Seager and third baseman Josh Jung in the AL lineup for Tuesday’s game at Seattle. The non-Rangers are Tampa Bay first baseman Yandy Díaz
July 07, 2023DNA testing has led to the arrest of a Nebraska man who was repeatedly questioned over decades in the 1978 stabbing death of a woman while he was stationed with the U.S. Army in Germany, authorities said. Tommy Molina, 69, was arrested in the western Nebraska city of Gering on June 21, the U.S. Marshals Service in Omaha said in a statement Thursday. He is awaiting extradition to Germany to face a murder charge. German prosecutors in the Bavarian city of Schweinfurt believe Molina, 24 at the time, was having an extramarital affair with 18-year-old Cornelia Hümpfer when she was
July 07, 2023White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday said the U.S. has been in contact with Russian officials to press for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as Friday marked the 100th day of the journalist being detained by the Russian government. Sullivan said he also spoke with Gershkovich’s family representatives and Wall Street Journal officials on Friday about the status of the case and the administration’s efforts to win the reporter’s release. The Kremlin earlier this week suggested that it was open to a possible prisoner exchange that could involve Gershkovich, but
July 07, 2023Northwestern suspended coach Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks without pay Friday following an investigation into alleged hazing within the football program. The school said an investigation led by attorney Maggie Hickey of law firm ArentFox Schiff did not find “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff knew about ongoing hazing. But investigators found there were “significant opportunities” to find out about it and report the conduct. Fitzgerald started serving his suspension on Friday. He said in a statement he was “very disappointed” when he heard about the hazing allegations. “Northwestern football prides itself on producing not just athletes, but fine young
July 07, 2023Albums from Lukas Nelson and Kool & The Gang plus a Spanish-language spin-off of “Bird Box” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you. Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the dinosaur-hunting video game Exoprimal and the new Netflix series “Quarterback,” which takes an unprecedented look at the lives of popular QBs Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota. NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — Wes Anderson’s stylish and star-studded “Asteroid City” is coming to premium video on demand (VOD) on Tuesday. This outing is
July 07, 2023Owners of teams in two of the Oakland Athletics’ former cities will help evaluate whether the franchise should move to Las Vegas. Philadelphia Phillies chief executive officer John Middleton and Kansas City Royals CEO John Sherman will serve on Major League Baseball’s relocation committee, a person familiar with their appointment told The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement was made. They join Milwaukee Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio, picked last month by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred to chair the relocation committee. That group will evaluate the team’s application, define
July 07, 2023Firefighters rescued two men who fell into a manhole during heavy rain in downtown Omaha on Friday, including one who was washed about a mile (1.6 kilometers) through sewer pipes before getting trapped behind a metal grate. The men, who were workers for a private contractor, Ace Pipe Cleaning, were swept into a manhole near the Old Market just after 9 a.m., the Omaha World-Herald quoted Lt. Neal Bonacci of the Omaha Police Department as saying. One of the men, who was tethered to a safety system, was quickly pulled out. A large-scale rescue effort ensued
July 07, 2023The Republican attorney general of Kansas sued Friday to block transgender residents from changing their sex on their driver’s licenses and to rebuke the Democratic governor for defying his interpretation of a new law. Attorney General Kris Kobach went to a state court in hopes of getting an order to stop Gov. Laura Kelly and agencies under her control to stop allowing the changes to transgender people’s licenses. Kobach contends a law that took effect Saturday prevents such changes and requires the state to reverse any previous changes in its records, including about 1,300 made over
July 07, 2023Two-time Olympic gold-medalist and former ABL MVP Nikki McCray-Penson has died. She was 51. McCray-Penson was an assistant women’s basketball coach at Rutgers last season and the school on Friday confirmed her death. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. She joined Dawn Staley as an assistant coach at South Carolina from 2008-17. She was part of the Gamecocks’ first national championship in 2017. McCray-Penson won gold medals with the U.S. women’s basketball team at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. The 1996 team sparked the formation of the WNBA and ABL. She played in the ABL and won MVP
July 07, 2023The Atlanta Hawks have agreed to a four-year, $120 million contract extension with guard Dejounte Murray, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Friday. The deal preserves the Hawks’ backcourt combination with Trae Young and Murray and keeps Murray on the roster for five years, through the 2027-28 season, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the extension has not been announced. Murray hinted at the agreement on his Twitter account when he posted late Thursday “ATLANTA. Been Locked In From The Moment Y’all Accepted
July 07, 2023Victor Wembanyama’s first NBA game had a tough act to follow. While the San Antonio rookie waited to make his NBA Summer League debut Friday night against the Charlotte Hornets, the game before his ended with a thrilling finish. Jabari Smith Jr. hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to rally the Houston Rockets to a 100-99 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in a game that saw two top-five picks unable to finish the game due to injuries. Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 selection, injured his right shoulder in the third quarter and did not return
July 07, 2023London police said Friday that an 8-year-old is in a “life-threatening condition” in the hospital following a car crash at an elementary school on Thursday that claimed the life of another girl of the same age. In an update, the Metropolitan Police also said that a woman in her 40s is in a critical condition following the crash in Wimbledon, in the southwest of the city. A Land Rover crashed through a fence on Thursday morning before colliding with a building at the Study Preparatory School for girls aged between 4 and 11. Police said soon after
July 07, 2023A cargo ship burned for a third day Friday at a New Jersey port after the fire claimed the lives of two firefighters and exposed gaps in the ability of fire crews to respond to emergencies on hulking container ships. Crews shot jets of water into the Italian-flagged Grande Costa d’Avorio docked in Newark as flames flared periodically from the section of the ship where hundreds of vehicles were loaded onto multiple decks. The Coast Guard and other officials were set to hold a news conference later Friday to give an update on the situation. Newark
July 07, 2023A judge in Florida has ordered a 65-year-old California fugitive held without bond in connection with the death of a woman nearly 40 years ago. Donald Santini was arrested by U.S. marshals in California last month, and extradited to Florida. He had used at least 13 aliases over the years. Santini was the last person seen with 33-year-old Cynthia “Cindy” Ruth Wood. The arrest warrant said a medical examiner determined she had been strangled, and Santini’s fingerprints were found on her body. “You being on the run for almost 40 years is a consciousness of guilt.
July 07, 2023Ken Griffey Jr. holds a plethora of titles, especially in this part of the country. Hall of Famer. Cultural icon. The guy who made baseball in the Pacific Northwest relevant. Arguably, the greatest of his generation. He even holds a title in association with Major League Baseball as a special adviser to Commissioner Rob Manfred. But what’s most meaningful to Griffey currently is his association with Friday’s HBCU Swingman All-Star Classic that serves as the first major event of All-Star Game festivities, featuring players from 17 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The event was an idea generated
July 07, 2023Iraq opened an investigation into the case of a dual Israeli-Russian academic who has been missing in Iraq since March, a government spokesman said Friday. Bassem al-Awadi’s comments were the first official Iraqi statements since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov is still alive “and we hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being.” Netanyahu said Tsurkov is being held by the Shiite group Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, a powerful Iran-backed group that the U.S. government listed as a terrorist organization in 2009. Tsurkov, whose work focuses on the Middle East,
July 07, 2023Brad Pitt is joining the Formula One paddock for his new movie. He might stand as much chance as anyone else of beating Max Verstappen. Verstappen will be aiming for his eighth win in 10 races this year on Sunday as he surges toward winning the title for a third straight year. His Red Bull team has won 19 of the last 20 races going back to July 2022. As F1 welcomes Pitt for a weekend of filming around the British Grand Prix, race organizers and police are wary of possible environmental protests. PROTEST WARNINGS Activists
July 07, 2023NATO leaders will agree next week to help modernize Ukraine’s armed forces, create a new high-level forum for consultations and reaffirm that it will join their alliance one day, the organization’s top civilian official said Friday. But the war-torn country will not start membership talks soon. At a two-day summit starting Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will also agree to boost defense spending as allies pour weapons, ammunition and other support like uniforms and medical equipment into Ukraine, 17 months into the war. They also hope to welcome Sweden
July 07, 2023U.N. human rights experts on Friday called for the release of two Saudi Arabian women they say were arbitrarily detained and denied basic rights after tweeting criticism of the kingdom’s policies. Salma al-Shehab was sentenced to 34 years in prison and Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years last summer after they were arrested in separate cases in 2021. They were found guilty by a special court originally established to try terrorists but which has broadened its mandate in recent years amid a heavy crackdown on dissent. The kingdom’s human rights record
July 07, 2023The Belarusian military on Friday showed off a field camp it has offered to Russia’s Wagner military contractor if it relocates to Belarus under a deal that ended its mutiny. Maj. Gen. Leonid Kosinsky, an assistant to Belarus’ defense minister, told international reporters that Wagner troops could use the former Belarusian army camp near Tsel, about 90 kilometers (about 55 miles) southeast of Minsk. Journalists were shown rows of empty tents that Kosinsky said could accommodate up to 5,000 troops at the camp in the Asipovichy district that was used by the Belarusian army before
July 07, 2023A shooting inside a mosque during prayers left at least one person dead and five wounded Friday, a Lebanese security official said. The reason behind the shooting in the eastern town of Bar Elias was not immediately clear. The state-run National News Agency said more gunfire broke out later between Lebanese troops and the shooting suspect, who was wounded in that exchange. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the man killed and the five wounded were all Syrian citizens. The town is home to many Syrian refugees who fled their
July 07, 2023Poland’s prime minister and Catholic church leaders opened several days of observances Friday to honor victims of World War II massacres of tens of thousands of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists, which have marred the tightening strategic relations between the neighboring nations. “We can say that for many years this has been an unhealed wound in Polish-Ukrainian relations,” said Rafal Bochenek, the spokesperson for Poland’s ruling right-wing party. “We would expect truth to be told and things to be called by their proper name,” Bochenek said. Poland says the 1943-44 massacre of some 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian
July 07, 2023Petra Kvitova reached the third round at Wimbledon for the second year in a row, nine years after winning the second of her two titles at the All England Club. The 33-year-old Czech, who was injured in a knife attack at her home in 2016, beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-2 Friday on Day 5 of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. The left-handed Kvitova first won the Wimbledon title in 2011 and then added another in 2014. She has only reached one other Grand Slam final, losing to Naomi Osaka in the deciding match at the 2019
July 07, 2023Robots told reporters Friday they could be more efficient leaders than humans, but wouldn’t take anyone’s job away and had no intention of rebelling against their creators. Nine AI-enabled humanoid robots sat or stood with their creators at a podium in a Geneva conference center for what the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union billed as the world’s first news conference featuring humanoid social robots. Among them: Sophia, the first robot innovation ambassador for the U.N. Development Program; Grace, described as the world’s most advanced humanoid health care robot; and Desdemona, a rock star robot. Two, Geminoid and
July 07, 2023The head of the UN nuclear agency said Friday he was pushing for access to the roof of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, following reports from Ukrainian officials that the Russians had planted explosives there. The plant was seized by Russia, in March 2022, in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, raising fears of a nuclear accident. The Russians have only granted limited access to officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency, citing the security situation. Wrapping up a four-day visit to Japan, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his agency was
July 07, 2023The Dutch government collapsed Friday because of irreconcilable differences within the four-party coalition about how to rein in migration, a divisive issue that has split nations across Europe. The resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the longest-serving premier of the nation, means the country will face a general election later this year. Rutte and his government will remain in office in a caretaker capacity until a new ruling coalition is chosen. “It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy,” Rutte told reporters in The Hague. “And today, unfortunately,
July 07, 2023Russian and Belarusian athletes must state loud and clear they condemn Russia for the war in Ukraine or be banned from next year’s Paris Olympics, hockey gold medalist Dominik Hašek told The Associated Press. Hašek, who won gold with the Czech Republic team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, said he is certain their presence at the Paris Games would otherwise result in “a huge promotion of the Russian war.” The NHL great has been a prominent and vocal critic of the International Olympic Committee’s recommendation that Russians and Belarusians compete in international competitions as neutral
July 07, 2023Appeals court judges in Amsterdam ruled Friday that the Dutch government can order Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal overturned a lower court that concluded in April the government of the Netherlands did not follow the correct procedure when it told Schiphol last year to cut flights. The airport, civil aviation organizations and airlines that included Dutch flag carrier KLM challenged the government’s order. Friday’s decision can be appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court. The Amsterdam
July 07, 2023Maritime nations agreed Friday to slash emissions from the shipping industry to net zero by about 2050 in a deal that some experts and nations say falls short of what’s needed to curb warming to agreed temperature limits. Negotiators at the meeting of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization in London, seen as key to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, rubber-stamped a deal for shipping emissions to reach net zero “by or around” 2050. The plan also calls for shipping emissions to be slashed by at least 20% but aiming for 30%
July 07, 2023Muslims in Pakistan were holding rallies on Friday to observe a “Day of the Sanctity of Quran” after the South Asian Islamic nation’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a call for anti-Sweden protests over last week’s burning of the Islamic holy book in Stockholm. The biggest anti-Sweden rallies were expected in the eastern city of Lahore and in Karachi, the largest city in the country. In the capital, Islamabad, lawyers holding copies of the Quran protested in front of the Supreme Court, while worshippers outside mosques held small rallies, demanding the severing of diplomatic ties with Sweden.
July 07, 2023Cities across China opened their air raid shelters to offer residents relief from the heat Friday as unusually high temperatures across parts of the country started claiming lives. Northern China is experiencing strings of days with record-high temperatures, compounded by drought. Earlier this week, Beijing reported more than nine straight days with temperatures exceeding 35 C (95 F), according to the National Climate Center — a streak unseen since 1961. Cities including Hangzhou on China’s east coast, Wuhan in the center of the country, and Shijiazhuang in Hebei province neighboring Beijing over the past week announced
July 07, 2023China on Friday insisted it is up to the U.S. to “create necessary conditions” for anti-drugs cooperation, following complaints from Washington that Beijing has ignored its calls for a crackdown on precursor chemicals for the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl. China takes an “active part in international anti-narcotic cooperation and firmly opposes smears and unilateral sanctions on other countries under the pretext of the fight against drugs,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing. “We urge the U.S. to correct wrongdoings with concrete actions and create necessary conditions for the two countries’ anti-narcotic cooperation,” Wang
July 07, 2023Thousands of thrill seekers took part Friday in the first running of the bulls at the San Fermín festival in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona. Several runners took knocks and hard falls in the 8 a.m. event but no one was gored by the beasts, a frequent feature of the spectacle. The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists. Nearly 1.7 million people visited Pamplona for the celebrations in 2022, and forecasts are higher for this year with all COVID-19 constraints ended. In the run, six bulls guided by six tame oxen charged along a
July 07, 2023Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen criticized Chinese treatment of U.S. companies and new export controls on metals used in semiconductors during a visit Friday to Beijing to try to revive strained relations. Talking with a group of businesspeople, Yellen defended U.S. controls on technology exports that irk Beijing, saying they are necessary for national security. She rejected suggestions Washington is trying to decouple, or separate the U.S. economy from China’s. “The U.S. seeks healthy economic competition with China,” Yellen said, according to a transcript released by her department. “I am communicating the concerns that I’ve heard from the
July 07, 2023Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank Friday, days after Israel concluded a major two-day offensive meant to crack down on militants. The Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet said the two men, which it claimed were behind a shooting attack this week, were killed in a shoot out in the heart of the city of Nablus. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were killed by Israeli fire, identifying them as Khayri Mohammed Sari Shaheen, 34, and Hamza Moayed Mohammed Maqbool, 32. The deaths are part of a year-long
July 07, 2023Off the coast of Long Island, drones sweep over the ocean, patrolling the water for any danger that might lurk below the surface as beachgoers grow more vigilant because of a recent spate of shark encounters. Over two days this week, five people reported being bitten by sharks at some of New York’s most popular beaches, leading to heightened surveillance of the area’s waters. The sighting of a 10-foot (3-meter) shark on Thursday prompted officials to keep people out of the water at Robert Moses State Park, the same Long Island beach that delayed its opening
July 07, 2023Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting Beijing as part of efforts to revive U.S.-Chinese relations that are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes over technology, security and other irritants. Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in November and agreed to improve relations between the world’s biggest economies and major trading partners. But neither government has shown willingness to make major policy changes. “We hope the United States takes concrete actions to create a favorable environment for the healthy development of economic and trade relations,” the Chinese finance ministry said in a statement Friday.
July 07, 2023Asian shares slipped Friday after another decline on Wall Street, where hopes for an end to interest rate hikes were again shaken by strong jobs data. U.S. futures fell and oil prices were higher. Investors were watching for updates from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to Beijing, where she was meeting with senior Chinese officials to try to soothe antagonisms over a host of issues and promote global financial stability. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.2% to 32,388.42 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 0.8% to 18,384.17. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 3,197.42,
July 07, 2023South Korea’s government on Friday formally endorsed the safety of Japanese plans to release treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into sea as it tried to calm people’s fears about food contamination. Seoul’s assessment was based on a 22-month review by government-funded scientists and aligned with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s views. The agency greenlit the Japanese discharge plans this week, saying the treated wastewater would meet international safety standards and that its environmental and health impact would be negligible. South Korea’s review focused on any impact the wastewater release might have on
July 07, 2023The European Union took a major step early Friday in approving plans to boost its anemic production of ammunition and missiles within the 27-nation bloc, to both defend itself and quickly help Ukraine in trying to push back the invasion by Russia. The EU presidency announced early Friday that the member states and the EU Parliament reached a deal “to urgently mobilize” half a billion euros from its budget for an Act in Support of Ammunition Production. The deal follows up the decision by EU leaders in March to boost urgently needed ammunition deliveries to Ukraine, which
July 07, 2023Russia’s rebellious mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin walked free from prosecution for his June 24 armed mutiny, and it’s still unclear if anyone will face any charges in the aborted uprising against military leaders or for the deaths of the soldiers killed in it. Instead, a campaign is underway to portray the founder of the Wagner Group military contractor as driven by greed, with only hints of an investigation into whether he mishandled any of the billions of dollars in state funds. Until last week, the Kremlin has never admitted to funding the company, with private mercenary
July 07, 2023After a pleasant evening of wine-tasting — joyfully billed “Grapes and Friends!” — with a hundred or so people and oysters, charcuteries and cheeses, the mayor of the picturesque French town of Quissac was on his way home. Then his phone rang: Urban unrest that was engulfing France after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris’ outskirts, hundreds of kilometers (miles) and a world away to the north, had careened into Quissac’s tranquility, too. In a quick hit-and-run, a small group of people — seemingly no more than four, the mayor says — bombarded the
July 07, 2023The United States and its Western allies clashed with Russia and Iran at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday over Tehran’s advancing uranium enrichment and its reported supply of combat drones to Moscow being used to attack Ukraine. The sharp exchanges came at the council’s semi-annual meeting on implementation of its resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major countries known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the U.S. under then-President Donald Trump left in 2018. At the start of the meeting, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Britain, which hold
July 07, 2023The white Texas gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack at a Walmart in 2019 is expected to learn his punishment Friday, after victims’ relatives berated him for days over the shooting that targeted Hispanic shoppers on the U.S.-Mexico border. Patrick Crusius, 24, will likely be sentenced to multiple life terms in federal prison for committing one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. However, he could still face the death penalty in a separate case in a Texas state court that has yet to go to trial. Crusius, who pleaded guilty
July 07, 2023At a sprawling military installation in the middle of the rolling green hills of eastern Kentucky, a milestone is about to be reached in the history of warfare dating back to World War I. Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot are close to destroying rockets filled with GB nerve agent that are the last of the United States’ declared chemical weapons and completing a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons. The weapons’ destruction is a major watershed for Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo,
July 07, 2023Before starting college, Taylor Mohead had never been outside her hometown of Houston, Texas. Now, the recent Tuskegee University graduate is trekking around trees in Hazel Green, Alabama, in fire gear and sweltering heat. The U.S. Forest Service intern is among 20 students from historically Black colleges or universities who are participating in a prescribed burn demonstration under instructors’ supervision. They clear paths, light fires and make sure the embers are out when they’re done. It’s part of an apprenticeship program that will give them the credentials to hit the ground running toward a fire
July 07, 2023Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are marking their 77th wedding anniversary with a quiet Friday at their south Georgia home, extending their record as the longest-married first couple ever as both nonagenarians face significant health challenges. The 39th president is 98 and has been in home hospice care since February. The former first lady is 95 and has dementia. The Carter family has not offered details of either Jimmy or Rosalynn Carter’s condition but has said they both have enjoyed time with each other and a stream of family members, along with occasional visits from close friends, in
July 07, 2023Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub sued New York City on Thursday to block its new minimum pay rules for food delivery workers. The recently announced rules, touted as a national first, could nearly triple average earnings for app-based delivery workers in the coming years. An increased pay rate of $17.96 an hour is set to take effect July 12. New York’s more than 60,000 delivery workers currently make an average of $7.09 an hour, according to the city. The food delivery services are seeking a temporary restraining order in state Supreme Court in Manhattan to stop
July 07, 2023Jonas Blixt heated up on the back nine at TPC Deere Run on Thursday, playing his last six holes in 6 under for a 9-under 62 and a two-shot lead over Grayson Murray in the first round of the John Deere Classic. Murray was 8 under through 13 holes but stalled from there. He bogeyed his final hole and shot 64. Cameron Young, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 19, also closed with a bogey and was part of a big group three shots back. The 39-year-old Blixt, a three-time winner on tour, has
July 07, 2023Some of the nation’s largest truck makers on Thursday pledged to stop selling new gas-powered vehicles in California by the middle of the next decade, part of an agreement with state regulators aimed at preventing lawsuits that threatened to delay or block the state’s emission standards. California is trying to rid itself of fossil fuels, passing new rules in recent years to phase out gas-powered cars, trucks, trains and lawn equipment in the nation’s most populous state. It will take years before all of those rules fully take effect. But already some industries are pushing back.
July 07, 2023Damian Lillard’s position has not and will not change: The seven-time All-Star wants to be traded to the Miami Heat. Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, confirmed that stance Thursday and said he hopes that the Portland Trail Blazers — the team that Lillard has spent the entirety of his 11-year NBA career with — can engage with the Heat on steps toward a deal in the coming days, especially with virtually everyone from the NBA gathering in Las Vegas for Summer League that starts on Friday. The Trail Blazers publicly revealed this past weekend that Lillard had
July 06, 2023Another solid month of hiring in the United States is expected to be reported Friday, an outcome that would suggest no recession is near but could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to succeed in its drive to cool the economy and curb high inflation. Employers are forecast to have added 205,000 jobs in June, according to economists surveyed by data provider FactSet. Though below recent monthly gains, that would amount to a healthy increase and reflect a historically high number of advertised job openings. A continuation of robust hiring would underscore the economy’s surprising resilience
July 06, 2023Xiyu Janet Lin soaked up the views of Pebble Beach while letting her putter do the work Thursday for a 4-under 68, giving her the early lead in the first U.S. Women’s Open held at one of America’s most famous courses. With only mild wind and a marine layer over the Monterey Peninsula, this was the gentle version of Pebble Beach. This also is a U.S. Open, and it didn’t take much to take a toll. The biggest surprise was Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in the world who made only one birdie
July 06, 2023The railroad industry has sued to block a new minimum crew-size requirement that Ohio imposed after a fiery train derailment in East Palestine in February. The new rule was part of a $13.5 billion state transportation budget that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed in March. It mandated a two-person crew for freight trains and required that the wayside detectors used to help spot problems be installed in shorter intervals of 10 to 15 miles (16 to 24 kilometers) apart, with oversight from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, among
July 06, 2023Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta over its new, text-based app called Threads, according to a letter obtained by Semafor. In a Wednesday letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Twitter, accused Meta of unlawfully using Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a “copycat” app. Since launching Threads Wednesday night, Meta’s new app has collected tens of millions of sign ups. The app, which was created by the company’s Instagram team, arrives at a time when many are looking for Twitter alternatives
July 06, 2023John Berylson, an American businessman known for his enthusiastic ownership of the English soccer team Millwall, has died. He was 70. His death, the result of a car crash in Massachusetts on Tuesday, was announced by the second-division London team, which said Berylson presided over some of the greatest moments in Millwall’s history since first becoming involved with the club in 2006. Team captain Shaun Hutchinson described Berylson as “an example on the perfect way to run a football club.” “He really did love the club. He had so much time for every single person whether it
July 06, 2023U.S. senators from New Mexico and Idaho are making another push to expand the federal government’s compensation program for people exposed to radiation following uranium mining and nuclear testing carried out during the Cold War. Downwinders who live near the New Mexico site where the world’s first atomic bomb was tested in 1945 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project in World War II also would be among those added to the list. The legislation would amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include eligible residents in areas affected by fallout in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana,
July 06, 2023The Eiffel Tower, chateaus in the Loire Valley — and cars on fire. Tourists to France faced a new reality during an eruption of nationwide anger following the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk. While hotel owners cite a drop in bookings in some areas, the French government insisted on Thursday that the overall picture for the tourism industry remains rosy, and promised a “great season” for visitors despite the simmering discontent. Officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance held a meeting Thursday with representatives of the tourism industry to discuss the consequences that the nationwide
July 06, 2023Silvio Berlusconi left control of his media empire to his two eldest children, according to details of his will reported Thursday by Italian media, while bequeathing 100 million euros ($109 million) of his estimated 5 billion-euro ($5.4 billion) fortune each to his companion and his brother. The Fininvest holding company that controls the Mediaset television network, Mondadori publishing house and other assets confirmed in a statement that “no shareholder will exercise overall individual direct control of Fininvest SpA,” as Berlusconi himself had. The three-time former Italian premier and media mogul died June 12 at the age of
July 06, 2023U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Thursday for a robust international force to help combat Haiti’s armed gangs and restore security in the impoverished nation, saying that a U.N. expert’s estimate that Haiti needs up to 2,000 additional anti-gang police officers is no exaggeration. Stressing that the U.N. is not calling for a military force or a political mission, Guterres appealed to U.N. Security Council members and potential contributing countries “to act now” to deploy a multinational force to help the Haitian National Police “defeat and dismantle the gangs.” The Caribbean nation has been asking for such
July 06, 2023Andrew Tate, the divisive social media personality and former professional kickboxer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, lost an appeal on Thursday against a court’s earlier decision to keep him under house arrest, his spokesperson said. The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled against Tate’s appeal, which challenged a court’s June 23 decision to extend the house arrest measure for 30 more days as the criminal case continues. That decision was made days after Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, formally indicted the 36-year-old social media
July 06, 2023TikTok Inc. and a group of five content creators who are suing the state of Montana over its first-in-the-nation law to ban the video sharing app are now asking a federal judge to block implementation of the law while the case moves through the courts and before it takes effect in January. The separate requests for preliminary injunctions were filed Wednesday in federal court in Missoula. The cases challenging the law were filed in May and have since been consolidated by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen had the bill drafted over concerns — shared by
July 06, 2023Would-be homebuyers are willing to take on sharply higher mortgage payments, even as home prices have begun to pull back this year. The median monthly payment listed on applications for home purchase loans jumped 14.1% in May from a year earlier to an all-time high $2,165, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The May figure also represents a 2.5% increase from April. “Homebuyer affordability eroded further in May as prospective buyers continue to grapple with high interest rates and low housing inventory,” Edward Seiler, the MBA’s associate vice president of housing economics, said in a release
July 06, 2023Sofia Kenin reached the third round at Wimbledon for the first time on Thursday. Or as the 2020 Australian Open champion put it: “Just trying to prove some people wrong.” Kenin beat Wang Xinyu of China 6-4, 6-3 to back up her victory over seventh-seeded Coco Gauff that ended a streak of three straight first-round exits at Grand Slam tournaments. The 24-year-old American came into Wimbledon ranked 128th and had to go through qualifying to reach the main draw — and she’s fine with that. “If I know every time I’m going to get to the
July 06, 2023WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier are starting a new women’s basketball league to give top players another option to play in the U.S. in the offseason once the league’s prioritization rules go into effect next year. The new league, which is called Unrivaled, will run from January through March and have 30 of the top women’s players playing on six teams. Instead of the traditional 5-on-5 game, the teams will play 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 at a custom-built soundstage in Miami. The league was first reported by ESPN. “We remain committed to the WNBA, however
July 06, 2023A cameraman hit in the head by an errant throw Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium has a broken eye socket and is home resting, the YES Network said in a statement Thursday. Positioned right next to the New York Yankees’ dugout on the first-base side, Pete Stendel of YES Network was struck by a hurried throw from Baltimore Orioles rookie shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who fired high to first as he tried to complete a double play in the fifth inning. Stendel was taken to the hospital, and YES said late Wednesday he was conscious and undergoing
July 06, 2023Maritime nations have been finalizing a plan Thursday to slash emissions from the shipping industry to net zero by about 2050 but experts warn the deal falls well short of what’s needed to prevent climate catastrophe. Negotiators at the meeting of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization in London, seen as key to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, are set to officially agree Friday for shipping emissions to reach net zero “by or around” 2050, rather than setting the date as a hard deadline. The draft plan also calls for shipping emissions
July 06, 2023Threads, a text-based app built by Meta to rival Twitter, is live. The app, billed as the text version of Meta’s photo-sharing platform Instagram, became available Wednesday night to users in more than 100 countries — including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Despite some early glitches, 30 million people had signed up before noon on Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads. New arrivals to the platform include celebrities like Oprah, pop star Shakira and chef Gordon Ramsay — as well as corporate accounts from Taco Bell, Netflix, Spotify, the Washington Post and
July 06, 2023The company that owned a submersible that imploded on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five onboard, said Thursday it has suspended operations. OceanGate announced the action in a brief statement posted atop its website. Contacted for additional information, a spokesperson declined to comment further. Among those killed in the implosion was Stockton Rush, the submersible’s pilot and chief executive officer of the company. Investigators believe the Titan imploded as it made its descent into deep North Atlantic waters on June 18. The Coast Guard said last week that human remains have likely been recovered
July 06, 2023The company that wants to mine for critical minerals in southeast Nebraska has signed a deal with Stellantis, giving the automaker access to the rare earth elements used to produce high-powered magnets needed for its electric vehicles. NioCorp announced the tentative agreement with the automaker whose brands include Chrysler, Alfa Romeo and Maserati on Thursday. The companies didn’t disclose how much Stellantis will pay because those details are still being negotiated, but this deal with such a high-profile buyer will likely provide a boost to NioCorp’s effort to raise $1.1 billion to establish the mine about
July 06, 2023Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto that attempts to lock in a school funding increase for 400 years drew outrage and surprise from his political opponents, but it’s just the latest creative cut in a state that’s home to the most powerful partial gubernatorial veto in the country. “Everybody will shout and scream,” said former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, “but he’s got ’em.” Wisconsin governors have the most expansive partial veto power in the country because, unlike in other states, they can strike nearly any part of a budget bill. That includes wiping out numbers, punctuation
July 06, 2023A Texas man who went missing as a teenager in 2015 returned home the next day but he and his mother deceived officers by giving false names over the ensuing eight years, police said Thursday. Houston police detectives said prosecutors have declined to bring false report charges against Janie Santana and her son, Rudolph “Rudy” Farias IV, but that their investigation is continuing. The announcement came a week after police said they found Farias after receiving a call about a person lying on the ground in front of a southeast Houston church. Authorities had not previously said
July 06, 2023Pope Francis travels to the periphery of Roman Catholicism later this summer when he becomes the first pontiff to visit Mongolia, a Central Asian nation squeezed between Russia and China with just 1,500 Catholics. The visit is steeped in geopolitical significance as it will be closely watched by both Russia, which controlled Mongolia during the Soviet era, and China, which is seeking to exert its influence through the Belt and Road initiative. No pope has visited either of those nations, and the pope is likely to choose to fly over China on his way, rather than
July 06, 2023As a warming Earth simmered into worrisome new territory this week, scientists said the unofficial records being set for average planetary temperature were a clear sign of how pollutants released by humans are warming their environment. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us something is gravely wrong, they said. “Heat sets the pace of our climate in so many ways … it’s never just the heat,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University. Dying coral reefs, more intense Nor’easters and the wildfire smoke that has choked much of North America this summer
July 06, 2023A man who says Kevin Spacey subjected him to a torrent of verbal abuse and grabbed his crotch denied claims by the Hollywood star’s lawyer on Thursday that he had concocted the assault allegations, saying he’d kept the “horrific” incident bottled up for years. The man is one of four who say the two-time Academy Award winner assaulted them in Britain between 2001 and 2013. For much of that time, Spacey was artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London. Spacey, 63, is standing trial in a London court on 12 charges, which include sexual assault,
July 06, 2023There are just some tickets that are hard to get in Las Vegas. Like Adele, for example. Or Garth Brooks. Or U2, which starts a residency there this fall. And now, add Wemby to that list. Victor Wembanyama’s debut at NBA Summer League is Friday night — and it’s sold out. All 17,500 tickets that were available for Day 1 of the 11-day series of games on the campus of UNLV were gone by sometime Wednesday, largely because of the debut of the 7-foot-3 rookie who will be playing his first game in a San Antonio
July 06, 2023President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for order and calm, and efforts to address the roots of several days of unrest around France that was sparked by the police killing of a 17-year-old boy. The police officer accused of the shooting death of teen Nahel Merzouk is in custody on a charge of voluntary homicide, and a judge in Versailles on Thursday rejected his request for release pending further investigation. “We all lived through an important moment in the life of our nation,” Macron said in the southern city of Pau on the edge of the Pyrenees.
July 06, 2023Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a man charged with kidnapping a Memphis, Tennessee, school teacher during an early-morning run and killing her. Cleotha Abston is charged with snatching Eliza Fletcher from a street near the University of Memphis on Sept. 2 and putting her in an SUV. Her body was found days later near an abandoned house. He has pleaded not guilty. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has filed notice with the court that prosecutors will seek the death penalty, Judge Lee Coffee said. No trial date has been set.
July 06, 2023Tensions spiked dangerously in a Tunisian port city this week after three migrants were detained in the death of a local man, and there were reports of retaliation against Black foreigners and accounts of mass expulsions and alleged assaults by security forces. The people suspected in the slaying of a 41-year-old Tunisian were under investigation for premeditated murder, according to Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the seaside city of Sfax. Twenty-two migrants from sub-Saharan countries in Africa also were detained for questioning in connection with crimes in the area, Masmoudi said Wednesday. Sfax,
July 06, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the capitals of Bulgaria and the Czech Republic on Thursday, discussing military aid and receiving assurances of support for Ukraine’s entry into NATO after i ts war with Russia is over. Czech President Petr Pavel said it is in the interest of his country and Ukraine that soon as the war ends negotiations about NATO membership begin. “I’m convinced that Ukraine will be part of NATO,” Zelenskyy said in Prague, adding that an “ideal” result of next week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania would be an invitation for Ukraine to join
July 06, 2023U.S. job openings slipped in May but remained at levels high enough to illustrate that the American labor market remains resilient in the face of sharply higher interest rates. Employers posted 9.8 million job vacancies, down from 10.3 million in April, the Labor Department said Thursday. But layoffs fell slightly, and more Americans quit their jobs — a sign they were confident they could find better pay or working conditions elsewhere. Job openings fell in healthcare, insurance and finance. But there were more jobs available in education and government. The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover
July 06, 2023Greece’s newly appointed defense minister on Thursday welcomed a deescalation of tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, expressing hope this would lead to a “climate of trust” without directly referring to Turkey. But Nikos Dendias said that trust must be built on the U.N. charter and on respect for the rule of law on land and at sea with the “absolute condemnation for the threat of the use of force.” Dendias, a former foreign minister, made the remarks after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Michalis Georgallas during his first overseas visit following the reelection of Greek Prime
July 06, 2023The courts are finally dry at Wimbledon and the sun is even shining through the clouds at times, giving organizers hope of fitting in a full day of tennis on Thursday for the first time at this year’s tournament. The first three days of action at the All England Club were affected by rain. Only eight matches were completed on Tuesday. Those matches were played on either Centre Court or No. 1 Court, the only stadiums on the grounds with roofs. Because of the all the disruption, there were a handful of first-round matches being played
July 06, 2023The death toll from two weeks of monsoon rains rose to at least 55 on Thursday after 12 people, including eight children, died in weather-related incidents in Pakistan amid fears of flash floods, authorities said. The eastern city of Lahore witnessed a record-breaking downpour the previous day, flooding many streets and disrupting normal life. Since Wednesday, 19 people have died in the city due to collapsing roofs and electrocution, officials said. Pakistan’s weather forecast agency warned of more rain to hit the city. At least eight children died when a massive landslide hit Shangla, a district
July 06, 2023The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits rose last week, but remains at healthy levels despite the Federal Reserve’s attempt to cool the labor market by raising interest rates. U.S. applications for jobless claims rose by 12,000 to 248,000 for the week ending July 1, from 236,000 previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,500 by 253,250. Jobless claim applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week. Overall, 1.72 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the
July 06, 2023The death toll from a toxic gas leak that authorities blamed on an illegal gold processing operation in South Africa rose to 17, including three children, as police removed canisters from a community of closely packed shacks and sifted through evidence Thursday. The leak of what authorities said was a toxic nitrate gas happened Wednesday night in the informal Angelo settlement in Boksburg, a city on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg. The three children who died were ages 1, 6 and 15, police said. At least 10 people were hospitalized, including a 2-month-old baby, two
July 06, 2023An Israeli court on Thursday acquitted a border police officer who was charged with reckless manslaughter in the deadly shooting of an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City three years ago. The Jerusalem district court ruled that the officer was acting in self defense when he shot and killed 32-year old Eyad Hallaq. The case has drawn comparisons to the police killing of George Floyd in the United States. The court described the incident as a tragic mistake, noting that the officer made a split-second decision in dangerous situation. Taking risks, the court said, “is an
July 06, 2023More than 6,000 United Methodist congregations — a fifth of the U.S. total — have now received permission to leave the denomination amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination. Those figures emerge following the close of regular meetings in June for the denomination’s regional bodies, known as annual conferences. The departures began with a trickle in 2019 — when the church created a four-year window of opportunity for U.S. congregations to depart over LGBTQ-related issues — and cascaded to its highest level this year. Church law forbids the marriage or
July 06, 2023Tens of thousands of people packed the town hall square in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona on Thursday to celebrate the traditional “chupinazo” firework blast that starts the San Fermín bull-running festival. Nearly everyone, including many tourists, was dressed in the traditional garb of white trousers and shirt with red sash and neckerchief as they sang and shouted. As the rocket was fired, many doused each other with red or sparkling wine. The highlight of the nine-day festival is the early morning “encierros,” or bull runs, starting on Friday, when thousands of daredevils race to
July 06, 2023London police say seven children and two adults were injured Thursday when a car crashed into an elementary school on a very narrow road in Wimbledon, in southwest London. The Metropolitan Police said the incident was not being treated as a possible extremist attack. Police were called to The Study Preparatory School, a private all-girls school, at 9:54 a.m., along with paramedics in ground and air ambulances. The driver of the vehicle, believed to be a Land Rover, stopped at the scene, the London police force said. No arrests were made. “There are a number of people
July 06, 2023The head of global energy giant Shell says it would be “irresponsible” to cut oil and gas production at a time when the world economy is still dependent on fossil fuels. In an interview with the BBC released Thursday, Shell CEO Wael Sawan also refused to rule out moving the company’s headquarters and stock market listing from Britain to the United States. “The reality is, the energy system of today continues to desperately need oil and gas,” Sawan said. “And before we are able to let go of that, we need to make sure that we have
July 06, 2023Two firefighters were killed battling a blaze that began when cars caught fire deep inside a cargo ship carrying 5,000 cars at a New Jersey port, Newark’s fire chief said Thursday. Five other firefighters were injured but were expected to recover. Responding firefighters found five to seven vehicles already on fire when they reached the 10th floor of the cargo ship at Port Newark around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night. The blaze quickly extended to the 11th and 12th floors, and as firefighters were pushed back by the intense heat, two of them were lost, Fire Chief
July 06, 2023The United Arab Emirates pledged Thursday to give $15 million to help rebuild the Jenin refugee camp after the most intense Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades. The funding promise comes after the two-day offensive destroyed the camp’s narrow roads and alleyways. The operation, meant to crack down on Palestinian militants after a series of recent attacks on Israelis, sent thousands of people fleeing their homes. Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the fighting. The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reported that the money would be
July 06, 2023The minister charged with an overhaul of Japan’s digitized system to assign a number to everyone living in the country has apologized, as doctors protested glitches with health insurance and local governments begged Thursday for clarity on how to handle the problems. The MyNumber, or “MaiNa” for short, system has clearly gone afoul. The government has ordered a total rechecking of MyNumber data, one by one, “mechanically,” as the digital agency put it. The goal is to complete it by the fall, which could be anytime from September to November. Local governments have to deal with much
July 06, 2023The president of this year’s United Nations’ climate talks urged the oil and gas industry Thursday to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by or before 2050 in a speech to oil producing states. Speaking at a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, Sultan al-Jaber urged members to invest heavily in renewables and work toward reducing planet-warming emissions from third parties, such as those released by suppliers or customers. He also encouraged nations to reach net zero methane emissions by 2030. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide
July 06, 2023Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing on Thursday for meetings with Chinese leaders as part of efforts to revive relations that are strained by disputes about security, technology and other irritants. Yellen planned to focus on stabilizing the global economy and challenging Chinese support of Russia during its invasion of Ukraine, Treasury officials in Washington told reporters ahead of the trip. The secretary was due to meet with Chinese officials, American businesspeople and members of the public, according to Treasury officials. They gave no details, but said Yellen wouldn’t meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Yellen follows
July 06, 2023Nigeria’s government activated its national response plan ahead of what is expected to be another round of annual flooding related to climate change, putting several states on alert, authorities told The Associated Press on Thursday. Following floods last year that killed more than 600 people, the National Emergency Management Agency said it was preparing for another dangerous deluge. The agency requested support from the country’s air force and activated its offices to be ready to respond quickly across the country, spokesperson Manzo Ezekiel said. “As it is, the (flooding) outlook is still very gloomy, and we
July 06, 2023Israeli forces shelled a southern Lebanese border village on Thursday after several explosions were heard in a disputed area where the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel meet. Tensions continue to flare in the border area over two tents erected by the militant group Hezbollah and Israel’s building of a wall around the Lebanese part of a village that Israeli troops captured during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. A Lebanese military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of not being cleared to provide information to journalists said one rocket was fired toward Israel from the
July 06, 2023Russia’s mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg and his Wagner troops have remained at the camps where they had stayed before an abortive mutiny, the president of Belarus said Thursday. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko helped broker a deal for Prigozhin to his rebellion on June 24 in exchange for security guarantees for himself and his soldiers and permission to move to Belarus. After saying last week that Prigozhin was in Belarus, Lukashenko told international reporters Thursday that the mercenary chief is in St. Petersburg and Wagner troops still were at their camps. He did
July 06, 2023Australia’s center-left government distanced itself Thursday from the postponement of Donald Trump Jr.’s speaking tour in Australia. His promoters said the eldest son of the former U.S. president was deferring visits to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane because his Australian visa was only approved on Wednesday, 24 hours before he was to board a flight. “It seems America isn’t the only country that makes it difficult for the Trumps,” said Turning Point Australia, a local version of the U.S. conservative political organization. Some conservatives accuse Australia’s Labor Party administration of delaying Trump Jr.’s visa process. But Prime
July 06, 2023The Dalai Lama celebrated his 88th birthday on Thursday, as hundreds of his supporters and exiled Tibetans thronged his hillside Indian headquarters in Dharamsala. Artists played traditional welcome tunes as the Tibetan spiritual leader arrived in his open mobile van to preside over the celebrations in the courtyard of the Tsuglakhang Temple, which was festooned with Tibetan and Buddhist flags and portraits. “We are celebrating my 88th birthday but look at me, I look barely 50,” the Dalai Lama said, smiling. He has made the hillside town of Dharmsala his headquarters since fleeing from Tibet after
July 06, 2023Senior officials from Sweden and Turkey will gather at NATO headquarters on Thursday to examine Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s objections to the Nordic country joining the military alliance and to see what more, if anything, can be done to break the deadlock. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will lead the meeting, which will involve the countries’ foreign ministers, intelligence chiefs and national security advisers. Top officials from Finland, which joined NATO in April after itself addressing Turkish concerns, will also take part. Fearing for their security, Sweden and neighboring Finland ended their longstanding policy of military nonalignment
July 06, 2023At 19, he was the oldest of the group of teens accused of lobbing Molotov cocktails at the police station of their suburban hometown. “Why?” the judge asked Riad, who was taken into custody after he was identified in video surveillance images of the group from June 29, the second night of nationwide unrest following the police shooting of another suburban teenager outside Paris. “For justice for Nahel,” Riad said. Slumped and slightly disheveled after five nights in jail, he said he didn’t know about the peaceful march organized by Nahel Merzouk’s family. He explained the
July 06, 2023Shares slipped in Asia on Thursday after Wall Street drifted downward following a rally that sent it roaring 16% higher for the year so far. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 3% on heavy selling of Chinese banks shares after Goldman Sachs downgraded them citing concerns about the slowing economy and lenders’ exposures to debt. Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.7%. U.S. futures declined and oil prices were mixed. Share prices had soared recently amid signs the U.S. economy is stronger than had been feared, fending off recession so far despite high interest rates. Minutes from the Federal
July 06, 2023Hong Kong lawmakers on Thursday passed an amendment to a law to eliminate most directly elected seats on local district councils, the last major political representative bodies chosen by the public, shutting down further democratic challenges in the city. The changes include slashing the proportion of directly elected seats in the municipal-level organization being from some 90% currently to just about 20% — even lower than the level when these bodies were first set up in the 1980s, when Hong Kong was ruled by Britain. The rest of the 470 seats will be filled by members
July 06, 2023It’s been 16 years since the borders of the Gaza Strip slammed shut after Hamas militants seized control of the territory. The takeover forced the European Union to withdraw monitors who had been deployed at a Gaza border crossing to help the Palestinians prepare for independence. Yet the EU has regularly renewed funding for the unit since then, most recently late last month. The continued existence of the unit known as EUBAM is an extreme example of the West’s willingness to keep pumping hundreds of millions of dollars a year into the moribund vision of a two-state
July 06, 2023A human rights advocacy group says it found allegations of dozens of labor and environmental abuses by Chinese-invested companies involved in mining or processing minerals used in renewable energy. The report released Thursday by the Business and Human Rights Resource Center in London says it found 102 cases of alleged abuses in all phases of using such minerals: from initial explorations and licensing to mining and processing. The report studied supply chains for nine minerals — cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, nickel, zinc, aluminum, chromium and the so-called rare earth elements. All are vital for high-tech products
July 06, 2023The head of the FIA says the motorsports governing body has no interest in signing an early renewal of its contract with Liberty Media and the 10 Formula One teams, who have stated their wish to sweeten the deal while the series is basking in global popularity. The eighth and current Concorde Agreement — which sets the rules and regulations for F1 as well as how television revenue and prize money is distributed — began in 2021 and runs through the 2025 season. In a May conference call with Wall Street analysts, the CEO of Liberty Media, which holds the
July 06, 2023A sentencing hearing for the first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was underway Thursday with details about the investigation into the killing. Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale pleaded guilty in April to the Nov. 2, 2021, attack on Nohema Graber in a park in Fairfield, Iowa, where the 66-year-old teacher regularly walked after school. Prosecutors said the teens, who were 16 at the time, were angry at Graber because of a bad grade she had given Miller. Miller will be
July 06, 2023A brother who traveled more than 1,000 miles to confront his sister’s killer. An uncle of an orphaned 4-year-old whose parents died while shielding the boy from the spray of bullets. A wife whose husband was gunned down at her side while their 9-year-old granddaughter looked on. Nearly four years after a white gunman killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso in a racist attack that targeted Hispanic shoppers, relatives of the victims are packing a courtroom near the U.S.-Mexico border this week to see Patrick Crusius punished for one of the nation’s
July 06, 2023A Russian missile attack in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, killed three people and wounded eight, the mayor said Thursday. Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said around 60 apartments and 50 cars in the area of strike were damaged. Emergency service workers are searching in the debris for more people trapped. Sadovyi addressed residents in a video message, saying the attack was the largest on Lviv’s civilian infrastructure since the beginning of the full-scale invasion last year. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian war refugees have sought safety in Lviv from other areas to the east.
July 06, 2023Touted prospect Colton Cowser hit an RBI single in his major league debut and scored the go-ahead run when fellow rookie Jordan Westburg followed with a two-run triple, sending Dean Kremer and the Baltimore Orioles past the New York Yankees 6-3 on Wednesday night. Kremer (9-4) struck out a career-high 10 in seven innings of four-hit ball. Ryan O’Hearn lined a two-run homer in the ninth, and All-Star relievers Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista combined to get the final six outs as the second-place Orioles won for only the second time in eight games. Josh Donaldson
July 06, 2023A cameraman was injured Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium when he was hit in the head by a wild throw from Baltimore Orioles rookie shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Positioned right next to the New York Yankees’ dugout on the first-base side, Pete Stendel of YES Network was struck by a hurried throw from Henderson, who fired high to first as he tried to complete a double play in the fifth inning. The game was delayed about 17 minutes as the Yankees’ athletic training staff and medical personnel tended to Stendel in the camera well. Baltimore players came
July 06, 2023A father who was preparing to walk his eldest daughter down the aisle. An aspiring actor who appeared as an extra in the “Creed” movie franchise. A teenager who tried to help a wounded friend. These are the stories of those killed in the all-too-familiar thrum of another mass shooting. Five people in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia were gunned down Monday in what became the deadliest among a rash of U.S. shootings that occurred around the July Fourth holiday. A gunman in a ski mask and body armor appeared to fire on people at random while
July 06, 2023Cincinnati Reds rookie Elly De La Cruz pointed at the knob of his bat after hitting a 455-foot homer at Washington on Wednesday night in a reference to the removal of a covering earlier in the game. Before De La Cruz led off the second inning, umpires had the slugger remove a white or clear object from the end of his bat. It looked as if it was an empty covering designed to hold a sensor that takes measurements at the plate. Nationals manager Dave Martinez talked to plate umpire Quinn Wolcott about the knob piece before
July 06, 2023The state of Nevada has reached a $285 million settlement with Walgreens regarding the pharmacy chain’s role in the opioid epidemic, the state’s top lawyer announced Wednesday. The last in a series of multiyear settlements with pharmaceutical companies, retailers and others, it pushes Nevada’s total anticipated payments stemming from opioid claims to $1.1 billion, state Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office said in a news release. Nevada is among numerous states that have reached settlements now totaling more than $50 billion nationwide. “When I first took office as attorney general, I made it clear that seeking justice
July 06, 2023American tennis player Jenson Brooksby accepted a provisional suspension from the International Tennis Integrity Agency on Wednesday after being accused of missing three doping tests in a 12-month period, he told The Associated Press. “Taking the provisional suspension is the best decision that we have to make right now,” Brooksby, a 22-year-old from Sacramento, California, said in a telephone interview. “I’ve never failed a drug test. I’ve never taken any bad substances.” He plans to go to arbitration. Under antidoping rules, athletes can be penalized without failing a test if they have three “whereabout failures” within a year’s span. Brooksby
July 06, 2023All-Star center fielder Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels had surgery on his fractured left wrist Wednesday, two days after he was injured fouling off a pitch. “I just talked to Mike; he just got out of surgery. He feels great,” manager Phil Nevin said before the Angels finished a series against the San Diego Padres. “The surgery went well. We spoke to the doctor a minute ago, but it sounds like everything went great.” Also Wednesday, two-way All-Star Shohei Ohtani was in the lineup as the designated hitter a day after coming out the
July 05, 2023Chicago White Sox All-Star Luis Robert Jr. plans to participate in baseball’s Home Run Derby in Seattle on Monday. Robert made the announcement Wednesday on Instagram, with a highlight video and a caption saying “The Panther is ready for the Home Run Derby! #homerunderby2023.” “I’m pretty sure I’m going to feel very happy during those two days,” Robert said. “It’s going to be very special for me.” Robert will now be participating in another showcase event after being selected to his first All-Star team. He was second in the American League behind Shohei Ohtani with 25 homers,
July 05, 2023Meta unveiled an app to rival Twitter on Thursday, appearing to target users looking for an alternative to the social media platform owned — and frequently changed — by Elon Musk. Called Threads, the new offering is billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.” The app is live in Apple and Google Android app stores in more than 100 countries including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Users will get a Twitter-like microblogging experience, according to screenshots provided
July 05, 2023At least 16 people, including three children, died when toxic gas leaked from a cyclinder near Johannesburg, South African police said Wednesday. Emergency services said that as many as 24 people might be dead. It wasn’t immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the death toll. Search and rescue teams were still working through the area trying to ascertain the extent of the casualties. The incident happened in an informal settlement in the city of Boksburg on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg, the South African Police Services said. Emergency services spokesman William Ntladi said the deaths
July 05, 2023The state of Vermont has agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle all pending and potential lawsuits from foreign investors in development projects at the Jay Peak resort, the ski area that was shaken by a massive fraud case involving its former owner and president, officials said Wednesday. In 2016, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission and the state alleged that former Jay Peak owner Ariel Quiros and former president William Stenger took part in a “massive eight-year fraudulent scheme.” The civil allegations involved misusing more than $200 million of about $400 million raised for various ski area developments from
July 05, 2023Norfolk Southern says the owner of the rail car that caused the fiery Ohio derailment in February failed to properly maintain it in the years before the crash, and the railroad wants to make sure that company and the owners of the other cars involved help pay for the costs. The railroad filed a complaint Friday against all the car owners and shippers connected to the hazardous chemicals that spilled in the Feb. 3 derailment. As part of that, Norfolk Southern said GATX didn’t follow the car manufacturer’s recommendations for taking care of the plastic pellet
July 05, 2023Demand for new SUVs, trucks and cars in the U.S. picked up steam in the second quarter, but the stronger sales kept prices high for consumers. Auto sales rose a healthy 16.8% from April through June to just over 4.1 million, fueled by pent-up demand from nearly two years of short supplies due to factories that were hobbled by the global computer chip shortage. For much of the year, average prices pulled back a bit and automakers raised discounts a little. But in June, those trends began to stall out, said Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds.com. Consumers paid
July 05, 2023Children experienced the highest number of “grave violations” in conflicts verified by the United Nations in 2022, with the conflicts between Israeli and Palestinians and in Congo and Somalia putting the most youngsters in peril, the U.N. children’s agency said Wednesday. UNICEF also expressed particular concern about their plight in Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ukraine, where Russia has been put on the U.N. blacklist. “Grave violations” include the recruitment and use of children by combatants, killings and injuries, sexual violence, abductions, and attacks on schools and hospitals. Omar Abdi, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, told the
July 05, 2023The man who gunned down 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue does not have a psychiatric or neurological disorder, and he was capable of forming the intent to kill, a neurologist testified Wednesday at the killer’s federal death penalty trial. Dr. Ryan Darby, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was called by prosecutors to rebut defense experts who previously testified that Robert Bowers is psychotic and has brain abnormalities. Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted last month of killing members of three congregations who had gathered at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct.
July 05, 2023Reward programs, including birthday freebies and discounts, have long been a way for brands to build loyalty and incentivize spending. But now some companies are becoming a bit more stingy — and customers are taking notice. Last fall, for example, many balked at Dunkin’s decision to stop offering a free drink on their birthday and instead give them triple loyalty points on their purchase. On June 1, Sephora started requiring a $25 minimum purchase for online customers looking to claim a free gift and 250 loyalty points during their birthday month. And Red Robin added a dine-in
July 05, 2023United States State Secretary Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a multinational force is needed to help Haiti’s National Police restore order, echoing recent appeals made by United Nations officials who warn that the country’s insecurity is worsening. Blinken briefly spoke about Haiti and other issues during a one-day trip to Trinidad and Tobago, which hosted a three-day conference held by the 15-member Caribbean trade bloc known as Caricom. Caribbean leaders have been meeting regularly about the situation in Haiti. Caricom Chair and Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit noted that the group supports Haitian-led solutions
July 05, 2023The federal government gave the go-ahead Wednesday for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm to begin construction, clearing the way for the first of at least three — and likely many more — such projects in a state trying to become the East Coast leader in wind energy. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved a construction and operations plan for Ocean Wind I, a wind farm to be built by Danish wind energy company Orsted between 13 and 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City. The wind farm would power 500,000 homes.
July 05, 2023JetBlue says it won’t appeal a judge’s ruling against its partnership with American Airlines, effectively dropping the deal in an effort to salvage its purchase of Spirit Airlines. JetBlue Airways said Wednesday that it wind down the deal with American in New York and Boston in the coming months and “turn even more focus” on its proposed $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit. The U.S. Justice Department sued to block both the JetBlue-American deal and JetBlue’s purchase of Spirit on grounds that they would hurt competition. The government said consumers would suffer if Spirit — the nation’s biggest discount airline —
July 05, 2023The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says a bystander’s cellphone footage showing a deputy violently tackling a woman while she filmed her husband being handcuffed and then pepper-spraying her in the face is “ disturbing,” and community groups on Wednesday called for the department’s new sheriff to hold his agency accountable. The June 24 incident in the city of Lancaster follows several cases that have drawn scrutiny to the department amid allegations of excessive use of force by its deputies. It’s also testing the reform efforts of the new sheriff, Robert Luna, a former Long Beach
July 05, 2023A criminal suspect died Tuesday when he detonated explosives inside a court building in the Ukrainian capital, and two police officers were wounded, officials said. The suspect, Ihor Humeniuk, detonated an explosive device inside the Shevchenkivskyi District Court, as he made an abortive attempt to escape, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters. It wasn’t immediately clear how Humeniuk received the explosives and managed to bring them inside the court building. The two wounded officers belong to a special police unit. Humeniuk has been in custody for eight years on charges of throwing a grenade during a
July 05, 2023The pitch clock may be bothering players as they step to the plate, but they like it a whole lot better once they put on their gloves and take the field. While the rule changes put in place this year to speed up the pace of play have garnered plenty of attention for how they’ve affected hitters and pitchers, some players and managers say the new guidelines also are positively impacting defense. The pitch clock in particular — an idea meant to make it easier for fans to stay focused on the field — may be keeping
July 05, 2023The FIA has received “more than five” expressions of interest from teams interested in joining Formula One, the president of the governing body told The Associated Press on Wednesday, with a decision on expansion expected by the end of the month. The bid that stands out most to Mohammed Ben Sulayem is from Andretti Global and General Motors — a supportive sign that Michael Andretti may indeed get the F1 team he’s been chasing for more than two years. “People have to understand we are here to promote motorsport and we are here to be fair. The Expressions of Interest
July 05, 2023A prominent Russian investigative reporter has received a brain injury and multiple fractures when she and a lawyer accompanying her were brutally beaten by unidentified assailants in the Russian province of Chechnya, her newspaper said Wednesday. Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov were attacked Tuesday soon after they arrived in Chechnya to attend the trial of the mother of two Chechen dissidents. Just outside the airport, their vehicle was blocked by three cars and a dozen unidentified masked attackers, who beat them with clubs and put guns to their heads. Milashina and Nemova were
July 05, 2023A missing 2-year-old Michigan girl who disappeared during an attack on her mother was found dead nearly 100 miles (161 kilometers) away in Detroit, three days after she vanished. Wynter Cole Smith’s body was discovered Wednesday evening by FBI agents in an overgrown alley in a neighborhood on the east side of Detroit, ending a massive search along a major interstate between the city and the state capital. “I am deeply saddened to report that the search for Wynter Cole Smith has come to an end,” said Lansing police Chief Ellery Sosebee. “This investigation has moved
July 05, 2023Canada’s government said Wednesday it would stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram, in response to Meta’s decision to block access to news content on their social platforms as part of a temporary test. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s decision at a news conference. Canada’s move is the latest episode in a dispute that started after Trudeau’s administration proposed a bill that would require technology companies to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online. Meta promised at the time to block Canadian news content on its Facebook and
July 05, 2023Some Federal Reserve officials pushed to raise the Fed’s key interest rate by one-quarter of a percentage point at their meeting last month to intensify their fight against high inflation, though the central bank ultimately decided to forgo a rate hike. In a sign of growing division among the policymakers, some officials favored a quarter-point increase or said they “could have supported such a proposal,” according to the minutes of the June 13-14 meeting released Wednesday. In the end, the 11 voting members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee agreed unanimously to skip a hike after 10
July 05, 2023A Quran burning and a string of requests to approve the destruction of more holy books have left Sweden torn between its commitment to free speech and its respect for religious minorities. The clash of fundamental principles has complicated Sweden’s desire to join NATO, an expansion that gained urgency after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but needs the approval of all current members. Turkey has blocked Swedish accession since last year, citing reasons including anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic protests in Stockholm. Then, last week, an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned Islam’s holy book outside a Stockholm mosque during the major
July 05, 2023Yankees pitcher Jimmy Cordero was suspended for the rest of the season by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday for violating the sport’s domestic violence policy. MLB said the 31-year-old right-hander accepted the suspension and will miss the season’s final 76 games and the postseason. Cordero was 3-2 with a 3.86 ERA in one start and 30 relief appearances and has a $720,000 salary, the major league minimum. He missed the 2021 season after Tommy John surgery while with the Chicago White Sox organization and spent 2022 with the Yankees’ Triple-A team at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Yankees
July 05, 2023The Vegas Golden Knights already made history winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history, doing so in their sixth NHL season. Now they’re making some more with hockey’s hallowed trophy. The Golden Knights are the first team to have the Cup fully engraved with every champion’s name before the traditional summer of owners, staff, coaches and players each getting a day to celebrate with it. Keeper of the Cup Phil Pritchard and the Hockey Hall of Fame would love if this starts a trend. “Hopefully a tradition has begun!” Pritchard tweeted. The decision by Vegas’ front
July 05, 2023Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed off on a two-year spending plan Wednesday after dramatically scaling back the size of a Republican income tax cut that would have moved the state closer to a flat rate. Evers, a Democrat, also used his partial veto power to increase funding for K-12 public schools for more than 400 years unless undone by a future Legislature and governor. The move will increase how much revenue schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425. Evers, a former state education secretary and teacher, had proposed allowing revenue limits to
July 05, 2023Coco Lee, a Hong Kong-born singer and songwriter who had a highly successful career in Asia, has died by suicide, her siblings said Wednesday. She was 48. The star had been suffering from depression for several years, Lee’s elder sisters Carol and Nancy Lee said in a statement posted on Facebook and Instagram, with her condition deteriorating drastically over the last few months. “Although, CoCo sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her,” the statement read. Lee attempted suicide at home over the
July 05, 2023Tennis fans in New York can gather to see live TV coverage of the last three days of Wimbledon at an outdoor watch party at Brooklyn Bridge Park from July 14-16, featuring the women’s final and the men’s semifinals and final. Online registration for 1,500 free tickets for each day ends Thursday; walk-ins will be allowed, too. So much of that paragraph would have been incomprehensible to anyone around for the initial edition of the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament in 1877, from the television broadcast to the trans-Atlantic appeal to the online element to, even,
July 05, 2023A 40-year-old accused of killing a man in a house and then gunning down four others on the streets of a southwest Philadelphia neighborhood before surrendering to police officers has been arraigned on murder and other charges. Kimbrady Carriker was arraigned Wednesday on five counts of murder as well as charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons counts of possession without a license and carrying firearms in public, prosecutors said. A 2-year-old boy and a 13-year-old youth were also wounded by gunfire and another 2-year-old boy and a woman were hit by shattered glass in the
July 05, 2023Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested four men they accused of providing financial support to people who fled overseas and are involved in activities endangering national security, escalating a high-profile crackdown on dissidents in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Police said the four are suspected of using companies, social media and mobile applications to receive funds that they then provided to the people overseas. A police statement did not identify the four suspects or the people they allegedly supported. Local media, including the South China Morning Post, said the four are former members of the now-defunct pro-democracy
July 05, 2023Mass shootings broke out at festivals, block parties and other gatherings in a handful of cities this week as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July. Gun violence that flared in Washington, D.C, Louisiana, Florida, Philadelphia, Texas and Baltimore left more than a dozen dead and almost 60 wounded — including children as young as 2 years old. In Shreveport, Louisiana, at least three people were killed and 10 others wounded late Tuesday night, Shreveport police Sgt. Angie Willhite said. One of the injured was in critical condition Wednesday but the others were expected to survive,
July 05, 2023Akim Aliu and his fellow members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance say they feel betrayed and confused by the NHL’s decision to launch — or as far as the HDA is concerned, re-launch — an inclusion committee to diversify the sport and make hockey more welcoming. Whatever happened, Aliu wondered, to the league announcing a partnership with the HDA to address the same issues three years ago? And why, the HDA wondered in releasing a scathing statement Wednesday, is the NHL essentially duplicating what they’ve been doing by funneling millions into programs at the grassroots level and introducing hockey to
July 05, 2023Contract negotiations between UPS and the union representing 340,000 of the company’s workers broke down early Wednesday with each side blaming the other for walking away from talks. The Teamsters have imposed several deadlines for United Parcel Service negotiators to make their “last, best and final” offer to its unionized workers in recent days. Union officials said Wednesday that UPS “walked away from the bargaining table after presenting an unacceptable offer” to Teamsters members. UPS told a different story. The package delivery company said it was the Teamsters who abandoned negotiations, “despite UPS’s historic offer that builds on our industry-leading
July 05, 2023Two environmental activists were arrested at Wimbledon on Wednesday after getting on court and disrupting a match by scattering orange confetti and puzzle pieces on the grass. A woman and a man wearing T-shirts from Just Stop Oil — a protest group that wants the British government to stop new oil, gas and coal projects — made it onto the field of play at Court 18 before being taken away by security. The interruption happened as three-time Grand Slam semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who is seeded 21st in the men’s bracket, was about to hit
July 05, 2023France’s highest court has rejected a request by three groups seeking reparations for slavery in a case that originated on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. The court’s decision on Wednesday said that no individual produced evidence showing they had “suffered individually” any damage from the crimes that their ancestors had been subjected to. Slavery was abolished in France in 1848, but before that had a significant slave trade, shipping more than 1 million Africans to colonies in the Americas. The International Movement for Reparations and two other groups launched efforts in pursuit of reparations in 2005.
July 05, 2023Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft 2024 budget that foresees lower spending, with defense among the exceptions, as Europe’s biggest economy sticks to rules limiting borrowing that were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic. The government’s plan calls for spending of 445.7 billion euros ($486 billion), down 6.4% from the 476.3 billion euros it expects to spend this year. Defense spending is set to rise by 1.7 billion euros to some 51.8 billion euros, some way short of what the defense minister initially sought. Germany plans to reach a NATO target of spending 2% of gross domestic
July 05, 2023Rapper, producer and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs is asking the New York Supreme Court to enforce a 2021 agreement that requires spirits seller Diageo to treat his DeLeon tequila brand “at least as favorably” as its other tequila brands. Combs signed the agreement with Diageo – which owns more than 200 brands including Guinness beer and Tanqueray gin – after what he says were years of neglect for DeLeon, a brand he established with the London company in 2013. Combs’ lawsuit against Diageo was filed in May. But many details, including the 2021 agreement, were redacted at the time. On
July 05, 2023While women’s soccer is growing in popularity in the U.K., opportunities for women in the men’s game remain few and far between. That changed this week when Forest Green Rovers became the first professional soccer team in England to appoint a female head coach. Hannah Dingley, who was already in charge of the fourth division club’s academy, has been made caretaker head coach following the departure of Duncan Ferguson on Tuesday. “It’s perhaps telling for the men’s game that in making this appointment on merit, we’ll break new ground – and Hannah will be the first
July 05, 2023Rain is again affecting play at Wimbledon on Day 3 of the grass-court tournament. Intermittent showers Wednesday forced matches on the outside courts to be suspended twice, while play in the main stadiums was also stopped for a short time because of the weather. Only Centre Court and No. 1 Court at the All England Club have roofs. Top-seeded woman Iga Swiatek and defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic were both scheduled to play on Centre Court after the opening match between Daria Kasatkina and Jodie Burrage. On No. 1 Court, third-seeded Daniil Medvedev was playing Arthur
July 05, 2023Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, firing shots at one of them, the U.S. Navy said. It said that in both cases, the Iranian naval vessels backed off after the U.S. Navy responded to distress signals, and that both commercial ships continued their voyages. “The Iranian navy did make attempts to seize commercial tankers lawfully transiting international waters,” said Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. “The U.S. Navy responded immediately and prevented those seizures.” He said the gunfire directed at the
July 05, 2023Ukraine and Russia accused each other Wednesday of planning to attack one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants, which is located in southeastern Ukraine and occupied by Russian troops, but neither side provided evidence to support their claims. Citing intelligence reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops had placed “objects resembling explosives on the roof of several power units” of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The objects could be used to “simulate” an attack, he said, meaning a false flag attack. A statement from the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said the “foreign
July 05, 2023The United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine launched a case against Iran at the United Nations’ highest court Wednesday over the downing in 2020 of a Ukrainian passenger jet and the deaths of all 176 passengers and crew. The four countries want the International Court of Justice to rule that Iran illegally shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane and to order Tehran to apologize and pay compensation to the families of the victims. Flight PS752 was traveling from Tehran to Kyiv on Jan. 8, 2020 when it was shot down soon after takeoff. The
July 05, 2023President Salva Kiir of South Sudan says his country’s long-delayed elections will take place in 2024 and that he will be on the ballot. Kiir, who has led South Sudan since the territory became independent of Sudan in 2011, accepted the endorsement of the ruling party at a stadium event Tuesday in Bahr el Ghazal. “I am deeply touched by your endorsement and your continued support to our historic party,” Kiir told tens of thousands of supporters at the Wau Stadium. Kiir is expected to face his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, who
July 05, 2023The European Union’s executive on Wednesday chided Poland and Hungary for democratic deficiencies that have been accerbated by measures taken or left unaddressed by the current governments. While the EU Commission’s annual rule of law report noted a smattering of improvements in the two nations, it also underscored many remaining shortcomings that highlight the standoff between the Brussels-based EU institutions and the two east European nations. It constitutes one of the fundamental problems within the 27-nation bloc that has always sought to be a beacon of Western political liberalism in a world where autocracies sway ever more
July 05, 2023It’s unusual to throw a birthday party for a health care system, but that’s exactly what the U.K. is doing for the National Health Service, a beloved but increasingly creaky institution that turns 75 on Wednesday. The date is being marked with charity tea parties, royal visits and a service of thanksgiving at London’s Westminster Abbey. The events are a fitting tribute for an institution that is often likened to Britain’s secular religion – though one in which some people are losing faith. Backlogs, treatment delays, funding gaps and an unhappy workforce have created an increasingly threadbare
July 05, 2023Former Spain and Barcelona manager Luis Enrique was hired as Paris Saint-Germain’s new coach on Wednesday, tasked with the mission to finally deliver the Champions League title but without guarantees that Kylian Mbappe will still be at the club after the summer. Enrique, who signed a two-year contract, was introduced at a news conference hours after previous coach Christophe Galtier was dismissed following a disappointing season. Club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said his arrival will mark the start of a “new cycle, with a new style of play.” PSG in an earlier statement thanked Galtier, who had one
July 05, 2023China has abrputly cancelled a visit to Beijing by the European Union’s top diplomat, the EU said Wednesday, amid ongoing disagreements between the two powers over trade, human rights and the Ukraine war. Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, was due to arrive in China on July 10 for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and other officials, according to an announcement by the E.U. ambassador to Beijing on Sunday. The European and Chinese diplomats were set to discuss topics including trade, human rights and China’s stance on the
July 05, 2023Nine people outside enjoying the Independence Day festivities in the nation’s capital were shot and wounded early Wednesday, police said, as a spate of violence marred the holiday. Officers responding around 1 a.m. to the mass shooting in a neighborhood about a 20-minute drive east of the White House found a 9-year-old and a 17-year-old among the victims, Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Leslie Parsons said. The victims, who were not publicly identified, were hospitalized with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening, police said. The gunshots were fired from a dark SUV seen driving through the Deanwood neighborhood,
July 05, 2023China on Wednesday dismissed criticism of racially tinged comments by its top diplomat, who said Europeans and Americans are incapable of distinguishing among Chinese, Koreans and Japanese. “No matter how yellow you dye your hair, or how sharp you make your nose, you’ll never turn into a European or American, you’ll never turn into a Westerner,” said Wang Yi, a former foreign minister who now heads the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs commission. “One needs to know where one’s roots are,” Wang said at a trilateral forum in the northern Chinese city of Qingdao on Monday. “China,
July 05, 2023The New York Liberty’s three-game road trip last week included multiple bus trips, two airplanes and three airports on the way from Connecticut to Las Vegas. The Associated Press traveled with the Liberty on their 13-hour trek to Las Vegas for Game 2 of the trip. Here is a look at their itinerary (All times are Eastern): Monday: — 12:30 p.m. Thirty-three person travel party boarded buses in New York bound for Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, for Tuesday night game against the Sun. — 4 p.m. Liberty contingent arrives at Mohegan. Tuesday: — 11 a.m. Team participates in shootaround
July 05, 2023The race of the police officer who fatally shot a French teenager during a traffic stop last week hasn’t been disclosed, and there’s no reason why it would be. Officially, race doesn’t exist in France. But the death of the French-born 17-year-old with North African roots, which sent rioters into the streets, has again exposed deep feelings about systemic racism that lies under the surface of the country’s ideal of colorblind equality. With his killing captured on video, what could be seen as France’s George Floyd moment has produced a very French national discussion that leaves
July 05, 2023Israel withdrew troops from a West Bank militant stronghold Wednesday but warned that its most intense military operation in the occupied territory in nearly two decades was not a one-off. Thirteen Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the two-day raid. Residents of the Jenin refugee camp emerged from their homes to find alleys lined by piles of rubble and flattened or scorched cars. Shopkeepers and bulldozers started clearing the debris. Thousands who had fled the fighting began returning. The army claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in the
July 05, 2023At least 15 people have been killed by floods in southwestern China as seasonal torrents hit mountain areas, authorities said Wednesday. Another four people were reported missing by mid-morning in Chongqing, a vast mountainous region of 31 million, almost all of which has now been designated as having flood risk, according to the local government website. The Chongqing floods appear to be China’s deadliest amid deluges in other parts of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. In just one southwestern province, Sichuan, more than 85,000 people have been evacuated due to flooding, the
July 05, 2023Two months after the lavish coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London, Scotland is set to host its own event to mark the new monarch’s accession to the throne. While Charles and Queen Camilla won’t be crowned a second time Wednesday in Edinburgh, the festivities will include a crown, horse-drawn carriages, mounted cavalry and a flyover by the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force’s aerobatic display team, as Scotland celebrates its unique relationship with the monarchy. The focal point of the event is a service of thanksgiving at St. Giles’ Cathedral, where Charles will
July 05, 2023Asian stock markets sank Wednesday after a measure of Chinese service industry activity fell to its lowest level this year. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney retreated. Oil prices were mixed. U.S. markets were closed Tuesday for a holiday. A service industry index by a leading Chinese business magazine, Caixin, weakened sharply in June, adding to signs China’s recovery following the end of anti-virus controls is cooling. Growth in factory activity also slowed. “Without policy support, there’s a risk that weakening growth expectations could become self-fulfilling,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management in a report. The
July 05, 2023Less than a year after taking office, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim faces a critical first test in state elections next month that pits his government against a powerful Islamic opposition. Election Commission chief Abdul Ghani Salleh said Wednesday that over 9.7 million voters will head to the ballot box on Aug. 12 to elect 245 assembly members for six states. While state elections generally do not affect the federal government, it will be closely watched as a gauge of support for Anwar’s unity government that was f ormed after a divisive general election in
July 05, 2023A white Texas gunman who killed 23 people at a Walmart in 2019 returns to court Wednesday for sentencing in a mass shooting that targeted Hispanic shoppers in the border city of El Paso. Patrick Crusius, 24, is set to receive multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to federal hate crime and weapons charges in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. Although the federal government did not seek the death penalty, Texas prosecutors have not taken lethal injection off the table under a separate case in state court. Investigators say the shooting
July 05, 2023Asian stock markets sank Wednesday after a survey showed Chinese industrial activity weakening. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney retreated. Oil prices were mixed. U.S. markets were closed Tuesday for a holiday. An index of service industry activity by a leading Chinese business magazine, Caixin, weakened sharply in June, adding to signs China’s recovery following the end of anti-virus controls on business and travel is cooling. Growth in factory activity also slowed. “Without policy support, there’s a risk that weakening growth expectations could become self-fulfilling,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management in a report. The Shanghai
July 05, 2023Infuriated about the plate umpire and the ballpark roof, Chicago Cubs manager David Ross let loose after Tuesday’s wild extra-inning win over the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs blew a late four-run lead but rebounded to beat the Brewers 7-6 in 11 innings when left fielder Ian Happ threw out two runners at the plate in extra innings. Ross praised his team’s resiliency, but many of his postgame comments focused on a series of “frustrating” events throughout the game. With Cubs All-Star Dansby Swanson at the plate in the 11th, first base coach Mike Napoli was ejected for
July 05, 2023The satellite North Korea failed to put into orbit wasn’t advanced enough to conduct military reconnaissance from space as it claimed, South Korea’s military said Wednesday after retrieving and studying the wreckage. North Korea had tried to launch its first spy satellite in late May, but the long-range rocket carrying it plunged into the waters off the Korean Peninsula’s west coast soon after liftoff. The satellite was to be part of a space-based reconnaissance system North Korea says it needs to counter escalating security threats from South Korea and the United States. South Korea mobilized
July 05, 2023Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday criticized Hong Kong authorities over their pursuit of two pro-democracy activists who live in Australia. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee said Tuesday that eight pro-democracy activists who now live in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia will be pursued for life for alleged national security offenses, dismissing criticism that the move to have them arrested was a dangerous precedent. Albanese said his government was concerned and disappointed by Hong Kong authorities issuing arrest warrants for Australian citizen Kevin Yam and Australian permanent resident Ted Hui. “I am
July 05, 2023David Fry had a game-ending hit and the Cleveland Guardians stopped the Atlanta Braves’ nine-game winning streak with a 6-5 victory in 10 innings Tuesday night. Fry drove an 0-1 pitch over the head of left fielder Eddie Rosario to score José Ramírez from third base. Braves closer Raisel Iglesias (3-3) intentionally walked Andrés Giménez, bringing Fry to the plate with two outs. Guardians center fielder Myles Straw threw out Sam Hilliard at the plate to keep the game tied in the top of the inning. Hilliard was the automatic runner and took third on a fly
July 05, 2023The entire planet sweltered to the unofficial hottest day in human recordkeeping July 3, according to University of Maine scientists at the Climate Reanalyzer project. High temperature records were surpassed July 3 and 4 in Quebec and northwestern Canada and Peru. Cities across the U.S. from Medford, Oregon to Tampa, Florida have been hovering at all-time highs, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Beijing reported 9 straight days last week when the temperature exceeded 35 C (95 F). This global record is preliminary, pending approval from gold-standard climate measurement entities like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
July 05, 2023Shohei Ohtani left the Los Angeles Angels’ game Tuesday against the San Diego Padres with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. The two-way star exited after giving up consecutive home runs to Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth with none out in the sixth inning. The right-hander’s start had been pushed back a day due to a cracked fingernail. His velocity was down Tuesday, and he left trailing 5-1. Ohtani made the last out at the plate in the top of the sixth and it wasn’t immediately clear if he would remain in
July 05, 2023Two swimmers were apparently attacked by sharks off the shores of Long Island on Tuesday, a day after two others reported being attacked while enjoying the water at popular New York beaches. At least one beach delayed opening to holiday revelers Tuesday, after officials said drones spotted some 50 sand sharks that morning near a popular beach park. When the beach reopened, swimmers were advised to stay close to shore. “We want to make sure swimmers are safe,” Long Island State Parks Regional Director George Gorman told Newsday. The beach was closed once more after a
July 04, 2023Rose Zhang set the women’s course at Pebble Beach and hardly anyone noticed outside of her local caddie, Stanford teammates and college golf enthusiasts. Ten months later, Zhang walked toward the 17th green at Pebble Beach with three amateurs in the U.S. Women’s Open and heads turned to look. And not just any heads. To her left were some three dozen U.S. Women’s Open champions who had posed for a group photo, several of them in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Had it been anyone else, laughs and chatter might have continued. Zhang made
July 04, 2023Objections have been raised to demolishing the house where four University of Idaho students were killed last year, with members of three of the victims’ families signaling it should be preserved until after the trial of the man charged in the deaths. Shanon Gray, an attorney for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the stabbing victims, said the university is disregarding families’ requests that the home be left standing until after the trial of Bryan Kohberger, which is set to begin in October, the Idaho Statesman reported. The bodies of Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle
July 04, 2023Sergio Garcia will not play the British Open for the first time since 1997, failing to make it through local final qualifying that awarded 19 spots from four locations. Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace, who holds the Open record with a 62, advanced from their qualifier at Royal Cinque Ports. They joined Laurie Canter as the only regular roster players from LIV Golf to qualify. The British Open starts July 20 at Royal Liverpool. Garcia was among three LIV Golf players who qualified for the U.S. Open last month. Garcia tied for 27th.
July 04, 2023A judge on Tuesday prohibited several federal agencies and officials of the Biden administration from working with social media companies about “protected speech,” a decision called “a blow to censorship” by one of the Republican officials whose lawsuit prompted the ruling. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted the injunction in response to a 2022 lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri. Their lawsuit alleged that the federal government overstepped in its efforts to convince social media companies to address postings that could result in vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or affect elections. Doughty cited “substantial
July 04, 2023Gleyber Torres is exciting. He also is infuriating. He sparked the Yankees to an 8-4 Fourth of July win over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, hitting a two-run homer in the first inning and scoring the go-ahead run from first base with a daring dash on Giancarlo Stanton’s fifth-inning single. Torres walked against Kyle Gibson (8-6) and was running on a full-count, two-out pitch when Stanton hit a three-hop single up the middle. Center fielder Cedric Mullins tossed the ball to second as Torres ran through third base coach Luis Rojas’ stop sign and slid headfirst across the plate without
July 04, 2023Revelers across the U.S. braved heat and heavy rain to take part in Fourth of July activities Tuesday — celebrating the nation’s founding with parades, fireworks and hot dog eating contests at a time of lingering political divisions and concerns about the country’s future. In Boston, people dodged raindrops to nab a coveted space on the grassy oval in front of the Hatch Shell along the Charles River ahead of the traditional Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Hundreds of thousands of partygoers typically line both sides of the river for the fireworks spectacular that follows a concert. At
July 04, 2023Sarah Langs tried on Lou Gehrig’s cap, a joyous moment and also a reminder of the link they share. Langs, a beloved member of the baseball community in her role as a reporter and producer at Major League Baseball Advanced Media, revealed last October she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS. She was honored at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, the 84th anniversary of Gehrig’s famous “luckiest man on the face of the Earth” speech, along with six other women who have the disease. “I don’t think I’ve processed
July 04, 2023New York had its hot dog eating contest to celebrate Independence Day. But the Florida Keys had a sweeter alternative on Tuesday. The Key Lime Pie Eating Championship in Key West, where Key lime pie originated, was won by Joshua Mogle, a 38-year-old Altoona, Iowa, tire manufacturing manager. Mogle plunged face-first into a 9-inch pie smothered with whipped cream during the challenge, whose rules forbid contestants to use their hands. The gooey competition has become a subtropical substitute to Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest. Mogle consumed the confection in three minutes
July 04, 2023Fans hoping to watch major French stars like Victor Wembanyama and Kylian Mbappé play at next year’s Paris Olympics could drive up demand when more tickets go on sale Wednesday for four sports that will be staged far from the French capital. Fans worldwide will be able to buy tickets on a first-come, first-served basis for soccer, basketball, handball and sailing, which are all held regional venues at next year’s Summer Games. The prospect for French fans to watch wildly popular home favorites such as Wembanyama and Mbappé is sure to boost sales even though the Paris
July 04, 2023One month into his recovery from a torn ligament in his right toe, Aaron Judge has started hitting off a tee but said Tuesday he is still unable to run. “I got to be able to run,” Judge said before the Yankees continued a four-game series with the Orioles. “If I can run then I can play. Me running at 10 percent ain’t going to help anybody out there.” Judge said being able to put weight on his backfoot is the biggest factor in how fast he can return from an injury that is unusual for a baseball player. “Besides
July 04, 2023British police on Tuesday reopened an investigation into lockdown-breaching government parties after viewing video of Conservative Party staffers dancing and drinking at a 2020 Christmas soiree. The “jingle and mingle” party at Conservative headquarters was held when indoor social mixing was barred under rules imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The Metropolitan Police force said it also was looking into a gathering in Parliament on Dec. 8, 2020 reportedly attended by members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The announcement reopens investigations into “partygate” that the government had hoped were finished.
July 04, 2023Homeowners and renters in the U.K. faced further grim news Tuesday as mortgage rates hit levels not seen since unfunded tax cuts announced by the government last fall spooked investors. With the Bank of England raising interest rates to a 15-year high of 5% to battle high inflation, it’s natural for lenders to increase the cost of borrowing to consumers and businesses. But inflation is proving more stubborn than expected, and the bank is expected to keep hiking rates, potentially to 6%, a level not seen since 2001. That prospect is having a knock-on effect in the
July 04, 2023Defending champion Miki Sudo forced down 39 1/2 hot dogs and buns to claim a ninth women’s title in Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, before stormy weather moved in and delayed the men’s competition. Sudo beat Mayoi Ebihara’s 33 1/2 hot dogs in 10 minutes Tuesday in a contest that appeared to be much closer until the final count was announced. The unofficial real-time counter showed the two women tied throughout much of the competition. A final count of plates settled the score. Sudo, 37, was disappointed in her winning total, which
July 04, 2023The United Arab Emirates plans to triple its supply of renewable energy and invest up to $54 billion over the next seven years to meet its growing energy demands. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE’s vice president and ruler of Dubai, announced the plans on Monday following a Cabinet meeting. They also include investments in low-emission hydrogen fuel and developing infrastructure for electric vehicles. He said the updated national energy strategy “aims to triple the contribution of renewable energy over the next seven years and invest 150 billion to 200 billion dirhams
July 04, 2023A French court Tuesday upheld the freezing of the assets of Lebanon’s embattled central bank governor, rejecting his appeal to have them released, an official close to the investigation said. Several European countries are investigating central bank Gov. Riad Salameh and his associates over myriad alleged financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and laundering of $330 million. A French investigative judge on May 16 issued an international arrest warrant, or Interpol red notice, for the 72-year-old Salameh after he failed to show up in Paris for questioning. France, Germany and Luxembourg in March 2022 froze more than $130
July 04, 2023Dozens of people with flowers, many unable to hold back tears, bid farewell Tuesday to an award-winning Ukrainian writer who was among those killed by a Russian missile attack on a popular restaurant in eastern Ukraine. The memorial service for Victoria Amelina, 37, was held in the crowded main hall of Saint-Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv, where ceremonies are usually held for soldiers who were killed on the battlefield. Amelina died in a hospital from injuries sustained in the June 27 strike on a popular restaurant frequently visited by journalists and aid workers in the city of
July 04, 2023Brazilian soccer star Neymar was fined more than $3.3 million for violating local environmental rules during renovations at his mansion in the city of Mangaratiba outside Rio de Janeiro. The Mangaratiba city hall said in a statement Monday night it had issued four fines totalling about 16 million Brazilian reals after Neymar was accused of illegally building an artificial lake at his mansion. “Among the dozens of infractions that were noticed at the player’s property are the start of an unauthorized construction which requires environmental control; capture of a river course and detouring it without authorization;
July 04, 2023Models did their best to strut the cobblestoned banks of the Seine Tuesday as Chanel showed off its fall-winter collection and celebrated the soul of Paris. Here are some highlights of Tuesday’s fall couture collections, including when The Associated Press caught up with French actress Clemence Poesy. CHANEL’S PARIS “This collection is the portrait of a sensitive yet bold Parisienne,” said Virginie Viard, Chanel’s creative director. “It’s like standing on a line between strength and delicacy.” Tuesday’s assembly of tweeds, silk chiffons, organza and inlaid lace, in a myriad of floral and graphic motifs, was a testament
July 04, 2023Roger Federer received a standing ovation of 1 1/2 minutes from spectators including Princess Kate as he entered the Royal Box at Centre Court on Tuesday, when he was celebrated during a brief ceremony for his career and his men’s-record eight singles championships at Wimbledon. Wearing a cream-colored suit with his purple All England Club member’s pin attached to a lapel, along with a striped shirt and polka-dot tie, the retired Federer walked to his seat and stood between his wife, Mirka, and the Princess of Wales in the special section above one of the baselines
July 04, 2023Kate, the Princess of Wales, had the best seat in the house Tuesday on Centre Court at Wimbledon — in the front row of the Royal Box and right next to Roger Federer. The future queen, wearing a mint green blazer, made her way down to her seat only moments before Federer was feted ahead of the opening match on Day 2 of the grass-court tournament. Federer, an eight-time champion at the All England Club, sat between the princess and his wife, Mirka. The first match on a wet second day of Wimbledon — with the
July 04, 2023The Kremlin on Tuesday held the door open for contacts with the U.S. regarding a possible prisoner exchange that could potentially involve jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, but reaffirmed that such talks must be held out of the public eye. Asked whether Monday’s consular visits to Gershkovich, who has been held behind bars in Moscow since March on charges of espionage, and Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian citizen in U.S. custody on cybercrime charges, could potentially herald a prisoner swap, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow and Washington have touched on the issue. “We have
July 04, 2023Luis Ramirez leapt onto the roof of his bright blue water truck to fill the plastic tank that by day’s end would empty into an assortment of buckets, barrels and cisterns in 100 homes. It was barely 11 a.m. and Ramirez had many more stops to make on the hilly, grey fringes of Tijuana, a sprawling, industrial border city in northwestern Mexico where trucks or “pipas” like Ramirez’s provide the only drinking water for many people. “Each time, it gets farther and farther where we have to go,” he said, blaming the city’s water problems on
July 04, 2023Officials on the Orkney Islands, a corner of Scotland with Viking roots and an independent spirit, seized a moment in the global spotlight on Tuesday and voted to explore ways of seeking more autonomy — or even independence — from neglectful U.K. governments. Journalists from across Britain and around the world tuned in remotely as Orkney Islands Council voted to study “alternative models of governance” for the archipelago, which has a population of 22,000. The proposal from council leader James Stockan grabbed international headlines with its mention of potentially restoring Orkney’s “Nordic connections.” Orkney was under Norwegian
July 04, 2023Authorities in Texas say three people were killed and eight people were injured when gunfire erupted following a local festival. The shooting in Fort Worth happened Monday night in the Como neighborhood in the city’s southwest. WFAA, citing police, reports the shooting occurred just hours after the end of the neighborhood’s annual ComoFest. The report said no arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning. It was also unclear how many people may have opened fire.
July 04, 2023Kate, the Princess of Wales, was at a rainy Wimbledon on Tuesday and is expected to sit in the Royal Box when play begins on Centre Court. Showers interrupted play on Day 2 at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament, just like it did on the opening day. Matches began on most courts shortly after 11 a.m. at the All England Club, but the tarps came out as the rain came down about an hour later. Rain is forecast for much of the day Tuesday in southwest London. The only two courts at Wimbledon with retractable roofs,
July 04, 2023The leaders of the Netherlands and Luxembourg on Tuesday said that normalizing ties between Kosovo and Serbia would serve not only regional peace and stability but also their prospects of future integration into the European Union. Prime Ministers Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and Xavier Bettel of Luxembourg were on a trip to Pristina after a visit to Belgrade on Monday. They both called on Kosovo and Serbia to deescalate recent tensions that have threatened to push the Balkan region into instability as Europe faces Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. “We are here to listen. And we
July 04, 2023Greece is ready to start talks with Turkey to resolve a long-standing dispute over maritime borders that has repeatedly brought the two neighbors to the brink of armed conflict, Greece’s newly-appointed foreign minister said Tuesday. Giorgos Gerapetritis said the Greek government wants to “take advantage of the ongoing positive climate” in order to come to an agreement on delineating the areas in which each country has exclusive economic rights, including the right to search for offshore oil and gas. Turkey disputes areas which Greece says fall within its own economic zone and where it’s seeking to
July 04, 2023“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”: The lofty ideals to which France has long aspired are embossed on coins and carved above school doors across the land. Yet they are the polar opposite of what some French people who are Black or brown saw in a shocking video of a police officer shooting and killing a 17-year-old delivery driver of north African descent during a traffic stop. That kid, some said to themselves, could have been me — or my children, or my friends. Within hours, the first fires of anger and revenge were lighting up the night skies of
July 04, 2023Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter in a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Apple’s App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app” that is linked to Instagram, according to the listing, which teased a Twitter-like microblogging experience. “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it said. Instagram users will be able
July 04, 2023China has imposed export curbs on two metals used in computer chips and solar cells, expanding a squabble with Washington over high-tech trade ahead of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to Beijing this week. The controls on gallium and germanium are intended to “safeguard national security,” the Commerce Ministry said late Monday. It said exports will require official permission once the rules take effect Aug. 1 but did not say what restrictions might be applied. Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government is frustrated by U.S. curbs on access to advanced processor chips and other technology on security grounds.
July 04, 2023The Taliban are banning women’s beauty salons in Afghanistan, a government spokesman said Tuesday. It’s the latest curb on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment. A spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry, Mohammad Sidik Akif Mahajar, didn’t give details of the ban. He only confirmed the contents of a letter circulating on social media. The ministry-issued letter, dated June 24, says it conveys a verbal order from the supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The ban targets the capital, Kabul, and
July 04, 2023NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will stay in office for another year, the 31-nation military alliance decided on Tuesday. Stoltenberg said in a tweet that he is “honoured by NATO Allies’ decision to extend my term as Secretary General until 1 October 2024.” “The transatlantic bond between Europe and North America has ensured our freedom and security for nearly 75 years, and in a more dangerous world, our Alliance is more important than ever,” he said. Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO’s top civilian official since 2014. His term had been due to expire last
July 04, 2023A group of armed plainclothes officers assigned to protect South Africa’s deputy president were caught on video dragging a man out of a car and then stomping on his head until he lies motionless, sparking outrage and drawing more attention to the country’s problems with police brutality. The officers are part of the police security team protecting South Africa Deputy President Paul Mashatile, his office confirmed on Tuesday. There are no indications that Mashatile was present during the incident. His spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to phone calls seeking further comment. The video of the
July 04, 2023Unidentified masked assailants in the Russian province of Chechnya attacked and beat a journalist and a lawyer on Tuesday, a violent incident that continued a pattern of rampant human rights abuses in the region. Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov had just arrived in Chechnya to attend the trial of Zarema Musayeva, the mother of two local activists who have challenged Chechen authorities. Just outside the airport, their vehicle was blocked by several cars and they were beaten by several masked assailants, who put guns to their heads and broke their equipment. Novaya Gazeta
July 04, 2023India’s prime minister on Tuesday took a veiled swipe at rival neighbor Pakistan and avoided mentioning the war in Ukraine while addressing a group of Asian countries led by China and Russia. In his opening speech to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the group should not hesitate to criticize countries that are “using terrorism as an instrument of its state policy.” “Terrorism poses a threat to regional peace and we need to take up a joint fight,” Modi said without naming Pakistan. India regularly accuses Pakistan of training and arming insurgent groups,
July 04, 2023Israeli troops pressed ahead with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons in a West Bank refugee camp Tuesday, after military bulldozers tore through alleys and thousands of residents fled to safety. The two-day Palestinian death toll rose to 10. The large-scale raid of the Jenin camp, which began Monday, is one of the most intense military operation in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades. It bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his
July 04, 2023The Russian military said Tuesday it fended off a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow that prompted authorities to briefly close one of the city’s airports. The attack, which follows previous similar raids on the Russian capital during the previous months, comes after a mutiny launched by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, which saw his Wagner troops approach Moscow in the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in more than two decades of his rule. Ukrainian authorities, which generally avoid comments on attacks inside Russia’s proper territory, didn’t claim responsibility for the raid. The Russian Defense Ministry said four of the
July 04, 2023Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Australia’s central bank kept its key lending rate unchanged and Wall Street hit a 15-month high. Tokyo and Seoul retreated. Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Shanghai was unchanged. Oil prices rose after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they are extending cuts to the amount of oil they pump to the world to try to prop up prices.. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.1% on Monday ahead of a report this week on U.S. employment, one of the factors watched by the Federal Reserve in deciding on possible additional
July 04, 2023A week after Guatemala’s June 25 elections boosted a relative long-shot candidate into the final second round of voting, the country’s top court has frozen certification of the election results. Several political parties filed appeals questioning the vote, and the court agreed to freeze certification of final tallies until those complaints can be reviewed. The United States and international bodies have criticized the freeze as a lack of respect for the will of almost 5.5 million people who turned out to vote. The elections were already marred by the official disqualification of several popular candidates, often
July 04, 2023Vietnam’s state media have reported that the government banned distribution of the popular “Barbie” movie because it includes a view of a map showing disputed Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea. The newspaper Vietnam Express and other media said posters advertising “Barbie” were removed from movie distributors’ websites after Monday’s decision. With Margot Robbie playing Barbie opposite Ryan Gosling’s Ken in Greta Gerwig’s comedic look at their “perfect” world, “Barbie” was supposed to open July 21 in Vietnamese theaters. The reports cited Vi Kien Thanh, director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department, as saying the
July 04, 2023Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday said the eight overseas-based activists who were wanted for alleged national security offenses would be pursued for life, dismissing criticism from Western governments over the police’s high-profile crackdown on the pro-democracy figures. Chief Executive John Lee expressed his support for the police’s efforts in arresting the activists who are now based in the U.S., Britain, Canada, and Australia. At his weekly press briefing, Lee said anyone, including their friends and relatives, who offered information leading to their arrests would be eligible for the bounties offered by the police. “The only way
July 04, 2023All-Star Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels left Monday night’s game against San Diego with an apparent injury to his left hand or wrist. Trout fouled off an 0-1 pitch from Nick Martinez leading off the eighth and immediately shook his left arm. Manager Phil Nevin and a trainer came out to check on him and he left the game. Trout had an RBI single in the sixth. He was named to his 11th All-Star team and a 10th straight selection as a starter.
July 04, 2023One year after a shooter terrorized July Fourth paradegoers in Highland Park, Illinois, community members are planning to gather to honor the seven people who were killed, commemorate the day and reclaim the space to move forward. In collaboration with the park district, the city is hosting a series of events during the holiday Tuesday aimed at giving people “an opportunity to engage with the day and gather as a community in the way that feels most comfortable to them,” city communications manager Amanda Bennett said. The city approached the event planning with a trauma-informed
July 04, 2023Saints tight end Foster Moreau says he is in “full remission” from cancer that team doctors discovered in late March. “After a few tumultuous months, I’ve been blessed with the news that I am in full remission from Hodgkin Lymphoma!,” the 26-year-old Moreau posted on social media. “I’m so grateful to everyone who reached out to offer their love and support; our prayers were answered. From here I will continue to live my life as God intended.” Moreau’s signing with the Saints would have come with considerable fanfare in Louisiana even without the unusual and compelling
July 04, 2023Nobody has had a first half of the season like Ronald Acuña Jr. Atlanta’s four-time All-Star outfielder made history Monday night by becoming the first player to reach 20 home runs, 40 stolen bases and 50 RBIs before the All-Star break. “Special player,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said after Atlanta extended its winning streak to nine straight and moved 30 games over .500 by beating the Cleveland Guardians 4-2. The 25-year-old Acuña is also just the third player to hit 20 homers and steal 40 bases in the first 84 games, joining Rickey Henderson (1990) and Eric
July 04, 2023Multiple people were shot in Philadelphia on Monday night, according to police. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department told The Associated Press there were “multiple gunshot victims” but said no other information on their conditions was immediately available. Police spokesperson Miguel Torres told CNN a suspect was in custody and a weapon was recovered. Police spokesperson Jasmine Reilly told the network six victims were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and two were taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
July 04, 2023The head of the U.N. nuclear agency is in Japan to meet with government leaders Tuesday and to see final preparations for the release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, on a visit Japan hopes will give credibility to the contentious plan. International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later Tuesday to submit IAEA’s final report on the water release. All of IAEA’s interim evaluations have been positive and the final report is expected to say that the water sampling, testing and
July 04, 2023Clayton Kershaw was placed on the 15-day injured list by the Los Angeles Dodgers before Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates due to left shoulder soreness. The Dodgers recalled right-handers Michael Grove and Gavin Stone, and optioned left-hander Victor González to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Kershaw was selected to his 10th All-Star team Sunday, which tied him for the most in franchise history. He said he was planning to attend next week’s game in Seattle despite being unable to pitch. The left-hander picked up his 10th victory, which is tied for the NL lead, with six scoreless
July 04, 2023Mexico’s old ruling party fractured Monday, with four leading senators resigning amid internal disputes and the loss of the last major state the party governed. The Institutional Revolutionary Parties held the presidency and almost all statehouses in Mexico without interruption for 70 years. But the PRI, as the party is known, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self by the rise of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party, which won the governorship of the last major PRI bastion, the State of Mexico, last month. Morena has seized on the combination of handout
July 03, 2023The U.N. Security Council will hold a first-ever meeting on the potential threats of artificial intelligence to international peace and security, organized by the United Kingdom which sees tremendous potential but also major risks about AI’s possible use for example in autonomous weapons or in control of nuclear weapons. UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward on Monday announced the July 18 meeting as the centerpiece of its presidency of the council this month. It will include briefings by international AI experts and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who last month called the alarm bells over the most advanced form of
July 03, 2023The reprieve is over. Just as the American economy is struggling with high inflation and interest rates, the coming resumption of student loan payments poses yet another potential challenge. The suspension of federal student loan payments, which took effect at the height of the pandemic in 2020, expires late this summer. Interest will start accruing again in September. Payments will resume in October. Though many hoped their loans might at least be lightened, the Supreme Court last week struck down a Biden administration plan that would have given millions of people some relief from the return of
July 03, 2023Newly signed Jahmai Jones hit a pinch-hit, three-run double in his first big league appearance since 2021, helping the Milwaukee Brewers rally for an 8-6 win over the Chicago Cubs on Monday. With the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning, Jones hit a line drive on the first pitch from reliever Anthony Kay that one-hopped off the center field wall and scored Raimel Tapia, Christian Yelich and Owen Miller, tying the game at 6. “The situation, bases loaded two outs, really honestly not trying to do too much,” Jones said. “Really just trying to
July 03, 2023A Texas man who went missing as a teenager in 2015 after last being seen walking his dogs in Houston has been found alive, his family and police said Monday. Police and firefighters found Rudolph “Rudy” Farias IV around 10 p.m. Thursday after getting a call of a person being down in front of a church in southeast Houston, police spokesman John Cannon said. It was not immediately known where Farias had been the last eight years, Cannon said. Police investigators had not yet spoken with Farias, 25, who remained hospitalized. “What we do know is at
July 03, 2023Churchill Downs is extending Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s suspension through 2024. Churchill Downs Incorporated announced Monday it was continuing Baffert’s ban citing “continued concerns regarding the threat to the safety and integrity of racing he poses to CDI-owned racetracks.” Baffert was initially suspended for two years after 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a postrace drug test. In a statement, Churchill Downs said Baffert continues to peddle false narratives about Medina Spirit’s failed drug test. The company went on to say it will re-evaluate Baffert’s status after 2024. A message sent to a lawyer representing Baffert was
July 03, 2023A Christian graphic artist who the Supreme Court said can refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples pointed during her lawsuit to a request from a man named “Stewart” and his husband-to-be. The twist? Stewart says it never happened. The revelation has raised questions about how Lorie Smith’s case was allowed to proceed all the way to the nation’s highest court with such an apparent misrepresentation and whether the state of Colorado, which lost the case, has any legal recourse. It has served as another distraction at the end of a highly polarizing term for a Supreme Court marked
July 03, 2023Senegalese President Macky Sall declared Monday evening that he will not run for a third term in next year’s elections, ending years of uncertainty over his political future that had helped fuel deadly opposition protests last month. Top opposition leader Ousmane Sonko already had called for more demonstrations around the West African country in the event Sall had instead announced his intention to run again in February. In a speech carried live on his official Facebook page, Sall maintained that Senegal’s constitution would have allowed his candidacy despite having already been elected to a second term
July 03, 2023Even in normal times Emmanuel Macron needed allies’ help governing France. To get some things done he worked with the traditional right. The center-left helped the French president accomplish others. The challenge was bigger than any a French leader had faced in more than two decades: He had to convince politicians across the country’s national assembly to support even a minor domestic project. Now, governing his already-polarized country has gotten close to impossible for Macron because a suburban police officer stopped a yellow Class A Mercedes and fired one fatal shot into the 17-year-old driver’s chest, setting
July 03, 2023Sofia Kenin surprised Coco Gauff at a Grand Slam tournament again by beating her 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the first round of Wimbledon in a back-and-forth matchup Monday between two American women who both have reached No. 4 in the rankings and been to a major final. One key difference: Kenin was the 2020 Australian Open champion, beating Gauff along the way to that trophy; Gauff was the runner-up at the 2022 French Open. And while Gauff was seeded No. 7 at the All England Club, Kenin has tumbled so far down after three consecutive first-round
July 03, 2023Adley Rutschman of the Baltimore Orioles said Monday he will participate in the Home Run Derby on July 10 in Seattle as he attempts to become the first catcher to win the event. The Orioles posted a Twitter video with highlights of Rutschman’s home runs that read: “Get Your Popcorn Ready”. Rutschman joins a field that includes New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, Dodgers’ star Mookie Betts, Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena, Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez. In his second season with Baltimore, the Oregon native will try to win the title in
July 03, 2023Moments after NASCAR’s daring adventure was over — a soggy day in downtown Chicago rescued by a compelling Cup Series race — they were all thinking big. Shane van Gisbergen pondered a move from Australia’s Supercars to a regular NASCAR ride. Justin Marks contemplated the promising future of Project 91. Steve O’Donnell talked about holding a NASCAR event on another continent. “I think we’re all confident at NASCAR that we could take the Cup Series anywhere we want,” said O’Donnell, who became the chief operating officer of NASCAR in March 2022. O’Donnell and Ben Kennedy, the 31-year-old
July 03, 2023Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled Monday that his country is not ready to ratify Sweden’s membership in NATO, saying Stockholm had to work harder on the “homework” it needs to complete. Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan also renewed his condemnation of a Quran-burning protest that took place in Sweden last week, describing the action as a hate crime against Muslims. “We have made it clear that the determined fight against terrorist organizations and Islamophobia are our red line,” Erdogan said. “Everyone must accept that Turkey’s friendship cannot be won by supporting terrorism or by
July 03, 2023Georgia’s imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili appeared severely emaciated on Monday in videolink testimony to a court considering an abuse-of-power case against him. Saakashvili and his supporters claim he has been poisoned while imprisoned and that he now weighs about 60 kilograms (132 pounds), half of what he weighed when he was arrested in October 2021. From a private clinic where he was being held, he told the court that despite his poor health, he was “spiritually fit and determined to serve the country,” according to local news site Agenda. Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president
July 03, 2023On the Friday before the Fourth of July, more than a dozen dog owners waited in triple-digit temperatures in south Phoenix to get into a microchipping event inside a shelter. It didn’t hurt that Maricopa County was offering a discount. But, several were there because they knew having a microchip with their contact information implanted in their pups would increase the likelihood of their pet being returned if the worst happens on Independence Day. “Ava’s a scaredy-cat of any loud noises,” said Rori Chang, who was there with her golden retriever. “Her immediate reaction is to hide
July 03, 2023Vince Tobin, who coached the Arizona Cardinals to their first playoff win in 51 years in 1998, has died. He was 79. The Cardinals said Tobin died Monday morning at his Arizona home. “Our deepest condolences go out to everyone who knew and loved Vince Tobin, and in particular his wife Kathy and their family,” Cardinals owner Michal Bidwill said in a statement. “As head coach of the Cardinals, his steady leadership was a constant and a big part of the success the team enjoyed during his tenure.” Tobin was hired in 1996 to replace Buddy
July 03, 2023Workers picketed major Southern California hotels again Monday after walking off the job during the July Fourth weekend to demand better pay and benefits. The strike by bellhops, front desk agents, room attendants, cooks, servers and dishwashers began early Sunday in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as summer tourism ramps up. Employers accused the union of failing to negotiate. Members of Unite Here Local 11 voted last month in favor of authorizing the strike. In addition to higher wages, the union wants improved health care benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads. Contracts expired
July 03, 2023Airstrikes targeting Palestinian militants in a crowded residential area. Armored bulldozers plowing through narrow streets, crushing cars and piling up debris. Protesters burning tires. A mounting death toll. Israel’s large-scale military raid into the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Monday had undeniable similarities with the second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s — a period that claimed thousands of lives. But the current fighting is also different from those intense years of violence. It’s more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian militants. It’s also
July 03, 2023Jayna Hefford gets goose bumps thinking about what it will be like when the puck drops in January on a new women’s hockey league featuring the world’s best players. The stage is set for that after a new ownership group bought out the Professional Hockey Federation and members of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association unanimously ratified a collective bargaining agreement and constitution. Still, amid her excitement about a banner achievement in the sport, the Hockey Hall of Famer and PWHPA chairwoman understands there’s more to do. “From a league perspective, the work is really just beginning,” Hefford said. WHAT
July 03, 2023US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Monday was allowed to visit Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerhkovich, who has been behind bars in Russia since March on charges of espionage. Tracy last visited Gerhkovich in April. The US Embassy confirmed Monday’s visit but did not immediately provide more information. The 31-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia. A Moscow court last week upheld a ruling to keep him in custody until Aug. 30. Gershkovich and his employer denied the allegations, and the U.S. government declared him to be
July 03, 2023The Minnesota Timberwolves have made it clear: They’re going to build around Anthony Edwards. The Timberwolves and Edwards agreed on a max extension on Monday — five years, $207 million, with a chance of the deal reaching $260 million, agent Bill Duffy confirmed to The Associated Press. Edwards’ new contract will begin in the 2024-25 season. He becomes the fourth player to get the maximum rookie-scale extension so far this summer, joining Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball and Memphis’ Desmond Bane. His deal would reach the supermax level if he makes an All-NBA team. Edwards was an All-Star for
July 03, 2023A visible crack in the support beam of a North Carolina roller coaster served as a reminder of the risks that sometimes arise with amusement park rides, particularly as families and adrenaline junkies flock to the attractions throughout the summer. Video footage of the Charlotte-based Carowinds’ popular Fury 325 — known as a “Giga coaster” due to its dramatic height of 325 feet (99 meters) — showed a key support beam bending with the top visibly detached as cars packed with unsuspecting passengers whirled by at speeds of up to 95 mph (150 kph). The park,
July 03, 2023In the lush surroundings of Paris’ Musee Rodin, the landscapes of artist Marta Roberti formed the backdrop on Monday for the latest Dior couture collection by designer Maria Grazia Chiuri. The designs, inspired by power, feminism and the divine, shone against Roberti’s fantastical creations of exotic birds and ethereal trees. VIP attendees, including actors Natalie Portman and Rosamund Pike, were drawn into this imaginative realm. Here’s a look at some highlights from Monday’s fall-winter 2023 collections: DIVINE GODDESSES OF DIOR STRUT AMID BIRDS AND TREES The collection by Chiuri drew its strength from the past, a salute
July 03, 2023TikTok and Instagram users can scroll with abandon. But Twitter owner Elon Musk has put new curfews on his digital town square, the latest drastic change to the social media platform that could further drive away advertisers and undermine its cultural influence as a trendsetter. Keeping up with a sports game, extreme weather conditions or a major news event is getting harder under Musk’s new rules, which cap the number of tweets you can view as part of an apparent attempt to relieve the company’s overloaded web infrastructure. “The joke on Twitter is that people are going to go outside
July 03, 2023Marc Staal is joining the Philadelphia Flyers, signing a $1.1 million contract for next season with a team embarking on a lengthy rebuilding process. General manager Daniel Briere announced the signing Monday, following the Flyers’ deals over the weekend with gritty winger Garnet Hathaway and depth center Ryan Poehling. Hathaway got $4.75 million over two years and Poehling $1.4 million for one year. Staal is coming off helping the Florida Panthers reach the Stanley Cup Final. He skated nearly 21 minutes a night during that run after playing all 82 regular-season games and putting up 15 points. The 36-year-old fills
July 03, 2023Air travelers could breathe a little easier Monday, as a break in stormy weather — and lighter schedules a day before the July 4 holiday — helped airlines keep more flights moving on time. By late afternoon on the East Coast, about 125 U.S. flights had been canceled and 2,800 were late, according to FlightAware. Those numbers were down from more than 600 cancellations and 7,700 delays on Sunday. United Airlines, the worst-performing U.S. carrier for more than a week, was on pace for its best day in nearly two weeks, with fewer than 50 cancellations. United CEO Scott Kirby
July 03, 2023Thousands of Israelis blocked traffic and snarled movement at the country’s main international airport on Monday, the latest mass demonstration over Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious planned judicial overhaul that has divided the nation. The Netanyahu government’s push to pass several overlapping reforms to the country’s judiciary have plunged Israel into an unprecedented crisis and divided an already highly polarized country. Protesters waving Israel’s blue-and-white national flag and blowing horns blocked the main thoroughfare outside Ben Gurion Airport’s main terminal and demonstrated inside the arrivals hall. Police said officers arrested at least four people for public disturbance. Netanyahu and
July 03, 2023A measure has been introduced in the U.S. House to ban imported products containing minerals critical to electric vehicle batteries but mined through child labor and other abusive conditions in Congo, where China has enormous mining stakes. The bill targets China, which sponsor Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey says uses forced labor and exploits children to mine cobalt in the impoverished but resource-rich central African country. Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, a key pillar of President Joe Biden’s climate plans. China
July 03, 2023A man who described Kevin Spacey as a “slippery, snaky, difficult person” said Monday that the actor’s escalating sexual assaults caused him shame, anxiety and depression. The man, who worked with the American actor when he came to the Old Vic Theatre in London in the early 2000s, said that two decades later he cannot bring himself to view the Oscar-winner’s films or TV shows. “I can’t stand watching the man. It makes me feel sick,” the man, who cannot be identified under British law, said in a video of his police interview played for jurors in
July 03, 2023An eighth gunshot victim from a weekend shooting at a Kansas nightclub has been confirmed, police confirmed Monday, bringing the total number of people hurt to 10. Wichita police had originally reported seven people with gunshot wounds and another two people who were trampled in the rush to escape the club being hospitalized following the early Sunday morning shooting. An eighth shooting victim walked into a Wichita hospital later Sunday with a gunshot wound from the club shooting, Wichita Officer Juan Rebolledo confirmed. The man’s injury is not believed to be life-threatening. Rebolledo did not give the man’s name or
July 03, 2023Thailand’s new Parliament convened Monday nearly two months after a progressive opposition party won a stunning election victory, but there was still no clear sign that its leader will be able to become prime minister and end nine years of military-dominated rule. To form a government, a party must have the backing of a combined majority of the elected House of Representatives and the military-appointed Senate, which represents the country’s traditional conservative ruling class. The Move Forward Party’s unexpected election victory alarmed the ruling establishment, which regards it as a threat to the status quo and the
July 03, 2023Roger Federer will be back on Centre Court at Wimbledon on Tuesday. No, not to compete: He’ll be feted for his record-setting career at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. Federer, who announced his retirement last year, won eight of his 20 Grand Slam singles championships at the All England Club, the most ever by a man — a mark that Novak Djokovic will try to equal this year. Martina Navratilova set the overall standard by claiming nine women’s singles titles at Wimbledon. “Pleased to say that Roger will be with us tomorrow, and we will have
July 03, 2023A man suspected of domestic violence fatally shot a police officer in a southern Indiana hospital early Monday and was then killed by other officers, authorities said. The confrontation occurred at Perry County Memorial Hospital in Tell City, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. Police were called when a victim of domestic violence told hospital staff that Sean Hubert was on his way. Tell City Sgt. Heather Glenn tried to subdue Hubert, 34, at the hospital with an electronic device and arrest him, but it was ineffective, Indiana State Police said. “During a brief struggle,
July 03, 2023A civil rights group is challenging legacy admissions at Harvard University, saying the practice discriminates against students of color by giving an unfair boost to the mostly white children of alumni. It’s the latest effort in a growing push against legacy admissions, the practice of giving admissions priority to the children of alumni. Backlash against the practice has been building in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court’s decision ending affirmative action in college admissions. Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit based in Boston, filed the suit Monday on behalf of Black and Latino community groups in
July 03, 2023The European Union’s climate chief on Monday expressed concern over the expansion of China’s coal industry, with the building of new coal-fired plants. At a conference in Beijing, Frans Timmermans said that while China is forging ahead with plans to expand its use of renewable resources such as wind and solar energy, the country has also been constructing an ever-growing number of coal-fired plants in the past few years. “And that seems to be in a contradiction and it is in contradiction,” said Timmermans. “But at the same time, I do understand the anxiety caused by potential
July 03, 2023Sick of being ignored by far-away politicians, officials on Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands are mulling a drastic solution: rejoining Norway, the Scandinavian country that gave them away as a royal wedding dowry more than 550 years ago. Orkney Islands Council is due to debate options for “alternative models of governance” on Tuesday, including exploring the “Nordic connections” of the archipelago, which lies about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of the Scottish mainland. Council leader James Stockan said the islands had been failed by both the Scottish government, 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the south in Edinburgh, and
July 03, 2023The Sudanese army called Monday on young people and anyone else capable of fighting to enlist at the nearest military command for battle against rival paramilitary force. Sudan descended into chaos after fighting erupted on Apr. 15 between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. Since then, over 3,000 people have been killed, the country’s Health Ministry said, while about 2.5 million people have been displaced, according to the U.N. The true death toll is believed to be much higher. “The commanders of the
July 03, 2023In 1976, Binan Tuku ventured to meet a Brazilian government’s expedition on the banks of the Itui River in a remote area of the western Amazon rainforest. After some initial suspicion, he and his father accepted machetes and soap in what was the beginning of the Matis tribe’s contact with the non-Indigenous world. Nearly 50 years later, Tuku’s own son Tumi exists far from the village of his father, seeking to carve out a living in the impoverished city of Atalaia do Norte. Instead of the traditional blowgun, Tumi held a pastry bag in
July 03, 2023Hong Kong police on Monday accused eight self-exiled pro-democracy activists of violating the territory’s harsh National Security Law and offered rewards of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,600) each for information leading to their arrests. The rewards are the first for suspects accused of violating the Beijing-imposed legislation since it took effect in June 2020. It outlaws subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism. The eight activists are former pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law, Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, lawyer Kevin Yam, unionist Mung Siu-tat and activists Finn Lau, Anna Kwok and Elmer Yuen, police announced
July 03, 2023A holiday weekend block party in Baltimore ended tragically after multiple people opened fire, killing two and wounding 30 others, many of them under 18, police said. The circumstances leading up to the shooting early Sunday remained under investigation after police spent hours combing a massive crime scene in the Brooklyn Homes area in the southern part of the city. Richard Worley, Baltimore’s acting police commissioner, told reporters there were a total of 30 victims, with more than a dozen believed to be minors. No arrests had been made by late Sunday. Worley said it wasn’t clear
July 03, 2023Russia’s armed forces are bruised but by no means beaten in the war in Ukraine, a top NATO military officer said Monday, as he laid out the biggest revamp to the organization’s military plans since the Cold War should Moscow dare to widen the conflict. “They might not be 11 feet tall, but they are certainly not 2 feet tall,” the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, told reporters. “So, we should never underestimate the Russians and their ability to bounce back.” U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are set to endorse
July 03, 2023Award-winning Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina was among those killed by a deadly Russian missile attack on a popular restaurant frequented by journalists and aid workers in eastern Ukraine, PEN America said. Amelina, 37, who had turned her attention from literature to document Russian war crimes after the invasion, died from her injuries after the June 27 strike in the city of Kramatorsk, the literature and human rights organization said Sunday in a statement. At least 11 others were killed and 61 were wounded in the attack around dinnertime, when the restaurant was usually busy. Ukrainian authorities
July 03, 2023Unrest across France sparked by the police shooting of a 17-year-old appeared to slow overnight after six nights. In all, according to the Interior Ministry, there were 157 arrests overnight, down from a peak of 3,880 arrests during the fiery night of June 30, and two law enforcement stations were attacked, among other damage. Around 45,000 officers were deployed nationwide to counter violence fuelled by anger over discrimination against people who trace their roots to former French colonies and live in low-income neighborhoods. Nahel, the teenager killed last Tuesday, was of Algerian descent and was shot in
July 03, 2023Wimbledon gets started on Monday with some of the biggest names in tennis in action, including Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek, Venus Williams and Coco Gauff. It is the year’s third major tournament — and Djokovic won the first two: the Australian Open in January and the French Open in June. That puts him halfway to the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men’s tennis since 1969. He came close to the feat in 2021, falling just one victory short when he lost in the final of the U.S. Open. He seeks a fifth consecutive title at the
July 03, 2023A car crashed into a busy New Hampshire restaurant and injured more than a dozen patrons inside, authorities said. The vehicle struck the Looney Bin Bar & Grill a little after 12:40 p.m. Sunday and came to a stop well inside, pinning one man inside the bathroom, restaurant owner Michelle Watson said. “Everybody jumped right in and helped,” she told WHDH-TV. “Everybody jumped in to make sure everybody was okay.” Police Chief Matt Canfield said the crash involved three vehicles: One was making a left turn out of a parking lot across the street while a
July 03, 2023A group of militants ambushed troops during a search operation against insurgents in a remote area in southwestern Pakistan, triggering a shootout that left an army major and a junior officer dead, the military said Monday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s ambush near Balor in Baluchistan province, but Pakistani Taliban and small separatist groups have claimed similar attacks in the past. The military identified the two killed as Saqib Hussain and Naik Baqir Ali. Another soldier was injured, the statement said. Small separatist groups in oil-rich Baluchistan have waged a low-level insurgency
July 03, 2023Heavy flooding has displaced thousands of people around China as the capital had a brief respite from sweltering heat. Beijing reported 9.8 straight days when the temperature exceeded 35 C (95 F), the National Climate Center said Monday. Such a streak was last recorded in 1961 — decades before most Beijing residents had air conditioning or even fans. A lack of rainfall may be contributing to the heat, with the typically dry capital receiving even less than usual this year. While temperatures have since moderated — Monday’s temperature at midday was 33 C (91 F) — they
July 03, 2023Asian shares were mostly higher Monday after a rally on Wall Street driven by reports that showed inflation abating, assuaging fears over the threat of a recession. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose nearly 1.7% to 33,738.80 in morning trading. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5% to 7,239.80. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.4% to 2,601.00. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 1.7% to 19,243.80, while the Shanghai Composite gained 1.3% to 3,243.24. “Asia gets the new half kicked off amid a growing sense of optimism, with low volatility buoying markets on the back of a surprisingly strong run of U.S.
July 03, 2023Seeking a valid U.S. passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport. A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels — with too few humans to handle the load. The result, say aspiring travelers in the U.S. and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty. With family dreams and big money on the line, passport seekers describe a slow-motion agony of waiting,
July 03, 2023President Vladimir Putin will participate this week in his first multilateral summit since an armed rebellion rattled Russia, as part of a rare international grouping in which his country still enjoys support. Leaders will convene virtually on Tuesday for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping founded by Russia and China to counter Western alliances from East Asia to the Indian Ocean. This year’s event is hosted by India, which became a member in 2017. It’s the latest avenue for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to showcase the country’s growing global clout. The group
July 03, 2023North Dakota higher education officials are deeply worried about losing students and revenue in 2024 when neighboring Minnesota makes public college and university tuition free for thousands of residents. Officials estimate around 15,000 to 20,000 Minnesota students a year will use the free North Star Promise program, and North Dakota education officials are projecting an $8.4 million loss in combined tuition and fees in the first year alone, under one scenario. Roughly 1,400 Minnesota students attending North Dakota colleges and universities might be eligible for the new program. “This has catastrophic implications,” said David Cook, North
July 03, 2023Barry Trotz was tired after a busy week of putting his stamp on the Nashville Predators by remaking the roster through some important comings and goings. It’s a good kind of tired. On what was technically his first day on the job as general manager, Trotz signed top two-way center and 2019 playoff MVP Ryan O’Reilly, rugged Stanley Cup-winning defenseman Luke Schenn and winger Gustav Nyquist who has something to prove. Those moves, even after trading Ryan Johansen and buying out Matt Duchene earlier in the week, made Nashville one of the big winners in NHL free agency. “I want
July 03, 2023The Israeli military sent a large-scale raid into a stronghold of militants in the occupied West Bank early Monday, and local health officials said at least three Palestinians were killed. Israeli forces raided what the military described as a “unified command center” for militants in the Jenin refugee camp, describing it as “an advanced observation and reconnaissance center” where militants would gather to coordinate and prepare for attacks. Israeli media said the military also conducted airstrikes, reviving a tactic it had largely halted during the past two decades, after a Palestinian uprising against Israel’s open-ended occupation slowly
July 03, 2023When Shane van Gisbergen got the call from Justin Marks, it reignited his interest in the NASCAR Cup Series. He studied the races, the drivers and the cars. Turns out he is a pretty good student. Van Gisbergen won his Cup Series debut on a rainy Sunday in downtown Chicago, chasing down Justin Haley and Chase Elliott in a memorable finish to the series’ first street race. After passing Elliott, van Gisbergen dueled with Haley in the final laps before the three-time Supercars champion moved in front for good. Haley held on for second, and Elliott was
July 03, 2023Jesús Ferreira became the first American to score international hat tricks in consecutive games, and the United States advanced to the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals with a 6-0 rout of Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday night. Ferreira scored in the 14th and 38th minutes against 101st-ranked Trinidad, then converted a penalty kick in the third minute of first-half stoppage time. Cade Cowell scored in the 66th, four minutes after entering, and Gianluca Busio in the 79th — the first international goal for both. Brandon Vázquez added his third goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time
July 03, 2023Globs of asphalt binder that spilled into Montana’s Yellowstone River during a bridge collapse and train derailment could be seen on islands and riverbanks downstream from Yellowstone National Park a week after the spill occurred, witnesses report. Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency said cleanup efforts began on Sunday, with workers cooling the gooey material with river water, rolling it up and putting the globs into garbage bags. It will probably be recycled, said Paul Peronard with the EPA. Alexis Bonogofsky, whose family’s ranch was impacted by an oil spill on the Yellowstone River near Billings
July 02, 2023Shohei Ohtani became a two-way All-Star for the third straight year when he was picked for the American League pitching staff on Sunday, and eight Atlanta Braves were chosen for the July 11 game in Seattle — the most of any team since 2012. Ohtani was elected to the pitching staff by players 10 days after fans voted him to start at designated hitter. Ohtani appeared on the most ballots among AL players. He is the only two-way All-Star in major league history. At the 2021 game in Denver, Ohtani grounded out against Max Scherzer and
July 02, 2023Nick Kyrgios pulled out of Wimbledon the night before the tournament’s start, citing a wrist injury, a year after he reached his first Grand Slam final at the All England Club. His withdrawal was announced by Wimbledon on Sunday night and Kyrgios wrote about it on social media. He was seeded 30th in the men’s bracket and was scheduled to face David Goffin on Monday. Kyrgios will be replaced in the field by a player who lost during qualifying. “I’m really sad to say that I have to withdraw from Wimbledon this year. During my comeback,
July 02, 2023Rivals no longer, a group of the Premier Hockey Federation’s more high-profile players issued a unifying message on Sunday by saying they’re eager to join forces in helping launch a new women’s professional hockey league in January — even as it comes at the expense of their league. The statement was released by 11 players, featuring at least one representative from each of the league’s seven franchises, and comes three days after the PHF essentially ceased operations. The PHF was bought out by Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter, one of the financial backers behind the new league he’s helping
July 02, 2023A single-engine plane carrying five people crashed Sunday near a golf course in the South Carolina coastal resort community of North Myrtle Beach, killing at least one person, police and federal officials said. The Piper PA-32 went down northwest of the city’s Grand Stand Airport shortly after 11 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that confirmed five people were aboard. North Myrtle Beach police spokesman Patrick Wilkinson said initially that there was at least one death and one other person taken to a hospital, the Myrtle Beach Sun News reported. A
July 02, 2023Bernhard Langer won the U.S. Senior Open on Sunday at SentryWorld to break the PGA Tour Champions’ career victory record. Pushing his record as the oldest winner on the 50-and-over tour to 65 years, 10 months, 5 days, the German star broke a tie with Hale Irwin for the victory mark with No. 46. Seven strokes ahead on the back nine, Langer bogeyed the final three holes for 1-under 70 and a two-stroke victory over home-state favorite Steve Stricker on the tree-lined course with thick rough. “It’s been very difficult ever since I won my
July 02, 2023Excessive heat warnings remain in place in many areas across the U.S. and are expected to last at least through Monday. In Arizona’s largest metro area, Phoenix and surrounding communities flirted with a high of 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsuis) on Sunday. The National Weather Service in Phoenix is forecasting 116 degrees for Monday, just two degrees off the record high for that date set in 1907, before temperatures drop a few degrees for the next three days. In Nevada, the first excessive heat warning of the summer runs through Monday evening for the Las Vegas metro area. Daytime
July 02, 2023Olympic champion Karsten Warholm won his 400-meter hurdles race on Sunday and then turned to join in the crowd booing environmental protesters who disrupted the Diamond League event near the finish. Three people kneeled on the track about eight meters (yards) from the line holding two banners that spanned from lanes one to six, forcing runners to break through them. No athlete appeared to be hurt. Warholm running in lane eight had no barrier in his way though seemed distracted, with a fourth apparent protester squatting in lane seven seeming to photograph the incident. He was
July 02, 2023Alex Palou refused to acknowledge his dominance of IndyCar in the days leading up to Sunday’s race at Mid-Ohio. He found it hard to stick with that refrain after a third straight win. Palou executed perfect strategy with a fast car to beat Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon by a wide margin, giving him four wins in his last five races and a massive lead in points as he chases a second title in three seasons. Palou began his dominating run on the road course at Indianapolis, and he captured the pole in the Indy 500 and was in
July 02, 2023The drug cartel violence that citizen self-defense leader Hipolito Mora gave his life fighting flared anew on Sunday, just one day after he was buried, as shootings and road blockades hit the city of Apatzingan, a regional hub in Mexico’s hot lands. Roads in and out of Apatzingan were blocked Sunday morning by trucks and buses pulled across the road by cartel gunmen, as the vehicles’ owners stood by helplessly. “They told me to park my truck across the road. They said if I moved it, they would burn it,” said one truck driver, who asked
July 02, 2023Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California walked off the job on Sunday, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what the union is calling the largest strike in its history. Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist is ramping up. Last month, members of Unite Here Local 11 voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike. The union is seeking better wages, improved healthcare benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads. In addition,
July 02, 2023Rickie Fowler tilted his head back, exhaled and smiled. He finally did it, holding on for a win after so many have slipped away. Refusing to crumble and collapse again, Fowler made a 12-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole of the Rocket Mortgage Classic and outlasted Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin on Sunday, two weeks after squandering a chance at the U.S. Open. “It’s just nice to have this one out of the way,” Fowler said after winning for the first time in four years. “I’m obviously going to soak this one in and celebrate
July 02, 2023Cole Custer was declared the winner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race in downtown Chicago after persistent rain flooded the street course on Sunday. The race was scheduled for Saturday, but it was suspended after 25 laps because of a lightning strike in the area. NASCAR had planned to resume Sunday morning, but it scuttled that idea because of the rain and the scheduled Cup Series race. “With standing water and flooding a significant issue at the race track and throughout the city, there was no option to return to racing prior to shifting to NASCAR Cup
July 02, 2023Heavy rains flooded Chicago streets Sunday, trapping cars and forcing NASCAR officials to cancel the last half of an Xfinity Series race set to run through the city’s downtown. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for multiple counties in the Chicago area, saying up to 6 inches of rain had already fallen in suburban Cicero and Berwyn by midday. The Illinois State Police said portions of Interstate 55 and Interstate 290 have been closed due to flooding, with at least 10 cars trapped in water on Interstate 55 near Pulaski Road, a major north-south
July 02, 2023All-NBA center Domantas Sabonis wasn’t a free agent this summer. And he won’t be for the next few summers, either. Sabonis has agreed to a four-year contract extension with the Sacramento Kings, one that will keep him signed through the 2027-28 season, a person with knowledge of the talks confirmed Sunday. The extension includes a raise on his salary for this coming season to nearly $31 million, and his salary for the four subsequent years will average about $47 million, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team has not announced the
July 02, 2023Max Pacioretty was in a unique, if not uncomfortable spot going into NHL free agency coming off tearing his right Achilles tendon twice in the past year. Turns out it was just the right time to hit the market. The post-pandemic hockey landscape meant another year with just a $1 million increase to the salary cap, but everyone in the league knows it’s set for a big leap next summer. That made short contracts — many with performance bonuses like Pacioretty’s with the Washington Capitals — a popular route for players and teams willing to take moderate risks and kick
July 02, 2023When 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios steps out on No. 1 Court on Monday at the All England Club, it will be just his second singles match since October. Asked Sunday at a pre-tournament news conference whether he missed tennis during the time away caused by a knee injury and surgery, Kyrgios replied with the hint of a smile: “No, I don’t miss the sport at all, to be fair. I was almost dreading coming back a little bit. But it’s my job.” Kyrgios missed the Australian Open and the French Open during his lengthy absence
July 02, 2023Talor Gooch won his third LIV Golf League title of the year on Sunday when he made a curling 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Valderrama for a 4-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Bryson DeChambeau. Gooch won $4 million for the victory in Spain. Along with victories in Australia and Singapore, the former Oklahoma State player now has earned $13,376,583 in eight LIV events this year. He also becomes the first player with three victories in the Saudi-funded rival league. Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson have two wins apiece. DeChambeau started the
July 02, 2023Novak Djokovic begins his bid for a fifth consecutive title at Wimbledon and eighth overall at Centre Court on Monday. Djokovic also will be trying to add to his men’s-record 23 Grand Slam singles titles — he broke a tie with Rafael Nadal by winning the French Open last month — and became the first player to collect 24 in the Open era. Oh, and then there’s this: The 36-year-old from Serbia is halfway to the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men’s tennis since Rod Laver won all four majors in 1969. Djokovic faces Pedro Cachin,
July 02, 2023Guatemala’s highest court has suspended the release of official election results, granting a temporary injunction to 10 parties that challenged the results of the June 25 vote. The Constitutional Court late Saturday called for a new hearing to review the contested tallies in no more than five days. Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arévalo had emerged from a field of nearly two dozen presidential hopefuls in the first round of voting. Since neither came close the 50% threshold, they were expected to compete in an Aug. 20 runoff to determine Guatemala’s next president. Arévalo in particular from
July 02, 2023A NASCAR contractor has died after being electrocuted while setting up for the Chicago Street Race. The Cook County Medical Examiner identified the man who died Friday as 53-year-old Duane Tabinski, the founder of an events company hired to install audio equipment for the race, local station WLS-TV reported. NASCAR said in a statement that a worker had “suffered a fatal medical emergency” on Friday. “We are coordinating with local authorities on this tragic incident,” race organizers said. “We share our condolences to the family and their loved ones.” Chicago police said first responders took Tabinski from
July 02, 2023As the Biden administration prepared to launch speedy asylum screenings at Border Patrol holding facilities this spring , authorities pledged a key difference from a Trump-era version of the policy: Migrants would be guaranteed access to legal counsel. Nearly three months and thousands of screenings later, the promise of attorney access appears largely unfulfilled, based on advocacy group reports and interviews with people directly involved, some of whom spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the effort publicly. A coterie of involved attorneys estimate that perhaps 100
July 02, 2023Reigning Formula One champion Max Verstappen continued his relentless march toward a third straight world title with another dominating win at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. Verstappen started from pole position for the fourth straight race and notched his fifth straight win and seventh in nine races so far this season. He increased his championship lead to 81 points over his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. “I think our stints were perfect so a great day, I enjoyed it a lot,” Verstappen said. “I am just enjoying driving this car and racing for this team.”
July 02, 2023Simon Pagenaud will miss the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio on Sunday after flipping seven times during a harrowing wreck in practice a day earlier, leaving veteran driver Conor Daly to step into his Meyer Shank Racing ride on short notice. Pagenaud was going nearly full speed entering Turn 4 of the road course on Saturday when the team said a manufacturer brake failure occurred. Pagenaud was able to induce a spin, scrubbing some of the speed, but catapulted off the racing surface and into a wild wide through a gravel trap that finally ended with the No. 60 car on
July 02, 2023A U.S.-based group that tracks how the Catholic hierarchy deals with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy says Pope Francis made a “troubling” choice in appointing an Argentine prelate to a powerful Vatican office that handles such cases. On Saturday, the Vatican announced the pontiff had picked Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, to head the Holy See’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy. Its mandate includes handling sex abuse allegations lodged against clergy. BishopAccountability.org, a 20-year-old Massachusetts organization that maintains an online archive of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, said in a statement
July 02, 2023An ailing elephant that Thailand had presented to Sri Lanka more than two decades ago returned to his native land for medical treatment Sunday following allegations that the animal was badly abused while living at a Buddhist temple. The male elephant, known in Sri Lanka as Muthu Raja, or Pearly King, and as Sak Surin, or Mighty Surin, in Thailand, was flown directly from the South Asian island nation’s capital to Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand on a Russian Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane. A six-person team, including two veterinarians and four mahouts, or professional elephant trainers,
July 02, 2023After a relative lull, Russia launched a drone attack early Sunday on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, officials said. It was the first such attack of the war in 12 days. All of the Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones were detected and shot down, according to Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv city administration. In addition to the city itself, the surrounding Kyiv region was targeted. Kyiv regional Gov. Ruslan Kravchenko reported that one person was wounded by falling debris from a destroyed drone. Officials in the Ukrainian capital didn’t provide an exact number of drones that attacked
July 02, 2023New and expanded powers for British police took effect on Sunday, including measures targeting activists who stop traffic and major building works with protests. Authorities have repeatedly condemned environmental protest groups, including Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, which have sought to raise awareness about the urgency of climate change by staging multiple high-profile protests at the busiest highways and roads. Their protests in recent years often caused serious disruption for motorists. From Sunday, police will have powers to move static protests. Critics have argued the toughened laws are a threat to the right to protest, but
July 02, 2023Two people were killed and 28 were wounded when gunfire erupted at a block party in Baltimore Sunday morning, police said. Three of the wounded were in critical condition. Baltimore Police Department Acting Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters there were a total of 30 victims during a press conference at the scene. The shooting took place just after 12:30 a.m. at a block party in the Brooklyn Homes area in the southern part of the city, Worley said. All of the victims were adults. Nine victims were transported by ambulance and 20 victims walked into area hospitals
July 02, 2023Young rioters clashed with police late Saturday and early Sunday and targeted a mayor’s home with a burning car as France faced a fifth night of unrest sparked by the police killing of a teenager, but overall violence appeared to lessen compared to previous nights. Police made 719 arrests nationwide by early Sunday after a mass security deployment aimed at quelling France’s worst social upheaval in years. The fast-spreading crisis is posing a new challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership and exposing deep-seated discontent in low-income neighborhoods over discrimination and lack of opportunity. The 17-year-old whose death
July 02, 2023Israel carried out airstrikes on areas near the central Syrian city of Homs early Sunday causing material damage but no casualties, the Syrian military said in a statement. Syrian state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying the air defenses shot down some of the missiles fired by Israeli warplanes flying over neighboring Lebanon. Israeli authorities did not comment on the airstrike on Homs but said one of the Syrian air defense missiles exploded over northern Israel without causing any damage. Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee later said that Israel’s military retaliated for the firing of
July 02, 2023Nowhere in the world has a higher rate of unsafe abortions or unintended pregnancies than sub-Saharan Africa, where women often face scorn for becoming pregnant before marriage. Efforts to legalize and make abortions safer in Africa were shaken when the U.S. Supreme Court ended the national right to an abortion a year ago. Within days, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio declared that his government would decriminalize abortion “at a time when sexual and reproductive health rights for women are being either overturned or threatened.” But some U.S.-based organizations active in Africa were emboldened, especially in
July 02, 2023Former New Mexico State basketball coach Greg Heiar has been hired to coach Mineral Area College, a junior college in Missouri, four months after he was fired in the wake of the Aggies’ hazing scandal. Heiar was dismissed from New Mexico State in February following hazing allegations within the team that shut down the program for the season. The Aggies were 9-15 overall and 2-16 in the Western Athletic Conference when the season was stopped. New Mexico State agreed to pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit involving two basketball players who said they were
July 02, 2023Rickie Fowler has put himself in a position to win a PGA Tour title again. He’s hoping to take advantage for a change. Fowler birdied six of his last eight holes Saturday to surge into the Rocket Mortgage Classic lead at 20 under, giving him another chance to end a four-year PGA Tour victory drought. “I’m not scared to fail,” said Fowler, who had an 8-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Adam Hdwin at Detroit Golf Club. “I’ve dealt with plenty of that.” Indeed. Two weeks ago in Los Angeles in the U.S. Open, Fowler
July 01, 2023Bernhard Langer took a two-stroke lead Saturday in the U.S. Senior Open at difficult SentryWorld in the 65-year-old German star’s bid to break the PGA Tour Champions’ career victory record. Fan favorites Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly —both from Madison, 100 miles to the south — were right behind, with Retief Goosen and Y.E. Yang the only other players under par with a round left on the punishing tree-lined course with thick rough and tricky greens. Langer shot his second straight 3-under 68 to reach 6 under. The 2010 U.S. Senior Open winner at Sahalee
July 01, 2023Shohei Ohtani’s walkup music most of last season was the theme to “The Greatest Showman.” After the Los Angeles Angels star’s June, he should consider returning to it. The Japanese two-way phenom has amazed fans, teammates and opponents since coming to the majors in 2018. June, though was “The Greatest Sho” at the plate. “I’m in a good spot right now,” Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara when asked if he was pitching and hitting at his best. “Hitting-wise, I feel like it is up there for sure.” Ohtani hit 15 home runs, the most in
July 01, 2023Denny Hamlin won the pole Saturday for the NASCAR Cup Series’ first street race, edging Tyler Reddick on the tricky course in downtown Chicago. Hamlin led the way for the race Sunday with a lap of 88.435 seconds at an average speed of 89.557 mph on the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course. It’s his third pole of the season and No. 39 for his career. Reddick was second at 88.479 seconds, followed by Shane van Gisbergen in his first NASCAR event and Christopher Bell. Daniel Suárez rounded out the top five in 89.322 seconds. With Hamlin, Reddick and Bell,
July 01, 2023The New York Knicks are trading Obi Toppin to the Indiana Pacers, dealing away a former lottery pick who was loved by fans but never as much by coach Tom Thibodeau. The Knicks will get back two second-round picks, a person with knowledge of the details told The Associated Press on Saturday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the trade is not yet official. It was first reported by ESPN. Toppin was the No. 8 pick in the 2020 draft after winning national player of the year honors at Dayton. But
July 01, 2023Thousands of people logged complaints about problems accessing Twitter on Saturday after owner Elon Musk limited most users to viewing 600 tweets a day — restrictions he described as an attempt to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data from the site. The crackdown began to have ripple effects early Saturday, causing more than 7,500 people at one point to report problems using the social media service, based on complaints registered on Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages. Although that’s a relatively small number of Twitter’s more than 200 million worldwide users, the trouble was
July 01, 2023Eighteen private Jewish schools run by New York City’s politically powerful Hasidic community deprived thousands of students the required secular education in English, math, science and social studies that they need to function successfully outside their religious enclaves, according to findings from an eight-year investigation by New York City school officials. The eight-year investigation — which critics say was long delayed because of politics — concluded that many of the religious schools, or yeshivas, were not providing “substantially equivalent instruction” in core subjects as do public schools — as mandated by state law. In a letter
July 01, 2023WNBA career triple-double leader Alyssa Thomas of Connecticut was selected an All-Star reserve by the league’s coaches on Saturday. Thomas, who will be making her fourth all-star appearance, is the first WNBA player with three triple-doubles in a season. She accomplished it in the span of seven days, including two in back-to-back games. She’s joined by Sun teammate DeWanna Bonner, who is making her fifth All-Star appearance. Atlanta teammates Allisha Gray and Cheyenne Parker will be making their first appearances in the game. So will Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell and Seattle’s Ezi Magbegor. Other reserves chosen were Washington’s Elena Delle Donne,
July 01, 2023Asked two days before her 24th Wimbledon begins whether she’s still excited to play tennis at this level, Venus Williams quickly answered: “It’s so much fun.” The next question Saturday was about being on tour without her younger sister, Serena, who wrapped up her career at last year’s U.S. Open. The reply: “Not as much fun.” There is still a big-swinging, Grand Slam-winning member of the Williams family in women’s tennis, and it’s 43-year-old Venus, who recently returned to action after about five months away with a hamstring injury she called “a nightmare.” That followed a
July 01, 2023The technicolor, dance-filled London Pride march briefly came to a halt Saturday as climate activists blocked a Coca-Cola float to protest event organizers accepting sponsorship money from “high-polluting industries.” Seven members of the group Just Stop Oil were arrested for public nuisance offenses, police said. The demonstration was the latest in a long line of actions by the group to stop traffic or disrupt high profile events as part of its campaign to stop new oil and gas projects. Two protesters were arrested earlier in the week after charging onto the pitch of the Ashes Test cricket
July 01, 2023The Carolina Hurricanes were able to retain two players — goalie Antti Raanta and forward Jesper Fast — before the NHL’s free agent signing period began on Saturday. The New York Rangers, meantime, were quick out of the gate in signing two free agents, forward Blake Wheeler and goalie Jonathan Quick. Wheeler signed a one-year deal worth $800,000 plus another $300,000 in incentives a day after the former Jets captain was placed on unconditional waivers by Winnipeg for the purpose to have the remainder of his contract bought out. The Rangers announced Wheeler’s signing while a person familiar with the
July 01, 2023Alexander Rossi had bounced back from a mediocre weekend at Road America to turn some of the fastest laps in the opening IndyCar practice at Mid-Ohio when he was asked how one week transfers to the next — good or bad. “Just because you were good last weekend,” Rossi replied, “doesn’t mean you’re going to be good this weekend.” Unless you’re Alex Palou. Then you’re good every weekend. The 26-year-old Spaniard has won three of the past four races with the only outlier a fourth-place run in the Indianapolis 500, and he has yet to finish outside of the top
July 01, 2023Sierra Leone’s main opposition party on Saturday demanded a re-run of last weekend’s presidential election after incumbent President Julius Maada Bio was declared the winner and swiftly sworn in for a second term in the West African nation. The opposition All People’s Congress party, or APC, accused Sierra Leone’s electoral commission of conspiring with Bio’s party to rig the results. In a statement, the party also called for the resignation of electoral commission chairman Mohamed Konneh and his entire team among others. “What culminated in the rogue announcement of fraudulent election results on June 25
July 01, 2023Damian Lillard has said repeatedly that he wants to contend for a championship. After 11 years in Portland, he has decided he needs to move elsewhere to make that happen. Lillard asked the Trail Blazers for a trade, a move that will end the seven-time All-Star’s tenure with that team, two people familiar with the matter said Saturday. Lillard will generate interest from the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets, among others, according to the people who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no details were announced publicly. One of the people told the AP that Lillard’s
July 01, 2023IndyCar driver Simon Pagenaud walked away unharmed from a terrifying wreck during practice at Mid-Ohio on Saturday, when his car from Meyer Shank Racing rolled seven times through a gravel trap before coming to rest on its side. Pagenaud told his team over the radio that his breaks had failed, and he was going about 180 mph (290 kph) at the end of a straightway when he tried to make the corner of the road course. The car catapulted through the gravel and into the air, rolling several times as pieces ripped away, before finally coming to a stop with
July 01, 2023Two years after winning five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, Caeleb Dressel has failed to qualify for the world championships. Dressel’s final attempt to make the U.S. team ended Saturday morning when he tied for 22nd in the preliminaries for the 50-meter freestyle at the national championships in Indianapolis. He clocked a time of 22.72 seconds in the frantic sprint from one end of the pool to the other, leaving him 1.07 behind top qualifier Ryan Held and 0.59 outside the top eight that advanced to the “A” final in the evening. Dressel did earn one
July 01, 2023Children as young as 11 are confined alone to cells the size of parking spaces up to 23 hours a day at a juvenile detention center in Southern Illinois, according to a lawsuit filed by ACLU of Illinois. Young people at the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center in Benton must ask staff permission to flush the toilet, and they can go days or weeks without access to schoolwork. Black mold grows on the walls, according to the lawsuit filed Friday, and there are no mental health professionals employed at the facility. The lawsuit seeks a court order
July 01, 2023The Tour de France began with a family celebration in Basque Country. Adam Yates pulled away from his twin brother Simon Yates to win the Tour’s first stage on Saturday, with race favorites Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard finishing not far behind. The Yates brothers escaped to the front with about seven kilometers (four miles) to go and Adam had the strongest finish to take the initial yellow jersey in the three-week race that began in Basque Country territory in northern Spain. Adam and Simon Yates ride for different teams but joined forces to break away
July 01, 2023Russia’s media watchdog blacklisted at least five media outlets affiliated with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and blocked their websites in Russia. The move came after Wagner fighters took control of a Russian military headquarters and advanced on Moscow in what appears to have been an attempted insurrection. As of Saturday, websites of the RIA FAN news agency and four online news portals controlled by Prigozhin’s Patriot media holding company “People’s News”, “Neva News”, “Politics Today” and “Economy Today” — were listed on a register of blacklisted sites maintained by the communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor. Unconfirmed reports in Russian news outlets
July 01, 2023Smokey Bear said it best: “Only you can prevent wildfires.” Following in the footsteps of their famous mascot, U.S. Forest Service managers in the drought-stricken Southwest are urging people to swap their fireworks this Fourth of July for glow sticks, noisemakers and cans of red, white and blue Silly String. Not so fast, say some environmentalists. While it’s worth encouraging folks not to use fireworks amid escalating wildfire danger, they say it’s kind of silly that federal land managers would suggest using aerosol cans of sticky party string out in nature. The advice began to pop
July 01, 2023American Madison Keys prevailed in a marathon tiebreaker Saturday to win the Eastbourne International final, beating ninth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 7-6 (13) for her second title at the grass-court tournament. The WTA said it was the second longest tiebreaker of the season so far. It was Keys’ seventh career title — and third on grass. “I love coming and playing in Eastbourne,” Keys said. “Being able to win the title here twice now makes me have very fond memories.” Keys beat seventh-ranked Coco Gauff in straight sets Friday in her first grass-court victory over a top-10
July 01, 2023Satellite images analyzed by the Associated Press on Saturday showed what appeared to be a newly built military-style camp in Belarus, with statements from a Belarusian guerrilla group and officials suggesting it may be used to house fighters from the Wagner mercenary group. The images provided by Planet Labs PLC suggest that dozens of tents have been erected within the past two weeks at a former military base outside Osipovichi, a town 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the Ukrainian border. A satellite photo taken on Jun. 15 shows no sign of the rows of white and green structures that
July 01, 2023Mike Babcock is back in the NHL as coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, joining them Saturday after a stint of almost four years out of a pro job. The 2008 Stanley Cup winner returns following the end of his lengthy contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who fired Babcock early in his fifth season with them in 2019. Columbus decided early last month to hire Babcock but had to wait until July to make it official because of the significant money still owed to him on the $50 million, eight-year deal he signed with Toronto in 2015. Babcock, who
July 01, 2023The Los Angeles Lakers kept two of their best guards. And the Milwaukee Bucks retained their big man, as the early trend in free agency of most players staying put continued Saturday. Austin Reaves agreed to a four-year deal that could be worth $56 million, and D’Angelo Russell returned to the Lakers as well on a $37 million, two-year deal, people with knowledge of those transactions told The Associated Press. The Athletic first reported the agreement with Reaves, and ESPN first reported the agreement with Russell. Reaves and Russell were both starters in the postseason for the Lakers, who made
July 01, 2023Network infrastructure and 5G technology provider Nokia has signed a new long-term patent license agreement with Apple to replace the current deal between the two companies that is set to expire at the end of 2023. The deal, which enables Apple to use the Finnish company’s technology in its products, covers Nokia’s inventions in 5G and other technologies. The terms of the agreement announced late Friday remain confidential. Nokia expects to recognize revenue related to the agreement starting January 2024, and the company said the deal is consistent with its long-term outlook disclosed in the first quarter.
July 01, 2023Ukrainian officials on Saturday morning reported more civilian casualties from Russian shelling in the country’s east and south, as a visit by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez began in Kyiv as a show of continuing support from Madrid and the European Union for Ukraine’s fight to dislodge invading Russian forces from its territory. In an address to Ukraine’s parliament that received several standing ovations, Sánchez said, “We’ll be with you as long as it takes.” “I am here to express the firm determination of the European (Union) and Europe against the illegal and unjustified Russian aggression
July 01, 2023Dutch King Willem-Alexander will deliver a speech Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the country abolishing slavery, amid speculation that he could offer an apology on behalf of the royal house. The king’s speech follows Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s apology late last year for the country’s role in the slave trade and slavery. It is part of a wider reckoning with colonial histories in the West that have been spurred in recent years by the Black Lives Matter movement. Slavery was abolished in Suriname and the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean on July 1, 1863, but
July 01, 2023Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez started Spain’s six-month presidency of the European Union with a lightning visit to Kyiv on Saturday to underline the bloc’s support of Ukraine in the face of the invasion by Russia. Sánchez arrived in the Ukrainian capital by train from Poland. The Spanish government said he would address Ukraine’s parliament at 0830 GMT (4:30 a.m. EDT) and then meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two will give a news conference around 1030 GMT (6:30 a.m. EDT). Zelenskyy announced the visit Thursday in an address to European leaders gathered for a summit in
July 01, 2023Campaigning for Cambodia’s general election officially began Saturday, an exercise that is more an affirmation of a nominally democratic process than a prelude to a genuine contest. Eighteen parties are contesting this year’s polls, for which around 9.7 million people are eligible to vote to elect 125 members of National Assembly. The campaign period ends on July 21, and July 23 is election day. Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for 38 years, and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party is virtually guaranteed a landslide victory, since the Candlelight Party, the sole other contender
July 01, 2023Rioting raged in cities around France for a fourth night despite massive police deployment, with cars and buildings set ablaze and stores looted, as family and friends prepared Saturday to bury the 17-year-old whose killing by police unleashed the unrest. The government suggested the violence was beginning to lessen thanks to tougher security measures, but damages remained widespread, from Paris to Marseille and Lyon and French territories overseas, where a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet in French Guiana. The interior ministry announced 994 arrests around France by early Saturday. France’s national soccer team
July 01, 2023When the Tampa Bay Rays have clicked at their best during this impressive first half of the season, it’s been a collective effort. Friday night may have taken that to an extreme. Randy Arozarena and Josh Lowe homered and the Rays scored 15 unanswered runs highlighted by an eight-run eighth inning in their 15-4 win over the Seattle Mariners. “That’s what we saw the first few months of the season, the first two months specifically,” Lowe said. “It’s pretty cool to see that come back around and hopefully we can have a few more of those innings.”
July 01, 2023Airline passengers who have endured tens of thousands of weather-related flight delays this week could face a new source of disruptions starting Saturday, when wireless providers are expected to power up new 5G systems near major airports. Aviation groups have warned for years that 5G signals could interfere with aircraft equipment, especially devices using radio waves to measure distance above the ground and which are critical when planes land in low visibility. Predictions that interference would cause massive flight groundings failed to come true last year, when telecom companies began rolling out the new service. They then agreed to limit
July 01, 2023Shohei Ohtani hit a 493-foot home run Friday night — the longest of his major league career — to become the ninth player to reach 30 homers in a season by July 1. The Los Angeles Angels’ two-way superstar drove a slider from Arizona Diamondbacks left-hander Tommy Henry to right field in the sixth inning to get the Angels within 5-1. It was the longest home run in the majors this year. Ohtani became the first player since Baltimore’s Chris Davis in 2013 to hit 30 homers by the end of June. Davis had 31. Babe
July 01, 2023A police killing caught on video. Protests and rioting fueled by long-simmering tensions over law enforcement treatment of minorities. Demands for accountability. The events in France following the death of a 17-year-old shot by police in a Paris suburb are drawing parallels to the racial reckoning in the U.S. spurred by the killings of George Floyd and other people of color at the hands of law enforcement. Despite the differences between the two countries’ cultures, police forces and communities, the shooting in France and the outcry that erupted there this week laid bare how the U.S. is not alone in
July 01, 2023David and Dominic Fletcher got to play against each other for the first time in a major league game. Fittingly, it came at a stadium where they had watched plenty of games while growing up. Unfortunately, the Fletcher brothers biggest fan was not in attendance Friday night when David’s Los Angeles Angels hosted Dominic’s Arizona Diamondbacks at Angel Stadium. Their father, Tim, died suddenly earlier this month. He was 60. “This would have been one of his proudest moments,” Dominic Fletcher said. “Every night he turned on the TV and had both of our games going
July 01, 2023United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby apologized Friday for hopping on a private plane to get out of the New York area earlier this week while thousands of United passengers were stranded because the airline canceled so many flights. “Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home,” Kirby said in a statement issued by the airline. “I sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around-the-clock for several days — often through severe weather — to take care of our customers.” Kirby concluded
July 01, 2023A judge on Friday awarded more than $1 million to a Black church in downtown Washington, D.C. that sued the far-right Proud Boys for tearing down and burning a Black Lives Matter banner during a 2020 protest. Superior Court Associated Judge Neal A. Kravitz also barred the extremist group and its leaders from coming near the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church or making threats or defamatory remarks against the church or its pastor for five years. The ruling was a default judgment issued after the defendants failed to show up in court to fight the case. Two
July 01, 2023Bernhard Langer has been able to avoid most of the trouble at SentryWorld in the U.S. Senior Open. He still was far from unscathed Friday in a 3-under 68 that gave him the second-round lead. “Believe it or not, I had two three-putts and a hit a sand wedge from the middle of the fairway into the water hazard, which is painful when you think about that from 100 yards,” the 65-year-old German star said after his morning round. Langer had six birdies and three bogeys a day after having a birdie and a bogey
July 01, 2023Taylor Moore and Taylor Pendrith shared the Rocket Mortgage Classic lead at 13 under Friday, hoping to hold off a veteran trying to end a victory drought and a promising young pro aiming for his first PGA Tour victory. Pendrith shot an 8-under 64 at Detroit Golf Club, one off the tournament record. Moore, who began the day tied with Monday qualifier Peter Kuest, had a 67 to match Pendrith at 13-under 131. Rickie Fowler (65) and former top-ranked amateur Ludvig Aberg (67) were a shot back after two straight solid rounds. The 34-year-old Fowler jumped into
June 30, 2023A Colorado web designer who the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday could refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples cited a request from a man who says he never asked to work with her. The request in dispute, from a person identified as “Stewart,” wasn’t the basis for the federal lawsuit filed preemptively seven years ago by web designer Lorie Smith, before she started making wedding websites. But as the case advanced, it was referenced by her attorneys when lawyers for the state of Colorado pressed Smith on whether she had sufficient grounds to sue. The
June 30, 2023Kyrie Irving wants to run it back with Luka Doncic. The enigmatic guard and the Dallas Mavericks agreed Friday on a $126 million, three-year contract in the opening hour of NBA free agency, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because contracts can’t be signed until Thursday. Irving, who wouldn’t talk about his future during his partial season with Dallas and declined to meet with reporters after the season, appeared to reference his decision to return in a one-word tweet with “peace” and “love” emojis. The
June 30, 2023Kyle Kuzma doubled his salary in Washington, and Draymond Green ensured that Golden State’s championship core stays together. Free agency in the NBA got off to its traditional fast start on Friday night, with Kuzma agreeing to a $102 million, four-year deal with the Wizards and Green getting a new contract that’ll pay him $100 million over four seasons with the Warriors. Both of those deals — first reported by ESPN and subsequently confirmed to The Associated Press by people with knowledge of the negotiations — got done shortly after the 6 p.m. EDT time start to the offseason player
June 30, 2023A new U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing a Colorado Christian graphic artist to refuse to work with same-sex couples has LGBTQIA+ people across the country worried about just how far the consequences will reach. The high court’s conservative majority sided with Lorie Smith, a designer of wedding websites for heterosexual couples who argued that a ruling against her would force writers, painters, musicians and other artists to do work that is against their beliefs. Opponents warned that a win for Smith would allow a range of businesses to discriminate, refusing to serve Black, Jewish or Muslim customers, interracial or interfaith
June 30, 2023A man accused of killing five neighbors in Texas after some of them complained that gunfire was keeping a baby awake was indicted Friday on a capital murder charge that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors said they do not yet know whether they will seek the death penalty against Francisco Oropeza, 38, who is a Mexican national and had been deported multiple times in the years prior to the April attack outside Houston. “I think it’s a little too early for us to make that call,” San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said. Oropeza
June 30, 2023A bill to extend internet gambling in New Jersey for another five years is in the hands of Gov. Phil Murphy, following its approval Friday by the state Legislature. The measure was approved by the state Assembly and Senate with minimal opposition from lawmakers, and now goes to the Democratic governor for action. But the approval did little to dispel the mystery surrounding unexpected and unannounced changes made to the bill earlier this week that have rankled the Atlantic City casino industry. Internet gambling began in New Jersey 10 years ago. The original renewal bill would
June 30, 2023There are seven 90-degree turns. There are manhole covers, and transitions from concrete to asphalt and back. The margin for error is small, and any rain will make the course exponentially more difficult. Welcome to the first street race in NASCAR Cup Series history. NASCAR brings its 75th season to downtown Chicago this weekend for an experience unlike any other on the circuit. With Lake Michigan and Grant Park serving as the backdrop, the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course begins right in front of Buckingham Fountain and races by several downtown landmarks. No one is exactly sure what to
June 30, 2023Social media companies are once again under scrutiny, this time in France as the country’s president blames TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms for helping fuel widespread riots over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron accused social media of playing a “considerable role” in encouraging copycat acts of violence as the country tries to tamp down protests that surfaced long-simmering tensions between police and young people in the country. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said police made 917 arrests on Thursday alone. More than 300 police officers have also been injured attempting to
June 30, 2023By the time Martin DuPain got back home from a short walk Thursday afternoon, he was covered with a smattering of tiny flying critters. They were in his hair, on his shirt and in his nose. When he sneezed, the bugs came flying out. As if the smoke and haze sweeping in from wildfires in Canada weren’t enough, New York City has been invaded in recent days with plumes of flying insects that have become both a nuisance and a source of fascination — what were they, where’d they come from and will they ever go
June 30, 2023When Edward Cassano and his colleagues arrived in the remote stretch of ocean where the Titan submersible had gone missing, they quickly learned that they would have to do what other deep-sea experts had already tried unsuccessfully: to find the lost sub in some of the most forbidding depths of the North Atlantic. They set to work deploying their own remotely operated vehicle, the Odysseus, from a ship with a giant “umbilical cord,” then lowered the behemoth to the ocean floor, a process that took about an hour and a half, Cassano said Friday at a
June 30, 2023Fox News will pay one of its former producers $12 million to settle her claims that she faced a discriminatory workplace and that the network tried to coerce her into giving false testimony in Dominion Inc.’s defamation lawsuit against the network, her lawyer said Friday. The payout to Abby Grossberg will settle all litigation that she brought against Fox Corp., Fox News Network and her former co-workers, including former Fox host Tucker Carlson. The settlement was revealed with the filing of a “Notice of Voluntary Dismissal” in a lawsuit she had filed this year in Manhattan
June 30, 2023Less than a month after finalizing the ouster of one of its largest churches for having women pastors, the Southern Baptist Convention has lost another of its biggest congregations. Elevation Church — a North Carolina-based megachurch that draws thousands of worshippers to its multiple campuses and has wielded a strong influence on contemporary Christian worship music — sent notice to the SBC on June 26 that it was withdrawing its affiliation. Elevation’s letter didn’t state a reason. Elevation Pastor Steven Furtick’s wife, Holly Furtick, preaches at Elevation to men and women, and has links to her sermons on her website.
June 30, 2023A truck rammed into several other vehicles and market traders in western Kenya killing at least 51 people, police said. The Friday evening accident occurred at a location known for vehicle crashes near the Rift Valley town of Londiani, which is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of the capital, Nairobi. Officers at the scene counted 51 bodies, but more people were believed to be trapped in the wreckage, Rift Valley police commander Tom Odera told The Associated Press. The Kenya Red Cross Society said on Saturday 32 people were injured and hospitalized, and asked Kenyans
June 30, 2023Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber, Jalen Rose and Steve Young are among roughly 20 ESPN commentators and reporters who were laid off on Friday as part of job cuts by the network. ESPN had planned this additional round involving on-air talent to prevent further reductions to off-air staff after two rounds of mandated cuts by its corporate owner, the Walt Disney Company. Disney CEO Bob Iger announced in February that the company would reduce 7,000 jobs either through not filling positions or layoffs. Friday’s announcement resembled what happened in April of 2017, when reporters and hosts were informed at one
June 30, 2023The future of a bill that would let Danish offshore wind developer Orsted keep tax credits that it otherwise would have to return to New Jersey ratepayers was uncertain Friday afternoon after it failed to gather enough support in the state Senate. The measure to allow Orsted to keep federal tax credits to help counter what lawmakers termed lingering economic effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and elevated inflation was passed by the state Assembly earlier Friday, but did not received enough votes in the Senate. It received 20 “yes” votes — one short of the amount
June 30, 2023Like other sports, women’s tennis is looking into the possibility of getting into business with Saudi Arabia. And while holding a tournament there is not imminent, WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said Friday that he visited that country with some players in February as part of the evaluation process. “It’s a very difficult and very challenging topic that’s being, obviously, measured by many, many different groups right now,” Simon said at an event in London to mark the 50th anniversary of the meeting that led to the founding of the WTA. He acknowledged there “are still
June 30, 2023The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will not stop Mississippi from removing voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies — a practice that originated in the Jim Crow era with the intent of stopping Black men from influencing elections. The court declined to reconsider a 2022 decision by the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said Mississippi had remedied the discriminatory intent of the original provisions in the state constitution by altering the list of disenfranchising crimes. In a dissent Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the authors of the
June 30, 2023Apple is near to becoming the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a $3 trillion market value, marking another milestone for a technology juggernaut that has reshaped society with a line-up of products that churn out eye-popping profits. As of 2 p.m. ET Friday, Apple shares were up almost 2%, bringing its intraday market value to $3.04 trillion. Apple is one of a handful of technology companies, including Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia, that have helped drive the S&P 500 to a gain of more than 15% in the first half of the
June 30, 2023A federal appeals court’s ruling last month about the admissions policy at an elite public high school in Virginia may provide a vehicle for the U.S. Supreme Court to flesh out the intended scope of its ruling Thursday banning affirmative action in college admissions. The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, outside the nation’s capital, routinely ranks as one of the best public schools in America; admission is highly competitive. A coalition of parents, backed by a conservative legal foundation, filed a lawsuit in 2021 challenging the admissions policy at TJ, and the
June 30, 2023A federal judge ruled on Friday that nearly all of North Carolina’s revised 12-week abortion law scheduled to begin this weekend can take effect, while temporarily blocking one rule that doctors feared could expose them to criminal penalties. The decision by U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles sets aside that rule but allows the law’s remaining provisions to begin on Saturday while litigation continues. Abortion providers had last week requested a blanket order halting all of the July 1 restrictions pending their court challenge. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a physician said several sections in the newly
June 30, 2023Taylor Swift’s rerecording of her “Speak Now” and survivalist Bear Grylls taking Bradley Cooper and Rita Ora into the wild are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you. Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the sci-fi comedy ”Biosphere” starring Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass, and a new spin-off series starring Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan from “The Real Housewives of New York City.” NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass are the last two men on Earth in
June 30, 2023Trying to make the most of his powerful swing, White Sox slugger Luis Robert Jr. lets the ball run deep into the strike zone sometimes. That’s when it happens. “When I do that, the catchers, they might think that I am not swinging (for) the ball and they try to reach the ball while I am swinging,” Robert said through a translator. “I think that’s the reason why in my case.” The end result is often interference, putting Robert on first base and handing an error to the catcher. It has happened to Robert five times already
June 30, 2023A handful of NHL teams spent Friday clearing out salary cap space with some big-money buyouts on the eve of free agency. The Nashville Predators led the way by buying out Matt Duchene’s contract. The 32-year-old center had three years left on his deal at an annual cap hit of $8 million. Duchene is the latest veteran player to leave Nashville since former coach Barry Trotz took over as general manager, replacing longtime executive David Poile. The Predators also traded Ryan Johansen to Colorado, continuing the path of a rebuild started when Poile dealt away a handful of players before
June 30, 2023A panel of judges voted Friday to render far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ineligible to run for office again after concluding that he abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system. The decision, once all judges have voted, will forbid Bolsonaro from running until 2030, upending the 68-year-old’s political future and likely erasing any chance for him to regain power. Four of the seven judges on the nation’s highest electoral court agreed that Bolsonaro abused his authority by using government communication channels to promote his campaign and sowing doubts about
June 30, 2023The nation’s midsection is heading into the July Fourth weekend and instead of enjoying the start of summer people are facing smoky haze, high temperatures and powerful derecho winds that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of residents. Utility crews were scrambling Friday to restore electricity after a storm front moved across Illinois and Indiana on Thursday packing winds more than 70 miles (112 kilometers) an hour at times. The storm caused widespread damage to trees and buildings in the central parts of both states from the Mississippi River to the Indianapolis area. Utility companies faced
June 30, 2023As people mourned the slain leader of an armed civilian defense movement, his younger brother warned Friday that he and others who fought with Hipólito Mora would take up arms again if the government does not provide swift justice. Mora, a beloved lime grower-turned-vigilante leader, inspires loyalty in the rural west of Michoacan state. And much as they did when he led an uprising a decade ago, residents feel abandoned by the government to the whims of multiple criminal organizations battling over the territory. “If the governor does nothing to get us justice in the
June 30, 2023The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state’s abortion ban doesn’t violate the state constitution, removing a major hurdle to enforcing the ban Republicans approved last summer. The court’s decision overturns a county judge’s ruling that the ban likely violates the state constitution’s privacy protections, which she said are stronger than those found in the U.S. Constitution. That judge’s order has allowed abortions to continue in Indiana since September, despite the ban. An opinion from three of the court’s five justices said that while Indiana’s constitution provides some protection of abortion rights, the “General Assembly otherwise
June 30, 2023The key players in last weekend’s armed rebellion by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin: YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN Prigozhin, 62, owed his position and his fortune to links with President Vladimir Putin. The former convict who became a St. Petersburg restaurateur was dubbed “Putin’s chef” for lucrative Kremlin catering contracts. He expanded into other areas and founded the Wagner Group — a private military contractor that was active in Syria and several African countries. The Kremlin relied on Wagner to help shore up its forces in Ukraine after the regular military suffered humiliating setbacks there. Wagner spearheaded attacks on the eastern Ukrainian
June 30, 2023The Vatican on Friday reported that a key charitable fund, Peter’s Pence, doubled its income in 2022 to 107 million euros, or more than $166 million, even as donations from the faithful dipped slightly following years of scandal over financial mismanagement at the Holy See. Overall, the Peter’s Pence fund, which finances the Vatican bureaucracy and the pope’s charitable projects around the world, ended 2022 with 11.5 million euros in surplus compared to an 18.4 million-euro deficit in 2021. That year, it only brought in 46.9 million euros in income, according to the financial statement. It’s the second year that
June 30, 2023South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was cleared of wrongdoing Friday by a public watchdog over a scandal involving the theft of more than half a million dollars in U.S. currency that had been stashed in a sofa at his game farm. Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka, whose office holds politicans to account, said Ramaphosa did not violate the ethics code for members of South Africa’s executive over the incident, which happened in 2020 but was only revealed publicly last year. The scandal was seen as the biggest callenge to Ramaphosa’s reputation and his leadership of Africa’s most
June 30, 2023Did mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have inside help from the military and political elite in his armed rebellion that rattled Russia? A week after the mutiny raised the most daunting challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule in over two decades, key details about the uprising are still unknown. Uncertainty also swirls around the fate of Prigozhin and his Wagner private military forces, along with the deal they got from the Kremlin, and what the future holds for the Russian defense minister they tried to oust. Finally, and perhaps the biggest unknown: Can Putin shore up the weaknesses revealed by the
June 30, 2023An inflation index that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve tumbled last month to its lowest level since April 2021, pulled down by lower gas prices and slower-rising food costs. At the same time, consumers barely increased their spending last month, boosting it just 0.1%, after a solid 0.6% gain in April. The inflation index showed that prices rose 3.8% in May from 12 months earlier, down sharply from a 4.4% year-over-year surge in April. And from April to May, prices ticked up just 0.1%. Still, last month’s progress in easing overall inflation was tempered by
June 30, 2023More than 150 company executives are urging the European Union to rethink the world’s most comprehensive rules for artificial intelligence, saying Friday that upcoming regulations will make it harder for companies in Europe to compete with rivals overseas, especially when it comes to the technology behind systems like ChatGPT. Officials at companies from French planemaker Airbus and carmaker Renault to Dutch beer giant Heineken signed an open letter to EU leaders saying the 27-nation bloc’s groundbreaking legislation may put shackles on the development of generative AI. That technology gives popular AI chatbots like ChatGPT the power to
June 30, 2023As hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims walked in the footsteps of the prophets beneath a sweltering sun, contracted cleaners in lime-green jumpsuits held out matching plastic bags to collect their empty water bottles. It takes tens of thousands of cleaners, security personnel, medics and others to make the annual Hajj pilgrimage possible for 1.8 million faithful from around the world. As the Hajj concludes on Friday, the workers will begin a massive, weeklong cleanup effort. For the cleaners, who are migrant workers, it’s a much-needed source of income. But this year it was particularly
June 30, 2023Cambodia’s long-serving, tough-talking leader, Hun Sen, on Friday said he is considering banning Facebook in his country, largely because he is fed up with the abuse he receives on it from his political enemies abroad. Pulling the plug on Facebook for millions of Cambodian users would be the last stage in a lightning estrangement this past week between the 70-year-old prime minister and the social media platform. He had been an enthusiastic user, posting family snapshots alongside dire warnings to his foes, and recently livestreaming his many, sometimes hours-long speeches. On Wednesday, he suddenly announced
June 30, 2023Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey gets a thrill by preying on other men, a prosecutor told jurors during his sexual assault trial Friday in a London courtroom. Spacey is “a man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable — a sexual bully, ” Prosecutor Christine Agnew said in her opening statement. “His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.” The four men who have accused Spacey of sexual assault did not know each other, but
June 30, 2023Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams will begin her 24th appearance at the tournament against 2019 semifinalist Elina Svitolina, while Friday’s draw put two-time titlist Andy Murray up against wild-card entry Ryan Peniston in an all-British first-round matchup. Williams, who is 43 and has played just five matches this season, and Svitolina, who returned to the tour in April after taking time off to have a baby, both were given wild cards by the All England Club. Whoever wins that contest could face No. 28 seed Elise Mertens in the second round, followed perhaps by a matchup
June 30, 2023Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier and his son have been detained as part of an investigation into racism allegations at one of his former clubs, Nice prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme told The Associated Press. Galtier and his son, John Valovic-Galtier, were placed in custody for questioning on Friday morning, Bonhomme said without elaborating. Galtier, who is on his way out at PSG but still under contract, denied accusations that he made racist and anti-Muslim comments when he was in charge of French club Nice when the scandal broke earlier this year. RMC Sport and other French media published reports quoting a
June 30, 2023The United States flew nuclear-capable bombers to the Korean Peninsula on Friday in its latest show of force against North Korea, days after the North staged massive anti-U.S. rallies in its capital. The long-range B-52 bombers took part in joint aerial drills with other U.S. and South Korean fighter jets over the peninsula, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The bombers’ flyover is the latest in a series of temporary U.S. deployments of strategic assets in South Korea in response to North Korea’s push to expand its nuclear arsenal. Two weeks ago, the
June 30, 2023Inflation in Europe slid again in June but fell too slowly to offer much relief to shoppers grumbling over price tags or to stop more interest rate hikes that will raise the cost of borrowing across the economy. The annual rate of 5.5% was down from 6.1% in May in the 20 countries that use the euro currency, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Friday. While that is a big drop from the peak of 10.6% in October, persistently high prices in the U.S., Europe and the United Kingdom pushed some of the world’s top
June 30, 2023Dutch companies that create machines that make advanced processor chips will be required to have an export license before they can be sold overseas starting in September, the government announced Friday. The new measure that was first announced in March, “is country neutral,” the government said. But it is seen as part of a U.S. policy that aims at restricting China’s access to materials used to make such chips, which can be used in military technology. The requirement will notably affect Duch company ASML, the world’s only producer of machines that use extreme ultraviolet lithography
June 30, 2023The International Monetary Fund agreed to provide $3 billion to Pakistan — a long-awaited relief to bail out the impoverished country’s ailing economy. The nine-month agreement must be approved by the IMF’s Executive Board, which is expected to make a final decision in mid-July, a top IMF official, Nathan Porter, said in a statement late Thursday. Porter, the IMF’s mission chief to Islamabad, said Pakistan’s economy has faced several external shocks, such as the catastrophic floods in 2022 that killed 1,739 people, caused $30 billion in damage and impacted millions of Pakistanis. The country was also hit
June 30, 2023Shares were mixed Friday in Asia after after strong data lifted benchmarks on Wall Street, while China reported slower factory activity in June due to weaker consumer spending and export demand. U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices ticked higher. Adding to signs that an economic rebound following the end of anti-virus controls is cooling, an official survey showed China’s factory activity contracted for another month in June as export orders decreased. Germany’s DAX gained 0.3% to 15,997.34 and the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.5% to 7,347.98. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% to 7,485.72. The
June 30, 2023When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine’s military was largely reliant on Soviet-era weaponry, from tanks to artillery to fighter jets. While that arsenal helped Ukraine fend off an assault on the capital of Kyiv and prevent a total rout in the early weeks of the war, billions of dollars in military assistance has since poured into the country, including more modern Western-made weapons. Ukraine’s counteroffensive, now in its early stages, could offer a glimpse of whether and to what extent the newer weapons systems have strengthened Kyiv’s ability to stand up to Russia. Analysts are cautiously optimistic. “Ukraine
June 30, 2023The ambush had been postponed three times before Ukrainian commanders decided one recent night that conditions were finally right. Cloaked in darkness, a battalion of Kyiv’s 129th brigade pressed ahead, advancing stealthily on unsuspecting Russian soldiers. By the time the Russians situated along the front line realized they were under attack, it was too late. Ukraine’s recapture of the small village of Neskuchne in the eastern Donetsk region on June 10 encapsulates the opening strategy of a major counteroffensive launched earlier this month. Small platoons bank on the element of surprise and, when successful, make incremental
June 30, 2023It was one of the deadliest wildland fires ever in the U.S., killing 19 members of an elite central Arizona firefighting crew in 2013 after flames trapped them in a brush-choked canyon. The city of Prescott and the neighboring town of Yarnell marked a decade without the fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots on Friday with separate events. In Prescott, the downtown Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza was flooded with attendees, first responders from all over the country and dignitaries including Gov. Katie Hobbs. Portraits of each firefighter were on display as an honor guard opened the ceremony. Each name was read to
June 30, 2023Becky Hammon wasn’t going to put too much into the Las Vegas Aces’ rout of the New York Liberty in the first meeting between two of the top teams in the WNBA. “We’re in June still. We’re not banking too much on this,” Hammon said after the 98-81 win Thursday night. “Feels better than losing. At the end of the day we have a lot of basketball left to be played.” It was the seventh consecutive win for the Aces (14-1), who have been nearly unstoppable this season on offense, averaging nearly 93 points a game.
June 30, 2023Lobster boat engines rumble to life in quiet coves. Lumberjacks trudge deep into the woods. Farmers tend expanses of wild blueberries. Maine’s Down East region is where the sunlight first kisses the East Coast of the United States each day, where the vast wilderness and ocean meet in one of the last places on the East Coast unspoiled by development. Which makes it a striking backdrop to one family’s bold vision for the region: a flagpole jutting upward from the woodlands toward spacious skies — the tallest one ever, reaching higher than the Empire State
June 30, 2023It’s summer on the Jersey Shore. For many young people, that means one thing: Party time! But officials and residents of several beachside towns say New Jersey’s criminal justice reforms in recent years — such as decriminalizing marijuana use — are having an unintended effect, emboldening large groups of teenagers to run amok on beaches and boardwalks, knowing there’s little chance they’ll get in trouble for it. Now, some lawmakers are trying to walk back parts of those laws, which also involve alcohol use and possession. The laws were designed to keep more juveniles out
June 30, 2023Protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police in French streets overnight as tensions grew over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old that has shocked the nation. More than 600 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers injured as the government struggled to restore order on a third night of unrest. Armored police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen identified only by his first name, Nahel. On the
June 30, 2023Organizers announced plans Friday to launch a new women’s professional hockey league in January that they hope will provide a stable, economically respectable home for the sport’s top players for years to come. The North American league has many unanswered questions — how many teams, where they will play, will the economic model work after earlier leagues fell short — but an initial framework is in place. The effort also has deep pockets behind it: Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra, team President Stan Kasten and tennis legend Billie Jean King will help run the league. “Over
June 30, 2023Colleges across the country will be forced to stop considering race in admissions under Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, ending affirmative action policies that date back decades. Schools that have relied on race-conscious admissions policies to build diversity will have to rethink how they admit students. It’s expected to result in campuses that have more white and Asian American students and fewer Black and Hispanic students. The impact of the decision will be felt most strongly at the nation’s most selective colleges, which have been more likely to consider race as one of many factors in admissions. But some less selective
June 29, 2023The leader of an armed civilian movement that once drove a drug cartel out of the western Mexico state of Michoacan has been killed, authorities confirmed Thursday. Tributes quickly rolled in for slain “self defense” leader Hipólito Mora. He was one of the last surviving leaders of Michoacan’s armed vigilante movement, in which farmers and ranchers banded together to expel the Knights Templar cartel from the state between 2013 and 2014. Mora was one of the few fighters to reman in his hometown after the struggle, tending to his lime groves. But Mora complained in recent
June 29, 2023A Florida sheriff’s deputy was acquitted Thursday of felony child neglect and other charges for failing to act during the 2018 Parkland school massacre, concluding the first trial in U.S. history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting. Former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson wept as the verdicts were read, while the fathers of two students murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb, 14, 2018, stared straight ahead and quickly left the courtroom. The jury had deliberated for 19 hours over four days. After court adjourned, Peterson, his family
June 29, 2023Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Thursday with Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and prominent European figures who are forming a working group to address ecological damage from the 16-month-old Russian invasion. The meeting in the Ukrainian capital came as fighting continued around the country. The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said two people were killed in the region’s capital in a Russian strike that hit residences, a medical facility and a school where residents were lined up to receive humanitarian aid. Another person was killed in a morning strike on the village of Bilzoerka,
June 29, 2023Hundreds of thousands of air travelers are facing potential flight cancellations and delays this weekend, the peak of summer travel, as thunderstorms threaten the East Coast, West Coast and points in between. Nearly 270 U.S. flights were canceled early Friday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware, and more than 1,100 U.S. flights were delayed. It’s been a terrible week for United Airlines and it is leading all major domestic carriers again Friday both canceled and delayed flights. Staying calm — and knowing your rights — can go a long way if your flight is canceled, experts say.
June 29, 2023Long before sunrise, dozens of people gather around more than 50 boats along this portion of Venezuela’s vast Caribbean coast, their tanned bodies showing scars and maimed hands from years of fishing. Most of them are men, but women are increasingly among them. The women may be joining a family tradition of fishing, or in some cases launching new careers after losing jobs during Venezuela’s economic crisis, enlisting in the physically demanding work that may pay $8 after five consecutive 12-hour shifts. That’s only a fraction of the estimated $390 that a Venezuelan family would need
June 29, 2023Cornerback Isaiah Rodgers Sr. lost the biggest bet of his life Thursday. He was waived by the Indianapolis Colts shortly after the NFL suspended Rodgers and two other players indefinitely for gambling on NFL games last season. The Colts also cut backup defensive end Rashod Berry after Berry and free agent defensive tackle Demetrius Taylor received the same punishment for the same infraction. None of the three can seek reinstatement until after next season. Tennessee Titans right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere received a six-game suspension for betting on non-NFL sports at the team’s facility, though he can participate
June 29, 2023Caroline Wozniacki, a former No. 1-ranked tennis player and the 2018 Australian Open champion, announced Thursday that she is returning to competition three years after she retired to start a family. The U.S. Tennis Association said it will grant Wozniacki a wild-card invitation to participate in the U.S. Open, which begins in New York on Aug. 28. She also is receiving a wild-card entry for a tournament in Montreal that begins earlier in August, she intends to play in the Australian Open next January and hopes to represent Denmark at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Another aim: She wants to show
June 29, 2023Listen to Novak Djokovic’s opponents explain why he is as successful as he is — why he will begin his pursuit of a fifth consecutive and eighth overall Wimbledon championship on Monday; why he also will be attempting to claim an Open era-record 24th Grand Slam trophy over the coming fortnight on the All England Club’s grass courts — and they’ll offer plenty of answers. His best-in-the-game return of serve. His dangerous two-handed backhand. His elasticity. His stamina. His defense. His ability to read someone else’s intentions, get to where a ball is headed and send
June 29, 2023European Union leaders broke off migration talks early Friday as Poland and Hungary blocked progress after they were outvoted earlier this month on a plan to share out refugees arriving in Europe among the 27 member countries. Few leaders spoke to reporters as they left the summit venue after talks long into the night. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander DeCroo put on a brave face after what he described as a “rather difficult” discussion. Poland and Hungary refused to endorse a summit statement, which requires unanimity. “There are two options. Either we continue, or we give up and
June 29, 2023NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took center stage at a European Union summit, underscoring the importance the 27 EU leaders attach to protecting their eastern flank from Russian aggression and beefing up Ukraine’s defense capabilities. In a statement issued early Friday after the meeting ended, the leaders reaffirmed their willingness “to provide sustainable military support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.” Zelenskyy addressed the gathering by video link and Stoltenberg attended an early lunch for leaders. But the biggest seat at the table was reserved for something that’s not officially on
June 29, 2023To President Donald Trump, America’s trade relationship with Mexico was intolerable. He seethed over the U.S. trade deficit and the shuttered factories in America’s heartland. “No longer,’’ he vowed six years ago, “are we going to allow other countries to break the rules, to steal our jobs and drain our wealth.” So Trump pressured Mexico and Canada to replace their mutual pact with one more to his liking. After a couple of years of negotiations, he got what he wanted. Out was the North American Free Trade Agreement. In was the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The USMCA, which Trump
June 29, 2023Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis have asked that a trial involving Disney be postponed until the middle of 2025, well after the GOP presidential nomination race wraps up and voters have picked a winner in the November 2024 general election. In a Tallahassee federal court filing Tuesday, attorneys for the Florida governor, who is seeking the Republican nomination, and his appointees to a board that governs Disney World outlined a proposed schedule that requests an Aug. 4, 2025, trial date. Disney claims in its lawsuit that its free speech rights were violated by the takeover of
June 28, 2023An estimated 43 million borrowers who could have seen their student loan balances decreased or erased will now resume their original payments in the fall, following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Biden administration’s debt forgiveness plan. Student loan interest will start accruing on September 1 and payments will re-start in October, when a three-year pandemic pause on federal student loan payments will end. The conservative-leaning court ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debt. The White House plan would have forgiven $10,000 in federal
June 26, 2023Greece’s center-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to be sworn in as prime minister on Monday, hours after easily winning a second term with a record-high margin over the leftwing opposition in an election that also ushered new far-right parties into Parliament. With 99.67% of the vote counted, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party had 40.55% of the vote — more than twice the main opposition Syriza’s 17.84%. It was the largest margin of victory in half a century, and slightly expanded ND’s 20-percentage-point lead in previous election five weeks before. Held under a new electoral law that boosts
June 26, 2023Preliminary and partial results in Guatemala’s presidential election pointed early on Monday to the likelihood of a second round of voting but did not indicate who the two candidates would be in an Aug. 20 runoff. With about half of the votes counted just past midnight Sunday, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported that former first lady Sandra Torres for the conservative UNE party and Bernardo Arévalo for the leftist Seed Movement were in the lead, but both were below 20% of the votes. That is far from the 50% threshold needed to win in the first
June 26, 2023Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made his first public appearance since a mercenary uprising demanded his ouster, inspecting troops in Ukraine Monday in a video released by his ministry. He’s the first of three powerful Russian leaders whose diverging interests led to the Wagner Group occupying a Russian city and marching on the capital to be seen since the revolt ended Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have made no public statements since then. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced an end to the “counter-terrorism regime” imposed on the capital Saturday, during which troops with machine
June 26, 2023Tens of thousands of North Koreans marched in anti-U.S. rallies in the nation’s capital over the weekend, pledging “merciless” revenge against “U.S. imperialists,” as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War, state media said Monday. More than 120,000 people participated in Sunday’s mass rallies in Pyongyang, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said. While the 1950-53 conflict was triggered by a North Korean surprise attack, the demonstrators mobilized in Pyongyang promoted their government’s version of events and accused the United States of provoking the war and leaving Koreans
June 26, 2023Closing arguments are scheduled Monday in the trial of a former Florida sheriff’s deputy accused of failing to confront the shooter who murdered 14 students and three staff members at a Parkland high school five years ago. Prosecutors and the attorney for Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson spent his trial contesting what he heard, saw and knew during the six-minute attack inside a three-story classroom building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. Peterson, 60, is charged with felony child neglect and other charges for his alleged failure to confront former student
June 26, 2023A U.S. aircraft carrier and two guided missile cruisers were visiting Vietnam on Monday, a rare port call that comes as the United States and China increasingly vie for influence in Southeast Asia. The USS Ronald Reagan, along with the guided missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Robert Smalls, arrived in Da Nang on Sunday for the visit. Neighboring China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner but Beijing’s sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea have led to increasing friction with Vietnam, as well as with Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. The U.S., meantime, has been
June 26, 2023An international group of agencies is investigating the loss of the Titan submersible, seeking to determine what caused it to implode while carrying five people to the Titanic. Investigators from the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, the French marine casualties investigation board and the United Kingdom Marine Accident Investigation Branch are working closely together on the probe of the June 18 accident that drew worldwide attention. Evidence is being collected in the port of St. John’s, Newfoundland, in coordination with Canadian authorities. On Sunday, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jason Neubauer,
June 26, 2023The armed rebellion against the Russian military may have been over in less than 24 hours, but the disarray within the enemy’s ranks was an unexpected gift and timely morale booster for Ukrainian troops The spectacle of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny in the critical military command and control hub in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and later Russia’s scramble to fortify Moscow as troops marched to upend the country’s military leadership was greeted “with applause” by commanders of Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said its spokesperson, Serhii Cherevatiy. “Soldiers at the front lines are positive about it,”
June 26, 2023Author Haruki Murakami says he’s strongly opposed to the redevelopment of a historic and beloved Tokyo park district that would remove his favorite jogging path and tear down the nearly century-old baseball stadium where he was inspired to become a novelist. The plan approved earlier this year by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike to put skyscrapers and new stadiums in the heart of the Jingu Gaien green district has become increasingly controversial. Followers of baseball and rugby history are opposed to it, as well as conservationists and civil groups who say the project has advanced without transparency, adequate
June 26, 2023The suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub is expected to plead guilt y Monday in an attack last year that killed five people and wounded 17 at a longtime sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community in the mostly conservative city. The plea could bring a life sentence for suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich and end the court case just seven months after the shooting — sparing victim’s families and survivors a potentially painful trial that would force them to revisit the attack. Victims’ family members and survivors are expected to speak at
June 26, 2023Ross Chastain held off Martin Truex Jr. and won the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday night, his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory. This was Chastain’s first win since Talladega in April 2022, and he drove his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to the team’s first victory this year at its home track. Chastain had started on the pole for the first time in his career. Chastain entered fourth in the season points race and wound up leading a race-high 100 laps at the 1.33-mile, D-shaped concrete oval. That included the final 34 laps as the
June 26, 2023Australia’s highest court on Monday dismissed Russia’s application for an injunction that would have prevented Moscow’s embassy being evicted from a site in the national capital Canberra. In dismissing the application, High Court Justice Jayne Jagot described Russia’s challenge on constitutional grounds to a law terminating the lease as “weak” and “difficult to understand.” Parliament passed emergency legislation on June 15 that terminated Russia’s lease on the largely empty block on security grounds because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House. Russia’s lawyer Elliot Hyde had argued that the Ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky
June 26, 2023Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman got his 2,000th hit, reaching the milestone with a double in the eighth inning of a 6-5 loss to the Houston Astros in 11 innings Sunday night. Freeman’s sharp line drive to right field was his second double of the game and drove in Mookie Betts, making him the 295th player in major league history to reach the mark. Freeman played in his 1,801 game, becoming the seventh player to reach 2,000 hits as a member of the Dodgers. Of those hits, 441 are doubles — including his league-leading
June 26, 2023Normal operations at airports in the Washington, D.C., area resumed about an hour after they were suspended Sunday evening because of a problem at a major air traffic control facility, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA said on Twitter that the operations at Reagan and Dulles international airports have restarted after repairs to a communications system were made at the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control facility. While the repairs were underway, departures from National and Dulles international airports were subjected to a ground stop, the FAA said.
June 25, 2023Keegan Bradley built a big enough lead in front of adoring New England fans that he broke the tournament record at the Travelers Championship despite a shaky closing stretch, closing with a 2-under 68 for a three-shot victory on Sunday. Bradley, who went 62-63-64 in the first three rounds, finished at 23-under 257 at TPC River Highlands, a shot better than Kenny Perry’s previous record from 2009. With fans chanting his name, the 37-year-old walked up to his ball on the 18th green, sank a 2-foot par putt and threw his arms into the air and
June 25, 2023Florida scored the most runs in College World Series history and came up one short of the record for largest margin of victory in a 24-4 rout of LSU on Sunday that forced a deciding Game 3. The Gators hit six home runs on a windy day at Charles Schwab Field and pounded LSU pitching for a CWS record-tying 23 hits a day after Ty Floyd struck out 17 in the Tigers’ 4-3, 11-inning win in Game 1. The teams play the final game of the College World Series on Monday night, with the winner earning
June 25, 2023Civil rights icon James Meredith fell outside the Mississippi Capitol on Sunday at an event marking his 90th birthday, but he suffered no visible injuries. Meredith tumbled forward onto an unsecured portable lectern as he stood to speak to about 200 people. Those around him quickly scrambled to stand him up upright and helped him back into the wheelchair he had been using. They also gave him ice packs and cold water as the temperature hovered at about 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius). Meredith remained at the event until it ended about 45 minutes later.
June 25, 2023Ruoning Yin made a birdie putt from about 10 feet on the final hole and became the second woman from China to win a major, beating Yuka Saso by one shot in the Women’s PGA Championship on Sunday. After Saso made birdie ahead of her on the par-5 18th hole at Baltusrol to move into a tie for the lead, Yin found the rough with her tee shot, then hit her third shot into an ideal spot and curled in the right-to-left breaking putt, pumping her fist after it dropped. The 20-year-old Yin closed with a
June 25, 2023A little-known political party endorsed by a jailed former lawmaker won seats in Greece’s next parliament in an election Sunday, signaling a political comeback for the far right. The Spartans party was backed by Ilias Kasidiaris, who is currently serving 13 years in prison for membership in a criminal organization as a former leading member of Golden Dawn – a political party of neo-Nazi origins linked to multiple violent street attacks. Ahead of Sunday’s election, parliament had introduced tougher rules on election eligibility designed to block Kasidiaris from running as a candidate. A party he founded
June 25, 2023For the first time in his more than 20-year rule, President Vladimir Putin’s power appeared to hang in the balance this weekend. And even though the rebellious Russian mercenary forces who descended on Moscow have turned back, Putin will struggle to project the image of a man in total control that he once did. That could set the stage for further challenges to his rule at home and could weaken Russia’s hand in the war in Ukraine. With spectacular ease and a stated aim of ousting Russia’s defense minister, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner troops swept into Rostov-on-Don, a city of 1.1
June 25, 2023Authorities on Sunday were testing the water quality along a stretch of the Yellowstone River where mangled cars carrying hazardous materials remained after crashing into the waterway following a bridge collapse. Seven train cars carrying hot asphalt and molten sulfur fell into the rushing river Saturday morning near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) west of Billings. The area is in a sparsely populated section of the Yellowstone River Valley, surrounded by ranch and farmland. Water testing began Saturday and will continue as crews work to remove the cars, a spokesperson for
June 25, 2023After a series of fires involving faulty e-bike batteries including a recent blaze that claimed four lives, New York City officials announced Sunday that they are receiving a $25 million emergency grant from the federal government to fund scores of charging stations citywide. Mayor Eric Adams hopes the stations will provide a safer way for delivery workers, who rely on e-bikes to efficiently do their jobs, to recharge lithium batteries used to power their bicycles. “This means that residents will no longer need to charge the e-bikes in their apartments — what we find to be
June 25, 2023Paul Goldschmidt hit a go-ahead RBI single that chased Chicago starter Marcus Stroman in the fourth inning and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cubs 7-5 on Sunday to earn a split of their weekend series at London Stadium. The Cubs missed a chance to get back to .500 after Stroman (9-5) left the game with a blister on his right index finger, and the Cardinals ended a two-game skid after an error-filled first inning handed the Cubs a 4-0 lead. The Cubs (37-39) won 9-1 in the first game but had their winning streak halted at
June 25, 2023Brittney Griner will be starting in the WNBA All-Star Game a year after she was an honorary choice by the league while she was being detained in Russia. The Phoenix Mercury’s center was chosen by fans, media and players Sunday for her ninth All-Star game. Last season all the players wore Griner No. 42 jerseys for the second half of the game that was played in Chicago. A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart were the top voter getters among fans and will be the captains of the two teams when the game is played in Las Vegas
June 25, 2023The last-place Phoenix Mercury fired coach Vanessa Nygaard and replaced her with assistant Nikki Blue for the remainder of the season, the team announced Sunday. The Mercury have gotten off to a rough start, dropping 10 of their first 12 games, including a 97-74 loss in Seattle on Saturday night. Nygaard took over the team last season and went 17-30. It wasn’t an easy year-and-a-half for Nygaard, with star Brittney Griner missing all of last season while she was detained in Russia. “We have chosen to make a change at head coach,” Mercury GM Jim Pitman said
June 25, 2023The tales of how much time Connor Bedard devoted to developing his precise and productive puck-shooting skills while growing up in the secluded neighborhood of Lynn Valley, tucked amid Vancouver’s North Shore mountains, have become the stuff of lore. Marred floors, broken windows, the thud of shots keeping neighbors up at night and Bedard turning down a family vacation to Disneyland are among them. They all paved the way for the 17-year-old to be the presumptive No. 1 pick when the Chicago Blackhawks open the two-day NHL draft in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday. And that doesn’t include the time Bedard’s
June 25, 2023Jordan Staal is staying with the Carolina Hurricanes after signing a four-year contract worth $11.6 million. The team announced the deal with their captain on Sunday, less than a week before Staal would have become an unrestricted free agent. He’s not going anywhere, sticking around to try to help the team win the Stanley Cup. And Staal is doing so on an annual salary cap hit of $2.9 million through the 2026-27 season that’s a bargain for a player considered one of the best defensive forwards in hockey. “I’m ready to grind. I’m ready to play,”
June 25, 2023The U.S. Navy said Sunday that it won’t be using a large piece of salvage equipment that it had deployed to the effort to retrieve the Titan submersible. The Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System had the capability of lifting an intact Titan back to the surface. The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Thursday that debris from the submersible had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic in North Atlantic waters. The Titan submersible imploded on its way to tour the Titanic wreckage, killing all five on board. Debris was located about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) underwater. The
June 25, 2023Carlos Alcaraz won the Queen’s Club Championships final on Sunday for his first ATP title on grass and reclaimed the top ranking, ensuring he will enter Wimbledon next month as the No. 1 seed. Despite struggling at times in the first set, Alcaraz beat Alex De Minaur 6-4, 6-4 for his fifth title of the year and 11th overall. That saw the 20-year-old Spaniard move above Novak Djokovic in the rankings and confirmed the U.S. Open champion as a serious challenger to the Serbian’s crown at Wimbledon. Alcaraz lost in the fourth round to Jannik Sinner last
June 25, 2023Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik upset Andrey Rublev 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the final of the Halle Open on Sunday ahead of Wimbledon. It’s the second title of Bublik’s career after he won in Montpellier last year with the player from Kazakhstan improving to a 2-6 record in tour-level finals. He rises to a career-high 26th in the rankings after starting the week 48th. Rublev drops to 13-8 in finals. The Russian is now a two-time Halle runner-up after losing to Ugo Humbert in the 2021 final. The seventh-ranked Rublev is set to return to Wimbledon next month
June 25, 2023The Los Angeles Angels acquired veteran infielder Mike Moustakas from Colorado moments after their 25-1 victory over the Rockies on Saturday night. The Rockies got minor league right-hander Connor Van Scoyoc, who was 4-3 with a 2.76 ERA in 11 starts at Class A Tri-City this season. Moustakas hit .270 with four homers and 17 RBIs in 47 games with the Rockies after joining them in spring training. The trade marks a return home for the Los Angeles native, who hasn’t played farther west than Colorado in his 12-year MLB career. “To be traded to the Angels,
June 25, 2023When the International African American Museum opens to the public Tuesday in South Carolina, it becomes a new site of homecoming and pilgrimage for descendants of enslaved Africans whose arrival in the Western Hemisphere begins on the docks of the lowcountry coast. Overlooking the old wharf in Charleston at which nearly half of the enslaved population first entered North America, the 150,000-square-foot (14,000-square-meter) museum houses exhibits and artifacts exploring how African Americans’ labor, perseverance, resistance and cultures shaped the Carolinas, the nation and the world. It also includes a genealogy research center to help families trace
June 25, 2023One person was killed and several others injured when a roller coaster derailed in Stockholm on Sunday, Swedish TV reported. Park officials told public broadcaster SVT that that one of the carriages on the Jetline rollercoaster derailed and people fell to the ground at the Grona Lund amusement park. “It is incredibly tragic and shocking,” park spokeswoman Annika Troselius told SVT. “Unfortunately we have been informed that one person is killed and many are injured.” Police said seven people, both children and adults, were hospitalized. The amusement park was evacuated to facilitate the work of rescue crews.
June 25, 2023When millionaire Steve Fossett’s plane went missing over the Nevada range in 2007, the swashbuckling adventurer had already been the subject of two prior emergency rescue operations thousands of miles apart. And that prompted a prickly question: After a sweeping search for the wealthy risktaker ended, who should foot the bill? In recent days, the massive hunt for a submersible vehicle lost during a north Atlantic descent to explore the wreckage of the Titanic has refocused attention on that conundrum. And with rescuers and the public fixated first on saving and then on mourning those aboard, it has again made
June 25, 2023At least three people have been found dead, and at least five others are thought to be injured, police in Missouri said while investigating two shootings with multiple victims in the same area of Kansas City early Sunday morning. Officers were called to the intersection of 57th Street and Prospect Avenue just after 4:30 a.m. where they found three shooting victims — two men and one women — dead in a parking lot and in the street, Kansas City Police Department spokesperson Jake Becchina said in an email. Police were told that five other shooting
June 25, 2023Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was notorious for unbridled and profane challenges to authority even before the attempted rebellion that he mounted Saturday. The reported agreement for him to go into exile in Belarus would place him in a country where such behavior is even less acceptable than in his homeland. Prigozhin on Sunday was uncharacteristically silent as his Wagner private army forces pulled back from Russian cities after a Kremlin announcement that he agreed to depart for Belarus; it remains unclear whether he’s actually there. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly negotiated the deal. But Prigozhin’s maverick ways are at
June 25, 2023The latest on the aftermath of the armed rebellion declared by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin: —— There are still no reports of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin arriving in Belarus after he reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and ended his rebellion. Many other questions remained unanswered on Sunday morning, including whether Prigozhin would be joined in exile by any of his Wagner Group’s troops and what role, if any, he might have there. Prigozhin, who sent out a series of audio and video updates during his revolt, has gone silent since the Kremlin announced that
June 25, 2023The supreme leader of the Taliban released a message Sunday claiming that his government has taken the necessary steps for the betterment of women’s lives in Afghanistan, where women are banned from public life and work and girls’ education is severely curtailed. The statement from Hibatullah Akhundzada was made public ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday, which will be celebrated later this week in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries. Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, rarely appears in public or leaves the Taliban heartland in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province. He surrounds himself with other religious scholars and allies who
June 25, 2023The British-Canadian director of Milan’s Brera Gallery was hired in 2015 after the Italian government launched reforms that for the first time brought in foreign museum directors. His eight-year tenure is ending as Premier Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing administration seeks to again reserve top cultural jobs for Italians. Admirers have credited James Bradburne, a 67-year-old architect who has run five cultural institutions in five countries, with revolutionizing the museum that Napoleon intended to make “the Louvre of Italy” and fill with paintings from his Italian campaigns when he expanded his French empire. Bradburne had each of the 38
June 25, 2023Over 2 million Muslims will take part in this week’s Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, as one of the world’s largest religious gatherings returns to full capacity following years of coronavirus restrictions. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to undertake it at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do so. For the pilgrims, it is a profound spiritual experience that wipes away sins, brings them closer to God and highlights Muslim unity. For
June 25, 2023Gunmen shot and killed a member of Pakistan’s minority Sikh community in an overnight attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said Sunday. Gauher Khan, a local officer, said the attack on Manmohan Singh, 35, looks like a targeted killing. A police investigation continues, Khan said, into the motive. Khan said the assailants opened fire at Singh while he was returning home from a suburban area. The assailants fled the scene. It’s the third attack on a Sikh community member this year in Pakistan. Last month, assailants gunned down Sardar Singh in a drive-by shooting
June 25, 2023The greatest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power fizzled out after the rebellious mercenary commander who ordered his troops to march on Moscow abruptly reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and sounded the retreat. The brief revolt, though, exposed vulnerabilities among Russian government forces, with Wagner Group soldiers under the command of Yevgeny Prigozhin able to move unimpeded into the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and advance hundreds of kilometers (miles) toward Moscow. The Russian military scrambled to defend Russia’s capital. Under the deal announced Saturday by Kremlin spokesman
June 25, 2023Mike Trout, Brandon Drury and Matt Thaiss hit homers on consecutive pitches to open a 13-run third inning and Mickey Moniak capped it win a two-run homer in the Los Angeles Angels’ record-setting 25-1 rout of the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night. The Angels set franchise marks for runs and hits (28) in a game and tied team records for runs and homers with their huge third inning. David Fletcher hit a three-run homer to cap an eight-run fourth as the Angels scored 21 runs on 17 hits in the third and fourth innings combined, sending 27
June 25, 2023Greeks headed to the polls for the second time in less than two months on Sunday, with the conservative party in power a strong favorite to win with a wide majority after a campaign focused on economic growth and security. The vote is overshadowed by a major shipwreck just over a week ago that left hundreds of migrants dead or missing off the coast of western Greece. But the disaster is unlikely to significantly affect the overall outcome as Greeks are expected to focus on domestic economic issues. Conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, 55, is eyeing a
June 25, 2023Brandon Vazquez scored in the 88th minute, and the No. 13 United States gained a 1-1 draw against 63rd-ranked Jamaica on Saturday night to avoid what would have been the Americans’ first loss in a CONCACAF Gold Cup opener. Damion Lowe put the Reggae Boyz ahead with a 13th-minute goal. The defending champion U.S. came back when Jesús Ferreira’s cross hit off defender Dexter Lembikisa to Vazquez, who scored with a right-foot shot from 7 yards for his second international goal. Lowe got his third goal in 53 international appearances, beating goalkeeper Matt Turner with a header
June 25, 2023Sitabile Dewa was content with her sex life when she was married, but after her divorce, she found her prospects for erotic pleasure rather bleak. In socially conservative Zimbabwe, divorced women and single mothers are often cast as undesirable partners for men, and in her frustration Dewa decided she wanted to use sex toys. The problem is sex toys are against the law in Zimbabwe. “I should not be deprived of self-exploration and indulgence in self-gratification,” said Dewa, 35. Part of Zimbabwe’s “censorship and entertainments control” law makes the importation or possession of sex toys illegal
June 25, 2023Guatemalans voted Sunday to elect a new president and vice president as well as fill all congress seats and hundreds of local posts after one of the most tumultuous electoral seasons in the Central American nation’s recent history. A little more than 9 million people were registered to vote, but many Guatemalans expressed disappointment with their presidential choices after three opposition candidates were excluded by authorities. A large number of null ballots were expected, and experts said it could depress turnout. With none of the 22 presidential candidates polling near the required 50% threshold for winning
June 25, 2023Mike Trout, Brandon Drury and Matt Thaiss of the Angels hit home runs on consecutive pitches to open a 13-run third inning for Los Angeles against the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night. Trout hit a 451-foot homer to center field on a 1-0 pitch from Colorado starter Chase Anderson. Drury hit the next pitch for a 437-foot homer to left center, and Matt Thais followed with a 399-foot homer to right. The Angels went on to score 10 more runs on seven more hits, capped by a two-run homer by Mickey Moniak. The Angels’ 13 runs in
June 25, 2023Trailing by two runs in the eighth inning, the Los Angeles Dodgers got help from Houston’s relievers and the umpire. James Outman scored the go-ahead run on a balk by Ryan Stanek and the Dodgers rallied to beat the Astros 8-7 on Saturday for their fourth straight victory. Stanek, his long blond hair flying, was incensed after striking out Michael Busch to end the inning. He turned around to yell and point at second base umpire Junior Valentine, who tossed Stanek. Pitching coach Josh Miller came out to grab Stanek and plate umpire Manny Gonzalez had
June 25, 2023Brittney Griner returned to action for the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday night, getting the start in Seattle against the Storm. Griner suffered a hip injury when the Mercury and Seattle met in Phoenix on June 13. She left that game during the second quarter and did not return, and the Storm went on to an 83-69 win. She subsequently missed the next three games, all of them losses. Phoenix also welcomed Diana Taurasi back to the starting lineup on Saturday. She also missed the last three games with a hamstring injury suffered during that same home game
June 25, 2023Assistant Josh Eilert has been selected as the interim coach at West Virginia, punctuating a hectic week after Bob Huggins resigned following a drunken driving arrest. Eilert, who has no previous head coaching experience, emerged as athletic director Wren Baker’s choice to shepherd the team through a challenging offseason stretch. Baker stayed in-house and chose not to hire a full-time coach given the limited options of conducting a nationwide search in June and the urgency of finding someone — anyone — with the start of practice only four months away. “I spoke with knowledgeable basketball people around the country over
June 25, 2023The Cincinnati Reds’ longest winning streak in 66 years was stopped at 12 games when Raisel Iglesias struck out Jonathan India for the final out as the Atlanta Braves prevailed 7-6 Saturday in an eight-homer slugfest. Each team homered four times. Matt Olson hit the 200th of his big league career and Travis d’Arnaud and Ozzie Albies also went deep off Graham Ashcraft (3-6), who allowed three long balls for the first time in 33 big league starts. Marcell Ozuna homered against Alex Young as the Braves won for the ninth time in 10 games. Cincinnati’s Matt
June 24, 2023Keegan Bradley shot a 6-under 64 on Saturday to break the tournament 54-hole scoring record at 21 under in the Travelers Championship, while Rickie Fowler had the second 60 of the week at TPC River Highlands. The previous three-round mark was 18 under, set by Brendan Todd on an empty course during the height of the pandemic in 2020. The four-round tournament record is 22 under, set by Kenny Perry in 2009. Bradley missed a 20-foot putt on 18 that would have tied the PGA Tour’s 54-hole mark of 188 set by Steve Stricker in the
June 24, 2023Luis Matos took a few slow steps toward first base, followed by a pair of quick hops. The Giants’ rookie wasn’t admiring his first career home run down the left field line so much as he was trying to will it to stay fair. ″I knew it had the distance to go out,” Matos said through an interpreter. ”I just wanted to make sure that it stayed fair.” Matos’ go-ahead, two-run drive in the sixth inning provided the Giants with their biggest moment as they beat the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 on Saturday for their 12th
June 24, 2023Flying from Florida to Buenos Aires usually takes about 10 hours, but the turboprop landing in Argentina on Saturday was no normal plane. It had been en route for 20 days, and many Argentines eagerly refreshed flight tracking software to keep tabs on its progress. The Short SC.7 Skyvan carried no crucial cargo nor VIP passengers. Rather, the plane will be another means for Argentines to reckon with the brutal history of their country’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The plane, which was discovered in the U.S., is the first ever proven in a court to have
June 24, 2023Leona Maguire birdied the final hole for her eighth straight round in the 60s and took a one-shot lead over fast-closing Jenny Shin on an unexpected sunny Saturday heading into the final round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Maguire, the halfway leader who is looking for her second straight win and first major title, had a two-putt birdie to finish an up-and-down third round of 2-under 69. She has a 54-hole total of 7 under on a Baltusrol course that was tough, but gettable, after two days of intermittent rain softened the greens. Shin matched
June 24, 2023The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating a Ford Motor Co. recall of more than a quarter-million Explorer SUVs in the U.S. after receiving complaints about repairs intended to prevent the vehicles from unexpectedly rolling away even while placed in park. The problem, ascribed to fractures of a rear axle mounting bolt that could lead the drive shaft to disconnect, was addressed by a Ford software update designed to apply the electronic parking brake if the drive shaft failed, the agency said. But according to two complaints from vehicle owners, their SUVs behaved erratically following
June 24, 2023Ian Happ hit two solo home runs, Justin Steele struck out eight and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-1 on Saturday night in Major League Baseball’s pandemic-delayed return to the British capital. Happ led off the second inning with a drive to straightaway center and put another Adam Wainwright pitch over the right-field fence in the third as the Cubs won their fourth straight game. Chicago used a series of two-out hits to pile up runs against Wainwright (3-2), who was pulled after back-to-back doubles in the fourth. The Cardinals starter allowed 11 hits
June 24, 2023Two days after the New York Yankees said Aaron Judge possibly could start baseball activities this weekend, the slugger said he has a torn ligament in his right big toe and is not quite ready. Judge was hurt June 3 when he crashed into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium while making a catch on J.D. Martinez. The injury, unusual for a baseball player, makes it hard for Judge to predict his progress. “I don’t think too many people have torn a ligament in their toe,” Judge said before Saturday’s game against Texas. “If it was
June 24, 2023It’s a beloved rom-com trope: an irresponsible, irreverent and seemingly irredeemable man falls in love with a woman, setting him on the path to finally get his act together. But in “No Hard Feelings,” which hits theaters Friday, director Gene Stupnitsky sought to subvert those gendered expectations, with Jennifer Lawrence instead playing his dirtbag protagonist. “We always described her as someone who cuts corners, who is lazy, doesn’t have great nutrition, likes to smoke pot and drink and doesn’t take anything too seriously,” he said of the character he and co-writer, John Phillips, created. “A guy
June 24, 2023Prosecutors have dropped a misdemeanor assault charge filed last October against Las Vegas Raiders’ wide receiver Davante Adams after he shoved a photographer to the ground as he left the field following a loss at Kansas City. The case filed in Kansas City municipal court was dismissed June 5, the Kansas City Star reported. Adams’ attorney, J.R. Hobbs, declined to comment. Police in Kansas City, Missouri, have said Adams pushed Ryan Zebley to the ground while running off the field after the Raiders lost 30-29 to the Chiefs on Oct. 10. Police at the time
June 24, 2023A bridge that crosses Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed overnight, causing portions of a freight train that was traveling over it to plunge into the water below. There was no immediate word from authorities on whether anyone was injured. Officials at the Montana Rail Link could not be reached immediately Saturday for comment. Numerous tank cars were partially submerged in the river early Saturday, and railroad crews were at the scene near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) west of Billings. An Associated Press reporter witnessed a yellow liquid pouring out of
June 24, 2023The first dinner that Victor Wembanyama had in his new home city was filled with San Antonio royalty. Gregg Popovich was there, of course. So were Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili and Sean Elliott. NBA champions, all of them. Wembanyama now starts his quest to join their club. The process of getting him ready for his first NBA season will start quickly, with summer league practices starting in the next few days and his first game in a Spurs uniform, albeit just the summer kind, coming in early July at either Sacramento or Las Vegas.
June 24, 2023Connecticut Sun post Brionna Jones has undergone surgery and will miss the remainder of the WNBA season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon, the team announced on Saturday. Jones suffered the injury with just over a minute left in Connecticut’s 85-79 road win over the Storm on Tuesday. She had 13 points, four rebounds, three assists, and a steal before being helped off the court. The reparative surgery was performed Friday in Seattle, the team said. “While this is not how I envisioned this season ending for me, I am determined and ready to head into
June 24, 2023Voters in Sierra Leone were deciding Saturday whether to give President Julius Maada Bio a second term in office amid high unemployment and growing concern about the state of the economy in the West African nation. Bio faced a field of a dozen challengers though experts have predicted it’s likely his main competition will be Samura Kamara, the head of the All People’s Congress Party, whom he defeated in 2018. To avoid a runoff, the winner must secure 55% of the vote. In the previous election, Bio beat Kamara in the runoff by a margin
June 24, 2023The latest on the armed rebellion declared by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin: —— Officials across Russia have rallied behind President Vladimir Putin, publicly reiterating their allegiance to the Kremlin and urging mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to back down. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said that lawmakers “stand for the consolidation of forces” and support Putin after his address to the nation on Saturday. He added that fighters from Prigozhin’s Wagner group “must make the only right choice: to be with their people, on the side of the law, to protect the
June 24, 2023A 1 a.m. shooting at a party in downtown St. Louis kills one and injures nearly a dozen. Gunmen open fire during a fight near Florida’s Hollywood Beach, injuring nine, including a 1-year-old. Bursts of gunfire at a Sweet 16 party in Dadeville, Alabama, kill four and wound more than 30. What these and other recent mass shootings share in common is they all involve suspects in their teens, highlighting what can be a deadly mix of teenage bravado and impulsiveness with access to guns. The days when many teens opted to fight out disagreements with fists
June 24, 2023The village of Bamber Bridge in northwestern England is proud of the blow it struck against racism in the U.S. military during World War II. When an all-Black truck regiment was stationed there, residents refused to accept the segregation ingrained in the U.S. Army. Ignoring pressure from British and American authorities, pubs welcomed the GIs, local women chatted and danced with them, and English soldiers drank alongside men they saw as allies in the war. But simmering tensions between Black soldiers and white military police exploded on June 24, 1943, when a dispute outside a
June 24, 2023A Palestinian assailant opened fire at an Israeli military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Saturday before being shot and killed, Israeli police said, the latest incident in months of escalating violence. The Palestinian gunman approached Israeli troops stationed at the Qalandiya checkpoint outside Jerusalem early in the morning, pulled out an M16 rifle and opened fire, the Israeli police said. Israeli security forces said they shot back, killing the suspected assailant. According to the Israeli rescue service, two security guards in their 20s were hospitalized with minor wounds — at least one from bullet fragments.
June 24, 2023When it comes to flying, going green may cost you more. And it’s going to take a while for the strategy to take off. Sustainability was a hot topic this week at the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest event for the aviation industry, which faces increasing pressure to reduce the climate-changing greenhouse gases that aircraft spew. Even the massive orders at the show got a emissions-reduction spin: Airlines and manufacturers said the new planes will be more fuel-efficient than the ones they replace. But most of those planes will burn conventional, kerosene-based jet fuel. Startups are working feverishly on
June 24, 2023With the formerly ascendant, Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn party broken, its leadership in prison, and the anti-Western left defanged, Greece’s political fringes are looking more gauche than sinister. Still, up to five small parties — three on the far right and two on the far left — could conceivably reach the 3% support needed to enter Parliament in Sunday’s repeat elections, despite a swing back to mainstream politicians as the scars of Greece’s 10-year financial crisis gradually heal. That would increase the parties in Parliament from five to a maximum nine, sapping the majority of the center-right
June 24, 2023An Idaho judge has denied a request from roughly two dozen news organizations to lift a gag order in the criminal case of a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death. The judge did, however, significantly narrow the gag order in response to the news organizations’ concerns. The ruling was handed down late Friday afternoon. In it, 2nd District Judge John Judge said it was legally prudent to restrict attorneys from making some statements about the case in order to preserve Bryan Kohberger’s right to a fair trial. Still, Judge also said
June 24, 2023The owner of the Wagner private military contractor who called for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister confirmed in a video that he and his troops have reached Rostov-on-Don. The city is home to the Russian military headquarters that oversees the fighting in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed early Saturday that his forces had crossed into Russia from Ukraine, where they have played a crucial role in the war. The video posted on social media was the first confirmation that he was in Rostov. He has long feuded with the Defense Ministry and late Friday claimed that the
June 24, 2023Tough times for the Megill boys. One day after Milwaukee Brewers reliever Trevor Megill was sent down to the minors, younger brother Tylor was demoted to Triple-A Syracuse by the struggling New York Mets on Friday. For one California family, a double dose of disappointing news. Trevor Megill was optioned Thursday to Triple-A Nashville, clearing a roster spot for Milwaukee setup man Matt Bush when he was reinstated from the injured list Friday. Bush missed two months with an injury to his right rotator cuff. The 29-year-old Megill was 1-0 with a 4.91 ERA in 14
June 24, 2023Drag queens donning the white, red and blue of the Hawaiian flag shimmied across the stage to a throbbing techno remix of “Aloha Oe,” a song composed by Hawaii’s last reigning monarch. Spectators roared as a performer shook her hips in a Tahitian-style dance. All the dancers were “mahu” — a Hawaiian term for people with dual male and female spirit and a mixture of gender traits. They starred in a drag show this week called “Mahu Magic” on the sidelines of a Native Hawaiian convention in Las Vegas to remind the world of the respected
June 24, 2023The wrecks of the Titanic and the Titan sit on the ocean floor, separated by 1,600 feet (490 meters) and 111 years of history. How they came together unfolded over an intense week that raised temporary hopes and left lingering questions. THE BUILDUP The Polar Prince, a Canadian icebreaker ship, steamed out of Newfoundland on Friday, June 16, towing the experimental Titan submersible and carrying the five-man team headed to explore the iconic ocean liner’s watery gravesite. Three missions involving other teams had been scrapped due to bad weather in the previous four weeks, but the latest OceanGate Expeditions group
June 24, 2023Michael Busch doubled in the go-ahead in the fourth inning, Mookie Betts homered and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Houston Astros 3-2 in an acrimonious game on Friday night. The first interleague meeting since 2021 between the defending World Series champion Astros and the Dodgers, who led baseball with 111 wins last season, was filled with rancor. Most of the players from Houston’s 2017 championship team are gone, but that didn’t stop Dodgers fans from expressing their lingering resentment from the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal that season, when Houston beat Los Angeles in a seven-game World
June 24, 2023Talk to someone who rode on the Titan submersible, and they’re likely to mention a technological glitch: the propulsion system failed or communications with people on the surface cut out. Maybe there were problems balancing weights on board. They are also likely to mention Stockton Rush, the OceanGate Expeditions CEO who died on the fatal trip this week. He has been described by past passengers as both a meticulous planner and an overconfident pioneer. In the wake of the Titan’s fatal implosion near the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday, some people who embarked on the company’s deep-sea expeditions described experiences that
June 24, 2023Book bans and how to fight them will be a major focus of the American Library Association’s annual meeting this weekend in Chicago. Librarians may attend sessions aimed at helping them confidently counter book challenges, fight legislative censorship and ensure “access to information and the freedom to read.” All day Saturday, attendees are invited to climb atop a giant chair to read their favorite banned book. “With an unparalleled rise in challenges and bans and legislation suppressing access to books and learning materials in libraries, schools, and universities, it is more important than ever to join forces
June 24, 2023Dazzling rookie Elly De La Cruz hit for the cycle, Joey Votto launched tying and go-ahead homers and the Cincinnati Reds extended their winning streak to 12 games Friday night with an 11-10 victory over the Atlanta Braves. In a wild matchup of National League division leaders, Cincinnati erased an early 5-0 deficit and halted Atlanta’s eight-game winning streak. The Reds’ winning streak is tied for the second-best in franchise history, matching the 1939 and 1957 teams for the club’s longest since 1900. De La Cruz became the first Cincinnati player in 34 years to hit for
June 24, 2023H. Lee Sarokin, a federal judge who freed boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and in a landmark case famously said tobacco companies engaged in a “vast” conspiracy to conceal the dangers of smoking, has died in California, news outlets reported Friday. He was 94. Sarokin died Tuesday in La Jolla, a seaside community in San Diego where he and his wife lived in retirement, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Sarokin had pulmonary fibrosis and other ailments, his wife, Margie Sarokin, told the paper. Haddon Lee Sarokin was a New Jersey-born graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law
June 24, 2023Rookie sensation Elly De La Cruz became the first Cincinnati Reds player in 24 years to hit for the cycle when he accomplished the feat on Friday against the Atlanta Braves. De La Cruz doubled to open the second inning, had a two-run homer in the third, a run-scoring single to center in the fifth and tripled in the sixth for his fourth RBI of the night. The last hit increased the Reds’ lead to 11-7. The cycle is the franchise’s seventh overall — fifth since 1900 — and first since Eric Davis did it against San
June 24, 2023Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia’s war in Ukraine. As the leader of a mercenary force who depicts himself as fighting many of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine, the 62-year-old Prigozhin has now moved into his most dangerous role yet: preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership. Prigozhin, owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, has escalated what have been months of scathing criticism of Russia’s conduct of the war by calling Friday for an armed uprising to oust the
June 24, 2023Leona Maguire of Ireland birdied four of her final six holes for a 3-under 68 and a one-shot lead over three players Friday at the halfway point of the KMPG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol. The winner Sunday in Michigan for her second LPGA Tour title, the 28-year Maguire had five birdies and two bogeys in shooting her seventh straight round in the 60s, dating to the final round at the Mizuho Americas Open. At 5-under 137 at Baltusrol, Maguire had her first halfway lead in a major. The former Duke star is ranked 12th in
June 24, 2023The head of the private military contractor Wagner called Friday for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately by opening a criminal investigation into Yevgeny Prigozhin. He has previously bashed the country’s military leadership for failures in the war in Ukraine, and is known for his long-running feud with the Defense Ministry. A look at the 62-year-old Prigozhin and Wagner’s role in the war: WHAT DID PRIGOZHIN SAY? Prigozhin posted a series of angry video and audio recordings in which he accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike Friday on
June 23, 2023The U.N. Security Council called Friday for a halt to fighting in Sudan and the protection of civilians. The brief press statement followed closed consultations by the U.N.’s most powerful body. The council also called for the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to Sudan and neighboring countries, support for humanitarian workers, and respect for international humanitarian law. Sudan descended into conflict in mid-April after months of worsening tensions exploded into open fighting between rival generals seeking to control the African nation. The war pits the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, against the Rapid Support Forces,
June 23, 2023Police in California are not immune from civil lawsuits for misconduct that happens while they investigate crimes, the state Supreme Court ruled this week, overruling a precedent made by lower courts that had helped protect law enforcement from litigation for decades. The justices on Thursday unanimously rejected an argument by Riverside County that its sheriff’s deputies couldn’t be sued for leaving a man’s naked body lying in plain sight for eight hours while officers investigated his killing. California law protects police from being sued for any harm that happens during a prosecution process — even if
June 23, 2023The chants from hundreds of fans, some of whom waited outside for hours in nearly 100-degree heat, started at the very moment Victor Wembanyama stepped out of the private plane that carried him to his new NBA home. “Wem-V-P!” “Wem-V-P!” “Wem-V-P!” And the NBA’s newest No. 1 draft pick — a star without having even played a game in the league yet — reveled in his first San Antonio moment, waving at the fans and letting them know how much he was enjoying it all. Wembanyama arrived in San Antonio on Friday afternoon. He was a
June 23, 2023The family of actor Julian Sands has released its first statement five months after he disappeared while hiking in California. “We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer,” the statement said. Sands, the 65-year-old British-born actor best known for his role in the 1985 film “A Room With a View,” has been married for more than three decades to journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, and has three adult children. They said
June 23, 2023Across the span of nearly a week, the saga of a lost submersible that had gone into the depths of the ocean to see the Titanic wreckage rippled across the national and global conversation — culminating in news that the craft had imploded and its five occupants were dead. But a far bigger disaster days earlier, the wrecking of a ship off Greece filled with migrants that killed at least 80 people and left a horrifying 500 missing, did not become a moment-by-moment worldwide focus in anywhere near the same way. One grabbed unrelenting, moment-to-moment attention. One was watched and
June 23, 2023The Titan submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion that likely killed its pilot and four passengers instantly amid the intense water pressure in the deep North Atlantic, experts said. Maritime researchers called an implosion the worst possible outcome of all the scenarios envisioned during the desperate round-the-clock search to find the missing vessel. The craft went missing Sunday and probably imploded that same day, according to an “anomaly” detected by a U.S. Navy acoustics system, but the international search effort continued because authorities did not consider the information to be definitive. The Coast Guard announced the deaths from a “catastrophic implosion”
June 23, 2023Before they boarded the submersible that imploded near the Titanic wreck, the passengers who died this week were most likely asked to sign liability waivers. One of the waivers, signed by a person who planned to go on an OceanGate expedition, required passengers to acknowledge risks involved with the trip on the Titan vessel and any support vessels. The waiver, which was reviewed by The Associated Press, said that passengers could experience physical injury, disability, emotional trauma and death while on board the Titan. Passengers also waive the right to take action for “personal injury, property damage
June 23, 2023This year’s Home Run Derby now has a hometown favorite: Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez is in. Rodríguez, who finished second last year in the event to Juan Soto, said Friday it’s a no-brainer to participate in front of his home fans. The All-Star game is July 11 in Seattle, with the Home Run Derby the previous day. Rodríguez won Rookie of the Year honors last year and helped Seattle make the postseason. The talented outfielder hit 81 homers in the Home Run Derby in Los Angeles, although he lost to Soto in the final. He’s set to become
June 23, 2023Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned the nation’s airlines Friday that flights could be disrupted starting next week because some planes lack updated equipment to prevent interference from transmissions by wireless companies. Buttigieg said that only planes retrofitted with the right equipment will be allowed to land when visibility is poor, such as during bad weather. The warning — in a letter from Buttigieg to trade group Airlines for America — comes just before AT&T, Verizon and other wireless carriers will be free to boost the power of their C-Band, 5G signals on July 1. Airlines have told the government they
June 23, 2023The United States, Britain and France demanded Friday that the United Nations urgently investigate Russia’s reported use of hundreds of Iranian-provided drones in the war in Ukraine, which would violate U.N. sanctions. But it’s unclear whether the U.N. will do so in the face of strong opposition from Russia. Russia denies using the Iranian drones, despite widespread evidence that they have been used to attack Ukrainian cities. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield noted that the U.S. this month released further information documenting Iran’s provision of hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs or drones, as well
June 23, 2023The U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges on Friday against four Chinese companies and eight individuals for allegedly trafficking the chemicals used to make the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl in the United States and Mexico. The three separate indictments unsealed in federal court in New York represent the first prosecutions to charge China-based chemical companies and Chinese nationals with illegally selling the chemicals used to make fentanyl, which has been blamed for a deadly overdose crisis. Federal prosecutors said the companies marketed the fentanyl precursor chemicals on their websites and social media accounts, advertised that they
June 23, 2023U.S. Customs and Border Protection has released body camera footage that shows Border Patrol agents were concerned that a tribal member they fatally shot last month may have been carrying a handgun during an encounter on a remote corner of the Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona. The man, Raymond Mattia, 58, died shortly after the shooting the night of May 18 outside a home in the reservation’s Menagers Dam community near the U.S.-Mexico border. Audio of a telephone call included with the video confirms the agency’s earlier report that the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department called
June 23, 2023LSU coach Jay Johnson remembered scanning the 64-team NCAA Tournament field when it was announced almost a month ago, and he had a premonition Florida would be the opponent if his team reached the College World Series finals. “You look at the bracket and you look on the other side, it’s like, yeah, this is not a surprise to me who we’re playing,” he said. Considering the Gators are the No. 2 national seed, it was a safe assumption. The way college baseball has trended for three decades, picking almost any Southeastern Conference team to make
June 23, 2023Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange — a Black Catholic nun who founded the United States’ first African American religious congregation in Baltimore in 1829 — has advanced another step toward sainthood. Under a decree signed by Pope Francis on Thursday, Lange was recognized for her heroic virtue, and advanced in the cause of her beatification from being considered a servant of God to a “venerable servant.” The Catholic Church must now approve a miracle that is attributed to her, so she can be beatified. Lange grew up in a wealthy family of African origin, but she left Cuba in the early
June 23, 2023The cost of the unprecedented search for the missing Titan submersible will easily stretch into the millions of dollars, experts said Friday. The massive international effort by aircraft, surface ships and deep-sea robots began Sunday when the Titan was reported missing. Searchers raced against a 96-hour clock in the desperate hope to find and rescue the vessel’s occupants before their oxygen supply ran out. But all hope was extinguished Thursday when officials announced the submersible had suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five aboard. A scaled-back search remained in place Friday as the robots — remotely
June 23, 2023Carlos Ghosn said Friday that the $1 billion lawsuit he recently filed against Nissan and others is just the beginning of his fight. The former Nissan CEO said during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut that had he been an American citizen filing a lawsuit in the United States, “I would not be asking for $1 billion, but for much more,” given his suffering. Ghosn led Japanese automaker Nissan for two decades, rescuing it from near-bankruptcy, before he was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on charges of breach of trust, misusing company assets for
June 23, 2023Denny McCarthy set a new 36-hole course record by following up a first-round 60 with a 65 to extend his lead to four strokes after the morning rounds Friday at the Travelers Championship. The 30-year-old Maryland native started slowly, bogeying the second hole. But that was the only blemish on a round that included six birdies, five of them on the back nine. His two-day score of 125 is a stroke better than the first two rounds Xander Schauffele put up during his run to the title a year ago and Justin Rose’s first 36 holes
June 23, 2023A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it
June 23, 2023The deadly implosion of the Titan submersible raises questions about whether the vessel exploring the Titanic wreckage was destined for its own disaster because of its unconventional design and its creator’s refusal to submit to safety checks that are standard in the industry. All five people aboard the Titan died when it was crushed near the world’s most famous shipwreck, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said Thursday, bringing an end to a massive multinational search that began Sunday when the vessel first lost contact with its mother ship in the unforgiving North Atlantic. The Titan,
June 23, 2023No. 1 draft pick Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio and No. 2 pick Brandon Miller of Charlotte might go head-to-head on the first day of NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. The NBA has San Antonio playing Charlotte on July 7, which is opening day in Las Vegas. It’ll be a summer rematch; the same two teams are playing at the California Classic in Sacramento on July 3, the first day of that event. Both Wembanyama and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich have said the generational French talent will play this summer. It’s just not clear how
June 23, 2023On some parts of the Navajo Nation, where roughly a third of the people lack reliable access to clean water, people have to drive for miles on red dirt roads to lug water home. Others rely on unregulated wells or water delivery trucks. Already facing some of the most severe water scarcity in the drought-stricken Southwest, the tribe now has to deal with a Supreme Court ruling this week that will make securing water even harder for the 170,000 enrolled tribal members who live on its reservation. “I know the battle and the strategy moving
June 23, 2023The historic courtyards of the Ecole Militaire served as the grand stage for Dior’s men’s show on Friday, a spectacle that played out under the watchful eye of the Eiffel Tower. A sweltering Parisian heatwave had guests like Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie using their metallic invitations as makeshift fans, and a futuristic, square plate-themed runway hinted at the show’s transformative intent. As celebrities found their seats, the show began with an unusual flourish that stirred the audience. Square tops on the runway receded, with male models rising from the remaining square holes, a costly theatrical
June 23, 2023Serbia on Friday reiterated a threat to intervene militarily in its former province of Kosovo if NATO-led peacekeepers there fail to protect minority Serbs from what Belgrade called the terrorist threat of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian authorities. In a brief televised address, the Serbian army chief-of-staff, Gen. Milan Mojsilovic, said Kosovo Serbs can no longer “tolerate the terror” of the Kosovo government, and that Serbia’s military stands ready to fulfil its tasks “in accordance” with the Serbian constitution and any orders from President Aleksandar Vucic. Serbia has put its troops on the border with Kosovo on the
June 23, 2023NFL owners are set to meet July 20 to consider and potentially vote to approve the sale of the Washington Commanders, a person with knowledge of the situation said Friday. The person said teams were notified Thursday of a special league meeting that will take place in Minneapolis. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the league meeting was not announced. Three-quarters — 24 of the league’s 32 owners — approval is needed to finalize the deal between Dan Snyder and his family and a group led by Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils
June 23, 2023The United States will host the Club World Cup in 2025, the first time the FIFA tournament will have 32 teams. Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea already earned places as recent Champions League winners for the expanded tournament lineup that is set to test stadiums and operations one year before the 2026 World Cup. The United States will host the men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico, and FIFA could yet give some Club World Cup games to those countries. The Club World Cup will take place in June-July 2025. The United States was chosen as
June 23, 2023A man was convicted of murder on Friday for shooting a British police officer with an antique handgun while the suspect was handcuffed in a cell nearly three years ago. A jury deliberated for just over five hours before finding 25-year-old Louis De Zoysa guilty of killing Sgt. Matiu Ratana in September 2020. Prosecutors said that De Zoysa shot Ratana, 54, at Croydon Custody Center in south London as he was about to be searched. He had been arrested for possessing drugs and bullets. But during an initial search, the arresting officers didn’t find the 41-caliber revolver
June 23, 2023Freight railcar inspections are happening less often and are not as thorough as in years past due to staff cuts, time constraints and regulatory loopholes, a union official testified Friday during a federal hearing to examine the reasons behind a fiery train derailment in Ohio. The National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report that an overheating wheel bearing likely caused the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment that sent a plume of toxic black smoke into the sky near East Palestine, Ohio. Several tank cars were damaged in the crash, and officials decided that five
June 23, 2023Tony Parker surely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the San Antonio Spurs. And, no surprise, the four-time NBA champion told The Associated Press on Friday he sees a bright future at his former team for fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama. Parker, who is now retired, played 17 seasons for the Spurs. He won NBA titles with the team in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014, so knows the franchise inside out. He told the AP in a phone interview it will be the “perfect place” for the 19-year-old French wonder, the No. 1 pick in
June 23, 2023Pope Francis praised artists on Friday as true visionaries who can see, dream and invent as he welcomed 200 artists, filmmakers and writers into the Sistine Chapel to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museums’ contemporary art collection. Francis acknowledged that some in the crowd — there was Andres Serrano, of “Piss Christ” fame — sometimes use confrontation to make people think. But he said their aim was to find harmony and beauty. “You want to reveal reality also in its contradictions and in those things that it is more comfortable and convenient to keep
June 23, 2023Ukraine wants other countries to heed its warning that Russia may be planning to attack an occupied nuclear power plant to cause a radiation disaster, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Members of his government briefed international representatives on Thursday on the possible threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said he expected other nations to “give appropriate signals and exert pressure” on Moscow. “Our principle is simple: The world must know what the occupier is preparing. Everyone who knows must act,” Zelenskyy said. “The world has enough power to prevent any radiation
June 23, 2023Workers at 150 Starbucks locations will strike in the coming week over what their union says is a clash over decor supporting LBGTQ+ causes, but the company denies it’s banned any such displays and accused the union of using misinformation as a tactic in labor talks. Starbucks Workers United said in a tweet Friday that 3,500 workers will be on strike over the next week, starting with the flagship location in Seattle. The union has tried to establish a foothold at Starbucks for some time and at least 358 Starbucks stores have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold
June 23, 2023A grand jury has indicted an Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his three young sons on murder charges. Chad Doerman, 32, was indicted Thursday on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and assault for the June 15 deaths of his sons, according to Clermont County court records. Clayton Doerman, 7, Hunter Doerman, 4, and Chase Doerman, 3, were all killed. Prosecutors say he admitted to planning the shooting. “This was the man that everyday they woke up looking to for protection, love and guidance in all things,” Clermont County’s chief prosecutor of Municipal Court, David Gast,
June 23, 2023Rights groups on Friday denounced a lack of justice and transparency over the deaths of 37 migrants on June 24, 2022, during a mass attempt to cross the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave city of Melilla. Ahead of the tragedy’s anniversary, Amnesty International said the Spanish and Moroccan authorities were “preventing attempts to find the truth” of what happened when up to 2,000 African migrants tried to climb a border wall and dozens were crushed, beaten and denied medical attention by security forces at the “Barrio Chino” border crossing. Spain’s interior minister has repeatedly rejected
June 23, 2023Israel’s security agency said Friday it had detained three Israeli settlers on suspicion of involvement in mass rampages through Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank this week following the killing of four Israelis. While rights groups welcomed the arrests, the small number of suspects given the scale of the attacks have revived criticism of the wider lack of accountability for Israeli settlers. The arrests fueled concerns that the Israeli military is not doing enough to stop and prevent settler attacks. “We didn’t expect much,” said Roy Yellin, of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. “The rule is
June 23, 2023A Romanian court on Friday extended by 30 days the house arrest of Andrew Tate, the divisive social media personality and former professional kickboxer who was charged this week with rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The Bucharest Tribunal’s decision comes days after prosecutors from Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, formally indicted the 36-year-old social media star after filing their criminal investigation to a Bucharest court. Tate, who has amassed nearly 7 million Twitter followers and is known for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech online, was initially arrested near
June 23, 2023“Titanic” director James Cameron says the search operation for a deep-sea tourist sub turned into a “nightmarish charade” that prolonged the agony of the families of the passengers. Cameron told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Friday that he “felt in my bones” that the Titan submersible had been lost soon after he heard it had lost contact with the surface during its descent to the wreckage of the ocean liner at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He said focus in the media over the next few days about the submersible having 96 hours of
June 23, 2023Russia is likely to cancel this year’s Moscow air show, which for decades has been a major venue for showing off new warplanes and negotiating aerospace contracts, a top official of its organizing agency said Friday. Viktor Kladov, director for international cooperation at the state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec, was quoted by the state news agency Tass as saying that the show “in all probability” won’t take place this year. It had been scheduled for the end of July. Kladov did not state a reason for putting off the event, but Russian news media earlier suggested it was
June 23, 2023Pakistan’s interior minister said Friday that an estimated 350 Pakistanis were on board an overcrowded fishing boat carrying migrants that sank off Greece last week, and many remain missing and may have died in one of the deadliest incidents in the central Mediterranean Sea. Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan told lawmakers in the National Assembly that an estimated 700 migrants were on the boat when it sank June 14. Only 104 people, including 12 Pakistanis, were rescued and 82 bodies have been recovered. The total number of people on the ship has not been confirmed. Khan said
June 23, 2023A convoy carrying U.N. aid entered Syria’s last rebel-held enclave from government-held territory on Friday, the first such shipment to cross battle lines since February’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. The convoy with humanitarian supplies crossed from a government-controlled area in the province of Aleppo, and entered Idlib, according to the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs or OCHA. The last aid shipment to cross the front lines in the conflict was in early January. After the February earthquake that struck Turkey and northern Syria, causing widespread destruction, convoys have been prevented from entering
June 23, 2023Britain’s electoral watchdog said Friday that about 14,000 people were prevented from voting in last month’s local elections because of a new law requiring voters to show photo identification. The Electoral Commission said 0.25% of people who went to polling stations were unable to cast ballots because they didn’t have the right ID, and “significantly more” than that likely did not show up at all. Craig Westwood, the commission’s communications director, said there was “concerning” evidence that disabled and unemployed people were more likely than other groups to give a reason related to ID for not voting.
June 23, 2023The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies will play in London next season, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Friday. The teams will play at London Stadium in the third MLB series in the British capital. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox played in London in 2019, and the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs will meet in a two-game series this weekend. The Mets-Phillies series had been widely reported earlier, though league officials held off on an announcement until the eve of the Cardinals-Cubs series. Manfred spoke at a news conference Friday before Cardinals and
June 23, 2023The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will pass through 64 departments — including five overseas — and 400 towns over 68 days before the cauldron is lit. Organizers announced the route for the torch relay on Friday at a Paris university. “Paris 2024 is the greatest collective project in our history,” organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said. “The torch relay plays an important role because it has the capacity to touch so many people.” The torch will be lit by the sun’s rays on April 16 in Ancient Olympia, Greece. It will then be carried
June 23, 2023At least 31 illegal miners are believed to have died in a gas explosion in a shuttered gold mine in South Africa that happened more than a month ago but is only now coming to light after people reported their relatives missing, authorities said Friday. The miners are all believed to come from the neighboring country of Lesotho. A search of the mine was being delayed because methane gas levels were still dangerously high in the ventilation shaft where the miners are thought to have died, the national Department of Mineral and Energy Resources said in a
June 23, 2023The video was shocking — not just for what it showed but also for what was said. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner, stood in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops in Ukraine and yelled expletive-riddled insults at Russian military leaders, blaming them for the carnage. “They came here as volunteers and they died to let you lounge in your red wood offices,” Prigozhin shouted. “You are sitting in your expensive clubs, your children are enjoying good living and filming videos on YouTube. Those who don’t give us ammunition will be
June 23, 2023Tropical Storm Bret brought winds and heavy rain early Friday to islands in the eastern Caribbean that shut down to prepare for potential landslides and flooding. The storm’s center was west of St. Vincent and west-southwest of St. Lucia and moving west at 17 mph (28 kph). Its maximum sustained winds were 60 mph (95 kph). Airports, businesses, schools and offices closed on St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Martinique and other islands by midday Thursday. Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, had urged people to go to a government shelter
June 23, 2023Asian shares sank sharply Friday after several central banks around the world cranked interest rates higher in their fight against inflation. Hong Kong and Tokyo shed nearly 2% and most other regional markets declined. U.S. futures and oil prices also were lower. Japan reported its inflation rate was higher than expected, adding to expectations the central bank might adjust its policies to reflect upward price pressures, which have pushed the dollar’s value against the yen sharply higher. The Bank of Japan has kept its benchmark interest rate at minus 0.1% for a decade as policymakers keep credit
June 23, 2023Storms and heavy rain across a large swath of Germany flooded roads and forced the closure of some major railway routes on Friday, but there was no immediate word of any injuries. Germany’s national weather service had warned earlier this week of severe storms with significant amounts of rainfall, which hit on Thursday. In the western city of Duisburg, the fire service said it rescued several people from cars that got stuck on flooded streets. Shops were flooded and streets inundated in the northern city of Braunschweig, and there were similar reports from Kassel. In Hattersheim, near
June 23, 2023Memphis Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman said the 25-game suspension the NBA slapped guard Ja Morant with “was appropriate,” and it is up to Morant to change the behavior that led to two bans in four months. The Grizzlies’ vice president of basketball operations made the comments after Thursday night’s NBA draft. Kleiman is the first team official to publicly discuss Morant’s situation and the NBA’s punishment of the two-time All-Star for flashing a gun on social media after the season. Kleiman said the latest incident is part of a pattern of “problematic behavior” for Morant,
June 23, 2023When Berlin Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal first talked about his dream of building Germany’s biggest Jewish educational and cultural complex since the Holocaust, most people who heard about the plan were skeptical. But five years after the groundbreaking, Teichtal, a Berlin rabbi and head of the local Chabad community, beams as he steps onto the seventh-floor balcony of the new curved, blue-tiled building overlooking the campus amphitheater, garden, playground and a plot still covered with containers and construction material that will eventually become a sports field. “We’re changing the narrative about Jews in Germany,” Teichtal told The Associated
June 23, 2023Greeks return to the polls Sunday for a second general election in five weeks, with the conservative front-runners eyeing a landslide win after toppling strongholds dominated by their opponents for decades. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the 55-year-old conservative leader, is seeking a second four-year term as prime minister. His center-right New Democracy party won by a huge margin in May elections but is heading to a second ballot to take advantage of election law changes that favor the winning party. Sunday’s vote comes days after hundreds of migrants died and went missing in southern Greece when an over-crowded
June 23, 2023A man scheduled to be executed in September for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student plans to reject his chance for a clemency hearing, saying there is little hope the state’s Republican governor would spare his life. Anthony Sanchez, 44, said in a telephone interview Thursday from Oklahoma’s death row that even in the rare case when the five-member Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency, Gov. Kevin Stitt is unlikely to grant it. “I’ve sat in my cell and I’ve watched inmate after inmate after inmate get clemency and get denied clemency,”
June 23, 2023At Tyler Malek’s ice cream parlors, one cook’s trash is another chef’s frosty treat. The head ice cream maker at the Portland, Oregon-based Salt & Straw uses the whey leftover from yogurt makers in upstate New York to make his lemon curd flavor. For chocolate barley milk, he mixes in the remnants of rice and grains from beer brewing to give it a light and creamy taste. “Instead of calling this food waste, we need to call it wasted food and start decreasing how much wasting we’re doing,” Malek said. Malek’s ice cream chain is
June 23, 2023U.S. ice dancers Evan Bates and Madison Chock remember the empty feeling as they trod back to their rooms in Beijing, not long after being told that the ceremony to present their Olympic medals had been called off. Before going to sleep, one final blow: On their beds sat empty black-and-gold boxes, with notes inside signed from IOC President Thomas Bach. “An Olympic medal is forever,” the note began. The boxes were supposed to be the perfect spot for the skaters to place the medals they never received. Five-hundred days later, the medals remain somewhere
June 23, 2023All but one of the 30 of the Major League Baseball teams are hosting Pride Nights this season, most during Pride Month, which celebrates and supports LGBTQ+ culture and rights. The Texas Rangers are the only team without a Pride Night. They say they are committed to making everyone feel welcome at all games. HAVE THE RANGERS EVER HOSTED A PRIDE NIGHT? No. In September 2003, two years after the Chicago Cubs hosted what is considered the first Pride game, the Rangers invited local LGBTQ+ groups to a game as part of a fundraising event, similar to what they do
June 23, 2023Zion Rose is well aware that the percentage of Black players in Major League Baseball has been on the decline for decades. But the 18-year-old catcher from Chicago, still sweaty from a workout during MLB’s Draft Combine this week at Chase Field in Phoenix, said he’s got some news: That’s not going to be the case for long. “You’ll see,” he said. “We’re starting to come through.” Rose was one of more than 300 players of all backgrounds in Phoenix this week to take part in the combine, which featured workouts, interviews and games in an effort
June 23, 2023Malaysia’s government said Friday it will take legal action against Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, for failing to remove undesirable and harmful content from its social media platform. The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission said Facebook has recently been plagued by a “a significant volume of undesirable content” relating to sensitive issues on race, religion and royalty as well as defamation, impersonation, online gambling and scam advertisements. The commission said repeated efforts to reach out to Meta to remove harmful content were of no avail. “Meta’s response, which has been sluggish and unsatisfactory, has not
June 23, 2023Interstate 95 was set to reopen to traffic Friday less than two weeks after a deadly collapse in Philadelphia shut down a heavily traveled stretch of the East Coast’s main north-south highway. Workers were putting the finishing touches on an interim six-lane roadway that will serve motorists during construction of a permanent bridge. Crews worked around the clock and were poised to finish ahead of schedule. The interstate was scheduled to reopen at noon, according to the governor’s office. The elevated section of I-95 collapsed early on June 11 after a tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped on an
June 23, 2023A top European Union official is in Silicon Valley to check whether Twitter is ready to comply with the bloc’s tough new digital rulebook, a set of sweeping new standards that the world’s biggest online platforms all must obey in just two months. European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who oversees digital policy, is the EU’s point person working to get tech companies in line for the Digital Services Act, which will force companies to crack down on hate speech, disinformation and other harmful material on their sites. It takes effect Aug. 25 for the biggest platforms. The law, along with new
June 23, 2023A disbarred Chinese human rights lawyer has been forced to move 13 times in two months as part of a pattern of harassment against him and three other prominent rights advocates in Beijing that is further squeezing the country’s battered civil rights community. Wang Quanzhang said he is now living in a borrowed apartment in the suburbs where the power is frequently cut off, while another lawyer left Beijing entirely in hopes of ending the harassment. His colleague Bao Longjun said he is still in the apartment he owns, but has been barred from leaving it
June 23, 2023On a breezy morning at the height of the dry season six months ago, Rifkatu Andruwus and her children were chatting in front of their house in a displacement camp in the heart of Nigeria’s capital. Suddenly, security forces stormed into the camp, followed closely by bulldozers. The family of seven had just about half an hour to pack their belongings and leave before their shanty house and about 200 others were reduced to rubble. “They sent people to come and tell us to pack,” said 66-year-old Andruwus. “Then they started demolishing.” The Durumi camp for
June 23, 2023After all the talking, time for tangible solutions? The aim of the two-day climate and finance summit ending Friday in Paris was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries whose predicaments have been worsened by the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine better tackle poverty and climate change. Even though the gathering of world and financial leaders has no mandate to make formal decisions, French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to deliver a to-do list that should be accompanied by a progress-tracking tool. “We have to come up
June 23, 2023When the Titan submersible made its fateful dive into the North Atlantic on Sunday, it also plunged into the murkily regulated waters of deep-sea exploration. It’s a space on the high seas where laws and conventions can be sidestepped by risk-taking entrepreneurs and the wealthy tourists who help fund their dreams. At least for now. “We’re at a point in submersible operations in deep water that’s kind of akin to where aviation was in the early 20th century,” said Salvatore Mercogliano, a history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina who focuses on maritime history and
June 23, 2023A gang rampaged through the Cite Soleil slum, killing and raping and setting fire to hundreds of wood-and-tin homes. Forced out of the neighborhood, one family of four lived on the streets of Port-au-Prince until they were struck by a truck as they slept. Two brothers, 2 and 9, died in the November accident. Jean-Kere Almicar opened his home to their distraught parents, then another family, then another, until there were nearly 200 people camped out in his front yard and nearby. They are among more than 165,000 Haitians who have fled their homes amid a
June 23, 2023A suspected lone Russian diplomat is apparently squatting on the site of Moscow’s proposed embassy after the Australian government vetoed the plan on security grounds. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the Russian act of defiance, saying a “bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security.” Parliament passed emergency legislation last week blocking on security grounds Russia’s lease on the largely empty block because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House. A man has been living on the site in a
June 23, 2023Muslim pilgrims streamed into the holy city of Mecca on Friday ahead of the start of Hajj next week, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its monumental scale after three years of heavy restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Saudi officials say close to 1.5 million foreign pilgrims have arrived in the country so far, the vast majority by air. More are expected, and hundreds of thousands of Saudis and others living in Saudi Arabia will also join them when the pilgrimage officially begins on Monday. Saudi officials have said they expect the number of
June 23, 2023Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday she is writing a book, with the focus more on leadership than on politics. In an Instagram post, Ardern said she is often asked whether she will write about her five years as New Zealand’s leader. “At first, my answer was no. I didn’t want to write a book that hauled over the internal politics of the last five years, and then someone convinced me that I didn’t have to,” Ardern wrote. “That maybe it might be worth expanding on some of things I talked about
June 23, 2023Tommy White hit Camden Minacci’s first pitch into the left-field seats for a two-run homer in the 11th inning, giving LSU a 2-0 walk-off victory over No. 1 national seed Wake Forest on Thursday night and clinching a spot in the College World Series finals. The win sends the Tigers (52-16) to the best-of-three CWS championship series against Florida beginning Saturday night in a rematch of the 2017 All-SEC final that the Gators won for their first national title. LSU became the first team to hand Wake Forest (54-12) consecutive losses this season. The Tigers had
June 23, 2023For the first time since 2001, four of the top five picks in the NBA draft did not play college basketball in the United States. No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama will join the San Antonio Spurs after having played in France’s top league. The third pick, Scoot Henderson, went to the Portland Trail Blazers after two seasons with the G League Ignite. Last season, he averaged 17.6 points, 6.6 assists and 5.1 rebounds in 25 games, including a 28- point outburst in a preseason game against Wembanyama’s Metropolitans 92 squad. The next two picks, twins Amen and Ausar Thompson, played
June 23, 2023Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa made a two-putt birdie on the final hole in fading daylight for a 5-under 66 and the first-round lead Thursday in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol. Two-time major winner Brooke Henderson of Canada and Ruoning Yin and Xiyi Lin of China were a shot back as Baltusrol’s historic Lower Course yielded 16 under-par rounds to the field of 156 players. The 42-year-old Pace won her lone LPGA Tour title in 2014 in China. She’s playing in her second event in the United States this year. Wichanee Meechair of Thailand
June 23, 2023The San Antonio Spurs are looking to end their four-year playoff drought with the addition of Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs selected the French phenom with the top pick in Thursday night’s NBA draft that was held in New York. There was little to no doubt San Antonio would select Wembanyama, who is listed at 7-foot-4 but says he is 7-3. An emotional Wembanyama said hearing NBA Commissioner Adam Silver call his name brought him to tears, saying he has been waiting for the moment. “I’ve dreamed of this … I got to cry.” It marks the
June 23, 2023Victor Wembanyama is the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, headed to San Antonio with enormous expectations to become basketball’s newest sensation. The selection of the 19-year-old from France that had been a foregone conclusion for months was announced by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Thursday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, followed by chants of “Wemby! Wemby” from a group of Spurs fans waving signs from the first row of seats. Wembanyama arrives with far more height and hype than most No. 1 picks. Listed at 7-foot-4, he dominated his French league in his
June 23, 2023Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offered Thursday to help try to gain the release of a Roman Catholic bishop imprisoned in Nicaragua. Lula made the comments after visiting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Bishop Rolando Álvarez was jailed by the regime of President Daniel Ortega for supposedly helping anti-government protesters. The bishop was sentenced to 26 years in prison, after he refused to board a plane carrying exiles to the United States in February. “I want to talk to Daniel Ortega about freeing the bishop,” Lula said, adding, “I am going to try
June 22, 2023As former big league catchers, Bob Melvin and Bruce Bochy certainly had their share of plays at the plate, and the current managers played in an era when big collisions with runners trying to score were just part of the game. The rules have changed over the years to protect catchers, but runners are now sometimes safe even after being tagged out, and without any collision. That happened this week to Melvin’s San Diego Padres and Bochy’s Texas Rangers. San Francisco’s Blake Sabol was originally called out in the fifth inning Wednesday night against the Padres. The call was changed
June 22, 2023NHL teams won’t wear special jerseys for pregame warmups during themed nights next season, the result of a handful of players refusing to use rainbow-colored Pride jerseys this past season and causing unwelcome distractions. The league’s Board of Governors agreed Thursday with Commissioner Gary Bettman’s view that the refusals overshadowed teams’ efforts in hosting Pride nights that in some cases included auctioning off the warmup jerseys. All 32 teams held Pride or Hockey is for Everyone night. Bettman, in an interview with Sportsnet following the Board of Governors meeting in New York, said he suggested teams stop having special warmup
June 22, 2023The players have arrived at Barclays Center for the NBA draft. And as always, the preshow was a fashion show. Soon-to-be No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama wore a green suit and a special necklace, telling ESPN that the stone appealed to him because it was unusual — not expensive. “I don’t care about wearing expensive stuff,” he said. Taylor Hendricks of UCF had a pinkish suit, the jacket lined with photos that represented his journey to the NBA and some of the people who mean the most to him. And there was a lot of sparkly.
June 22, 2023A Mexican military official confirmed Thursday that eight soldiers have been detained and taken to a military prison for their possible involvement in events surrounding the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from a rural teacher’s college in southern Mexico. The eight are awaiting the possible filing of charges by civilian prosecutors, said the official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name. In September, the Attorney General’s Office came under fire for cancelling some 21 arrest orders for suspects — including 16 members of the military — without explanation. It was not clear whether the
June 22, 2023When Buffalo Bills trainers Nate Breske and Denny Kellington rushed onto the field following Damar Hamlin’s collapse in January, they stuck to the plan — right down to positioning Hamlin’s teammates to shield the television cameras. Their quick actions saved Hamlin’s life. Now they’re trying save others. On Thursday, Breske and Kellington told an athletic trainers convention in Indianapolis that pre-planning and regular practices helped prepare them for a worst-case scenario and they’re urging schools and youth leagues to start creating their own emergency action plans. “First up, I don’t think anything can prepare you for what
June 22, 2023Canada’s Senate on Thursday passed a bill that will require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms. The bill, which is set to become law, was passed amid a standoff between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and Silicon Valley tech giants. Ottawa has said the law creates a level playing field between online advertising giants and the shrinking news industry. And Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has promised to push back on what he describes as “threats” from Facebook and Google to remove journalism
June 22, 2023Deion Sanders is scheduled to undergo surgery Friday for a blood clot in each leg, the University of Colorado football coach revealed in a video he posted. The news of Coach Prime’s impending procedure began to spread Thursday after Pat McAfee discussed on his podcast with longtime NFL defensive back Adam Jones what was referred to as an emergency surgery for Sanders. Later in the day, Sanders posted a video to clarify: “It’s time for the horse to talk. You heard from everybody else but you hadn’t heard it from me.” Sanders explained in the video on YouTube that his
June 22, 2023Fear simmered among the small knot of relatives gathered Thursday for the wake of a mother and daughter who were among 46 female inmates slaughtered in this week’s prison riot in Honduras. Relatives wept openly, but said they feared the Barrio 18 gang that carried out the massacre might come after the victims’ families as well. Rumors circulated among those at the wake that gang members had kidnapped women from the funeral of another victim. One mourner, who wouldn’t give his name, said Thursday “we are afraid.” Mourner Johanna Soriano Euceda said “the pain we are
June 22, 2023Chris Paul’s pursuit of an NBA championship is taking him to the Golden State Warriors, after they agreed to the framework of a trade on Thursday that will send Jordan Poole to the Washington Wizards, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The trade also includes a package of draft capital, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade has not been finalized and approved by the NBA. ESPN first reported the agreement was struck by the teams. The Wizards agreed to acquire Paul from Phoenix last week, in the
June 22, 2023A renowned Titanic expert, a world record-holding adventurer, two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families and the CEO of the company leading an expedition to the world’s most famous shipwreck were killed aboard the Titan submersible when it imploded in the Atlantic Ocean sometime this week. The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday said there were no survivors after the catastrophic implosion deep in the North Atlantic. The search for the submersible and its occupants — as well as any clues to explain what happened underwater — were ongoing Thursday after a deep-sea robot found debris near
June 22, 2023A lawyer for embattled Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko filed a criminal complaint in a French court on Thursday and also called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the Senegalese government’s recent deadly crackdown on protesters. The 168-page document accuses President Macky Sall and others of “crimes against humanity.” It comes in the wake of deadly protests earlier this month, sparked by criminal charges against Sonko that critics believe were politically motivated. The court filing, which was presented at a news conference on Thursday in Paris, details 50 deaths since March 2021. It names Senegal’s
June 22, 2023The country’s largest public pension fund says the personal information of about 769,000 retired California employees and other beneficiaries — including Social Security numbers — was among data stolen by Russian cybercriminals in the breach of a popular file-transfer application. It blamed the breach on a third-party vendor that verifies deaths. The same vendor, PBI Research Services/Berwyn Group, also lost the personal data of at least 2.5 million Genworth Financial policyholders, including Social Security numbers, to the same criminal gang, according to the Fortune 500 insurer. The California Public Employees Retirement system said they were offering
June 22, 2023The United Nations put Russian forces on its annual blacklist of countries that violate children’s rights in conflict for killing boys and girls and attacking schools and hospitals in Ukraine, according to a new report seen Thursday by The Associated Press. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report to the Security Council that he is “appalled” by the high number of “grave violations” against children in Ukraine in 2022, “shocked” at the number of attacks on schools and hospitals, “concerned” by the detention of children, and “troubled” that some Ukrainian children have been transferred to Russia.
June 22, 2023Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is buying a roughly 5% stake in the parent company of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals and WNBA’s Washington Mystics as part of a $4.05 billion deal, a person with knowledge of the sale said Thursday. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreement between the Qatar Investment Authority and Monumental Sports & Entertainment had not been announced. It is believed to be the first time the government of Qatar is investing in U.S. professional sports. Sportico first reported the transaction, saying it is the first time any
June 22, 2023TikTok’s Chief Operating Officer, V Pappas, is leaving the popular social media platform after nearly five years at the company. In a note sent to employees Thursday morning and later shared on Twitter, Pappas, who uses plural pronouns, said now that the company has achieved a lot of success, she felt it was the right time to move on and focus on “entrepreneurial passions.” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a note sent to employees that Pappas, one of the company’s most public faces, will continue to serve as a strategic adviser. “I want to
June 22, 2023Canadian police released the names of 16 people who died in a crash between a minibus and a semitrailer a week ago at a highway intersection in a rural part of the Canadian province of Manitoba. One by one, officers and family members placed giant photos of the victims, who ranged in age from 68 to 88, at the front of a news conference on Thursday. The bus had been taking the group from Dauphin, Manitoba, and the surrounding area on a trip to a casino on June 15, when it crashed with the truck near
June 22, 2023Zambia and its government creditors, including China, have reached a deal to restructure $6.3 billion in loans, the French government announced Thursday on the sidelines of a global finance summit in Paris. The agreement covers loans from countries including France, the UK, South Africa, Israel and India as well as China — Zambia’s biggest creditor at $4.1 billion of the total. The deal, announced by officials who spoke anonymously in accordance with the French government’s customary practices, may provide a roadmap for how lenient China may be with other nations in debt distress. The International Monetary Fund
June 22, 2023The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell for the third time in as many weeks, a welcome boost for homebuyers facing a housing market that’s been held back this year by a tight inventory of homes for sale. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan fell to 6.67% from 6.69% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.81%. The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with those refinancing their homes, also fell this week, slipping to 6.03% from 6.10% last week. A year ago, it
June 22, 2023Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that the state has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Education over accreditation agencies, which control federal aid for students. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, challenges a federal law that requires colleges and universities to submit to private accreditors to qualify for federal funding. It targets the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary Miguel Cardona and other federal officials. The lawsuit comes as DeSantis, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, imposes his conservative agenda on the state’s education system.
June 22, 2023The desperate search for a submersible that disappeared while taking five people to view the Titanic wreckage has drawn attention to other deep-sea rescues. Those rescue efforts — from a submersible off Ireland to a submarine off the New Hampshire coast — offer some measure of hope for the passengers and their families. But some of those rescues were not as complex as the effort to find the Titan submersible. They were often in shallower waters and, in several cases, were much bigger crafts. Many ended with some, if not all, the passengers on board dying —
June 22, 2023Winnie Ewing, a charismatic politician considered to be the mother of the modern Scottish independence movement, has died. She was 93. Ewing’s relatives announced Thursday that she died the day before, “surrounded by her family.” The family statement said Ewing was “considered the most important Scottish politician of her generation.” Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that Scotland’s independence movement had lost “a beloved icon.” Trained as a lawyer, Winnifred Margaret Ewing joined the pro-independence Scottish National Party — then a small fringe group — and unexpectedly won election to the U.K. Parliament in 1967. Ewing greeted
June 22, 2023Just days away from electing a new president, many Guatemalans remain undecided, unimpressed by the leading candidates and even considering casting a protest vote to express their disapproval. Concerns about extortion and violent crime cross class lines, and rural and urban communities, perhaps explaining why candidates leading the polls are promising heavy-handed security tactics, including reinstating the death penalty or hammering criminal gangs into submission. The machinations of electoral authorities keeping some popular candidates out of the race and cancelling others drew headlines in the capital and expressions of concern abroad. But for the
June 22, 2023Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are ready to fight, offline. In a now-viral back-and-forth seen on Twitter and Instagram this week, the two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a “cage match” face off. It all started when Musk, who owns Twitter, responded to a tweet about Meta reportedly preparing to release a new Twitter rival called “Threads.” He took a dig about the world becoming “exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options” — but then one Twitter user jokingly warned Musk of Zuckerberg’s jiu jitsu training. “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,”
June 22, 2023The day Victor Wembanyama has dreamed of for years has arrived. The 19-year-old from France figures he was about 12 when he began thinking about being an NBA player and then being selected No. 1 in the draft, which seems certain to happen Thursday night in Brooklyn. The San Antonio Spurs have that pick and the opportunity to add a player who is being considered a can’t-miss prospect, perhaps the likes that hasn’t been seen since LeBron James in 2003. Wembanyama has thrown out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium and said he hoped to visit
June 22, 2023Kenyans are preparing for tough times after lawmakers approved tax increases that are even unpopular with supporters of the president who once vowed to reduce the cost of living. The doubling of the tax on petroleum products, from 8% to 16%, is expected to have a ripple effect on East Africa’s economic hub, with the prices of goods and services expected to increase. The administration of President William Ruto, who was elected last year, has only made things harder, one supporter said. “He said he was going to make life easier for us hustlers. We are
June 22, 2023Attorneys for the widow of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moïse filed a lawsuit Thursday in Florida against those accused in his assassination, which is still under investigation. The lawsuit, which was first shared with The Associated Press, seeks unspecified damages for Moïse’s family and a trial by jury in a push to hold the defendants responsible for the president’s death. “Whatever assets are out there, we will make sure these people will pay,” attorney Paul Turner told the AP. The lawsuit was filed nearly two years after the July 7, 2021 assassination of Moïse,
June 22, 2023Spirit Aerosystems, a major supplier to the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, is suspending operations at a critical Kansas plant after union workers there rejected a proposed four-year contract and authorized a strike. Approximately 6,000 members of the IAM District 70, Local 839 voted to reject Spirit Aerosystems’ best and last offer after 13 years without a fully negotiated agreement, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in a prepared statement. Shares of Boeing Co. and Airbus slid about 2%, and shares of Spirit Aerosystems Holdings Inc. tumbled 10% at the opening bell. The tentative deal that was rejected
June 22, 2023UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley has cashed in on the Huskies national championship, agreeing to a new six-year, $32.1 million contract, the school announced Thursday. The deal, which runs through 2029, will pay Hurley an average of $5.35 million per season and includes incentives that could push his compensation higher, the school said. The school originally said the deal was worth $31.5 million, but said later that it had miscalculated the value. The contract replaces a package signed in 2018 when Hurley was hired that paid him about $3 million per season. “I am thrilled
June 22, 2023Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes edged higher in May and the national median sale price posted its biggest annual drop in more than a decade, even as the supply of available properties sank to an all-time low. Existing home sales rose 0.2% last month from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.3 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s slightly above what economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Sales sank 20.4% compared with May last year. That marks 10 consecutive months of annual sales declines of 20% or more. The national
June 22, 2023Free medical clinics and legal aid clinics, where college students and their instructors help their communities while also learning more about their professions, are now commonplace. Google hopes to add cybersecurity clinics to that list. Google CEO Sundar Pichai pledged $20 million in donations on Thursday to support and expand the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics to introduce thousands of students to potential careers in cybersecurity, while also helping defend small government offices, rural hospitals and nonprofits from hacking. Pichai said the new initiative addresses both the rising number of cyberattacks — up 38% globally in 2022 –
June 22, 2023A German rail workers’ union said Thursday that it will ask its members to vote on all-out strike action after long-running salary talks with the main national railway operator broke down. The EVG union has already staged hours-long or one-day “warning strikes,” a common tactic in German wage negotiations. But it’s now threatening to move to longer walkouts as its negotiations with state-owned Deutsche Bahn have reached an impasse. Union leader Martin Burkert said authorization for open-ended strikes will require three quarters of all votes cast in the ballot that will take four to five weeks to
June 22, 2023The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits remained elevated last week, a possible sign that the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes are beginning to cool a surprisingly resilient labor market. U.S. applications for jobless claims were 264,000 for the week ending June 17, the same as the previous week’s revised number, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s slightly more than analysts were expecting. The claims numbers for the past two weeks are the highest since October of 2021. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 8,500 to 255,750. That’s the highest
June 22, 2023Brazil’s top electoral court on Thursday began hearing a case that could torpedo the political future of former President Jair Bolsonaro by rendering him ineligible for public office for eight years. Judges are evaluating a case filed by Brazil’s Democratic Labor Party, which claims the far-right leader abused his power by using government communication channels to promote his campaign and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system. While Bolsonaro often railed against the voting system, the suit’s focus is a meeting last year on July 18 that Bolsonaro convened at the presidential palace with
June 22, 2023Firefighters who responded to February’s fiery train derailment in Ohio struggled to immediately identify the hazardous chemicals the train was hauling due to a lack of communication from the railroad, officials said Thursday. During a public hearing in East Palestine — where thousands of residents had to evacuate their homes because of the derailment — National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy asked why Norfolk Southern was able to provide details of the freight to one of its contractors within 10 minutes of the Feb. 3 derailment, but that it took an hour to get that
June 22, 2023Opponents of Myanmar’s military government applauded fresh financial sanctions imposed by the United States on the Southeast Asian nation but called Thursday for further measures to pressure its ruling generals to restore peace and democracy. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday it was imposing the sanctions on Myanmar’s Defense Ministry and two state-owned banks, the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and the Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank. The move freezes any assets of the sanctioned entities that are in the United States or controlled by a U.S. person. It also prohibits all transactions by U.S. persons or carried
June 22, 2023A hurricane watch was issued for St. Lucia as Tropical Storm Bret barreled toward the eastern Caribbean Thursday at near-hurricane strength. The storm was located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Barbados on Thursday morning and was moving west at 15 mph (24 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), just below the 74 mph (119 kph) winds of a Category 1 hurricane. Airports, businesses, schools and offices were closing in St. Lucia and Dominica as forecasters warned of torrential downpours, landslides and flooding. “Protect your lives, property and
June 22, 2023Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny contesting prison regulations that allow prison officials to deprive him of stationery and pens. Navalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court in a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Moscow. This week, another trial against the Kremlin’s archfoe began right there in the penal colony on charges of extremism. If convicted, Navalny will remain behind bars for at least two more decades. In the lawsuit considered by the Supreme Court on Thursday,
June 22, 2023The president of the United Arab Emirates met with Iran’s visiting foreign minister on Thursday in the latest sign of improving relations between Arab Gulf countries and the Islamic Republic. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have long harbored suspicions about Iran because of its nuclear program and support for militant groups across the region, and have cultivated close defense ties with the U.S. But in recent months they have charted a more independent path, reaching out to U.S. adversaries as Washington increasingly focuses on Russia and China. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed
June 22, 2023German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Beijing on Thursday against using force to change the status quo with Taiwan and expressed concern about the human rights situation in China, days after holding bilateral talks with the new Chinese premier. Scholz told German lawmakers that Berlin wants constructive relations with China because the country plays a key role in solving global problems such as food security, climate change and poverty. “At the same time we clearly urged China to stick to international rules,” he said of a recent declaration by the Group of Seven major economies. “No country is
June 22, 2023Pakistan’s premier Shahbaz Sharif met Thursday with the head of the International Monetary Fund on the sidelines of a global financing meeting in Paris, hoping to unlock a $6 billion bailout and gain the release of a critical tranche of $1.1 billion in loans which has been on hold since November. The meeting between Sharif and IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact comes a week before the $6 billion bailout package originally signed between the IMF and the country’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2019 expires. Sharif replaced
June 22, 2023An explosion damaged a bridge that is one of the few links between Crimea and Ukraine’s mainland, Russia-backed officials said Thursday, as the early stages of a Ukrainian counteroffensive unfold. Russian forces in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, use the Chongar bridge to reach southern Ukraine’s Kherson province. Russia and Ukraine control different sides of the province, which is a focus of fighting and attacks as Ukrainian troops try to reclaim Russian-occupied territory. Ukrainian authorities have said that for the country’s nearly 16-month war to end, Moscow must withdraw its forces from Crimea as well
June 22, 2023German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday defended a deal to stop migrants from entering the European Union until their chances of getting asylum have been reviewed, arguing that the bloc’s existing arrangement is “completely dysfunctional.” Speaking to lawmakers in Berlin, he said the compromise reached earlier this month by the EU’s 27 member states after years of negotiations was a “historic agreement.” Human rights groups have criticized the deal, saying migrants, including families with children, will be held in camps while authorities check whether they are likely to be granted refugee protection inside the EU. The details
June 22, 2023Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter detained on espionage charges in Russia, appeared in court Thursday to appeal his extended detention. U.S. citizen Gershkovich, 31, was arrested in late March while on a reporting trip. A Moscow court agreed last month to keep him in custody until Aug. 30. Defense lawyers challenged the decision, and the Moscow City Court was considering the appeal on Thursday. Gershkovich, wearing a black T-shirt and light blue jeans, looked tense and paced around inside a glass defendant’s cage while waiting for the hearing to begin. Within minutes, other journalists in
June 22, 2023French rescue workers searched Thursday for a person feared missing after a powerful blast brought down a building on Paris’ Left Bank, injuring more than 30 people, four of them critically. Investigators were working to determine the cause of Wednesday’s explosion. A possible gas leak was one of the potential causes under investigation. The blast near the historic Val de Grace military hospital in Paris’ 5th district crumpled the facade of a building that held a private academy of design and arts. Some of the four critically injured people suffered severe burns, said Health Minister François Braun.
June 22, 2023Asian shares were trading mixed Thursday following a retreat on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve chair made comments that indicated inflation still isn’t under control. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% to finish at 33,264.88. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.6% to 7,195.50. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.4% to 2,593.70. Trading was closed in Hong Kong and Shanghai for Dragon Boat Festival, a national holiday. Shares fell in India. The Chinese markets being closed provided a break from jitters about possible renewed tensions in the U.S.-China relationship after President Joe Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping
June 22, 2023The European Union has summoned the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo for emergency talks on Thursday to try to bring an end to a series of violent clashes near their border that is fueling fears of a return to open conflict. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that he would hold “urgent meetings” with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels. It was unclear whether the two would meet face-to-face, or only hold separate talks with Borrell. “We need immediate de-escalation and new elections in the north with participation of Kosovo
June 22, 2023Israeli troops on Thursday demolished the home of a Palestinian who is suspected of killing an Israeli soldier last year, in the latest military operation in the increasingly volatile occupied West Bank, which has been gripped by surging violence. The demolition came during a week of rising tensions and unrelenting violence in the West Bank and just hours after Israel carried out a rare airstrike that killed three Palestinian militants near the city of Jenin and Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in retaliation for the killing of four Israelis a day earlier. A daylong Israeli military raid
June 22, 2023The Turkish central bank faces a key test Thursday on turning to more conventional economic policies to counter sky-high inflation after newly reelected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave mixed signals about an approach that many blame for worsening a cost-of-living crisis. It is the bank’s closely watched first interest rate-setting meeting since the longtime leader named internationally respected officials to head the bank and the finance ministry. While a sharp rate hike is expected, it’s not clear if it will be enough to ease market concerns. The appointments were seen as a sign that Turkey would
June 22, 2023The confessionals where generations of Belgians admitted their sins stood stacked in a corner of what was once Sacred Heart Church, proof the stalls — as well as the Roman Catholic house of worship — had outlived their purpose. The building is to close down for two years while a cafe and concert stage are added, with plans to turn the church into “a new cultural hot spot in the heart of Mechelen,” almost within earshot of where Belgium’s archbishop lives. Around the corner, a former Franciscan church is now a luxury hotel where music star
June 22, 2023The Bank of England is poised to raise borrowing costs again on Thursday to combat stubbornly high inflation, which has failed to come down from its peak as quickly as expected. Though the consensus among analysts is that the central bank will raise its main interest rate by a quarter-percentage point — hitting a new 15-year high of 4.75% — there are concerns, certainly among borrowers, that it may opt for a bigger half-point increase. That larger hike would be particularly painful for people with loans, especially the 1.4 million or so households in the U.K. that
June 22, 2023Seventy-five years ago, a ship landed at Tilbury Dock near London, carrying more than 800 passengers from the Caribbean to new lives in Britain. The arrival of the Empire Windrush on June 22, 1948, became a symbol of the post-war migration that transformed the U.K. and its culture. The term “Windrush generation” has come to stand for hundreds of thousands of people who arrived in the U.K. between the late 1940s and early 1970s, especially those from former British colonies in the Caribbean. Windrush Day is being marked on Thursday with scores of community and official events,
June 22, 2023Plumes of heat-trapping pollutants last billowed from the giant stacks of Komati Power Station in October, when the coal-fired plant that fed South Africa’s hungry electrical grid for more than half a century was shut down to make way for a solar, wind and battery storage plant. Converting Komati to be part of the clean energy revolution is seen as an important test case for coal-reliant South Africa, the world’s 16th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and developing nations elsewhere. It’s supported by $497 million, most of it from the World Bank. The problem, energy experts
June 22, 2023Just a dot on the horizon at first, the bug-like and surprisingly quiet electrically-powered craft buzzes over Paris and its traffic snarls, treating its doubtless awestruck passenger to privileged vistas of the Eiffel Tower and the city’s signature zinc-grey rooftops before landing him or her with a gentle downward hover. And thus, if all goes to plan, could a new page in aviation history be written. After years of dreamy and not always credible talk of skies filled with flying, non-polluting electric taxis, the aviation industry is preparing to deliver a future that it says
June 22, 2023A line of severe storms produced multiple tornadoes Wednesday evening on the Rolling Plains in Texas, killing at least three people and causing significant damage around the northern town of Matador. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that the storms also produced softball-size hail and wind gusts topping 100 mph (161 kph) in other communities including Jayton, which also was under a tornado warning as the line moved southeast Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service in Lubbock. Matador Mayor Pat Smith said at least three people had been killed, that others may be injured and that
June 22, 2023Australia’s online safety watchdog has issued a legal notice to Twitter demanding an explanation of what the social media giant is doing to tackle a surge in online hate since Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought the platform. Australia’s eSafety Commission describes itself as the world’s first government agency dedicated to keeping people safer online. The agency said Thursday that it received more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past 12 months than any other platform and had received an increasing number of reports of serious online abuse since Musk took over the company in
June 22, 2023Authorities in Honduras began to hand over to relatives the hacked, burned corpses of 46 women killed in the worst riot at a women’s prison in recent memory. Some of the bodies were so badly burned they need genetic testing or dental studies to identify, said Yuri Mora, the spokesman for Honduras’ national police investigation agency. The picture that began to emerge of Tuesday’s violence at the women’s prison in Tamara, Honduras was one of a carefully planned massacre of supposed rival gang members by inmates belonging to the notorious Barrio 18 street gang. The carnage
June 22, 2023Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in June was expected to reduce India’s dependence on Moscow for arms, economic ties and technology as New Delhi and Washington try to strengthen the Quad partnership, which also includes Japan and Australia, to contain growing aggression from China. India considers Russia a time-tested ally from the Cold War era with key cooperation in defense, oil, nuclear energy and space exploration. But that partnership has become fraught since Moscow started developing closer ties with India’s main rival, China, because of the war against Ukraine. Here’s where things stand with
June 22, 2023Three federally recognized tribes have devoted decades to restoring the condition of their ancestral lands in southeastern Washington state to what they were before those lands became the most radioactively contaminated site in the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. But the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Nez Perce Tribe have been left out of negotiations on a major decision affecting the future cleanup of millions of gallons of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks on the Hanford site near Richland. In May, federal and state agencies reached an agreement that hasn’t been
June 22, 2023The Washington Wizards have agreed to trade center Kristaps Porzingis to the Boston Celtics as part of a three-team trade that also includes Marcus Smart heading to the Memphis Grizzlies, two people with knowledge of the deal said Thursday morning. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreements hadn’t been announced. The trade comes with Porzingis accepting his player option for next season. The deal also includes the Grizzlies acquiring Smart, the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year, from Boston in exchange for first-round draft picks in 2023 and 2024. ESPN reported the Wizards
June 22, 2023A play at home plate in a game between San Diego and San Francisco was overturned on review Wednesday night, the second straight day a disputed review had a significant impact on the outcome of a game. In the fifth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Blake Sabol of the Giants appeared to be thrown out sliding into home by a strong throw by Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. on Joc Pederson’s two-out single to right. Sabol was initially ruled out, but the call was changed following a lengthy review when umpires cited San Diego
June 22, 2023New Zealanders this week were debating a thorny health care issue — whether ethnicity should be a factor in determining when patients get surgery. It turns out that in some parts of Auckland, the country’s largest city at 1.4 million people, clinicians have been using an algorithm to adjust where patients sit on elective surgery waitlists. Clinical need remains the top factor, but the algorithm also takes into account how long patients have been on the waitlist, where they live, their financial circumstances, and their ethnicity. Indigenous Māori and Pacific Island patients are given a
June 22, 2023Freddie Freeman hit his 14th homer off Shohei Ohtani in the fourth inning, and seven relievers combined on a two-hitter in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ second straight shutout victory in the Freeway Series, 2-0 over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night. Ohtani (6-3) pitched seven innings of five-hit ball with two walks and 12 strikeouts, one off his career high. The two-way superstar was outstanding in his first career mound start against the Dodgers, who are likely to be one of his most ardent suitors in free agency this winter. But Ohtani went 0 for
June 22, 2023Without immigration, the white population in the U.S. would have declined last year. Immigration also propelled the expansion of the Asian population, which was the fastest-growing race or ethnic group last year in the U.S., while births outpacing deaths helped propel growth in Hispanic, Black, tribal and Hawaiian populations. Population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show what drove changes in different race, ethnic and age groups last year, as well as since the start of COVID-19’s spread in the U.S. in April 2020. The country had grown to 333.2 million people by the middle of last year,
June 22, 2023One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion, prompting a seismic shift in debates about politics, values, freedom and fairness. Twenty-five million women of childbearing age now live in states where the law makes abortions harder to get than they were before the ruling. Decisions about the law are largely in the hands of state lawmakers and courts. Most Republican-led states have restricted abortion. Fourteen ban abortion in most cases at any point in pregnancy. Twenty Democratic-leaning states have protected access. Here’s a look at what’s changed since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
June 22, 2023As an international search continued for a vessel that disappeared after setting out for the underwater wreckage of the Titanic, a man who was one of the submersible company’s first customers characterized a dive he made to the site two years ago as a “kamikaze operation.” “You have to be a little bit crazy to do this sort of thing,” said Arthur Loibl, a 61-year-old retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. Loibl told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he first had the idea of seeing the Titanic wreckage while on a trip to the South Pole
June 22, 2023Cooking gas caused a massive explosion at a barbecue restaurant in northwestern China, killing 31 people and injuring seven others during national celebrations on the eve of a long holiday weekend, authorities said Thursday. The blast tore through the restaurant at around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday on a busy street in Yinchuan, the capital of the traditionally Muslim Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as people gathered ahead of the Dragon Boat Festival, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The explosion left many people unconscious and they needed to be carried out of the shop, according to the online news
June 22, 2023Cade Beloso hit a go-ahead three-run homer, freshman Griffin Herring pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout relief in his longest outing and LSU defeated No. 1 national seed Wake Forest 5-2 on Wednesday night to stay alive in the College World Series. The Tigers (51-16) forced a second bracket final Thursday night and the winner will advance to play Florida in the best-of-three championship series that starts Saturday. The Gators clinched a spot with a 3-2 win over TCU. Wake Forest (54-11) will look to bounce back from its first loss in its eight NCAA Tournament
June 22, 2023A 20-year-old Chicago man is facing multiple charges in connection with a hit-and-run collision that injured four pedestrians, two critically, outside Guaranteed Rate Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox, Chicago police said Wednesday night. Condelarious Garcia, 20, faces four felony counts each of failure to report an injury accident and aggravated reckless driving causing bodily harm, police said. He also faces one misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended license, police said, and citations for failure to reduce speed, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, and having an expired registration. Garcia is due in Central Bond
June 22, 2023The PGA Tour said Wednesday that it would appear next month before a Senate subcommittee whose leader asked executives from the tour, Saudi golf interests and LIV Golf to testify as Congress investigates the business deal that upended the sport. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., announced that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations would hold a hearing on July 11 to examine the agreement involving the PGA Tour, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and the European tour to pool commercial business and rights in a new company. “Our goal is to uncover the facts about what went into
June 21, 2023An Idaho father killed a neighboring family because he was upset that the neighbor’s 18-year-old son had reportedly exposed himself to the man’s children, a police document alleges. Majorjon Kaylor, 31, of Kellogg, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the Father’s Day shooting. A probable cause affidavit from Idaho State Police Detective Justin Klitch says Kaylor shot Kenneth Guardipee, 65; his daughter Kenna Guardipee, 41; and her youngest son, 16-year-old Aiken Smith, in the temple at close range. Smith’s older brother, 18-year-old Devin Smith, was shot multiple times in the head, according to
June 21, 2023Federal regulators want first responders to a train derailment to know exactly what they are dealing with even before they reach the scene, because the dangerous chemicals trains carry might require a specialized response. So the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration proposed a new rule Wednesday that would require all railroads to immediately send the details of everything aboard their trains to every emergency responder within 10 miles, as soon as the railroad becomes aware of an accident. The new rule comes one day ahead of a National Transportation Safety Board hearing to scrutinize emergency responses
June 21, 2023NATO faces a series of dilemmas in its attempts to fight climate change while ensuring the effectiveness of its combat forces, as Europe’s biggest land war in decades ravages Ukraine, the head of the military alliance told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday. The world’s armed forces are among the greatest consumers of hydrocarbons – fuel and oil – that contribute to greenhouse gases. They have been in much demand recently as global warming fans conflicts and crises because of resource and food scarcity. The main dilemma NATO is contending with, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said,
June 21, 2023A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday halted a lower court ruling that would have shut down southeast Alaska’s chinook salmon troll fishery for the summer to protect endangered orca whales that eat the fish. The ruling by a three-judge 9th Circuit Court panel means the summer chinook, or king, salmon season will start as usual next week for an industry that supports some 1,500 fishery workers in southeast Alaska. The opinion said the state and others who were part of the appeal established a sufficient likelihood that certain and substantial impacts of the lower court’s decision
June 21, 2023A strong explosion hit a building in Paris’ Left Bank on Wednesday, leaving four people injured and igniting a fire that sent smoke soaring over the domed Pantheon monument and prompted the evacuation of buildings, police said. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. The facade of a building in the 5th arrondissement, or district, collapsed and emergency services were working to determine if anyone was still inside, a Paris police official said. Florence Berthout, mayor of the arrondissement, said four people were in “absolute emergency” condition. “The explosion was extremely violent,” she said, describing
June 21, 2023Eighteen-year-old Alyssa Thompson was among the 23 players selected Wednesday for the United States team that will defend its title at the Women’s World Cup next month. Thompson, who has been impressive this season as a rookie for Angel City in the National Women’s Soccer League, was called onto the team in early April for a match against Ireland, taking the place of injured forward Mallory Swanson. The roster selected by Vlatko Andonovski includes a mix of both familiar faces and newcomers like Thompson. “We are expecting the level of play at this World Cup to be the best it’s
June 21, 2023The NBA-champion Denver Nuggets traded into the first round of the draft by acquiring the 29th overall pick from the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said. As part of the deal, the Nuggets will also receive the 32nd pick from the Pacers in Thursday night’s draft. Indiana receives the 40th pick from Denver along with a first-round selection in 2024, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade of picks hasn’t been announced. Denver is trying to sprinkle in an assortment of
June 21, 2023Greenpeace activists on Wednesday called on the Polish prime minister to take action to protect Poland’s forests, asking the government to limit the harvesting of timber in the vast old-growth forests of the Carpathian Mountains. During a news conference held outside the office of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Greenpeace activists held a section of a fir tree trunk that they took from the forest. It was the conclusion of a 40-day expedition to try to raise awareness about the threats to a forest which is home to bears, lynx and other wildlife. They delivered it to
June 21, 2023F-16 fighter jets hurtle pilots through the sky at up to 2,000 kilometers per hour (1,243 miles per hour). In tight turns or sudden climbs, gravity is pressing so hard on their bodies that some of them might even pass out. Even so, it’s an experience Ukraine is seeking for its own pilots after getting U.S. approval to train and eventually receive the American-made jets to bolster its more than year-old fight against Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had long pressed Western allies for the planes to gain an advantage in the sky. But to
June 21, 2023As other entrepreneurs push the edges of technology to bring well-heeled tourists to space, Stockton Rush saw new opportunities for exploring another frontier: the deep sea. OceanGate, the company he founded in 2009, sought not just to profit from bringing wealthy adventurers to sites such as the wreck of the Titanic, but to help scientists and researchers unravel oceanic mysteries by giving them better access to the sea floor than ever before — in vessels that would break the boundaries of how submersibles are developed. “One of the reasons I started the business was because I
June 21, 2023Microsoft on Thursday will try to gain clearance to complete a $69 billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard in a legal showdown with U.S. regulators that will reshape a pastime that’s bigger than the movie and music industries combined. The battle will pit Microsoft’s ambition to expand its video game imprint beyond its Xbox console against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s bid to block a deal that it contends will stifle competition and innovation to the detriment of consumers. It’s the latest twist in a deal that was announced 17 months ago. Both Microsoft
June 21, 2023The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon on Wednesday for what it called a years-long effort to enroll consumers without consent into its Prime program and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive designs, known as “dark patterns,” to deceive consumers into enrolling in the program. It said the option to purchase items on Amazon without subscribing to Prime was more difficult in many cases. It also said that consumers were sometimes presented
June 21, 2023Seventeen former Major League Baseball scouts who say they were discriminated against because of their age sued the league, its teams and Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver. The former scouts allege violations of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 along with laws in 11 states and New York City. The scouts, ranging from 55 to 71, allege they were discriminated against from 2020-22. They say MLB and the teams “have acted to prevent the reemployment of older scouts or refused the reemployment of older
June 21, 2023One-run games never get old as long as you’re winning — and Florida is doing plenty of that right now. Florida reached the College World Series finals with a 3-2 victory over TCU on Wednesday, making the Gators the fourth team in history to win their bracket with three straight one-run wins. “It’s not easy to get to this point. It’s just not,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I know I overstate it and say it over and over, but we just played three one-run games and they’re all nail-biters down to the end.” Cade Kurland, who had struggled at the
June 21, 2023A wild animal trainer featured in the popular Netflix series “Tiger King” has been convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia, the attorney general’s office announced Tuesday. Bhagavan “Doc” Antle was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick County, Virginia, for display and profit at his South Carolina zoo, Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a news release. A jury convicted Antle on Friday of two felony counts each of wildlife trafficking and conspiring to wildlife traffic. Antle, who owns the Myrtle Beach Safari, appeared in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” a Netflix documentary
June 21, 2023Nathan Grube, the tournament director of the Travelers Championship, used to worry about the years when the U.S. Open took place on the West Coast. Many of the world’s top golfers would make a decision to take a break the week following the major or head to Europe to begin preparing for the Open Championship, rather than travel across the country to play at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut. But this year, in response to LIV Golf, the Travelers was elevated to one of 17 so-called “designated” PGA Tour events, with a much bigger purse and
June 21, 2023Georgia election officials said Wednesday that they would need six to nine months to install new software and hardware to update the state’s voting system to protect against security flaws, pushing back against calls to update the system before the 2024 election cycle. “It’s really not an upgrade,” state Deputy Elections Director Michael Barnes said of the work needed on 30,000 voting machines. “This really would require us to fully rebuild the system.” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said the state must wait until 2025, but critics continue to pile on, with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones
June 21, 2023London seems like a no-brainer for a European road trip. Paris is all but assured next. Why not throw in Germany and the Netherlands? Major League Baseball has big plans for Europe, starting with an English reintroduction to the sport this weekend when the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs play a two-game series in London. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox featured in London four years ago, smashing six home runs in a European debut for MLB that was higher scoring — the Yankees won 17-13 — than the NFL’s first one in London
June 21, 2023European Union countries on Wednesday agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine. Sweden, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said that the package includes measures aimed at countering sanctions circumvention and individual listings. Details of the measures will be unveiled later this week when the sanctions are officially adopted by written procedure. The EU had previously imposed 10 rounds of sanctions on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Banks, companies and markets have been hit — even parts of the sensitive
June 21, 2023The U.N. envoy for Afghanistan warned the country’s Taliban rulers Wednesday that international recognition as the country’s legitimate government will remain “nearly impossible” unless they lift severe restrictions on women and girls’ education and employment. Roza Otunbayeva told the U.N. Security Council that the Taliban have asked to be recognized by the United Nations and its 192 other member nations, “but at the same time they act against the key values expressed in the United Nations Charter.” In her regular discussions with the Taliban, she said, “I am blunt about the obstacles they have created for
June 21, 2023Hungary’s government will be asked to provide explanations and details about its role in the transfer to the country of 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war freed by Russia, the European Union’s executive arm said Wednesday. The liberation of the POWs has created further tensions between Ukraine and Hungary’s government, which is led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and is one of the most friendly toward Moscow of the EU’s 27 nations. Budapest has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the bloc’s sanctions against Russia. Ukraine has blamed Hungary for barring access to the prisoners, and the country’s foreign
June 21, 2023Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday announced plans to visit Lithuania next month to attend a NATO leaders’ summit as his country steps up cooperation with the Western organization amid China’s increasingly assertive military activity. Kishida stressed the importance of dialogue with China in order to develop “constructive and stable” relationship with Beijing while his country cooperates with its key ally, the United States. He said the state of U.S.-China relations are crucial to international peace and stability. At a news conference marking the end of a five-month long parliamentary session, Kishida said reinforcing diplomatic and
June 21, 2023Jake Fraley hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning, and the Cincinnati Reds extended their majors-best winning streak to 11 games, rallying past the Colorado Rockies 5-3 on Wednesday for a three-game sweep. Rookie sensation Elly De La Cruz hit a one-out bloop to left that fell for a double against Daniel Bard (3-1), and Fraley hit the next pitch over the wall in right, sending the Reds to their majors-best 12th comeback win of the season and the Rockies to their season-worst eighth straight loss. Cincinnati trailed 3-0 after four innings. The NL Central-leading
June 21, 2023Perhaps the only positive Germany can draw from its national soccer team’s deepening crisis is that the 2024 European Championship is still a year away. Even if few believe it anymore, Germany coach Hansi Flick insists that is enough time to turn things around before hosting the tournament. Flick struggled to justify his conviction late Tuesday after the latest disappointing performance — a 2-0 loss to Colombia that saw his team whistled off at halftime and again at the end. “With the results, what can I say?” Flick said. “The arguments are not on our side.” Some
June 21, 2023A national sorority has defended allowing a transgender woman into its University of Wyoming chapter, saying in a new court motion that the chapter followed sorority rules despite a lawsuit from seven women in the organization who argued the opposite. Seven members of Kappa Kappa Gamma at Wyoming’s only four-year state university sued in March, saying the sorority violated its own rules by admitting Artemis Langford last year. Six of the women refiled the lawsuit in May after a judge twice barred them from suing anonymously. The Kappa Kappa Gamma motion to dismiss, filed Tuesday in
June 21, 2023Time is quickly running out in the search for a missing submersible that lost contact with its mother ship on Sunday as it descended to the wreck of the Titanic with five people aboard. As an international fleet of surveillance vessels and aircraft forges ahead with ongoing search and rescue efforts, each passing second makes it less likely that the passengers on the Titan will be found alive as their oxygen supply is expected to run out by Thursday morning. Even if the Titan is located in the North Atlantic, it could be nearly impossible to reach
June 21, 2023Victor Wembanyama walked into his first NBA news conference Wednesday morning, took his seat and looked out at a maze of cameras and microphones that have been awaiting him for years. And then he smiled. “What’s up, everyone?” the French teen said. Seeming poised and completely ready for what awaits him, Wembanyama’s NBA chapter is now underway. The NBA draft — one that Wembanyama’s towering shadow has hung over for months, blocking much of what is usually part of the process — is Thursday night, and he’ll be selected No. 1 overall by the San Antonio
June 21, 2023President Joe Biden’s three nominees for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors pledged to fight inflation during a confirmation hearing Wednesday that drew only modest pushback from Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee. Last month, Biden nominated Adriana Kugler, a Georgetown University economist, to serve as a Fed governor, a position that would make her the first Latina to serve on the board in the Fed’s 110-year history. He also nominated Philip Jefferson, who joined the board last year, for the spot of vice chair, which was vacated by Lael Brainard when she became a top
June 21, 2023The veteran Florida detective who led the investigation into the 2018 Parkland high school massacre wept on the witness stand Wednesday, saying the school’s assigned deputy could have prevented the deaths of some of the 17 people murdered if he had charged into a building instead of taking cover. Broward County Detective John Curcio, a homicide detective for 25 years and the prosecution’s final witness, had been on the stand for two hours when a prosecutor asked him what Deputy Scot Peterson’s objective should have been during Nikolas Cruz’s six-minute attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas
June 21, 2023After years of rising rents, a group of Kansas City, Missouri, renters came together in 2019 to form KC Tenants, armed with an annual budget of $30,000 and demands for a bill of rights to protect renters from rising prices, unjust evictions, and landlord abuse. Four years and one pandemic later, KC Tenants is a nonprofit tenants union with a budget that grew almost twentyfold and a track record of advocacy victories. For instance, the group got its bill of rights enacted by the city and is working to make sure all tenants have the right to a lawyer when
June 21, 2023Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva threw his arms around Pope Francis and gave him a big hug as he arrived Wednesday for what the Vatican said was a “very friendly” reunion of two old friends. The Argentine pope seemed in particularly good spirits as he hosted Lula for around 45 minutes, just days after getting out of the hospital following abdominal surgery. Standing up, Francis presented Lula with a brass plaque of a flower entitled “Peace is a fragile flower.” Francis told the Brazilian leader: “We’re in a time of war; peace is very fragile.”
June 21, 2023Missing out on Lionel Messi hasn’t slowed Saudi Arabia’s ambitious recruitment drive as the oil-rich kingdom tries to establish itself as a viable destination for the world’s top players. Having already lured two of the sport’s biggest stars in Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, the Saudis amid allegations of sportswashing are targeting a host of other high-profile players from Europe’s best leagues. World Cup and Champions League winner N’Golo Kante became the latest stellar player to head to the lucrative Pro League, signing a three-year contract Wednesday to team up with Benzema at Al-Ittihad. “It is
June 21, 2023Follow along for live updates on the submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic. ____ ‘DESPERATE SITUATION:’ SCIENTISTS, WHILE REALISTIC ABOUT SURVIVAL CHANCES, OFFER HOPE Scientists, while remaining realistic about the chances of finding the Titan on the vast ocean floor, are still offering a glimmer of hope. Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey, said in London on Thursday that it’s incredibly difficult to find an object the size of the Titan in a totally dark environment. He says it’s not going to be found with active sonar from
June 21, 2023One of Hong Kong’s most reputable sources for public opinion data is limiting its survey scope, including on sensitive topics such as the Tiananmen crackdown. The change, on the heels of a risk assessment done by the government, would likely muffle access to information showing changes in public sentiment toward the city. Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute announced Tuesday it tentatively decided to cancel about one-fourth of its regular survey questions, and use about one-third of the remaining ones only for internal reference, academic research, and commissioned services, rather than releasing them for public use.
June 21, 2023German prosecutors say a truck driver wanted by Italy in connection with a crash last year that killed professional cyclist Davide Rebellin has been released from jail pending a decision on his extradition. Wolfgang Rieke is accused of road homicide and leaving the scene of a crash. German authorities said he surrendered last Thursday in the western town of Rheine. A spokesperson for the regional prosecutors’ office in Hamm, Daniel Dependahl, said the driver’s release was normal in cases in which there is no flight risk. It didn’t prejudge the extradition decision, which could take several months,
June 21, 2023A local prosecutor revealed Wednesday that she won’t seek charges against officers in North Carolina’s capital city who repeatedly used stun guns on a man who subsequently died, saying evidence reviewed fails to show the use of force was unreasonable. Several Raleigh police officers were placed on administrative leave following the Jan. 17 death of 32-year-old Darryl Tyree Williams. They were trying to arrest Williams around 2 a.m. for possession of a controlled substance in a parking lot where a sweepstakes parlor and several closed business were located. The State Bureau of Investigation looked into what
June 21, 2023A Swedish appeals court on Wednesday increased a prison sentence for an Italian surgeon over experimental stem cell windpipe transplants on three patients who died. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini made headlines in 2011 for carrying out the world’s first stem cell windpipe transplants at Sweden’s leading hospital and had been sentenced to no prison time by a lower court. But the Svea Court of Appeal concluded that there were no emergency situations among two of the three patients who later died, while the procedure on the third could not be justified. The appeals court sentenced the Italian scientist
June 21, 2023Josh Berry will take the final step in his long journey to the top of racing with Stewart-Haas Racing next season as the replacement for future NASCAR Hall of Famer Kevin Harvick. Harvick is retiring at the end of this season and Berry on Wednesday was named next year’s driver in the No. 4 Ford Mustang for SHR. Berry, a journeyman who earlier this year signed with Harvick’s agency as the first management team he’s had in his career, will be 33 when he begins his first full season at the elite Cup level. His route
June 21, 2023Venus Williams is set to make her 24th appearance in the singles draw at Wimbledon after the 43-year-old American was given a wild-card entry on Wednesday. Williams is a five-time Wimbledon singles champion and was a finalist at the grass-court major in 2017, two decades after her debut at the All England Club. Ranked 697th, Williams beat 48th-ranked Camila Giorgi 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (6) on Monday at the Birmingham Classic. It was her first victory over a player in the top 50 in nearly four years. The seven-time Grand Slam champion next plays Jelena Ostapenko
June 21, 2023Andrew Tate, a social media personality known for expressing misogynistic views online, appeared Wednesday at a court in Romania, where prosecutors have charged him with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women. Tate and his brother, Tristan, who is also charged with the offenses, arrived Wednesday at a court in the capital Bucharest, flanked by six bodyguards. Prosecutors have also filed charges against two Romanian women in the case. Romania’s anti-organized crime agency alleged that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human
June 21, 2023The search for a submersible that disappeared while taking wealthy tourists to see the wreck of the Titanic has gripped many with its grim cinematic elements — a ticking clock, passengers running out of oxygen, and of course, the iconic ocean liner itself, which still captivates the public imagination more than a century after it sank. In Pakistan, where two of the passengers were from, people flocked to social media with prayers and newspapers covered it heavily. But the outpouring fell far short of the shock and grief over a boat carrying hundreds of migrants that
June 21, 2023Bruce Brown is set to become a free agent after declining his $6.8 million player option with the NBA-champion Denver Nuggets, a person with knowledge of the decision said Wednesday. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the move hasn’t been announced. The NBA free agency period opens next week. Brown signed with Denver last summer and became an integral piece off the bench for the Nuggets. He can play either guard position or small forward and averaged 12 points and four rebounds in a postseason that culminated with Denver knocking
June 21, 2023When Thomas Tobierre’s wife, Caroline, died in 2021, he didn’t know how he was going to pay for her funeral. That’s because he had drained his savings while caught up in a U.K. immigration crackdown that improperly targeted legal residents largely from the Caribbean and other parts of the former British Empire. While a government compensation program eventually covered the cost of his wife’s funeral, Tobierre is still fighting for reimbursement of the 14,000-pound pension ($17,891) he cashed in to make ends meet when no one would hire him because of his disputed right to work. He
June 21, 2023An NCAA infractions panel handed a three-game suspension to Memphis coach Penny Hardaway on Wednesday for recruiting violations tied to two in-home visits with a prospect two years ago. The penalty follows a negotiated resolution in December that allowed the school to resolve the case and begin probation while one individual challenged the level of charges from the allegations. That turned out to be Hardaway, the former Memphis and NBA star who was charged under rules governing head-coach responsibility for conduct within their programs. An assistant coach first visited the prospect from Dallas in September 2021 at his home, followed
June 21, 2023Poland’s powerful conservative ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is reentering the government on Wednesday as the only deputy prime minister in the Cabinet, a move that gives him an enhanced position as the country heads toward a general election this fall. Kaczynski is the head of Law and Justice, the party that has governed Poland since 2015. It is widely believed in Poland that he decides most of the government’s policies and appointments, guiding the country in his position as party leader. He has previously served as deputy prime minister with a focus on security issues.
June 21, 2023The Israeli military on Wednesday deployed additional forces across the occupied West Bank and prepared to demolish the homes of two Palestinian gunmen who killed four Israelis in one of the worst attacks in the past year of violence. The families laid to rest the victims in the deadly shooting in the West Bank settlement of Eli, in which two Palestinian militants opened fire at a gas station restaurant. Israeli media identified the four killed as Harel Masood, 21, Ofer Fayerman, 64, and Elisha Anteman, 18, Nahman-Shmuel Mordoff, 17. An Israeli civilian killed one assailant at the
June 21, 2023Two drones were brought down outside Moscow as they approached the warehouses of a local military unit, Moscow region Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said Wednesday, in what could be the latest attempt by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia during the early stages of Kyiv’s most recent counteroffensive. The wreckage of a third drone was found about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from the site of the crash, Russian media reported. No damage or casualties were reported. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it was “an unsuccessful attempt at a terrorist attack” by “the Kyiv regime” on its facilities in the Moscow region,
June 21, 2023Shares were mostly lower Wednesday in Asia after Wall Street benchmarks retreated following the S&P 500’s rise to its highest level since the spring of last year. U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices rose. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 advanced 0.3% to 33,575.14, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 2% to 19,217.66. The Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.3% to 3,197.90 and the Kospi in Seoul slipped 0.9% to 2,582.63. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6% to 7,314.90. Bangkok’s SET lost 0.8% while India’s Sensex was up 0.3%. This week has few potentially market-moving
June 21, 2023Two years after a former Gettysburg College student finally saw charges filed over her 2013 campus sexual assault, the man suspected of sending her a Facebook message that said, “ So I raped you,” remains on the run. Shannon Keeler, 28, and her attorneys question how Ian T. Cleary has avoided capture in an age when people are tracked by their cellphones, internet connections, security cameras and credit card purchases. Investigators, led by the U.S. Marshals Service, believe the 30-year-old from Silicon Valley is likely overseas and on the move. “How is he financially supporting himself? How
June 21, 2023The company whose submersible vanished in the North Atlantic on a tourist dive to the wreck of the Titanic was repeatedly warned that there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way it was developed, documents show. With five people aboard a vessel that if still functioning would have a dwindling amount of oxygen remaining, an expanding international fleet of ships and airplanes is searching for the Titan, operated by OceanGate Expeditions. The undersea exploration company based in Everett, Washington, has been making yearly voyages to the Titanic since 2021. In the first piece of good
June 21, 2023Generations of Palestinians have worked the terraced hillsides of this West Bank farming village southwest of Jerusalem, growing olives, fruits, beans and exquisite eggplants renowned across the region in a valley linked to the biblical King David. But residents fear their ancient way of life could soon be in danger as Israel’s far-right government moves ahead with a settlement project on a nearby hilltop. Environmental groups say the construction could devastate already strained water sources supplying the agricultural terraces and cause extensive damage to an already precarious ecosystem. Battir’s plight shines a light on how
June 21, 2023Diplomats from dozens of countries are meeting Wednesday in London to drum up funds to rebuild Ukraine, a mammoth task whose cost is estimated by the World Bank at more than $400 billion – a figure rising daily alongside the human toll of the 16-month war. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to announce a new package of U.S. assistance at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which is both a fundraising forum and a message to Russia that Ukraine’s allies are in it for the long haul. Blinken, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission
June 21, 2023Inmates had complained for weeks they were being threatened by gang members at a women’s prison in Honduras. The gang fulfilled those threats, slaughtering 41 women, many of them burned, shot or stabbed to death. President Xiomara Castro said Tuesday’s riot at the prison in the town of Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Honduras’ capital, was “planned by maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.” Castro pledged to take “drastic measures,” but did not explain how inmates identified as members of the Barrio 18 gang were able to get
June 21, 2023A Canadian military surveillance aircraft has detected underwater noises as a massive search continued early Wednesday in a remote part of the North Atlantic for a submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic. A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believed the noises could be, though it offered a glimmer of hope for those lost abroad the Titan as estimates suggest as little as a day’s worth of oxygen could be left if the vessel is still functioning. Meanwhile, questions remain about how teams could reach the
June 21, 2023Miguel Rojas doubled and scored on Michael Busch’s high-bouncing single in the eighth after Clayton Kershaw and Reid Detmers dueled through seven scoreless innings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers opened the Freeway Series with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night. Will Smith added an RBI single in the eighth for the Dodgers, who snapped their three-game skid with two fortunate breaks for a team that hasn’t had many lately. Four innings after the Angels’ Brandon Drury was ruled out at the plate on a call overturned by video review, Busch’s chopper
June 21, 2023Math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the results of a test known as the nation’s report card. The results, released Wednesday, are the latest measure of the deep learning setbacks incurred during the pandemic. While earlier testing revealed the magnitude of America’s learning loss, the latest test casts light on the persistence of those setbacks, dimming hopes of swift academic recovery. More than two years after most students returned to in-person class, there are still “worrisome signs
June 21, 2023One Thursday morning in May, instead of sitting at a desk in her sixth grade classroom in the Oregon mountains, Khloe Warne sat at a table in her mother’s bakery, doing her schoolwork on a laptop and watching her favorite clips of anime. Khloe, 12, loves drawing, writing and especially reading — in second grade, she was already reading at a sixth grade level. But she only goes to school one day a week for two hours. The district said she needed shorter school days last year when Khloe threw a desk and fought with
June 21, 2023Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist is expected to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, part of the class of 2023 set to be announced Wednesday afternoon. Lundqvist backstopped Sweden to an Olympic gold medal in 2006 and led the New York Rangers to the playoffs in 11 of 12 years. That included a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014 and two Eastern Conference final appearances. A seventh-round pick in the 2020 draft, Lundqvist ranks fifth on the NHL career victories list with 459. He won 61 more in the playoffs before halting
June 21, 2023Nate Ackenhausen pitched six innings in his first start for LSU and combined with Riley Cooper for the Tigers’ nation-leading 11th shutout of the season in a 5-0 victory over Tennessee in the College World Series on Tuesday night. LSU (50-16) beat its Southeastern Conference rival for the fourth time in five meetings and will play No. 1 national seed Wake Forest on Wednesday night. The Tigers would have to beat the Demon Deacons in that game and again Thursday to reach the CWS finals. Tennessee (44-22) was eliminated after it failed to score for the
June 21, 2023Foreign companies are shifting investments and their Asian headquarters out of China as confidence plunges following the expansion of an anti-spying law and other challenges, a business group said Wednesday. The report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China adds is one of many signs of growing pessimism despite the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to revive interest in the world’s No. 2 economy following the end of anti-virus controls. Companies are uneasy about security controls, government protection of their Chinese rivals and a lack of action on reform promises, according to the European Chamber. They
June 21, 2023Gerrit Cole stared down José Caballero and wagged a finger at the Seattle Mariners’ dugout 15 times after striking out the side in the seventh inning, a pointed response to the rookie’s repeated step-outs during the New York Yankees’ 3-1 win on Tuesday night that stopped a four-game losing streak. After Caballero stepped out with an 0-2 count in the seventh, Cole threw a 97 mph fastball to the screen. The Yankees’ ace got Caballero swinging on a full-count fastball, stared at him as he walked off the mound, then turned to the Mariners’ dugout and
June 21, 2023The Los Angeles Angels are highly unlikely to trade Shohei Ohtani if they remain in playoff contention this summer, general manager Perry Minasian said Tuesday. Minasian didn’t unequivocally vow he won’t trade Ohtani, who is scheduled to enter unrestricted free agency after the season. But the GM underlined his season-long stance on the issue while strongly indicating he still intends to do everything possible to end the Angels’ eight-year playoff drought — and that includes taking the massive risk of losing their two-way superstar in free agency. “It’s pretty self-explanatory with where we’re at (in the
June 21, 2023Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill is under investigation by Miami-Dade police for assault and battery after he allegedly hit a man on Sunday. The incident was first reported by WPLG-TV in Miami after the station received a tip Sunday night. Miami-Dade police spokesman Angel Rodriguez confirmed Tuesday via email that police are investigating an “assault/battery” involving Hill from Sunday. The station reported that Hill got into an argument with an employee of a charter company at Haulover Marina in Miami, which apparently ended with Hill hitting the man. “We are aware of the situation and
June 21, 2023All hail the rising sun. A seemingly curious alliance of druids, pagans, hippies, local residents, tourists and costumed witches and wizards are gathering around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun. They will stay and celebrate at Stonehenge for the night and greet sunrise on Wednesday, which will be the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere. All over the U.K., optimism will reign supreme as summer officially starts. It’s no coincidence that the nearby Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s biggest
June 21, 2023Bibles will return to the shelves in a northern Utah school district that provoked an outcry after it banned them from middle and elementary schools last month. Officials from the Davis School District, which educates 72,000 students north of Salt Lake City, said at a board meeting Tuesday that the district had determined the sacred text was age-appropriate for all district libraries. In allowing the Bible to be accessible to students regardless of their grade level, the board sided with 70 people who filed appeals after it was banned last month. “Based on their assessment
June 21, 2023Kyle Kuzma will be a free agent when the league’s annual offseason shopping period starts next week. Kuzma has declined his $13 million player option with the Washington Wizards for next season, a person with knowledge of his decision said Tuesday, meaning he will be a free agent. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither side disclosed the move. ESPN first reported Kuzma had declined the option. The move was not a surprise: Kuzma had said to The Washington Post and The Athletic in December that he was not planning to exercise the option,
June 21, 2023The nearly two-week eruption of a Hawaii volcano, one of the most active in the world, has come to a pause, scientists said. After a three-month hiatus, Kilauea began erupting again June 7 — displaying fountains of glowing red lava without threatening any communities or structures. Crowds of people flocked to the Big Island’s Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which offered safe views of the lava. Scientists declared the eruption paused again Monday when it rapidly declined in the afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. Still, some lava continues to flow on the crater floor,
June 21, 2023Employees are suing Twitter over tens of millions of dollars in bonuses they say the social media company failed to pay despite promises it would. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco claims that in the month’s leading up to billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company, executives including former finance chief Ned Segal “repeatedly” promised employees that 50% of their 2022 bonuses would be paid. The lead plaintiff, Mark Schobinger, served as Twitter’s senior director of compensation until last month. Lawyers for the plaintiff are seeking class action status on behalf of current and former Twitter
June 21, 2023Aaron Judge appears to be responding to a second platelet-rich plasma injection to his right big toe yet has not resumed baseball activities. Judge was hurt June 3 when he ran into a wall while making a catch at Dodger Stadium. The Yankees announced the first injection on June 6 and said Judge had another last Thursday. “I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Tuesday’s series opener against Seattle. “He’s been slowly doing better and able to do more things, but do feel like hopefully that was the start of him
June 21, 2023The world is falling well short of the progress needed to meet the United Nations’ sustainable development goals by 2030 in areas ranging from poverty to clean energy to biodiversity, with a growing gap between wealthy and developing nations, according to a report Tuesday from the nonprofit tracking the goals. The coronavirus pandemic stalled the limited progress made in the years after United Nations member states adopted the goals in 2015. Now, halfway through the 15-year time frame, not a single one of the goals is on target to be met. “We’re at the risk of a lost decade for
June 21, 2023Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves traveled to Alabama for a Republican fundraising event as people in his state were still reeling from back-to-back tornadoes that killed one person, injured dozens and destroyed homes and businesses, and in the midst of lingering power outages from severe thunderstorms. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Reeves headlined a Republican Governors Association fundraiser on Monday at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Birmingham, according to an invitation obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Ticket prices ranged from $5,000 for one person to $50,000 for four people. Reeves is policy chairperson for the RGA
June 21, 2023TCU used a four-run fifth inning to take control of the game and went on to beat Oral Roberts 6-1 in a College World Series elimination game Tuesday, ending the Golden Eagles’ surprising postseason run. The Horned Frogs (44-23) will play Florida next and would need to defeat the No. 2 national seed Wednesday and again Thursday to reach the best-of-three finals. TCU avenged Friday’s 6-5 loss to the Golden Eagles and has won two straight to put itself in position to play for its bracket title. “We’re playing in Omaha and in an elimination game,”
June 21, 2023Cuba said Tuesday it is reaffirming its alliance with Russia through a series of agreements considered key for the island nation, including on the supply of oil, the sale of wheat and the resumption of flights between both countries that were halted by the war in Ukraine. The agreements between two longtime allies facing economic sanctions from the United States were the result of a recent visit by Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero to Russia and were disclosed Tuesday by Gerardo Peñalver, Cuba’s vice minister of foreign affairs, in an interview with state-run Cubadebate website. “There
June 21, 2023Thousands of people marched in Colombia on Tuesday to voice their frustration with President Gustavo Petro’s government and its attempts to make sweeping changes to the nation’s health and pension systems, and its labor laws. The protests were held as Colombia’s first leftist president struggles to keep his coalition in congress together and sees a slump in his approval ratings as violence between rebel groups grows in some parts of the country. A corruption scandal involving two members of Petro’s inner circle has also put the government on the defensive, with the president now fighting allegations
June 21, 2023The tall task of determining Victor Wembanyama’s height isn’t finished yet. The expected No. 1 pick in the NBA draft might be 7-foot-4. Maybe not, though. While the league is listing him at that height in the draft guide on its media website, it’s not official. Check back in September. That’s the deadline for the San Antonio Spurs — assuming they take Wembanyama with the first pick as expected Thursday night — to submit an official height for him without shoes to the league. Wembanyama’s height listed in the draft guide falls in the middle of
June 21, 2023A company that makes air-bag inflators that have exploded in eight incidents involving two deaths and seven injuries argued Tuesday that it can’t say for sure whether its inflators might cause further such incidents. In a reply to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company, ARC Automotive of Knoxville, Tennessee, said that even adhering to industry quality standards cannot fully eliminate the risk of occasional failures in which the air-bag inflators might explode and spew shrapnel. NHTSA has demanded that ARC recall 67 million inflators in driver and passenger front air bags from at least a
June 21, 2023A man who served a hit-and-run sentence in a California prison until his release earlier this year remained jailed Tuesday, awaiting charges after a crash killed five young women in Minneapolis when a speeding driver blew past a state trooper, ran a red light and slammed into their car. Derrick John Thompson, 27, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was evaluated at a hospital and then booked into the Hennepin County Jail on Monday in the aftermath of Friday’s crash. The victims — Salma Abdikadir, Siham Adam, Sabiriin Ali, Sahra Gesaade and Sagal Hersi — were all between 17
June 21, 2023Lionel Messi is expected to make his Major League Soccer debut with Inter Miami at a July 21 home game, the team confirmed Tuesday. Owner Jorge Mas told selected outlets on Monday that his club and Messi have agreed to terms and are finalizing paperwork and a visa. The team confirmed certain details Tuesday to The Associated Press, including that Messi will be signing a contract through the end of the 2025 season with an option for 2026. Messi’s contract will be worth $50 million to $60 million per year, the team said Tuesday. He cannot sign
June 21, 2023Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept parts of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures. In neighboring Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers were eagerly awaiting the restoration of power and air conditioning following weekend storms that downed trees and snapped hundreds of utility poles. Officials say at least one person in Oklahoma has died because of the prolonged outages, which could last into the weekend for some residents. The request in Texas marked the first
June 21, 2023New England Patriots defensive back Jack Jones pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to nine counts of weapons violations in connection with his arrest at a Logan Airport security checkpoint with two loaded guns in his carry-on bag. Jones was charged with two counts each of unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm, possession of a large-capacity magazine and possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card. He was also charged with an airport security violation. Jones was released on a $30,000 cash bail pending an Aug. 18 probable cause hearing, his attorney, Rosemary Scapicchio, said. Scapicchio said Jones
June 20, 2023The news that French law enforcement officials are looking into possible corruption in awarding contracts for the Paris Olympics threatens to place those Games on the ever-growing list of Olympics that have been tarnished by scandals. A look at notable bidding scandals of the 21st century: SALT LAKE CITY, 2002 — Possibly the most wide-ranging bidding scandal of all time resulted in the removal of 10 members of the International Olympic Committee and a complete overhaul of the bidding process. The first whiff of scandal came in 1998 when a letter emerged suggesting the Salt Lake City bid committee was
June 20, 2023Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers Tuesday carried out what is believed to be the second confirmed public execution since the religious group took power in 2021, according to the country’s Supreme Court. The court had sentenced to death a man identified only as Ajmal from the capital Kabul who was found guilty of murdering five people in two separate incidents last year. The execution was carried out with an assault rifle by the son of Siad Wali, one of five men killed by Ajmal. It took place outside a mosque near the offices of the provincial governor in eastern
June 20, 2023A renowned Titanic expert, a world-record holding adventurer and two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families are facing critical danger aboard a small submersible that went missing while descending to the world’s most famous shipwreck. The submersible Titan was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center, spurring a desperate international rescue effort. As of Tuesday morning about 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) of the Atlantic Ocean had been searched, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Rescuers were racing against the clock
June 20, 2023Major League Baseball will stage a Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20, 2024, between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. The 10,800-seat stadium, opened in 1910, is the oldest professional ballpark in the U.S. and a National Historic Site. The stadium was home to the Birmingham Black Barons from 1924-60. The game will honor Hall of Famer Willie Mays, a Birmingham native who began his professional career with the team in 1948. MLB said Tuesday it is staging the game around the Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates
June 20, 2023Billionaire Warren Buffett is upping his bet on Japan, announcing this week that Berkshire Hathaway will increase its ownership stake in five major Japanese trading houses. The first Berkshire Hathaway investment in Itochu Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co. and Sumitomo Corp., a 5% stake, was disclosed in 2020 and earlier this year Buffett said that the stake had been increased to 7.4%. Ownership in the companies, Berkshire said this week, has reached 8.5% excluding shares of treasury stock. The trading houses are some of Japan’s oldest and biggest companies and hold investments in
June 20, 2023Slovakia’s first female president said Tuesday that she won’t seek reelection in next year’s presidential vote. President Zuzana Čaputová said the announcement was one of the “toughest” she has made. She said that after a serious assessment of her options, she came to the conclusion that she wouldn’t have enough strength left for another five-year term. “We all know that the last four years were linked to crises,” Čaputová said, citing the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and soaring inflation. She said those were the most difficult years of her life. “I
June 20, 2023Finland swore in a new coalition government on Tuesday that is seen as the most right-wing in the Nordic country’s modern history. The 19-member Cabinet of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, the leader of the conservative National Coalition Party, was approved by the Eduskunta legislature, after which President Sauli Niinistö appointed it. Following lengthy talks over seven weeks, the NCP, which won the most seats in the April 2 general election, announced a deal last Friday with three other parties to form a governing coalition that includes the far-right euro-skeptic Finns Party, which follows a largely nationalist and
June 20, 2023Moisés Vega has a distinctive job: The 64-year-old Mexican says he can speak the sacred language of volcanoes to ask for good weather and a good crop. Mexico lowered the alert level on the Popocatépetl volcano by early June after its eruptions of gas and ash had drawn the attention of the international community. For Vega, though, the 17,797-foot (5,425-meter) mountain, known as El Popo, is a living being that never fades from his sight. “The Popocatépetl is our father and the Iztaccíhuatl is our mother,” he said, referring to a neighboring volcano. “They are providers
June 20, 2023Portrait photographer Anne Brande shoots graduation and wedding engagement photos at scenic spots throughout southeastern Wyoming’s granite mountains and sprawling sagebrush valleys, but she worries what those views will look like in a few years. Wind energy is booming here. “Dandelions in my yard, you know, when there’s four or five, it’s OK,” Brande said. “When my whole yard is dandelions, I’m just not too excited.” In a state where being able to hunt, fish and camp in gorgeous and untrammeled nature is a way of life, worries about spoiled views, killed eagles and disturbed big-game
June 20, 2023An unprecedented global canvassing of Catholics has called for the church to take concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles, for a “radical inclusion” of the LGBTQ+ community and for new accountability measures to check how bishops exercise authority. The Vatican on Tuesday released the synthesis of a two-year consultation process, publishing a working document that will form the basis of discussion for a big meeting of bishops and laypeople in October. The synod, as it is known, is a key priority of Pope Francis, reflecting his vision of a church that is more about
June 20, 2023Charitable giving in the United States declined in 2022 — only the third time in four decades that donations did not increase year over year — according to the Giving USA report released Tuesday. Total giving fell 3.4% in 2022 to $499.3 billion in current dollars, a drop of 10.5% when adjusted for inflation. The decline comes at a time when many nonprofits, especially ones providing services to those in need, report an increase in requests for help. However, Josh Birkholz, chairman of the Giving USA Foundation, which publishes the report and provides data and insights
June 20, 2023Divisive social media personality Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, have been charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women, prosecutors in Romania said Tuesday. Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said prosecutors filed the charges against the brothers, who are both British-U.S. dual citizens, along with two Romanian women. In a statement, the agency said that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as the United States and Britain. It alleged that seven female victims were
June 20, 2023Nine Egyptian men accused of being members of a human smuggling ring involved in one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean are appearing in court in southern Greece on Tuesday for questioning over their alleged role in the disaster. The nine, appearing in court in the southern city of Kalamata, face a string of charges including participation in a criminal organization, manslaughter and causing a shipwreck. More than 500 people are believed to be missing from last week’s sinking off the western coast of Greece of the dilapidated fishing trawler, which some estimates say
June 20, 2023The latest mass killing in the United States happened Monday night in Philadelphia where a 40-year-old is accused of killing a man in a house and then gunning down four others on neighborhood streets before surrendering to police. Gun violence flared as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July holiday, leaving more than a dozen dead and almost 60 wounded — including children as young as 2 years old — in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C. The Philadelphia shooting is the country’s 29th mass killing of 2023 in which four or more people died, not including the
June 20, 2023The United States and China may be back to talking at a high level, but their battle for global power and influence remains unchecked and mutual suspicion still runs deep. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken set low goals for his visit to Beijing this week, and he met them. About the most the rivals can hope for these days is to stop things getting much worse. Blinken pointed to difficult days ahead, while China’s foreign ministry warned the relationship was in a downward spiral. “It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point
June 20, 2023Auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Nissan and about a dozen individuals in Beirut over his imprisonment in Japan and what he says is misinformation spread against him, Lebanese officials said Tuesday. According to the officials, Ghosn’s lawsuit accuses Nissan and the individuals of defamation and of “fabricating charges” against him, which eventually put him behind bars in Japan. The lawsuit was filed last month, the judicial officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. The officials did not identify the individuals that Ghosn is accusing. Ghosn was arrested
June 20, 2023European Union consumer protection groups urged regulators on Tuesday to investigate the type of artificial intelligence underpinning systems like ChatGPT, citing risks that leave people vulnerable and the delay before the bloc’s groundbreaking AI regulations take effect. In a coordinated effort, 13 watchdog groups wrote to their national consumer, data protection, competition and product safety authorities warning them about a range of concerns around generative artificial intelligence. A transatlantic coalition of consumer groups also wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden asking him to take action to protect consumers from possible harms caused by generative AI. Europe has
June 20, 2023A half-century later, Billie Jean King thinks back on the landmark gathering of female tennis players at a London hotel shortly before they competed at Wimbledon and acknowledges she wasn’t sure how things would go that day. “I had no idea. Absolute toss-up. Because you never really know. What I did know was that certain players didn’t like what we were trying to do,” King said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And I did know it had to happen that day. Had to.” Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the meeting on June 21, 1973, at the Gloucester
June 20, 2023Large numbers of refugees from Ukraine fleeing Russia’s war fueled a 1.3% rise in Germany’s population last year, helping push up the number of inhabitants in the European Union’s most populous country to more than 84.4 million, official statistics showed Tuesday. Germany’s population expanded by 1.12 million in 2022, the Federal Statistical Office said. That compared with an increase of just 0.1%, or 82,000 people, the previous year. All of Germany’s 16 states saw their populations increase. The largest proportional increases were in the country’s two biggest cities, Berlin and Hamburg, which both saw rises of 2.1%.
June 20, 2023French investigators are searching the headquarters of the Paris Olympic organizers in a probe into suspected corruption, according to the national financial prosecutor’s office. The Paris organizing committee said in a statement that a search is under way at their headquarters in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, and that “Paris 2024 is cooperating with the investigators to facilitate their investigations.” It would not comment further. An official with the financial prosecutor’s office said the searches are linked to two investigations based on information provided by an anti-corruption agency. The official was not authorized to be publicly named
June 20, 2023Ukrainian air defenses downed 32 of 35 Shahed exploding drones launched by Russia early Tuesday, most of them in the Kyiv region, officials said, in a bombardment that exposed gaps in the country’s air protection after almost 16 months of war. Russian forces mostly targeted the region around the Ukrainian capital in a nighttime drone attack lasting around three hours, officials said, but Ukrainian air defenses in the area shot down about two dozen of them. The attack was part of a wider bombardment of Ukrainian regions that extended as far as the Lviv region in
June 20, 2023Trade, climate change and the war in Ukraine are on the agenda Tuesday as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who is on his first foreign trip since taking office. The meeting in Berlin is the seventh time Germany and China have held high-level government consultations and comes a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, indicating an effort by Beijing to reach out to the West and improve frosty relations. Li, a former Communist Party secretary for Shanghai who took office in March as China’s No.
June 20, 2023Homeless people in California are already a vulnerable group, often struggling with poor health, trauma and deep poverty before they lose their housing, according to a new study on adult homelessness. The study released Tuesday by the University of California, San Francisco attempts to capture a comprehensive picture of how people become homeless in California, and what impeded their efforts at finding permanent housing. The representative survey of nearly 3,200 homeless people found that when they lost housing, their median household income was $960 a month, and for renters on leases it was $1,400 a month,
June 20, 2023Asian shares mostly declined Tuesday as some investors took a wait-and-see attitude after U.S. markets were closed for a national holiday. Some investors were also disappointed after a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Secretary of State Antony Blinken yielded no signs of progress from either side on Taiwan, human rights, technology and other issues of contention. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 inched down less than 0.1% in afternoon trading to 33,388.91. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9% to 7,357.80. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.2% to 2,603.27. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 1.8% to 19,550.76, while the Shanghai
June 20, 2023A Palestinian attacker opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory. Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the Jewish settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker’s driver had fled the scene. The condition of the attacker was not immediately clear. Photos circulated of a man lying bloodied and face-down in
June 20, 2023A rescue operation was underway deep in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean on Monday in search of a technologically advanced submersible vessel carrying five people to document the wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century ago. The vessel was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lt. Cmdr. Len Hickey said a Canadian Coast Guard vessel and military aircraft were assisting the search effort, which was being led by the U.S. Coast Guard in
June 20, 2023Victor Wembanyama has long been earmarked to be the No. 1 overall selection in the NBA draft, a player so unique that he defies traditional categorization. He headlines The Associated Press’ list of big men in the draft with a 7-foot-3 frame that could eventually help him dominate inside to go with his perimeter skills. The AP previously noted the top guard prospects in the draft, along with forwards and international players to watch. Here’s a look at the top big-men likely to hear their names called Thursday night: VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, France STRENGTHS: An incomparable combination of skills and size
June 20, 2023China’s Alibaba Group has announced a major management reshuffle aimed at spurring the e-commerce giant’s growth at a time when the Chinese economy is slowing despite an end to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions a half-year ago. Eddie Wu, chairman of its e-commerce group, will succeed Daniel Zhang as CEO, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Zhang will be CEO and chairman of Alibaba’s cloud computing unit, which has been approved to be spun off and is expected to be listed for trading within a year. Alibaba’s current executive vice chairman, Joseph Tsai, is to succeed Zhang
June 20, 2023A 5-inch scrape on his left arm to show for his spectacular performance, Mike Yastrzemski took as much pride in his headfirst slide for the tying run as he did that dramatic splash-hit homer to end the game in the 10th inning. Yastrzemski sent a three-run shot into McCovey Cove to win it, and the San Francisco Giants rallied past the San Diego Padres 7-4 on Monday night for their season-best eighth straight victory. Yastrzemski also connected in the sixth, giving him five career multi-homer games and two against San Diego. It was his fourth walk-off
June 20, 2023Several Virginia incumbents prevailed over challengers in Tuesday’s primary election, but two of the state’s most controversial political figures — Democratic Sen. Joe Morrissey and Republican Sen. Amanda Chase — lost their party’s nomination. Morrissey, a political centrist and increasingly rare Democrat who supports limits on abortion access, lost to former state legislator Lashrecse Aird, who centered her campaign on her unapologetic, “100%” support for abortion rights. “Joe’s been here too long. It’s time for new blood,” said Gail Coleman, 62, who voted for Aird Tuesday afternoon in suburban Richmond. Chase, a right-wing firebrand who has
June 20, 2023A search is underway for a deep-sea vessel that went missing with five people aboard after it dove toward the deteriorating wreck site of the Titanic ocean liner. The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the search for the small craft, named Titan, in the North Atlantic Ocean. The remote area is where the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. The Titan’s dive on Sunday is one of many that have been made to the wreck by OceanGate Expeditions since 2021. The sunken ship is about 2.4
June 20, 2023India’s prime minister has a reputation of casting himself as an ascetic. So when Narendra Modi leads foreign dignitaries and bureaucrats in a session for International Yoga Day on Wednesday at the United Nations’ Secretariat in New York, millions of Indians will take note. Yoga, an ancient discipline first practiced by Hindu sages, is now one of India’s most successful cultural exports after Bollywood. And it’s become a piece of India’s diplomacy. Surinder Goel, a 61-year-old yoga instructor in the capital, New Delhi, practices daily. He says the activity is “India’s contribution to the world.” “Our
June 20, 2023Max Scherzer went back to basics with his slider and it led to a fantastic performance. Francisco Lindor homered and drove in five runs, and Scherzer pitched eight strong innings for his longest outing with the New York Mets in their 11-1 victory over the skidding Houston Astros on Monday night. Scherzer (6-2) gave up four hits and struck out eight to rebound from consecutive rough starts against the Braves and Yankees. He was tagged for seven hits and six runs over 3 1/3 innings last week in a no-decision at home against the Yankees. “After the
June 20, 2023Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton said Monday she will “carry out my duties” ahead of the historic impeachment trial of her husband, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, but did not outright say whether or not she will recuse herself on a vote to remove him from office. Breaking weeks of public silence since her husband was impeached in May, Angela Paxton did not address the accusations in a statement released by her office. Whether Paxton will cast a vote with her husband’s job on the line has raised ethical questions ahead of the looming trial in
June 20, 2023Luis Arraez went 5 for 5 again to raise his batting average to .400, and Jorge Soler homered as the streaking Miami Marlins routed the Toronto Blue Jays 11-0 on Monday night. Jon Berti had three hits and Jesús Sánchez doubled twice for the Marlins, who won their fifth straight game and finished with 19 hits — their most since getting 21 on June 1 last year in the opener of a doubleheader at Colorado. Miami improved to a season-best 11 games over .500 at 42-31. “This is fun because we’re winning and everybody gets hits,” Arraez
June 20, 2023At least six teenagers were shot Monday afternoon around where Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration had just wrapped up, according to police and fire officials. The shooting happened about 4:20 p.m. outside Greater Philadelphia Church of God in Christ, according to witnesses and a Facebook Live video taken by a bystander in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, according to local media outlets. Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said six teens were shot, including a 17-year-old who may have been a gunman himself and is in custody. Police were still seeking additional suspects who hadn’t yet been identified. Police
June 20, 2023Glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain ranges and could lose up to 80% of their current volume this century if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t sharply reduced, according to a new report. The report Tuesday from Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development warned that flash floods and avalanches would grow more likely in coming years, and that the availability of fresh water would be affected for nearly 2 billion people who live downstream of 12 rivers that originate in the mountains. Ice and snow in the Hindu Kush Himalayan ranges
June 20, 2023Dozens of LGBTQ+ pride flags were damaged and ripped down at the Stonewall National Monument over the weekend, the third such bout of vandalism at the LGBTQ+ landmark during this Pride month, police said. The latest occurrence happened Sunday, after others on June 9 and last Thursday. No arrests have been made in any of the incidents, and it’s unclear whether they were connected. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating. On Sunday, officers were called around 8 a.m. and found about 33 pride flags broken and tossed to the ground, police
June 20, 2023Four people were hospitalized in New Zealand after a man armed with an axe began attacking diners at random at three neighboring Chinese restaurants, according to police and witnesses. Police said the man began the attack at about 9 p.m. Monday in the north Auckland suburb of Albany. They said they arrested a 24-year-old suspect at the scene and had charged him with wounding and intending to cause grievous bodily harm. Police did not immediately offer a motive for the attack. Auckland City Hospital said Tuesday one patient from the attack remained there in a
June 20, 2023Mat Ishbia’s five-month tenure as the new owner of the Phoenix Suns has produced a whirlwind of change. Nobody seems completely safe — not even 12-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul — as the Michigan native continues his quest to deliver Phoenix its first NBA title. The aggressive owner oversaw his latest big move Sunday, when the Suns put together the framework for a trade that would send Paul, Landry Shamet and other compensation to the Washington Wizards in exchange for three-time All-Star Bradley Beal. Paul — making an appearance on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on Monday
June 20, 2023It’s OK to feel duped by Formula One and the splashy Netflix show that sucked you into the globetrotting racing series at the height of the pandemic. The behind-the-scenes “Drive to Survive” docudrama packaged F1 as sexy and sophisticated, a highbrow alternative to beer-soaked NASCAR and its crash-cheering fans. The epic 2021 championship fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton made for must-watch racing, with Americans setting their alarms for ungodly hours to watch one of the fiercest battles in series history. F1 had finally captured the elusive American audience and Liberty Media, the rights holder, added stops in Miami
June 20, 2023The Golden State Warriors want to keep Draymond Green, yet the team is prepared for him to formally decline his $27.5 million player option for the final year of his contract next season and become an unrestricted free agent seeking a long-term deal. The Athletic reported Monday that Green would opt out. Green, who said in April he wants to retire with Golden State, would have to notify the Warriors of his decision by June 30. “I saw the report, too. Until we get the paperwork and the filing we can’t really comment or say much,”
June 20, 2023New Jersey’s casinos, horse tracks that take sports bets and the online partners of both types of gambling won nearly $471 million in May, up 9.4% from a year earlier according to figures released Monday by state gambling regulators. But the amount of money won from in-person gamblers, which the casinos consider to be their key metric, was down 2.4% from a year ago, to $227.3 million. And only three of the nine casinos — Borgata, Hard Rock and Ocean — won more money from in-person gamblers this May than they did in May 2019,
June 20, 2023Victor Wembanyama has arrived in the U.S. for the NBA draft. The plane from France carrying Wembanyama — who almost certainly will be taken by the San Antonio Spurs with the No. 1 pick in Thursday’s draft — arrived at Newark International Airport outside of New York City on Monday. And even before becoming an NBA star, he got his first official taste of NBA stardom. Some fans knew what flight he was on and when the plane was landing, and many were waiting. Wembanyama cheerfully signed autographs, scrawling his name onto basketballs and Spurs jerseys — some even with
June 20, 2023Opponents of offshore wind energy projects in New Jersey are gathering force legally and politically as they seek to snuff out the nascent industry. Within the last week, three residents groups sued New Jersey over a key approval of its first planned wind farm; the research arm of Congress agreed to investigate the impact of offshore wind on the environment and other areas; and lawmakers in two counties most heavily impacted by wind farms stepped up their efforts to block the projects. Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Beach, and Protect Our Coast NJ filed
June 20, 2023Montana officials sought to downplay a first-of-its-kind trial taking place over the state’s obligations to protect residents from climate change, saying Monday that a victory by the young plaintiffs would not change approvals for fossil fuel projects. Attorneys for Montana’s Republican attorney general laid out their defense following a week of often emotional testimony in state court from young people who sued the state in 2020. The 16 plaintiffs, ranging in age from 5 to 22 years old, say they’re being harmed by wildfire smoke, excessive heat and other effects of climate change. They’re asking a
June 20, 2023Diego Cocca was fired as coach of Mexico’s national team on Monday, four days after a 3-0 loss to the United States in a CONCACAF Nations League semifinal. The federation said Jaime Lozano will take over the national team. Lozano coached under-23 team to a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Cocca was hired in February and led El Tri to three wins, a loss and three draws. El Tri had not lost to the U.S. by three goals in 23 years. “You can lose to the United States, because that’s soccer,” Mexican Football Federation
June 20, 2023The American sailboat in the Ocean Race had the hole in its hull repaired and set off for Italy in an attempt to rejoin the around-the-world competition before it is over. The 11th Hour Racing Team left The Hague, Netherlands, on Sunday, less than 72 hours after it was T-boned by another boat just 17 minutes into the start of the final leg. Its goal is to reach Genoa before the July 1 in-port race that serves as the grand finale of the six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) competition. “We were determined that this would not put an end to
June 20, 2023More than 100,000 customers in the southern U.S. remained without power Monday following damaging storms, leaving residents searching for relief as sweltering temperatures continued to scorch the region. Power outages for some customers in the piney woods of Texas could stretch late into this week as crews scrambled to make repairs. In some parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, the heat wave has been accompanied by heavy rain, punishing winds, thunderstorms and hail. In Louisiana, officials closed nearly two dozen state offices Monday because of the risks of severe weather. “It’s been unbearable,” Leigh Johnson, a resident
June 19, 2023Spain received a record number of claims for refugee status and international protection last year, but the government rejects far more applications than the European average, a nongovernmental organization said Monday. The Spanish Commission for Refugees, also known by its Spanish acronym CEAR, released its annual report analyzing Spain’s response to increased demand for sanctuary in 2022 because of the forced displacement of millions by Russia’s war in Ukraine, multiple conflicts in Africa and political crises in Latin America. Spain received 118,842 asylum requests last year, its highest ever and the third-highest number in the European Union.
June 19, 2023Intel and the German government on Monday signed a deal that would see the U.S. company investing more than 30 billion euros ($32.8 billion) in a chip manufacturing site in the German city of Magdeburg, with financial support from Berlin. Word of the agreement came as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in the German capital. Intel acquired the land for two semiconductor facilities in Magdeburg in eastern Germany in November, and the company says the first of them is expected to start production in four or five years. “The investment in Germany means
June 19, 2023Police in southern Germany said Monday that an American tourist who was thrown into a ravine during an attack near Neuschwanstein castle in which her 21-year-old friend was killed has been released from the hospital. The 22-year-old woman had tried to stop a 30-year-old Michigan man from allegedly assaulting her friend after luring them onto a trail leading to a viewpoint overlooking the famous castle, which draws more than a million tourists every year. The older woman fell nearly 50 meters (165 feet) down a steep slope but was able to leave the hospital Friday, police spokesperson
June 19, 2023India’s IndiGo airline is buying 500 passenger jets from European planemaker Airbus, the two companies said Monday, in a record-setting order that underscores surging demand for air travel fueled by the country’s economic growth. IndiGo, India’s dominant carrier, is buying the A320 aircraft in what the companies said was the single biggest purchase agreement in commercial aviation history. Executives from both companies announced the deal on the opening day of the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest event focusing on aviation and space industry. They didn’t disclose how much the order was worth, but it would likely
June 19, 2023The United Nations called on countries in the Middle East and Europe on Monday to ramp up aid efforts in Sudan to address the deepening humanitarian crisis. Sudan has been rocked by fighting for more than two months as the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battle for control of the country. Sudan’s Health Ministry said Saturday that more than 3,000 have been killed in the conflict, which has decimated the country’s fragile infrastructure and sparked ethnic violence in the western Darfur region. “The scale and speed of Sudan’s descent into death and destruction is unprecedented,”
June 19, 2023Eight-time major champion Tom Watson wants answers on the PGA Tour’s new business partnership with Saudi backers of LIV Golf, asking in a letter Monday to Commissioner Jay Monahan if the deal was the only way to solve the tour’s financial hardship. That was one of several questions posed by Watson in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press and was sent to Monahan, the PGA Tour board and “my fellow players.” He said the questions were “compounded by the hypocrisy in disregarding the moral issue.” On the day after Wyndham Clark became the
June 19, 2023An American push to establish “green shipping corridors” is key to reducing carbon emissions from the shipping industry, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday while touring the port of Yokohama near Tokyo. Buttigieg was in Japan to attend a meeting over the weekend of transport ministers of the Group of Seven advanced economies, who reaffirmed a commitment to reducing emissions from the transport industry and to keeping navigation free and open in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. is seeking to develop and strengthen partnerships with “like-minded countries” to improve maritime security and keep shipping and
June 19, 2023An American push to establish “green shipping corridors” is key to reducing carbon emissions from the shipping industry, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday while touring the port of Yokohama near Tokyo. Buttigieg was in Japan to attend a meeting over the weekend of transport ministers of the Group of Seven advanced economies, who reaffirmed a commitment to reducing emissions from the transport industry and to keeping navigation free and open in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. is seeking to develop and strengthen partnerships with “like-minded countries” to improve maritime security and keep shipping and
June 19, 2023Wind and solar power are sometimes dinged for not producing electricity 24 hours a day, but one of the most abundant minerals on the planet, iron, could be key to changing that. Form Energy, founded in 2017, recently broke ground in West Virginia on its first commercial-scale factory to make iron-air batteries — totally different from lithium ion. The company’s goal is to one day help supply the electrical grid across the United States with renewable energy 24 hours a day and slash the need for burning coal and natural gas, polluting energy sources we currently rely on. CEO Mateo
June 19, 2023Britain’s House of Commons is likely Monday to endorse a report that found Boris Johnson lied to lawmakers about lockdown-flouting parties in his office, a humiliating censure that would strip the former prime minister of his lifetime access to Parliament. Lawmakers will debate a report by the Privileges Committee that found Johnson in contempt of Parliament, and are expected to approve its findings. It’s unclear whether there will be a formal vote or whether the report will be approved by acclamation. Johnson responded with fury to the report, branding its conclusions “deranged” and accusing its members of
June 19, 2023Defense ministers and other representatives of about 20 European countries will hold a conference in Paris on Monday on how to better defend Europe’s airspace, a long-divisive issue that takes on new urgency because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The talks will include anti-drone combat and ballistic missile defense, French organizers said, noting that Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has shown the importance and effectiveness of such equipment. Nuclear weapons deterrence will also be on the agenda. The list of countries taking part in the conference, including the exact number, hasn’t been made public by the French
June 19, 2023Chinese shoppers were treated to deep discounts, new products and payment plans as online merchants sought to revive their sluggish appetite for spending during China’s first major online shopping festival after the end of zero-COVID policies. For the first time, e-commerce retailer JD.com did not release the results of its 618 shopping festival, which ended Sunday, making it hard to know just how much was spent. A bigger shopping festival, Single’s Day, held on Nov. 11 each year rakes in billions of dollars. Analysts said most consumers have become more price-conscious and reluctant to spend given
June 19, 2023A Russian court on Monday opened a new trial of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny that could keep him behind bars for decades. The trial is taking place at a maximum security prison in Melekhovo, 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Moscow, where Navalny — the Kremlin’s arch foe — is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court. Navalny, 47, who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
June 19, 2023Chinese Premier Li Qiang has started a visit to Germany and France that comes as Europe seeks to balance concerns over economic dependence on China and about its stance toward Ukraine and Taiwan with a desire to engage Beijing on issues such as climate change. Li, on his first trip abroad since taking office, was received by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday. Li and a large delegation of Chinese ministers meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and their German counterparts on Tuesday, the seventh such gathering. Top officials from both sides also will meet business representatives. Li,
June 19, 2023The United Nations has rebuked Moscow for allegedly denying its aid workers access to Russian-occupied areas affected by the recent Kakhova dam collapse in southern Ukraine, which stranded residents, threatened power supplies and caused an environmental calamity as the war approaches 16 months. The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said in a statement late Sunday that the organization has engaged with Moscow and Kyiv, each of which occupies parts of the southern Kherson region where the dam and reservoir are located, to address the “devastating destruction” caused by the breach. The Russian government “has
June 19, 2023The number of confirmed victims from one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean rose to 81 Monday after three more bodies were found off southern Greece, as more survivors claimed that the battered trawler had been under tow by another vessel just before it sank with hundreds of people aboard. The new accounts raised further questions about the Greek coast guard’s response from the moment it located the ship until it went down. Officials in Athens have insisted that the metal fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy was at no point under
June 19, 2023Alex Palou isn’t taking anything for granted and his competitors aren’t conceding a thing. But someone’s going to have to make a heck of a charge in the second half of the season to prevent Palou from winning his second IndyCar Series championship in three years. Palou has won three of the last four IndyCar events and owns a 74-point lead over Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson as the season approaches its midway point. That’s the biggest advantage anyone’s had eight races into the season since 2020, when Scott Dixon led the rest of
June 19, 2023Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower Monday after the top U.S. and Chinese diplomats agreed to cooperate during a meeting held at a time of friction over an array of conflicts. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul retreated. Sydney gained. Oil prices fell. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.4% on Friday after the Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate steady but warned last week it might be raised later if needed to cool inflation. On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang held what the Chinese government called
June 19, 2023Brandon Miller rapidly became an elite NBA draft prospect in his lone season at Alabama. He headlines The Associated Press’ list of forwards and could go as high as second overall behind presumptive No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama. There are other one-and-done prospects such as Villanova’s Cam Whitmore, Houston’s Jarace Walker and Central Florida’s Taylor Hendricks as potential top-10 picks. Here’s a look at the top forwards in the draft: BRANDON MILLER, Alabama STRENGTHS: Miller, 20, went from McDonald’s All-American to AP first-team All-American. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 18.8 points and 8.2 rebounds while shooting 38.4% from 3-point range and
June 19, 2023The U.S. Open wrapped up, as it always does, on Father’s Day. Golf’s newest champion would be the first to tell people he’s always been a mama’s boy. Wyndham Clark’s victory Sunday will be remembered for how a 29-year-old newcomer to the big time held off some of the biggest names in the game to stamp a poignant exclamation mark on a U.S. Open that had been, to that point, kind of hard to love. Clark’s mother, Lise, died of breast cancer in 2013 — a family tragedy that sent him spiraling. The win brought with
June 19, 2023Israeli troops killed 3 Palestinians, including a minor, and wounded at least 29 others during a massive gunbattle with militants in the streets of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The fighting was the latest in more than a year of near-daily violence that has wracked the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified Khaled Asasa, 21, Qassam Abu Sariya, 29, and 15-year-old Ahmed Saqr among the killed and said at least four other were seriously wounded in the shootout. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the
June 19, 2023In her years running Catholic youth programs in France, Sister Nathalie Becquart often invoked her own experience as a seasoned sailor in urging young people to weather the storms of their lives. “There’s nothing stronger than seeing the sunrise after a storm, the flat calm of the sea,” she says. That lesson is especially applicable to Becquart herself as she charts the global church through an unprecedented — and at times, tempestuous — period of reform as one of the highest-ranking women at the Vatican. Pope Francis named the 54-year-old nun as the first female undersecretary
June 19, 2023Elly De La Cruz’s arrival gave fans in Cincinnati a reason to be hopeful about the future. Then the Reds started looking like they might be contenders — right now. It helps that they play in the NL Central, where everyone is one great week away from challenging for the division lead. And after eight straight victories, the Reds are only a half-game behind first-place Milwaukee. Cincinnati finished the week by sweeping a three-game series on the road against defending champion Houston. The Reds haven’t had a winning streak this long since 2012. Cincinnati is 10-2 since De La Cruz’s
June 19, 2023A spate of weekend mass shootings and violence across the U.S. killed at least six people, including a Pennsylvania state trooper, and left dozens injured. The shootings follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. They happened in suburban Chicago, Washington state, central Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore. “There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those
June 19, 2023Multinational companies including Amazon, Marriott and Hilton pledged Monday to hire more than 13,000 refugees, including Ukrainian women who have fled the war with Russia, over the next three years in Europe. Just ahead of World Refugee Day on Tuesday, more than 40 corporations say they will hire, connect to work or train a total of 250,000 refugees, with 13,680 of them getting jobs directly in those companies. “Every number is a story of an individual family who left everything, seeking safety, seeking protection and wanting to be able to rebuild as quickly as possible,” said Kelly Clements, U.N. deputy
June 19, 2023A jury verdict that found an Oregon power company liable for devastating wildfires — and potentially billions of dollars in damages — is highlighting the legal and financial risks utilities take if they fail to take proper precautions in a hotter, drier climate. Utilities, especially in the U.S. West, are increasingly finding themselves in a financial bind that’s partly of their own making, experts say. While updating, replacing and even burying thousands of miles of powerlines is a time-consuming and costly undertaking, the failure to start that work in earnest years ago has put them on
June 19, 2023Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower Monday after the top U.S. and Chinese diplomats agreed to cooperate during a meeting held at a time of friction over an array of conflicts. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul retreated. Sydney gained. Oil prices fell by almost $1. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.4% on Friday after the Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate steady but warned last week it might be raised later if needed to cool inflation. On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang held what the
June 19, 2023Folarin Balogun and Chris Richards scored their first international goals, both off assists from Gio Reyna, and the United States beat Canada 2-0 on Sunday night for the Americans’ second straight CONCACAF Nations League title. Richards scored in the 12th minute from a corner kick and Balogun, who debuted in Thursday’s 3-0 win over Mexico after choosing to play the U.S. over England, doubled the lead in the 34th. The Americans were again led by interim coach B.J. Callaghan, who took over May 30 and also will run the team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup starting
June 19, 2023The Pittsburgh Pirates are calling up heralded prospect Henry Davis. the top pick in the 2021 draft, to help the team that has lost six straight games and tumbled from the top spot in the NL Central. Pirates manager Derek Shelton said after Sunday’s 5-2 loss to division-leading Milwaukee that Davis, who has played catcher and outfield, will join the team at PNC Park on Monday for the start of a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs. “I’m excited,” Shelton said. “He deserves to be here. I think he’s shown that. We’ll probably talk more about it
June 19, 2023From his electric opening-round 62 to his neon-orange Sunday ensemble, Rickie Fowler showed off just about everything during the 123rd U.S. Open that once made him one of the most compelling figures in golf. Unfortunately, that also included another painful fade from title contention after he took a share of the lead into the last round. Fowler stumbled to a 75 Sunday, finishing in a three-way tie for fifth at Los Angeles Country Club. After 18 holes alongside eventual champion Wyndham Clark, Fowler ended up five shots back with the worst final round among the top
June 19, 2023Australia’s Senate voted Monday to hold a referendum this year on creating an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an advocate aiming to give the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority more say on government policy. Dozens of mainly Indigenous people stood up the public galleries and clapped when senators passed the referendum bill 52 votes to 19. The Senate vote means the referendum must be held on a Saturday in a two-to-six-month window. While the Voice would advocate for Indigenous interests, it would not have a vote on laws, and debate for and against the elected body has
June 19, 2023Wyndham Clark always carried the message from his late mother to “play big.” Nothing was bigger than Sunday when he held off Rory McIlroy with one clutch shot after another to become a U.S. Open champion. The final act was two putts from 60 feet on the 18th hole at Los Angeles Country Club, and the 29-year-old Clark pumped his fist when it settled a foot away. He tapped that in for an even-par 70 and a one-shot victory over McIlroy and so many other stars. Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, couldn’t
June 19, 2023Rory McIlroy got the sort of break most players need to win a U.S. Open. If only he could’ve made a putt or two to go with it. The golf gods, to say nothing of the golf rulebook, gave McIlroy a chance to save par after his approach shot on the 14th hole came up short and embedded in the deep grass above a greenside bunker. But McIlroy missed the putt — a common theme on Sunday — and made his only bogey of the day. That single shot cost him in a one-stroke loss to
June 19, 2023Juneteenth flag designer Ben Haith stood on the mound at Fenway Park before the Red Sox hosted the Yankees on Sunday, waving his arms to pump up the crowd. A collection of Black community leaders and Red Sox employees fanned out behind him, all wearing special Juneteenth commemorative jerseys that bore Haith’s creation on the back. “It feels like I’m living in a miracle,” Haith said before throwing a ceremonial first pitch as part of baseball’s commemoration of Juneteenth, which marks the date that news of the end of slavery reached Texas — two years after the
June 19, 2023Top North Korean officials vowed to push for a second attempt to launch a spy satellite as they called their country’s first, and failed, launch last month “the most serious” shortcoming this year and harshly criticized those responsible, state media reported Monday. In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite crashed soon after liftoff, posing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to acquire a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the United States and South Korea. The failed launch and North Korean efforts to modernize its weapons arsenals were
June 19, 2023Kamau, the African lion who was a star attraction at California’s Sacramento Zoo, has died at age 16, officials said. The zoo said Kamau was euthanized Saturday, a day after the big cat was pulled off an exhibit because of declining health due to his advanced age. The lion was considered elderly with worsening gastrointestinal problems, “and the difficult decision to proceed with humane euthanasia was made when medical treatment options failed to provide sufficient relief from his condition,” the zoo said in a statement. The statement called Kamau one of the zoo’s “most charismatic and
June 19, 2023At least six people including a Pennsylvania state trooper were killed and dozens injured in a string of weekend violence and mass shootings across the U.S. The shootings in suburban Chicago, Washington state, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. “There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are
June 19, 2023Tommy Fleetwood has shot 63 in the final round of the U.S. Open for the second time in five years. Fleetwood missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Sunday that would have given him a 62 and a share of this tournament’s new single-round record. Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele both shot 62 on Thursday at Los Angeles Country Club. Still, the 32-year-old Englishman is part of an exclusive group. He became the fourth player with multiple rounds of 63 in major championships, joining Greg Norman (1986 U.S. Open and 1996 Masters), Vijay Singh
June 19, 2023Americans across the country this weekend celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War. While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America’s often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens. And still others have remarked at the strangeness of celebrating a federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the nation while many Americans are trying to stop that history from being taught in public schools. “Is
June 19, 2023Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to bring down a Ukrainian dam that collapsed earlier this month while under Russian control, according to exclusive drone photos and information obtained by The Associated Press. Images taken from above the Kakhovka Dam and shared with the AP appear to show an explosive-laden car atop the structure, and two officials said Russian troops were stationed in a crucial area inside the dam where the Ukrainians say the explosion that destroyed it was centered. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The dam’s
June 19, 2023Leona Maguire played her final six holes in 6 under and shot an 8-under 64 on Sunday to win the Meijer LPGA Classic by two strokes, her second tour victory. Maguire made six birdies and an eagle in her bogey-free round at Blythefield to finish at 21-under 267. She caught playing partner Ariya Jutanugarn with an eagle on the par-5 14th hole to reach 18 under, then closed with three straight birdies to pull ahead of Jutanugarn and Xiyu Lin. Maguire was solid but unspectacular on the front nine, birdieing both par 3s, and was 2
June 19, 2023Leave it to Rickie Fowler to find that brilliant combination of hydration, product placement and doing what the kids like. One of golf’s fan favorites has been walking around the U.S. Open this week with his reusable water bottle in hand. It is, in keeping with the preteen and teen trends, covered with stickers. One has a bearded skull that is the logo of a coffee company. There’s one of a lightbulb that is the logo of a beer company. Another sticker is a space alien, and there’s one with the name of a company that
June 19, 2023Relatives of a late Black businessman who helped popularize Juneteenth in San Diego are suing a cemetery after his remains were reported missing from the family’s burial plot. Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary informed the family that Sidney Cooper’s body and casket were not in the plot where he was supposed to have been buried more than two decades ago. Cemetery staff discovered it was empty as they prepared to bury Cooper’s wife, Thelma, who died in March. Staff said they did not know the whereabouts of Cooper’s remains, their daughter, Lana Cooper-Jones, told the San
June 19, 2023The Atlanta Braves designated infielder Charlie Culberson for assignment hours before his father was set to throw out a ceremonial first pitch on Father’s Day. Culberson, a 34-year-old from Rome, Georgia, was cut before Sunday’s game against Colorado. He was brought up from Triple-A Gwinnett on May 19 but had not appeared in any games since his promotion. After Culberson was let go, the father of Braves outfielder Michael Harris II took care of the first pitch at Truist Park. Harris went 5 for 5 and scored three times for Atlanta in the 14-6 win. Culberson made
June 19, 2023Alex Verdugo scored on a catcher’s interference to break a fourth-inning tie and then scored again in the fifth after reaching on a dropped popop and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 4-1 on Sunday night to complete a doubleheader and series sweep of their AL East archrivals. Verdugo also had an RBI double off the Green Monster to lead the Red Sox to a 6-2 win in the day game, a makeup of Saturday’s rainout. Boston won the series opener 15-5 on Friday, giving them their first series sweep of the Yankees in
June 19, 2023A Greek news website has published excerpts from the depositions of two survivors of Wednesday’s deadly shipwreck off southwestern Greece, in which more than 500 people are feared drowned after an overcrowded boat carrying as many as 750 migrants went down in international waters. Passengers on the ill-fated trawler had to subsist on meager supplies of food and water which ran out several hours before the disaster, two survivors have reportedly testified. News website kathimerini.gr, which is run by Greek newspaper Kathimerini, has published excerpts from the depositions of two survivors, 23-year-old Hassan, from Syria, and
June 19, 2023When he won the pole in the pouring rain, Max Verstappen was quick to explain that it had been his father who would stand on the wet track during his early days of karting and point him to the correct driving lines. So when Verstappen won the Canadian Grand Prix on Father’s Day — a 41st victory that tied the Dutchman for fifth on the all-time Formula One wins list with the late Ayrton Senna and gave Red Bull its 100th win as an organization — he was quick to salute the man who had molded him into the two-time
June 19, 2023A man stabbed a pit bull to death following a quarrel with the dog’s owner in New York City’s Central Park, officials said. The seriously injured dog was transported to a local animal clinic, where he was euthanized after the stabbing Saturday evening, police said. According to the New York Daily News, an argument broke out between the man and the woman when the assailant’s unleashed dog began biting at the woman’s pit bull. As she tried to separate the dogs, the man pulled out a switchblade and stabbed the pit bull mix. No arrests were
June 19, 2023Forecasters warned people celebrating Father’s Day outdoors to take precautions as triple-digit temperatures prompted heat advisories across much of the southern U.S., triggered thunderstorms that knocked out power from Oklahoma to Mississippi and whipped up winds that raised wildfire threats in Arizona and New Mexico. A suspected tornado struck near Scranton, Arkansas early Sunday, destroying chicken houses and toppling trees onto homes, the National Weather Service said. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for north and central parts of his state after strong winds and severe weather caused
June 19, 2023Chinese consumers snapped up billions worth of items in China’s first major online shopping festival after emerging from the pandemic as merchants slashed prices, but analysts say that consumer confidence still remains weak. Chinese merchants offered customers steep discounts during the 618 shopping festival, which ran on China’s major shopping platforms from the end of May until June 18, in the hopes of shoring up sales amid a weaker-than-expected recovery in consumption. Major shopping festivals, like e-commerce retailer JD.com’s 618 and Alibaba’s Singles’ Day, are typically barometers of consumption in China, and Chinese e-commerce platforms often
June 19, 2023National League home run leader Pete Alonso returned to the lineup on Sunday for the New York Mets against the St. Louis Cardinals after spending the minimum 10 days on the injured list with a left wrist bone bruise and sprain. Alonso was expected to miss three to four weeks after he was hit by a 97 mph fastball thrown by the Atlanta Braves’ Charlie Morton in the first inning on June 7. But Alonso, whose 22 homers are one fewer than major league leader Shohei Ohtani, said he thought last week he’d beat the timeline
June 19, 2023Nikola Jokic made it back to Serbia in time to watch his beloved horses race in his hometown. Less than a week after leading the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA championship, Jokic was back in his hometown of Sombor on Sunday to enjoy his big passion of horse racing. Thousands of his supporters in the usually sleepy northern Serbian town of some 47,000 people also converged on the local horse racing track where Jokic was watching his family-owned horses compete in harness races. Many had T-shirts with Jokic’s portrait, some reading “Be the Next Champion”
June 19, 2023The United States and China have failed to overcome their most serious disagreements but were able to discuss them in a potentially constructive way and have agreed to continue talks, U.S. officials said Sunday. The officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken was able during a nearly 6-hour meeting to secure a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. But, they said progress on other issues remains a work in progress. Blinken, the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office, will have more senior level contacts with the Chinese on
June 19, 2023Brittney Griner sat on the bench in warmups for the second straight game, sidelined by a hip injury she suffered earlier this week. The All-Star center worked out about an hour before the game against New York on the court and looked good doing an array of post moves and jumpers. She told The Associated Press when she walked in the arena that she hoped to play. Instead she sat on the bench cheering on her teammates, being ruled out about 20 minutes before the game after being listed as questionable on the injury report. It
June 19, 2023Marty Walsh wasn’t a man in a hurry to leave the Biden administration. Less than halfway through the president’s term, Walsh was in a comfortable spot in the Cabinet as labor secretary. Then he got a call about an interesting opportunity: running the NHL Players’ Association. The former mayor of Boston and longtime Bruins fan was intrigued and earlier this year accepted the role as executive director. Now three months in, Walsh is trying to get to know players and what they care about most, learning about everything from the Arizona Coyotes’ arena situation to the salary cap and future
June 18, 2023Israel’s government on Sunday granted a pro-settlement firebrand authority over planning in the occupied West Bank and lifted red tape on the settlement housing approval process, Israeli media reported. The changes make it easier for Israel to expand its settlements on land the Palestinians seek as the heartland of their future state, at a time when hopes for peace are more distant than ever. The measure was approved by the government on Sunday as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, who is in charge of Middle East affairs, was set to meet with Israeli and Palestinian
June 18, 2023Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday declared a national day of mourning for citizens who died when the fishing trawler packed with migrants they were in sank off the Greek coast. As many as 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Pakistan were on board the vessel, trying to reach relatives in Europe. The Greek coast guard has defended its response to the tragedy that left more than 500 migrants presumed drowned. The vessel sank on Wednesday. Sharif expressed his grief over the tragedy and said Monday would be observed as
June 18, 2023Ministers from Germany and France tasked with regulating migration are joining forces to try to curb deaths on dangerous routes across the Mediterranean Sea, traveling Sunday for talks with the president and their counterpart in Tunisia, a major North African stepping stone for migrants trying to reach Europe at risk of their lives. The two-day trip by the German and French interior ministers, Nancy Faeser and Gérald Darmanin, follows what is feared to be the deadliest migrant shipwreck in years in the Mediterranean — the capsizing last week of a fishing vessel packed with men, women
June 18, 2023You could call her the mother of Father’s Day. The late Sonora Smart Dodd launched the celebration of dads in 1910 in her hometown of Spokane, Washington. As a result, she is the one responsible for those annual gifts that run the gamut from embarrassingly silly-looking neckties to kids’ finger paintings crafted with so much love by those tiny hands that they can bring a tear to the eye of even the most stoic father. It’s a tradition Dodd decided to start as she sat in a Spokane church on Mother’s Day 1909, listening to a
June 18, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he opposes any interim agreement reportedly being negotiated between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program. Netanyahu spoke after reports in Israeli media said understandings are being reached between Washington and Tehran that would seek to hold back Iran’s nuclear program somewhat, in exchange for some sanctions relief. The reports could not be independently confirmed and the U.S. has publicly denied any such deal. Netanyahu said Israel had informed the U.S. that “the most limited understandings, what are termed ‘mini-agreements’, do not – in our view
June 18, 2023At least 96 people died in two of India’s most populous states over the last several days, officials said Sunday, with swaths of the country reeling from a sweltering heatwave. The deaths happened in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and eastern Bihar where authorities warned residents over 60 and others suffering various maladies to stay indoors during the daytime. All the fatalities in Uttar Pradesh, totaling 54, were reported in Ballia district, some 300 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Lucknow, the state capital. Authorities found out most of those who passed away were over 60
June 18, 2023Two days after being discharged from the hospital, Pope Francis resumed his cherished Sunday custom of greeting the public in St. Peter’s Square, expressing thanks for the comfort he received after surgery and thanking the crowd shouting “Long live the pope!” Before launching into prepared remarks, Francis expressed gratitude for “affection, attention and friendship” and the assurance of “the support of prayer” during his hospitalization for June 7 abdominal surgery at a Rome hospital to repair a hernia and remove increasingly painful scarring around his intestines. “This human and spiritual closeness for me was a great
June 18, 2023A bereaved Ugandan border town on Sunday prepared to bury victims of a brutal attack by suspected extremist rebels on a school that left 42 dead, most of them students, as security forces stepped up patrols along the frontier with volatile eastern Congo. One of eight people wounded in Friday night’s attack, in which 38 students were killed, died overnight, said Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze. “Most of the relatives have come to take their bodies” from the morgue, he said. Some students were burned beyond recognition, and others were shot or hacked to death after militants
June 18, 2023Malian voters cast ballots on a new draft constitution Sunday in a referendum that the country’s coup leader says will pave the way toward holding new elections in 2024, but that critics have called a delaying tactic for him to extend his time in power. In a message broadcast on state television on the eve of the vote, Col. Assimi Goita told Malians that the proposed draft constitution “provides for a better-organized executive power, while maintaining the necessary balance with the legislative power.” However, Imam Mahmoud Dicko, an opponent of the military junta, invited his supporters
June 18, 2023Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday his government intends to move ahead on contentious plans to change the country’s judicial system after talks aimed at finding a compromise solution appeared to be crumbling. The government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises ever earlier this year. Negotiations between the government and opposition parties somewhat alleviated the crisis with attempts to find a middle ground over proposed changes to the country’s justice system. Those talks were jolted last week over a crisis surrounding the powerful regular committee responsible
June 18, 2023Russia and Ukraine are suffering high numbers of military casualties as Ukraine fights to dislodge the Kremlin’s forces from occupied areas in the early stages of its counteroffensive, British officials said Sunday. Russian losses are probably at their highest level since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March, U.K. military officials said in their regular assessment. According to British intelligence, the most intense fighting has centered on the southeastern Zaporizhzhia province, around Bakhmut and further west in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province. While the update reported that Ukraine was on the offensive in these areas
June 18, 2023Sudan’s warring parties began a cease-fire Sunday morning after two months of fighting pushed the African nation into chaos. Residents in the capital, Khartoum, and its neighboring city of Omdurman reported “relative calm” in the first hours of the cease-fire Sunday morning, after fierce clashes were reported the previous day. The three-day truce came ahead of a pledging conference the U.N. and other nations will organize Monday to raise funds to cover Sudan’s humanitarian needs. The U.N. says it received less than 16% of the $2.57 billion required to help those in need in Sudan in 2023.
June 18, 2023For nearly three years, a harsh crackdown on dissent in Belarus by its authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has filled the country’s penal colonies with thousands of political prisoners, with new arrests reported daily. At the same time, a government campaign has gotten rid of many independent lawyers, making it increasingly difficult for the detainees to mount any kind of legal defense. Siarhej Zikratski is among those lawyers forced to leave Belarus under the threat of arrest. More than 500 of his colleagues have been stripped of their law licenses and quit the profession since 2020, and
June 18, 2023David Freese has decided to decline his induction into the St. Louis Cardinals’ Hall of Fame. The former third baseman was a postseason hero for his hometown team in helping the Cardinals win the 2011 World Series. He was chosen for the Hall of Fame by fans, garnering the most votes in online balloting for this year’s class. But in a statement Saturday, the Cardinals said Freese recently informed them he wanted to withdraw his candidacy. That leaves José Oquendo and Max Lanier to be enshrined during ceremonies on Aug. 20. “This is something that I
June 18, 2023A relentless wave of violent crime within Israel’s Palestinian minority is turning cities and towns into bloody battlefields, exasperating a community feeling increasingly forsaken by Israeli authorities. Anger over the mounting insecurity is directed at Israel’s government and its ultranationalist minister in charge of police, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Critics say that with his history of anti-Arab rhetoric, he cannot be trusted to combat the rising scourge. The skyrocketing violence lays bare the deep inequities in Israeli society, with Arabs facing years of discrimination that activists say laid the groundwork for the unabating bloodshed. More than 100 people
June 18, 2023At the top of the U.S. Open leaderboard there are two players each going for their first major title. That’s about all they have in common. Rickie Fowler has contended in majors, won nine tournaments across the globe and has long been one of golf’s most recognizable players. Wyndham Clark is playing in only his seventh major and, no matter how he plays Sunday, this will mark the first time he’s finished better than 75th. “It’s a little surreal to be in this situation,” Clark said. In a way, the player one shot behind them, Rory
June 18, 2023The cruise ship with about 1,000 passengers anchored off Nome, too big to squeeze into into the tundra city’s tiny port. Its well-heeled tourists had to shimmy into small boats for another ride to shore. It was 2016, and at the time, the cruise ship Serenity was the largest vessel ever to sail through the Northwest Passage. But as the Arctic sea ice relents under the pressures of global warming and opens shipping lanes across the top of the world, more tourists are venturing to Nome — a northwest Alaska destination known better for the Iditarod
June 18, 2023Call him a traditionalist, but Wyndham Clark thinks professional golf is better in the daylight. The U.S. Open co-leader criticized NBC’s decision to put Saturday’s third round in a late broadcast window that forced the final competitors to finish their rounds around sunset. Visibility at Los Angeles Country Club was poor for the final hour of play, and Clark wasn’t thrilled to finish the biggest round of his life in suboptimal conditions. “Personally, I don’t quite understand it,” Clark said. “I know we’re (on the) West Coast and whatnot, and I know they probably have the
June 18, 2023California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has proposed an end to public disclosure of investigations of abusive and corrupt police officers, handing the responsibility instead to local agencies in an effort to help cover an estimated $31.5 billion budget deficit. The proposal, part of the governor’s budget package that he is still negotiating with the Legislature, has prompted strong criticism from a coalition of criminal justice and press freedom groups, which spent years pushing for the disclosure rules that were part of a landmark law Newsom signed in 2021. The law allows the state Commission on Peace
June 18, 2023Xander Schauffele has run into trouble on the weekend at plenty of majors in recent years. It happened again Saturday at the 123rd U.S. Open, thanks to a dismal driver and a series of comic misadventures from the rough and bunkers. After beginning the tournament with the best round in U.S. Open history, Schauffele will need a spectacular finish Sunday to finally take his name off the list of the world’s best players without a major title. Schauffele shot a 3-over 73 in the third round to slip into a sixth-place tie with Dustin Johnson, sitting
June 18, 2023Rickie Fowler made his biggest birdie when no one expected it with a 70-foot putt. Wyndham Clark responded with a bold play for a birdie on the last hole to catch him Saturday and set the stage for a dynamic conclusion to the U.S. Open. Fowler looked to have his first 54-hole lead in a major until he missed a 3 1/2-foot par putt on the final hole at Los Angeles Country Club and settled for an even-par 70. Clark was reeling after his third bogey on the back nine, but drilled his approach at a
June 18, 2023A Philippine ferry carrying 120 passengers and crew members caught fire at sea on Sunday and a coast guard vessel was deployed to rescue those onboard and try to extinguish the flames, coast guard officials said. The M/V Esperanza Star caught fire at dawn while traveling from Siquijor province to Bohol province in the central Philippines, the coast guard said. It did not immediately say how many people have been rescued from the ferry or if there were casualties. Photos and video released by the coast guard show flames and black smoke billowing from two decks
June 18, 2023Tom Kim’s last big plunge into the major-championship spotlight was a muddy mess. This one — crisp and clean for a while, but stained by a rugged finish. The 20-year-old, who became a meme after his waist-high wade into the mud while looking for his ball at the PGA Championship last month, was on record-setting pace Saturday at the U.S. Open before things started to unravel. He tied a tournament record by shooting 29 over nine holes, and added another birdie on No. 10 to get to 7-under par for the day and 6 under for
June 18, 2023Amy Yang birdied all five par 5s at Blythefield and shot her third straight 5-under 67 to take the third-round lead Saturday in the Meijer LPGA Classic. Yang rebounded from bogeys on the par-3 11th and 13th to birdie the par-5 14th, par-4 17th and par-5 18th to reach 15-under 201 on the tree-lined course. “All week my ball-striking has been really good,” Yang said. “I was giving myself good chances out there. I was a little bit off with putting speed during the round, made a couple mistakes, but I tried to stay patient and
June 18, 2023Max Verstappen won the 25th pole of his career and moved one step closer to tying the late Ayrton Senna for Formula One victories as the two-time reigning world champion overcame wet conditions in Saturday qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix. Verstappen, who has won five of seven races this season, will lead the field to green Sunday as he attempts to win his 41st career race. It would tie him with Senna for fifth on F1’s all-time winners list. Rain in Montreal hampered most of Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and although the track was only slightly slick at
June 18, 2023The city of St. George must issue a permit for a Utah-based group that organizes drag performances to host an all-ages drag show in a public park, a federal judge ruled, calling the city’s attempt to stop the show unconstitutional discrimination. “Public spaces are public spaces. Public spaces are not private spaces. Public spaces are not majority spaces,” U.S. District Judge David Nuffer wrote in a Friday ruling granting the preliminary injunction requested by the group. “The First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures that all citizens, popular or not, majority or minority, conventional
June 18, 2023This U.S. Open is not to be mistaken as “Golf, But Louder” on so many levels. Mostly the loud part. Bringing the second-oldest championship in golf to Los Angeles Country Club — so exclusive that some Angelenos don’t know it’s there — was always going to come with a cost. It’s a small footprint in the rotation of U.S. Open courses, meaning a small crowd compared with the likes of Oakmont or Pinehurst No. 2. The North course is magnificent, even if it doesn’t look to be a traditional U.S. Open. With a blazing sun in
June 18, 2023A commercial flight carrying more than 270 Yemeni Muslim pilgrims left the rebel-held capital of Sanaa on Saturday to Saudi Arabia, an official said, the first such flight in about seven years. The flight by Yemen’s national carrier Yemenia — also known as Yemen Airways — took off from Sanaa’s international airport at 8 p.m. local time, heading to the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, Khalid al-Shayyef, head of the Yemeni airport, said. He told The Associated Press the flight was the first of five that would transfer this year’s Muslim pilgrims from Sanaa to Saudi
June 18, 2023The venue that bills itself as “America’s National Park of Speed” is delivering faster times after its first repaving in nearly three decades. It’s also producing a bit more frustration. Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport earned the pole position for Sunday’s IndyCar Series race at Road America by posting a fastest lap of 1 minute, 40.1945 seconds on this 14-turn, 4.014-mile road course. That’s over 4 1/2 seconds faster than the time Alexander Rossi ran to earn the pole for last year’s event. Pato O’Ward qualified second and was followed in order by points leader
June 18, 2023Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters on Saturday staged marches in Belgrade and other Serbian cities against President Aleksandar Vucic, pledging to “radicalize” weeks of peaceful gatherings that have already shaken his populist rule. The demonstrators in Belgrade blocked the main highway that leads through the capital and chanted slogans for Vucic to resign, something that he has repeatedly rejected over the past seven weeks of protests. The protest initially erupted in response to two back-to-back mass shootings in early May that left 18 people dead and 20 others wounded, many of them pupils from a
June 18, 2023Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists received an unexpected boost from its main rival in next month’s national election on Saturday when his party won the mayor’s office of Barcelona following a tight vote at city hall. Sánchez’s Socialists, or PSOE, took a beating in local and regional elections in May when the conservative Popular Party routed leftist mayors and regional chiefs in votes across the country. The situation in Barcelona, however, was different. A party in favor of the Catalonia region seceding from the rest of Spain won the most votes by a slim margin
June 18, 2023Communities from Houston to New Orleans opened cooling centers to bring relief as steamy hot temperatures settled across a broad swath of the U.S. South on Saturday, and beachgoers fled a water spout that swept ashore on a Florida beach. Gov. Greg Abbott meanwhile visited Perryton in the Texas Panhandle, where officials said more than 1,000 customers remained without electricity after a tornado killed three people late Thursday. The Perryton Ochiltree Chamber of Commerce said it would open a cooling center in the town of 8,000 people, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Amarillo, to counteract the effects of
June 18, 2023The WNBA is working with Brittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury on travel options including charter flights going forward. Griner’s travel was back in the spotlight last week when the team took a flight to Texas and then Indiana, requiring Griner and her Mercury teammates to go through commercial airports. While going through a Dallas airport last Saturday, the All-Star center who had been detained in Russia for nearly 10 months was harassed by what the WNBA called a “provocateur.” The league doesn’t allow teams to use charter flights except for when they have back-to-back games.
June 17, 2023West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, a month after the university suspended him for three games for using an anti-gay slur while also denigrating Catholics during a radio interview. Huggins, 69, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was pulled over by police in Pittsburgh on Friday night. He was charged with driving under the influence, was released from custody and will appear at a later date for a preliminary hearing, according to a police report. It was Huggins’ second such arrest. The other occurred in 2004 when he was the head coach at Cincinnati.
June 17, 2023The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Binance have reached an agreement in court that lets the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange continue to operate in the United States as it battles SEC fraud charges. Under a consent order filed Saturday, the defendants in the June 5 lawsuit agreed to repatriate all assets held for the benefit of Binance’s U.S. trading customers. The SEC alleges Binance broke U.S. law by operating as an unregistered securities exchange. It filed similar charges against the world’s other top cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, nearly simultaneously. But Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, face additional charges of
June 17, 2023The head of a religious art and culture center founded by a disgraced Jesuit priest came to his defense Saturday after he was expelled from the Jesuit religious order following allegations of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse against adult women. Maria Campatelli, director of the Rome-based Aletti Center, said the claims against the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik were “defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of mediatic “lynching” against the Slovene priest and his art center. The Jesuits announced this week that Rupnik had been ordered expelled from the order June 9 because of “stubborn refusal
June 17, 2023The timing of Michael Jordan’s decision to sell his majority ownership stake in the Charlotte Hornets has left the organization in flux, with several looming key personnel decisions. The Hornets have the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft on Thursday night. They also have some difficult decisions to make in free agency in early July, including whether to re-sign embattled restricted free-agent Miles Bridges. With the NBA’s Board of Governors unlikely to approve the team’s sale to an ownership group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall until at least another month or two, the
June 17, 2023King Charles III rode on horseback Saturday to take part in his first Trooping the Color ceremony as U.K. monarch, inspecting hundreds of soldiers and horses in a spectacular annual military display at central London’s Horse Guards Parade. Charles, 74, the colonel in chief, received the royal salute and watched as the most prestigious regiments in the U.K. army paraded to mark his official birthday. It was the first time in more than 30 years that a U.K. monarch has taken part in the pomp-filled ceremony on horseback. Earlier, Charles’ eldest son, Prince William, and the king’s
June 17, 2023Authorities continued to search Saturday for victims and survivors of a trawler that sank off the coast of Greece with as many as 750 migrants on board, as conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis blasted critics of the rescue operation. Naysayers, Mitsotakis said at a campaign stop in the town of Sparta, should turn their ire against traffickers he called “human scum.” The vessel sank on Wednesday. The Greek coast guard announced Saturday that one Greek Navy frigate and four other vessels were operating 47 nautical miles (54 miles; 87 kilometers) southwest of the town of Pylos in
June 17, 2023The United States ambassador held a U.S. flag high as he marched in the yearly Pride parade in Warsaw on Saturday, a clear message of Washington’s opposition to discrimination in a country where LGBTQ+ people are facing an uphill struggle. “America embraces equality,” Ambassador Mark Brzezinski said, as he marched with more than 30 other members of the U.S. Embassy and alongsides representatives from Canada, Austria and other Western countries in the Equality Parade. In recent years Western governments have been alarmed by a conservative government in Warsaw that depicts gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people
June 17, 2023Menswear is looking for post-pandemic footing during Milan Fashion Week, landing somewhere between resort, adventurer and tailoring. Dolce & Gabbana offered quiet luxury as only the designing duo can, reinventing masculine silhouettes with feminine detailing. MSGM, for its part, offered adventure with an off-road collection inspired by African travels. On the tailoring side, Ralph Lauren showed its high-end Purple line in its patrician Milan villa, focusing on made-in-Italy detailing for everyday luxury, including burnished footwear, unconstructed cotton-linen blend jackets, and chunky Fair Isle knitwear. Margherita Maccapani Missoni chose the menswear shows to unveil her new brand, using
June 17, 2023An airstrike in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Saturday killed at least 17 people, including five children, health officials said, as fighting continued between rival generals seeking to control the country. The attack was one of the deadliest of the clashes in urban areas of Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan between the military and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces. It was not clear whether the attack was by aircraft or a drone. The military’s aircraft have repeatedly targeted RSF troops and the RSF has reportedly used drones and anti-aircraft weapons against the military.
June 17, 2023Police in Germany have arrested a truck driver accused in the crash in Italy last year that killed professional cyclist Davide Rebellin, Italian prosecutors said Saturday. Wolfgang Rieke is accused of road homicide and leaving the scene of a crash. Vicenza prosecutor Lino Giorgio Bruno said he was arrested Thursday in Muenster on a European arrest warrant. German authorities said he had surrendered. Rebellin, one of cycling’s longest-serving professionals, was killed Nov. 30 during a training run near the northern Italian town of Montebello Vicentino. At the time, Italian media reported the truck that struck him didn’t
June 17, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday is set to host a group of African leaders who traveled to Russia on a self-styled “peace mission” after their trip to Ukraine. Seven African leaders — presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia, as well as Egypt’s prime minister and top envoys from the Republic of Congo and Uganda — visited Ukraine on Friday to try to help end their nearly 16-month-old war. The African leaders traveled to St. Petersburg Saturday to meet with Putin who attended a business forum in Russia’s second-largest city. The mission to Ukraine,
June 17, 2023Over 100,000 people who had sheltered from Cyclone Biparjoy in relief camps in western India have begun to return home after the storm weakened and headed toward Pakistan, officials said Saturday. In the coastal village of Jakhau, where the cyclone made landfall in India’s Gujarat state on Thursday, over 130 people had shifted back to their homes from a government-run shelter by midday Saturday. India’s powerful home minister, Amit Shah, was expected to visit the village later Saturday and take stock of the situation. Officials said electricity had been restored in many villages but some were
June 17, 2023This much is clear: On June 9, an old steel fishing trawler left eastern Libya for Italy, carrying far too many people. As many as 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, Palestine and Pakistan were on board, fleeing hopelessness in their home countries and trying to reach relatives in Europe. Five days later, the trawler sank off the coast of Greece in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea, in what is likely one of the deadliest shipwrecks in recent Mediterranean history. Only 104 people, all men, survived. The remains of 78 people were recovered. There
June 17, 2023At least 34 people have died in the past two days as a large swath of the north Indian state Uttar Pradesh swelters under severe heat, officials said Saturday, prompting doctors to advise residents over 60 to stay indoors during the daytime. The dead were all over 60 years old and had preexisting health conditions that may have been exacerbated by the intense heat. The fatalities occurred in Ballia district, some 300 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh. Twenty-three deaths were reported Thursday and another 11 died Friday, Ballia’s Chief
June 17, 2023Entering court using a walker, a doctor’s note clutched in his hand, 70-year-old Dana Williams, who suffers serious heart problems, hypertension and asthma, pleaded to delay eviction from his two-bedroom apartment in Atlanta. Although sympathetic, the judge said state law required him to evict Williams and his 25-year-old daughter De’mai Williams in April because they owed $8,348 in unpaid rent and fees on their $940-a-month apartment. They have been living in limbo ever since. They moved into a dilapidated Atlanta hotel room with water dripping through the bathroom ceiling, broken furniture and no refrigerator or microwave. But
June 17, 2023Tens of thousands of Vegas Golden Knights fans, maybe more, are expected at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday for a Stanley Cup victory parade and a rally to mark the team’s first-ever NHL championship. Las Vegas police prepared Friday for upwards of 100,000 people to cram viewing areas along Las Vegas Boulevard for a celebration that planners were comparing to annual New Year’s Eve fireworks shows that in past years have drawn estimates of 400,000 people. Unlike a winter midnight, evening temperatures are expected to be in the 90s. The Strip will
June 17, 2023For more than one-and-a-half centuries, the Juneteenth holiday has been sacred to many Black communities. It marks the day in 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed — after the end of the Civil war, and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Since it was designated a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth has become more universally recognized beyond Black America. Many people get the day off work or school, and there are a plethora of street festivals, fairs, concerts and other events. People who never gave the holiday on June 19 more than
June 17, 2023Max Homa didn’t make the cut in his home U.S. Open. The Burbank-born, Valencia-raised Homa shot a 6-over 76 on Friday to finish his two rounds at 4-over 144, missing the cut by two shots. Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth both missed the cut by one shot, sending them home from Los Angeles Country Club along with Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Adam Scott and Stewart Cink. At No. 7 in the world, Homa was the highest-ranked player who missed the cut. He fell short after a roller coaster of a second round that included
June 17, 2023San Diego State University has sent a letter to the Mountain West seeking information related to a potential exit next year, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday night due to the sensitivity of the situation. According to multiple reports, SDSU wants an extension of the deadline to give formal notice it is leaving the Mountain West to avoid having to pay double the exit fee. SDSU hopes to join either the Pac-12 or the Big 12 but has not received a formal invitation. The person said
June 17, 2023Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the PGA Tour filed a motion late Friday to dismiss their antitrust lawsuit and countersuits, ending more than 10 months and enormous legal fees in a dispute that turned into a business agreement. The filing in a northern California federal court was more procedural than a surprise. It was a big part of the stunning June 6 agreement in which Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund, the PGA Tour and the European tour became partners in a new for-profit company for commercial businesses. Along with ending the antitrust complaints against each other, the motion asks for dismissal
June 17, 2023With leader Kim Jong Un in attendance, North Korea opened a key political conference to discuss improving its struggling economy and reviewing defense strategies in the face of growing tensions with rivals, according to state media reports Saturday. The enlarged plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee came as the United States sent a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea in the allies’ latest show of force against the North, which has ramped up its testing of nuclear-capable missiles to a record pace in recent months. During the first day of meetings Friday, North
June 17, 2023Victor Wembanyama wasn’t the only young French prospect turning heads overseas. Granted, fans would have had to look much farther to find Rayan Rupert, who played for the New Zealand Breakers. He is among the international prospects expecting to hear their names called at the NBA draft on Thursday in New York. They don’t possess Wembanyama’s size and skills, but they’re confident they can make an impact. There’s a distinct French flavor in this year’s draft class. Wembanyama and Rupert are French, as is Bilal Coulibaly, Wembanyama’s teammate with Metropolitans 92. Here’s a look at some of
June 17, 2023Brittney Griner waved to fans who applauded her as she walked onto the court, embraced Elena Della Donne and signed an autograph before taking a seat on the bench. A video tribute and standing ovation followed at the first timeout. A hip injury prevented Griner from playing for the Phoenix Mercury against the Washington Mystics on Friday night. Still, Griner was embraced by opponents and the sellout crowd in her first public appearance in the nation’s capital since returning from her imprisonment in Russia, down the road from many of the folks in the U.S. government who
June 17, 2023U.S. national team captain Becky Sauerbrunn has a right foot injury that will keep her out of the Women’s World Cup next month. A person familiar with the matter confirmed to The Associated Press a report in The Athletic that Sauerbrunn will miss the World Cup. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because an Sauerbrunn’s status has not been publicly announced. The U.S. women’s national team is expected to unveil its 23-player roster for the World Cup next week. The two-time defending World Cup champions will play a send-off match against Wales in San Jose on July 9
June 17, 2023The U.S. Open tried to fight back against record low scores with a North course at Los Angeles Country Club stretched to full length. Wyndham Clark and Rory McIlroy were among those who managed just fine Friday. And then it was up to Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele to tackle the biggest defense on another otherwise vulnerable course — sunshine and a freshening breeze in the afternoon. Clark, who last month broke through with his first PGA Tour title against an elite field, started strong with a bold flop shot and a monster birdie putt and
June 17, 2023The Justice Department on Friday issued a scathing assessment of Minneapolis police, alleging that racial discrimination and excessive force went unchecked before George Floyd’s killing because of inadequate oversight and an unwieldy process for investigating complaints. The probe began in April 2021, a day after former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd, a Black man. Floyd, who was in handcuffs, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe before going limp as Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes. The killing was recorded by a bystander and
June 17, 2023A man who police say was exhibiting signs of a mental health crisis after he shot and killed a pregnant restaurant owner in her car in downtown Seattle this week was charged Friday with first-degree murder in her death, and prosecutors said they are seeing whether they can also charge him for the death of the baby girl the woman was carrying. Cordell M. Goosby, 30, was arrested Tuesday soon after witnesses said he ran up to a car occupied by Eina Kwon, 34, and her husband, Sung Kwon, 37, the owners of a sushi restaurant near
June 17, 2023Dustin Johnson’s summary of the quadruple bogey he made that could be the difference between winning and losing the U.S. Open was succinct, matter-of-fact and, of course, ugly. “Chunked my bunker shot and then chunked the next one. Skulled the next one,” he said. “Everything that you could do wrong, I did wrong.” That 8 he took on the second hole Friday was as bad as it gets. The 4-under par he shot over the next 16 holes was a reason he could smile at least a little. Even with the snowman, Johnson shot an even-par
June 17, 2023Former President Donald Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and the key witness against him in his New York state criminal prosecution lost his bid Friday for early release from probation following a three-year prison sentence after federal prosecutors said he’s lying again. U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan cited Michael Cohen’s recent comments in a book and television appearance as reasons to conclude that early release from court supervision would not ensure rehabilitation and deterrence from future crimes. The credibility of Cohen — who served as Trump’s personal lawyer from his early 2017 inauguration until
June 17, 2023Deion Sanders might lose his left foot as a result of circulation issues that forced him to have two toes ampuated in 2021. Sanders allowed camera crews with ” Thee Pregame Show ” to film a meeting with his medical team at the University of Colorado, where he’s preparing for his first season as head football coach. In at 11-minute segment released Friday on YouTube, Sanders met with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ken Hunt, vascular surgeons Dr. Donald Jacobs and Dr. Max Wohlauer and athletic trainer Lauren Askevold to discuss his daily pain levels and possible next steps. “You just have
June 17, 2023Six of 10 seniors who survived a bus crash in Canada that killed 15 others were listed in critical condition in hospital, health officials said Friday. They were among a group of seniors from rural Dauphin, Manitoba on a day-trip to a casino when their minibus crashed with a semi while crossing the Trans-Canada Highway. The remaining four were also in hospital, where most of the injured were dealing with head injuries and broken bones. “This is an elderly cohort of patients, so recoveries will be long and, of course, can be complicated,” Dr. Shawn Young,
June 17, 2023Germany’s economy minister welcomed a deal Friday among European Union countries to increase by more than a third the bloc’s renewable energy target for 2030. Representatives of the 27 member states approved a package raising the current goal of 32% to 45% by 2030. About 22% of the EU’s total energy consumption came from renewables in 2021, meaning the new target will double the amount in less than a decade. The deal includes a number of exceptions to cover the interests of various member states, including specific clauses on hydrogen production. “The new European rules will trigger
June 17, 2023Charles Leclerc spent the Formula One off weekend attending his first 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he tucked into the back of the Ferrari garage and watched the Italian automaker win the iconic endurance race for the first time since 1963. The celebration was wild and one Leclerc hasn’t been part of in some time. He doesn’t expect that to change Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix, where Leclerc expects Ferrari’s season-long slump to continue. Leclerc can accept that Ferrari is off pace from Red Bull, winners of all seven races so far this season. What isn’t as acceptable
June 17, 2023Thousands of Reddit discussion forums have gone dark this week to protest a new policy that will charge some third-party apps to access data on the site, leading to worries about content moderation and accessibility. “Reddit is killing third-party applications (and itself),” multiple subreddits wrote in posts seen on the platform’s homepage this week. The new fees are part of broader changes to Reddit’s API, or application programming interface, that the company announced recently. Organizers of the blackout, which began Monday, say Reddit’s changes threaten to end key ways of historically customizing the platform — which relies
June 17, 2023If you hopped on Reddit to scroll through your favorite forums this week, you may have encountered “private” or “restricted” messages. That’s because thousands of subreddits chose to go dark in an ongoing protest of some controversial changes announced by the online discussion network. The blackout, which began Monday, emerged out of outrage over Reddit’s upcoming changes to its application programming interface (API) access — notably the company’s plan to start charging high usage third-party apps, who have long-used the Reddit data at no cost to build resources for users not available through the official site or
June 17, 2023The possibility that Alex Palou will drive for a new team as the reigning IndyCar champion next year grows increasingly likely with each race. Palou for has won two of the last three IndyCar races heading into Sunday’s event at Road America. The Spaniard holds a commanding 51-point lead in the standings as he chases his second series title in three years. His performance this season follows a tumultuous 2022 in which Palou attempted to leave Chip Ganassi Racing for McLaren Racing. After Ganassi sued, and mediation determined Palou remained contractually bound to the team
June 17, 2023An NCAA panel is calling for the removal of marijuana from the organization’s list of banned drugs, suggesting that testing should be limited to performance-enhancing substances. The proposal released Friday from the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports would mark a big change for the NCAA, which has been conducting drug tests at championship events since 1986. Committee members recommended halting cannabis tests at such events until a final decision is made, likely this fall. Legislation would still have to be introduced and approved by all three NCAA divisions to take effect. Administrators in
June 17, 2023The railroad industry on Friday sued to block new environmental rules in California, arguing they would force the premature retirement of about 25,000 diesel-powered locomotives across the country long before their zero-emission counterparts are ready to take their place. California’s aggressive strategy to fight climate change by weaning the state off fossil fuels has produced some of the world’s toughest environmental regulations in the past few years. Since 2020, the state has OK’d rules that would ban the sale of new gas-powered cars, lawn equipment and trucks by the middle of the next decade. Those rules
June 17, 2023Albums from Kelly Clarkson and Portugal. The Man, as well as the new season of “And Just Like That” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you. Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are “The Bear” back for a second helping, Gabrielle Union leading “The Perfect Find” and the Criterion Channel delving into the cliche of the gay best friend. NEW MOVIES TO STREAM — In “The Perfect Find,” Gabrielle Union stars as a 40-year-old fashion editor who hits it off with a young man
June 17, 2023The eight police officers who shot Jayland Walker last summer used excessive force when they fired 94 bullets at him during a foot chase and participated in a “culture of violence and racism” within Akron’s police department, according to a lawsuit filed in Ohio federal court Friday. Months after a grand jury declined to indict the unnamed officers in the death of Walker, a 25-year-old Black man, his family is seeking at least $45 million in damages from the officers, the city of Akron and city officials, according to a press release. During a routine traffic
June 17, 2023The United States Treasury on Friday announced sanctions on a Mexico-based migrant-trafficking gang that supplied asylum seekers with false papers to game the process. Known as the Hernandez Salas organization, the gang is based in the border city of Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, California. Since at least 2018, the gang organized travel by migrants from “countries posing national security concerns,” according to the Treasury Department, though it did not specify what countries those were. The gang then smuggled the migrants into the United States. The Treasury said in a statement that the criminal scheme
June 17, 2023St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs hitters will have to work a little harder to match the Yankees-Red Sox slugfests from 2019 when they play in London because the fences are being pushed back. The center field wall will be 392 feet from home plate, seven feet deeper than four years ago, as part of changes that Major League Baseball said came about because of some seat restructuring at London Stadium and not because of the high scores in New York’s two wins over Boston. The Yankees and Red Sox combined for 10 homers over two games playing on artificial
June 17, 2023Balloons with rainbows and Minnie Mouse surrounded the casket of an 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody as dozens of people gathered Friday to remember Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez in New York City. Her family had been heading to the city last month before their journey across the southern U.S. border ended in tragedy. The child’s death has put the U.S. government under new scrutiny over the care given to thousands of detained migrants. The girl’s mother, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks, hugged almost every guest, thanking them for coming to honor their daughter. She grabbed
June 16, 2023Unionized UPS workers voted overwhelmingly on Friday to authorize a strike, setting the stage for a potential work stoppage if the package delivery company and Teamsters can’t come to an agreement before their contract expires next month. The Teamsters said 97% of unionized workers voted for the authorization. The Teamsters have urged workers to authorize a strike to give them more leverage in negotiations with the company, but a yes vote does not mean a strike is imminent. “This vote shows that hundreds of thousands of Teamsters are united and determined to get the best contract
June 16, 2023Japan’s parliament on Friday raised the age of sexual consent to 16 from 13, a limit which had remained unchanged for more than a century and was among the world’s lowest, amid calls for greater protection of children and women. The revision was part of a revamping of laws related to sex crimes. Separately, Parliament passed a new law on Friday to increase awareness of LGBTQ+ issues which activists criticized for not guaranteeing equal rights for sexual minorities. Reforms providing greater protection for victims of sexual crimes and stricter punishment of assailants have come slowly in a
June 16, 2023A timeline of some of the notable of moments on and off of Ja Morant’s career from the time the Memphis Grizzlies made him the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2019 to his 25-game suspension announced Friday by the league. Commissioner Adam Silver had said the league would announce any discipline after the NBA Finals were completed following an investigation into a second social media incident involving a handgun within a three-month span. — June 16, 2023: The NBA suspends Morant 25 games for displaying what appeared to be a firearm on social media. Morant also has to meet
June 16, 2023The global soccer players’ union is working with FIFA to make sure that payments promised to all players at the Women’s World Cup actually reach them. FIFA confirmed last week that the 732 players participating in the tournament, which starts next month in Australia and New Zealand, will be paid at least $30,000 each. The paycheck rises if teams do well, with each player for the winning team earning $270,000. The players’ union, known as FIFPRO, helped push for FIFA to dedicate a percentage of the prize money to the players themselves. The union sent a letter to FIFA in
June 16, 2023Memphis guard Ja Morant has been suspended for the first 25 games of the upcoming season for his second known incident of displaying what appeared to be a firearm on social media, the NBA announced Friday. Morant will also have to adhere to certain conditions before being reinstated, the NBA said. It is the second time he has been suspended in the last three months for showing a firearm on social media, following an eight-game suspension in March. Morant is due to make around $33.5 million this season. He now stands to lose just over $300,000 per game during this
June 16, 2023President Vladimir Putin on Friday touted Russia’s prospects at the country’s main international economic forum despite heavy international sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine. Western officials and investors steered clear of the year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which began Wednesday and continues through Saturday. For decades, the gathering has been Russia’s premier event for attracting foreign capital, sometimes likened to the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. The Kremlin banned journalists from “unfriendly” countries from covering the proceedings. Moscow gave that designation on scores of countries that sanctioned Russia over its invasion
June 16, 2023Michael Jordan is finalizing a deal to sell the majority share of the Charlotte Hornets, the franchise announced Friday, leaving the 30-team NBA without any Black majority ownership. Jordan is selling to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, the Hornets said. Plotkin has been a minority stakeholder in the Hornets since 2019. Schnall has been a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks since 2015 and is in the process of selling his investment in that team. It’s not clear how long the process of selling will take to be finalized by the NBA’s
June 16, 2023A jury resumed deliberating Friday in the federal trial of a truck driver who shot and killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jewish people. There is no dispute that 50-year-old Robert Bowers was the man who burst into Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle and other guns, although prosecutors and the defense sparred at trial over his motive. Seven people were wounded, including five police officers. After 11 days of testimony, jurors got the case Thursday afternoon and spent more than
June 16, 2023The separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border has always caused Isabel Allende pain: When she saw it during the Trump administration, her first impulse was to help reunify children and parents through her foundation. Then, the legendary Chilean author thought, she had to write a book. “The Wind Knows My Name,” which grapples with immigration, violence, solidarity, and love, is the latest novel by the award-winning writer who — with more than 77 million books sold — is considered the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author. Released earlier this month, it is available at bookstores
June 16, 2023Germany handed over to Colombia on Friday two masks made by the Indigenous Kogi people that had been in a Berlin museum’s collection for more than a century, another step in the country’s restitution of cultural artifacts as European nations reappraise their colonial-era past. The wooden “sun masks,” which date back to the mid-15th century, were handed over at the presidential palace during a visit to Berlin by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The decision to restitute them follows several years of contacts between Berlin’s museum authority and Colombia, and an official Colombian request last year for their
June 16, 2023Cleanup efforts were beginning Friday morning after severe storms spawned tornadoes that left at least four dead, three in the Texas Panhandle and one in the Florida Panhandle as another series of fierce storms carved its way through Southern states. In Perryton, Texas, Ochiltree County Sheriff Terry Bouchard said three people were killed when the tornado struck Thursday afternoon and rescue efforts continued. Another person died Thursday night in the Florida Panhandle when at least one confirmed tornado cut through Escambia County, toppling a tree onto a home, county spokesperson Andie Gibson told the Pensacola News
June 16, 2023The smell of pineapple bread fills the kitchen of “Vida Libre,” or “free life,” a gang rehabilitation program founded in El Salvador by American pastor Kenton Moody in 2021. The trust that Moody puts in former gang members is not widely shared. Thousands of lives have been destroyed in this Central American country after decades of extortion and murder committed by the gangs. Over the past year, President Nayib Bukele’s security forces have cracked down harshly on gangs, arresting more than 68,000 people suspected of criminal involvement, though human rights groups say innocent people
June 16, 2023Hans Zimmer, the two-time Academy Award-winning composer, proposed to his partner on stage in London, prompting raucous applause from the audience. As his performance at the O2 arena was drawing to a close Thursday evening, the 65-year-old German asked his partner to join him on stage — and then proceeded to declare his love. Addressing her directly he said: “Why did I bring you up here? I was going to ask you something really important. Did you lock the back door? Is the milk in the fridge? Do we have any sorbet in the freezer?” And then,
June 16, 2023China’s government on Friday rejected as “far-fetched and unprofessional” a report by a U.S. security firm that blamed Chinese-linked hackers for attacks on hundreds of public agencies, schools and other targets around the world. A foreign ministry spokesperson repeated accusations that Washington carries out hacking attacks and complained the cybersecurity industry rarely reports on them. Mandiant’s report came ahead of a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at repairing relations that have been strained by disputes over human rights, security and other irritants. Blinken’s visit was planned earlier this year but was canceled
June 16, 2023The national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks Friday and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, as Washington and its partners reinforce their alliances to adapt to growing tensions over North Korea, China and Ukraine, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. Sullivan said he and his Japanese and Philippine counterparts discussed the “turbulent regional security environment and how we can collectively work to enhance peace and stability” in areas including freedom of navigation and economic security. Sullivan, Takeo Akiba of Japan and Eduardo Ano of the
June 16, 2023A son of Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi is suffering deteriorating health during the second week of a hunger strike to protest his detention in Beirut without trial, his lawyer said Friday. Hannibal Gadhafi is only drinking small amounts of water, his lawyer Paul Romanos said, adding that his client is suffering from weakness and muscle pains. “Had it not been for his solid will, he would not have been able to continue,” Romanos said about Hannibal Gadhafi. He added that a doctor is doing a daily checkups for the detainee, who has been also suffering from back
June 16, 2023British antitrust regulators cleared Amazon’s purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot on Friday, but the $1.7 billion deal still faces scrutiny in the United States and Europe. The Competition and Markets Authority said it decided not to escalate its initial investigation because it concluded that the deal would not result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within the United Kingdom. Amazon said it was pleased with the result. “We look forward to similar decisions from other regulators soon,” the company said in a statement. Consumer groups have voiced concerns that Amazon’s purchase of Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, which
June 16, 2023China’s Foreign Ministry condemned a resolution passed by the European Parliament concerning Hong Kong’s shrinking rights to free speech, even as Beijing seeks to restore economic links with the EU. The EU body overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Thursday citing the deterioration of the city’s freedoms since the imposition by Beijing of a sweeping national security law in 2020. It urged the Hong Kong government to release and drop all charges against activist publisher Jimmy Lai, who was arrested under the security law, along with other pro-democracy activists. It also renewed its call on the EU to
June 16, 2023Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder died Friday, one day after crashing and falling down a ravine during a descent at the Tour de Suisse, the Bahrain-Victorious team said. The 26-year-old Mäder crashed on a fast downhill road approaching the end of the mountainous fifth stage into La Punt. “Gino lost his battle to recover from the severe injuries he sustained,” the team said in a statement. “Despite the best efforts of the phenomenal staff at Chur hospital, Gino couldn’t make it through this, his final and biggest challenge, and at 11:30 a.m. we said goodbye to one of
June 16, 2023As gunfire rang out at a protest in Senegal’s capital, a man wearing khaki pants and a T-shirt shot Cheikh’s childhood friend in the chest. The bleeding 21-year-old slumped against a wall, displaying his wound in disbelief. “We thought tear gas and grenades would be used against us. We had no idea they would shoot,” said Cheikh, who was inches away when the bullet struck his friend and rushed him to the hospital in an unsuccessful attempt to save his life. “As I watched him on the way there, I realized it was over.” His friend,
June 16, 2023Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas wrapped up a trip to China Friday after seeking economic aid and voicing support for Beijing’s repressive policies toward Muslim minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. During his four-day visit, Abbas met with Chinese President and head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping. The leaders then issued a joint statement endorsing Beijing’s domestic and foreign policies and repudiating Western concepts of human rights. In the statement, the Palestinian Authority said issues regarding China’s policy toward Muslims in Xinjiang have “nothing to do with human rights and are aimed at excising extremism
June 16, 2023The head of the International Monetary Fund on Friday praised the European Central Bank’s decision to raise interest rates for the eighth time in a row and its pledge to keep going as long as needed to bring down high inflation. Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the IMF welcomed both the ECB’s quarter-percentage point rate hike Thursday and President Christine Lagarde’s vow that the ECB is “not thinking about pausing.” The bank is trying to lower inflation from 6.1% to its goal of 2%. “Monetary policy should continue to tighten and then remain in restrictive territory
June 16, 2023A large mass of rock slid down a mountainside above a Swiss village that was evacuated last month, stopping just short of the settlement, authorities said Friday. Brienz, in the southeastern Graubuenden region of Switzerland, was evacuated on May 12 after geology experts warned that the Alpine rock looming over the village could break loose. In recent days, local officials said rock movements on the slope were accelerating. Much of the rock mass tumbled toward Brienz between 11 p.m. and midnight on Thursday night, the local council said. It added that there was no evidence of damage
June 16, 2023New harmful illicit drugs are inundating a flourishing market for traffickers amid violence and corruption hurting local communities across Europe, the EU’s agency monitoring drugs and addiction said Friday. The grim finding was part of the agency’s annual report. It also said that drug users in Europe are now exposed to a wider range of substances of high purity as drug trafficking and use across the region have quickly returned to pre-COVID 19 pandemic levels. Cannabis remains the most-used illicit substance in Europe, the agency found, with some 22.6 million Europeans over the age of 15 having
June 16, 2023Police in southern Germany are appealing for further pictures and videos taken by witnesses of an attack near Neuschwanstein castle in which an American man allegedly pushed two women down a steep slope, killing one of them. A suspect was arrested following the attack. German news agency dpa quoted police Friday saying that they have so far only received about a dozen submissions on a specially created website, but assume much more footage was taken by tourists present at the site at the time on Wednesday. “We are looking for photographs which, by chance, show two young
June 16, 2023Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping just days after a visit to Beijing by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The state broadcaster CCTV showed Xi saying he was happy to see Gates, who he called an “old friend,” after three years without meeting during the pandemic. “I believe that the foundation of Sino-U.S. relations lies in the people,” Xi said to Gates. “Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.” Gates told Xi he was
June 16, 2023Greece’s coast guard launched its third and final day of a search Friday in the area where a large fishing boat crammed with migrants sank, with hundreds of passengers missing and feared dead. The round-the-clock effort continued off the coast of southern Greece despite little hope of finding survivors or bodies after none have been found since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued. Most of the survivors were being moved Friday to migrant shelters near Athens from a storage hangar at the southern port of Kalamata, where relatives also gathered to
June 16, 2023South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in Ukraine on Friday as part of a delegation of African leaders and senior officials seeking ways to end Kyiv’s 15-month war with Russia. Ramaphosa’s press service said that he was met by a Ukrainian special envoy and South Africa’s ambassador at a rail station near Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where bodies of civilians lay scattered in the streets following Russian forces’ withdrawal last spring. The Bucha visit was symbolically significant, as its name has come to stand for the barbarity of Moscow’s military since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine
June 16, 2023The head of new NATO member Finland’s center-right conservative National Coalition Party is poised Friday to present a four-party agreement to form a governing coalition that includes a far-right anti-immigration party. NCP leader Petteri Orpo, who is expected to become the Nordic nation’s next prime minister, said that four parties had agreed to form a government. Besides NCP, they are the Finns who came in second in the elections, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland. The parties hold 108 seats out of 200 in the Finnish parliament, Eduskunta. After weeks of sounding
June 16, 2023Russia accused Australia of “Russophobic hysteria” for canceling the lease on the land where Moscow wanted to build its new embassy, which the Australian government judged to be a security risk because it was too close to Parliament House. Parliament passed emergency legislation blocking the lease Thursday after Russia won a Federal Court appeal last month against local Canberra authorities’ decision to do the same. The Russian Embassy responded on Friday by posting on social media a Russian news agency TASS report of Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov’s condemnation of Australia’s actions. “Australia, having canceled the lease
June 16, 2023Cyclone Biparjoy knocked out power and threw shipping containers into the sea Friday in western India before aiming its lashing winds and rain at part of Pakistan that suffered devastating floods last year. A man and his son died trying to save their livestock in Gujarat state, where the storm came ashore late Thursday after more than 180,000 people took shelter in the two countries. The storm made landfall a night earlier, packing windspeeds of 85 kph (53 mph), gusting up to 105 kph (86 mph) through the coastal regions of western India’s Gujarat state. Pakistani
June 16, 2023An Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his three young sons admitted to planning the killings and lined them up before executing them with a rifle, prosecutors said Friday. Chad Doerman, 32, who is also accused of wounding the boys’ mother at the family’s home, has been charged with aggravated murder, authorities said. Clermont County’s chief prosecutor of Municipal Court, David Gast, said during Doerman’s arraignment Friday that one of the boys tried to flee into a nearby field but Doerman “hunted” his son down and brought him back to their home before killing him.
June 16, 2023Pope Francis on Friday was discharged from the Rome hospital where he had abdominal surgery nine days earlier to repair a hernia and remove painful scarring, with his surgeon saying the pontiff is now “better than before” the hospitalization. Francis, 86, left through Gemelli Polyclinic’s main exit in a wheelchair, smiling and waving and saying “thanks” to a crowd of well-wishers, then stood up so he could get into the small Vatican car awaiting him. In the brief distance before he could reach the white Fiat 500, reporters thrust microphones practically at his face, and the pontiff
June 16, 2023Asian shares logged moderate gains on Friday after Wall Street benchmarks swept higher, extending their longest rally in a year and a half. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index closed at a 33-year high, advancing 0.7% to 33,706.08 after the Bank of Japan wrapped up a policy meeting by keeping its ultra-lax monetary stance unchanged, as expected. It is a standout among central banks, most of which have sought to rein in inflation by raising interest rates. The key Japanese rate has stayed at minus 0.1% for a decade and policymakers have indicated they are not convinced that current
June 16, 2023The U.S. theme park chain SeaWorld, mired in controversy in recent years over its treatment of killer whales and other marine mammals, has opened a massive new aquatic life park in the United Arab Emirates, its first outside the United States. The $1.2 billion venture with state-owned developer Miral features the world’s largest aquarium and a cylindrical LED screen. There are no orcas here, but the park houses animals like dolphins and seals, whose captivity and training for profit and entertainment purposes are also often criticized as unethical by animal rights advocacy groups.
June 16, 2023Summer is wildfire season in southern Europe, but this year the continent’s north is also at risk, with forest fire warnings in effect across the Nordic and Baltic countries. A lack of rain and rising temperatures have led to dangerously dry conditions in the region, leading to worries of a repeat of the summer of 2018 when major wildfires swept across Sweden in particular. Small wildfires are already burning in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and experts worry it could get much worse unless there’s significant rainfall in coming weeks. Unlike the sun-soaked Mediterranean countries, which have
June 16, 2023When fighting in Sudan erupted in mid-April, Abdel-Rahman Sayyed and his family tried to hold out hiding in their home in the capital, Khartoum, as the sounds of explosions, gunfights and the roar of warplanes echoed across the city of 6 million people. They lived right by one of the fiercest front lines, near the military’s headquarters in central Khartoum, where the army and a rival paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces, battled for control. Three days into the conflict, a shell hit their two-story home, reducing much of it to rubble. Luckily, Sayyed, his wife and
June 16, 2023While ripping out yellow blooms blanketing hillsides in Los Angeles, Max Kingery has been questioned about his fervor for killing flowers. But the clothing designer who used the plants to dye his spring and summer lines said he takes no offense at being accused of pillaging this part of California’s “superbloom.” Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to raise awareness about a destructive flower that proliferated in the state following an unusually wet winter: wild black mustard. Mustard was among the most prominent of wild flowering plants that seemingly popped up everywhere in California this
June 16, 2023Christian Pulisic scored late in the first half and early in the second, Ricardo Pepi added a late goal and the United States beat Mexico 3-0 on Thursday night to reach the CONCACAF Nations League final against Canada. Pulisic made his first start for club or country since April 15, put the U.S. ahead in the 37th minute and doubled the lead in the 46th. He has 25 goals in 59 international appearances, including four goals against Mexico. Pepi scored in the 79th, five minutes after entering. The U.S, and Mexico each finished with nine players
June 16, 2023The daughter of an American woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase at an Indonesian resort island is scheduled to appear in Chicago federal court on Friday to change her plea to guilty on charges she helped kill her mother in Bali nine years ago. Heather Mack, 27, was convicted in Indonesia in 2015 of being an accessory to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder with her then-boyfriend in a bid to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund. Mack, then 18 and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth in a hotel room while Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned
June 16, 2023The United States deployed a nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying about 150 Tomahawk missiles to South Korea on Friday, a day after North Korea resumed missile tests in protest of the U.S.-South Korean live-fire drills. The USS Michigan’s arrival in South Korea, the first of its kind in six years, is part of a recent bilateral agreement on enhancing “regular visibility” of U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear program, according to South Korean officials. With the deployment of the USS Michigan, the U.S. and South Korean navies
June 16, 2023Shohei Ohtani pitched six innings for his first victory in five starts and matched the MLB lead with his 22nd homer as the Los Angeles Angels beat the AL West-leading Texas Rangers 5-3 on Thursday night. Ohtani (6-2) had already thrown the last of his 99 pitches before Mickey Moniak’s tying homer leading off the top of the seventh against Nathan Eovaldi (9-3), who lost in his bid to become only the second 10-game winner in the majors this season. Still in the game as the designated hitter, Ohtani hit a two-run homer in the eighth.
June 16, 2023Nearly 20,000 people have fled from an erupting Philippine volcano and taken shelter in schools, disrupting education for thousands of students, many of whom are having classes in chapels and tents or under trees, officials said Friday. The Mayon volcano in northeastern Albay province, one of the deadliest of 24 active volcanoes across the Philippine archipelago, began expelling lava late Sunday in a gentle eruption that has not caused any injuries or death. But it could drag on for months and cause a prolonged humanitarian crisis, officials warned. Most of those forced to evacuate live in
June 16, 2023Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed into law Thursday a $380 million public financing package to help build a Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics on the Las Vegas Strip as MLB’s commissioner outlined a months-long approval process for the A’s proposed move there. The first-term Republican governor and former sheriff in Las Vegas said he was excited to sign the measure the Democrat-controlled Legislature approved Wednesday night after a seven-day long special session. “This is an incredible opportunity to bring the A’s to Nevada,” Lombardo said in a statement from Carson City. The $1.5
June 16, 2023They shared a bro handshake and a laugh or two on the first tee box. Then, the odd couple — Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka — started down the fairway in search of solutions for the biggest problem in golf. On Thursday at the U.S. Open, it had nothing to do with Saudi-backed LIV Golf (Koepka’s tour) or the future of the PGA Tour (McIlroy’s). Rather, it was the eight-shot deficit they shared before they’d even put a tee in the ground. McIlroy made some inroads. Koepka didn’t. McIlroy shot 5-under 65 to pull within three
June 16, 2023Los Angeles should add 10 more city council members, create two independent redistricting commissions and establish a more powerful ethics commission, a panel of academics exploring reforms for the scandal-plagued city government said Thursday. The Los Angeles Governance Reform Project shared its recommendations just days after yet another councilman — the fourth in recent years — was charged with a felony, this time for embezzlement and perjury. The group, made up of academics backed by philanthropists, formed last year after leaked recordings revealed several council members making racist remarks as they discussed redistricting. “I don’t think
June 16, 2023Bryson DeChambeau can feel the mood lightening in the locker room and on the course just one week after the PGA Tour and LIV Golf ceased hostilities. DeChambeau shot a 67 in his opening round at the U.S. Open on Thursday, leaving the long-hitting 2020 champion tied for third among the morning half of the draw behind record-setters Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele, who each shot 62. This Open at Los Angeles Country Club is the first major since the stunning announcement of the partnership between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. The Saudi Arabia-backed competition
June 16, 2023The NBA and the Miami Heat are investigating an allegation that former UFC champion Conor McGregor sexually assaulted a woman inside an arena bathroom after Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The woman’s attorney, Ariel Mitchell, said her client has provided Miami police with the clothing she was wearing that night and that a report was filed. McGregor’s attorney said the fighter denied any wrongdoing. “Mr. McGregor will not be intimidated,” said the attorney, Barbara Llanes. In letters sent to the NBA, the Heat and McGregor’s representatives, Mitchell detailed her client’s allegations and said the client would
June 16, 2023A group of women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault and were dismayed when he had his conviction overturned and left prison are trying again to seek justice in the courts, by urging states to give them more time to pursue civil damages. More than a dozen women have sued the actor and comedian since his June 2021 release, including nine who brought cases Wednesday in Nevada, weeks after successfully lobbying to eliminate the statute of limitations for adult survivors in the state. They join advocates who battled the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and other
June 16, 2023A union organizer who was fired by Amazon was reinstated by the company after she filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, according to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The union had said earlier this month that Jennifer Bates, who also testified before a Senate committee at a hearing on income inequality, was terminated while tending to injuries she received while working at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama. The labor group had also said Amazon refused to make workplace adjustments for Bates, who was outspoken about workplace safety issues at the company. “If there’s a
June 16, 2023Worldwide temperatures briefly exceeded a key warming threshold earlier this month, a hint of heat and its harms to come, scientists worry. The mercury has since dipped again, but experts say the short surge marked a new global heat record for June and indicates more extremes ahead as the planet enters an El Niño phase that could last years. Researchers at the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said Thursday that the start of June saw global surface air temperatures rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels for the first time. That is the threshold
June 16, 2023Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred thinks the use of banned sticky stuff is more widespread than the three pitchers ejected this season for illegal grip aids. “I am sure that out of an abundance of caution and good judgment, umpires have had questionable situations that they decided: just not quite sure,” Manfred said Thursday following an owners meeting. “And I am 100% certain they err on the side of no violation.” New York Mets pitcher Drew Smith was suspended for 10 games Wednesday, a day after he was ejected. That followed similar bans for Mets teammate Max
June 16, 2023Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was ordered Thursday to pay $475,000 by a city ethics board that found he misused public funds on a police security detail during his failed presidential bid. The hefty fine is the largest ever handed out by New York’s Conflicts of Interest Board, capping off a yearslong investigation into the two-term mayor’s use of taxpayer dollars to cover the travel costs of NYPD officers who accompanied him on cross-country campaign stops. Under the ruling, which he has vowed to appeal, de Blasio, a Democrat, will be forced to
June 16, 2023A bus carrying mostly seniors collided with a semi-trailer truck at a highway intersection in a rural part of the province of Manitoba on Thursday, killing 15 people and injuring 10 more, Canadian police said. Rob Hill, Commanding Officer of the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the bus was carrying 25 people and authorities are deploying all their resources in the province to the scene. Ten people were taken to hospitals. TV broadcasters aired images of what looked like a large van or bus smoldering in a ditch near a transport truck with a smashed engine
June 16, 2023The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeding agricultural producers and food businesses with millions of dollars in investment funds to improve markets, create and strengthen jobs, control food prices and improve nutrition, Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday. “We’re here to underscore the important role that local and regional food systems play for American agriculture and farmers, and to announce $320 million of variety of loans and grants which are designed to strengthen the supply chain, to make the food system more resilient and to create a number of opportunities for mid- and small-size operators,” he said.
June 16, 2023Rickie Fowler can always say he was the first to shoot 62 in the U.S. Open. But only by about 15 minutes. Xander Schauffele soon matched him on the North course at Los Angeles Country Club with an 8-under 62 of his own, making Thursday a most extraordinary day for scoring in the major known as the toughest test in golf. The tough part was keeping track of their birdies. “It’s not really what you expect playing a U.S. Open,” Schauffele said. “But monkey see, monkey do. Was just chasing Rickie up the leaderboard. Glad he
June 16, 2023Devout baseball fans might view their teams’ performance as heavenly or hellish, depending on the quality of play. Currently, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers’ handling of their annual Pride Night — not the team’s record — that has provoked emotional reactions from religious people, including prominent faith leaders, Catholic nuns, and even the team’s All-Star ace. Indeed, three high-ranking U.S. Catholic leaders this week suggested the team had committed blasphemy. The Dodgers have been holding Pride Nights for 10 years, but this year’s edition — taking place Friday night — became entangled last month in a high-profile controversy. Under a
June 16, 2023FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried may face two criminal trials after a federal judge on Thursday granted a request by prosecutors to delay a trial on some of the charges until next year. Bankman-Fried faces trial in October on charges brought against him last year. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan set a March 11 trial date for him on newer charges filed three months ago. Kaplan chose to schedule two trials after prosecutors said they will only go ahead with the newer charges if authorities in the Bahamas — where Bankman-Fried was first arrested — agree
June 16, 2023An annual study reviewing diversity hiring for Major League Baseball reported a record low of Black players on opening day rosters for the second straight year. Thursday’s report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida issued an overall grade of C-plus, with a B for racial hiring and a C for gender hiring. The report examined a range of positions at MLB’s headquarters and within franchises using data collected by the league from March shortly before the start of the 2023 season. Those grades were similar to the previous year, when the league had
June 16, 2023Major League Baseball will start a months-long approval process for Oakland Athletics’ proposed move to Las Vegas, which appears set to become the second shift of a franchise in the last half-century. A day after the Nevada Legislature approved $380 million in public financing for a ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred bemoaned the team’s inability to obtain a new stadium in Oakland and defended A’s owner John Fisher, who has maintained public silence. “I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland. I do not like this outcome. I understand why they
June 16, 2023A grand jury has indicted a man who put an agitated New York City subway rider in a fatal chokehold, prosecutors confirmed Thursday. Daniel Penny was initially charged with manslaughter last month in the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who struggled in recent years with homelessness and mental illness. A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed the grand jury voted to indict, adding the specific charges will be unveiled at a scheduled June 28 arraignment. Penny had initially been charged with manslaughter in the second degree, which carries
June 16, 2023John Forsyth was known as a hard-working doctor who cared deeply for his patients and often teased nurses in the emergency room to ease tension. He was a father of eight and newly engaged. He also co-founded a cryptocurrency business with his brother. His sudden disappearance from a southwestern Missouri town last month — and the eventual discovery of his body in an Arkansas lake — has led many to wonder what happened to the man who seemed happier than he’d been for some time. A lack of information from law enforcement has only deepened the
June 16, 2023Kenny Pickett spent his first few months in the NFL intentionally buried on the Pittsburgh Steelers depth chart, coach Mike Tomlin’s way of trying to ease the pressure on a young quarterback saddled with the outsized expectations that come with being a first-round pick at the most important position in the game. A year later, a lot has changed. Pickett is no longer running with the scout team. And a strong finish to his rookie season has Pickett entering his second year in the league seemingly in full command of a Steelers offense that believes it can
June 15, 2023Lionel Messi got hugged by a fan who ran onto the field wearing a No. 10 Argentina shirt Thursday during a 2-0 friendly win over Australia in which the World Cup champion scored the fastest goal of his career. Messi was standing near the corner flag in the second half when the fan ran onto the field and embraced him. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner appeared to be surprised as the fan approached, but then put his arm around the interloper’s back before security guards quickly moved in. The fan bolted across the field and high-fived Argentina
June 15, 2023Spain must do more to prepare for increasingly virulent wildfires stoked by climate change, a large group of the country’s leading wildfire prevention experts said on Thursday. A declaration backed by 60 experts and institutions said the “increasingly intense fires … are producing unprecedented ecological and social consequences.” The experts concluded that Spanish society must come to terms with the emergencies that it will likely face, given that wildfires in increasingly hot and dry conditions in the Iberian Peninsula are often “beyond the capability (of firefighters) to extinguish” with their own means. The declaration was the
June 15, 2023Nigeria’s central bank has ended its distorted foreign exchange rate, a move the new government in Africa’s biggest economy hopes will help woo investors and stabilize the local currency. The announcement Wednesday from the Central Bank of Nigeria led to a record fall in the value of the naira currency to 755 per U.S. dollar. It has since recovered some. The move reflects the changes that new President Bola Tinubu has pledged to make to strengthen the ailing economy, analysts said. He also has removed the head of the central bank following divisive policies and ended
June 15, 2023Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets are assembling for a parade Thursday through downtown Denver to celebrate their first NBA title. There’s rain in the forecast but nothing can dampen the festive mood as swarms of fans line the streets in a celebration that culminates at Civic Center Park. This has been a long time in the making. It took 47 seasons in the NBA for the franchise to finally make Denver the home of the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Nuggets capped off an impressive postseason by beating the Miami Heat in the Finals on Monday night
June 15, 2023The man charged with killing his mother at sea during a 2016 fishing trip off the coast of New England in what prosecutors say was a scheme to inherit millions of dollars has died, federal authorities said Thursday. Nathan Carman, 29, of Vernon, Vermont, was scheduled to face trial in October. He had pleaded not guilty last year to fraud and first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Linda Carman of Middletown, Connecticut. The eight-count indictment also says Carman shot and killed his wealthy grandfather John Chakalos at his home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013
June 15, 2023Follow along for live updates on the opening round of the 123rd U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. ___ Omar Morales, who attends college just up the way at UCLA, has grabbed an early share of the lead in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. The 20-year-old sophomore went around the front nine in 3-under 32. The Bruins have access to LACC about twice a month, and Morales, who went through local qualifying to make the 156-man field, estimates he’s played it about two dozen times in his two years at UCLA. He
June 15, 2023Support mounted on Thursday for NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to have his mandate at the head of the world’s biggest security organization extended yet again as Denmark’s prime minister ruled herself out of the running. Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO’s top civilian official since 2014. His term was due to expire last year but was extended to keep a steady hand at the helm after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are due to choose a successor when they meet for a summit
June 15, 2023The United Nations will require delegates attending its annual climate summit to disclose their affiliation in an effort to clamp down on undue influence by fossil fuel companies and others, officials said Thursday. Climate campaigners have long complained that the so-called Conferences of the Parties, or COPs, are undermined by lobbyists for oil and gas firms attending under the guise of country delegates. Participants will also be asked to provide optional information on their relationship with the government agency or organization that’s nominated them and those declining to do so will be flagged accordingly. Civil society groups
June 15, 2023A U.K. parliamentary committee on Thursday issued a damning report concluding that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled lawmakers over what he knew about multiple lockdown-flouting parties at his office and government buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers voted in April 2022 for the seven-member panel to investigate Johnson’s conduct over “partygate,” a series of boozy gatherings attended by Johnson and his staff that broke rules and eventually contributed to his downfall. Here are the key points of the report: WHAT WAS THE COMMITTEE TASKED TO DO? The seven lawmakers — including four from Johnson’s Conservatives
June 15, 2023Closings arguments were set to get underway Thursday in the federal trial of a truck driver who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jews. Robert Bowers is charged with 63 criminal counts, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death. Some of the charges carry a potential death sentence. Bowers’ attorneys did not call any witnesses or present any evidence after conceding at the trial’s outset that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27,
June 15, 2023Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers used a security hole in a popular email security appliance to break into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally, nearly a third of them government agencies including foreign ministries, the cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday. “This is the broadest cyber espionage campaign known to be conducted by a China-nexus threat actor since the mass exploitation of Microsoft Exchange in early 2021,” Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technical officer, said in a emailed statement. That hack compromised tens of thousands of computers globally. In a blog post Thursday, Google-owned Mandiant expressed “high confidence”
June 15, 2023All major social media platforms do poorly at protecting LGBTQ+ users from hate speech and harassment — especially those who are transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming, the advocacy group GLAAD said Thursday. But Twitter is the worst. In its annual Social Media Safety Index, GLAAD gave Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter low or failing scores, saying the platforms don’t do enough to keep their users safe. That said, most improved from a year ago. Twitter, which was acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk last October, was the only exception. GLAAD’s scorecard called it “the most
June 15, 2023The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits remained elevated last week, a possible sign that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes over the past year may taking hold in what’s proved to be a resilient job market. U.S. applications for jobless claims were 262,000 for the week ending June 10, the Labor Department reported Thursday, more than analysts were expecting. This week’s number mirrors last week’s, which was revised up by 1,000. The claims numbers for the past two weeks are the highest since October of 2021. The four-week moving average of claims, which flattens some of the week-to-week
June 15, 2023Americans increased their spending at retailers last month despite pressure from still-high inflation and rising borrowing costs. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that retail sales rose 0.3% from April to May, boosted by stronger sales of auto and parts dealers. Economists had been expecting a decline in sales for the month. Last month’s increase pointed to a still-resilient economy, though retail sales have been bumpy this year after surging nearly 3% in January. Sales tumbled in February and March before recovering in April. The retail sales report offers only a partial look at consumer
June 15, 2023An American man has been arrested in the death of a U.S. tourist and an assault on another near Neuschwanstein castle in southern Germany after he allegedly pushed the two women down a steep slope, authorities said Thursday. The incident near the popular tourist attraction happened on Wednesday afternoon near the Marienbruecke, a bridge over a gorge close to the castle that offers a famous view of Neuschwanstein. The 30-year-old man met the two female tourists, ages 21 and 22, on a hiking path and lured them onto a trail that leads to a viewpoint, police said
June 15, 2023Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Thursday he believes the European Union will finalize a controversial pact on migration while his country holds the bloc’s rotating presidency. Sánchez set out his nation’s key priorities for the presidency at a speech in Madrid, and said he believed outstanding issues on shared responsibility for migration across the EU would be resolved by the end of Spain’s six-month term that starts on July 1. Spain has a particular conundrum to face during its EU presidency as a snap general election will be held on July 23, which polls show could
June 15, 2023Donor nations from across the globe were scrambling Thursday to find billions of dollars to extend their aid commitment to millions of Syrians who have been battered by hunger, poverty, civil war and a massive earthquake. Amid pressing needs across the globe from Ukraine to Sudan, the annual donor conference hosted by the European Union in Brussels has even more political overtones as Syrian President Bashar Assad is slowly carving his way back from being an international pariah to the regional mainstream. Finding hard cash, though, remains key. “My appeal is simple: Help us help the Syrian
June 15, 2023Glenda Jackson, a two-time Academy Award-winning performer who had a second career in politics as a British lawmaker before an acclaimed late-life return to stage and screen, has died at 87. Jackson’s agent Lionel Larner said she died Thursday at her home in London after a short illness. He said she had recently completed filming “‘The Great Escaper,” in which co-starred with Michael Caine. Born in 1936 in Birkhenhead, northwest England, Jackson trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She became one of the biggest British stars of the 1960s and 70s, and won
June 15, 2023NATO sees no sign that Russia has changed its nuclear posture, the head of the military alliance said Thursday, after President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that Belarus has already received some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow. In an interview on state television on Tuesday, Lukashenko brashly warned that he wouldn’t hesitate to order their use if Belarus faced an act of aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the weapons will be deployed to Belarus next month and will remain under Moscow’s exclusive control. “We are, of course, closely monitoring what Russia is doing. So far, we haven’t
June 15, 2023North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile off its east coast on Thursday, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops ended a fifth round of large-scale live-fire drills near the Koreas’ heavily fortified border. The North Korean launch is its first since it failed in an attempt to put its first spy satellite into orbit in late May. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch occurred Thursday evening but gave no further details. Japan’s Defense Ministry also said it detected a possible ballistic missile fired by North Korea. The launch came after North Korea’s
June 15, 2023The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog visited Europe’s largest atomic power plant Thursday in southern Ukraine, where a recent dam burst and the start of a counteroffensive in the war by Kyiv’s forces have heightened safety risks. The visit was announced by Ukraine’s national nuclear energy company, Energoatom, in a Telegram post. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, met Tuesday in Kyiv with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss concerns about the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The IAEA has repeatedly expressed alarm about the facility, which is one of the
June 15, 2023The Vatican on Thursday released the first images of Pope Francis since his June 7 abdominal surgery, showing him in his wheelchair visiting the children’s cancer ward in a sign he is getting ready to be discharged soon from the hospital. Francis appeared in good health in the images, in which he is seen in the corridor of the pediatric oncology ward of Rome’s Gemelli hospital, meeting with children, their parents and medical staff. In one photo, he is shown elsewhere speaking with a couple in a private room, the man in a wheelchair. The Vatican said
June 15, 2023Pope Francis’ Jesuit religious order said Thursday it has expelled a prominent Slovenian priest from the congregation following allegations of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuses against adult women. A statement from the Jesuits, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, said the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik was dismissed from the Jesuit order by decree on June 9 “due to stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” Rupnik is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church, whose mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican. Late last year, the
June 15, 2023Two men who helped run the once wildly popular pirating website Megaupload were each sentenced by a New Zealand court on Thursday to more than two years in prison. The sentencing of Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk ended an 11-year legal battle by the men to avoid extradition to the United States on more serious charges that included racketeering. The men last year struck a deal with prosecutors from New Zealand and the U.S. in which they pleaded guilty to being part of a criminal group and causing artists to lose money by
June 15, 2023The U.S. Federal Reserve may have hit “pause” on interest rate hikes, but the European Central Bank still has its finger on “fast forward” as inflation plagues consumers with higher costs for everything from groceries to utility bills and summer vacations. Analysts say an increase of a quarter-percentage point is a foregone conclusion when the ECB’s governing council meets Thursday, a day after the Fed took at least a temporary breather after 10 straight hikes. The Fed made no change in its key rate Wednesday as it waits to see the impact of sharply higher rates
June 15, 2023Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday after a year-long investigation. A scathing report from the House of Commons Privileges Committee found that Johnson’s actions and his response to the committee were such a flagrant violation of the rules that they warranted a 90-day suspension from Parliament. While a condemning indictment of the former prime minister’s conduct, the recommendation is largely symbolic because Johnson angrily quit as a lawmaker Friday after the committee informed him of
June 15, 2023New Zealand’s economy has dipped into recession as higher interest rates take their toll, new figures released Thursday show. Gross domestic product fell by 0.1% in the March quarter, following a revised 0.7% fall in the previous quarter, Statistics New Zealand said. That fulfils the nation’s definition of a recession, which is at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The slowdown comes after New Zealand’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate 12 straight times to 5.5% as it tries to tame inflation. The rate is at its highest level since 2008, making it
June 15, 2023NATO defense ministers gathered Thursday to discuss future relations with Ukraine as Russia’s war on the country thwarts its hopes of joining the world’s biggest security alliance soon. The ministers were also due to take part in a separate meeting at NATO headquarters of the U.S.-led Ukraine Contact Group — the forum Ukraine’s supporters routinely join to try to drum up weapons and ammunition to help Kyiv fight the Russian invasion. The NATO meeting comes just under a month before U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts gather for a summit in Lithuania in a symbolic show
June 15, 2023Asian shares were trading mixed Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. Data from China showed consumer and factory activity weakened in May and record-breaking unemployment among young people in cities rose as an economic rebound following the end of anti-virus controls slowed. Consumers, uneasy about possible job losses, have returned to shops and restaurants less quickly than expected. In Japan, machinery orders for April, released Thursday, showed the first growth in three months. Trade figures for May showed a deficit for 22 months in a row, as import costs rose with the rising
June 15, 2023A vast swath of western India and neighboring southern Pakistan that suffered deadly floods last year are bracing for a new deluge as fast-approaching Cyclone Biparjoy whirls toward landfall Thursday. Rain was falling and skies were darkening in western India and in southern Pakistan along the Arabian Sea, where dusty storms were hampering the evacuation and rescue work. Authorities expect conditions to worsen for two or three days after the cyclone makes landfall in India’s Gujarat. Officials from the two South Asian countries stood on high alert as the cyclone approached. It’s expected to make landfall
June 15, 2023Sunlight filters through shattered windows, casting a glow upon the dusty furniture and fragments of glass strewn across the floor of the office belonging to Oleksandr Vinkovskyi, director of a Kyiv business where visually impaired people worked. Vinkovskyi is blind, and can’t see the scale of damage caused by debris from one of many Russian-fired drones on the Ukrainian capital last month. But he knows that 80 people, including 54 with a disability who used to work there manufacturing circuit breakers, sockets and hangers, are now out of work. Most of the windows have been shattered,
June 15, 2023When it comes to baseball and LGBTQ+ inclusivity, Billy Bean often flashes back to his playing days. Ending his career without telling his parents about his life as a closeted gay ballplayer. Shielding his secret from teammates like Brad Ausmus and Torey Lovullo. The regret of not sharing his “full self,” he says. It’s a message Bean has delivered in clubhouses, and it resonates with today’s ballplayers — hyper-focused on staying in the majors, and being a good teammate. It’s also the lens through which Bean views baseball’s ongoing LGBTQ+ issues. “There’s some parts of my job
June 15, 2023Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in a drive by Beijing to elevate relations and increase its overall presence in the Middle East. Li, who took office just this spring with little foreign policy experience, called Abbas “an old friend of the Chinese people” who has made “important contributions to the promotion of China-Palestinian relations.” The meeting came a day after Abbas was greeted with full military honors by Xi Jinping, China’s president and head of the ruling Communist Party. The sides then announced the formation of a “strategic partnership,”
June 15, 2023Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates says he is in Beijing, joining a series of foreign business figures who have visited China as the ruling Communist Party tries to revive investor interest in the country. Gates, who stepped down as Microsoft chairman in 2014, said on Twitter late Wednesday that he would meet partners who have worked with his charitable foundation. However, Gates is revered in China as an entrepreneur, giving Chinese leaders a chance to show their interest in foreign business by publicizing any meetings with him. CEOs of global companies including Elon Musk of Tesla Ltd.
June 15, 2023One of the longest-held inmates on Florida’s death row is set to be executed Thursday for two separate killings in 1984, the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old babysitter as two children in her care were sleeping and the other a hammer attack on a mother of two. Duane Owen is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. EDT at Florida State Prison in Starke. He drew death sentences for the March 24, 1984, rape and stabbing attack on Karen Slattery, 14, and for the rape and killling of Georgianna Worden, 38, in May 1984,
June 15, 2023With its human cargo of migrants filling every available space, the battered blue trawler was about halfway from Libya to Italy when its engine cut out in the night. The vessel wobbled sharply, flooded and capsized. Less than 15 minutes later, it sank into one of the Mediterranean’s deepest points, off the coast of Greece. Hundreds of people are thought to have been on board when the boat went down Wednesday, although authorities have no precise figure. Rescuers saved 104 passengers — including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians — and recovered 79 bodies. And the
June 15, 2023This year’s Hajj is a landmark: the first full pilgrimage after a daunting three-year period when the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced the scale of one of Islam’s holiest and most beloved rites. Millions of Muslims from around the world will start converging next week on Mecca in Saudi Arabia to begin the several days of rituals at holy sites in and around the city. For pilgrims, it is the ultimate spiritual moment of their lives, a chance to seek God’s forgiveness for their sins and walk in the footsteps of revered prophets like Muhammad and Abraham. It’s a mass, communal
June 15, 2023The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis said Thursday that Germany has agreed to extend another $1.4 billion (1.29 billion euros) overall for Holocaust survivors around the globe for the coming year. The compensation was negotiated with Germany’s finance ministry and includes $888.9 million to provide home care and supportive services for frail and vulnerable Holocaust survivors. Additionally, increases of $175 million to symbolic payments of the Hardship Fund Supplemental program have been achieved, impacting more than 128,000 Holocaust survivors globally, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material
June 15, 2023China’s consumer and factory activity weakened in May and record-breaking unemployment among young people in cities rose as an economic rebound following the end of anti-virus controls slowed. Surveys found 20.8% of potential workers in cities aged 16-24 were unemployed, up from April’s previous record of 20.4%, the government reported Thursday. China’s economic activity rebounded after the ruling Communist Party in December lifted controls that cut off access to major cities for weeks at a time and blocked most international travel. But consumers, uneasy about possible job losses, returned to shops and restaurants less quickly than expected.
June 15, 2023Brandon Nimmo hit a game-ending double in the 10th inning and the New York Mets recovered from a string of mental and physical errors to beat the New York Yankees 4-3 on Wednesday night for a two-game Subway Series split. Isiah Kiner-Falefa stole home off an inattentive Brooks Raley as the Yankees scored two runs without a hit to take a 3-1 seventh-inning lead. The Mets tied the score in bottom half when Ron Marinaccio hit Nimmo with a pitch and Starling Marte hit an RBI single — a rally that ended when Nimmo took a
June 15, 2023Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has revealed he spent time in a psychiatric ward following a loss at Wimbledon in 2019 because of suicidal thoughts. The comments from Kyrgios, widely published in Australia on Thursday based on interviews for the upcoming Netflix documentary series “Break Point,” are the latest on his longtime struggles with mental health. He went to a hospital in London to “figure out my problems” after the loss to Rafael Nadal four years ago at Wimbledon, where he wore a compression sleeve over his right arm during his singles matches to conceal his scars.
June 15, 2023Marcus Semien and Corey Seager hit back-to-back homers with two outs in the seventh inning to lift the Texas Rangers to a 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night. Semien’s two-run homer struck high up the left-field foul pole to break a 1-1 tie. Seager followed with a shot to right field on the next pitch. The homer capped a 2 for 5 game for Semien, who came in hitless in 15 at-bats and 3 for 28 following a career-best 25-game hitting streak. “I’m still doing the same things I was doing during
June 15, 2023Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez is demanding that Major League Baseball change its basepath rule after catcher Keibert Ruiz’s ninth-inning throw hit runner Jake Meyers, resulting in a throwing error that gave the Houston Astros a 5-4 win Wednesday night. Martinez printed out a photo of Meyers running on the grass inside the first-base line after hitting a grounder and brought it to his postgame press conference. “There it is right there,” Martinez said. “Take a look at it. Is that on the line? I don’t think so. I’m over this play. Seriously. They need to fix
June 15, 2023St. Paul had the worst air quality in the United States on Wednesday as smoke from massive Canadian wildfires drifted across Minnesota a week after similar smoke blanketed the northeastern U.S. The smoke was “near the worst” on record for the Twin Cities, the Star-Tribune reported, citing Nick Witcraft, an air-quality meteorologist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Air quality hit “red” on the U.S. government’s color-coded index, meaning it was unhealthy for everyone. The air was particularly dangerous for children, older people and those with asthma and conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Karen Berg-Moberg decided
June 15, 2023A group of migrants who arrived by bus in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday were sent from Texas in a move the city’s mayor called a “despicable stunt” by a Republican governor. Forty-two people, including some children, were dropped off at Union Station around 4 p.m. and were being cared for by city agencies and charitable organizations, Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León’s office said. “They left yesterday and it was 23 hours on the bus and they did not have a chance to eat or to have water,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera of the
June 15, 2023A drug syndicate that tried to smuggle tons of methamphetamine from Canada to Australia and New Zealand by hiding it in shipments of maple syrup and canola oil has been busted, authorities said Thursday. Authorities from the three nations said they had worked together for more than five months to unravel the elaborate scheme that was worth billions of dollars. Australian police said they had intercepted four separate hauls of meth weighing more than six tons and filed charges against six men. They said that in January, Canadian authorities alerted them that 2,900 liters (766
June 15, 2023An Arizona woman has accused former major league pitcher Trevor Bauer of sexual assault, alleging in a lawsuit updated this week that he held a knife at her throat and choked her until she passed out during a rape that left her pregnant in late 2020. Bauer was never arrested or charged and he has countersued, denying the allegations and accusing the woman of faking a pregnancy and trying to extort money from him. “Trevor Bauer categorically denies this woman’s unhinged allegations,” the player’s co-agents, Jon Fetterolf and Rachel Luba, said in a statement Wednesday. They said
June 15, 2023Toronto Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos has a no-hitter through six innings against the Baltimore Orioles. Berríos retired the first 13 batters before Austin Hays walked on a full count with one out in the fifth. Aaron Hicks then popped out and Hays was caught stealing. Wednesday night’s game was scoreless until George Springer hit a solo homer off Orioles starter Kyle Bradish with one out in the sixth inning. In the bottom half, Berríos struck out the first two batters before hitting Ramón Urías with a pitch with two outs. He then struck out Gunnar Henderson
June 15, 2023A former Indiana congressman should spend no time in prison after his insider trading conviction, his lawyers told a judge Wednesday. Steve Buyer, 64, of Noblesville, Indiana, was convicted by a jury in Manhattan federal court in March of four securities fraud charges after a two-week trial for stock trades he made while working as a consultant and lobbyist after he finished serving in Congress from 1993 to 2011. He was convicted in connection with insider trading involving the $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in April 2018, and stock purchases he made at
June 15, 2023Uncertainty off the course. Uncertainty on it. The U.S. Open was set to tee off into uncharted territory Thursday, with the golf world perplexed by the recent shakeup-makeup between Saudi golf interests and the PGA Tour and 156 of the sport’s best players taking on a course hardly anyone has seen. Pretty much every question heading into the 123rd playing of America’s national championship dealt with one or the other of those issues. Los Angeles Country Club is a beautiful mystery, the first course in LA to host the Open in 75 years. It’s known for
June 15, 2023A self-exiled Chinese businessman awaiting trial in a $1 billion fraud case will remain behind bars after an appeals court on Wednesday rejected his request to override a lower court’s finding that he might flee or harm the community if he were to be freed. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said in a two-page order that Guo Wengui’s lawyers had failed to convince a three-judge panel that Judge Analisa Torres made a clear error in refusing to accept a $25 million bail package proposal in April. Torres said she didn’t trust that
June 15, 2023Massive cheers rather than the usual boos rained down on Gary Bettman on Tuesday night because nothing could keep Vegas Golden Knights fans from enjoying what the NHL commissioner was about to do. He first presented the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP to Jonathan Marchessault and then moments later handed the Stanley Cup to captain Mark Stone, who shared it with the rest of the team. “What has happened here has been simply incredible,” Bettman told the crowd. “Not only is Vegas a hockey town, it’s a championship town.” The modern era for Las Vegas
June 15, 2023Brooks Koepka says he enjoys the chaos and there’s no shortage of that in this U.S. Open, even for those who manage to avoid the traffic. Players are still trying to digest the blockbuster announcement of the PGA Tour ending a legal and moral battle with LIV Golf by becoming partners with the Saudi Arabia national wealth fund that paid for all those PGA Tour defections. And then came news late Tuesday night that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was turning over day-to-day operations while he recovers from what was described as a medical situation. And
June 15, 2023New York Mets pitcher Drew Smith was suspended for 10 games by Major League Baseball on Wednesday, the fifth pitcher and second on his team penalized for using banned sticky stuff. The penalty was announced by MLB senior vice president for on-field operations Michael Hill, one day after Smith entered in the seventh inning of a Subway Series game against the Yankees at Citi Field and was ejected without throwing a pitch. Smith declined to appeal the discipline to John McHale Jr., a special assistant to baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, and started serving the penalty Wednesday
June 15, 2023Veteran midfielder Luka Modric scored an extra-time penalty to seal a thrilling 4-2 victory for Croatia over the Netherlands and a place in the Nations League final. Thousands of ecstatic red-and-white clad Croatia fans chanted “Luka! Luka! Luka!” after the 37-year-old completed the scoring from the penalty spot in the 116th minute on Wednesday. Modric said after the match that the fans made it feel like he was playing in Zagreb or Split in Croatia. It was Modric’s 165th appearance for his country. He said after captaining Croatia to victory over Morocco in the third-place game
June 15, 2023Wednesday’s deadly shipwreck off southern Greece, involving a large boat carrying migrants that capsized after apparently rebuffing offers of help, is just the latest case of smugglers packing vessels full of desperate people willing to risk their lives to reach continental Europe. The trip from Libya or Tunisia through the Central Mediterranean and north to Europe is the deadliest migratory route in the world, according to the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration. Here’s a look at situation in the Mediterranean and some of the particulars of the latest tragedy: WHAT HAPPENED? Greek coast guard, navy and merchant
June 15, 2023As a Black student who was raised by a single mother, Makia Green believes she benefited from a program that gave preference to students of color from economically disadvantaged backgrounds when she was admitted over a decade ago to the University of Rochester. As a borrower who still owes just over $20,000 on her undergraduate student loans, she has been counting on President Joe Biden’s promised debt relief to wipe nearly all of that away. Now, both affirmative action and the student loan cancellation plan — policies that disproportionately help Black students — could soon be dismantled
June 15, 2023Automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, could be placed in nearly every school or sports and recreation venue in Ohio under a proposal that cleared the Republican-dominated House Wednesday with overwhelming bipartisan support. The legislation, sparked by the sudden cardiac arrest of Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin in January on the field during a football game in Cincinnati, would require that all public schools, municipally-owned sports and recreation locations such as gymnasiums and swimming pools, and some private schools have on-site AEDs. It cleared the chamber on an 84-6 vote. Current Ohio law allows school districts to
June 15, 2023A former manager at the Harvard Medical School morgue, his wife and three other people have been indicted in the theft and sale of human body parts, federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced Wednesday. Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, stole dissected portions of cadavers that were donated to the school in the scheme that stretched from 2018 to early 2023, according to court documents. The body parts were taken without the school’s knowledge or permission, authorities said, adding that the school has cooperated with the investigation. Lodge sometimes took the body parts — which included
June 15, 2023For the first time in more than a decade, the average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage has less home equity than they did a year earlier. Among the roughly 63% of U.S. homes with a mortgage, average homeowner equity per borrower was $274,070 in the first quarter, down 1.9% from the same quarter last year, according to real estate data tracker CoreLogic. The last time average homeowner equity fell year-over-year was in the first quarter of 2012, when the housing market was still regaining its footing after the mortgage meltdown and ensuing foreclosure crisis that helped
June 15, 2023Two firms have been tasked with investigating the partial collapse of a six-story apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, that left three dead, many injured and dozens displaced, the city announced Wednesday. The city hired White Birch Group, LLC, and SOCOTEC Engineering to complete a cause and origin report that will be shared with the public “when deemed appropriate,” city officials said in a statement. A report could start to answer questions about the May 28 partial collapse, including why residents remained in the 116-year-old brick, steel and concrete building despite the many warnings over many
June 15, 2023Israel’s parliament on Wednesday appointed an opposition lawmaker to the powerful committee that picks the country’s judges, defying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a vote that exposed divisions within the ruling coalition and raised questions about his control over his political allies. The vote appeared to temporarily avert a crisis that had threatened to unleash renewed political turmoil over Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan. The opposition had threatened to withdraw from negotiations with Netanyahu over the overhaul if its candidate, Karine Elharrar, was not named to the committee. Despite Elharrar’s appointment on Wednesday, the opposition said it
June 15, 2023A survivor of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre said Wednesday that she saw her right arm “get blown open in two places” by a gunman and cried “Mommy” after her 97-year-old mother was shot and killed next to her in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jewish people. Andrea Wedner was expected to be the government’s last witness as prosecutors wrap up their case against Robert Bowers, who burst into the Tree of Life synagogue building with a military-style rifle and other weaponry and opened fire, shooting anyone he could find. Bowers killed 11 worshippers and injured seven others,
June 15, 2023Clint Dempsey thinks the U.S. Soccer Federation hurt the men’s national team by delaying its decision on a coach leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired Dec. 31 and the USSF appointed Anthony Hudson as interim coach while it investigated a decades-old domestic violence allegation against Berhalter. An outside law firm said in March there was no impediment to retaining Berhalter, but British executive Matt Crocker was hired in April as sporting director and said he likely will take until the end of summer to decide on a coach. In the meantime,
June 15, 2023Stefon Diggs was back on the field practicing on Wednesday, and Bills coach Sean McDermott said whatever lingering issues from last season that raised concern and confusion over the absence of Buffalo’s top receiver a day earlier have been resolved. To begin with, McDermott said Diggs didn’t skip the team’s mandatory session on Tuesday, but was in fact excused. As for the issues that led to Diggs’ concerns in questioning his role in the offense, the coach said the team and the receiver are “in a real good spot.” McDermott made an unscheduled appearance with
June 15, 2023After more than two decades as America’s best-selling beer, Bud Light has slipped into second place. Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager, overtook Bud Light in U.S. retail dollar sales in the month ending June 3, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting. Modelo controlled 8.4% of U.S. grocery, convenience and liquor store sales; Bud Light fell to 7.3%. It’s a milestone in the months-long sales decline Bud Light has experienced since early April, when critics vowed to boycott the brand after it sent a commemorative can to Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer. Bud Light has also faced backlash
June 15, 2023The president of the Los Angeles City Council said he will file a motion Wednesday to suspend a councilman charged with embezzlement, perjury and other crimes in the latest corruption scandal among leadership of the nation’s second-largest city. Council President Paul Krekorian said he was shocked by the criminal complaint against Curren Price Jr., whom he referred to as “a friend and colleague” while stressing that the presumption of innocence is a bedrock principle of the U.S. Constitution. Price, who has served on the council for a decade, faces five counts of embezzlement of government funds,
June 15, 2023The Israeli military said Wednesday it closed an investigation into its shooting and killing of a Palestinian toddler in the occupied West Bank earlier this month. In a rare admission of wrongdoing, the military said the 2-year-old boy was killed unintentionally when a soldier mistook him and his father for militants on the run. The military said it would reprimand one of the officers involved in the incident, but there would be no criminal charges filed and no further discipline. Rights groups contend the Israeli military does too little to investigate and punish its soldiers for the
June 15, 2023Amid her lengthy jersey retirement speech last weekend, Sue Bird took a moment to talk about the future of the only franchise she played for in her WNBA career. And how that franchise — the Seattle Storm — is now in the hands of Jewell Loyd. “To see your game grow, to see you grow as a person, as a human, as a basketball player, I’m still so excited that I have a courtside seat and I get to watch it continue,” Bird said, words directed to her former teammate. “I’m so proud of you. You are
June 14, 2023Federal prosecutors want Elizabeth Holmes to pay $250 each month to victims of her failed blood testing startup after she leaves prison, but her attorneys are pushing back citing “limited financial resources” available to the disgraced founder of Theranos. The U.S. filed a motion last week asking the court to correct “clerical errors” which included, prosecutors said, the lack of a timeline for restitution from the one-time billionaire once she exits prison. Holmes’ legal team objected to those changes this week. Holmes, 39, began an 11-year sentence at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas, late last month
June 14, 2023The head count of every U.S. resident in 2020 helped guide the distribution of $2.8 trillion in annual federal spending, underscoring the importance of participating in the once-a-decade census, according to a new report released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. There were 353 federal assistance programs that used the Census Bureau data in 2021 to steer the allocation of the federal funding, up from 316 programs accounting for $1.5 trillion in 2017 when a similar study was conducted, according to the report. The federal funding is distributed to state and local governments, nonprofits, businesses and households. In 2021, it
June 14, 2023A Detroit-area community has banned LGBTQ+ flags from publicly owned poles after a tense hourslong meeting that raised questions about discrimination, religion and the city’s reputation for welcoming newcomers. In protest, a woman speaking during the public comment portion of the Hamtramck City Council meeting kissed a woman standing next to her Tuesday night. “You guys are welcome,” council member Nayeem Choudhury said. “(But) why do you have to have the flag shown on government property to be represented? You’re already represented. We already know who you are.” Some members of the all-Muslim council said the
June 14, 2023Russian lawmakers gave initial approval Wednesday to a bill that would outlaw gender transitioning procedures in yet another blow to the country’s beleaguered LGBTQ+ community. Senior lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy, who is among the bill’s sponsors, has said it is intended to “protect Russia with its cultural and family values and traditions and to stop the infiltration of the Western anti-family ideology.” Russia’s LGBTQ+ community has been under growing pressure for a decade as President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church embarked on a campaign to preserve what they deem the country’s “traditional values.” The bill
June 14, 2023A Canadian public relations manager for a Chinese-founded development bank announced his resignation Wednesday in a statement that accused it of being dominated by “Communist Party hacks” and said Canada’s interests weren’t served by being a member. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank confirmed in an email that Bob Pickard resigned as its director general of global communications and rejected his criticism as unfounded. The AIIB, seen by some as a Chinese rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, was founded in 2016 to finance railways and other infrastructure. It has 106 member governments including most
June 14, 2023An activist group and researchers tried to increase pressure on agribusiness giant Cargill on Wednesday to do more to fight deforestation and human rights abuse, releasing a report that accuses the company of not following through on commitments to help end such practices. The report argues that the family-owned company has been misled by its managers and now should take the lead in ensuring it carries out its promises to fight forced child labor in the cocoa industry and protect forests and other natural resources. As one of the world’s largest privately held companies and by far the largest grain
June 14, 2023Serbian authorities said Wednesday they have captured three “fully armed” Kosovo police officers inside Serbia near their mutual border, while Kosovo police said they have likely been “kidnapped” on Kosovo territory as they patrolled the area. The latest incident further raises tensions between Serbia and its former province. Serbia had put its troops on the border on the highest state of alert amid a series of recent clashes between Kosovo Serbs on one side, and Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers on the other. Kosovo police said in a statement Wednesday that the three police officers called
June 14, 2023Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday in a newspaper report that he won’t sign the state budget if Republican lawmakers follow through on their plan to cut funding for the state university system’s diversity officers, escalating a bitter fight over dollars for the state campuses. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he wants to cut $32 million from the UW System in the state’s 2023-25 budget, an amount he said is equal to what the system spends on diversity officers. He said during a news conference Wednesday that diversity efforts have
June 14, 2023Pennsylvania will truck in 2,000 tons of lightweight glass nuggets to help quickly rebuild a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia and crews will work 24 hours a day until they can reopen the critical commercial artery, officials said Wednesday. By using the recycled glass to fill in the collapsed area, they’ll be able to avoid supply-chain delays for other materials, Gov. Josh Shapiro said. But Shapiro repeatedly declined to estimate how long it will take to get traffic flowing again on the busy East Coast highway. “We’re going to get this job done as quickly as possible,” Shapiro
June 14, 2023The Southern Baptist Convention has refused to welcome Saddleback Church back into its fold, rejecting an appeal by the California megachurch over its February ouster for having women pastors. Southern Baptist church representatives at their annual meeting here also rejected a similar appeal by a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, which is led by a woman pastor. The results of the Tuesday votes were announced Wednesday morning on the concluding day of the the two-day annual meeting here of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, whose statement of faith asserts that only qualified men
June 14, 2023Advanced Micro Devices has revealed a new artificial intelligence chip in its race to compete with rival chipmaker Nvidia in supplying the foundation for a boom in AI-fueled business tools. The semiconductor company, based in Santa Clara, California, described its new MI300X chip as “the world’s most advanced accelerator for generative AI.” It’s expected to attract interest from big cloud providers such as Amazon or Microsoft, but AMD hasn’t specified which cloud provider might use it. CFRA senior equity analyst Angelo Zino predicted this month that that AMD’s MI300 processor “will see significant interest from cloud
June 14, 2023There may have been 30 people inside Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday with a view of the field, including a couple of workers who were busy hosing off seats hours before the game, yet all would occasionally turn to see where the ball landed when they heard the crack of the bat. Inside the cage, hat flipped backward a la Ken Griffey Jr. and with a left-handed swing nearly as sweet, was the hottest thing to hit baseball in quite some time. Elly De La Cruz pounded ropes into the stadium’s massive alleys and soared shots
June 14, 2023A German opposition party on Wednesday launched a legal challenge against an electoral reform designed to reduce the size of the country’s increasingly bloated parliament. The Barvarian center-right Christian Social Union is one of two opposition parties that have been vehemently critical of the legislation, which lawmakers approved in March, and see their future place in parliament at risk. They accuse Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition of cobbling together constitutionally dubious rules to favor itself. The party’s general secretary, Martin Huber, said it has filed a complaint to Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court against the “undemocratic, anti-federalist, manipulative
June 14, 2023Wholesale prices in the United States dropped 0.3% from April to May, another sign that inflationary pressures continue to ease in the face of repeated interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. The Labor Department’s producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 1.1% last month from May 2022, it said Wednesday, the smallest year-over-year gain since Dec. 2020. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale inflation was up 0.2% last from April and 2.8% from a year earlier. Unleashed by an unexpectedly strong economic recovery from 2020’s COVID-19 recession,
June 14, 2023The Federal Reserve’s likely decision Wednesday afternoon to leave interest rates alone for the first time in 11 meetings will raise hopes that it may be nearing the end of its rate-hiking campaign to cool inflation. That’s not to say the Fed is done raising rates. Most economists foresee another increase or two, starting as soon as next month. And even after the Fed has stopped hiking, it’s likely to keep borrowing rates at a peak for months to come. Consumers would still have to bear the weight of higher-cost auto loans, mortgages, credit cards and
June 14, 2023Two of the U.K.’s four mobile phone operators agreed Wednesday to merge their businesses to capitalize on the rollout of next-generation 5G wireless technology in the country. The tie-up of Vodafone U.K. and Three U.K., which is owned by Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison, would create Britain’s biggest mobile phone player, with a combined 27 million customers. But the deal is likely to face stiff regulatory scrutiny because it will reduce the number of mobile networks down to three. Vodafone will account for 51% of the merged firm, with CK Hutchison owning the rest. Vodafone will have an
June 14, 2023A landmark ruling that an Indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon could reclaim ancestral rainforests has been set aside by an appeals court in a move some legal experts called irregular. Kichwa tribes lived in the area of Cordillera Azul National Park for centuries before the park was founded in 2001 in what the Kichwa say was theft of their land. Major companies such as Shell and TotalEnergies have spent more than $80 million since then buying credits in the park to counter their carbon emissions. That money hasn’t helped the Puerto Franco community of Kichwa, who fell into food
June 14, 2023European Union antitrust regulators took aim at Google’s lucrative digital advertising business in an unprecedented decision, saying Wednesday that the tech giant must sell off some of its ad business to address competition concerns. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, said its preliminary view after an investigation is that “only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services” would satisfy the concerns. The 27-nation EU has led the global movement to crack down on Big Tech companies — including groundbreaking rules on artificial intelligence — but it has previously relied
June 14, 2023After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on student loan payments will end soon. Student loan interest will start accruing on September 1 and payments are starting in October. It might seem tempting to just keep not making payments, but the consequences can be severe, including a hit to your credit score and exclusion from future aid and benefits. More than 40 million Americans will have to start making federal student loan payments again at the end of the summer under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress. Millions are also waiting to find
June 14, 2023The total prize money at Wimbledon this year will rise by more than 11%, with the winners of the singles each getting 2.35 million pounds ($3 million). The total prize fund at the championships will be 44.7 million pounds ($56.5 million), the All England Club said Wednesday. That is an increase of 17.1% compared to 2019, the last Wimbledon before the pandemic. The earnings for the winners of the singles competitions are back to the levels they were in 2019. The prize for the singles champions had dipped to 1.7 million pounds in 2021, after the tournament
June 14, 2023A court in Russia on Wednesday convicted an associate of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny on extremism charges and sentenced her to 7 1/2 years in prison, the latest step in a yearslong crackdown by the Kremlin on opposition activists. Lilia Chanysheva, who used to head Navalny’s office in the Russian region of Bashkortostan, was found guilty of calling for extremism, forming an extremist group and founding an organization that violates rights. The charges against Chanysheva, who was arrested in November 2021, stem from a court ruling earlier that year that designated Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting
June 14, 2023Women’s rights advocates have called for protests in dozens of Polish cities on Wednesday under the slogan “Stop killing us,” after a woman in her fifth month of pregnancy died of sepsis, the latest such death since a tightening of Poland’s abortion law. The protests demanding a liberalization of the abortion law are scheduled to take place in the capital and nearly 50 other cities in the afternoon and evening. The 33-year-old woman died last month in the John Paul II hospital in Nowy Targ in southern Poland. It is a hospital in a deeply conservative
June 14, 2023The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it hopes to weed out false or misleading animal-welfare claims on meat and poultry packaging with new guidance and testing. The claims __ such as “pasture-raised,” “humanely raised,” and “raised without antibiotics” __ are increasingly popular with consumers and allow producers to charge a premium. Perdue “free range” chicken breasts with no antibiotics sell for $5.78 per pound at Walmart, for example; store brand chicken breasts without those claims sell for $2.79 per pound. Both meat producers and animal welfare advocates say the USDA isn’t adequately substantiating the claims or ensuring they meet
June 14, 2023A gentle eruption of the Philippines’ most active volcano that has forced nearly 18,000 people to flee to emergency shelters could last for months and create a protracted crisis, officials said Wednesday. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flew to northeastern Albay province to reassure villagers who were forced to evacuate from mostly poor farming communities within a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius of the Mayon volcano’s crater since volcanic activity spiked last week. Marcos distributed food packs and other aid to displaced villagers, and was expected to meet Albay town mayors later Wednesday to discuss the unfolding crisis. The
June 14, 2023Silvio Berlusconi’s legacy — positive or negative — was being hotly debated among Italians as the nation prepared for a national day of mourning and a state funeral in Milan’s Gothic-era Duomo cathedral on Wednesday. Most Italians identify Berlusconi, a media mogul, soccer entrepreneur and three-time former premier, as the most influential figure in Italy over recent decades. But they remain sharply divided on whether his influence was for the better or worse. They are split over whether the three-time former premier merits all the fuss and ceremony. Berlusconi died at the age of 86 on Monday
June 14, 2023South Korea filed a 44.7 billion won ($35 million) damage suit against North Korea on Wednesday for blowing up a joint liaison office just north of their border in 2020, which highlighted a revival of tensions between the rivals following the collapse of larger nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea. The symbolic lawsuit filed with the Seoul Central District Court comes amid a prolonged freeze in diplomacy and growing concerns over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. South Korea had until this Friday to claim damages, when a three-year statute of limitations
June 14, 2023Police worked Wednesday to piece together details of a knife and van attack that killed two 19-year-old students and another man in the English city of Nottingham, as friends and family remembered the two younger victims as talented athletes with a passion for life. Nottingham University students Barnaby Webber and Grace Kumar were stabbed to death in a street near student housing before dawn on Tuesday. Police say a 31-year-old suspect also killed a man in his 50s more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, stole his van and ran down a group of pedestrians. Three people
June 14, 2023Authorities worldwide are racing to rein in artificial intelligence, including in the European Union, where groundbreaking legislation is set to pass a key hurdle Wednesday. European Parliament lawmakers are due to vote on the proposal — including controversial amendments on facial recognition — as it heads toward passage. A yearslong effort by Brussels to draw up guardrails for AI has taken on more urgency as rapid advances in chatbots like ChatGPT show the benefits the emerging technology can bring — and the new perils it poses. Here’s a look at the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act: HOW DO
June 14, 2023Russian forces fired cruise missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight, killing at least three people and injuring more than a dozen others in a strike that damaged homes, a warehouse, shops and cafes downtown, the regional state administration said. The attack launched from the Black Sea involved four sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles, three of which were intercepted by air defenses, the regional administration said on Facebook. Three employees of a food warehouse were killed and seven others injured, and searchers were looking for possible survivors under the rubble, it said. Another six people
June 14, 2023Bruce Cassidy has been the Golden Knights’ coach for only a year, but he knows full well the history of the Misfits. So in the game that would win the Stanley Cup for Vegas, Cassidy started five of the original Knights and sent the sixth one in for the second shift Tuesday night in a 9-3 victory over the Florida Panthers. “They’re the original guys, right?” Cassidy said. “They’re the foundation of this hockey team. The first building blocks started with them. They’ve been here since the beginning. They lost in a final like I did.
June 14, 2023United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang shared concerns on a phone call Wednesday ahead of a planned visit by the U.S. official to China meant to shore up relations. “Spoke tonight with PRC State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang by phone,” Blinken’s official Twitter account read. “Discussed ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of communication as well as bilateral and global issues.” The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on one of its social media pages that Qin urged the United States to respect “China’s core concerns”
June 14, 2023Six months after she got the call informing her that her U.N. assistance would be cut, Najwa al-Jassem is struggling to feed her four children and pay rent for their tent in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. She once received food rations and cash that covered most of their modest monthly expenses. The family now only gets the equivalent of $20 a month, which just covers the rent for their cramped tent. Her husband gets only sporadic day labor and “my kids are too young for me to send them to
June 14, 2023Asian stock markets were mixed Wednesday after a cooler reading on U.S. inflation buoyed hopes the Federal Reserve will postpone a possible interest rate hike. Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney rose while Hong Kong and Seoul declined. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.7% to a 14-month high after government data Tuesday showed U.S. consumer inflation eased to 4% over a year earlier in May from the previous month’s 4.9%. It was less than half last June’s peak of 9.1% but still double the Fed’s 2% target. That reinforced hopes the Fed will avoid announcing another rate
June 14, 2023The Indigenous adolescents danced in a circle under the thatched-roof hut from nearly dawn to dusk while parents looked on from the perimeter. Some of the adults smoked tobacco mixed with the wood from a local tree in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. The seemingly endless loop of the procession, taking place over six long days this month, was leaving some Tembé Tenehara youngsters with swollen and bandaged feet. They were receiving little to eat and spending each night sleeping in hammocks slung in the hut. But in the Alto Rio Guama territory, it
June 14, 2023Toyota executives fielded challenges and reaped praise from investors at an annual general meeting Wednesday where shareholders ultimately rejected demands the automaker do better on fighting climate change. The investor proposal was initiated by AkademikerPension, a $20 billion Danish investment fund. It accused Toyota Motor Corp. of lobbying to weaken efforts by governments around the world to phase out the internal combustion engine. Shareholders applauded in rejecting the proposal, as expected, at the meeting in Toyota city, central Japan. The majority of Toyota shares are held by the company and its group companies, retired employees and
June 14, 2023Scottie Scheffler took one long, smooth stroke, then looked down the line and watched the ball roll toward the hole on the practice green. He was using his wedge. That was a drill. The state of his game on the greens — more of an emergency. The player listed No. 1 in the latest world golf ranking is sitting at No. 148 in the PGA Tour in putting this year. With the U.S. Open starting Thursday, Scheffler finds himself experimenting with different putters and also trying to give himself a little more credit for putts he
June 14, 2023Jack Eichel is a Stanley Cup champion with the Vegas Golden Knights less than two years removed from neck surgery that no NHL player had previously come back from. It’s a triumphant moment for a player whose career was derailed by the injury and became a trailblazer for the operation he credits for fixing it. The 26-year-old Eichel was the team’s best all-around player during the playoffs, the first-line center Vegas executives knew they needed to win the franchise’s first championship. He finished with a postseason-best 26 points in 22 games and drove a lot of the play offensively and
June 14, 2023Some 110 million people have had to flee their homes because of conflict, persecution, or human rights violations, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says. The war in Sudan, which has displaced nearly 2 million people since April, is but the latest in a long list of crises that has led to the record-breaking figure. “It’s quite an indictment on the state of our world,” Filippo Grandi, who leads the U.N. refugee agency, told reporters in Geneva ahead of the publication Wednesday of UNHCR’s Global Trends Report for 2022. Last year alone, an additional 19 million people were forcibly displaced
June 14, 2023Jonathan Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after leading the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup, a fitting honor for one of the franchise’s original players who has been a key contributor since the first puck dropped in Las Vegas. Marchessault led the Golden Knights with 13 goals and ranked second with 25 points during their playoff run, this one ending on a winning note unlike five years ago when they lost in the final. He is one of six original Knights players left from the start of the expansion franchise in 2017 and has since developed
June 14, 2023The Golden Knights delivered their city a true Vegas-style party from dazzling passes to Mark Stone’s hat trick to all-out goal celebrations, capturing the young organization’s first Stanley Cup with a 9-3 romp over the beaten up and exhausted Florida Panthers on Tuesday night. Coach Bruce Cassidy, in a nod to the Knights’ brief history, started five of the original Vegas players known as the Misfits and put the sixth on the second shift. Cassidy sounded confident the day before the game that his team would play well, and it certainly did, blowing open a one-goal
June 14, 2023In his first visit to Latin America, Iran’s hardline president met Tuesday with his Nicaraguan counterpart and railed against a theme both leaders have in common: U.S. sanctions. President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Nicaragua is his second stop, after Venezuela. He is also scheduled to visit Cuba, Iran’s other ally in the region. Raisi spoke at a joint appearance in Managua with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. “The United States wanted to paralyze our people with threats and sanctions, but it hasn’t been able to do it,” Raisi said. Many top figures in Ortega’s government also face
June 14, 2023PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is recovering from a medical situation, the tour announced Tuesday night. The tour did not disclose the nature of the situation or how serious it was, only that two of his executives would lead the day-to-day operations of the PGA Tour during the most intense time of its 54-year history. The announcement comes a week after Monahan stunned the golf world by announcing the PGA Tour had ended its battle with Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund and its LIV Golf League by agreeing to a business partnership. Monahan, 53, spent nearly two
June 14, 2023Drew Smith became the second New York Mets pitcher to get ejected this season for using an illegal foreign substance when he was tossed from the Subway Series opener Tuesday night against the Yankees at Citi Field. The reliever never even threw a pitch. He was checked by umpires as he entered in the top of the seventh inning with the Mets trailing 7-6 and never made it to the mound. Smith was stopped for a routine check as he reached the infield. Within moments, several umpires and teammates were huddled around the right-hander, and Mets
June 14, 2023Microsoft’s planned $69 billion purchase of video game company Activision Blizzard was blocked by a federal judge Tuesday, giving more time for an antitrust review of the deal. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco ruled in support of a temporary restraining order sought by the Federal Trade Commission that will stop Microsoft from closing the deal. In a court filing Monday, the commission had sought both a restraining order and injunction to stop Microsoft’s acquisition of the California company behind hit games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush
June 14, 2023Furious Oakland Athletics fans came en masse with a single message to owner John Fisher: “SELL.” Buddies Brian Guido and Scott Finney of Sacramento each took off early from work Tuesday because there was no way they were going to miss the festivities a couple of hours away in Oakland. “I’ve been to only one game this year. I saw this game and I knew I had to come because I knew it was going to be very monumental and would send a message to the owner that this is what the fan base wants,” Finney
June 14, 2023Leading off at the Subway Series, new St. John’s coach Rick Pitino. Just before the New York Yankees faced the Mets on Tuesday night at Citi Field, the Hall of Fame basketball coach threw out a ceremonial first pitch to Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell — who played for Pitino at Louisville. Mitchell’s father, also named Donovan, works for the Mets as Senior Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “I’m friends with Donovan Mitchell Sr. as well, and when I found out that young Donovan was catching me, I thought it was awesome. Because I love him,
June 14, 2023Costa Rica and the U.S. government have agreed to open potential legal pathways to the United States for some of the Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants among the 240,000 asylum seekers already awaiting asylum in the Central American country. The agreement – announced by Costa Rica Tuesday and the United States late Monday – appears aimed at reducing the pressure on Costa Rica’s overwhelmed asylum system and heading off asylum seekers who could give up on the slow Costa Rica process and instead set off for the U.S. border. In recent years, Costa Rica with
June 14, 2023The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday after having raised it 10 straight times to combat high inflation. But in a surprise move, the Fed signaled that it may raise rates twice more this year, beginning as soon as next month. The Fed’s move to leave its benchmark rate at about 5.1%, its highest level in 16 years, suggests that it believes the much higher borrowing rates it’s engineered have made some progress in taming inflation. But top Fed officials want to take time to more fully assess how their rate hikes have affected
June 14, 2023The U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly confirmed Jared Bernstein to be the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. A longtime aide to President Joe Biden and an economist focused on workers, Bernstein was confirmed by a vote of 50-49. Republican lawmakers were critical of his claims early in the administration that the high inflation coming out of the pandemic was temporary. Rising costs for families and businesses have been a challenge for Biden, though the Labor Department said Tuesday that the pace of inflation fell in May to 4%, the lowest 12-month figure for
June 14, 2023Starbucks is denying union organizers’ claims that it is banning Pride displays in its U.S. stores in the wake of Target and other brands experiencing a backlash. But Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing U.S. Starbucks stores, says store managers around the country have been curtailing or removing displays during a monthlong celebration of LGBTQ+ people. In some cases, the union said, managers told workers that Pride displays were a safety concern, citing recent incidents at Target where some angry customers tipped over merchandise and confronted workers. “There has been no change to any policy on this matter and we
June 14, 2023Prosecutors charged a Los Angeles city councilman with embezzlement and perjury Tuesday in the latest criminal case to upend the scandal-plagued governing board of the nation’s second-largest city. Curren Price, Jr. faces five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The office did not release the criminal complaint or any details about the charges. The council and city government have been shaken by a series of recent scandals. In March, former Democratic City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas —
June 14, 2023A stadium financing bill aimed at drawing the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas cleared a major hurdle Tuesday after being approved by the Nevada Senate, but not before lawmakers amended the measure to strengthen its benefits for the community. The 13-8 Senate vote marks another step as the bill moves through the Democratic-controlled Legislature while reviving the national debate over public funding for private sports clubs. The bill, which has the support of Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, must now be considered by the state Assembly. A’s representatives and some Nevada tourism officials have said the
June 14, 2023U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on Tuesday urged the world to be “very skeptical” about claims from oil and gas producers that emerging technology soon will allow people to adequately capture the climate-wrecking fumes emitted by their cars, planes and businesses. It’s “one big question mark,” Kerry told The Associated Press of the future viability of carbon-capture technology, a debate at the heart of global negotiations on cutting emissions to stave off the most disastrous scenarios of global warming. The International Energy Agency and increasing numbers of scientists, governments and global leaders and advocates are saying
June 14, 2023Thousands of Reddit discussion forums have gone dark this week to protest a new policy that will charge some third-party apps to access data on the site, leading to worries about content moderation and accessibility. More than 8,000 subreddits were dark as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a tracker and live Twitch stream of the boycott. Participants ranged from small forums to large communities with tens of millions of subscribers — including the r/funny, r/music and r/todayilearned pages seen on the online discussion site. “Reddit is killing third-party applications (and itself),” other subreddits wrote in posts seen
June 14, 2023Tory Lanez’s sentencing for shooting and wounding hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion was delayed on Tuesday. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Herriford accepted the defense’s request to delay Lanez’s sentencing, which is now scheduled for Aug. 7. Prosecutors are seeking a 13 year prison sentence and Lanez faces deportation to his native Canada. Herriford decided to give Lanez’s lawyers more time to prepare their sentencing recommendation, which is due Aug. 1. The judge, who will sentence Lanez, denied a motion from Lanez’ defense attorneys for a new trial on May 9. During the brief court
June 14, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday alternated threats of a new Russian offensive to grab more Ukrainian land with statements about the Kremlin’s readiness for peace talks. Speaking during a far-ranging meeting with Russian military correspondents and war bloggers, he made some of the most extensive comments about the conflict and his goals since sending the troops into Ukraine more than 15 months ago. Here is a quick look at some of Putin’s key statements: UKRAINIAN COUNTEROFFENSIVE Putin asserted that Ukraine has suffered “catastrophic” losses in its counteroffensive. He said Ukrainian troops amassed reserves to launch the
June 14, 2023Brittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury’s first two road trips have put the travel issues facing her and the league back in the spotlight. For the Mercury’s season-opening weekend trip to Los Angeles the team traveled on a business jet that didn’t require the Phoenix travel party to go through the commercial part of the airport. Last week, the team took a flight to Texas and then Indiana, requiring Griner and her Mercury to teammates go through commercial airports. While going through the Dallas airport on Saturday, the All-Star center was harassed at the Dallas airport by a social media
June 14, 2023An entrepreneur who promoted group “orgasmic meditation” as a road to women’s well-being turned herself in and pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of manipulating traumatized people into debt, undesired sex and underpaid work. Nicole Daedone, who founded the sex-centric wellness company OneTaste, faces a federal forced labor conspiracy case that was unveiled last week. She was released Tuesday on $1 million bond, secured by her mother, her mother’s partner, and a OneTaste ally; the friend put up a sprawling property in Northern California’s Mendocino County. “The idea that this woman, at this company, engaged
June 14, 2023Transgender advocate Rose Montoya is no longer welcome at White House events after posting on social media a video of herself and two others going topless for a time at Saturday’s Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn. “The behavior was simply unacceptable,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “It was unfair to the hundreds of attendees who were there to celebrate their families.” Speaking at the White House press briefing, Jean-Pierre said, “Individuals in the video certainly will not be invited to future events.” The White House spokeswoman said the bare-chested display “was not
June 14, 2023A U.S. Army base in western Louisiana was renamed Tuesday to honor Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black hero of World War I who received the Medal of Honor nearly a century later. Fort Johnson had previously been named after a Confederate commander, Leonidas Polk. The renaming is part of the U.S. military’s efforts to address historic racial injustice — work that included changing the names of nine Army posts that commemorated Confederate officers. “Sgt. William Henry Johnson embodied the warrior spirit, and we are deeply honored to bear his name,” Brig. Gen. David Garner,
June 14, 2023A columnist who recently won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation jury award against Donald Trump can update a similar lawsuit with his more recent public comments in a bid for over $10 million more in damages from the ex-president, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in another legal loss for Trump. The ruling by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gave new life to a defamation lawsuit by writer E. Jean Carroll that was stalled by appeals after the U.S. Justice Department supported a request by Trump’s attorneys to substitute the United States for him as the
June 14, 2023Amazon’s cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services experienced an outage on Tuesday, affecting publishers that suddenly found themselves unable to operate their sites. The company said on its website that the root cause of the issue was tied to a service called AWS Lambda, which lets customers run code for different types of applications. Roughly two hours after customers began experiencing errors, the company posted on its AWS status page that many of the affected AWS services were “fully recovered” and it was continuing to recover the rest. Soon after 6:30 pm E.T., the company announced all
June 14, 2023Flavia Franzoni, a professor of social work and the wife of former Italian Premier Romano Prodi, died Tuesday during a hike in Umbria, Italy’s rescue service said. She was 76. The Prodis and others were walking along the Via di Francesco, a popular pilgrimage route between Gubbio and Assisi, when Franzoni collapsed, news reports said. The Umbrian branch of the national Alpine rescue corps said two teams responded to an emergency call and found Franzoni unconscious. Medics tried to resuscitate her, but “there was nothing more to be done” and a doctor pronounced her dead at the
June 14, 2023Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who in prose both dense and brittle took readers from the southern Appalachians to the desert Southwest in such novels as “The Road,” “Blood Meridian” and “All the Pretty Horses,” died Tuesday. He was 89. McCarthy died of natural causes in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher Alfred A. Knopf said. McCarthy, raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, was compared to William Faulkner for his Old Testament style and rural settings. McCarthy’s themes, like Faulkner’s, often were bleak and violent and dramatized how the past overwhelmed the present. Across stark and forbidding
June 14, 2023The New York Rangers have hired Peter Laviolette as their next coach, bringing in a seasoned veteran with Stanley Cup-winning experience to replace Gerard Gallant. The team announced the selection of Laviolette on Tuesday, putting the U.S.-born leader in NHL coaching victories in charge at a time of great expectations, with the Original Six franchise firmly in win-now mode. “With Peter’s extensive experience as a head coach in the National Hockey League, as well as the success his teams have had at several levels throughout his career, we are excited about what the future holds with him leading our team,”
June 14, 2023The number of people who died after a Kenyan pastor ordered his followers to starve to death in order to meet Jesus has surpassed 300, authorities said Tuesday, and the death toll is expected to rise as more exhumations are planned. The death toll increased to 303 after 19 more bodies were recovered from mass graves in the vast forested land in Kilifi County of coastal Kenya, where pastor Paul Mackenzie and his followers lived. Coastal regional commissioner Rhoda Onyancha told local journalists that 613 people tied to the area are missing. On Monday, 65 of
June 13, 2023The largest nuclear power plant in Europe faces “a relatively dangerous situation” after a dam burst in Ukraine and as Ukraine’s military Kyiv launches a counteroffensive to retake ground occupied by Russia, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Tuesday. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke to journalists in Kyiv just before leaving on a trip to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The plant has been in the crossfire repeatedly since Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022 and seized the facility shortly after. Grossi said
June 13, 2023Supporters of former President Donald Trump honked their horns and screamed wildly as the former president arrived at the courthouse in downtown Miami to make his first appearance on criminal charges that he improperly held on to classified documents. Hundreds of journalists from around the world were also on hand at the federal courthouse, as were anti-Trump protestors. Among the crowd, some waved signs and flags, with the two factions at times shouting over one another. Journalists from China, the UK, Australia, France, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland were among the hundreds of reporters who have
June 13, 2023The mayor of the Mexican border city of Tijuana said she has decided to live at an army base for her own safety, after she received threats. Mayor Montserrat Caballero announced the decision after confirming that police had found seven dead bodies stuffed in a pickup truck on Monday. Police said they found the pickup truck parked at a gas station in Tijuana with the doors open; on the back seat of the cab lay a body wrapped in a blanket. Hidden under tires and wooden boards were six more bodies. “I have received threats, so
June 13, 2023A passenger thrown from a boat that flipped over with 29 people aboard during a tour of a dimly lit cavern system said he fought to breathe in the chilly water under the capsized craft. The flat-bottomed boat carrying local hospitality workers capsized Monday during a tour of an historic underground water tunnel off the Erie Canal in the western New York city of Lockport, killing one person. “By the time I realized what happened, the boat was on top of me and I couldn’t find any air pockets or anything. And I’m just trying to,
June 13, 2023U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised Tuesday to help repair the East Coast’s main north-south highway as quickly as possible and said that the destruction of a section of I-95 will likely raise the cost of consumer goods because truckers must now travel longer routes. Speaking near the site where an out-of-control tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp and caught fire, Buttigieg said he expected that disruptions in trucking routes will put “upward pressure” on shipping costs along the East Coast. Buttigieg toured the site and then, over the sounds of heavy machinery and demolition, told
June 13, 2023Follow along for live updates on former President Donald Trump, who is making his first court appearance Tuesday after being indicted on 37 charges related to the mishandling classified documents. The indictment marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president faces criminal charges by the federal government he once oversaw. ___ TRUMP RODE TO COURT WITH HIS SON ERIC Trump rode to court with his son Eric, who accompanied the motorcade from the former president’s Doral resort to the federal courthouse in Miami. CNN aired footage of Trump walking to a line of SUVs
June 13, 2023Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declared Tuesday that his country had already has received some of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons and warned that he wouldn’t hesitate to order their use if Belarus faced an act of aggression. The brash comments from Lukashenko contradicted earlier statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said Russian nuclear weapons would be deployed to Belarus next month and emphasized that they would remain under Moscow’s exclusive control. Earlier this year, Putin announced the planned deployment of short-range nuclear weapons to Moscow’s neighbor and ally Belarus in a move widely seen as a warning
June 13, 2023Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Tuesday that he could order his troops to try to seize more land in Ukraine to protect bordering Russian territory and asserted that Ukrainian forces had suffered “catastrophic” losses in a new counteroffensive. In some of his most detailed remarks about the war in months, the Russian leader also said he was not contemplating a new troop mobilization, as many Russians have feared, but did not rule it out. And he reiterated Russia’s claim that Ukraine was responsible for blowing up a Dnieper River dam that caused vast flooding on both
June 13, 2023Bruce Cassidy struggled so badly in his first NHL coaching job with Washington that it knocked him out of the league for more than a decade. Cassidy coached in the junior ranks and the minors before getting a second chance with Boston. When he was fired from that job, he was out of work a grand total of a week before the Vegas Golden Knights hired him. Less than a full calendar year since putting pen to paper with Vegas, Cassidy and the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup after beating the Florida Panthers in five
June 13, 2023When former President Donald Trump appeared in federal court Tuesday, he was joined at the defense table by a man well-practiced in standing by his side: his valet turned alleged co-conspirator, Walt Nauta. Nauta, a Navy veteran who fetched Trump’s Diet Cokes as his valet at the White House before joining him as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, now finds himself in legal jeopardy alongside the former president. He is accused of moving boxes containing reams of sensitive information at Trump’s direction and then lying about it to investigators. On Tuesday, Nauta traveled in the former
June 13, 2023Former President Donald Trump arrived Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Miami to surrender to authorities ahead of a historic court appearance on charges that he illegally hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He was expected to face a magistrate judge, kickstarting a legal process that will unfold at the height of the 2024 presidential campaign and carry profound consequences not only for his political future but more urgently for his own personal liberty. Four black SUVs entered the garage beneath the Miami courthouse, followed by police officers, ahead of his scheduled 3 p.m.
June 13, 2023A high school athlete who along with 15 other young people took Montana to court over climate change testified Tuesday that increased smoke from forest fires makes it difficult for him to compete and that a doctor prescribed an inhaler to help his breathing problems. Mica Kantor, now 15, said he has been worried about climate change since as a 4-year-old he dictated a letter to Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., because he was too young to write it himself. He said it’s increasingly difficult to run or go on hikes with his family, and that the
June 13, 2023The powerful lower house of Japan’s parliament has passed a bill to promote awareness of LGBTQ+ issues amid protests by activists who say that last-minute revisions by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s conservative party favor opponents of sexual equality instead of guaranteeing equal rights
June 13, 2023Many Americans are celebrating Juneteenth, marking the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free. For generations, Black Americans have recognized the end of one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history with joy, in the form of parades, street festivals, musical performances or cookouts. The U.S. government was slow to embrace the occasion — it was only in 2021 that President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to set aside Juneteenth, or June 19th, as a federal holiday. And just as many people learn what Juneteenth is all about,
June 08, 2023Many Americans are celebrating Juneteenth, marking the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free. For generations, Black Americans have recognized the end of one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history with joy, in the form of parades, street festivals, musical performances or cookouts. The U.S. government was slow to embrace the occasion — it was only in 2021 that President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to set aside Juneteenth, or June 19th, as a federal holiday. And just as many people learn what Juneteenth is all about,
June 08, 2023In a good month, Celina Chanthanouvong has about $200 left after rent, groceries and car insurance. That doesn’t factor in her student loans, which have been on hold since the start of the pandemic and are estimated to cost $300 a month. The pause in repayment has been a lifeline keeping the 25-year-old afloat. “I don’t even know where I would begin to budget that money,” said Chanthanouvong, who works in marketing in San Francisco. Now, after more than three years, the lifeline is being pulled away. More than 40 million Americans will be on the hook
June 07, 2023The United States will be playing for an unprecedented three-peat at the Women’s World Cup this summer. It won’t be easy for the world’s No. 1 team. Co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the quadrennial tournament for international soccer’s most coveted trophy kicks off July 20 and features an expanded field of 32 teams, up from 24. There are 64 total matches during the tournament. That means more competition for the two-time defending World Cup champion U.S., which won the 2015 event in Canada and the 2019 tournament in France. The Americans have won four titles overall, most of any
June 06, 2023In a span of a decade, Alexei Navalny has gone from the Kremlin’s biggest foe to Russia’s most prominent political prisoner. Already serving two convictions that have landed him in prison for at least nine years, he faces a new trial that could keep him behind for two more decades. The first court hearing occurred Monday in Penal Colony No. 6, where Navalny is being held, in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometers (over 140 miles) east of Moscow. A look at Navalny’s life, political activism and the charges he has faced through the years: June
June 03, 2023Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson have made their cases to be the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft. With Victor Wembanyama long expected to be chosen first by the San Antonio Spurs, the first bit of uncertainty on June 22 could arrive once the Charlotte Hornets are on the clock. The Hornets have now taken a look at both players. Henderson worked out for Charlotte on Sunday and Miller visited two days later, according to a person with knowledge of the details. The person spoke with the AP on condition anonymity because neither workout was publicly announced, and neither
June 01, 2023President Joe Biden’s decision to allow allies to train Ukrainian forces on how to operate F-16 fighter jets — and eventually to provide the aircraft themselves — seemed like an abrupt change in position but was in fact one that came after months of internal debate and quiet talks with allies. Biden announced during last week’s Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that the U.S. would join the F-16 coalition. His green light came after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spent months pressing the West to provide his forces with American-made jets as he tries to repel Russia’s
May 23, 2023A little girl from Panama born with heart problems died in Border Patrol custody Wednesday, the second death of a child from Latin America in U.S. government custody in two weeks. The 8-year-old girl and her family were being held in Harlingen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the busiest corridors for migrant crossings. The Border Patrol’s parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has struggled with overcrowding at its facilities, spurred by a large increase in migrants ahead of the expiration last week of a key regulation on immigration linked to the COVID-19
May 18, 2023South Korean women protest against sexism and digital sex crimes, such as the making of pornography using hidden cameras. Jean Chung/Getty Images
May 15, 2023A conflict in Sudan that erupted in April 2023 has unleashed waves of ethnic violence, created the world's largest internal displacement crisis, and pushed at least one area
May 02, 2023Hurricane damage will increase in surprising new places in the coming decades. See where it’s trending higher
February 27, 2023