Month: November 2021

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press Climate change isn’t what’s driving some U.S. coal-fired power plants to shut down — instead it’s the expense of stricter pollution controls on their wastewater. Dozens of power plants nationwide plan to shut down later this decade to comply with stricter federal wastewater guidelines. The power plant industry has been

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin has rejected the U.S. claims of a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine as a ruse intended to cover up what it described as Ukrainian leadership’s aggressive intentions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday dismissed U.S. media allegations of a purported Moscow plan to invade Ukraine

By LAURA UNGAR AP Medical Writer LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Scientists say vaccinating kids should not only slow the spread of the coronavirus but also help prevent potentially-dangerous variants from emerging. Each new infection brings another opportunity for the virus to mutate and evolve dangerous new traits. Protecting a new, large chunk of the population,

By MARINA VILLENEUVE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A legislative investigation has found “overwhelming evidence” that former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo engaged in sexual harassment and ordered state workers to help produce his book during work hours. The report released Monday also found that Cuomo’s executive chamber “substantially revised” a state report to

By DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Jurors have finished their second day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the trial of white nationalists accused of conspiring to commit racially motivated violence at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The jury has deliberated for about 15

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced he’s nominating Jerome Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve chair, endorsing Powell’s stewardship of the economy through a brutal pandemic recession in which the Fed’s ultra-low rate policies helped bolster confidence and revitalize the job market. Biden also said he

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 90% of federal workers have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Monday’s deadline set by President Joe Biden. Biden announced in September that all federal workers were required to undergo vaccination, with no test-out option, unless they secured an approved medical

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A divided Venezuelan opposition has found itself  on familiar territory, having lost an overwhelming majority of races disputed in a regional election over the weekend. But the divisions over how to move forward from their expected defeat and achieve their goal of knocking off President

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Medicines Agency says it is evaluating whether to authorize booster doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot COVID-19 vaccine. In a statement Monday, the EU drug regulator said it was considering an application from J&J to recommend booster doses of the J&J vaccine for adults 18 and over, at least two

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and SARAH EL DEEB MOSCOW (AP) — Lebanon’s Foreign Minister says his country has received from Russia satellite images of the Port of Beirut on the day of last year’s devastating blast. The imagery would be the first to be received by Lebanese investigators from a foreign government in a probe marred

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s reinstated prime minister says that he will have the authority to form his own independent government, according to the agreement he signed a day earlier with the country’s top generals who overthrew him in a coup last month. In comments made during an interview with the Al-Jazeera English satellite channel that

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish lawmakers will vote later this week on whether Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson should become the country’s first female prime minister, even though she has not succeeded in securing the support of a left-leaning party. Parliament speaker Andreas Norlen said Andersson had informed him on Monday that after 11 days

A Palestinian prisoner rights group says two Palestinian hunger strikers have halted their protest against Israel’s controversial policy of detaining them without charge. The rights group says the pair ended their months-long strike Monday after Israeli authorities agreed to their release. Critics say Israel’s policy of holding Palestinians without charge violates their right to due

By DAN PARKS of The Chronicle of Philanthropy Chronicle of Philanthropy After years of declines, Americans’ trust in civil-rights and community-action charities increased in 2020, according to a new study, which also found that trust in charities overall held steady as millions more Americans came to rely on nonprofits amid the pandemic. The share of

By ELODIE SOUPAMA Associated Press LE GOSIER, Guadeloupe (AP) — Schools have closed across the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and the French president has warned of a “very explosive” situation in the overseas department. Protests against COVID-19 rules and vaccinations descended into days of rioting and looting. France’s central government sent in police special

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed preschool favorite Peppa Pig as an inspiring model for the U.K. economy. Johnson told a conference of business group the Confederation of British Industry on Monday that he would champion a green industrial revolution for Britain. During a rambling speech in

By RISKA MUNAWARAH Associated Press CALANG, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court has begun a trial against a group of men accused of poaching endangered Sumatran elephants and trading in illegal ivory, in a case that wildlife conservation officials have hailed as a milestone. The defendants in the hearing on Monday included nine men accused

By RAF CASERT and MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — European authorities are pleading for patience, calm and a willingness to still take a COVID-19 vaccine shot in the arm as infections and demonstrations increase. Protest marches from Zagreb to Rome and Vienna to Brussels and Rotterdam brought tens of thousands out

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece has introduced a wide range of new restrictions aimed at curbing a COVID-19 infection spike that has pushed the rate of death to nearly double the European Union average.  A government order went into effect through Dec. 6, mandating masks at all workplaces, staggering opening hours in the public and

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The authoritarian leader of Belarus has criticized the European Union for its refusal to hold talks on the influx of migrants on the country’s border with Poland. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday urged Germany to accommodate about 2,000 migrants who remained on the

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia says one of its soldiers has been killed by Azerbaijani shelling amid simmering tensions on the border between the two ex-Soviet neighbors. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old dispute over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. It lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Target will no longer open its stores on Thanksgiving Day, making permanent a shift to the unofficial start of the holiday season that was suspended during the pandemic. To limit crowds in stores, retailers last year were forced to turn what had become a weekend

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian state media have published photographs of the trial investigating the shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger jet in 2020 by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The move Monday appeared aimed at trying to tamp down criticism of the largely closed-door proceeding before a military court in Tehran. The downing

By JOHN FLESHER AP Environmental Writer TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — It’s a ghastly sight: ticks by tens of thousands burrowed into a moose’s broad body and sucking its lifeblood. Winter tick infestation is common with moose across the northern U.S. And a study released Monday says climate change may make it worse. It’s based

By LIZ WESTON of NerdWallet You likely lean on a variety of apps and websites to manage your professional life, your social life and even your financial life. Technology can do a lot for you, but sometimes taking an old-fashioned approach is actually better. In some circumstances, talking to a real person — either over

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A retired Russian admiral has alleged that the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster was caused by a collision with a NATO sub in an unproven claim that defies the official conclusion that the country’s worst post-Soviet naval catastrophe was triggered by a faulty torpedo. Retired Adm. Vyacheslav Popov

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Environmental activists are welcoming the end of electricity generation from coal in Portugal. But they said Monday the possible conversion of the country’s last coal-fired power plant into one that burns wood pellets would be a step in the wrong direction. The last Portuguese coal plant stopped generating over the weekend.

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China is demanding that Lithuania end its newly enhanced relationship with Taiwan that has already prompted Beijing to downgrade diplomatic ties with the EU-member nation. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday demanded Lithuania “immediately put right its mistake” of allowing the self-governing island to open a de-factor