Month: December 2021

By LORNE COOK and RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is urging European Union leaders to swiftly impose new sanctions on Russia before it invades his country. He warns that acting after any conflict has started would be far too late. Zelenskyy says Ukraine stands ready to enter into talks

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece, Italy and a handful of other European Union members have began vaccinating children ages 5-11 against COVID-19 as governments braced for both holiday season and the quickly spreading omicron variant. Acrobats dressed as superheroes rappelled down the walls of a hospital in

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz is vowing that his new government will win the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and make Germany “structurally fit” for the 21st century. He promised Wednesday that efforts to combat climate change will be central to its agenda as he made his first major

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press CHAVANNES-DE-BOGIS, Switzerland (AP) — The head of vaccine alliance Gavi says in an interview he’s seen early signs that rich countries are beginning to withhold donations out of fears about the omicron variant – warning it could lead to “Inequity 2.0.” CEO Dr. Seth Berkley took stock of the nearly

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer BANGKOK (AP) — A positive COVID-19 test among U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s traveling party has cut short the top diplomat’s first official tour of Southeast Asia. A member of the press corps accompanying Blinken on what was to have been a three-nation visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top official says omicron is expected to be the dominant coronavirus variant in the 27-nation bloc by mid-January. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU is well prepared to fight omicron with 66.6% of the bloc’s population fully vaccinated. Von der

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — A human rights watchdog has urged the United Nations to deploy monitors to Sudan’s western region of Darfur, where a surge in tribal clashes has killed more than 180 people since October. Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday that the monitors should include experts on

By ALEX TURNBULL Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Harry’s Bar in Paris is celebrating the 100th birthday of the bloody mary, the vodka-tomato juice cocktail believed to have been invented at the iconic watering hole in 1921. The bar known for hosting F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway plans a centenary celebration on Thursday night

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Yong Ju, the younger brother of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, has died, according to state media. He was once regarded as North Korea’s No. 2 official before his nephew was anointed as the next ruler. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press RANYA, Iraq (AP) — The specter of unemployment haunts both students and teachers at universities in northern Iraq. Many speak of growing numbers of empty seats in classrooms across the semi-autonomous Kurdish region — seats once occupied by students who have left for Europe. Those who remain are making plans

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Firefighters in Hong Kong have rescued hundreds of people who fled to the rooftop of a skyscraper and became trapped there after a large fire broke out. Authorities said blaze started in the early afternoon Wednesday at the World Trade Centre on Gloucester Road in the

BERLIN (AP) — Police in eastern Germany have carried out raids in an investigation of alleged threats to kill a state governor and others by opponents of coronavirus restrictions and vaccinations. They said they found weapons including crossbows, but it wasn’t clear whether they were usable.. Police said five properties in and around Dresden were

By KRUTIKA PATHI and ELAINE KURTENBACH Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — The luxury fashion house Chanel has chosen Leena Nair, an industry outsider from India and longtime executive at Unilever, to be its new CEO. Analysts say her hiring signals how the brand is accounting for changing consumer awareness of the industry’s environmental impact

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has delivered its first formal response to Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s anti-Muslim remarks by passing a bill to tackle Islamophobia worldwide. Tuesday’s vote comes weeks after Boebert cracked an Islamophobic joke about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim. It wasn’t the first time Boebert,

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Libya is scheduled to hold elections in just over a week, on Dec. 24, a long-awaited vote that is the lynchpin of efforts to bring peace after a decade of civil war. But calls are mounting for a delay, amid warnings that an election now could only

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As a mob overran the U.S. Capitol last January, some of Donald Trump’s highest-profile defenders in the media — and even his own son — sent urgent text messages to the White House chief of staff urging him to get the then-president to do more to stop

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Human rights activists are lobbying major jewelers to stop buying gems sourced in Myanmar as a way to put pressure on Myanmar’s military leaders by limiting profits from the country’s lucrative mining industry. A report by the group Global Witness released Wednesday outlines how the army

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress after he ceased to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. It is the first time the House has voted to hold

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer BOSTON (AP) — Security pros say it’s one of the worst computer vulnerabilities they’ve ever seen. They say state-backed Chinese and Iranian hackers and rogue cryptocurrency miners have already seized on it. The Department of Homeland Security is sounding a dire alarm, ordering federal agencies to urgently find and

By LISA MASCARO and ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s one of the most far-reaching of all the federal aid programs launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. The expanded child tax credit puts up to $300 per child directly into the bank accounts of families on the 15th of every month. But the last

By MALLIKA SEN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The case for and against Ghislaine Maxwell has been made, and as soon as Monday, her fate will rest squarely in the jury’s hands. Maxwell has denied all charges levied against her. Her defense contends she’s being victimized by a need to make someone pay for

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer Colleges across the U.S. are starting to require booster shots, extend mask mandates and in some cases revert to online classes as they brace for the new omicron variant. More than 30colleges have said they will require boosters, including Boston University and Notre Dame. Others are extending mask mandates

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Stocks have climbed in Asia, tracking Wall Street’s gains, after the Federal Reserve said it would accelerate its pullback of economic stimulus. The Fed said it would likely raise interest rates three times next year to tackle rising inflation and will shrink its monthly bond purchases at twice the

By KRISTEN GELINEAU, VICTORIA MILKO and LORI HINNANT Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — In February, Myanmar’s military took over the country’s government and its bank accounts, including those that receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year from a gas field called Yadana. Now there is a groundswell of support in Myanmar for targeted

By KATHY GANNON Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s former president says the Taliban, who had already reached the gates of Kabul, were invited inside the city to stop chaos caused by the sudden flight of U.S.-backed president Ashraf Ghani. Hamid Karzai says in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press that he requested

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) — Volunteers along U.S. coasts are raising oysters from tiny translucent spat to hard-shelled bivalves that can help restore depleted reefs. Oyster reefs are a keystone of coastal ecosystems. Each oyster filters 25 to 50 gallons of water a day. Spat glue themselves to larger

By MICHELLE R. SMITH Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine group has thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic. An investigation by The Associated Press finds that Children’s Health Defense has raked in money and followers as Kennedy used his star power as a member of one of America’s most famous families

By CLAIRE GALOFARO and JOHN RABY Associated Press BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — When a tornado touched down in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in the middle of the night, its violence was centered on one friendly subdivision. It’s a place where everyone waved at one another, and giggling children spent afternoons tooling around on bicycles on

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A telethon hosted by the University of Kentucky Athletics has raised more than $3 million in donations with matching funds to benefit victims of last weekend’s deadly tornadoes in western Kentucky. Proceeds from the “Kentucky United for Tornado Relief” telethon will go to the American Red Cross. Donations had reached $3,031,241

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The revelation that Fox News Channel personalities sent text messages to the White House during the Jan. 6 insurrection is another example of how the network’s stars sought to influence then-President Donald Trump instead of simply reporting or commenting on him. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham

By CLAUDIA TORRENS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — During a tribute to her career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), Penelope Cruz recalled the Betamax videotape store that opened in her neighborhood, in a suburb of Madrid, when she was a child and that made her discover cinema. She says

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration is weighing tough new sanctions on Myanmar to pressure the country’s military leaders to restore a democratic path interrupted by a February coup. Blinken said the administration is also looking very closely as designating

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration’s plan for health insurers to reimburse consumers for over-the-counter COVID-19 tests is recalling the model of a bygone era when the companies processed large volumes of claims from individuals — with paper receipts. It’s unclear if the buy-first, get-paid-later approach will spur people to

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. (AP) — President Joe Biden is pledging to do “whatever it takes, as long as it takes” to help Kentucky and other states recover and rebuild after a series of deadly tornadoes that he says left a trail of unimaginable devastation. During a stop

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s mayor has announced even more initiatives aimed at curbing open drug use and brazen home break-ins that she says have made a mockery of the city’s famed tolerance and compassion. At a news conference Tuesday attended by the sheriff and police chief, Mayor London

By JOHN ANTCZAK and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has emerged largely unscathed from drenching rainfall and heavy snow in the mountains as it prepares for a weaker round of storms likely to bring more relief to the drought-stricken state. Parts of the state were mopping up Wednesday from small mudslides

By KRISTEN GELINEAU, VICTORIA MILKO and LORI HINNANT Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — In February, Myanmar’s military took over the country’s government and its bank accounts, including those that receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year from a gas field called Yadana. Now there is a groundswell of support in Myanmar for targeted

By PIERRE-RICHARD LUXAMA and EVENS SANON Associated Press CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) — Nelly Joseph picked through the twisted metal roofing, overturned furnishings and rubble of her charred home, unsure of where her dead son had been buried or where she would sleep after blasts from a flipped gas tanker destroyed their house. Late Monday night,

By SCOTT BAUER and STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A use-of-force expert has testified that former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter was not justified in using deadly force when she fatally shot Daunte Wright. Seth Wayne Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, said Wednesday that no reasonable

By AMY FORLITI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating George Floyd’s civil rights. In doing so, Chauvin admitted for the first time that he held his knee across Floyd’s neck and kept it there even after Floyd became unresponsive,

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has delivered its first formal response to Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s anti-Muslim remarks by passing a bill to tackle Islamophobia worldwide. Tuesday’s vote comes weeks after Boebert cracked an Islamophobic joke about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim. It wasn’t the first time Boebert,

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California is exempting San Francisco from a rule that takes effect Wednesday requiring all people to wear masks indoors in a bid to contain a troubling rise in coronavirus cases. The city health department says San Francisco will continue to allow fully vaccinated people to remove their masks in gyms and

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A group of six French lawmakers has arrived in Taiwan for a five-day visit, following a similar trip led by a group of French parliamentarians in October that China sought to discourage. François de Rugy, the head of the Taiwan Friendship group in France’s lower house of Parliament, is leading the