Month: May 2022

By ROB GILLIES and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Government officials say Western allies are considering whether to allow Russian oligarchs buy their way out of Western sanctions and use the money to rebuild Ukraine. Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed the idea at a G-7 finance ministers’ meeting

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been intimately involved in some of the gun control movement’s greatest successes — and failures. Now, this week’s massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has set the stage for a new effort to restrict firearms. Supporters say Biden feels a sense

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the second week in a row, though interest rates on the key 30-year home loan remain at decade-high levels. Economic uncertainty and weakened homebuyer demand continue to loom over mortgage rates. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported that the 30-year rate declined to 5.1%

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of senators is trying to find a compromise on gun legislation. That’s after Democrats’ attempt at responding to the back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, failed Thursday in the Senate. Republicans blocked debate on a domestic terrorism bill that

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech capital has stripped a Soviet World War II commander of his honorary Prague citizenship. The Prague City Council ’s approved Mayor Zdenek Hrib’s proposal to revoke the honor bestowed in June 1945 on Soviet Marshal Ivan Stepanovic Konev. Konev led the Red Army forces that liberated large parts of Czechoslovakia

LUDINGTON, Mich. (AP) — A coal-powered passenger steamship on Lake Michigan that’s the last of its kind in the U.S. will stop using coal to fuel its historic engines once its operators settle on an alternate power source. Lake Michigan Carferry Inc. is early in its search for what could replace the coal that currently

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — With mass shootings in Texas, New York and California fresh in Americans’ mind, the Supreme Court will soon issue its biggest gun ruling in more than a decade, one expected to make it easier to carry guns in public in some of the largest cities. Already in

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A painting project is to blame for an odor that affected some cruise ship passengers in Virginia and prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to send a crew to investigate Thursday, Carnival Cruise Line said. The Coast Guard first received reports on Wednesday of an odor and people feeling ill on the

By LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ellen DeGeneres brought her nearly two-decade daytime talk show to an end Thursday with a celebrity lovefest and a forceful assertion of her achievement as a gay woman daring to be herself. DeGeneres and guests Jennifer Aniston, Billie Eilish and Pink shared memories and affection

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Amber Heard told jurors Thursday that a harassment campaign waged against her by ex-husband Johnny Depp has left her humiliated and scared for her life from multiple death threats, and said she just wants “Johnny to leave me alone.” Heard was the final witness in

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Stagflation. It was the dreaded “S word” of the 1970s. For Americans of a certain age, it conjures memories of painfully long lines at gas stations, shuttered factories and President Gerald Ford’s much-ridiculed “Whip Inflation Now” buttons. Stagflation is the bitterest of economic pills: High inflation

By LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer The coronavirus mutant that is now dominant in the United States is a member of the omicron family but scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease. Why? Because it combines properties of both omicron and

By IMAD ISSEID Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian Authority on Thursday announced the results of its investigation into the shooting death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, saying it had proven she was deliberately killed by Israeli forces as she tried to flee. The findings echoed the results of a

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Pat McCrory’s political career has taken quite a turn in the past decade. The Republican moderate won the 2012 gubernatorial election by a comfortable margin. But he was trounced by 34 percentage points in last week’s U.S. Senate primary by Rep. Ted Budd. Budd benefitted

MADRID (AP) — A court in Spain has dismissed Colombian singer Shakira’s appeal in a tax fraud case. The ruling issued Thursday paves the way for a trial after a judge previously concluded there was enough evidence to suggest the pop star may have avoided her fiscal obligations to the state. Spanish prosecutors charged the

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump must answer questions under oath in the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into his business practices, a state appeals court ruled Thursday, rejecting his argument that he be excused from testifying because his answers could be used in a parallel

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Jacklyn Cazares hadn’t yet reached her 10th birthday, but she was already a tough-minded “firecracker” always looking to help people in need, her father said. Jacklyn and her second cousin, Annabelle Rodriguez, were especially tight with three other classmates at Robb Elementary School.

COBB COUNTY, Ga. (AP) — Voters in an affluent suburban Atlanta county have rejected ballot measures that would have turned three mostly white areas into their own cities. The three cities would have wrested key decision-making power from Cobb County, where the election of three Black women in 2020 gave Democrats control of the county

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE Associated Press KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo military officials said that the M23 rebels closed in on a major military camp in the country’s east after days of fighting the army. Clashes continued Thursday at the Rumangabo base in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu province about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The United States is urging Yemen’s Houthi rebels to release all U.S. Embassy local staffers they had detained, following the death of one of them after seven months in captivity. The Iran-backed Houthis seized the headquarters of the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa last

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British prosecutors said Thursday they had authorized police to charge actor Kevin Spacey with four counts of sexual assault against three men, an announcement that came as the actor was in court in New York testifying in a different case. The Crown Prosecution Service said it had

By MICHAEL TARM AP Legal Affairs Writer CHICAGO (AP) — A 13-year-old boy shot in the back by a Chicago police officer was unarmed and had his arms raised to surrender when he was hit by the bullet, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday, saying the incident illustrates deeply flawed implementation of department policy on

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths are still falling globally after peaking in January. In its latest weekly assessment, the U.N. health agency said there were more than 3.7 million new infections and 9,000 deaths in the last week, drops of 3% and 11% respectively.

TOKYO (AP) — Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha says a new U.S.-backed economic pact is further proof of how important and relevant Asia is today. U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced earlier this week that 13 countries have joined the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. It’s a new trade pact that will

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — After a buzzy, sold-out run and three extensions, “Suffs,” Shaina Taub’s musical about the suffragists of the early 20th century, closes May 29. From the same off-Broadway stage that birthed the juggernaut “Hamilton,” the show introduced audiences to real-life characters such as Alice Paul, Ida

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina jurist Michelle Childs is one step closer to confirmation for the federal court typically seen as a proving ground for the nation’s highest bench. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17-5 Thursday to approve Childs’ nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly leader, who will appoint a key member of the state’s bipartisan elections commission, says he is not “ruling anybody in or out” as he looks to quickly fill a vacancy in the battleground state before the next chair of the panel is chosen.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Rescuers at the site of a collapsed building in southwestern Iran have recovered five more bodies, bringing the death toll from the disaster this week to 19. State-run media said emergency workers found the remains on Thursday and were continuing their efforts. It remains unclear how many more people are buried

MADRID (AP) — Police in Spain say an explosion at a biodiesel plant has left two people dead and forced 250 children to be evacuated from the area. Video of the explosion on Thursday showed flames engulfing the plant in the northern region of La Rioja, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky.