Month: August 2022

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Friends and fellow authors spoke out on Salman Rushdie’s behalf during a rally Friday on the steps of the main branch of the New York Public Library, one week after he was attacked onstage in the western part of the state and hospitalized with stab

MATTAPOISETT, Mass. (AP) — A huge fire at a Massachusetts marina turned several boats, buildings and vehicles into burned-out shells Friday, producing a plume of black smoke so thick it was picked up by weather radar. Aerial video taken by WCVB-TV showed much of the boatyard in Mattapoisett engulfed in flames, with the fire apparently

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s unemployment rate has hit a record low. The California Employment Development Department says the state’s unemployment rate was 3.9% in July. That’s the lowest since 1976 when the state began using its current method of measuring job growth. California employers have posted month-over-month job growth

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani officials say an aide of former Prime Minister Imran Khan who was recently arrested on treason charges for alleged anti-military remarks was hospitalized this week after complaining of breathing difficulties. Shahbaz Gill, who is also the chief of staff at Khan’s opposition party, was arrested after

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Friday said Sen. Lindsey Graham’s appearance before a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia should not be delayed to allow him to challenge it in court. Earlier this week, U.S.

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, is expanding its abortion coverage for employees after staying largely mum on the issue for months following the Supreme Court ruling that scrapped a nationwide right to abortion. In a memo sent to employees on Friday, the company said its

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Las Vegas man has pleaded not guilty in a California court to charges that he killed one person and wounded five in a shooting at a Taiwanese American church meeting. An Orange County Superior Court judge decided Friday that 68-year-old David Chou would be

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has warned airlines that his department could draft new rules around passenger rights if the carriers don’t give more help to travelers trapped by flight cancellations and delays. Buttigieg is asking airline CEOs to, at a minimum, provide lodging for passengers stranded overnight at an

By AMY BETH HANSON and THOMAS PEIPERT Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Part of a human foot found in a shoe floating in a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park earlier this week is believed to be linked to the death of a person last month, park officials said Friday. The July 31 death

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida utility has been fined $500,000 and placed on three years’ probation for a 2017 deadly explosion at a coal-fired power plant that killed five workers. The U.S. Justice Department said in a news release Friday that Tampa Electric Co. also must adhere to a new safety compliance plan. The

By The Associated Press Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. MOVIES — As an action star, Sylvester Stallone’s most iconic characters — Rocky Balboa, Rambo — have always relied on plain old brawn for his powers. (OK, and some

By LEANNE ITALIE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Sex toys and shoes? Try, sex toys IN shoes. A little streetwear label has partnered with a giant in the adult toy industry to create a shoe derived in part from unused and defective amusements that might otherwise go to the landfill. Plastic Soul is about

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A high-ranking representative from the Biden administration is set next week to make his first official trip to India since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Amid tensions over India’s neutral stance on the invasion that began in late February, the U.S. wants the meetings to

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom says a key pipeline conveying natural gas to Europe will shut down for three days at the end of this month to undergo “routine maintenance.” In a statement Friday, Gazprom said the only operational turbine at a key compressor station along the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish police say two people have been wounded in a shooting at a shopping center in the southern city of Malmo. A suspected was arrested after the shooting Friday afternoon at the Emporia shopping center, which police said appeared to be gang-related. Police said they were at the site “to map the

Firefighters in Algeria have extinguished all but one of over 50 wildfires that ravaged the country this week, leaving at least 37 people dead and consuming farms, crops and cork forests, authorities said Friday. Visibly anguished, farmer Ali Gharsi walked past dead animals through a fire-devastated area in the El Tarf region near Algeria’s Mediterranean

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has declined to block a section of a Georgia election law that bans handing out food and water to voters waiting in line. The provision is part of a sweeping elections overhaul passed by Georgia lawmakers last year. Voting rights groups argued that the provision

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say a remotely detonated roadside bomb killed two policemen in a former militant stronghold in the country’s northwest. A district police chief says that Friday’s attack took place in Bajur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing; a search

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — British national El Shafee Elsheikh was sentenced to life in prison Friday for his role in an Islamic State scheme that took roughly two dozen Westerners hostage a decade ago. Elsheikh’s hostages gave him a somewhat whimsical nickname — he was dubbed a “Beatle” along with

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press The Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr improperly withheld portions of an internal memorandum Barr cited in publicly announcing that then-President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice in the Russia investigation, a federal appeals panel said Friday. The department had argued that the 2019 memo represented the private deliberations