Month: September 2022

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says Australia could have tough new data protection laws in place this year in an urgent response to a cyberattack that stole from a telecommunications company the personal data of 9.8 million customers. Dreyfus said Thursday the government will make “urgent reforms” to

By IAN HARRISON Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Aaron Judge had gone seven games since his last home run, 34 plate appearances of fans quieting to a hush and snapping photos with every pitch. Then with the score tied in the seventh inning on Wednesday night, he drove a 94.5 mph belt-high sinker to left,

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Friend or foe? Or both? On the streets of Tokyo and Beijing, the ties between Japan and China remain complicated and often contradictory, 50 years after the two Asian countries normalized relations as part of the process that brought Communist China into the international fold. Chinese official

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Water drained from Tampa Bay as Hurricane Ian approached Florida’s Gulf Coast, pushed away by powerful storm winds. Ian eventually made landfall Wednesday near Fort Myers, about 100 miles to the south. Several people posted photos on social media of themselves and others walking onto the silty bay floor, despite warnings

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. and ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writers LOS ANGELES (AP) — Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” died Wednesday at age 59, his manager said. Coolio died at the Los Angeles home of a friend, longtime manager Jarez

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamped southwest Florida on Wednesday, turning streets into rivers, knocking out power to 1.8 million people and threatening catastrophic damage further inland. A coastal sheriff’s office reported that it was getting many

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Pres NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers says the Mississippi River is so low and slow that salt water is creeping farther than usual along the bottom toward New Orleans and threatening drinking water. Officials plan an underwater levee to block the heavier salt water before it can

By TERRY TANG Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — After a Willem de Kooning painting worth millions was brazenly stolen in 1985 from an Arizona museum, the staff clung to the hope that it would turn up one day. But nobody could have predicted “Woman-Ochre” would find its way back through the kindness of strangers in

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon says it’s raising its average starting pay for frontline workers from $18 to $19 a hour. That could help it attract more employees in a tight labor market as the holiday season approaches. The company said that beginning in October, warehouse and transportation workers

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer With roosters crowing in the background as he speaks from the crowded refugee camp in Bangladesh that’s been his home since 2017, Maung Sawyeddollah, 21, describes what happened when violent hate speech and disinformation targeting the Rohingya minority in Myanmar began to spread on Facebook. “We were good with

NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is taking his biggest steps yet to return to the public eye, more than a year after resigning in the wake of a bevy of sexual harassment allegations. The Democrat says he’s forming a political action committee, a gun safety organization and plans to host

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Some 200 environmental and land defense activists were killed around the world in 2021, including some 54 in Mexico, which assumed the position of the deadliest country. The annual report by nongovernmental organization Global Witness found that more than three-quarters of the killings took place in Latin America, where Colombia, Brazil

By WANJOHI KABUKURU Associated Press MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — The auctioning of oil and gas blocks in Congo has stirred resistance and concern among local Indigenous communities worried about damage to their homes and large swaths of forest, according to a report released Thursday by several environmental groups. In late July, the Congolese government put

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press VICAM, Mexico (AP) — Mexico has become the deadliest place in the world for environmental and land defense activists, and the Yaqui Indigenous people of northern Mexico are still mourning the killing of water-defense leader Tomás Rojo found in June 2021. The murder of Indigenous land defenders often conjures up

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Officials say four Cuban migrants swam to shore in the Florida Keys and three others were rescued from the ocean after their boat sank shortly before Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwestern Florida. But 20 more people may be missing. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say the four Cubans

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A broadly smiling California Gov. Gavin Newsom joined about two dozen jubilant, cheering farmworkers camped outside the state Capitol Wednesday to sign one of the most contentious bills before him this year, reversing course on a measure to help farmworkers unionize after President Joe Biden and

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Two new laws in California will let developers bypass local governments to build housing on commercial land. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws Wednesday aimed at increasing housing production. Both laws would let developers bypass local laws to build housing on land set aside for businesses. One

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation Wednesday to overhaul oversight and bring greater transparency to the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons. That comes after reporting from The Associated Press that exposed systemic corruption in the federal prison system and increased congressional

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia State Election Board held a meeting Wednesday meant to reassure board members and the general public that the state’s elections remain secure following a breach of voting equipment in one county. The meeting included a presentation on state election law, an explanation of how the

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer Saudi-funded LIV Golf is denying a report that it was close to a U.S. television deal in which it would buy time to be shown on FS1. Golfweek is citing sources as saying LIV Golf is nearing an agreement to buy time. LIV Golf issued a statement that the

By KEN SWEET and JAY REEVES The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Regions Bank for a second time in a decade was found charging illegal overdraft fees in a settlement that will require the bank to repay $141 million to customers plus $50 million in fines. An investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say a man who sent threats and photos of a gun to an ex-girlfriend has been shot and killed by deputies who were trying to arrest him in South Carolina. Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said the man killed had a gun as the four deputies tried to take him

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it will continue providing live audio broadcasts of arguments in cases. That’s even as it welcomes the public back to its courtroom for a new term that begins Monday. The justices began providing live audio of arguments after the court closed to the

By KEN MILLER Associated Press An Oklahoma prosecutor who is recovering after being stabbed by his adult daughter is calling on state lawmakers for more funding for mental health services. Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler on Wednesday said in brief remarks to reporters that his family “endured one of the toughest days in our

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press Writer OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The University of Oklahoma Medical Center says it is ceasing some gender-affirming treatments after state lawmakers threatened to withhold millions of dollars in federal funding. OU Health said in a statement Wednesday that it is stopping “certain gender medicine services.” Officials did not confirm exactly

By DAVE COLLINS and PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — After watching days of testimony that included the parents of slain children breaking down on the witness stand, a Connecticut jury soon will have the difficult task of coming up with a dollar amount that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay for promoting