Month: December 2022

BERLIN (AP) — The German government says it is formally suspending export credit and investment guarantees for business in Iran in the wake of authorities’ crackdown on protests. The Economy Ministry said Friday that it also has suspended other “economic formats” including a dialogue on energy issues, in view of “the very serious situation in

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military forces around the world will no longer be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The mandate was lifted under an $858 billion defense spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law Friday by President Joe Biden. The department has 30 days to work

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 — Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel “White Noise” has long been said to be “unfilmable.” But Noah Baumbach’s energetic movie, streaming Friday on Netflix, makes a spirited argument for

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” there is the dialogue on screen and another off it. The film, starring an ensemble including Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley and Frances McDormand, dramatizes a group of Mennonite women meeting to discuss how to respond to years of

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE, TATIANA POLLASTRI AND ERALDO PERES XAPURI, Brazil (AP) — When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is sworn in as president of the second most populous country in the western hemisphere Jan. 1, few challenges will be greater than fulfilling his promise to end all deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 2030. To

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A grisly pre-Christmas killings of two young men and their uncle at an early 1900s house in Mexico City is putting attention on the dark side of the capital’s booming property market. The violence is fomented by a lack of legal documents and gangs that illegally seize properties. Actor Andrés Tirado,

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer Retailers are scoring one win in the governmentwide spending bill. The $1.7 trillion funding package contains legislation that will force online marketplaces like Amazon and Facebook to verify high-volume sellers amid heightened concerns about retail theft. Brick-and-mortar retailers have been voicing concerns about the amount of goods being stolen

By TRISHA AHMED Associated Press/Report for America ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Some of the newest members of Minnesota’s most diverse Legislature to date say they plan to use their history-making elections to pass policies that would protect the minority communities they represent. When 201 legislative members convene in January, there will be 35 lawmakers

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A bus carrying 47 Greek passengers has crashed into a height restriction barrier in Romania’s capital, leaving one person dead and injuring more than 20. The incident occurred in central Bucharest at around 1:30 p.m. on Friday, authorities said. Raed Arafat, the head of Romania’s Department for Emergency Situations, told reporters

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation closely watched by the Federal Reserve slowed last month, another sign that a long surge in consumer prices seems to be easing. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 5.5% in November from a year earlier, down from a

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans who control the Legislature are divided over whether to push for rape and incest abortion exceptions in the face of their Democratic governor’s pledge to veto any bill that keeps the state’s 173-year-old ban in place. Gov. Tony Evers and Democrats are suing to

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and JILL BLEED Associated Press MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday gatherings Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the U.S. population to some sort of winter weather

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The United Nations and other groups are urging countries in southern Asia to rescue as many as 190 people believed to be Rohingya refugees aboard a small boat that has been adrift for several weeks in the Andaman Sea. Most of those on board are thought to

MADRID (AP) — Spanish prosecutors have dropped their investigation into the deaths of more than 20 migrants last June at the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave city of Melilla. They said in a statement Friday they found no evidence of criminal misconduct by Spanish security forces. Prosecutors said they spent six months investigating

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Officials say a former mayor of Santa Monica, California, died after a small plane crash-landed and flipped upside down on a beach in the coastal community. Rex Minter was a passenger in the single-engine Cessna that took off from Santa Monica Airport en route to Malibu on Thursday. The pilot

By ANGELA CHARLTON and JADE LE DELEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — A man who was charged last year with attacking migrants shot and killed three people at a Kurdish cultural center Friday in Paris in an assault that appeared to be specifically aimed at foreigners, authorities said. The shooting, which also wounded three people,

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to follow the “one country, two systems” governing principle for Hong Kong, saying it is the “best arrangement” to maintain the city’s prosperity and stability. The principle promises the former British colony the right to retain its own

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Police in Indianapolis have located the second of two missing infant brothers who were taken when their mother’s car was stolen in Columbus, Ohio, three days earlier. Police say the boy was found Thursday in the missing car, which had been abandoned in a restaurant parking lot. An Amber Alert was

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sounded another defiant note on his return to his nation’s capital following his wartime visit to the United States. He said Friday that Ukrainian forces are “working toward victory” even as Russia launched new strikes across the country. Zelenskyy posted on

BERLIN (AP) — A German court has convicted a man of attempted murder and bodily harm and sentenced him to 14 years in prison over a knife attack on a train last year that left four people wounded. Judges found that he had an Islamic extremist motive. The Palestinian man was convicted at the Munich

By VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — The eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has a peculiar “cemetery,” one that recalls some of the worst damage done since the Russian invasion: the debris of rockets used against this town and its people. This graveyard has more than a thousand missiles, or parts of them.

By OMAR FARUK Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Journalists in Somalia say the government is further restricting their work amid a significant military offensive against the al-Shabab extremist group, with a new directive to submit content for approval before publication. In the latest incident, media groups say police in the central Hirshabelle state detained

LONDON (AP) — Air travelers are facing possible delays at U.K. airports as government employees who check passports go on strike. The walkout Friday is the latest in a spate of walkouts over pay amid a cost-of-living crisis. France braced for similar Christmas travel disruption, with a weekend rail strike starting to bite on Friday.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Cabinet has approved record defense spending next year in preparation for the country deploying U.S.-made Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles as part of a more offensive security strategy. The budget Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet approved Friday will surge to a record $55 billion, a

By MAHMOUD ILEAN Associated Press KFAR QASSEM, Israel (AP) — Israeli police have killed an Arab assailant who rammed into them with his car after attempting to shoot an officer in central Israel on Friday, leaving three policemen wounded. The incident took place Friday in the Arab Israeli town of Kfar Qassem, an unusual site

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — French confessed serial killer Charles Sobhraj has been released from prison in Nepal after serving most of his sentence for killing American and Canadian backpackers. His lawyer says he was taken to the airport for a flight back to Paris. The Supreme Court earlier ordered his

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has loosened restrictions on travel and gatherings with the threat from COVID-19 receding. But a buoyant holiday mood is not lifting the country which is coping with widespread power outages and the world’s highest food inflation. Globally, food prices have spiked as a result of