Month: January 2023

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer “A Thousand and One,” a drama about an impoverished single mother and her son in New York City, won the Sundance Film Festival’s grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, while “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” was awarded the top prize in the U.S. documentary category.

By MARCOS ALEMÁN Associated Press SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Human Rights Watch says it has obtained a database leaked from the government of El Salvador that corroborates massive due process violations, severe prison overcrowding and deaths in custody under the country’s emergency powers put in place last March to confront a surge in

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The fallout from the shooting of a teacher by a 6-year-old student in Virginia has prompted a staff shakeup in the Newport News school district. In addition to the firing of Superintendent Gary Parker this week, the principal and assistant principal of Richneck Elementary School

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Groups representing social workers and women say they have succeeded in forcing a small Ohio city to significantly narrow its abortion ban and dropped their lawsuit. The National Association of Social Workers and the Abortion Fund of Ohio said their move Jan. 12 followed the

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Rep. George Santos’ campaign committee is facing new questions from federal regulators after submitting paperwork listing a new treasurer who says he never took the job. The Federal Election Commission sent a letter Thursday to the Devolder Santos for Congress campaign seeking clarity on 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 and video game platforms this week. MOVIES — If you haven’t managed to catch “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” yet, the Marvel sequel arrives on Disney+ on Wednesday with a batch of five

By STEFANIE DAZIO and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press Video released Friday shows the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struggling with his assailant for control of a hammer moments before he was struck in the head during a brutal attack in the couple’s San Francisco home last year. Police body-camera footage shows David

LONDON (AP) — A pop-up urinal crushed a man to death in London’s theater district Friday, police said. Firefighters used a winch to free the man after he became trapped under a hydraulic urinal at Cambridge Circus, a busy intersection in the city’s West End. The Metropolitan Police force said the man “is thought to

By The Associated Press Fierce battles in eastern Ukraine have thrown a new spotlight on a private Russian military group led by a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group is spearheading the push to jump-start Russia’s offensive in Donetsk province. The ferocious house-to house fighting has produced some

By RAQUEL REDONDO Associated Press MADRID (AP) — A spate of gender-based violence, coupled with the early release of several sex offenders, has increased pressure on Spain’s left-wing government, which strongly plays up its feminist credentials, to do more to protect women from abuse. Following an urgent meeting Friday, the country’s Equality Ministry proposed housing

LONDON (AP) — Actress Sylvia Syms, who starred in classic British films including “Ice Cold in Alex” and “Victim,” has died, her family said Friday. She was 89. Syms’ children said she “died peacefully” on Friday at Denville Hall, a London retirement home for actors and entertainers. “She has lived an amazing life and gave

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany has commemorated the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by focusing on people who were incarcerated and killed during the Nazi era because of their sexual orientations and gender identifies. Thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people were arrested and thrown into camps during Adolf

By SARAH BRUMFIELD Associated Press The families of five passengers killed in a plane crash off the North Carolina coast have settled wrongful death lawsuits for $15 million. Their attorneys told the court the companies that owned the plane and employed the pilot paid the money. The suits claimed the pilot failed to properly fly

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged three men in an alleged plot that originated in Iran to kill an Iranian American author and activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses. The men were charged with money laundering and murder-for-hire in a superseding indictment

NEW YORK (AP) — The archives of the late Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne have been acquired by the New York Public Library. The material spans letters and wedding pictures to manuscripts and screenplay drafts. The library announced the acquisition Friday. Didion and Dunne were married from 1964 until his death in 2003. They

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has condemned the United States over its decision to supply Ukraine with advanced battle tanks to help fight off Russia’s invasion, saying that Washington is escalating a sinister “proxy war” aimed at destroying Moscow. The comments by the influential sister of North Korean

PRAGUE (AP) — Czechs have started voting for a new president, choosing between a retired army general and a populist billionaire in a two-day runoff election to succeed controversy-courting Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial post. Gen. Petr Pavel and Andrej Babis have advanced to a second round of voting because none of the eight

By BROOKE LEFFERTS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — When Bill Lawrence was developing his new Apple TV+ comedy ”Shrinking,” he introduced one character in the pilot script as a “Harrison Ford-type” — but never dreamed he would get the real deal. Although the showrunner has had comedy success working with big names and executive-producing

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two months after undergoing surgery for serious burns, Jay Leno is now contending with a number of broken bones after being knocked off a motorcycle. The comedian and former “Tonight Show” host told a Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Thursday that he broke his collarbone and two ribs and cracked his kneecaps

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As Hurricane Ida struck the Louisiana Gulf Coast in August 2021, Renato Decena and Rosel Hernandez watched the storm punch a hole in the roof of the bunkhouse where they were sheltered — abandoned, they allege, by their offshore oil industry employer as the hurricane bore

By SEUNG MIN KIM and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has announced Jeff Zients as his next White House chief of staff, tapping an experienced technocrat who headed his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The move came Friday as the Democratic president prepares for a reelection bid while facing