Month: February 2023

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and THEODORA TONGAS Associated Press VOULIAGMENI, Greece (AP) — European Union officials have pledged continued support to millions of Ukrainian refugees, as they marked the anniversary of the Russian invasion. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told the The Associated Press on the sidelines of a conference on migration near Athens that

BERLIN (AP) — A German court has rejected a farmer’s bid to force automaker Volkswagen to end the sale of vehicles with combustion engines by 2030. The farmer said in the case at the state court in the western town of Detmold that drier soil and heavier rains due to climate change are harming his

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials say two Pakistani brothers who were held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for two decades have been freed and reunited with their families after returning home to Pakistan. The officials said the repatriation of Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani was facilitated by

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian health officials say Israeli settlers have shot and seriously wounded two Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank, in what officials describe as the latest incident in a wave of settler violence. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the two Palestinians wounded in the shooting early Friday were being treated at a

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. first lady Jill Biden said Friday that she feels a kinship with Africans during her sixth visit to the continent, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that she wants to support nations fighting for democracy — “just like I feel we’re doing in

By The Associated Press MARINKA, Ukraine (AP) — Although Friday marks the grim first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fighting between Russian-backed forces and Ukrainian troops has raged in the country’s east since 2014. The town of Marinka is among those that have been reduced to rubble. It is in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s national statistics office says that the country’s economy shrank by 0.4% in last year’s fourth quarter. That’s a sharp downward revision from its initial report that gross domestic product declined by 0.2%. The quarter-on-quarter contraction in the October-December period was the first since the first quarter of 2021. Consumer spending, which

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press GIVAT HAREL, West Bank (AP) — One day in the fall of 1998, Shivi Drori, a young farmer fresh out of the Israeli army, brought three trailers to a rugged hilltop deep in the occupied West Bank and began to plant raspberries. It was an unauthorized settlement in the heart

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — Quantifying the toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine remains an elusive goal a year into the conflict. Estimates of the casualties, refugees and economic fallout from the war produce an incomplete picture of the deaths and suffering. Precise figures may never emerge for some of the categories

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is particularly poignant for women who gave birth and men who became fathers a year ago, on Feb. 24, 2022, as bombs began to fall. Bringing forth new life just as the Russian onslaught snatched other lives away entwined

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are falling on Wall Street Friday as dispiriting evidence keeps piling up to show inflation isn’t cooling as quickly as hoped. The S&P 500 was 1.2% lower in midday trading and on track to make its third straight weekly loss its worst since early

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Miya Iwataki and other Japanese Americans fought in the 1980s for the U.S. government to apologize to the families it imprisoned during World War II, Black politicians and civil rights leaders were integral to the movement. Thirty-five years after they won that apology — and

By SIBI ARASU Associated Press BENGALURU, India (AP) — Tensions over Russia’s war on Ukraine have flared at meetings of finance ministers and central bank chiefs in India. Geopolitics affected the atmosphere, if not the agenda at the meeting of financial leaders of the Group of 20 leading economies in the technology hub of Bengaluru.

By NG HAN GUAN Associated Press ALXA LEAGUE, China (AP) — Work crews trying to find 47 people missing after a collapse at an open-pit mine in northern China have had to change their excavation methods to avoid causing more landslides, state media reported Friday. Six people have been confirmed dead and six injured people

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the oldest artist residency programs in the U.S. has a new executive director. In a statement Friday, MacDowell announced the selection of Chiwoniso Kaitano. She is the former executive director of Girl Be Heard, a nongovernmental organization that uses theater and the performing arts to advocate for social change.

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — As Connecticut state Rep. Quentin Williams was driving home from the governor’s inauguration ball last month, he was struck head-on by a driver who had entered the highway using a ramp going in the wrong direction, killing both Williams and the driver. Williams’ death threw a spotlight

By JOHN ANTCZAK, AMY TAXIN and ED WHITE Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Heavy snow and rain pounded California and other parts of the West on Friday in the nation’s latest winter storm, while tens of thousands of people in Michigan suffered in freezing temperatures days after one of the worst ice storms in

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A news photographer is dead after he was stabbed and beaten in an attack in the northern Mexico border state of Baja California. State prosecutors say José Ramiro Araujo suffered stab wounds in the Pacific coast city of Ensenada, south of Tijuana. Prosecutors say the attack on Araujo Tuesday may have

By The Associated Press No current or former Texas politician has announced a campaign for the 2024 presidential race. If that trend holds, it would be the first time since 1972 — and just the second time since 1952 — that a Texan hasn’t competed in a presidential primary or been on a major party’s

By WILL WEISSERT and PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — It’s early yet, but next year’s presidential race may feature something the political world hasn’t seen in the last 50 years: no Texans. The Texas-size hole in the field will be on stark display Friday at a closed Republican donor event outside

By TERRY TANG and KEN RITTER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has ruled that an Arizona rancher accused of shooting at a group of migrants on his property and killing a man will face trial on second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges. The judge in Santa Cruz County heard several hours of testimony

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A newspaper says Australia has quietly expelled a large Russian spy ring whose members were posing as diplomats. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday the spy ring comprised purported embassy and consular staff as well as other operatives using deep cover identities. Australia’s domestic spy agency had revealed

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Police say a suburban Chicago woman was run over and her 2-year-old son temporarily abducted by a thief who stole her SUV. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office says the woman had returned home Thursday afternoon to Libertyville with her two children and had taken one child inside when another vehicle drove

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The creator of the hit HBO series “Succession” says the upcoming fourth season will be its last. Jesse Armstrong told The New Yorker in a piece posted online Thursday that he wanted the show’s many fans to know the end was approaching. “I quite like that idea, creatively, because then the

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have announced charges against more than a dozen alleged high-ranking leaders of the international gang MS-13. The defendants are accused of directing criminal activities including murder in the United States, El Salvador, Mexico and other countries over the past two decades. An indictment unsealed Thursday details charges against 13

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s leader is giving qualified support for China’s new involvement in trying to resolve the war in his country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Beijing’s interest isn’t a bad thing and could be useful in isolating Russia. He says the question is what actions follow China’s words.