Month: February 2023

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s lower house of parliament has approved a 114 trillion yen ($836 billion) budget for the next fiscal year. It includes a record 6.8 trillion yen ($50 billion) in defense spending, part of a military buildup as China’s influence in the region grows. The 2023 defense budget,

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in Belfast to sell his landmark agreement with the European Union to its toughest audience. That is unionist politicians who fear post-Brexit trade rules are weakening Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. The U.K. and the EU struck a deal

By IGNATIUS SSUUNA Associated Press KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — The Protestant Council of Rwanda has directed all health facilities run by its members to stop carrying out all abortions, further limiting access to the procedure in the largely Christian nation of 13 million people. The council’s decision earlier this month described abortion as a sin,

JERUSALEM (AP) — An ultranationalist ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tendered his resignation as a deputy minister in the new government. Avi Maoz’s departure was the first crack in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, which assumed office in late December after securing a parliamentary majority in the November elections. The Noam faction leader said

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympic bid-rigging scandal has widened with Japanese advertising giant Dentsu and five other companies getting charged. Executives or management-level officials from each of the accused companies, and an Olympic organizing committee official, were also charged with violating anti-monopoly laws. According to prosecutors the charges against

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KUPIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — A tank carrying Ukrainian infantry speeds toward a target position marked with a metal sheet. The soldiers climb down, hurl grenades and unleash a crackle of machine-gun fire. Then they repeat the moves, getting faster with every iteration. It’s only a drill. But with the sounds

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Wednesday as investors watched for upcoming earnings reports and other indicators on how inflationary pressures might be denting global growth. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was virtually unchanged in morning trading, inching up less than 0.1% to 27,446.91. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up

BEIJING (AP) — China is ordering closer adherence to the dictates of the Communist Party and leader Xi Jinping in legal education before its parliament starts its annual session. The directive demands that schools “oppose and resist Western erroneous views” such as constitutional government, separation of powers, and judicial independence. The directive and similar ones

By JENNIFER O’MAHONY Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain is building on its reputation in renewable energy to position itself as Europe’s future leader in green hydrogen. But industry players and experts express caution over ramping up an industry that would be wholly reliant on massive increases in the availability of zero-carbon electricity. Spain’s Minister

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Mabu saunters across a grassy field and raises his long, gray trunk to wrangle food from a hole carved inside a large boulder, captivating the attention of a girl propped up on her father’s shoulders. At this zoo in a central California farming community, the 32-year-old

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s coronavirus emergency declaration is ending. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the emergency to lift Tuesday. California was one of six remaining states that still had emergency declarations in place. Illinois’s emergency will end May 11, coinciding with the end of the federal coronavirus emergency. Texas Republican

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Las Vegas-area elected official will represent himself at trial on a murder charge in the stabbing death of a veteran investigative journalist who wrote about him. Robert Telles endured searing questions Tuesday from a state judge who in the end gave him the go-ahead

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police began searching a landfill Tuesday for evidence related to the grisly killing of model Abby Choi, whose dismembered body parts were found in a refrigerator and pots. Ex-husband Alex Kwong, his father Kwong Kau and his brother Anthony Kwong were charged with murder

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president says the main mission of his country’s military has changed to ensure the protection of its territory as disputes with China and U.S.-China rivalry intensify. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. spoke to troops two weeks after summoning China’s ambassador to protest the use of

By JAE C. HONG, AMY TAXIN and MARK PRATT Associated Press RUNNING SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — Jennifer Cobb and her husband planned on staying four days in their vacation rental in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. But that stretched into a week as they were trapped by a relentless series of storms that has piled

By SARA BURNETT Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago is holding a mayoral election Tuesday, but it will likely take weeks — and a runoff election — before a winner is declared. A look at what’s happening: TUESDAY’S ELECTION Nine candidates are competing Tuesday for a chance to be Chicago’s next mayor. That includes Mayor

By KEVIN FREKING and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A special House committee dedicated to countering China began its work Tuesday with a prime-time hearing in which the panel’s chairman called on lawmakers to act with urgency and framed the competition between the U.S. and China as “an existential struggle over what life

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — More than half of the residents in the slice of Miami that includes Little Havana were born abroad. And when Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar ran for reelection last year, she won by 15 percentage points. The GOP’s dominance of Florida’s 27th congressional district is

BEIJING (AP) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, is due in Beijing to begin a three-day state visit. The trip is a reminder that Russia’s war in Ukraine has far-reaching effects on global alliances. China says the visit is an “opportunity to promote the further development of all-around

By SARA BURNETT Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson will meet in a runoff to be the next mayor of Chicago after voters on Tuesday denied incumbent Lori Lightfoot a second term, issuing a rebuke to a leader who made history as head of the nation’s third-largest city. Vallas, a former

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative justices holding the Supreme Court’s majority pressed skeptical questions Tuesday about President Joe Biden’s plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans. The high court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, heard arguments on two challenges to the plan, which has so

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN Associated Press DHANGRI, India (AP) — After seven Hindus were killed in early January in two back-to-back attacks in Dhangri village in disputed Kashmir, former Indian army soldier Satish Kumar described his sleepy mountainous village as an “abode of fear.” Days after the deadly violence in the village in frontier Rajouri district,

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The remains of a man who had disappeared in southern Argentina earlier this month appear to have been found inside a school shark that was captured by local fishermen. The family of Diego Barría, 32, recognized his remains due to a tattoo that was visible, Daniela Millatruz, the law enforcement

By ISABELLA O’MALLEY Associated Press The record-breaking heat Earth endured during the summer of 2022 will be repeated without a robust international effort to address climate change, scientists are warning. A panel of experts at Columbia University on Monday said heat-related deaths, wildfires, extreme rainfall and persistent drought are expected to become increasingly severe as

By RANDALL CHASE Associated Press DOVER, Del. (AP) — Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that some Fox News commentators endorsed the false allegations by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he didn’t step in to stop them from promoting the claims, according to excerpts

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong will lift its mask mandate on Wednesday, ending the city’s last major restriction imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city’s leader, John Lee, says masks will no longer be required both outdoors and indoors, including on public transit. But some high-risk areas such as

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un has called for stronger public solidarity behind his leadership to significantly increase grain production. The remarks reported Tuesday come as outside experts say North Korea is experiencing a serious shortfall in food, though they’ve seen no signs yet of

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say a leader of a Los Angeles-based fraud operation that stole $18 million in COVID-19 aid money has been extradited from Europe to the U.S., where she could face more than a decade in prison. The Los Angeles Times says police in Montenegro turned over Tamara Dadyn to the U.S.

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is giving all federal agencies 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices, as the Chinese-owned social media app comes under increasing scrutiny in Washington over security concerns. The Office of Management and Budget calls the guidance, issued Monday, a “critical step

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s Republican-controlled Legislature has for years entertained a host of unsupported theories about fraudsters manipulating election results since Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. But lawmakers reached a limit for what they will tolerate last week, when a daylong hearing about elections ended with a presentation accusing

By SUMMER BALLENTINE Associated Press COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Republicans who want the state to take over prosecutions of violent crimes in St. Louis are sharply criticizing the city’s embattled prosecutor after a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee lost her legs in a crash caused by a speeding driver facing felony charges. The remarks

By SCOTT SONNER and RIO YAMAT Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — The pilot of a medical transport plane that crashed during a winter storm in Nevada, killing all five people on board, was following in the footsteps of his grandfather who flew bombers in World War II. All five on board died from multiple

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that “history matters, and Black history matters” during a White House reception marking Black History Month, a forceful declaration that comes after the state of Florida blocked a new advanced course on African American studies from being taught in its high