Month: February 2023

By TOM KRISHER and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Two men who began their careers on factory floors are competing to lead the 373,000 members of the United Auto Workers, a union that helps set standards for wages across the nation’s manufacturing sector. It will be the first-ever direct election of a UAW

By DIARLEI RODRIGUES and CARLA BRIDI Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro’s brutal summer heat has reached 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) on some recent days, sending locals to cool off at the beach. There weren’t many options for residents of the city’s zoo, however, until a team of experts

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals judges at a European Union-backed court have upheld most of the convictions of two leaders of a Kosovo war veterans’ association who were found guilty last year of witness intimidation and obstructing justice. The appeals panel of the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers overturned one

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Real and fake news will collide again at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Comedian Roy Wood Jr. will headline the event on April 29. Wood plays a reporter on “The Daily Show,” the long-running Comedy Central program that blends comedy and news. Association president Tamara

BERLIN (AP) — Nine men suspected of involvement in blowing up dozens of cash machines in Germany and stealing some 5.2 million euros (nearly $5.7 million) have been arrested in the Netherlands and Belgium, German authorities said Thursday. The arrests were made during raids on 16 properties in the two neighboring countries on Monday, prosecutors

By BRITTNEY J. MILLER, Cedar Rapids Gazette CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Amid a major drought in the Western U.S., a proposed solution comes up repeatedly: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to parched states. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper.

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — A whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends

PARIS (AP) — Interpol says police in southeastern France have arrested a convicted murderer linked to Italy’s most powerful organized crime group, the ’ndrangheta, who was on the run for 16 years. Italy’s ANSA news agency reported that the 63-year-old had been working for the past three years as a pizza-maker in Saint Etienne, where

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has attended commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi forces in the battle of Stalingrad. It was a long and grueling fight that resonates in the current conflict in Ukraine. Putin laid a wreath on Thursday at the eternal

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government says it will hold a public inquiry into whether the deadliest bombing in Northern Ireland’s decades of violence could have been prevented. The probe will look at the 1998 car bombing in the town of Omagh that killed 29 people and wounded hundreds more. An Irish Republican Army dissident

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian director who was arrested last summer, weeks before his latest film was released to widespread acclaim, has gone on hunger strike. He is protesting his continued detention amid more than four months of anti-government protests. Jafar Panahi, whose films have thrilled critics and won numerous international prizes,

By JOVANA GEC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s populist president has warned during a chaotic parliamentary session that the Balkan nation could become a European “pariah” state if it rejects a Western plan for normalizing relations with Kosovo. President Aleksandar Vucic faced a hostile reception from right-wing opposition lawmakers on Thursday. They urged

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press HILDALE, Utah (AP) — Ayahuasca is a psychedelic tea whose roots go back hundreds of years to ceremonial use by Indigenous groups in the Amazon region. It’s widely used in South America where it is legal in several countries, including Peru and Brazil. But in the United States, it remains

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press HILDALE, Utah (AP) — The tea tasted bitter and earthy, but Lorenzo Gonzales drank it anyway. On that frigid night in remote Utah, he was hoping for a life-changing experience, which is how he found himself inside a tent with two dozen others waiting for the psychedelic brew known as

By KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Gautam Adani was Asia’s richest man when the U.S. short-selling firm Hindenburg Research put out a report last week alleging his businesses have engaged in fraud and stock price manipulation. He isn’t now. The allegations spooked investors, who dumped tens of billions of dollars worth

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Africa’s public health agency says countries with deadly cholera outbreaks on the continent have no “immediate access” to vaccines amid a global supply shortage. The acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told journalists on Thursday that the agency is working with

By KATE ASHFORD of NerdWallet A new year means changes to Medicare, including updated premiums and deductibles and sometimes big policy moves. In 2023, there’s a little of everything: Some costs have gone down, others have increased, and there are some notable tweaks to how Medicare works. Understanding what’s new can help you get the

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police have arrested an American tourist after he allegedly knocked down and broke a statue of Jesus in a church in Jerusalem’s Old City. Images on social media showed the statue laying horizontally on the floor after apparently being pulled down from a stand at the Chapel of the Flagellation. Police

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government says is responding to “deeply shocking” revelations that debt collectors working for British Gas broke into customers’ homes to install prepay gas meters that left vulnerable people at risk of having their heating cut off. British Gas parent company Centrica PLC said it had

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — Global energy giant Shell says annual profits doubled to a record high last year as oil and gas prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. London-based Shell Plc on Thursday posted adjusted earnings of $39.9 billion for 2022 and $9.8 billion in the fourth quarter. Shell

By PAUL J. WEBER and KEN MILLER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in homes without power for a second day Thursday, most of them around booming Austin, and fading hopes of a quick fix stirred grim memories of a deadly 2021 blackout after an icy winter storm across the

By JAY COHEN AP Sports Writer Back at the very beginning, right when the idea of water polo in Ghana started swimming into reality, Prince Asante got out a couple of balls and caps in front of a handful of curious kids. He decided to try a scrimmage, but he had no nets. So they

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway says the oil-rich Scandinavian country will become one of the world’s top donors to Ukraine when his government presents another planned military and civilian aid package. Gahr Støre told the Norwegian parliament on Thursday that profits from oil will finance the additional aid, He

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is playing host to former President Bill Clinton to mark the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act. It was the first piece of legislation that Clinton signed into law after taking office in 1993. The act guaranteed many American workers up

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Parliament has removed the protective immunity of two lawmakers linked to one of the EU’s biggest corruption scandals. Thursday’s vote paves the way for Belgian lawmaker Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino to be questioned by Belgian investigators. Both men have said through their lawyers

BY AYANNA ALEXANDER Associated Press JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Not far from the postcard images of Jacksonville — the white sand beaches, the riverfront fountain, the upscale shopping district — is another side of the city. Here, neighborhood roads are pitted with potholes and sometimes unpaved. Weeds swallow abandoned cars in empty lots. Grocery stores