Month: March 2023

By HALELUYA HADERO and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. lawmakers grilled the CEO of TikTok over data security and harmful content Thursday, responding skeptically during a tense committee hearing to his assurances that the hugely popular video-sharing app prioritizes user safety and should not be banned. Shou Zi Chew’s rare public appearance

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government on Thursday released the wording of a referendum question that promises the nation’s Indigenous population a greater say on policies that affect their lives. Australians are expected to vote sometime between October and December on a constitutional amendment that would enshrine a new

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that state law doesn’t require Gov. Katie Hobbs to carry out the April 6 execution of a prisoner who was convicted of murder. The decision marks a legal victory for the newly elected Democratic governor whose office said the state isn’t

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A dispute between Jack Daniel’s and the makers of a squeaking dog toy that humorously mimics the whiskey’s signature look gave Supreme Court justices a lot to chew on. The justices heard approximately an hour and a half worth of arguments in the case Wednesday. The question

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Jill Biden on Wednesday used a Women’s History Month event at the White House to call on men to step up and fight to protect women’s rights. The first lady, speaking ahead of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, didn’t mince words as

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has voted overwhelmingly to continue congressional authorization for the use of military force in the global fight against terror, turning back an effort by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to repeal the 2001 measure. Senators on Wednesday rejected the amendment 86-9 as they debate a

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to hear most of Republican Kari Lake’s appeal in a challenge of her defeat in the governor’s race but revived a claim that was dismissed by a trial court. In an order Wednesday, the state’s highest court said a lower court

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The African Union appealed for nearly $90 million Wednesday for its peacekeeping force in Somalia, which is providing support to its military forces battling al-Shabab extremists. Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, the AU commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, told two reporters that the more than

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A top Republican operative who worked as an adviser on Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s winning campaign has signed on to work for a super PAC urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president. A person familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press on Wednesday

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are demanding testimony and documents from two former Manhattan prosecutors who had been leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before quitting last year in a clash over the direction of the probe. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent letters Wednesday to Mark Pomerantz

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee police say a 15-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a shooting that killed another boy of the same age and left five young women injured. News reports Wednesday didn’t say whether any charges have been filed against the arrested teen. Police say the shooting occurred about 11:30 p.m. Monday

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — It all started on a late morning on a highway. A camera panned to the cab of a large semi-trailer truck. The driver wore a plaid shirt and a day’s growth of beard. Next to him was a mysterious hitchhiker in expensive clothes that were

By MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian government watchdog is giving former President Jair Bolsonaro five working days to return to authorities a set of jewels he received from Saudi Arabia in 2021. All nine members of the government watchdog voted Wednesday in favor of requiring Bolsonaro to turn the jewels

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s government said Wednesday that 50,000 migrants crossed the treacherous Darien Gap linking Colombia and Panama in the first two months of 2023, five times more than in the same period last year. For 2022 as a whole, a total of 250,000 migrants made the crossing, with big spikes in September

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Palestinians and Israel have clashed over the future intentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far right-wing government at a U.N. Security Council meeting. The Palestinian U.N. ambassador pointed to an Israeli minister’s statement “denying our existence to justify what is to come.” Israel’s U.N.

SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks workers and their supporters rallied outside the company’s Seattle headquarters Wednesday to protest what they describe as union-busting efforts by executives. Organizers said employees also walked off the job at more than 100 stores across the country. The company disputed the breadth of the protests, saying that nearly every store remained

By JAY COHEN and STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writers A National Hockey League team with a Russian player has decided against wearing special warmup jerseys to commemorate Pride Night, citing an anti-gay Kremlin law that could imperil Russian athletes when they return home. The Chicago Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys before Sunday’s game

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press The U.S. abortion landscape is far from settled nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy. With states now in control, advocates on both sides await a major decision by a Texas judge on the legal status of abortion pills. A judge on

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A woman was arrested on charges of setting fire to a building in Wyoming that was being renovated to house the state’s only full-service abortion clinic, authorities said Wednesday, hours after a judge temporarily blocked a ban on abortion that went into effect a few days

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An escape-artist bear from Missouri is headed to a Texas zoo with a moat in hopes it will put an end to his wandering. The St. Louis Zoo cited the “specific and unique personality” of the Andean bear named Ben in announcing the move Tuesday. His soon-to-be home at the Gladys

By VICTOR R. CAIVANO Associated Press URQUIZA, Argentina (AP) — The ground crackles as Guillermo Cuitino walks across dry farmland that should be green and lush this time of year. He grabs a soy plant and easily disintegrates its leaves with his hands. “This year’s drought was extreme,” the agricultural engineer said this week at

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will prevent the passage of a proposal by a powerful ally in his governing coalition to punish Christian proselytizing with jail time. The proposal had raised an uproar with evangelical Christians — one of Israel’s strongest and most influential supporters in the United States. The

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors disclosed Wednesday that a witness expected to testify for the defense at the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four associates was secretly acting as a government informant for nearly two years after the Jan. 6, 2021,

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — California prosecutors on Wednesday dropped domestic violence charges against Justin Roiland, who created the Cartoon Network animated series “Rick and Morty” and provided the voices of the show’s two title characters. Orange County district attorney’s spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said the two felony counts involving a

By RANDALL CHASE Associated Press WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Lawyers for Fox News and a voting machine company are tangling over the high bar to prove defamation in a $1.6 billion lawsuit that has embarrassed the conservative network over its airing of false claims related to the 2020 presidential election. The argument is at the

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress Lindsay Lohan, rapper Akon and several other celebrities have agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars to settle claims they promoted crypto investments to their millions of social media followers without disclosing they were being paid to do so. Lohan, Akon, recording artists

WOODLAWN, Md. (AP) — Maryland State Police say six people were killed when a passenger vehicle pulled into a work zone along the Baltimore beltway and struck construction workers there. Troopers responded to the work zone on northbound Interstate 695 in the Woodlawn area on Wednesday afternoon for a report of a pedestrian crash. Police

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s statehouse building, part of which dates to the 1700s and was once called a fire trap, is once again open after years of renovation and nearly $300 million in taxpayer money. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his administration began moving back into the

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The former warden of an abuse-plagued federal women’s prison in the San Francisco Bay Area has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for sexually abusing incarcerated women. A judge sentenced Ray J. Garcia to 70 months in prison for sexually abusing three female inmates and forcing them to pose

PASADENA, Texas (AP) — Officials are investigating an explosion and fire at a chemical plant in suburban Houston that injured one person. It is not immediately known what caused Wednesday’s blast at the plant in the city of Pasadena. But officials say the fire occurred as liquified natural gas was being transferred from a tanker

By STEPHEN R. GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan consensus that Congress should act to toughen regulations on railroads is emerging in the U.S. Senate. The Senate Commerce Committee is examining a fiery hazardous train derailment last month on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Republicans and Democrats on the committee peppered Norfolk Southern CEO Alan

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — One of the six oil executives with a Texas-based company who was imprisoned five years in Venezuela is suing his company for $100 million. The lawsuit alleges his company abandoned him and his family as he endured horrific prison conditions for a crime he didn’t commit.

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The last of three ex-correctional officers convicted in the beating death of an Illinois prison inmate has been sentenced to six years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough handed the sentence Wednesday to Willie Hedden. The 44-year-old Hedden pleaded guilty to civil rights

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Officials say two employees of a rural west Tennessee town that resisted a takeover attempt by the state after Ford Motor Co. announced plans to build a truck plant nearby have been charged with the theft of town funds and official misconduct. The Tennessee’s Comptroller’s Office

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in a sealed order Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president’s retention of classified records at his Florida estate. The ruling is a significant win for the Justice Department, which