Month: April 2023

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — “We thought we could die.” The Russian invasion had just begun when Nancy Pelosi made a surprise visit to Ukraine, the House speaker then the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to lead a congressional delegation to Kyiv. Pelosi and the lawmakers were ushered under the cloak of

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Russia has convicted a woman from a Siberian city over social media posts condemning the war in Ukraine and punished her with a steep fine even though both she and the prosecution had asked for a prison sentence. Marina Novikova was found guilty

By JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press A federal judge overseeing the New Orleans Roman Catholic bankruptcy recused himself in a late-night reversal that came a week after an Associated Press report showed he donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church in the case involving nearly 500

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two teenagers have been charged with firearms and related offenses following the slaying of three people and the wounding of a fourth person at a northeast Philadelphia home, authorities said. Lt. John Stanford told reporters that officers called to the residence in the Lawncrest neighborhood shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday found one

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country’s first astronaut will travel to the International Space Station by the end of the year. Air force pilot Alper Gezeravci was selected to be the first Turkish citizen in space. His backup is a 30-year-old aviation systems engineer at Turksih defense contractor Roketsan. Erdogan

NEW CASTLE, Ind. (AP) — A female mental health counselor and a male inmate have been stabbed by another inmate during an attack at a private prison in eastern Indiana. State police say the counselor was conducting a group session around 9:40 a.m. Friday with eight male inmates at the New Castle Correctional Facility when

By JUAN A. LOZANO and PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — The search for a Texas man who allegedly shot his neighbors after they asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard stretched into a second day Sunday, with authorities saying the man could be anywhere by now. Francisco Oropeza,

By NICOLE WINFIELD and JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Pope Francis plunged into both sides of Russia’s war with Ukraine on Saturday, greeting some of the 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled across the border to Hungary during a public prayer service and then meeting privately with an envoy of the

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine has welcomed the European Union’s hard-fought deal to keep farm exports flowing into and through the bloc to world markets. The 27-nation EU ended a damaging internal standoff over a destabilizing glut of Ukraine farm imports late Friday by granting five member countries the right to

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — No big tax cuts are coming for Kansas residents even though the state treasury is bulging with surplus cash. Republican leaders went into the final days of the GOP-controlled Legislature’s annual session hoping to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill cutting taxes nearly

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — An accountant working on a high-profile corruption case was killed along with his son by unknown gunmen while traveling on one of South Africa’s main highways. A government health department employee who warned of illegal dealings worth nearly $50 million was shot 12 times in the driveway

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A former U.S. national security adviser called for deeper interaction between his country and Taiwan during a visit Saturday to the self-ruled island, which has seen increasing military threats from China. John Bolton, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, said at a pro-Taiwan independence event in Taipei that national security

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — King Charles III lives in a palace, travels in a chauffeur-driven Bentley and is one of Britain’s richest men, but he’s similar to many of his subjects in one very basic way: His family life is complicated — very complicated. There’s a second wife, an embarrassing brother,

By DAVID RISING Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraine’s drones, a Russia-appointed official there reported Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks on the annexed peninsula as Russia braces for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive. Mikhail Razvozhayev,

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — When Oklahoma’s newly elected Republican head of public schools campaigned for the job last fall, he ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology” in public schools, banning certain books from school libraries, empowering parents with school choice and getting rid of “radical leftists” he claims

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are touting their debt limit package as a first step toward fiscal restraint, saying it’s past time for Congress to reduce the swelling deficits that they warn are threatening the fiscal health of the country. But when a group of Midwestern Republicans went marching this

By JEFF AMY Associated Press BUFORD, Ga. (AP) — A slate of Georgia Republicans led by Gov. Brian Kemp handily won reelection last year over far-right primary opponents endorsed by Donald Trump and backed by the state party chairperson, showing the limits of the former president and his 2020 election lies in the critical swing

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press More than a year after OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a tentative settlement over the toll of opioids that was accepted nearly universally by the groups suing the company — including thousands of people injured by the drug — money is still not rolling out. Parties waiting to finalize the

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kansas who say parents need alternatives to public schools couldn’t pass even a scaled-back version of the “school choice” plans enacted in other states with GOP-controlled Legislatures. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly strongly opposed using state tax dollars to help parents pay for

By MICHAEL WARREN Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter tried like no president ever had to put human rights at the center of American foreign policy. It was a turnabout dictators and dissidents alike found hard to believe as he took office in 1977. The U.S. had such a long history of supporting crackdowns

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Hugh Evans highlighted a staggering new statistic to explain why this year’s Global Citizen NOW conference was packed with calls to action and urgent requests for involvement. The CEO of Global Citizen, who has been fighting against extreme poverty since he was 14, told The

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jack is back. Los Angeles Lakers superfan Jack Nicholson was watching at courtside for the first time in nearly two years Friday night when his team hosted the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series. The 86-year-old Nicholson hadn’t been in his

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden awarded the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the Air Force Academy for winning football games against its rival U.S. service academies. Air Force beat both the Military Academy and the Naval Academy during last year’s collegiate football season, compiling an overall record of 10-3. It also beat Baylor University

Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Time to say goodbye. Seven lions, a bear, a camel and even a porcupine left Puerto Rico’s lone zoo Friday to head to a new home in Colorado. A U.S.-based animal rescue group started transferring the animals under a plan to find better places for the animals

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press Outspoken abortion provider LeRoy “Lee” Carhart has died. Clinics for Abortions & Reproductive Excellence in Nebraska says Carhart, who was the medical director, died Friday. He was 81. A cause of death was not released. Carhart began focusing on abortion at his clinic in Nebraska after retiring from the Air

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan is in hot water, with Republican lawmakers calling for her resignation and the Democratic governor seeking investigations because Fagan took a consulting job with a marijuana firm. Fagan released a statement late Friday saying she welcomed the governor’s inquiry. “I

By CHEVEL JOHNSON RODRIGUE Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sounds of R&B, rock ’n roll, Zydeco, pop, blues, country, rap, gospel and, of course, jazz flowed throughout the Fair Grounds Race Course Friday as the 2023 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival opens its two-weekend run. Music fans wandered among 14 stages or tents

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Prosecutors say the mother charged in a triple murder case took part in a complex conspiracy that included unusual spiritual beliefs and efforts to kill those who stood in the way of her goals. Here, a look at the defendants and some of the witnesses in

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canada’s government has made a new contract offer to the country’s biggest public workers union as thousands of federal employees remained on strike Friday for a 10th day. The office of Treasury Board President Mona Fortier calls it a “comprehensive offer″ but has provided no details. The Public Service Alliance of

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader says her country would stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to a new U.S.-South Korean agreement to intensify nuclear deterrence to counter the North’s nuclear threat, which she insists shows their “extreme” hostility toward

By HAVEN DALEY and AMY TAXIN Associated Press TWIN BRIDGES, Calif. (AP) — Much of the famed valley at California’s Yosemite National Park will be temporarily closed starting Friday due to a forecast of flooding as rising temperatures melt the Sierra Nevada’s massive snowpack. Park officials say the eastern section of Yosemite Valley will stay