Month: May 2023

By FILIPE BENTO Associated Press ARADE DAM, Portugal (AP) — Police searching for clues regarding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British child who went missing in 2007 in Portugal, were concentrating operations Wednesday in several areas around a dam, including one where media reports say a lead suspect in the case often stayed. The

By TRENTON DANIEL and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump speaks about his legal woes in a way that would make most defense attorneys wince. A recent sampling: In a March interview on Fox News Channel, the Republican former president said he had “the right to take” classified documents with him to

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Like the blue and yellow flags that popped up around the U.S. when Russia invaded Ukraine 15 months ago, U.S. popular support for Washington’s backing of Ukraine has faded a little but remains widespread, a survey by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Proposals for a digital European currency are taking shape. The European Central Bank is finalizing the design of a digital euro that people could use in stores. That would add another way to hold Europe’s currency, on top of cash and bank accounts. The idea

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The head of Iran’s nuclear program insisted Wednesday that his government would cooperate with international inspectors on any “new activities.” His statement followed an exclusive Associated Press report about Tehran’s new underground tunnel system near a nuclear enrichment facility. The AP outlined this week

By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Scientists say that sea urchins in Israel’s Gulf of Eilat in the Red Sea are dying at an alarming rate, threatening the sea’s prized coral reef ecosystems. The massive die-off first began in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, from where it speared to the neighboring Red Sea.

By RAF CASERT and ALEKSANDAR FURTULA Associated Press DELFT, Netherlands (AP) — For those seeking to live in the most sustainable way, there now is an afterlife too. A Dutch intrepid inventor is now “growing” coffins by putting mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, together with hemp fiber in a special mold that, in a

By SUSIE BLANN and JOANNA KOZLOWSKA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the Russian private army Wagner has again broken with the Kremlin line on Ukraine, saying its goal of demilitarizing the country has backfired, acknowledging Russian troops have killed civilians and agreeing with Western estimates that he’s lost more than 20,000

Miran Shah, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say a suicide bomber has attacked a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan killing two soldiers, one policeman and a civilian. The attack on Wednesday happened in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban. Rehmat Khan,

By JENNIFER O’MAHONY Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Repeated racist insults against Brazilian soccer star Vinícius Júnior have unleashed a heated debate in Spain about tolerance for racism in a society that is becoming rapidly more diverse on and off the field. Since the season began in August, the Real Madrid winger has suffered racist

BEIJING (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin says pressure from the West is strengthening his country’s ties with China. Mishustin met with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing as Russia is increasingly turning to China for diplomatic and economic support amid growing isolation over its invasion of Ukraine. In opening remarks at his meeting Wednesday

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Official figures show that inflation in the U.K. has fallen to its lowest level since the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which caused energy and food costs to surge. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that the consumer price index dropped to 8.7% in

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas would set new standards and ratings for sexually explicit material in order to ban books from public and charter school libraries, under a bill given final passage by the state Senate late Tuesday night and sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The Texas move is the latest attempt to ban

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Thursday as worries about the U.S. economy and a possible default on U.S. government debt pulled Wall Street lower. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index advanced 0.5% to 30,848.07, extending recent gains as investors bet on higher returns from Japanese companies. Hong Kong’s

By JIM MUSTIAN and JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for its “cavalier disregard” of thousands of suspicious

By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has passed a new two-year budget, a step that could bring some stability to his coalition and clear the way for it to press ahead with its religious, pro-settlement agenda. The vote dragged on overnight, with the budgets for 2023 and

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has canceled its plan to launch its first commercial-grade satellite citing a technical issue, days after rival North Korea reaffirmed its push to place its first military spy satellite into orbit. The cancellation was announced two hours before South Korea’s homegrown Nuri space

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate to 5.5% but signaled its next move would be a cut, sparking a sell-off in the currency. Wednesday’s quarter-point rate rise was the 12th straight hike imposed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand since

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — Before he left Mauritania, the West African nation of his birth, Mohamed thought of New York as a place of “open arms,” a refuge for immigrants fleeing dire circumstances. Now that he’s here, seeking political asylum from a government he feared would kill him, he doesn’t

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s National Electoral Council has announced that early presidential elections would be held on Aug. 20 after President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree last week and brought forward the vote scheduled for 2025. Lasso’s decision to dissolve the opposition-led legislature came as lawmakers tried to impeach him for

By RICK RYCROFT and ROD McGUIRK Associated Press SYDNEY (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has struck new agreements with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on migration and green hydrogen. During his visit to Australia, Modi also raised concerns about attacks on Hindu temples in Sydney. Modi was welcomed Tuesday by around 20,000 cheering

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Phoenix retiree Saundra Cole has been watching the news about the debt limit negotiations in Washington with dismay — and limiting her air conditioning use to save money just in case her monthly Social Security check is delayed due to a default. For her,

By STEVE PEOPLES, ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race on Wednesday, stepping into a crowded Republican primary contest that will test both his national appeal as an outspoken cultural conservative and the GOP’s willingness to move on from former President Donald

By ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The first thing Veronica Mata sees when she wakes up each day is her 10-year-old daughter, Tess, smiling down at her from a photo perched on her bedside table. Speaking to the silent image of the child she lost in one of the United States’ most

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister has pressed his Dutch counterpart for access to advanced chipmaking technology that has been blocked on security grounds and warned against allowing what he said were unfounded fears of Beijing to spoil relations. Chinese frustration with curbs imposed by the Netherlands, Washington and

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer MIAMI (AP) — Down nine early in the third quarter, down 3-0 in the series, the Boston Celtics knew their season was completely on the brink. Three minutes later, everything looked different. Jayson Tatum had 34 points and 11 rebounds, Derrick White and Jaylen Brown each added 16 points

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Target is removing some items from its stores and making other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month after intense backlash from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays. “Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel have won the International Booker Prize for “Time Shelter,” a darkly comic novel about the dangerous appeal of nostalgia. The book beat five other finalists to the prize, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has dismissed three cabin crew members after a passenger accused them of discriminating against non-English speakers, in a case that drew criticism from Chinese state media. Airline CEO Ronald Lam expressed his apologies to the passenger and the community over the

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A new tally of the homeless population in New Mexico is showing an abrupt increase in the number of people living without permanent housing or with no shelter at all. The legislative agency focused on budgeting and accountability on Tuesday reported a 48% jump in

SEATTLE (AP) — A former Seattle man who stole over $1 million in jobless benefits and small business loans during the COVID-19 pandemic was sentenced on Tuesday to more than eight years in prison, Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a statement. Bryan Sparks, 42, was indicted for the fraud scheme in November 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City college has fired an adjunct professor who was recorded on video berating abortion opponents on campus earlier this month and who later reportedly threatened a journalist with a machete. A Hunter College spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that Shellyne Rodriguez was fired after the May 2 incident. Video shows

By JIM VERTUNO and JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas lawmakers have revealed a monthslong corruption investigation into Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. They went public with the probe Tuesday, shortly after Paxton accused the GOP House speaker of being drunk on the job. Hours after Paxton’s claim, House Speaker Dade Phelan

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Protesters cut short a rare outdoor meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday where the board president had planned to question Mayor London Breed over the city’s drug crisis. Board President Aaron Peskin moved the first part of the board’s weekly meeting to a

IONIA, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan man who pleaded no contest to shooting an 84-year-old woman campaigning against abortion rights at his home has been sentenced to community service. Seventy-five-year-old Richard Harvey was ordered Tuesday to complete 100 hours of community service. Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger also gave him a suspended jail sentence of