Month: June 2023

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer Instagram and Facebook’s parent company Meta is adding some new parental supervision tools and privacy features to its platforms as social media companies face increasing scrutiny over their effects on teen mental health. But many of the features require minors — and their parents — to opt in, raising

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan announced Tuesday a decision to reinstate South Korea as a preferred nation with fast-track trade status from July 21, virtually ending a four-year economic row that was strained during their bitter historic disputes. Japan and South Korea have been rapidly mending their ties as they deepen

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities say police and prosecutors have searching Catholic Church properties in connection with a probe of the archbishop of Cologne over perjury allegations. Investigators on Tuesday also searched the premises of an IT company that provides email services to the archdiocese headed by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki. The archbishop is under

By The Associated Press Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the private army of prison recruits and other mercenaries who have fought some of the deadliest battles in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, escaped prosecution for his abortive armed rebellion against the Kremlin and arrived Tuesday in Belarus. The exile of the 62-year-old owner of the Wagner Group

By DAVID RISING Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Thailand has dismissed claims of American interference in recent elections as a “disservice” to the Thai people. Ambassador Robert Godec said on Tuesday that Washington does not support any individual candidate or political party. Claims of the U.S. meddling in the May 14

By ACHMAD IBRAHIM and EDNA TARIGAN Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s anti-graft court has opened a trial for a former communication and information technology minister who was charged with corruption over the construction of mobile phone transmission towers in remote parts of the country. Prosecutors allege that Johnny G. Plate changed the terms

BERLIN (AP) — A German court found ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler guilty of fraud in connection with the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal Tuesday, making him the highest-ranking executive convicted over cars that cheated on emissions tests with the help of illegal software. The Munich regional court handed Stadler a suspended prison sentence of 21 months

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Farmers markets gave people something they desperately sought during the pandemic: A place to shop outdoors, and at the same time support smaller, often local businesses. The markets are now building on that goodwill as the customers that became regulars and the vendors who set

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Ivan Rossomakhin returned home from the war in Ukraine three months ago, his neighbors in the village east of Moscow were terrified. Three years ago, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to a long prison term but was freed after volunteering to fight with

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer The Associated Press has found that the Food and Drug Administration can’t keep up with a flood of illegal disposable e-cigarettes from China. The AP looked at tightly controlled sales data to try to determine how the FDA is doing in its crackdown on kid-friendly electronic cigarette flavors. The

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of different electronic cigarette devices sold in the U.S. has nearly tripled to over 9,000 since 2020, driven almost entirely by a wave of unauthorized disposable vapes from China, according to tightly controlled sales data obtained by The Associated Press. The surge stands in

By RIAZAT BUTT Associated Press MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — For Zainab Abdu, the holiest sites in Islam were the backdrop for her weekends growing up. Raised in Mecca, Abdu remembers roller-skating with friends near the Grand Mosque where the Kaaba is located. The desert plains and valleys that throng with pilgrims every year are

By JERRY HARMER and JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand is to deliver a verdict Wednesday in the case of five people accused of impeding the queen’s motorcade during a pro-democracy march in 2020. Hundreds of criminal cases have arisen from the student-led protests, but the five defendants are the

By COLLEEN SLEVIN and JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — One-by-one, victims stood in a Colorado courtroom to confront the person who pleaded guilty to murdering five people and injuring 17 others in a shooting last year at a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community. Some cried, others seethed with anger. They called

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has been invited to address the Irish Senate on Tuesday. She’ll be there to help commemorate the 30th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Ireland. Healey is one of the first two openly lesbian elected governors in the U.S. and a descendant of Irish immigrants.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s No. 2 leader says economic growth accelerated in the latest quarter and he expressed confidence it can hit the ruling Communist Party’s official target of 5% for the year. Premier Li Qiang spoke at a conference in the eastern city of Tianjin. Li gave no figure for the three months ending

By CAROLYN THOMPSON and MICHAEL HILL Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Zeneta Everhart became a well-known community advocate after her son survived a racist mass shooting in Buffalo. On Tuesday, she won a Democratic primary to represent a neighborhood near where the deadly shooting happened. Everhart defeated India Walton, another prominent activist, in the

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has made history a few times in her political career, becoming one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress and as the first to hold the reins of the Interior Department. Haaland says one of the hardest

By MARC LEVY and JOSH FUNK Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Spurred on by train derailments, some states with busy criss-crossing freight railroads are pursuing their own safety remedies rather than wait for federal action amid industry opposition and questions about whether they even have authority to make the changes. The activity comes after

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — Environmentalists and tribes are urging a U.S. appeals court to overturn a judge’s decision that allowed construction to begin on a huge lithium mine in Nevada. An environmental lawyer told a three-judge panel that the U.S. judge in Reno abused her discretion when she concluded federal

By DIARLEI RODRIGUES and DIANE JEANTET Associated Press CARATINGA, Brasil (AP) — The emerald-green canopy shifts and rustles as a troop of willowy, golden-gray monkeys slides through a tropical ecosystem more threatened than the Amazon. Karen Strier started studying the biggest monkey in the Americas four decades ago, when there were just 50 of the

By SEUNG MIN KIM and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — On the surface, the turmoil in Russia would seem like something for the U.S. to celebrate: a powerful mercenary group engaging in a short-lived clash with Russia’s military at the very moment that Ukraine is trying to gain momentum in a critical counteroffensive.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 26-year-old Kansas City man has been charged in a shooting that killed three people and wounded six more. The Jackson County Prosecutor’s office said Monday that Keivon Greene is accused of first-degree assault and armed criminal action. Police said in a probable cause statement that a second person fired

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Leftist candidate Olivia Chow has become the mayor of Canada’s largest city. Chow is Toronto’s new mayor after more than a decade of conservative rule. She is the first woman of color to lead Canada’s most populous city.  John Tory stepped as mayor after acknowledging he had

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer Now that the PGA Tour and European tour have a deal with the Saudis, one step is deciding how players can return from LIV Golf if they so choose. That’s part of the framework agreement that was signed last month. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the agreement.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peg Yorkin, who donated $10 million to the feminist foundation she co-founded and pushed to bring the most common method of abortion to the United States, has died. Yorkin died Sunday night after a long illness, her daughter Nicole Yorkin said. Peg Yorkin was 96. Yorkin was chair of the Feminist

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A new California law aimed in part at boosting salaries for fast food workers has been delayed for nearly two years following industry resistance. Now the Democrats who control the state Legislature might have figured out how to raise worker pay anyway. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The conservative Republican attorney general of Kansas says a new Kansas law requires the state to reverse any previous gender changes in its records for trans people’s birth certificates and driver’s licenses while also preventing such changes going forward. Attorney General Kris Kobach also said

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico says it has arrested the former head of a federal anti-kidnapping unit in connection with the disappearance of 43 students in 2014. Gualberto Ramírez was head of the anti-kidnapping unit for the attorney general’s office when the students went missing. The interior department said he faces charges of disappearance, torture

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press California has cited two Northern California mushroom farms for health and safety violations and proposed more than $165,000 in fines five months after a worker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings. The Jan. 23 violence stunned the small coastal community of Half Moon Bay about 30 miles south of San

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — James Meredith knew he was putting his life in danger in the 1960s by pursuing what he believes was his mission from God: conquering white supremacy in the segregated state of Mississippi. Leading up to his 90th birthday Sunday, the civil rights icon urged people

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Work is underway to clean up rail cars carrying hazardous materials that fell into the Yellowstone River in southern Montana after a bridge collapsed over the weekend, officials said Monday. Montana Rail Link is developing a cleanup plan and is working with its unions and BNSF Railway to reroute freight trains

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year. Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the Moscow,