Month: July 2023

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Adidas said Friday that it is releasing a second batch of high-end Yeezy sneakers after cutting ties with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, as the German sportswear brand seeks to unload the unsold shoes while donating to groups fighting antisemitism. The online sale,

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The German economy is still failing to grow. The country that should be the industrial powerhouse for all of Europe is struggling with high energy prices, rising borrowing costs and a lagging rebound from key trading partner China. Official figures released Friday show economic output

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed Africa’s growing role in global affairs and offered to expand political and business ties as he courted leaders from the continent at a summit in St. Petersburg. Addressing the Russia-Africa summit for a second day, Putin said on Friday that Moscow would closely analyze

By MATTHEW BROWN and MORGAN LEE Associated Press HAVRE, Mont. (AP) — A man was detained and questioned by police and his Montana apartment searched as authorities tried to piece together the mysterious disappearance and sudden reappearance this week of Alicia Navarro, who was 14 when she vanished from her Arizona home four years ago.

BERLIN (AP) — A leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany is urging members of the country’s main opposition conservative bloc to break down a “firewall” meant to isolate his party, which is at record levels in polls. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, gathered on Friday for a convention stretching over the next two weekends

By AMIR VAHDAT Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Millions of Shiite Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world on Friday commemorated Ashoura, a remembrance of the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, that gave birth to their faith. In Afghanistan, the Taliban cut mobile phone services in key cities holding

By NICOLE WINFIELD and DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Pope Francis has urged governments to do more to fight climate change and protect “our common home” as improving weather conditions help firefighters contain wildfires in Greece, Italy and other countries in southern Europe. Francis sent a telegram of condolences to Greece, where

By JOSH BOAK and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press AUBURN, Maine (AP) — President Joe Biden used his trip to a textile plant in Maine on Friday to boast about cooling inflation and to make a crack at Republicans who have floated an impeachment inquiry into him. He told the crowd at Auburn Manufacturing Inc.

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has signed an executive order giving decisions on the prosecution of serious military crimes including sexual assault to independent military attorneys. The order signed Friday takes that power away from victims’ commanders. The order formally implements legislation passed by Congress last year aimed at

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Singapore conducted its first execution of a woman in 19 years on Friday and its second hanging this week for drug trafficking despite calls for the city-state to cease capital punishment for drug-related crimes. Activists said another execution is planned next week. Saridewi Djamani, 45,

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong judge has rejected a government request to ban the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” in a landmark decision. Friday’s ruling favored freedom of expression in the city after Google had resisted official pressure to alter internet search results. It was a setback

BEIJING (AP) — Typhoon Doksuri has made landfall in China after bringing deadly landslides to the Philippines. The storm plowed into the eastern province of Fujian on Friday morning after bringing heavy rains and gale-force winds to parts of Taiwan. In the Philippines, a week of stormy weather across the main island of Luzon caused

By SAM MEDNICK Associated Press NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Mutinous soldiers who staged a coup in Niger declared their leader the new head of state on Friday, hours after the general asked for national and international support despite rising concerns that the political crisis could hinder the nation’s fight against jihadists and boost Russia’s influence

BY DREW COSTLEY AP Science Writer Nearly 200 million people in the United States, or 60% of the U.S. population, are under a heat advisory or flood warning or watch and have been since Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Dangerous heat is forecast to “engulf” much of the eastern half of the United

By FELIPE DANA and JIM HEINTZ Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces on Friday struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro and pounded a key village in the southeast that Ukraine claimed to have recaptured in its grinding counteroffensive, while Moscow accused Kyiv of firing two missiles at southern Russia and wounding 20

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — China has demanded that the United States invite Hong Kong’s leader to an economic conference following a news report that Chief Executive John Lee would be barred due to his role in crushing the city’s pro-democracy movement. The conflict threatens to complicate Washington’s efforts to revive

By COLLEEN BARRY AP Business Writer MILAN (AP) — French luxury conglomerate Kering has reached a cash deal to purchase a 30% stake in Italian fashion house Valentino for 1.7 billion euros from a Qatari investment firm. With the purchase, Kering is seeking to shore up its revenue stream as it struggles to turn around

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Amna al-Nour narrowly escaped death twice. The first was when militias torched her family’s home in Sudan’s Darfur region. The second was two months later when paramilitary fighters stopped her and others trying to escape as they tried to reach the border with neighboring Chad. “They massacred

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. judge is considering whether to temporarily stop Hawaii from enforcing a new state law that prohibits carrying a gun on beaches and other locations deemed sensitive. Three Maui residents are suing to block the measure. They argue Hawaii is going too far with a

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville International Airport has quietly faced an identity crisis for weeks under a new state law, with no clear agreement about who is in charge. The dispute will be the focus of a court hearing Friday. GOP state lawmakers approved plans earlier this year for the

By SAM MEDNICK and RENATA BRITO Associated Press SAINT-LOUIS, Senegal (AP) — In the seaside town of Saint-Louis, Senegal, officials and residents say bodies of migrants from capsized boats attempting the dangerous trip from West Africa to Spain are buried in unmarked beach graves. Most of the families of those buried will never know what

By SAM MEDNICK and RENATA BRITO Associated Press SAINT-LOUIS, Senegal (AP) — The small mounds of sand that dot the beach in northern Senegal blend into the terrain. But thick rope juts out from beneath the piles. Pieces of black plastic bags are scattered nearby, and green netting is strewn on top. That’s how residents

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s central bank has opted to keep its benchmark interest rate at minus 0.1% but has fine-tuned its bond purchases to allow greater flexibility in its policies. The Bank of Japan said that uncertainties for the economy and prices required a nimbler approach in policies aimed at keeping long-term interest rates near

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese government stepped up its alarm over Chinese assertiveness, warning in a report issued Friday that the country faces its worst security threats since World War II as it plans to implement a new strategy that calls for a major military buildup. The 2023 defense white

By MEG KINNARD and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press New charges — and a new defendant — added to the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump underscore how the Mar-a-Lago investigation is still very much ongoing, even as the focus has been on an expected indictment in a separate case related to the

By CARLOS VALDEZ and DANIEL POLITI Associated Press LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia is now using the yuan to pay for imports and exports, becoming the latest country in South America to regularly use the Chinese currency in a small but growing challenge to the hegemony of the U.S. dollar for international financial transactions

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shared center stage with senior delegates from Russia and China as he rolled out his most powerful nuclear-capable missiles in a military parade. The event Thursday evening marked a major war anniversary with a show of defiance against the United States

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — Immigration advocates say an online appointment system to seek asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico is out of reach for many migrants in a lawsuit marking the latest challenge to the Biden administration’s agenda. Lawsuits filed by critics question a slew of new border policies.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A jury has found a Green Bay woman wasn’t mentally ill when she killed and dismembered a former boyfriend and scattered his body parts at various locations. The Brown County jury needed less than an hour Thursday to find 25-year-old Taylor Schabusiness didn’t suffer from mental disease or defect when