Month: August 2023

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, PATRICK ORSAGOS and RENATA BRITO Associated Press CINCINNATI (AP) — Aissata Sall was scrolling through WhatsApp in May when she first learned about the new route to the United States. For Ibrahima Sow, the discovery came on TikTok a few weeks later. By the time their paths crossed at the tidy one-story

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says he will visit the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday before setting a release date for its treated radioactive wastewater, as his government continues working to promote understanding over the controversial plan at home and abroad. It is time to make

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Lawyers and unions representing rail workers say there is a clear pattern across the industry of railroads retaliating against workers who report safety violations or injuries on the job. Often these workers run afoul of managers who don’t want to jeopardize their bonuses. The examples

BEIJING (AP) — China’s defense ministry says its military has launched drills around Taiwan as a “stern warning” over what it calls collusion between “separatists and foreign forces,” days after the island’s vice president stopped over in the United States. Taiwanese Vice President William Lai’s recent trip to Paraguay included stops in San Francisco and

By DAVID A. LIEB and KAVISH HARJAI Associated Press Joplin officials say they have big plans for $13.8 million of pandemic relief funds the tornado-ravaged southwestern Missouri city received under a two-year-old federal law. Yet the latest federal records show none of the money has been spent — or even budgeted. In fact, about 6,300

By THOMAS BEAUMONT and HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The loop Donald Trump’s private jet made above the Iowa State Fair before his visit last weekend was more than just a gesture to the hundreds of supporters — and a few rival candidates — on the ground. It was a reminder

By CARLA BRIDI Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Then Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ordered an aide to sell undeclared luxury jewelry received as a gift and funnel the money to him, a lawyer for the aide charged Friday. Cezar Bittencourt, who represents Bolsonaro’s former right-hand man, Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, said his client had

By SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s Supreme Court of Justice has granted a permanent injunction to the party of progressive presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo. The ruling blocking a lower court’s order last month to suspend the party’s legal status came Friday, just two days before the presidential runoff election. Court

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — A U.S. judge has denied a Utah bus company’s bid to block Nevada regulation of routes that run primarily between Reno and Las Vegas but briefly cross into California, siding with regulators who say their ability to ensure the safety of buses in Nevada is in

DENVER (AP) — A United Airlines pilot has been charged with criminal mischief for allegedly using an ax to destroy a barrier gate at an employee parking lot at Denver’s airport. Investigators say he told them he was trying to help several drivers exit and “he just hit his breaking point.” Kenneth Henderson Jones is

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Dominican authorities say they are pursuing a criminal case against a plastics company based on evidence found during an investigation into an explosion this week that killed 31 people. Police and the Public Ministry issued a joint statement late Friday

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Fast-moving wildfires raced through Washington state on Friday, burning some homes and prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people in small rural communities. One of the largest blazes, the so-called Gray Fire near Spokane in eastern Washington, began around noon and a few hours later had surged through 4.7 square miles

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, KATE BRUMBACK and ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Federal judges in Georgia and Texas are putting on hold provisions of two controversial laws passed as part of a GOP push to tighten voting regulations. In Texas, a federal judge found the state’s new mail ballot requirement that voters provide

PHOENIX (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service has released the name of an agent shot and killed during a routine training exercise in North Phoenix. The agency say Friday that 47-year-old special agent Patrick Bauer was fatally wounded at a firing range the day prior. Bauer was a retired master sergeant in the Arizona Air

Associated Press CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) — President Joe Biden is keeping mum about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to name a special counsel in the investigation of his son Hunter Biden. Speaking at a news conference at the conclusion of his Camp David summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court on Friday revived lawsuits from two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them for years when they were boys. A three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found that the lawsuits of Wade Robson and James Safechuck should

MIAMI (AP) — Lolita, an orca whale held captive for more than a half-century, died Friday at the Miami Seaquarium as caregivers prepared to move her from the theme park in the near future. The Seaquarium posted a statement from the nonprofit group Friends of Toki on social media that Lolita — also known as

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City drug dealer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for providing “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death. Irvin Cartagena was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams. In April, he pleaded guilty to a

By SAM METZ Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday struck down a critical approval for a railroad project that would have allowed oil businesses in eastern Utah to significantly expand fossil fuel production and exports. The ruling is the latest development in the fight over the proposed Uinta

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has appealed a judge’s ruling that left a new Nebraska law intact that bans abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and imposes restrictions on gender-affirming surgery. Planned Parenthood filed its appeal Friday with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska. A judge rejected

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press U.S. border authorities stopped migrants entering the country illegally more than 33% more often in July than in June, suggesting lower numbers that followed the end of pandemic-related asylum restrictions may have bottomed out. Biden administration officials insist their carrot-and-stick approach of expanding legal routes while imposing more punitive measures

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines is trying to crack down on a travel hack. This week, American sued a website that sells tickets that let people save money by exploiting a quirk in airline pricing. Consumers book a flight with at least one stop, then get off the plane

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former federal appeals court judge and New York Senator James Buckley has died at age 100. Buckley spent a single term in the 1970s in the Senate, where the conservative was one of the first Republican lawmakers to call for then-President Richard Nixon to resign during the Watergate scandal. Buckley’s death at

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press GLENBROOK, Nevada (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Nevada late Friday for more rest and relaxation. The first couple will spend about a week near Lake Tahoe, the massive alpine lake that abuts California and Nevada and is a tourist attraction, particularly in

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A New York federal judge expressed growing impatience Friday with what he calls ex-President Donald Trump’s “repeated efforts to delay” a defamation lawsuit against him, saying he won’t stop a January trial to await the outcome of a “frivolous” appeal of one of his rulings. Judge