Month: October 2023

By JULIE CARR SMYTH and CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Misinformation targeting a reproductive rights measure on Ohio’s fall ballot is appearing in an unusual place: the official website of the Republican-controlled state Senate. Groups backing the proposed constitutional amendment say it’s an improper use of a taxpayer-supported website, while several experts

COALINGA, Calif. (AP) — California officials say an inmate accused of attacking Paul Flores this summer, shortly after Flores reported to prison to serve his conviction for murdering college student Kristin Smart, strangled his own serial killer cellmate two years ago. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation this week identified inmate Jason Budrow as

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York City is intensifying efforts to transport migrants out of the city as its shelter system reaches capacity. City Hall confirmed the establishment of a new “reticketing center” in Manhattan where asylum-seekers can get free, one-way tickets to anywhere in the world. The effort is

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The COVID-19 treatments millions of have taken for free from the federal government will enter the private market next week with a hefty price tag. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is setting the price for a five-day treatment of Paxlovid at $1,390, but Americans can still access the pills

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — There’s Mark Tuan, the K-pop musician. And then there’s “Digital Mark.” The artist whose new EP is out Friday partnered with Soul Machines to create an artificial intelligence-powered avatar. Tuan hopes that as the technology advances, so too will his fans’ relationship with the avatar.

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has identified nearly 3,400 voters who were improperly removed from the state’s rolls due to probation violations. That’s a greater number than the administration previously acknowledged. The Department of Elections said in a statement Friday that the vast majority of those

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A former model for Abercrombie & Fitch has sued the fashion retailer, alleging it allowed its former CEO Mike Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure. Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014. While there, he converted the chain from an struggling retailer of

By MARCOS ALEMÁN Associated Press SAN SALVADOR (AP) — El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has registered to run for reelection next year. Critics say the move is unconstitutional, but it is supported by a 2021 Supreme Court ruling. The United States assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere said Friday the issue is for Salvadorans to

NEW YORK (AP) — Best Buy is recalling nearly 1 million pressure cookers and separate inner pots due to a defect that can cause hot foods to spew out, posing burn hazards. The cookers were sold under the Insignia brand. They have incorrect volume markings on their inner pots that can cause consumers to overfill

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho judge on Thursday declined to dismiss a grand jury indictment against a man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students. Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the school’s campus

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has led a special prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica for a world he says is in “great danger” from what he describes as the “folly of war.” Francis delivered his remarks in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary and didn’t

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Three sea turtles are back in their natural habitats after being rehabilitated at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. The turtles were brought to the facility on Florida’s Gulf Coast over the past few months. Two of the turtles are green sea turtles, and the third is a Kemp’s ridley turtle,

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a vote on a nonbinding resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers. Jordan’s U.N. Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud called for the vote on Friday afternoon, before all

By GISELA SALOMON Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge in Miami sentences a retired Colombian army officer to life in prison for his role in plotting to kill Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation. Germán Alejandro Rivera García, 45, is the second of 11 suspects

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain’s first official probe of sex abuse by clergy members or people connected to the Catholic Church includes a survey that indicates the number of victims could run into hundreds of thousands. The survey was part of a damning report by the office of Spain’s ombudsman following

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of catalytic converter theft claims dropped in the first half of this year, the first time that’s happened since 2019, according to data from insurance company State Farm. State Farm said that there were approximately 14,500 claims from Jan. 1 through June 30. That compares with more than 23,000

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Police have recaptured a murder suspect who escaped custody in September, forcing an hours-long shelter-in-place order at George Washington University. Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department says 30-year-old Christopher Haynes was arrested Thursday by the U.S. Marshals Service’s Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force in nearby Oxon Hill, Maryland.

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The authoritarian president of Belarus has invited Hungary’s prime minister to visit his country. President Alexander Lukashenko extended the invitation to Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a meeting on Friday with Hungary’s foreign minister, who arrived in Belarus earlier this week. Belarus has faced increasing isolation

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands is warning people on the island of St. Croix that they should not drink their tap water because officials found high levels of lead and copper. Authorities said Friday that they are conducting more tests as they investigate the source and extent

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — An alliance of ethnic rebel groups has launched a coordinated offensive in northeastern Myanmar to seize military targets in areas near the Chinese border. That’s according to the groups and residents of the area and it could become a new major front in the strife-torn Southeast Asian

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Six of nine deputies have pleaded not guilty to charges ranging from second-degree murder to aggravated assault in the beating and death of a Black man who was having a psychotic episode in a Memphis jail last fall. The deputies were charged in September in the

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon and his family are planning to sell 1 million shares of the bank starting next year, according to a regulatory filing. This is Dimon’s first such stock sale since he began his tenure with JPMorgan, the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has named a replacement for the former head of the country’s Aerospace Forces, who was dismissed in the wake of this summer’s brief rebellion against the military establishment. Information on the Defense Ministry website shows that Col. Gen. Viktor Afzalov has been given the post formerly held by Gen. Sergei Surovikin.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was a focal point of a deadly white nationalist protest in 2017 has been melted down and will be repurposed into new works of art. The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, a Charlottesville-based Black history museum, said Thursday that the statue

BALTIMORE (AP) — Three teenagers were wounded in a shooting outside a west Baltimore high school around the time classes were starting Friday morning. Baltimore police say the victims all received non-life threatening injuries. At least two are students of Carver Vocational Technical High School. The shooting was reported just before 8 a.m. It adds

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union summit showed that Ukraine will be facing tougher times to get all the attention and political, economic and military aid that it wants. EU leaders focused on the Israel-Hamas war instead. And EU unity has also suffered a blow with the election of Robert

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Evangelical Christian conservatives have long had allies in top Republican leadership in Congress. But never before have they had one so thoroughly embedded in their movement as new House Speaker Mike Johnson, a longtime culture warrior in the courthouse, in the classroom and in Congress. Religious conservatives cheered Johnson’s election

BERLIN (AP) — Authorities say three teenagers have been arrested as suspects in the killing in Germany of a homeless man, which one of them apparently filmed. A passer-by found the victim’s body on Thursday in a meadow in Horn-Bad Meinberg, a town in western Germany. On Friday, police and prosecutors said that a 14-year-old

NEW YORK (AP) — General Motors’ Cruise says it’s suspending its driverless operations nationwide as the robotaxi service works to rebuild public trust. The announcement arrives just days after California regulators revoked Cruise’s license — after determining that its driverless cars, which recently began transporting passengers throughout San Francisco, posed dangers to public safety. U.S.