Month: October 2023

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel and the war it launched has raised new questions about the influence of its main sponsor, Iran, and whether it had anything to do with the assault. From Tel Aviv to Washington, however, no one is willing to directly blame Iran as

By JOHN CARUCCI Associated Press New York (AP) — More than 30 years after the musical “Harmony” was written, it finally prepares to make its Broadway debut. The show was almost lost to history — like its subject. The historical show written by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman tells the true story of the forgotten

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Residents and visitors in Italy’s capital can ride a city bus this month that recounts how a 12-year-old boy escaped Nazi deportation from Rome’s Jewish neighborhood 80 years ago thanks to sympathetic tram drivers. German soldiers rounded up about 1,200 members of the city’s tiny Jewish community

By DANIEL POLITI Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s firebrand populist presidential candidate Javier Milei is coming under fire from his rivals who are blaming him for a sharp depreciation of the local currency in the parallel market. Milei is the front-runner to win the Oct. 22 presidential election. He continues to tout

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republicans have enacted vote-count restrictions and weakened the governor’s ability to oversee elections and other state regulatory bodies by overriding Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes. Narrow GOP supermajorities in the General Assembly overturned five vetoes Tuesday. Two new laws address elections and voting

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma judge on Tuesday exonerated a man who spent 30 years in prison for a 1987 rape and burglary, after post-conviction DNA testing from a rape kit showed he did not commit the crime. Pontotoc County District Judge Steven Kessinger issued a final order that

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle are hosting a conference in New York City on how the internet and social media affect youth mental health. The two will talk Tuesday about the topic at a panel alongside Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and moderated by

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press Utah became the latest state Tuesday to file a lawsuit against TikTok, alleging the company is “baiting” children into addictive and unhealthy social media habits. TikTok lures children into hours of social media use, misrepresents the app’s safety and deceptively portrays itself as independent of its Chinese parent company, ByteDance,

ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) — A woman killed when a mast snapped and toppled onto the deck of a historic sailing vessel that carries tourists off the Maine coast was a physician at the hospital where three other victims were taken for treatment, officials said Tuesday. Dr. Emily Mecklenburg, 40, of Rockland, was declared dead Monday

By KEN SWEET and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried took a star turn Tuesday as his former fellow top executive, Caroline Ellison, began testifying against him, immediately blaming her former boyfriend for directing her to commit crimes before his cryptocurrency empire collapsed last November. Ellison’s

CASTAIC, Calif. (AP) — A spokesman says four Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were taken to the hospital Tuesday morning after a fire during a “training incident” north of Los Angeles. Few details were immediately available, including the extent of the deputies’ injuries, according to Deputy David Yoo, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department.A KTLA

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president says he rejected a U.S. request to set up migrant transit centers in Mexico. Guatemala has set up one such center where migrants can apply for U.S. work and refugee visas. But President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday that he had so far rejected a U.S. request to

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — Texas is moving ahead with preparations to execute a condemned inmate in the hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will lift a lower court’s stay and allow the lethal injection to proceed. Forty-year-year-old Jedidiah Murphy had been scheduled to die Tuesday for the October 2000 killing

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Republican majority is stuck and unable to coalesce around a new speaker. After having ousted Kevin McCarthy a week ago, there is no endgame in sight. On Tuesday evening, two leading contenders, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan are

By AAMER MADHANI, TARA COPP and DARLENE SUPERVILLE WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden planned to use a Tuesday speech about the four-day-old war between Israel and Hamas to condemn the militant group for a shocking multipronged attack on Israel launched from the Gaza Strip that has killed hundreds of civilians, including at least 11

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Movie theaters are readying for an onslaught like they’ve never seen before beginning Friday when “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” debuts. The concert film compiled from several Swift shows at Southern California’s SoFi Stadium is expected to launch with $100 million, or possibly much more.

By ISSAM ADWAN Associated Press GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Collapsed buildings, mangled infrastructure, streets turned into fields of rubble. Scenes of violence and destruction in the long-blockaded Gaza Strip have filled the world’s airwaves throughout four wars and countless rounds of hostilities between Israel and Hamas militants. But this conflict, Palestinians say, is

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will designate Juneteenth as a state holiday, joining 28 other states and the District of Columbia. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said in a news release Tuesday that establishing the state holiday “provides Kansans an opportunity to celebrate our state’s diversity and honor the ongoing struggles for racial equality.”

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s police chief has fired an officer who shocked a 62-year-old Black deacon with a stun gun during a dispute over a traffic ticket, leading to the man’s death. Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Tuesday that Officer Kiran Kimbrough didn’t follow department procedures Aug. 10 when

CASTLETON, Vt. (AP) — Students at a Vermont university have returned to classes as police continue to search for the killer of a retired dean who was shot last week while walking on a recreational trail near campus. Honoree Fleming, a retired dean and professor, was found shot to death on Thursday afternoon on a

By SAM MEDNICK and TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has officially declared the ouster of Niger’s democratically-elected president a coup d’etat. This comes more than two months after mutinous soldiers seized power. Officials say the U.S. was taking action after exhausting all avenues to preserve constitutional order in the West African

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press Prosecutors are urging the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington to take steps to protect the privacy and identity of prospective jurors. The prosecutors, on Tuesday, cited the former president’s “continued use of social media as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings.” Special counsel Jack

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian police have arrested 12 people accused of illegally exporting dual-use goods to Russia that can be used by military personnel in the war in Ukraine. The Interior Ministry chief secretary, Zhivko Kotsev, says the suspects include citizens of Bulgaria, Russia and Belarus. The head of the State Agency for National

PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Voters in a small central Iowa city will decide in November whether to give their City Council more say over what books the public library can and can’t offer. The Des Moines Register reported Tuesday that a ballot proposition in Pella asks voters if they support changing the structure of the

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria is rebuffing accusations that efforts to crack down on French private schools constituted hostility toward the langauge. After weeks of outcry against the country’s efforts to crack down on schools not following the predominantly Arabic national curriculum, Education Minister Abdelkrim Belabed said over the weekend that all languages were welcome

By SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s president has threatened to crack down on pro-democracy demonstrations in which activists have blocked roads and highways to support President-elect Bernardo Arévalo. Protesters are demanding that prosecutors stop what they consider to be the political persecution of Arévalo. The current president, Alejandro Giammattei, has

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a new book titled “Goth: A History,” The Cure co-founder Lol Tolhurst traces a misunderstood subculture. Tolhurst labels goth “the last true alternative outsider subculture.” Published by Hachette, “Goth: A History” weaves in first-person accounts while exploring goth music’s origins from punk’s anarchy. From

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer Tens of millions in the Americas will have front-row seats for Saturday’s rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun. What’s called an annular solar eclipse — better known as a ring of fire — will briefly dim the skies over parts of the western U.S. and Central and

By ZENEL ZHINIPOTOKU and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Adm. Stuart B. Munsch of NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Italy says that the alliance equipped its peacekeeping force in Kosovo with weapons of “combat power” following a recent shootout between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police sent tensions soaring in the

By BROOKE SCHULTZ Associated Press/Report for America HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Four of Pennsylvania’s universities are plugging budget gaps while they await hundreds of millions of dollars in aid that has been snarled in a partisan dispute among lawmakers in a state that has one of the nation’s most abysmal record for funding higher education.

By MATT O’BRIEN and FRANK BAJAK The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, says it is trying to take action on a flood of posts sharing graphic media, violent speech and hateful conduct about the latest war between Israel and Hamas. X says it’s treating this crisis with its highest level of response.

By JACK DURA Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Family and friends are remembering a late North Dakota lawmaker and his family, who died last week in a plane crash in Utah. State Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife Amy and their two sons, 11-year-old Christian and 8-year-old Everett, died Oct. 1 when their single-engine aircraft

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is heading into one of its biggest sales events of the year — Prime Day — with a lawsuit hanging over its head that accuses it of preventing sellers from hawking their merchandise at lower prices on other sites. The Federal Trade Commission’s long-awaited

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer The NHL sent a memo to teams last week clarifying what players can and cannot do as part of theme celebrations this season, including a ban on the use of rainbow-colored stick tape for Pride nights. The updated guidance reaffirms on-ice player uniforms and gear for warmups and official

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government says four Britons who were detained in Afghanistan on allegations that they broke the laws of the country have been released by the Taliban. The Foreign Office said in a brief statement Tuesday that it welcomed the release of the four Britons and expressed apologies on behalf of their

By ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press Nearly 30 years since Rena Sofer first joined “General Hospital” as a fast-talking Brooklynite with long, colorful fingernails, she’s returning to the series for a short run. She only played Lois Cerullo for around three years, but was cemented as a fan favorite. She will join her ex-husband, Wally Kurth

BEIJING (AP) — A group of U.S. senators visiting Beijing are expressing hope that they had opened the door ever so slightly to government talks with China on its role in the fentanyl crisis ravaging America. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had indicated he would consider Schumer’s request

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s president says damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia appears to have been caused by “external activity.” Finnish and Estonian gas system operators on Sunday said they noted an unusual drop in pressure in the Balticconnector pipeline after which they

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from former coal company executive Don Blankenship, who argued that major news outlets defamed him by calling him a “felon.” The justices on Tuesday left in place an appellate ruling against Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy. He served a year in prison on

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Lidia is taking aim at Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta. Lidia is strengthening and may have winds of 105 mph when it hits land late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The hurricane is expected to sweep over a spit of land before hitting the bay where Puerto Vallarta is

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that makes it easier for authorities to compel treatment for people with mental illness or addiction issues. The proposal is partly aimed at addressing the state’s growing homelessness crisis. Under current state law, local government can’t force a

NEW YORK (AP) — The hero of Chris Colfer’s next book series is no ordinary boy. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers announced Tuesday that the actor and million-selling author is working on “Roswell Johnson Saves the World.” The publisher calls it a space fantasy that “combines the heart-pounding action of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’”