Month: November 2023

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan fell slightly this week, ending a seven-week climb —- modest relief for prospective homebuyers grappling with an increasingly unaffordable housing market. The average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan fell to 7.76% from 7.79% last

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump Jr. has testified that gaming giant Bally’s paid $60 million to buy the right to operate a public golf course in New York City from his father’s company. The terms of the lease transfer on the former Trump Golf Links

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has announced a stimulus package of more than 17 trillion yen ($113 billion) that includes tax breaks and benefits for low-income households. The plans is being criticized by some observers as populist spending that would worsen Japan’s national debt. Kishida says his

By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian opposition lawmakers have caused commotion in Parliament, trying to disrupt a session in protest against what they say is increasingly authoritarian rule by the governing Socialists. Democratic lawmakers on Thursday blocked left-wing Socialists of Prime Minister Edi Rama from taking their seats and stacked chairs

By NAJIB JOBAIN and ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Dozens of Palestinians with foreign passports crossed through the war-torn Gaza Strip’s only exit for the second straight day Thursday, escaping Israel’s suffocating siege into the empty Egyptian desert. But the evacuation rush left families divided by citizenship status in painful limbo.

By LEAH WILLINGHAM and JOHN RABY Associated Press Crews began the arduous process of removing layers of rubble and debris from a collapsed coal mine preparation plant in eastern Kentucky Thursday. Efforts were part of the continued search for a worker missing since Tuesday night, when the 11-story abandoned building crashed down on two men

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press The state of Pennsylvania will work with a major natural gas producer to collect in-depth data on air emissions and water quality at well sites, enhance public disclosure of drilling chemicals and expand buffer zones. CNX Resources Corp. will partner with the state Department of Environmental Protection on environmental monitoring

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy says it will disburse $440 million to install solar panels on low-income homes in Puerto Rico as the U.S. territory struggles with ongoing power outages and a crumbling electric grid. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Thursday that the department

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s highest court apparently isn’t ready to allow the state to restart executions after more than 12 years until they hear more arguments about newly obtained lethal injection drugs as well as the firing squad and electric chair. The state Supreme Court set a Feb.

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Autoworkers at the first Ford factory to go on strike have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a tentative contract agreement reached with the company. Members of Local 900 at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, west of Detroit voted 81% in favor of the four

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has imposed a new round of sanctions on 130 firms and people from Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates in an effort to choke off Russia’s access to tools and equipment that support its invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions imposed by the Treasury

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press A growing list of Israeli officials have accepted responsibility for failing to prevent Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli communities. Conspicuously absent from those names is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The attack saw the deadliest day for Israelis since the country was established 75 years ago. Following the assault, Netanyahu has

By SIMINA MISTREANU and HAN GUAN NG Associated Press SHANGHAI, China (AP) — America’s national ballet company has returned to China for the first time in a decade, the latest sign that the strained U.S.-China relations are beginning to improve. The American Ballet Theater’s 85 dancers prepared for opening night at the Shanghai Grand Theater

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Rights groups say in new reports that security forces and armed groups are committing alleged war crimes against civilians in Africa’s Sahel region where extremists and rebels are increasingly fighting to exert dominance and control resources in communities. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The final Beatles recording featuring John, Paul, George and Ringo is here. Released Thursday and titled “Now and Then,” the song comes from a batch of unreleased demos written by the late John Lennon in the ’70s. Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr used

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Called cover crops, they top the list of tasks U.S. farmers are told will build healthy soil, help the environment and fight climate change. Yet after years of incentives and encouragement, Midwest farmers planted cover crops on only about 7% of their land in 2021.

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Diplomats from Chinese and a Southeast Asian group of nations have renewed a pledge to finalize a nonaggression pact for the South China Sea in three years. That’s according to two regional diplomats who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday. They said the pledge came

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Democrats have warned the White House that President Joe Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war could put his reelection campaign in jeopardy in the key swing state next year. Michigan was one of three so-called blue wall of states that includes Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s national rail operator says the world’s longest rail tunnel won’t be fully reopened to train traffic until next September, again pushing back the target date for repairs of damage caused by a cargo train derailment. The Swiss federal railway operator, known by its acronym SBB, said the damage from the Aug.

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya Marines, trained by their British counterparts as part of their countries’ long-standing defense cooperation, have put on a drill for King Charles III. Thursday’s exercise came on the third day of Charles’ trip to the East African nation, his first state visit to a Commonwealth

By THOMAS BEAUMONT and STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — At a recent closed-door meeting of roughly 60 millionaires and billionaires, one of the Republican Party’s most influential donors stood in the well of Dallas’ historic Old Parkland debate chamber and praised Nikki Haley’s presidential candidacy. But Paul Singer deliberately stopped short

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities say 14 people are due to appear in court following their arrests during extensive clashes between members of far-right groups and participants in a counter-demonstration. Supporters of the extreme right group Golden Dawn defied a police ban on demonstrations in greater Athens late Wednesday and clashed with protesters from

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits inched up last week but remains low by historical standards, even with the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes meant to cool the economy and taper lingering inflation. Unemployment claims rose by 5,000 to 217,000 for the week ending Oct. 28,

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling has killed an 81-year-old woman in the yard of her home and a 60-year-old man in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region. Officials said Thursday’s deaths were the latest civilian casualties in Moscow’s recent ramped-up bombardment of the front-line area. Kherson is a strategic military region

NEW YORK (AP) — Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft will pay a combined $328 million to settle wage theft claims in New York. Attorney General Letitia James announced the settlement Thursday. She says the companies were improperly deducting sales taxes and other fees from drivers when the costs should have been paid by customers. Uber

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A ferry that ran aground last month off southeastern Sweden and leaked oil into the Baltic Sea has arrived in a Swedish harbor where its tanks will be emptied. Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported that no new leaks were observed as the Marco Polo was towed into Karlshamn on Thursday. Authorities and

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England has kept its main interest rate unchanged at the 15-year high of 5.25%, as inflation across the U.K. is expected to fall further over the coming months. In a statement issued on Thursday, the bank’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee indicated that inflation, as measured by the consumer price

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wants Latin America to trade more with the United States as part of an initiative that so far has failed to disrupt China’s dominance in global manufacturing. Yellen will kick off an Inter-American Development Bank investment event Thursday on the sidelines of the

Associated Press Cedar Fair and Six Flags Entertainment Corp. are merging, creating an expansive amusement park operator with operations spread across 17 U.S. states and three countries.  The combined company will include 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties  in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The company’s newly formed board will include

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Thousands of poor Thai migrant agricultural workers in Israel have shared the fate of many Israelis who were killed, kidnapped or forced to run for their lives when Hamas militants stormed into Israeli villages and towns along the border of the blockaded Gaza Strip last month. Since

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian media reports say Iranian soccer team Sepahan has been penalized with a 3-0 loss and a fine over a canceled Asian Champions League match against Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad. The match was called off last month when the Saudi team walked out at the last minute, apparently over the presence

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A leading international medical charity says it has received 50 testimonies from migrants over the past two years that point to a “recurring practice” of alleged secret, illegal and often brutal deportations back to Turkey from two eastern Greek islands. Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, says in a report released Thursday

BLETCHLEY PARK, England (AP) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are set to join delegates Thursday at a U.K. summit focused on containing risks from rapid advances in cutting edge artificial intelligence. Sunak organized the first-ever AI Safety Summit as a forum for officials, experts and the tech industry