Month: December 2023

By KARIN LAUB, NAJIB JOBAIN and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The United States national security adviser is set to meet with the Palestinian president to discuss postwar arrangements for Gaza. A senior U.S. official says this could include reactivating Palestinian security forces driven out by Hamas in 2007. The proposal

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Liberian-flagged cargo ship caught fire in the Red Sea on Friday after being hit by a projectile launched from rebel-controlled Yemen, a U.S. defense official said. The attack on the Al Jasrah further escalates a campaign by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares powered higher on Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to another record on excitement that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates several times next year. U.S. futures and oil prices also advanced. Hong Kong led Asia’s gains with property developers jumping

BEIJING (AP) — Two subway trains have collided in heavy snow in Beijing, sending 515 people to the hospital, including 102 with broken bones. Authorities said Friday the accident occurred the previous evening in Beijing’s mountainous west on an above-ground portion of the sprawling subway system’s Changping line. They say slippery tracks prompted automatic braking

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian state TV says suspected members of a separatist group have killed 11 people and injured several others in a nighttime attack on a police station in southeastern Iran. The deputy governor of Sistan and Baluchistan province says senior police officers and soldiers were killed in the attack in

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Liberals are calling for former President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin lawyer to step down from a state judicial ethics panel. They say Jim Troupis is unsuitable for the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee due to his role advising the fake Republican electors who admitted to taking part in

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press/Report for America WEST END, N.C. (AP) — As the U.S. tries to restore a key forest ecosystem in the Southeast, landowners must light more fires on private property. The so-called “prescribed burns” are key to clearing forest debris and allowing pine cones to drop seeds onto the floor. That’s important

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has been increasingly pressuring Congress to pass stalled legislation to support Ukraine’s war against Russia, saying that funding has run out. On Tuesday, however, President Joe Biden touted a new military aid package worth $200 million for Ukraine. Money is dwindling. But the

By LISA RATHKE Associated Press BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The recent shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont’s largest city come as the small rural state, often ranked as one of the nation’s safest, is grappling with a spike in gun violence. Two days after the students were shot and seriously wounded

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court will hear arguments Friday over whether the election interference charges filed against Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows should be moved from a state court to federal court. Meadows, who is charged alongside former President Donald Trump and 17 others, is

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Anyone who has suspected that there are more women than men where they live, or vice versa, will find fodder for their suspicions in new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Whether it refutes or confirms their suspicions likely depends on where they live. Women outnumber men in the largest

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Verdicts are expected Saturday for a cardinal and nine other defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican’s modern history: a case featuring a Hollywood-worthy cast of characters, unseemly revelations about the Holy See and questions about Pope Francis ’ own role in the

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — After Donald Trump attended South Carolina’s annual Palmetto Bowl, video of the crowd chanting “We want Trump!” as the former president arrived at Williams-Brice Stadium spread across conservative social media. It was much the same two weeks earlier when the GOP front-runner attended an Ultimate Fighting

By JOVANA GEC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is pushing to reassert his populist party’s dominance in this weekend’s parliamentary and local election in the troubled eastern European country following a turbulent year that has shaken the government’s popularity. The vote on Sunday pits the governing Serbian Progressive Party against

By GARY FIELDS and LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — In a politically polarized nation, Americans seem to agree on one issue underlying the 2024 elections — a worry over the state of democracy and how the outcome of the presidential contest will affect its future. They just disagree over who poses the threat.

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — From the Israel-Hamas war to Russia’s grinding battles against Ukraine, 2023 has shown the dangers of armed conflicts breaking out into region-wide combat. But behind their long shadows, the world faces strife in countries stretching both the globe and the alphabet from Afghanistan all

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The mother of a 6-year-old who shot his teacher in Virginia is scheduled to be sentenced for felony child neglect. Friday’s court hearing comes nearly a year after Deja Taylor’s son used her handgun to critically wound teacher Abby Zwerner. Prosecutors recommend six months behind

By RIAZ KHAN Associated Press PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani officials say militants attacked a regional police headquarters and an army post in a former Taliban stronghold in Pakistan’s northwest, triggering shootouts that killed two police officers and three insurgents. Friday’s attack in the town of Tank in Dera Ismail Khan came three days after

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Belgian tourist was killed in an attack by either a shark or a crocodile at a Mexican Pacific coast resort. The civil defense office in the southern state of Guerrero says a man and a woman were bitten in the legs by an unidentified animal. The man was reported dead

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has unveiled a budget plan that would pay residents an oil-wealth dividend of about $3,400 next year and use savings to plug an estimated $990 million deficit. The proposal does not include an increase in the per-student K-12 school funding formula,

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — King Charles III has paid a light-hearted tribute to the late Barry Humphries, who was remembered at a state memorial service in Australia. The monarch recalled his own apprehension when the comedian’s alter ego, Dame Edna Everage, played a prank on him a decade ago. Video

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The captains of a smuggling boat that capsized off California last year, killing three people, have been sentenced to federal prison. Jorge Armando Preciado-Vasquez and Alexis Martinez-Preciado were each given more than 4 years in prison Thursday. Authorities said they were piloting a boat containing seven adults and a child over

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) — California energy regulators have voted to allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to operate for an additional five years, despite calls from environmental groups to shut it down. The California Public Utilities Commission agreed Thursday to extend the shutdown date for the state’s last functioning nuclear power facility through

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. government said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to help recover depleted populations of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and that it will help figure out how to offset the hydropower, transportation and other benefits provided by four

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An attorney for Idaho asked a judge on Thursday to throw out a lawsuit seeking clarity about the medical exemptions to the state’s broad abortion bans, saying it was based on hypothetical situations rather than current facts. But an attorney for the four women and several

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court has heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by Republican state senators who boycotted the Legislature earlier this year and want to run for reelection. The GOP senators are challenging the Secretary of State’s interpretation of a voter-approved constitutional amendment aimed at stopping

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are rejecting legislation to send more than $33.5 million to the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school over criticism that the Ivy League school has tolerated antisemitism. The bill’s defeat is perhaps the starkest example of how some lawmakers and governors are trying

By BETH HARRIS AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani revealed at his introductory press conference with the Dodgers that the dog who joined him for last month’s MVP awards show is named Dekopin or Decopin. He suggests Americans call him Decoy. The pup’s name had become a source of speculation among baseball

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The former president of a Turkish soccer team who punched a referee on the field moments after a game has been permanently banned by the Turkish Football Federation. It says that it banned Faruk Koca, who has resigned as president of MKE Ankaragucu, for punching referee Halil Umut Meler on Monday

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — California-based Rocket Lab plans to launch a Japanese satellite on Friday from the space company’s complex on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. The mission was initially scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed due to forecast strong winds until Friday. Rocket Lab says the Electron rocket will carry a TSUKUYOMI-I satellite into

ATLANTA (AP) — The apology letters that Donald Trump-allied lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro were required to write as a condition of their plea deals in the Georgia election interference case are just one sentence long. The handwritten letters were obtained Thursday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request and posted online.

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Three major U.S. retailers — Amazon, Target and Walmart — say they’re suspending sales of water-bead products marketed to young children due to growing safety concerns. Water beads are small, colorful balls made of superabsorbent polymers. They’re are often sold as toys,

By COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press A former communications director for the Michigan GOP says that he believes an attorney for then-President Donald Trump’s campaign “took advantage” of some of the 15 Republicans who face charges including forgery for allegedly serving as false electors. Anthony Zammit testified Thursday during a preliminary hearing in Lansing, Michigan. Investigators

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A lawsuit filed by a Virginia high school teacher who was fired after he refused to use a transgender student’s pronouns has been reinstated by the state Supreme Court. Peter Vlaming was a French teacher at West Point High School when he was fired in 2018.

By JOHN HANNA Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The court system in Kansas has started bringing its computer system for managing cases back online. That’s happening two months after a foreign cyberattack forced officials to shut it down, along with public access to documents and other systems. The judicial branch announced Thursday that the

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A man who accosted Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin at a campaign stop in upstate New York last year received three years probation. Prosecutors say David Jakubonis approached Zeldin while carrying a keychain with two sharp points at a campaign rally near Rochester, New York, in July 2022. The two men

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Republicans have picked a little-known county lawmaker who once served in the Israeli military as their candidate in a special election to replace ousted New York congressman George Santos, party officials said Thursday. Nassau County legislator and former Israeli paratrooper Mazi Pilip will face off against

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court has appointed a new judge to preside over the case of another judge who has been indicted on charges of coercion of a witness and harassment in Memphis. Court records show Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Melissa Boyd was indicted Tuesday and booked Wednesday on the charges.

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors say the man charged with setting a small fire at the New York courthouse hosting former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial burned papers bearing complaints about the criminal justice system. The 38-year-old man was arraigned Thursday on attempted arson and reckless endangerment charges.

By JOHN RABY AP Sports Writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — College basketball programs with athletes who have transferred two or more times previously are consulting their legal teams about whether to let them play. A federal judge’s temporary restraining order against the NCAA says athletes who previously were denied the chance to play immediately can