Month: December 2023

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed his unwavering support for the Jewish people as he lit the first Hanukkah candle on a huge menorah in front of Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate. Scholz. He wore a black velvet skullcap and said in the center of the German capital

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Police say a 14-year-old is now facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of a 20-year-old during a Halloween weekend mass shooting that left two people dead and 16 injured in Tampa’s Ybor City. Tampa police say bullets and shell casings connected the teen to the victim, Harrison Boonstoppel. The

NEW YORK (AP) — Meta is rolling out end-to-end encryption for calls and messages across its Facebook and Messenger platforms, the company announced Thursday. Such encryption means that no one other than the sender and the recipient — not even Meta — can decipher people’s messages. Encrypted chats, first introduced as an optional feature in

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — In response to increasing attacks against ships in the southern Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, the U.S. has announced sanctions against 13 people and firms alleged to be providing tens of millions of dollars to the Houthis in Yemen. Money lenders in Lebanon, Turkey and Dubai

By PETER SMITH Associated Press PITTSBURGH (AP) — In the years following the deadly 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack, relatives of those slain have gone through their own private grief, public memorial services and the trial and death sentence of the perpetrator. They’ve also been deliberating, slowly and methodically, on what kind of permanent memorial should

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the Kremlin. That meetings continues a blitz round of Middle East diplomacy a day after he visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Putin has cast the Israel-Hamas war as a failure of U.S. diplomacy and suggested Moscow could be

By KEMO CHAM Associated Press FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — A Sierra Leone government spokesman says that a former president has been called in for questioning by police over recent attacks that officials say was a failed coup. The information minister said Thursday that police summoned ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma to its headquarters “for questioning

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump returned to his civil business fraud trial as a spectator Thursday, after a month of assailing the proceedings from afar. With testimony winding down after more than two months, the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner showed up to watch

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and DANIEL POLITI Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — The heads of state from South America’s Mercosur trade bloc are in Rio de Janeiro for a meeting that is expected to disappoint members hoping to finalize a deal with the European Union. Negotiations with the EU are set to be the gathering’s

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Authorities in Puerto Rico say three men have been indicted as part of an ongoing federal investigation into environmental crimes committed on protected land in the island’s southern coastal region. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday that two of the men are accused of dumping fill material into the

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House will hold a vote on whether to censure Rep. Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in one of the U.S. Capitol office buildings in September when the chamber was in session. The New York Democrat on Thursday will become the third member and Democrat

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — After more than a half-century of making music together, Daryl Hall is suing John Oates over a proposed sale of his share of a Hall & Oates business partnership that Hall says he hasn’t approved. Public court filings have revealed a wide rift between the famed

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s government is pouring resources into detecting what it suggests are “fake” missing people. It says they are cases reported by political opponents to embarrass the government, or kidnapped people who return home but don’t notify authorities. Yet officials make no significant effort to find actual

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ryan Seacrest will usher in 2024 on “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” from Times Square, with satellite locations in Los Angeles and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The LA party boasts a star-studded lineup: the original “Barbie Girl” band Aqua, R&B up-and-comer Coco Jones, “What It Is”

By JACK DURA and JIM SALTER Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The 42-year-old son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer crashed into a North Dakota sheriff’s vehicle during a police chase, pushing it into a deputy and killing him, according to authorities and the Republican senator’s family. The North Dakota Highway Patrol says Ian Cramer

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — West Africa’s top court has rejected a request by Niger’s junta for a lifting of coup-related sanctions imposed by its neighbors. The court based in the Nigerian capital of Abuja has ruled that the junta is unconstitutional and therefore lacks the authority to make such a

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press MILAN (AP) — Italian melodrama’s official recognition as a global cultural treasure is getting trumpeted with La Scala’s season premiere of Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” The start of Milan opera house’s 2023-24 season on Thursday will serve as an unofficial national celebration of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO including Italian lyric

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A British hedge fund trader extradited from the United Arab Emirates to Denmark where he was wanted for allegedly orchestrating a more than 9 billion kroner ($1.3 billion) tax fraud has been ordered to remain in custody until his Jan. 3 trial. Sanjay Shah was convicted in May in Dubai of

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A new law has been passed in Denmark’s parliament that makes it illegal to desecrate any holy text in the country. The vote on Thursday came after a recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries. The Scandinavian nation

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged $4.5 billion to Ukraine, including $1 billion in humanitarian aid to help support the war-torn country’s recovery efforts. Kishida made the announcement late Wednesday in Tokyo while hosting his last Group of Seven summit as this year’s chairperson. The $1

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer Tennis pro Nick Kyrgios is setting up a free-to-access OnlyFans page. Kyrgios is a 28-year-old Australian who was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2022 but was sidelined by injuries for nearly all of this past season. He played in just one official singles match in 2023.

By AMANDA SEITZ and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is putting pharmaceutical companies on notice. Washington is warning them that if the price of certain drugs is too high, the government might cancel their patent protection and allow rivals to make their own versions. Under a plan announced Thursday, the

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer U.S. applications for jobless benefits ticked up last week, but the overall number of people in the U.S. collecting unemployment benefits fell after hitting its highest level in two years last week. Unemployment benefits claims rose by 1,000 to 220,000 for the week ending Dec. 2, the Labor Department

By FRANCIS KOKUTSE and SAM METZ Associated Press ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — The United Nations’ top peacekeeping official has defended its missions worldwide even as many countries where peacekeepers operate are demanding their withdrawal. Undersecretary General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in Accra on Wednesday that missions were underfunded but still effective. He noted

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States has offered strong support to Israel in its war against the Hamas militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. But the allies are increasingly at odds over what will happen to Gaza once the war winds down. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Two international human rights groups say two Israeli strikes that killed a Reuters videographer and wounded six other journalists in south Lebanon nearly two months ago were apparently deliberate and a direct attack on civilians. The investigation by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch was released Thursday.

By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — For months, Albanian opposition parties have used flares and noise to disrupt Parliament, in protest at what they describe as the authoritarian rule of the governing Socialist Party. On Thursday, lawmakers passed the annual budget and other laws, despite opposition claims that the Socialists have blocked

WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) — Law enforcement officials say a pickup truck driver in a suburb of Boston is accused of crashing into a police officer and a utility worker, killing them, then pulling a knife on another officer before stealing his cruiser and crashing it. Police say they arrested the suspect after a foot pursuit.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government says Russia’s intelligence services have targeted high-profile British politicians, civil servants and journalists with cyberespionage and “malicious cyberactivity” as part of sustained attempts to interfere in U.K. political processes. The Foreign Office says Russia’s FSB agency was responsible for a range of cyberespionage operations in the U.K. That included targeting

LONDON (AP) — Benjamin Zephaniah, a British dub poet and political activist who drew inspiration from his Caribbean roots, has died. He was 65. In a statement on Instagram, his family said Zephaniah died Thursday after being diagnosed with a brain tumor eight weeks ago. Zephaniah, who was born in Birmingham, is best known for

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press GRAND ISLAND, Nebraska (AP) — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Thursday that it will donate $100 million to expand its work on economic mobility in the U.S. The country’s largest foundation says the commitment represents a change in how it operates by putting more power in the hands

BY ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s down to two candidates in the race to lead the nation’s fourth-largest city. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and state Sen. John Whitmire will face off in Saturday’s runoff election to be the next mayor of Houston. Whitmire and Jackson Lee were the top two vote-getters in