Month: December 2023

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare punitive move against Israel, the State Department said Tuesday it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of recent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the step after warning Israel

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia state senators are advancing a new congressional map that would maintain a 9-5 GOP edge in the state’s delegation. The Senate voted 32-22 to pass the plan, which seeks a wholesale reconfiguration of a suburban Atlanta district now represented by Democrat Lucy McBath. It goes to

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry won’t seek reelection to the U.S. House next year after all. McHenry presided temporarily over the House for three intense weeks this fall while Republicans struggled to elect a permanent speaker after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster. McHenry’s decision not to seek

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s health ministry is seeking police help against hoaxers who tried to scare foreign tourists out of several Athens short-term rental flats by inventing a bedbug crisis. A ministry statement says the posters in the city center, festooned with fake ministry and Athens municipality logos, are “absolutely false.” The posters, addressed

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The major philanthropy, Open Society Foundations, said Tuesday it will commit $50 million to increase civic engagement among women and youth over the next three years as part of its strategy to support democracy in the U.S. Alex Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations and

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Tom Hanks is a lifelong space buff. The two-time Academy Award-winning actor has channeled his passion into “The Moonwalkers,” an immersive documentary experience opening this week in London. “The Moonwalkers” includes interviews with four astronauts due to fly around the moon with NASA’s Artemis II mission as

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Wildlife officials say a two-year experimental feeding program for starving Florida manatees will not immediately resume this winter as conditions have improved for the threatened marine mammals and the seagrass on which they depend. The manatees that typically gather in winter months near the warm-water

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray is making a fresh pitch for the reauthorization of a U.S. government surveillance tool set to expire at the end of the year. He warned lawmakers at a Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that there would be “devastating” consequences for public safety if

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian prosecutors say six people have been detained in connection with an investigation into suspected exports of “sensitive” products and technology that could be banned under sanctions against Russia. The investigation was launched following a tipoff and information provided by U.S. government agencies. Prosecutors said Tuesday that the six were detained during

By AHMED MOHAMED and SAM METZ Associated Press NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — Attorneys for Mauritania’s former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz say he has been sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering and self-enrichment. The verdict wraps up a rare corruption trial in west Africa and closes a chapter in the long trajectory

BERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors say a German man accused of forming an armed group to oppose government measures against the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 has been arrested in Portugal. Prosecutors said Tuesday that the 39-year-old man most recently lived in Bavaria and was charged in June. He is accused along with two others of forming

By MALAK HARB Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As leaders, officials and activists descend on Dubai for United Nations climate talks to discuss saving Earth, another environmental crisis is nearby. Devastated by a nearly two-month-long assault by Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting, large swaths of Gaza have been flattened, agricultural lands have

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” got a leading five nominations, including best feature, from the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Natalie Morales and Joel Kim Booster announced the nominees Tuesday on a YouTube livestream. The Spirit Awards limit eligibility to productions with

The Associated Press CVS Health is introducing changes to how its prescription drug pricing model works, and that could lead to some savings for customers starting next year. The health care giant said Tuesday that it will role out a new reimbursement model designed to make costs more predictable. The company will start offering it

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Volunteers and city workers have removed mementos, signs and other items that accumulated at the sites of the deadliest shootings in Maine history. The effort Tuesday comes as wet, wintry weather sets in and marks a new chapter in the area’s recovery from the Oct. 25

NEW YORK (AP) — The highly-anticipated trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI arrived a little early after a copy was leaked online. Rockstar Games released its first look for the sixth game of the cult-classic video game series Monday evening — roughly 15 hours before the planned Tuesday morning unveiling — while citing the leak.

By RALPH D. RUSSO AP College Sports Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — NCAA President Charlie Baker wants to create a new tier of Division I where athlete can be paid by schools. The new subdivision for schools with the most athletic resources could offer unlimited educational benefits, enter into name, image and likeness partnerships with

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted 8.7 million job openings in October, the fewest since March 2021, in a sign that hiring is cooling in the face of higher interest rates yet remains at a still-healthy pace. Openings were down significantly from 9.4 million in September. Hiring is slowing

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has dismissed a case involving a Maine hotel that could have made it harder for people with disabilities to learn in advance whether hotel accommodations meet their needs. Hotels and other business interests had urged the justices to limit the ability of so-called testers to file lawsuits against hotels

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The late Gerry Fraley has been honored with the BBWAA Career Excellence Award. The honor was announced Tuesday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at the winter meetings. Fraley will be honored during the Hall of Fame’s induction weekend from July 19-22 in Cooperstown, New York. Fraley died in May

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Hugh Grant learned some years ago that if a filmmaker doesn’t make something from the heart, it shows. The films that work best, and are most loved, he’s found, are the ones that the directors really meant. It applied to his romantic comedies with Richard Curtis as well as

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Like the “Paddington” movies, “Wonka” was dreamt up by Paul King, a lifetime Roald Dahl fan and a writer and director whom his collaborators somewhat universally agree may actually be Paddington in a human costume. With a beloved troupe of actors, including Timothée Chalamet, Grant, Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins,

BOSTON (AP) — Closing arguments are about to get underway in the government’s case to block JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines. The trial in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the merger is nearing a conclusion Tuesday in federal court in Boston. The Justice Department argues that the proposed $3.8 billion merger would hurt consumers by

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer Jon Rahm all but locked up the Masters with an 8-iron he carved around the trees. What made him feel just as good was a stock tee shot in the middle of the 12th green. Wyndham Clark raves about his 3-wood to the par-5 14th at the U.S. Open,

NEW YORK (AP) — An upcoming biography of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis will draw upon hundreds of interviews, along with the civil rights activist’s FBI files and materials from a planned book that was never completed. Historian David Greenberg’s “John Lewis: A Life” is scheduled for release next fall, Simon & Schuster announced

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Her book is called ‘My Name is Barbra’ and it runs nearly 1,000 pages. You expected less from Barbra Streisand? Streisand spent the past decade working on one of the epic narratives in modern show business — her uncompromising rise from working class Brooklyn in

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press MILAN (AP) — The father of a young woman whose murder galvanized Italian outrage against violence targeting women implored men to be agents of change to a culture that often “undervalues the lives of women.” Gino Cecchettin was speaking Tuesday at the funeral Mass in the northern city of Padua

By THANASSIS STAVRAKIS and DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s Acropolis Museum has launched an exhibition that includes a renowned ancient Greek water jug from 420 B.C. on loan from the British Museum. The exhibit comes during a dispute between the countries over Greek demands for the return of sculptures from the

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Hours before a massive explosion destroyed a duplex and shook a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., a suspect inside his home fired a flare gun 30 to 40 times into the neighborhood, drawing a large police response, officials said Tuesday. All officers escaped serious injury but

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press The United States will work with other governments to speed up efforts to make nuclear fusion a new source of carbon-free energy, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry said Tuesday, while in Dubai for U.N. climate talks. Nuclear fusion melds two hydrogen atoms together to produce a helium atom and a

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s government and two large opposition parties have agreed to allow seabed mineral exploration in the Arctic. However, the plan is controversial and environmental groups are warning that deep-sea mining would threaten the biodiversity of the vulnerable ecosystems. In June, Norway said it wanted to open parts of its continental shelf

By DALIA RAMIREZ of NerdWallet The Social Security Administration adjusts its benefits payments each year to reflect changes in the cost of living. The new year will bring a 3.2% increase, much smaller than last year’s 8.7% raise. Even if you’re decades away from retirement, the annual cost of living adjustment can help you predict

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Remember what you searched for in 2023? Well, Wikipedia has the receipts. English Wikipedia raked in more than 84 billion views this year. That’s according to numbers collected by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia. And the most popular