Month: January 2024

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — A group of Senate Republicans is urging the Justice Department to release its investigative file on a key financial fixer for Venezuela’s socialist government pardoned by President Joe Biden ahead of trial on money laundering charges. Alex Saab was released from federal prison last month as part

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Lorrie Moore, Naomi Klein and the Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji are among the finalists for National Book Critics Circle awards. Honorary prizes are going to Judy Blume and to a longtime ally of Blume’s in the fight against book bans, the American Library Association. On

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A bill to define antisemitism in Georgia law has passed the state Senate. The 44-6 vote on Thursday puts the measure on track to final passage. The measure unites Republicans in their support for Israel in its war with Hamas. But it splits some Democrats who say

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting Illinois and electoral battleground Wisconsin this week to make a case for the Biden administration’s economic agenda and offer a reminder of the Trump administration tax cuts, which she says added to the deficit and did little to promote investment. Yellen’s

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Bobbi Barrasso, a former U.S. Senate staffer and the wife of Republican Sen. John Barrasso, has died after a two-year struggle with brain cancer. She was 70. She died Wednesday at her home in Casper, her husband’s office announced Thursday. “In addition to being a devoted wife and mother, Bobbi was

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The United States is expressing concerns over Sri Lanka’s controversial online regulation bill a day after it was passed in Parliament over protests by the media, opposition and rights activists. The Online Safety bill would allow the government to set up a commission with a

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s government has issued a disaster declaration and requested help from the international community to combat raging wildfires affecting the South American country. Officials on Thursday said they expect the fires to grow in number and size in the following days due to decreasing rainfall and increasing temperatures caused by the

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer Apple has unveiled a sweeping plan to tear down some of the competitive barriers that it has built around its lucrative iPhone franchise. It made the move to comply with upcoming European regulations aimed at giving consumers the choice to use alternative app stores. The overhaul is scheduled to

By ERIC OLSON AP Sports Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Volleyball has been the No. 1 girls sport in the United States for a decade. More than 90,000 fans showed up for an outdoor match in Nebraska’s football stadium last summer and the NCAA final four set attendance and television viewership records. The next sign

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Time isn’t inverting: Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” is coming back to movie theaters for a week, including on IMAX 70mm and other large-format screens. Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday that the limited re-release of Nolan’s mind-bender starring John David Washington will begin on Feb. 23. The showings will also feature

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer U.S. antitrust enforcers are opening an investigation into the relationships between leading artificial intelligence startups such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic and the tech giants that have invested billions of dollars into them. Lina Khan, chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in opening remarks at a Thursday AI

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Mislabeled cookies containing peanuts that were sold at Stew Leonard’s grocery stores in Connecticut were recalled this week after the death of a woman from New York City. Stew Leonard’s announced Tuesday that Vanilla Florentine Cookies sold in its stores in Danbury and Newington from Nov. 6 to Dec. 31 were

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Three white men convicted of hate crimes for chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood in 2020 will have their appeals heard by a federal court in March. The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta is scheduled to hear oral arguments March

BOSTON (AP) — Andris Nelsons has agreed to a rolling contract as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The 45-year-old Latvian has been the BSO’s music director since the 2014-15 season, when he began a five-year contract. That was replaced by an eight-year deal through 2021-22 and in October 2020 a three-year extension through

NEW YORK (AP) — Colman Domingo, fresh off his Oscar nomination, has joined the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” to play the pop star’s domineering father, Joe Jackson. Lionsgate announced Thursday that Domingo has been cast in Antoine Fuqua’s currently-in-production film. On Tuesday, Domingo was nominated for best actor by the Academy Awards for his

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the world united around the pledge: Never again. A key part of that lofty aspiration was the drafting of a convention that codified and committed

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four municipal police officers are dead following an ambush-style attack on a road in Mexico in the north-central state of Guanajuato. The four belonged to the municipal police force of the city of Celaya. The department said Thursday the officers died late Wednesday on a rural road near Celaya. The identity

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has a new slogan that’s not fit for kids’ ears. Shapiro sometimes says GSD or “get stuff done.” Other times he just comes out and says it: “get s—- done.” The phrase has become the governing philosophy of the rising star in

SAMY MAGDY CAIRO (AP) — Israel and Egypt are engaged in an increasingly public spat over a narrow strip of land between Egypt and Gaza. That strip is the Philadelpi Corridor. The dispute puts Israel in a bind. If it stops its military offensive against Hamas without taking control of the southern Gaza city Rafah

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a state visit on April 10, with the goal of strengthening a critical alliance as the United States has sought to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region. John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman,

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The family of an 85-year-old Florida woman who was killed by an alligator last year has filed a lawsuit against her housing complex. Attorneys for Gloria Serge’s family filed the lawsuit Thursday against the Wynne Building Corp., which owns the Spanish Lakes senior complex

Herbert Coward, known for his “Toothless Man” role in the movie “Deliverance,” died Wednesday in a crash on a western North Carolina highway, according to authorities. He was 85. The crash happened Wednesday afternoon as Coward and Bertha Brooks, 78, left a doctor’s appointment, North Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. M.J. Owens said by telephone on

BY FRANCIS KOKUTSE Associated Press ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A high court in Ghana has sentenced to death six people, including three soldiers, after convicting them of plotting to carry out a coup against the country’s government in 2019. The death-by-hanging sentence prompted calls from activists on Thursday for the death penalty to be abolished.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A 350-pound black bear is dead months after captivating a northern Michigan neighborhood in May by perching in a tree. Authorities say the bear was legally killed by a hunter in September. Some residents in Traverse City are sad to hear the news. Ashlea Walter brought out a mattress that

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s Court of Appeals has ruled that a former police officer should go to trial for a murder charge in the 2022 killing of a Black motorist. The court said Thursday in it’s 2-1 opinion that it agrees there was enough evidence presented at Christopher Schurr’s preliminary examination “to establish

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government privately warned Iran that the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan was preparing to carry out a terrorist attack before bombings in Kerman earlier this month killed 95 people. That’s according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment and insisted on

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Attorneys for the Republican National Committee say Michigan GOP Chairperson Kristina Karamo was properly removed from the position earlier this month. The national committee’s letter Wednesday followed an initial review. RNC attorneys say a final recommendation will follow. A group of close to half of the

PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Middle school students in Perry, Iowa, have returned to classes for the first time since a 17-year-old opened fire in a shared cafeteria, killing two people and injuring six others. Students began streaming into Perry Middle School on a chilly, foggy Thursday morning. The school district canceled classes after the Jan.

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s state House and Senate are pursuing separate bills to remove computerized codes from most of the state’s ballots. It’s part of a continuing Republican pushback against Georgia’s Dominion voting machines. The Senate Ethics Committee voted Thursday to advance a bill aimed at requiring new optical scanners

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — Fendi, under Kim Jones, has presented a mesmerizing collection blending minimalist futurism with an homage to Karl Lagerfeld at Paris Couture Week. Celebrities like Zendaya and Reese Witherspoon attended the event on Thursday. It’s a shift from Lagerfeld’s lavish furs to a focus on human form

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian state news agency says Russia’s science and higher education ministry has dismissed the head of a prestigious genetics institute who sparked controversy by contending that humans once lived for centuries and that the shorter lives of modern humans are due to their ancestors’ sins. Although the report did not give

By MATT BROWN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The White House’s chief diversity and inclusion officer is departing the White House after three years in the position. Michael Leach served as the first ever diversity officer in a presidential administration and led efforts to build the most racially diverse and women-majority White House staff

By ED WHITE Associated Press PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Jurors in Michigan have heard opening statements in the trial of the mother of a school shooter. Jennifer Crumbley is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say she was grossly negligent in not removing her son from Oxford High School when confronted with his violent drawings. She’s

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan has accused neighboring India’s intelligence agency of involvement in the extrajudicial killings of its citizens, saying it had credible evidence linking two Indian agents to the deaths of two people in Pakistan last year. Foreign Secretary Sajjad Qazi on Thursday said the killings were a violation

By DAVID BAUDER AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — No one will confuse musician John Leventhal with being the hot new thing. The six-time Grammy winner and husband of singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash is a noted record producer and guitarist who’s been a fixture on the New York music scene for more than four decades.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A federal jury in South Dakota has convicted two men on several charges related to the 2022 kidnapping of an FBI employee. The Rapid City Journal reports that 29-year-old Deyvin Morales and 25-year-old Juan Alvarez-Soto were found guilty of kidnapping, carjacking and other counts. Sentencing dates have not been set.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The operator of the tsunami-hit nuclear plant in Fukushima has announced a delay of several more months before launching a test to remove melted fuel debris from inside one of the reactors. The plant operator is citing problems clearing the way for a robotic arm.  The debris

By PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press A group of transgender veterans filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to force the Department of Veteran Affairs to pay for and provide them gender-affirming surgeries. The lawsuit from the Transgender American Veterans Association seeks to compel the VA to codify in its regulations the verbal assurances the department made years

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans who control the Wisconsin state Assembly are set to pass a bill that would call for a binding statewide referendum to ban abortion after 14 weeks of pregnancy. Wisconsin law currently prohibits abortion after 20 weeks. The Assembly was set to vote during a floor

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The maker of Robitussin cough syrup is recalling several lots of its medicine due to contamination that could pose a serious risk to people with weakened immune systems. The recall affects eight lots of Robitussin cough syrup for adults containing honey. The Food and Drug Administration