Month: January 2024

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president has given refuge to two politicians convicted of abuse of power, welcoming the members of the former ruling party into the presidential palace as police were about to arrest them. The legal drama is building into a standoff between the new government, led by

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Firefighters scoured the wreckage of a historic Fort Worth hotel on Tuesday as they investigated the cause of a massive explosion that shattered windows, littered the streets with debris and injured 21 people, including one critically. The Monday blast blew doors and sections of wall

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador has been rocked by a series of attacks after the government imposed a state of emergency in the wake of the apparent escape of a powerful gang leader from prison. Police in the capital, Quito, say four officers were kidnapped on Monday night and remain missing. They also say two people

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood’s awards season can start to feel a little gratuitously self-congratulatory, but Tuesday night some of the biggest movie stars in the industry are gathering to celebrate someone other than themselves. Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett and film editor Carol Littleton will collect honorary Oscar statuettes

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A man targeted by right-wing conspiracy theories about the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to a year of probation for joining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of fellow Donald Trump supporters. Ray Epps, a former Arizona resident who was driven into hiding

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A top trans-Atlantic security and rights watchdog is criticizing Belarus’ refusal to allow the group to observe its parliamentary vote, saying that it defies the country’s international obligations. Belarusian authorities announced Monday that they wouldn’t invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Wander Franco is facing a lesser charge after a judge in the Dominican Republic analyzed evidence that alleges the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl and paid her mother thousands of dollars for her consent. Originally accused of

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is being inaugurated for his second term. The 49-year-old Republican takes the oath of office Tuesday. He is the fourth Mississippi governor to win two consecutive terms. The state lifted its ban on gubernatorial succession in the 1980s. Republicans have held

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Taliban official says a bomb stuck to a minivan has exploded in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, killing at least three civilians and wounding four others. A police spokesman says the explosion occurred in the eastern part of the city. He says police have launched an investigation and one suspect has been

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — On a recent winter day in New York when the sun was shining, Andrew Scott rushed into a coffee shop between recording sessions for an upcoming series. “I’m scheduled tighter than a teenage pop star,” he said, beaming. The interview had been postponed once, and

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Clooney Foundation for Justice, established by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker George Clooney, announced the a new leadership team Tuesday that the Clooneys say will lead the global legal services nonprofit through its “next chapter of growth.” International lawyer

By The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Marin Alsop will become principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra next season, succeeding Nathalie Stutzmann. The 67-year-old was music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 2007-08 through 2020-21, the first woman to lead a top-level American orchestra. She agreed to a three-year term with the Philadelphia

NEW YORK (AP) — Short fiction by Yiyun Li, Bennett Sims and Paul Yoon are finalists for the 20th annual Story Prize, given for the year’s outstanding short story collection. Prize officials announced Tuesday that the nominees are Li’s “Wednesday’s Child,” Sims’ “Other Minds and Other Stories” and Yoon’s “The Hive and the Honey.” The

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European

LONDON (AP) — A coroner says Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor died from “natural causes” in July. London’s Metropolitan Police had said the singer’s death was not considered suspicious after she was found unresponsive at a home in southeast London on July 26. O’Connor was 56. The Southwark Coroner’s Court confirmed Tuesday that O’Connor died of

By MARKO DROBNJAKOVIC Associated Press GARDINOVCI, Serbia (AP) — Serbian authorities on Tuesday started evacuating nearly 200 animals that have been stranded on a river island for weeks and were facing hunger and cold as temperatures dropped across the country. The cows, calves and horses got stuck on the Krcedinska Ada island in the middle

By JOHN CARUCCI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — She doesn’t even go here, but Lindsay Lohan still joined the cast of the new “Mean Girls” at the musical film’s premiere in New Year. The star of the original 2004 film reunited with Tina Fey on Monday night and posed with the new Cady Heron,

LONDON (AP) — The European Union says Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI could trigger a merger investigation. The EU’s executive branch said Tuesday that it’s “checking whether Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI might be reviewable” under regulations covering mergers and acquisitions that would harm competition in the 27-nation bloc. The review could lead to a

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The former head of Britain’s state-owned Post Office is handing back a royal honor in response to fury over her role in a miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully accused of theft. Ex-chief executive Paula Vennells said she would relinquish the title of Commander of the

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Hobbled by high interest rates, persistent inflation, slumping trade and a diminished China, the global economy will slow for a third consecutive year in 2024. That is the picture sketched by the World Bank, which forecasts that the world economy will expand just 2.4% this year.

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish non-profit organization says more than 6,600 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by boat last year. The figure is more than double the number in the previous year, when the organization, Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders), says 2,390 died. It says 2023 was the deadliest year since the organization began

LONDON (AP) — More than 60 heads of state and government and hundreds of business leaders will discuss the biggest global challenges during the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Switzerland next week. Among those who will be descending on the Alpine town of Davos will be Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,

NEW YORK (AP) — Former diplomat and White House aide Stuart E. Eizenstat has a book out this spring on some of the country’s most consequential treaties and other international accords. Rowman & Littlefield will release “The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements that Changed the World” on May 24. Eizenstat will

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s last remaining major department store chain has filed for insolvency protection, its third filing in less than four years, after its owner ran into difficulties. Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, which currently runs 92 stores and employs more than 15,000 people, said on Tuesday that it filed for insolvency at a court in

By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA Associated Press TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Migration activists in Tunisia are sounding the alarm about mass expulsions and arbitrary arrests. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights says it has received numerous reports of deportations and expulsions to Libya and Algeria as well as mass arrests near Sfax, Tunisia’s second

PARIS (AP) — Former World Cup winner Thierry Henry has opened up about the fact he “must have been in depression” during his soccer career. The 46-year-old former France and Arsenal forward says he had a spell early in the coronavirus pandemic when he was “crying almost every day”. Henry has linked that to his

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Russian state news agency Tass says Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has put exiled Russian tycoon and opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky on its wanted list. The ministry accuses him of spreading false information about the Russian army. The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. A criminal case

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian air force official says Russia’s recent escalation of missile and drone attacks is stretching his country’s air defense resources. That has left Ukraine vulnerable in the 22-month war unless it can secure further weapon supplies. As soldiers on both sides fight from largely static

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican’s new doctrine chief is raising eyebrows over a book he wrote as a young priest describing orgasms in graphic terms. The out-of-print, Spanish-language book penned by now-Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez is entitled “The Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality.” It was taken up by two traditionalist

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — One of the world’s largest renewable energy developers will be getting hundreds of wind turbines from General Electric spinoff GE Vernova as part of a record equipment order and long-term service deal. The manufacturer announced the agreement Tuesday and said it will deliver 674 of

PARIS (AP) — Gabriel Attal was named Tuesday as France’s youngest-ever prime minister, as President Emmanuel Macron seeks a fresh start for the rest of his term amid growing political pressure from the far right. Macron’s office announced the appointment in a statement. Attal, 34, rose to prominence as the government spokesman and education minister.

By RADUL RADOVANOVIC Associated Press BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The United States has warned that ongoing celebrations of a Bosnian Serb self-proclaimed national holiday violate Bosnia’s constitution and a 1995 peace agreement, and as such amount to a criminal offense. In a statement, the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo has urged Bosnia’s legal authorities to