Month: January 2024

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is considering additional measures against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government after the South American country’s highest court blocked the presidential candidacy of an opposition leader. This comes after the U.S. government on Monday pulled back part of the sanctions relief it

By ANDREW DAMPF AP Sports Writer ROME (AP) — The local organizing committee for the 2026 Winter Olympics has decided to move forward with rebuilding a century-old bobsled track in Cortina d’Ampezzo but will also keep open a “Plan B” in case the new venue is not ready in time. The committee says its plans

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers posted 9 million job openings in December, an increase from November and another sign that the job market remains resilient despite the headwind of higher interest rates. The number of openings was up from November’s 8.9 million, which itself was revised up in Tuesday’s

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and LAURA UNGAR NEW YORK (AP) — According to Elon Musk, the first human received an implant from his computer-brain interface company Neuralink over the weekend. In a Monday post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Musk said that the patient received the implant the day prior and was recovering

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer American consumers, fresh off strong holiday spending, are feeling more confident than they have in two years. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose for the third straight month, to 114.8 in January from 108 in December. January’s reading came in

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian journalist has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges related to his work covering protests. It’s the latest move in a sweeping government crackdown on dissent. The Minsk City Court convicted photojournalist Alyaksandr Zyankou on charges of “participation in an extremist group,”

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Payroll payments per small business moderated as 2023 came to a close, according to new data from Bank of America. The BofA report found payroll payments rose 1.7% in December at small businesses. That’s consistent with the trend last year, with payroll payments rising most

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Members of a rock band that has been critical of Moscow’s war in Ukraine remain locked up in a Thai immigration jail, fearful that they could be deported to Russia as a reported plan to let them fly to safety in Israel was apparently suspended. The progressive

LONDON (AP) — Italian regulators say they informed OpenAI that its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot has violated European Union’s stringent data privacy rules. The country’s data protection authority said Monday that it notified San Francisco-based OpenAI of breaches of the EU rules, known as General Data Protection Regulation. The watchdog started investigating ChatGPT last year,

ROME (AP) — Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner has returned to Italy amid great fanfare with RAI state TV broadcasting his arrival at the airport in Rome. Sinner was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with his orange racket bag strapped onto his shoulders and he also held a green bag with gold-colored straps that appeared

By ALBERT AJI Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The first United Arab Emirates ambassador to Damascus in nearly 13 years has taken up his post on Tuesday as Syria is reintegrating into mainstream regional acceptance.  Syrian state media said the country’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad received Ambassador Hassan Ahmad al-Shihi’s credentials. The UAE embassy

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press EUREKA, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pledging to fast-track more than half a dozen projects to remove or bypass dams that have blocked salmon. The proposals are part of Newsom’s strategy to protect salon. Millions of salmon once filled California’s rivers and streams. But last year, there

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Award-winning musician Branford Marsalis is taking on a new job in his hometown of New Orleans. Marsalis was to be named Tuesday as the new artistic director for the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, named for his late father. Ellis Marsalis was the patriarch of a family of accomplished New Orleans

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse an opposition protest in the island nation facing its worst economic crisis while gearing up for a national election later this year. Protesters from the main opposition United People’s Power party gathered Tuesday in the capital and accused President

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its outlook for the world economy this year, envisioning resilient growth led by the United States and a slower pace of inflation. The IMF now expects the global economy to grow 3.1% this year, unchanged from 2023 but better than

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president says the country is considering the reintroduction of compulsory military service, citing tensions in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe. President Aleksandar Vucic said top army commanders gave him “a strong argumentation” in favor of the reintroduction of a mandatory draft, which was suspended

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The songwriters who gave us “Your Song,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man” will add to their stuffed awards shelf later this year when Elton John and Bernie Taupin are awarded the Gershwin Prize. The Library of Congress says Tuesday that songwriter-performer John and lyricist Taupin

By KATE ASHFORD of NerdWallet Only one-third of men correctly estimated how long a 60-year-old man in the U.S. could expect to live, according to a 2022 TIAA Institute survey. And fewer than half of women got it right for a 60-year-old woman. Advisers call this understanding of how long you’ll live in your retirement

CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain’s lower house of Parliament is to debate and vote on an hugely divisive amnesty law that aims to sweep away the legal troubles of hundreds of people who were involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 independence bid. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to the law in exchange for the

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — American and Chinese officials met Tuesday to discuss joint efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., a sign of cooperation as the two global powers try to manage their contentious ties. The two-day meeting was the first for a new counternarcotics working group. One

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has restored searches for Taylor Swift after temporarily blocking users from seeing some results as pornographic deepfake images of the singer circulated online. Searches for the singer’s name on the site Tuesday turned up a list of tweets as normal. A day earlier, the same search

By ELAINE KURTENBACH and ZEN SOO AP Business Writers BANGKOK (AP) — A Hong Kong court’s order to liquidate the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer is only a tentative step toward resolving a debt crisis that is haunting financial markets and dragging on the Chinese economy. China Evergrande owes about $340 billion to

LONDON (AP) — UK regulators say HSBC has been fined $72.8 million for failing to adequately protect customer deposits in the event the bank collapsed. The Prudential Regulation Authority said Tuesday that two units of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc violated rules designed to ensure regulators have the information they need to protect depositors when banks

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Only a small fraction of needy people in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region are receiving food aid, according to an aid memo seen by The Associated Press, more than one month after aid agencies resumed deliveries of grain following a lengthy pause over theft. Just 14% of

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities have arrested two people after finding a large weapons cache in their home. Police say the man and woman face felony counts of weapons and explosives possession. Police searching their home in the northern city of Florina on Monday seized 29 weapons, 95 ammunition magazines, 11 hand grenades, five

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Associated Press NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A United Nations official says her experience in negotiating an end to decades of conflict in her native Colombia may help her as she seeks to rekindle negotiations over Cyprus’ ethnic division. María Ángela Holguín Cuellar, the U.N. chief’s new personal envoy for Cyprus, said on

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — In the past 15 months, no one has been more responsible for safety on the nation’s roads than Ann Carlson. For much of that time she has served as acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, where she started as chief counsel in 2021.

By MARK LEWIS Associated Press STAVANGER (AP) — Norway’s oil fund saw the largest annual return in its history in 2023 led by a strong performance by U.S. technology companies and the Danish weight loss drug manufacturer, Novo Nordisk. The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund which owns around 1.5% of all global listed companies reported

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Lawyers of prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason, say he has been transferred to another prison in Siberia and placed in solitary confinement again, for at least four months, over an alleged minor infraction. The move comes

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN AP Sports Writer Police officers deployed during the Paris Olympics will receive bonuses of up to 1,900 euros. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the decision. Police unions organized protests this month to highlight concerns about working conditions during Games in July and August. Darmanin wants every Interior Ministry employee mobilized and

LONDON (AP) — London police say they fatally shot a man reportedly armed with a crossbow who broke into a home and threatened the occupants. The Metropolitan Police said the suspect, believed to be in his 30s, had threatened people in the home in the Southwark part of the city on Tuesday and was trying

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe’s economy failed to expand at the end of 2023. The stagnation has now lasted for more than a year amid higher energy prices, costlier credit and lagging growth in powerhouse Germany. The EU statistics agency said Tuesday that zero growth for the October-to-December period of

STOCKHOLM (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is on a two-day state visit in Stockholm during which he will meet Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, as well as the Scandinavian country’s monarch, King Carl XVI Gustaf. He was welcomed Tuesday with pomp and ceremony at the royal palace. Macron is set to discuss the future

ROME (AP) — Moschino has named Adrian Appiolaza as the new creative director of the Milan-based fashion house. The company said Tuesday that he will debut his first collection on Feb. 22 during the Fall-Winter 2024 womenswear previews of Milan Fashion Week. Appiolaza previously was design director for women’s ready-to-wear at Loewe and Chloe. At

By LISA MASCARO and REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are moving swiftly toward impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, including over what they call his “willful and systematic” refusal to enforce immigration laws. But Democrats