Month: March 2024

By SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — His writing won China’s first Nobel Prize for Literature, but is it patriotic enough for Xi Jinping’s China? That’s the question at the center of a high-profile lawsuit that has driven a debate about nationalism in China in recent weeks. Patriotic blogger Wu Wanzheng sued novelist

By DAKE KANG Associated Press CHENGDU, China (AP) — Some investors in a troubled Chinese trust fund are facing financial ruin under a government plan to return a fraction of their money back. They are casualties of China’s broader troubles as the financial industry is squeezed by a slump in the property industry that has

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — European Union lawmakers are set to give final approval to the 27-nation bloc’s artificial intelligence law. The move Wednesday will put the world-leading set of rules on track to take effect later this year. Lawmakers in the European Parliament are poised to vote in favor of

By The Associated Press Vladimir Putin is poised to sweep to another six-year term in this week’s presidential election, even though Russians are dying in Ukraine in a war grinding through its third year and his country is more isolated than ever from the rest of the world. The all-but-certain outcome comes through his rigid

By MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Evangelicals have been among Israel’s fiercest foreign supporters for years. This is particularly true in the United States, where their political influence has helped shape the Israel policy of recent Republican administrations. Since the Israel-Hamas war began five months ago, evangelicals have been visiting Israel

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska’s annual Iditarod dog sled race ended with a victory for the ages: One of the biggest names in the sport came from behind after a moose attack to win the grueling, dayslong contest for an unprecedented sixth time. But Dallas Seavey’s record-setting win late Tuesday

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer New artificial intelligence tools are helping doctors communicate with their patients. Some tools answer messages and others take notes during exams. It’s been just 15 months since OpenAI released ChatGPT. Already thousands of doctors are using products based on similar large language models. Enthusiasts say these AI tools

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOMIOKA, Japan (AP) — The head of the U.N. atomic agency on Wednesday told local Japanese representatives at a meeting in Fukushima that the ongoing discharge of treated radioactive wastewater at the ruined nuclear power plant has met safety standards and that any restrictions on products from the region are

by ZIMO ZHONG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — China stocks were mixed Wednesday as the country scrambled to avoid major real estate developer bankruptcy. Hong Kong stocks added 0.2% to 17,129.37, extending their gains for a fourth consecutive day. Hang Seng Tech Index advanced 0.7%, with JD.com gaining 0.6% after the company announced a

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a new law that will allow women to receive Medicaid coverage earlier in pregnancy. It’s an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a poor state with the nation’s worst rate of infant mortality. The

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Savannah, Georgia’s oldest city, is planning a supersized celebration as it marks the 200th anniversary of its beloved St. Patrick’s Day parade. City Manager Jay Melder says he’s expecting historic crowds for the Irish-themed parade Saturday. More than 18,000 hotel rooms in the area are nearly

By SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON Associated Press/Report For America COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republicans vying for candidacy in Ohio’s upcoming March primary might be running for increasingly red congressional seats, but that doesn’t make for an uneventful election next week — especially as the GOP seeks a champion to flip the district of the longest serving woman

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco Bay Area parking lot that sits on top of a sacred tribal shell mound dating back 5,700 years has been returned to the Ohlone people by the Berkeley City Council after a settlement with developers who own the land. Berkeley’s City Council

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are launching a vast re-investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, seeking to push the blame away from Donald Trump. As he campaigns to return to the White House, the House Administration subcommittee on Oversight held the first of regular public

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is visiting Wisconsin and Michigan, looking to shore up a “blue wall” of swing states that long backed Democrats in presidential races. He had won them back from Donald Trump in order to claim the White House four years ago. Biden has tried to

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that could lead to a ban of the popular video app TikTok is expected to pass the House as lawmakers act on concerns that the company’s ownership structure is an unacceptable threat to American national security. The bill would require the Chinese firm ByteDance to

By COLLEEN LONG and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Hur was thanking the president for his time. He understood, Hur said, that there were a lot of things going on that demanded Joe Biden’s attention. “We may be interrupted by one,” Biden said, explaining that he’d just gotten off the

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Former Honduras first lady Ana García de Hernández says she plans to seek the country’s presidency next year. Her announcement Tuesday came just days after her husband’s U.S. drug trafficking conviction. Ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted of conspiring with drug traffickers moving tons of cocaine to the United States in

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has posted an infomercial-style video on X lavishing praise on a team of dentists outside of her state that she says gave her a smile that she can be proud of. Noem, who has showcased herself as a potential vice presidential pick for former President Donald

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Singer Kelly Clarkson and NFL legend Peyton Manning will bring a new flavor to NBC Universal’s upcoming Paris Olympics coverage this summer. Clarkson and Manning are expected to join Mike Tirico to host the opening ceremony, the network announced Tuesday night. The ceremony’s live

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden vs. Trump the sequel is unprecedented in the modern era. But November’s presidential race featuring President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump — which is now official with both having clinched their parties’ nominations — is actually a political movie the country has seen before.

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump, whose single turbulent term in the White House transformed the Republican Party, tested the resilience of democratic institutions in the U.S. and threatened alliances abroad, will lead the GOP in a third consecutive presidential election after clinching the nomination Tuesday. With wins

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A rocket touted as Japan’s first from the private sector to go into orbit exploded shortly after takeoff. Livestreamed video of the launch Wednesday showed the rocket called Kairos blasting off from Wakayama Prefecture, central Japan, a mountainous area filled with trees, but exploding midair within seconds.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese broadcaster CCTV says rescuers are responding to an explosion in a building in a city outside of Beijing that has killed one person and injured 22. The building exploded early Wednesday morning in the city of Sanhe, just an hour west of Beijing.

By MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s Supreme Court has selected the nation’s new attorney general following a month of deliberations that were interrupted by protests outside the court and complaints from President Gustavo Petro, who argued the judges were stonewalling his nominees. Ultimately the court selected Luz Adriana Camargo as the

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. food agency’s director in Haiti says that 4 million people face “acute food insecurity” and one million of them are one step away from famine. Jean-Martin Bauer told a virtual press conference that he’s “ringing the alarm bell” because the recent increase in

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Dallas Seavey overcame killing a moose and receiving a time penalty to win the Iditarod on Tuesday, a record-breaking sixth championship in the world’s most famous sled dog race. Seavey drove his team a half-block off the Bering Sea ice onto the frozen streets of Nome

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is having conversations with vice presidential candidates as he gets closer to announcing his running mate for his independent presidential bid. Kennedy told The New York Times that NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura are at the top of his list.

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Boeing received bad grades in a government audit of manufacturing quality, and the company says it’s making changes to address the situation. The president of the company’s commercial aircraft division detailed the latest steps to correct lapses in quality in a memo to employees on Tuesday. He says Boeing

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press CAN THO, Vietnam (AP) — The lure of the city has always been strong for the poor in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Millions have moved from the mostly agricultural region to big cities like Ho Chi Minh City for factory jobs that offer them a chance to get ahead. One 11-year-old

By DENISE LAVOIE and LEA SKENE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center in Virginia are doing their best to act like mother foxes as they feed and care for an orphaned kit that found her way into their care. In a video posted to the center’s Facebook page Tuesday,

By ROBERT YOON and MAYA SWEEDLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump stands on the brink of unofficially securing the Republican presidential nomination for a third time as voters on Tuesday finish casting ballots in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington and Hawaii, but he’ll need about eight out of every 10 delegates available in those states

By ROBERT YOON and MAYA SWEEDLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s path to unofficially clinching the Democratic nomination this year was much shorter and less dramatic than the one he followed in 2020. The Associated Press declared Biden the presumptive nominee after he won the Georgia primary Tuesday and at least 100

By ZEKE MILLER AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, who took office aiming to steady a nation convulsed by the coronavirus pandemic and the Jan. 6 insurrection, clinched a second straight Democratic nomination Tuesday and set up an all-but-certain rematch with the predecessor he blames for destabilizing the country. Biden became

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities say a third suspect has been arrested in a shooting that wounded eight Philadelphia high school students at a bus stop last week. A fourth person was still being sought. The name of the 19-year-old suspect hasn’t been made public, but police said he will face attempted murder, aggravated assault, and

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has approved regulations tied to a new Nebraska law restricting gender-affirming care for minors. The approved regulations mostly mirror temporary ones adopted last October, when the law went into effect. They include a seven-day waiting period for anyone under 19 to

SEATTLE (AP) — Police say a 54-year-old suburban Seattle woman who had been missing for two weeks was found dead in Mexico, and that a man described as a suspect was arrested there on unrelated charges. Police in Renton, Washington, said Monday that friends told them they last heard from Reyna Hernandez on Feb. 26.

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has decided to reconsider a ruling limiting the use of absentee ballot drop boxes. The voter mobilization group Priorities USA asked the justices last month to reconsider their 2022 ruling that drop boxes may be placed only in election offices. Conservatives controlled

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah Department of Corrections came under fire Tuesday for discriminating against a transgender inmate who the U.S. Department of Justice said was driven to harm herself after she was repeatedly denied hormone therapy in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. A federal investigation

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman has sued director Roman Polanski, alleging he raped her in his home when she was a minor in 1973. The woman aired the allegations, which the 90-year-old Polanski has denied, in a news conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred, on Tuesday. The account

By ALI SWENSON Associated Press Officials in Georgia’s most populous county have removed a banner from their website warning of an “unexpected IT outage” after it created confusion on the final day of voting for the presidential primary. The red banner was actually related to a January cyberattack that temporarily crippled government services in Fulton

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former Alabama Republican U.S. Rep. Robert Terry Everett has died. He was 87. Gov. Kay Ivey’s office says he died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Rehobeth on Tuesday. Everett represented the state’s 2nd District from 1993 to 2009. Ivey says he was one of Alabama’s strongest voices for

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and GAETANE LEWIS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times is fighting off Wordle “clones.” It’s arguing that numerous games inspired by the mega-popular word-guessing game infringe on its copyright protections. After Wordle skyrocketed to internet fame, hundreds of copycats have emerged over recent years. And the Times, which

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has approved the $92 million bond put up by former President Donald Trump to ensure that writer E. Jean Carroll will receive a jury award for his verbal attacks against her if it survives appeals. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan formally approved the bond

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s inflation slowed down for a second consecutive month in February, as right-wing President Javier Milei continues to push austerity and deregulation measures in an effort to revive the country’s struggling economy. The government’s INDEC statistics agency reported Tuesday that inflation in February slowed down to 13.2%, compared to 20.6%

By SUMMER BALLENTINE Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Some state lawmakers are taking extra steps to prevent noncitizens from voting over their concerns that illegal border crossings could lead to voter fraud. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote federally. But more than a dozen states are considering double-checking voter rolls against

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Fake gunfire would be banned and advance notice required under proposed legislation to regulate active-shooter drills in California’s public schools. The state currently has guidelines for conducting earthquake and fire drills, but little guidance for active-shooter drills. Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward says that’s led to drills

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Four U.S. Army boats, loaded with tons of equipment and steel pier segments, have left Virginia and are heading to Gaza. They are part of the U.S. effort to expand the delivery of food and other supplies to starving Palestinians as Israel’s war against Hamas drags