Month: April 2024

By CORA LEWIS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — More people are using so-called Earned Wage Access apps to get money to pay bills and buy groceries in between paydays. The typical user earns less than $50,000 a year, according to the Government Accountability Office, and has experienced the pinch of two years of high inflation.

By SARA CLINE Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Unlike recent years when there was an LGBTQ+ ally in the Louisiana governor’s office, nothing stands in the way this year of legislation hostile to transgender people. Democratic former Gov. John Bel Edwards was able to block most such legislation in previous years through vetoes.

By KENYA HUNTER AP Health Writer Nearly a third of American adults don’t get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Stress and anxiety are keep people from snoozing, as can a culture that experts say is about productivity, not rest. Experts say that you should create a buffer zone and watch

By MIKE SILVERMAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Opera singer Asmik Grigorian is at the peak of her career, but there’s one major opera venue she hasn’t yet performed at — New York’s Metropolitan Opera. That changes Friday when Grigorian will take the stage in the title role of “Madame Butterfly,” a role she’s

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a case that could determine whether doctors can provide abortions to pregnant women with medical emergencies in states that enact abortion bans. The Justice Department has sued Idaho over its abortion law, which only allows a woman to get

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the Pentagon is poised to send a $1 billion package of military aid to Ukraine as the Senate begins debate on long-awaited legislation to fund the weapons Kyiv desperately needs to stall gains being made by Russian forces in the

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Police say a 10-year-old boy awoke to find his parents and three brothers shot to death in their southwest Oklahoma City home. Police said Tuesday that the father fatally shot three of his sons, including two children, and his wife, then himself. Police Sgt. Gary Knight says officers found the five

By ED WHITE Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is paying a $138.7 million to settle more than 100 claims that it badly mishandled allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016. It was a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue preying on victims before

By BILL BARROW and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker for Georgia’s Morehouse College next month. The role gives Biden a key election-year platform on one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black campuses. The Democratic president won the 2020 election with a racially diverse coalition,

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Kensington Palace has released a photograph of Prince Louis to celebrate his 6th birthday, the first image by the Princess of Wales it has distributed since news organizations, including The Associated Press, withdrew a photo edited by Kate over concerns about digital manipulation. The photo published on Tuesday was taken by

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and MIKE CATALINI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — At a time when book bans have soared to their highest levels in decades, a countertrend is emerging. Lawmakers in several Democratic-leaning states are now pursuing bans on book bans. The Washington and Maryland legislatures have already passed them this year, while

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she is confident water quality will be up to the Olympics standards this summer. She said she’ll be be swimming there, possibly alongside President Emmanuel Macron. The Seine River is the venue for marathon swimming at the Games and the swimming leg

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A legal challenge over the British government’s role in allowing weapons to be sent to Israel can be heard at the High Court later this year, a judge said Tuesday. Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and the U.K.-based Global Legal Action Network filed the challenge in December,

BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) — Authorities say the remains believed to be that of a woman and her daughter who haven’t been seen in decades were found at a southern West Virginia home on the same day that a suspect died. State police say the remains are believed to be that of Susan Carter and her

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Criminal charges say that a Minnesota state senator told police she broke into her stepmother’s home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes. Democratic Sen. Nicole Mitchell of Woodbury was arrested early Monday at the home

By SAM METZ Associated Press CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) — Moroccan officials are aiming to turn the country into an aviation hub, luring investors aiming to spread out their supply chains to more nations with available and affordable workers. The North African nation is vying for contracts with big manufacturers aiming to speed up production and

MADRID (AP) — Spain has approved a plan aimed at making reparation and economic compensation for victims of sex abuses committed by people connected to the Catholic Church. It also announced the future celebration of a public act of recognition for the victims. Minister of the Presidency and Justice Félix Bolaños said Tuesday that the

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer UnitedHealth says files with personal information that could cover a “substantial portion of people in America” may have been taken in the cyberattack earlier this year on its Change Healthcare business. The company said Monday after markets closed that it sees no signs that doctor charts or full medical

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — William Strickland, a longtime civil right activist who worked closely with Malcom X and Jesse Jackson, has died. He was 87. Along with his activism, Strickland was known for his scholarship. He spent 40 years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, teaching political science and serving as

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Finnish President Alexander Stubb says that joining the NATO alliance a year ago has transformed his country into a “front-line state,” given that it has doubled the military bloc’s border with Russia. Finland, which became the 31st NATO member in April 2023, has a 1,340-kilometer

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — Officials in Baltimore plan to open a deeper channel for commercial ships to access the city’s port starting on Thursday. It marks a significant step toward reopening the major maritime shipping hub that has remained closed to most traffic since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press ZOETERMEER, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch national intelligence agency says threats targeting the Netherlands are increasingly connected to worldwide turmoil, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. The General Intelligence and Security Service in its annual report says the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the destruction of a Quran outside

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago woman has been convicted of killing and dismembering her landlord and putting some of victim’s remains inside a freezer in the boarding house where she lived. News outlets report that a Cook County jury convicted 37-year-old Sandra Kolalou late Monday of all the charges she faced, including first-degree murder, dismembering

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A Spanish judge has ordered a bank account of a company run by former Barcelona player Gerard Piqué to be frozen while she investigates suspicions of corruption in the hosting of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. Piqué’s sports entertainment company Kosmos has not immediately

BERLIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Second-degree murder charges have been filed against a Michigan woman who smashed her SUV into a boat club that was hosting a birthday party and killed two young siblings. Marshella Chidester is  also accused of drunken driving and injuring several other people who were at the party Saturday at the

MOSCOW (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain jailed on espionage charges until at least late June, after a Moscow court on Tuesday rejected his appeal that sought to end his pretrial detention. The 32-year-old U.S. citizen was detained in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent over

ISTANBUL (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights says a United Nations judge was unlawfully jailed after he was arrested in Turkey following a coup attempt despite holding diplomatic immunity. Aydin Sefa Akay was working as a judge for the U.N. Criminal Tribunals Mechanism when he was detained at his home in Istanbul, the

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Thousands of United Methodists are gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, for their big denominational meeting, known as General Conference. It’s a much-anticipated gathering. Typically it is held every four years, but church leaders delayed the 2020 gathering until now due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the 11-day gathering runs

By KELVIN CHAN and WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writers Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war, bringing the total number of terminated staff to more than 50, a group representing the workers said. It’s the latest sign

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish judge has reopened a probe into the suspected spying on the cellphone of Spain’s prime minister after receiving a request to collaborate with a similar investigation in France. The judge with Spain’s National Court says there is reason to believe that the new information provided by France can “allow the

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is traveling to Florida to assail the state’s upcoming six-week abortion ban and similar restrictions nationwide. Biden visits Tampa for campaign events Tuesday. Biden’s reelection campaign believes the Florida ban taking effect May 1 and a ballot measure that would put abortion protections

PRAGUE (AP) — A new memorial has opened in the Czech Republic on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp for Roma, capping a process that took decades and was made possible after a Czech government agreed to remove a communist-era pig farm from the site. Roma and human rights activists have long demanded

By LARRY LAGE AP Sports Writer DETROIT (AP) — The NFL draft has taken the show on the road for a decade, giving cities around the country a chance to be in the spotlight. Detroit is on the clock. The Motor City was once one of the nation’s largest and most powerful cities and has

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The emir of Qatar has landed in Nepal on his first-ever visit to the South Asian country, after visiting  Bangladesh and the Philippines, where improving migrant workers’ conditions in the Gulf state and a Nepali student still held hostage by Hamas are expected to be on the agenda. Sheikh Tamim bin

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Four Aboriginal spears that were taken to England by Captain James Cook more than 250 years ago have been returned to Australia’s Indigenous community at a ceremony in Cambridge University. The artifacts were all that remain of some 40 spears that Cook and botanist Joseph Banks took

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is meeting with another foreign leader while he’s in New York for his criminal hush money trial. The presumptive GOP nominee will host former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at Trump Tower Tuesday. That’s according to two people familiar with the plans. Aso

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democratic Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney says he’s dropping his bid for Virginia governor in 2025 and will instead run for lieutenant governor. Stoney said Tuesday he believes the best way to ensure Virginia families get the change they deserve is for the Democratic party to avoid a damaging primary. When Stoney

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government wants to allow anti-abortion groups access to women considering ending their pregnancies. That’s reviving tensions around abortion in Italy 46 years after it was legalized in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. Meloni campaigned on a slogan of “God, fatherland and family” but

BERLIN (AP) — One of the best-known figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has said at his trial on charges of using a Nazi slogan that he is “completely innocent.” Björn Höcke went on trial at the state court in the eastern city of Halle last week, months before a regional election in

By ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Bon Jovi is marking its 40th anniversary. A new docuseries called “Thank You, Goodnight,” debuts Friday on Hulu and recounts the band’s beginning and rise to super stardom. It also details some low points, including when front man Jon Bon Jovi underwent major vocal surgery in

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University’s main campus will switch to hybrid learning for the rest of the semester amid protests over Israel’s war with Hamas that have roiled colleges across the U.S. University officials announced the move late Monday after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s New York City