Month: December 2024

AP Sports Writer Bill Belichick had just been introduced Thursday as North Carolina’s next football coach when chancellor Lee Roberts came armed with a gift: a short-sleeved gray hoodie — a bit of a trademark from Belichick’s NFL coaching days — bearing a blue interlocking “NC” logo. It was the visual confirmation, which will take

AP Airlines Writer The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, who has led a tougher enforcement policy against Boeing since a panel blew off a jetliner in January, said Thursday that he will step down next month, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to name his choice to lead the agency. Mike Whitaker announced

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is capping the fees at $5 with a rule set to take effect in October 2025, if it isn’t overturned by Congress or altered under a Trump administration. President Joe Biden had called the fees, which can be as high as $35, “exploitative,” while

AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The story of RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys,” laced with the cruelties of the Jim Crow-era South, has commonalities with films made before. But the grammar of “Nickel Boys” is entirely its own. Ross shot the Colson Whitehead adaptation almost entirely from the point of view of its two

AP Medical Writer Some early breast cancer patients can safely avoid specific surgeries, according to two studies exploring ways to lessen treatment burdens. One new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, examines whether removing lymph nodes is always necessary in early breast cancer. Another in the Journal of the American Medical Association

Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to his inauguration next month — an unorthodox move that would fold U.S. allies and adversaries into a very American political tradition. Trump said Thursday during an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange,

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI informant accused of fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges. Alexander Smirnov’s deal with Justice Department special counsel David Weiss to plead guilty comes just weeks after prosecutors filed new tax evasion charges against him. Attorneys

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Ukraine must have a pivotal role in any potential negotiations over Russia’s war in the country. Both leaders met in Warsaw. Macron insisted Europeans must be involved in security talks in “very close” coordination with the United States to ensure

Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland has sworn in its new president after last month’s election that gave a boost for its push for international recognition. Thursday’s inauguration ceremony came a day after Somalia and Ethiopia agreed in Turkey to hold “technical talks” over a dispute sparked by a controversial

AP Business Writer An appeals court in Louisiana has ruled that Nasdaq can’t require diversity on the boards of companies that list on the exchange. The decision comes more than three years after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq’s proposal to boost the number of women, racial minorities and LGBTQ people on U.S. corporate

Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish prosecutors say they have dropped a rape investigation that was launched in connection with soccer star Kylian Mbappé’s visit to Stockholm in October. In a statement, lead investigator Marina Chirakova says there is not enough evidence to continue the investigation into the allegation at a hotel. Prosecutors never publicly

Selena Gomez is having quite a year, and it’s being capped with an engagement to music producer and songwriter Benny Blanco. The Grammy- and Emmy-nominated performer announced she was off the market in an Instagram post Wednesday of her ring and an embrace with her fiancé, with the caption “Forever begins now.” Celebrity fans sent

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has undergone a second procedure to stop a brain bleed. The 79-year-old Lula had surgery at the hospital on Tuesday for a kind of slow bleeding that resulted from a fall at home in October. Thursday’s procedure was to plug an artery that continued

Associated Press MILAN (AP) — A humanitarian rescue group says its sailboat plucked from the central Mediterranean an 11-year-old girl believed to be the only survivor of a shipwreck in stormy seas. The Compass Collective said the crew aboard their German-flagged sailboat heard a voice over the motors off the Italian island of Lampedusa early

Associated Press When the African Methodist Episcopal Church, arguably the world’s largest independent Black Protestant denomination, held its quadrennial General Conference in Ohio in August, among the agenda items was an issue that the Rev. Jennifer S. Leath had labored over for two decades: same-sex marriage. Leath, 43, self-identifies as “quare” — terminology designed to

AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale costs in the United States picked up sharply last month, signaling that price pressures are still evident in the economy even though inflation has tumbled from the peak levels it hit more than two years ago. The producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers

Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The town of Asheville, North Carolina, is known for its artists and restaurants. In September, it was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene. Even businesses not physically harmed suffered weeks without power and water. And Asheville was essentially closed to tourists during its busiest season. So local artists and

Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Some European Union countries are doubling down on their decision to rapidly halt asylum procedures for Syrian migrants in Europe. But they said Thursday that it’s too early to consider sending any of the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled since 2011 back home. Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece,

AP Business Writer DoorDash is requiring its drivers to verify their identities more often as part of a larger effort to crack down on unauthorized account sharing. The company has pledged to do a better job identifying and removing dangerous drivers after a flood of complaints of dangerous driving from cities. Officials in Boston, New

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A court in Pakistan has indicted imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife in one of several graft cases they face. Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi pleaded not guilty on Thursday when a judge in the garrison city of Rawalpindi read the charges. The couple is accused of keeping

Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — U.N. experts say there has been a slight drop in the production of opium in Myanmar, the world’s biggest source of the illicit drug from which heroin is derived, but warn there are still strong prospects for future expansion of the deadly trade. The Myanmar Opium Survey 2024 issued by

Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Meat from fin whales caught for the first time in nearly 50 years off Japan’s northern coast has fetched up to more than $1,300 per kilogram at auction, as officials try to keep the struggling industry alive. Japan’s Fisheries Agency this year added fin whales to its list of three

AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leaders have wrapped up a two-day planning meeting in Beijing with pledges to take a more proactive approach in pepping up the economy, but gave no details on stimulus measures. A state television report on the annual strategy meeting mainly reiterated a strategy outlined earlier in the week

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Rights and civil society groups say more than 100 people including children have been killed by security forces in post-election protests in Mozambique that have lasted nearly two months. The main opposition leader called Thursday for more demonstrations against what he has says was a rigged vote by the governing party.

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — She’s an Iraq War combat veteran and sexual assault survivor who has advocated for years to improve how the military handles claims of sexual misconduct. But when Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, appeared initially cool to the nomination of President-elect Donald Trump ’s choice of Pete Hegseth to serve as defense

AP Entertainment Writer UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — Smokey Robinson and Halle Bailey, bridging Motown’s old and new school, will host a a holiday special to honor the groundbreaking record label that changed the music landscape. “A Motown Christmas” airs Wednesday night on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock. The special will celebrate

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is calling on wealthy countries and institutions to substantially reduce if not outright cancel debt as a matter of justice on the occasion of the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee Year. In a message for world peace, Francis referred on Thursday to St. John Paul II’s admonition in Jubilee Year 2000

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As several of President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for high-level positions in his administration face scrutiny on Capitol Hill, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans have their own doubts. Relatively few Americans overall approve of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice to lead the Department

Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British military veterans who were discharged or suffered other forms of discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity will receive up to 70,000 pounds, or $89,300, under a government compensation program announced Thursday. Prior to 2000, service personnel who were discovered to be lesbian, gay or trans were

Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top military commander says fighting around a key eastern Ukraine city is “extremely intense” after a monthslong Russian push. Analysts estimate Russian forces are now within just a few kilometers, or miles, of Pokrovsk. Ukraine’s General Staff said on Thursday that Ukrainian troops repelled nearly 40 Russian attempts

Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk has overturned a visa refusal for the U.S. conservative commentator Candace Owens, citing “the importance of free speech.” Owens planned a speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand. But Australia refused her visa in October and New Zealand later denied her