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Japan and EU announce a security and defense partnership as regional tensions rise

Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan and the European Union have announced a security and defense partnership as they seek to step up military ties, including joint exercises and exchanges between their defense industries, amid growing tensions with China, North Korea and Russia. Japan’s Defense Ministry says Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and EU foreign

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Jodi Picoult’s ‘Nineteen Minutes’ tops PEN America of books banned in schools

AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes” has topped a list compiled by PEN America of the books most often pulled from school shelves. Other works include John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and several novels by

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‘Scandal’ cast will reunite for online script reading for hurricane relief in western North Carolina

Associated Press The cast of ABC’s hit show “Scandal” will reunite Nov. 17 for a live, virtual script reading to raise money for the western North Carolina area that was ravaged by Hurricane Helene. Bellamy Young, who played the first lady and then Republican presidential nominee on the series, was raised in Asheville, North Carolina.

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Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade will feature Ariana Madix, T-Pain, ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse’ and pasta

AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A eclectic group of stars — including reality TV’s Ariana Madix, Broadway belter Idina Menzel, hip-hop’s T-Pain, members of the WNBA champions New York Liberty and country duo Dan + Shay — will feature in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Music performers The War and Treaty, Lea

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Israel pummels Lebanon and Gaza, killing dozens in fresh waves of airstrikes

Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon’s northeastern farming villages on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began Thursday, hospital officials

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Kenya’s new deputy president sworn in as his predecessor challenges his impeachment in court

Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s new deputy president has been sworn into office, two weeks after his predecessor was overwhelmingly voted out in an impeachment motion in parliament over allegations of corruption and inciting ethnic division. Kindiki Kithure took office on Friday after a colorful event in the capital, Nairobi attended by government

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Bomb targeting police assigned for polio drive kills 9 people, including 5 children, in SW Pakistan

Associated Press QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful bomb attached to a motorcycle has exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers assigned to protect polio workers in restive southwest Pakistan, killing nine  people including five nearby children. A police official says the attack occurred Friday in Mastung in Balochistan province. He says a motorized rickshaw

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Inside a 1760 schoolhouse for Black children is a complicated history of slavery and resilience

Associated Press WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — A museum in Virginia has nearly finished restoring the nation’s oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children. The Bray School operated in Williamsburg from 1760 to 1774. Hundreds of mostly enslaved students learned to read through a curriculum that justified slavery. The former schoolhouse was identified on the campus of

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Harris assails Trump for saying Liz Cheney should have rifles ‘shooting at her’

Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Kamala Harris said Friday it was “disqualifying” for Donald Trump to say former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the former president’s most prominent Republican critics, should have rifles “shooting at her” to see how she feels about sending troops to fight. The Democratic vice president has campaigned extensively with

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Toxic smog cloaks India’s capital as Diwali firecrackers push air pollution to hazardous levels

NEW DELHI (AP) — A thick layer of toxic smog is cloaking India’s capital as smoke from firecrackers used to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, pushes air pollution to hazardous levels. New Delhi’s air quality index plunged into the “severe” category, according to India’s main environmental monitoring agency. In many areas, levels of

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Australian judge rules senator broke race law by telling rival legislator to return to Pakistan

Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian judge has ruled that anti-immigration party leader Sen. Pauline Hanson breached a racial anti-discrimination law by crudely telling Pakistan-born Sen. Mehreen Faruqi to return to her homeland. Faruqi welcomed Friday’s ruling as a vindication for all victims of racism. Faruqi sued Hanson in Federal Court over a

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Texas hospitals must now ask patients whether they’re in the US legally. Here’s how it works

Texas hospital patients will be asked if they’re in the U.S. legally starting Friday. The new policy stems from an order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and it escalates the state’s clash with the Biden administration over immigration. Abbott intends for hospitals to track spending on patients who aren’t legal residents so the state can

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Trump and Vance make anti-transgender attacks central to their campaign’s closing argument

Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump has made his opposition to transgender rights central to his closing argument before Election Day, using demeaning language and misrepresentations to paint an exceedingly narrow slice of the U.S. population as a threat to national identity. The former president and Republican nominee’s campaign and aligned political action committees

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AP-NORC poll finds skepticism of nationwide election tallies, especially among Republicans

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s deep partisan divisions extend to trust in the vote tallies for this year’s election, as a new poll finds that Republicans are much more skeptical than Democrats that ballots will be counted accurately. Voters generally show more distrust toward nationwide voting results compared to the tallies done by

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Takeaways from The Associated Press investigation into sexual abuse of incarcerated women

Associated Press As part of a sweeping two-year investigation into prison labor, The Associated Press found that correctional staff nationwide have been accused of using inmate work assignments to sexually abuse incarcerated women, luring them to isolated spots, out of view of security cameras. Many cases follow a similar pattern: Accusers are retaliated against, while

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Ballot-sorting machine woes slow count in Oregon county with pivotal US House race

OREGON CITY, Ore. (AP) — Election officials in Oregon’s third-largest county say the vote count is being delayed because of problems with a ballot-sorting machine. Clackamas County elections officials said Thursday that the sorter began experiencing mechanical issues after ballots were mailed to voters. While it’s under repair, elections workers are processing ballots using hand

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AP sources: White House altered record of Biden’s ‘garbage’ remarks despite stenographer concerns

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers tasked with recording the president’s remarks for posterity. That’s according to two U.S. government officials who spoke on

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UN extends mandate for UN peacekeepers in Western Sahara, with Algeria protesting over human rights

Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has voted to extend the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the  Western Sahara for another year Thursday with Algeria refusing to vote in protest at the resolution’s failure to include a reference to monitoring human rights in the disputed north African territory. The

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Trump meets with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, but top community leaders skipped the event

Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Donald Trump met with Arab Americans in the nation’s largest Arab-majority city as the Republican presidential nominee works to court the potentially decisive group despite his history of Islamophobic rhetoric and policy. Trump was greeted with cheers and applause Friday from a modest crowd at The Great Commoner restaurant

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Russia’s torture of Ukrainian civilians, prisoners is a crime against humanity, UN expert panel says

Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts say Russia’s torture of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war is a crime against humanity. Chair of the independent investigation commission investigating human rights violations in Ukraine said Thursday that the panel previously described Russia’s widespread and systematic use of torture in Ukraine and Russia

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Canadian Mounties bust massive drug ‘super lab’ linked to transnational organized crime

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian police dismantled what they say is the largest, most sophisticated illicit drug “super lab” in the country. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police believe organized crime ran the operation where there was mass-production and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine across Canada and internationally. Officers served search warrants last week on

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Cornel West loses Supreme Court bid to get on the Pennsylvania presidential ballot

WASHINGTON (AP) — Third-party presidential candidate Cornel West has lost a Supreme Court bid to be included on the presidential ballot in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. Justice Samuel Alito refused his emergency appeal in a brief order Thursday. Alito handles appeals originating in Pennsylvania. The liberal academic would likely draw more votes away

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Amazon reports boost in quarterly profits, exceeds revenue estimates as it invests in AI

AP Technology Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Amazon reported a boost in its quarterly profits Thursday and exceeded revenue estimates. The report sent the company’s stock up in after-hours trading. The Seattle-based tech giant posted a revenue of $158.9 billion — that’s higher than the $157.28 billion analysts had expected. Amazon said earned $15.3 billion

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World may be merely scratching the surface on the scope of climate-changing methane emissions

The amount of the powerful climate-changing gas methane spilling out of oil and gas equipment, coal mines and landfills globally is nowhere near fully documented and what is known is “only scratching the surface” according to the CEO of one the companies that tracks methane with its own satellites. Rather than improving, the methane emissions

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Prosecutors say lawyers for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs want to ‘hijack’ criminal case to fight civil claims

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors say lawyers for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs are trying to “hijack” the music mogul’s criminal case from them by asking a judge to force early disclosure of evidence, including his accusers’ identities. The prosecutors urged a judge in papers filed late Wednesday to reject the requests, saying the

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Chicago school board head ousted because of social media posts deemed antisemitic, misogynistic

CHICAGO (AP) — The president of the Chicago school board resigned Thursday just a week after he was appointed because of social media posts deemed antisemitic, anti-women and lending credence to a conspiracy theory about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Rev. Mitchell Johnson’s resignation came at the request of Mayor Brandon Johnson. The mayor called

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Hawaii attorney general investigation into deadly Lahaina wildfire won’t lead to criminal charges

HONOLULU (AP) — An investigation by the Hawaii attorney general’s office into the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century won’t lead to any criminal charges. Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez launched an investigation soon after last year’s wind-whipped Maui wildfires that claimed 102 lives. The Fire Safety Research Institute was selected to provide

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Biden hosts formal ceremony to celebrate federal support for Hispanic-serving institutions

Associated Press President Joe Biden hosted a formal ceremony Wednesday to publicly celebrate his executive order establishing an initiative to increase funding for Hispanic-serving institutions. Signed over the summer, the order also created a board of advisors on HSIs, which are not-for-profit schools with a full-time equivalent undergraduate student enrollment that is at least a

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Man pleads guilty to booking politicians and professors to brothels near Washington and Boston

Associated Press MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — A second person has pleaded guilty to helping run a high-end brothel network whose clients around Boston and Washington, D.C., included elected officials, military officers, professors and lawyers, according to prosecutors. They say Junmyung Lee of Dedham, Massachusetts, served primarily as the booking agent for the prostitution network. He

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Mississippi legislative leaders advocate Medicaid expansion, heading to conflict with the governor

Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s Republican legislative leaders say they plan to push for Medicaid expansion to cover working people who earn to little to afford private insurance. It’s a position that business groups have advocated but that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves opposes. House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann spoke

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‘Dances with Wolves’ actor is again indicted on sexual abuse charges in Nevada

Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor. The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court, which includes Las Vegas, expands on

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As summers get hotter, Greece’s seasonal firefighters protest for permanent jobs

Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Angry seasonal firefighters have clashed with police in Greece’s Civil Protection Ministry, during a protest to demand permanent positions as their contracts expire following a grueling wildfire season. Hundreds of people took part in the protest. They are among some 2,500 seasonal firefighters who are now unemployed for at

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Harris tries to turn Gaza protests into a way to energize the crowds at her rallies

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters can create awkward moments for presidential candidates. They interrupt, heckle and, oftentimes, knock a candidate off track. But Vice President Kamala Harris is trying a new strategy late in the campaign to turn what would otherwise be awkward interactions into moments of energy used to rally her supporters and

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