National-World

Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders insist no decisions can be taken about the future of Ukraine without its consent or behind their backs. Demonstrations of solidarity with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are mounting barely a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Zelenskyy attended an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. Ukraine’s position

Associated Press MILAN (AP) — Italy’s deputy premier, Matteo Salvini, is sounding defiant as he awaits a verdict in Sicily for preventing some 100 migrants from disembarking a rescue boat in 2019 when he was interior minister. Salvini, who leads the Euroskeptic, anti-migrant League, told a rally last week that “defending the borders, the dignity,

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s leftist Social Democratic Party has withdrawn from negotiations to form a pro-European coalition government, extending political turmoil that has gripped the European Union country after a top court annulled a presidential election. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the PSD, said Thursday that his party was abandoning negotiations with three traditional

Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Two days of meetings on Myanmar’s violent political crisis are being held in the Thai capital Bangkok. The talks are the latest in a long series of regional discussions that have made no headway in restoring peace to the war-torn Southeast Asian nation. Thursday’s discussions were attended by foreign ministers

Associated Press Writers SEATAC, Washington (AP) — Background music is no longer an afterthought at many airports, which are hiring local musicians and carefully curating playlists to help lighten travelers’ moods. London’s Heathrow Airport built a stage to showcase emerging British performers for the first time this summer. The program was so successful the airport

LONDON (AP) — The future of the Northern Ireland-based Harland and Wolff shipbuilder, which famously built the Titanic, appears to have been safeguarded after the Spanish state-owned business Navantia stepped in to buy it. The purchase of the company is subject to regulatory approval. The company was placed into a type of bankruptcy in September

AP Technology Writer CLONDALKIN, Ireland (AP) — Dozens of massive data centers are consuming more electricity than all of the urban homes in Ireland and starting to wear out the warm welcome that brought them here. Now, a country that made itself a computing factory for Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok is wondering whether

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of causing the deaths of thousands of Palestinians by systematically restricting and targeting Gaza’s water supply in a campaign that amounted to “acts of genocide.” The group alleged that countless infants, children and adults have died from malnutrition, dehydration and illness as a

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Flights have been grounded and people told to stay indoors as a thick layer of smog has engulfed Bosnia’s capital of Sarajevo. Thursday’s fog had residents virtually choking on toxic air. The Swiss air quality technology company IQAir put Sarajevo’s air quality index, or AQI, at a “very unhealthy” 225, ranking

Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s central bank has warned about “heightened uncertainty” as it kept interest rates on hold after inflation moved further above target even at a time when the British economy is flatlining at best. The Bank of England’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee kept its main interest rate unchanged at 4.75%

Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Vietnam says U.S. arms manufacturers could help the southeast Asian country build up its armed forces. Ambassador Marc Knapper said at a press briefing during an international arms expo in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Thursday that U.S. and Vietnamese companies could work together to

Israeli airstrikes slammed into two schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday, a Health Ministry official said, killing at least 17 people including five children in one of the schools. Rescue workers said at 30 people were also wounded across both locations. Israel said Hamas operated command centers inside the shelters, without providing

Associated Press KERAVA, Finland (AP) — People in Finland have been left unsettled by expansionist neighbor Russia and inspired by its recent accession to NATO, are increasingly taking national self-defense into their own hands. The popularity of military training has soared in recent months in the Nordic country, where few places reflect the growing fad

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — The Indian military says government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed five suspected militants in a gunbattle. Soldiers and police launched a joint operation on Thursday after receiving a tip that rebels were hiding in a village in southern Kulgam district. The militants opened “indiscriminate and heavy volumes of fire” at the

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was whisked back to New York by plane and helicopter Thursday to face new federal charges of stalking and murder, which could bring the death penalty if he’s convicted. Luigi Mangione was held without bail following a Manhattan federal court appearance, capping

Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma man who killed a 10-year-old girl in a cannibalistic fantasy died by lethal injection Thursday in the nation’s 25th and final execution of the year. Kevin Ray Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. It was Oklahoma’s fourth execution of

Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The number of people killed and missing remains unclear two days after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. More than 48 hours after the quake, the Ministry of Health said the number of confirmed deaths reached 10 early Friday, with the number expected

Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Before Christa McAuliffe was an astronaut, she was a vibrant teacher in New England keen on showing her students how everyday people left extraordinary marks on U.S. history. Nearly four decades later, a new documentary focuses on how she still inspires others and less on her fate aboard the

AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. life expectancy jumped last year, and preliminary data suggests there may be another — much smaller — improvement this year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released a report on U.S. deaths in 2023. It showed a decline in death rates for almost all

Associated Press ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — After more than a decade as a refugee in Turkey, Ahmed al-Kassem decided to bring his family back home to Syria only days after the fall of Bashar Assad. He wanted back to his old life and to introduce his children — all but one of whom were born

Associated Press The Justice Department has unsealed a civil complaint alleging CVS Pharmacy Inc. and various subsidiaries filled unlawful prescriptions in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act. Wednesday’s complaint also alleges CVS sought reimbursement from federal health care programs for unlawful prescriptions in violation of the False Claims Act. CVS is the largest pharmacy

NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump fights to overturn his hush money criminal conviction, the one New York Democrat with authority to grant him a pardon signaled that she would need to see some remorse from the president-elect first. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was asked Wednesday if she would consider pardoning Trump, after

Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A trailing candidate in a very close election last month for the North Carolina Supreme Court has asked that court to get involved legally in his race. Jefferson Griffin is a Republican member of the state Court of Appeals who trails Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs by about 730

Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Alberta’s premier responded to President-elect Donald Trump’s trolling of Canada by saying the trade deficit with the country is due to billions of raw materials being sent south which creates trillions of wealth in America. Trump claims the United States “subsidizes” Canada and is threating a 25% tariff on all

Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — For more than a decade, farmers in parts of southwest Georgia haven’t been able to drill new irrigation wells to the Floridian aquifer. That’s because Georgia put a halt to farmers drilling new wells or taking additional water from streams and lakes in 2012. Change is coming, though. Gov. Brian

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump delivered a likely death blow to bipartisan congressional budget negotiations on Wednesday, rejecting the measure as full of giveaways to Democrats after billionaire ally Elon Musk whipped up outrage toward the bill and cheered on Republican lawmakers who announced their opposition. Trump’s joint statement with Vice President-elect

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York prosecutors are using a 9/11-era anti-terrorism law in their case against the man charged with gunning down UnitedHealthcare’s CEO outside a midtown Manhattan hotel. Luigi Mangione was indicted on charges of murder as an act of terrorism, under a state law that allows for stiffer sentences when

Associated Press Arizona’s governor wants to repeal the state law requiring an annual abortion report. Democrat Katie Hobbs says it can infringe on privacy for residents, even if it doesn’t collect information such as patients’ names and birthdates. She made her call to stop the reporting requirements as the state detailed its abortion data covering

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate just days before a deadline when federal funding runs out. The sudden decision to make new demands has sent Congress spiraling even as lawmakers are trying

Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The brother of the late New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has pleaded guilty to threatening to carry out a shooting at the University of Connecticut and to kill three people outside of the state last year. Dennis Hernandez entered the plea Wednesday in federal court in Hartford.

MONTREAL (AP) — An arson attack is suspected to have targeted a synagogue in a Montreal suburb, the second time it was hit by an incendiary device in a little more than a year. A police spokeswoman says Montreal police received a 911 call shortly before 3 a.m. about a fire at the Congregation Beth

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Jay-Z’s lawyers are asking a judge to speedily extract the rapper from a lawsuit in which a woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by Jay-Z and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs when she was 13. The unidentified woman recently added Jay-Z to her lawsuit against Combs in Manhattan federal court. In

Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — An appeals court says New Jersey’s top law enforcement official overstepped his authority last year when he took control of the police force in the state’s third-largest city soon after Paterson police fatally shot a man barricaded in an apartment bathroom. The New Jersey Appellate Division said Wednesday that

TOWSON, Md. (AP) — Investigators in Baltimore County are looking into whether a shooting and related vehicle crash that left one person dead and nine injured Tuesday night are connected to a nearby homicide earlier this month. Officials say all 10 of the victims were found inside a flipped vehicle that burst into flames after

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott acknowledged another $2 billion in donations in a blog post on Wednesday, bringing the total she’s given away since 2019 to $19.2 billion. She also revealed new information about how she was managing her wealth, saying she had directed advisors to invest her

ROCKVILLE, Conn. (AP) — A man accused of stalking and harassing UConn basketball star Paige Bueckers has pleaded guilty to a stalking charge. A court clerk said 40-year-old Robert Cole Parmalee received a one-year suspended sentence and three year’s probation on Wednesday. He originally faced three charges, but those were substituted for second-degree stalking. Parmalee

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Fred Lorenzen, a NASCAR Hall of Famer and the 1965 Daytona champion, died Wednesday. He was 89. NASCAR released a statement saying Lorenzen had died. A cause of death wasn’t given, but Lorenzen had been in declining health for years. In 1998, he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers.

MIAMI (AP) — A friend of brothers who are prominent in luxury real estate in Florida and New York and are charged with sex trafficking and assault has surrendered to face an allegation that he helped two of them rape a woman nearly a decade ago. Ohad Fisherman returned early from his honeymoon in Japan

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge who presided over the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers members said Wednesday that it would be “frightening” if the anti-government group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, is pardoned for orchestrating a violent plot to keep Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Associated Press A 22-year-old man has admitted to a plot intended to kill multiple people at a political party headquarters in Michigan and at a nearby bar because he associated both places with gay people. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Michigan says that Mack Davis pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Flint to committing

Associated Press The Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte is reeling from Cyclone Chido, the most intense storm to hit the French territory in 90 years, according to officials. At least 22 people have been killed since Chido made landfall on Saturday, as high winds swept away entire neighborhoods, damaged major infrastructure and uprooted trees. While

SCOTCHTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Scholars are hailing the discovery of a fossilized mastodon jaw discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his upstate New York home this year. The mastodon jaw and some other bone fragments were found in late September in a backyard near Scotchtown, a hamlet about 70

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed legislation requiring more oversight of youth residential treatment facilities. The vote Wednesday is a feat for hotel heiress Paris Hilton who has spent years lobbying lawmakers to regulate the industry. The bill gained overwhelming bipartisan support in the House after passing the Senate last week. It will now

Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president has unveiled a bilingual “hymn” to Mexican migrants living in the United States, even as migrants from other countries continue to suffer abuses, delays and hostility in Mexico. President Claudia Sheinbaum used her morning news briefing on Wednesday to unveil the song “Migrant Hymn.” The lyrics include

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s third interest rate cut of the year will likely have consequences for debt, savings, auto loans, mortgages and other forms of borrowing by consumers and businesses. But with inflation pressures still elevated and with concern that President-elect Donald Trump’s policies could fuel inflation, the Fed indicated

AP Sports Writer CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The Ivy League has announced its football programs will compete in the FCS playoffs beginning next season. The league said Wednesday the decision to compete in the playoffs followed a year-long process initiated by its Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Mason Shipp is a senior football player at Yale who

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan resident has pleaded guilty to helping establish a secret police station in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government. Chen Jinping, 60, entered the guilty plea on a single count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government in Brooklyn federal court