National-World

LONDON (AP) — British rail travel is returning to normal after problems with a radio system used by drivers and signalers nationwide caused widespread disruption during the morning commute. National Rail, which represents train operating companies, says the fault led to “short-notice” delays Friday and cancellations throughout the U.K. Lines affected included the Elizabeth Line

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat says in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Moscow doesn’t want a war with the United States but will use “all means” to defend its interests. Sergey Lavrov argued in the interview that was released Friday that while Russia and the U.S. are officially not

AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — China has banned exports of key materials used for a wide range of products, including smartphones, electric vehicles, radar systems and CT scanners, swiping back at Washington after it expanded export controls to include dozens of Chinese companies that make equipment used to produce computer chips. Both sides say

Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The LGBTQ+ community in Russia has been under pressure for a decade, but the situation has worsened in the past year. That’s because the country’s Supreme Court effectively outlawed any LGBTQ+ activism, exposing those involved with that community to criminal prosecution. Public representations of gay and transgender people are

Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrats in Michigan are pressing to pass reproductive health care legislation before the party loses its majority with the new legislative session next year. A bill to protect digital reproductive health data including data logged on menstrual cycle tracking apps is a Democratic priority as lawmakers meet this month.

Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus is cracking down on its LGBTQ+ community, detaining and beating nearly three dozen of them in the last three months. Authorities also are weighing repressive measures to ban “gay propaganda,” similar to laws passed in recent years in close ally Russia under President Vladimir Putin. One activist says

Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Three mountain climbers — two from the U.S. and one from Canada — missing for five days on Aoraki, New Zealand’s tallest peak, are believed to have died in a fall, the authorities said Friday. The men’s bodies were not found. But based on footprints glimpsed in the

Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Arsonists have extensively damaged a Melbourne synagogue in what Australia’s prime minister has condemned as an antisemitic attack on Australian values. Police say a witness who had come to Adass Israel Synagogue to pray saw two masked people spreading an accelerant inside the building before dawn Friday. About 60

NEW YORK (AP) — A baby survived a high-speed police chase in New York City that ended with a passenger in the car being fatally shot by officers and the driver wounded. Police on Thursday only discovered there was an infant inside after they had stopped the car and fired multiple rounds. That’s according to

AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Although the friendly competition is fierce each day among the four talented young pass rushers on the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive front, this week was a whole new tune. Defensive tackle Braden Fiske won the NFL’s defensive rookie of the month award Thursday. But he had to share

PHOENIX (AP) — A woman who conspired to kill her two children is competent to stand trial in the Arizona death of her estranged husband as well. The decision about next steps in Lori Vallow Daybell’s case came on Thursday. Vallow Daybell has drawn national attention because of her children’s deaths and her marriage to

AP National Writer INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — There’s more than just school pride and bragging rights to all that bellyaching over who might be in and who might be out of college football’s first 12-team playoff. Try the more than $115 million that will be spread across the conferences at the end of the season, all

Associated Press/Report for America TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Environmentalists are heading to court to try to stop a plan to drill for oil in the watershed of a vulnerable north Florida river. The challenge brought by the conservation group Apalachicola Riverkeeper against the state’s environmental protection agency comes as the department has faced a wave

Associated Press SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — As bitcoin reached historic highs, surpassing $100,000 for the first tim e, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was triumphant on Thursday about his big bet on the cryptocurrency. The adoption of bitcoin — which has been legal tender in the Central American nation since 2021 — never

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Thirteen children under the age of 14 have died at hospitals in central Mexico, and authorities suspect contaminated IV feeding bags. The federal Health Department ordered doctors across the country not to use IV nutrition bags made by the company Productos Hospitalarios. The outbreak of the drug-resistant bacteria was detected starting

Associated Press The U.S. Justice Department announced this week that an investigation into the Memphis Police Department after the beating death of Tyre Nichols had found a pattern of unlawful use of excessive force and discrimination against the city’s Black residents. The Memphis investigation is one of 12 similar investigations of state and local law

Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that the Memphis Police Department committed a host of civil rights violations, including using excessive force, making illegal traffic stops and disproportionately targeting Black people in the majority Black city. The 17-month investigation was launched after officers fatally beat Tyre Nichols after

AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Shortly before he was to be flogged and imprisoned for eight years, Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran. His weekslong journey would take him from Tehran, through rural Iranian villages, on foot across a mountainous borderland and ultimately to Hamburg, Germany. As arduous and dangerous as the trip was, Rasoulof’s

AP Health Writer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield says it won’t tie payments to the length of time a patient went under anesthesia. The insurance giant is reversing a stated policy change after widespread outcry. It wasn’t clear how many states would have been affected. The American Society for Anesthesiologists said in a news release

Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — Authorities say a father is being accused of fatally shooting his adult son with Down syndrome at a home in East Texas after claiming he had mistaken him for an intruder and then later burning his body. The Sabine County Sheriff’s Office says Michael C. Howard told investigators he was

NEW YORK (AP) — The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever discovered will be on view in New York starting this weekend, American Museum of Natural History officials announced Wednesday. The giant stegosaurus fossil, dubbed “Apex,” is 11 feet (3.3 meters) tall and 27 feet (8.2 meters) nose to tail. The display will start in a

AP Business Writer Chi-Chi’s is making a comeback. The Mexican chain said this week that it plans to open some new restaurants next year. The locations would be the first since Chi-Chi’s filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003. Michael McDermott, the son of Chi-Chi’s founder, said he struck an agreement with Hormel Foods to open

Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special tribunal in Bangladesh has banned the publication of any speeches by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is in exile in India after being ousted in August after mass protests. The decision came a day after Hasina made her first public speech in a virtual address to

Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The powerful earthquake that struck in Northern California on Thursday prompted a brief tsunami warning affecting about 5 million people along a stretch of the West Coast — from Northern California to Oregon — before being canceled. The National Weather Service says most tsunamis happen when there is a

Associated Press GREENVALE, N.Y. (AP) — Not yet even in office, Donald Trump said Thursday he’s already accomplished more than President Joe Biden did in his entire term, an outsized claim by the president-elect just a month out from the election. Trump, who has been largely ensconced at his Mar-a-Lago club in recent weeks as

AP Sports Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Las Vegas Stadium Authority approved the lease, non-relocation and development documents Thursday to clear the last major hurdles for the Athletics to construct a stadium on the Strip and bring Major League Baseball to the expanding sports market. Other details would still need to be worked out,

AP Film Writer Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche became friends while playing lovers in “Wuthering Heights.” A few years later, they would share the screen again in Anthony Minghella’s “The English Patient,” that historical epic that would take them all the way to the Oscars. They’ve kept in touch in the years since, but they

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Plans for hotels and pickleball courts at Florida state parks could be squashed before they get started — unlike earlier this year when Gov. Ron DeSantis faced bipartisan backlash over park development plans. Sen. Gayle Harrell filed a bill Wednesday that would focus recreation at state parks on trails rather than

Associated Press PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, is reemerging with a campaign to back President-elect Donald Trump’s imperiled cabinet selections. The group’s president Kevin Roberts said it will be spending $1 million to put pressure on senators unwilling to support Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to

Associated Presss WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy recently visited Israel and Qatar for high-level talks on landing a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. Steve Witkoff met separately in recent weeks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. That’s according to

Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — A Hamas official said Thursday that international mediators have resumed negotiating with the militant group and Israel over a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he was hopeful a deal to end the 14-month war was within reach. Ceasefire negotiations were halted last month when Qatar suspended talks with mediators from

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — California will appeal a judge’s decision to reject a lawsuit over a measure allowing the city of Huntington Beach to require voter identification at the polls. State officials said Thursday they plan to continue to fight over the measure in the court of appeal. An Orange County Superior Court judge

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s soccer federation leader has urged fans to keep the country on a pro-European path before a state presidential election between a far-right populist and a reformist opponent. Razvan Burleanu, a member of FIFA’s ruling council, spoke in a video message. Burleanu said “through European values, we are building not only

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president will ask President-elect Donald Trump that, if he deports migrants, to deport non-Mexicans directly to their home countries, rather than dumping them at the Mexican border. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday she hopes to reach an agreement with Trump so that “they send people who come from other countries

Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Fans in Missouri will be able to bet on sports next year under a ballot measure that narrowly won approval. State election officials on Thursday certified that the sports betting initiative passed with 50.05% support in the November election. Because the margin was so close, there is a

WASHINGTON (AP) — An African subsidiary of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company Inc. will pay a criminal penalty of more than $122 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into a yearslong scheme to bribe South African government officials. The Justice Department says the scheme involved bribes to officials with South Africa’s state-owned

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says it concluded more than 1,850 civil cases this year, a 3.4% increase over 2023, and charged 121 criminal defendants, a 17.6% increase over the previous year. The agency also issued $1.7 billion in financial penalties, more than double last year’s total. Thursday’s report was the

AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA announced more delays Thursday in sending astronauts back to the moon more than 50 years after Apollo. Administrator Bill Nelson said the next mission in the Artemis program — flying four astronauts around the moon and back – is now targeted for April 2026. It had

Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — After a nationwide blackout left millions without electricity for several hours in Cuba, the power grid has been restored, authorities said, adding that scheduled power outages will now resume. The latest blackout, the third one of this severity in less than two months, occurred in the early hours of Wednesday,

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli court has rejected a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the number of days each week that he’ll have to testify when he finally takes the the stand in his years-long corruption trial. Netanyahu’s lawyers have made numerous requests to delay his testimony, which is now expected to

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguay has accused a Chinese diplomat of interfering in its domestic affairs and given him 24 hours to leave the country, escalating tensions over the South American nation’s long friendship with Taiwan. Paraguay’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief statement on Thursday that it had revoked the visa of