Month: August 2023

By ISSAM ADWAN Associated Press GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The global cat cafe trend, where people pay to have coffee and hang out with cats, has finally come to the besieged Gaza Strip. In the impoverished Palestinian enclave run by the Hamas militant group and crippled by a 17-year blockade, residents seeking to

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Associated Press NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The United Nations peacekeeping force in the ethnically divided Cyprus says it will block road construction by breakaway Turkish Cypriots that would encroach on a U.N.-controlled buffer zone. The road could also raise tensions on the Mediterranean island nation. The spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on four Russian intelligence operatives accused of direct involvement in the 2020 poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a Russian politician and corruption investigator who is one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Alexei

By TRISHA AHMED Associated Press/Report for America MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis City Council members have narrowly passed a measure that would establish a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers. Under the measure, drivers would be paid at least $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute. It would only apply for the portion of the

SHIRLEY, Mass. (AP) — A large ice chunk fell from the sky and hit a house in Massachusetts on Sunday, damaging the roof of the home. Jeff Ilg said he and his wife suspect the ice fell off an airplane traveling to Boston Logan International Airport. The couple and their two children were not hurt

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s powerful paramilitary has been singled out by a leading rights group and 30 United Nations experts with accusations of rape and sexual violence against women in separate statements, as the country enters its fourth month of conflict. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thursday the

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — After Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose in the trailer for the upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” stoked criticism of antisemitism, the conductor’s children have come to the defense of the actor. The teaser trailer for “Maestro,” which Cooper directs and stars in, debuted Tuesday and offered

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has imposed sanctions on two Turkey-backed Syrian militias and the groups’ leaders accused of human rights abuses in Syria’s northwestern, opposition-held enclave. The groups sanctioned on Thursday are based in the town of Afrin, which has been under Turkish-backed opposition forces since 2018, following

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City Chiefs superfan known as “ChiefsAholic” and familiar for attending games dressed as a wolf in the NFL team’s gear has been indicted by a federal grand jury that accuses him of armed robbery and money laundering in a string of bank heists across four states that netted

CINCINNATI (AP) — Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon has been found not guilty of aggravated menacing in a January traffic dispute. A judge on Thursday acquitted Mixon of the misdemeanor charge after a four-day bench trial in Hamilton County. A woman accused the 27-year-old of pointing a gun at her as their cars were

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda’s president has slammed the World Bank, calling the global lender “insufferable” for holding up new loans after the East African country enacted an anti-gay bill that includes the death penalty in some cases. A statement on Thursday by President Yoweri Museveni said he was struggling to

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City has directed its employees to delete TikTok from their city-issued phones. The city joins the federal government and more than half of U.S. states in banning the use of the Chinese-owned social media app on government-owned devices. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams says the city’s top information

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalans will select a new president Sunday between former first lady Sandra Torres in her third bid for the presidency and Bernardo Arévalo, son of ex-President Juan José Arévalo. They have staked out ideologically divergent positions leaving Guatemalans with a clear choice between a continuation of

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City police say a 28-year-old man fatally shot his three children and his estranged wife before taking his own life. Police Sgt. Gary Knight said Thursday that officers responded to a reported domestic disturbance at the family’s home Wednesday night. Knight says Ruben Armendariz shot and killed 29-year-old Cassandra Flores;

By ALEX VEIGA and MATT OTT AP Business Writers The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in more than 20 years, grim news for would-be homebuyers already challenged by a housing market that remains competitive due to a dearth of homes for sale. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s top police officer says the former and current heads of the country’s spy agency and five other police and intelligence officers have been accused of abuse of power and criminal conspiracy in a scandal ahead of an upcoming early election. Stefan Hamran says the seven conspired to obstruct investigations in

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorians will choose a new president Sunday, less than two weeks after the South American country was shaken by the assassination of one of the candidates. The winner of the vote faces a universal demand for safety, but the incoming administration will find it hard

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to welcome the leaders of Japan and South Korea for the first summit of his presidency at the Camp David presidential retreat. Biden’s meeting on Friday with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida comes as the

By LESLIE AMBRIZ Asssociated Press WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.. (AP) — Director Ángel Manuel Soto didn’t think too much about the “Latino side of things” when visually crafting DC’s “Blue Beetle” alongside Mexican screenwriter Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. The film — starring “Cobra Kai’s” Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes, aka Blue Beetle and DC’s first Latino superhero —

By CORA LEWIS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Social media is full of scammers promising guaranteed returns on investment, and consumers lost $3.8 billion to them last year just in the U.S., according to the Federal Trade Commission. That’s twice as much as in 2021. Such scams are also a problem globally. Those who

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The task force created nearly eight years ago to chart Russia’s path back into track and field after its doping scandal holds its final meeting this week before being disbanded. That hardly means the country is in good standing. Questions remain over how to make

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — Citing errors by police, a Mississippi judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of two white men accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who was making a delivery. Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Case, are charged with attempted first-degree

By JACK DURA Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Dramatic video footage of a shooting ambush last month in Fargo that left one police officer dead and two others and a bystander wounded was shown Thursday, highlighting the surprise nature of the attack while the police responded to a routine traffic crash. North Dakota Attorney

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — President Joe Biden has traveled to Pennsylvania to privately pay his respects to the mother of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. Biden arrived before visiting hours Thursday for Ellen Casey, a former Pennsylvania first lady, at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton. Casey, the widow of Pennsylvania Gov.

By JOHN WAWROW AP Sports Writer ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Damar Hamlin has little more to prove to Bills coach Sean McDermott in the third-year safety’s bid to resume his football career after a near-death experience during a game at Cincinnati in January. “From my non-medical standpoint, I think he’s checked all the boxes