Month: January 2024

By MARGIE MASON and ROBIN McDOWELL Associated Press In a sweeping two-year investigation, The Associated Press found goods linked to U.S. prisoners wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour and Coca-Cola. They are on the shelves of

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has congratulated Italy after tennis player Jannik Sinner became the country’s first man to win a Grand Slam singles title in nearly a half century. Sinner won the Australian Open title on Sunday and Francis made the acknowledgement during an audience with the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. The

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Chief Koji Sato has apologized to customers, suppliers and dealers for flawed testing at a group company, which follows similar problems in recent years. The latest woes surfacing Monday at Japan’s top automaker involves testing required for Japanese government approval at Toyota Industries, which makes

By ROBIN McDOWELL and MARGIE MASON Associated Press ANGOLA, La. (AP) — A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison. Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Pedro Almodóvar has finally gotten around to that memoir admirers have wanted him to write. Sort of. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has a book out this fall, “The Last Dream,” that publisher HarperVia is calling a “debut collection of short stories.” Almodóvar, who has made a

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland faces a runoff presidential election in February between a former prime minister expected to have the advantage and a former foreign minister who negotiated the country’s recent entry into NATO. Ex-Prime Minister Alexander Stubb won Sunday’s first round as polls widely predicted, with 27.2% of votes.

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — As Hungary continues to oppose a 50-billion-euro ($54 billion) support package for Ukraine, other EU leaders are losing patience. After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked the aid in December, the other 26 EU heads of state and governments are looking at other ways to unblock the

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — King Charles III and his daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales, have both left a private London hospital following unrelated medical treatments that have made the health of the royal family headlines news in the United Kingdom. The 75-year-old monarch was admitted to the London Clinic on Friday

By The Associated Press Elon Musk’s social media platform X has blocked some searches for Taylor Swift as pornographic deepfake images of the singer have circulated online. Attempts to search for her name without quote marks on the site Monday resulted in an error message and a prompt for users to retry their search, which

By TIA GOLDENBERG, NAJIB JOBAIN and JACK JEFFERY Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli document obtained Monday spelled out allegations against a dozen U.N. employees the country says took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault — claiming seven stormed into Israeli territory, including one who participated in a kidnapping and another who

By ALBERT AJI and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a Damascus suburb on Monday killed and wounded several people, the Syrian military said in a statement carried by state media. Opposition activists said the area hit was a stronghold of Iran-backed groups. There was no immediate comment from

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — After 46 years, Steve Replin has decided to give up his office space. Replin, who has a law practice and acts as an alternative lender in Denver, is adapting to the changing preferences of clients, who would rather conduct business online, or in a less

By KIMBERLY PALMER of NerdWallet Romance scams are increasingly common, with consumers losing $1.3 billion to them in 2022, according to Federal Trade Commission reports. While anyone can fall victim to a romance scam, there are strategies you can use to reduce your risk. First, be wary of online relationships that move quickly. Common red

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s government has signed an agreement with the United States to acquire 24 U.S. F-35 fighter jets as part of a deal worth about $6.6 billion, the biggest single purchase for the Czech military. The Czech defense minister and U.S. ambassador signed a memorandum of understanding for the deal. The

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press Lawmakers in more than a half-dozen U.S. states are pushing laws to define antisemitism, triggering debates about free speech and bringing complicated world politics into statehouses. The definition lays out standards for determining in which instances criticism of Israel amounts to antisemitism. But some, including an author of the definition,

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese moon explorer is up and running Monday after several tense days without the sunlight it needs to generate power. Japan’s first lunar mission hit its target in a precision touchdown on Jan. 20, but landed the wrong way up, leaving its solar panels unable to

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer A court in Hong Kong has ordered China Evergrande, the world’s most deeply indebted company with more than $300 billion in liabilities, to be liquidated. The decision Monday came after the company failed to win support from its creditors for a plan to restructure the debt. Evergrande’s own Hong

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Chair Jerome Powell will enter this week’s Federal Reserve meeting in a much more desirable position than he likely ever expected: Inflation is getting close to the Fed’s target rate, the economy is still growing at a healthy pace, consumers keep spending and the unemployment rate

By SYLVIE CORBET and JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press JOSSIGNY, France (AP) — Protesting farmers encircled Paris with traffic-snarling barricades Monday, using hundreds of lumbering tractors and mounds of hay bales to block highways leading to France’s capital to pressure the government over the future of their industry, which has been shaken by repercussions of the

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s election commission on Monday formally registered President Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the March presidential election, a vote in which he’s all but certain to win another six-year term in office. Putin, 71, is running as an independent, although he relies on the tight control over Russia’s political system that

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has unveiled Italy’s big development plan for Africa at a summit of African leaders. The government is hoping the plan will help stem migration numbers, diversify energy sources and forge a new relationship between Europe and the continent. Two dozen African leaders, top

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will start implementing a new requirement for the developers of major artificial intelligence systems to disclose their safety test results to the government. The White House AI Council is scheduled to meet Monday to review progress made on the executive order that President Joe

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is marking Monday’s 15th anniversary of a landmark federal pay equity law with new action to help close gaps in pay for federal employees and employees of federal contractors. Despite progress since the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law in January

GENEVA (AP) — Shares of Holcim Ltd. have jumped Monday after the Swiss-based cement and building materials company announced plans to spin off its North American unit and list its shares in the U.S. Sunday’s announcement of the listing and spinoff comes 15 months after Holcim’s French subsidiary Lafarge pleaded guilty to paying millions of

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government says it will ban the sale of disposable vapes and limit their cornucopia of flavors to prevent children from becoming addicted to nicotine. It also says it will stick to a contentious proposal to ban today’s young people from ever buying cigarettes. It is currently

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The CEO overseeing Saudi Arabia’s royal commission for its historic al-Ula site has been arrested on corruption and money-laundering charges over some $55 million in contracts. The charges target Amr bin Saleh Abdulrahman al-Madani in part over “illegally obtaining” contracts to benefit a private company he had interests in