Month: January 2024

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has refused to toss out Fox News’ claims that voting technology company Smartmatic is suing the network to suppress free speech. The ruling this week means that both Smartmatic’s multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit and the network’s counterclaims can continue toward an eventual trial. Smartmatic says

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Charles Fried, a former U.S. solicitor general and conservative legal scholar who taught at Harvard Law School for decades, has died. He was 88 and died Tuesday. Fried joined the Harvard faculty in 1961 would go on to teach thousands of students in areas like First Amendment

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Here’s a rare case of a casino losing. Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort was rebuffed Wednesday by the New Jersey Supreme Court in its efforts to collect on business interruption insurance involving the early days of the COVID19 pandemic. The high court ruled that the

By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have extended an invitation to attend the State of the Union address to a Texas woman who sued her state and lost over the ability to get an abortion to end a wanted pregnancy. The Texas Supreme Court denied

By JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — Colorado Republican state Rep. Mike Lynch announced he’s stepping down as minority leader Wednesday, a week after The Denver Post reported that Lynch was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of drunken driving and possession of a gun while intoxicated. Lynch is also running for Congress

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press Efforts to reach a new cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appear to be gaining steam. Egyptian and U.S. officials confirmed this week that they are actively pursuing ways to halt a war that has raged for over 110 days. An Egyptian official said that Israel has presented a proposal for

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — A liquor store has opened in Saudi Arabia for the first time in over 70 years, a diplomat reported Wednesday, a further socially liberalizing step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom that is home to the holiest sites in Islam. While restricted to non-Muslim diplomats, the store in Riyadh

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — More people cast votes in Tuesday’s contest between former President Donald Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley than in any previous presidential primary of either party in New Hampshire’s history. As of the latest vote tally on Wednesday afternoon, nearly 318,000 Granite State Republicans and independents

By BABA AHMED Associated Press BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — An official in Mali says that more than 70 people have been killed after an unregulated gold mine collapsed late last week. A search continues amid fears the toll could rise. The senior official at the government’s National Geology and Mining Directorate confirmed the details to

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican tribunal has rejected a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by the Holy See’s former auditor general. Libero Milone and his late deputy had sued the Holy See for 9.3 million euros. They claimed they were essentially extorted by Vatican police and forced to resign in 2017 or

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer Five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior team have taken a leave of absence from their current clubs in recent days. Current NHL players Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils, Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames and former NHL

BY FABIANO MAISONNAVE Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Human-induced global warming, and not El Niño, was the primary driver of the severe drought in the Amazon last year that sent rivers to record lows, isolated hundreds of river communities and killed dozens of endangered dolphins. That’s according to researchers from World Weather Attribution, which

HOUSTON (AP) — Heavy rains in Texas on Wednesday closed schools and elevated flooding risks around Houston in another round of soaking downpours that have made for a soggy and dangerous week across large portions of the U.S. A stretch of wet and freezing winter weather has swept away vehicles in San Diego, led to

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s new Republican superintendent of public schools is facing bipartisan criticism for appointing a right-wing social media influencer from New York to a state library advisory committee. Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced Chaya Raichik’s appointment to the committee on Tuesday, saying she is “on

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey utility regulators have given preliminary approval to two new wind farms off the state’s coast. And both would be considerably farther offshore than earlier projects that drew opposition from beachgoers who don’t want to see wind turbines on the horizon. The state Board

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The election year has begun in Algeria and both those in power and those in the opposition are quietly making moves as mounting political and economic challenges plague the oil-rich North African country. No candidate has stepped forward to challenge President Abdelmajid Tebboune, but a leading opposition party this week called

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, the centrist group No Labels has stockpiled cash and diligently worked to secure ballot access for a potential third-party presidential bid, striking fear among allies of President Joe Biden that the effort could siphon away votes and hand the White House

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Philharmonic will play excerpts of music from the Academy Award-nominated “Maestro” on the life of former music director Leonard Bernstein on Feb. 14. The movie’s star and director, Bradley Cooper, will participate in a post-performance conversation at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. Metropolitan Opera music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin

BRUSSELS (AP) — Most passenger cars in the European Union still emit the same quantity of carbon dioxide as 12 years ago. The European Court of Auditors said Wednesday that the 27-nation bloc must “shift up gear” to come close to a zero-emissions car fleet, with electric vehicles playing a crucial role. According to the