Month: January 2024

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Residents have been evacuated from small coastal towns near Cape Town in South Africa as wildfires sweep down from surrounding mountains and burn out of control. Authorities ordered a full evacuation of Pringle Bay, a coastal village popular with holidaymakers. The fires began Monday

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press KUTZTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The spotlight returns to Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania this week, when handlers of a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil will announce his verdict — six more weeks of winter or an early spring. Thousands are expected to attend the annual event that exploded in popularity after

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BEREHOVE, Ukraine (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long accused Ukraine’s government of violating the rights of an ethnic Hungarian community in western Ukraine. Orbán insists the Hungarian minority must be allowed to speak their native language in schools and public administration, and has threatened to block Ukraine’s

By JAMES POLLARD and BEN FINLEY Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A grainy sonar image recorded by a private pilot has reinvigorated interest in one of the past century’s most alluring mysteries: What happened to Amelia Earhart when her plane vanished during her flight around the world in 1937? Numerous expeditions have turned up

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 66th annual Grammy Awards are on Sunday, airing live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on CBS and Paramount+. So, what can viewers expect? Some new, some old. Executive producers Raj Kapoor, Ben Winston, and Jesse Collins are returning for their fourth year — evolving

By JILL COLVIN and TOM KRISHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump met with members of the Teamsters Union in Washington Wednesday as he looks past the GOP primary and toward a general election rematch against President Joe Biden. The former president participated in a roundtable with the group’s executive board, its

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Before launching his ill-fated campaign for the White House, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was a star. Again and again, Republican voters said they saw DeSantis as the future of the party. But after a bitter scorched-earth primary in which former President Donald Trump pounded DeSantis viciously

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rate cuts are coming. Just not yet. The Federal Reserve delivered that message Wednesday, first in a policy statement and then in a news conference at which Chair Jerome Powell reinforced it. The Fed did signal that it’s nearing a long-awaited shift toward cutting interest

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Déjà vu? Feels like it. Assassination plots, arrest warrants for journalists and human rights defenders, attacks against adversaries – from the belittling kind to the judicial type – and other associated government actions have marked the start of 2024 for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and

By KEIRAN SMITH Associated Press SYDNEY (AP) — Australia has reported inflation slowed in the last quarter to its lowest rate in three years, raising hopes of a ‘soft landing’ for the nation’s economy. The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the latest consumers price index data had slowed to 4.1%, down from 5.4% at the

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The billionaire sultan who rules Malaysia’s Johor state has been sworn in as the nation’s new king under a unique rotating monarchy system. Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar took his oath of office Wednesday in a palace ceremony. His business empire ranges from real estate to power

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press Utah’s governor signed a bill into law Tuesday that makes the state the latest to prohibit diversity training, hiring and inclusion programs at universities and in state government. The measure signed by Spencer Cox, a Republican who previously said he supported the idea, had cleared the state House and Senate

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press New York (AP) — The man accused of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay can’t have his rap lyrics used against him at trial, a Brooklyn judge decided Tuesday in a ruling that doubled as a history-filled paean to hip-hop as “a platform for expression to many who had largely been

By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press Utah has become the latest state to regulate bathroom access for transgender people. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law Tuesday that requires people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that match their sex assigned at birth. Trans people can defend themselves against

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A U.S. Air Force pilot safely ejected from an F-16 fighter jet before it crashed into waters off South Korea’s southwestern coast. The crash Wednesday was the second of the aircraft in less than two months. The U.S. military said the pilot was conscious and was transported to a medical

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics has reported an annual 34% decline in operating profit for the last quarter as sluggish demands for its TVs and other consumer electronics products offset hard-won gains from a slowly recovering computer chip market. The South Korean technology giant said it expects its business to improve throughout 2024,

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — Hal Buell, who led The Associated Press’ photo operations from the darkroom era into the age of digital photography over a four-decade career that included 12 Pulitzer Prizes, has died. He was 92. Buell died Monday in Sunnyvale, California, where his daughter lived, after battling pneumonia. Colleagues described Buell as a

By NOAH TRISTER AP Baseball Writer Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein has reached an agreement to buy the Baltimore Orioles for $1.725 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday night because the agreement had not been announced. Rubenstein, a

BOSTON (AP) — A Florida man convicted of stealing sports camp tuition in 2019 from hundreds of families and spending the money on plastic surgery, vacations and gambling has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He was also sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court says it won’t revisit a ruling that private groups can’t sue under a key section of the Voting Rights Act. The decision Tuesday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sets the stage for a fight before the U.S. Supreme

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino is set to shut its doors April 2 to make room for a $1.5 billion Major League Baseball stadium. Tropicana’s owner Bally’s Corp. says the closure marks the beginning of preparations for demolition of the landmark hotel-casino on the Las Vegas

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed murder charges against five suspects in the fatal shootings of six men at a remote dirt crossroads in the Southern California desert. Investigators say the killings were the result of a dispute over marijuana. The district attorney’s office said Tuesday that the suspects also face robbery charges.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Elected leaders in Oregon have declared a state of emergency for downtown Portland over the public health and public safety crisis fueled by fentanyl. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson made the declaration Tuesday for 90 days during which collaboration and response

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Preliminary figures show Mexico’s economy barely eked out a 0.1% increase in the fourth quarter, bringing estimated growth for 2023 to 3.1%. The National Statistics Institute says services advanced 0.1% in the fourth quarter while agricultural output declined by the same amount. Manufacturing remained unchanged. Inflation declined to 4.66% by the