Month: February 2024

By COLLEEN LONG, ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round

By ED WHITE Associated Press PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The mother of the Michigan school shooter took the stand at her trial for involuntary manslaughter. Jennifer Crumbley said she had no role in buying or storing the handgun used to kill four students in 2021. She says she wouldn’t have done anything differently but wishes

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court has ordered a detained Russian-American journalist to be held in jail for two more months pending her trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct. 18

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A task force convened by Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine after a deadly school bus crash is recommending enhanced training for drivers and installing a host of new safety features. The group recommended leaving the issue of school bus seat belts to individual districts. DeWine’s

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — TikTok may look (or sound) a little different when you scroll through the app going forward. Earlier this week, Universal Music Group — which represents big-name artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Drake — said that it would no longer allow its music on

LONDON (AP) — A Conservative lawmaker says he will step down when an election is called later this year because of abuse and death threats. Mike Freer has linked the abuse to his support for Israel. Freer represents a London constituency which has a large Jewish population. He says he has received death threats from

By MELISSA RAYWORTH Associated Press Political polarization. Economic struggles. Inequity. Climate change. War. In a world like ours, you can hardly blame people for trying to cushion themselves. From weighted blankets to “cozy” murder mystery novels to restaurants based on childhood comfort foods, the appetite for comfortable things just keeps growing. Now some are seeking

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 200 reporters, photographers and other staffers with the Chicago Tribune and six other newsrooms around the nation are on a 24-hour strike to protest years of “slow-walked” contract negotiations and to demand fair wages. Chicago Tribune Guild member Caroline Kubzansky says Thursday’s strike includes 76 members of the Chicago Tribune

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s top security minister has resigned from the Cabinet of President Joko Widodo to focus on running for vice president in this month’s election. Mohammad Mahfud M.D. says he is resigning to concentrate on the Feb. 14 election in which he is the running mate of

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — France’s two major farmers unions announced they would lift country-wide blockades Thursday, shortly after the prime minister introduced new measures aimed at protecting their livelihoods that they described as “tangible progress.” However, farmer activists who have snarled traffic along major highways around Paris said they would stay

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A military veteran who helped subdue a man who attacked Connecticut’s first Muslim state representative is seeking to have a misdemeanor assault charge erased. Jason Spencer applied for the state’s accelerated rehabilitation program during a court appearance in Hartford on Wednesday. The program would result in the charge being dismissed after

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian prosecutors have appealed a court decision that a man who kept his daughter captive for 24 years and raped her thousands of times, fathering seven children with her, can be moved from psychiatric detention to a regular prison. The state court in Krems on Thursday confirmed a report that prosecutors have

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny is urging Russians to show their protest of President Vladimir Putin during next month’s presidential balloting by voting at a specific time on election day. In a social media statement relayed from the Arctic penal colony where he is being held, Navalny argued that by

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose last week to the highest level in 11 weeks, though layoffs remain at historically low levels. Applications for unemployment benefits climbed to 224,000 for the week ending Jan. 27, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Street artist Maupal, whose cartoon-like depictions of Pope Francis as a “Super Pope” have graced buildings around the Vatican for a decade, got an official stamp of approval on Thursday when he appeared at a Vatican news conference. Maupal, in life Mauro Pallotta, designed a series of

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Authorities are searching for potential survivors off Puerto Rico’s northwest coast after a crowded boat capsized, killing at least two people. The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that authorities rescued 30 occupants of the boat that capsized near the coastal town of Camuy. Officials said survivors estimate the boat

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Climate activist Greta Thunberg is on trial for protesting outside a major oil and gas industry conference in London last year. The 21-year-old Swedish environmental activist went on trial Thursday with four other protesters on a charge of violating a public order. She was among more than

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s Institute of Statistics says it suffered a cyberattack which affected some of its systems. The institute said in a statement that it was “a target of a sophisticated cyberattack” on Wednesday. After closing internet links and activating emergency protocols to protect data, experts found that only some of its systems

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran began construction on four more nuclear power plants in the country’s south, with expected total capacity of 5,000 megawatts, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday. The country has one active nuclear power plant, which went online with help from Russia in 2011. The report said the four new plants

By TARA COPP, LOLITA C. BALDOR and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday it’s time to further disable Iran-backed militias that have struck at U.S. forces and ships in the Middle East and the U.S. is preparing to take significant action in response to the deaths of three

By STEPHEN McGRATH and AUREL OBREJA Associated Press CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Several thousand people from a Russia-friendly party have protested in front of Moldova’s parliament building to demand the resignation of the pro-Western government. The rally by the Revival Party against the governing Party of Action and Solidarity called for early elections and for