Month: May 2024

By MATTHEW LEE, AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has given Ukraine the go-ahead to use American weaponry to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, according to four U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter,

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s caretaker economy minister says the country’s rulers, fuel companies and private electricity providers have blocked an offer by gas-rich Qatar to build three renewable energy power plants to ease the crisis-hit nation’s decades-old electricity crisis. Amin Salam told reporters Thursday that Qatar offered last year to

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s air force says that Russia has conducted an array of aerial attacks on Ukraine with cruise missiles, drones and ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s army chief meanwhile said Thursday that Russia is increasing its troop concentration in the Kharkiv region. Moscow’s forces have made significant advances there

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Lab-grown meat is not currently available in any U.S. grocery stores or restaurants. If some lawmakers have their way, it never will be. Earlier this month, both Florida and Alabama banned the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, which is grown from animal cells. In Iowa, the governor signed

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — If you use Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, you’ve probably noticed a new character pop up answering search queries or eagerly offering tidbits of information in your feeds, with varying degrees of accuracy. It’s Meta AI, and it’s here to help, at least according to Meta

By HELEN WIEFFERING and JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press The United Nations over the last decade has logged an increasing number of crew members abandoned by shipowners around the world, leaving sailors aboard months and sometimes years without pay. More than 2,000 seafarers on some 150 ships were abandoned last year. And the problem shows no

By HELEN WIEFFERING and JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press Abdul Nasser Saleh says he rarely got a good night’s sleep during the near-decade he spent working without pay on a cargo ship abandoned by its owner at ports along the Red Sea. By night, he tossed and turned in his bunk on the aging Al-Maha, he

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and 22 other Democratic senators are calling on the Department of Justice to “use every tool” at its disposal to prevent and prosecute alleged collusion and price-fixing in the oil industry. In a letter Thursday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and other

By GERALD IMRAY and MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Partial results in South Africa’s national election have put the long-ruling African National Congress at less than 50% of the vote. It raises the possibility that it might lose its majority for the first time since it swept to power under Nelson Mandela at

By JAMEY KEATEN and KELVIN CHAN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was a star speaker at the annual AI for Good conference Thursday, addressing the U.N. telecommunications agency’s annual gathering about how to tap the societal promise of artificial intelligence technology. But Altman spent part of his virtual appearance fending off

HONG KONG (AP) — Foreign governments expressed concern and activist groups condemned Thursday’s convictions of 14 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. China, which authored the 2020 national security law under which the activists were prosecuted, backed the Hong Kong authorities. The chairs of a U.S congressional panel on China criticized the Hong Kong government for

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts in his criminal hush money trial. It is the first time a former president was ever tried or convicted in a criminal case, and is the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial. At the heart of the

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Commerce Ministry has announced it will restrict exports of some aviation and aerospace-related equipment and technology beginning July 1. A notice on the ministry’s website said the move was to safeguard national security and interests and fulfill international obligations such as non-proliferation. It said the export controls would apply to aerospace

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Greek-owned and Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier that came under attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels earlier this week had a cargo of grain bound for Iran. Tehran is the group’s main benefactor. That’s according to comments from authorities on Thursday. The attack Tuesday on

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — BHP Group has dropped its 38.6 billion pound or $49.3 billion bid for Anglo American. That ended plans to create a global mining giant focused on copper and other minerals that are expected to drive the transition to renewable energy. The Melbourne, Australia-based BHP announced the decision

By JOSEPH WILSON and TERESA MEDRANO Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain’s lower house of parliament has given final approval to a contentious amnesty law for hundreds of Catalan separatists involved in the illegal and unsuccessful 2017 secession bid. The legislation was backed by Spain’s left-wing coalition government, two Catalan separatist parties and other smaller

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks rose Thursday, but indexes nevertheless stumbled because of sharp drops for some influential technology giants. Salesforce dropped to its worst day in nearly 20 years. The S&P 500 sank 31.47 points, or 0.6%, to 5,235.48, even though the majority of stocks within

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Traumatized survivors of the massive landslide estimated to have buried hundreds in Papua New Guinea have been slow to move to safer ground as the South Pacific island nation’s authorities prepare to use heavy machinery to clear debris and risk triggering another landslide, officials said Thursday.

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Police coordinated by the European Union’s justice agency have taken down computer networks responsible for spreading ransomware via infected emails. They are calling it the biggest-ever international operation against the lucrative form of cybercrime. The European Union’s judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, said Thursday that police

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Teens as young as 16 from five countries will be able to vote in the June 6-9 European Union elections. They add a slice of vigor and life to the campaign in some EU nations and they are a sought-after part of the electorate. Youngsters will need

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Google plans to invest $2 billion in Malaysia, developing its first data center and a Google Cloud hub in the latest big foray by a U.S. tech giant in the Southeast Asian country. The news came after Microsoft recently said it would put $2.2 billion over the next four years

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has executed a man convicted of killing an elderly couple at their home in 2004. Authorities say 50-year-old Jamie Ray Mills was pronounced dead Thursday evening following a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison. Mills was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran opened a five-day registration period Thursday for hopefuls wanting to run in the June 28 presidential election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash earlier this month with seven others. The election comes as Iran grapples with