Month: May 2024

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban will soon be gone from the state’s law books, but not from the campaign trail. Even after the state Senate voted Wednesday to repeal a law banning nearly all abortions, Democrats running in the battleground state say they will make the Civil

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Herbert Rubinstein was 5 years old when he and his mother where taken from the Jewish ghetto of Chernivtsi and put on a cramped cattle wagon waiting to take them to their deaths. It was 1941, and Romanians collaborating with Germany’s Nazis were rounding up tens

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii lawmakers appropriated funds for more firefighting equipment and a state fire marshal after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century ripped through the historic Maui town of Lahaina and exposed shortcomings in the state’s readiness for such flames. The House and Senate passed the

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — Without wielding the gavel or holding a formal job laid out in the Constitution, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries might very well be the most powerful person in Congress right now. The minority leader of the House Democrats, it was Jeffries who provided the votes needed to keep

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian soldiers say they are worried fortifications are not being built quicky enough as Russian forces continue to advance along the front lines. Poorly built defensive lines, including trenches, foxholes and firing positions, are part of the reason outgunned Ukrainians forces have had to withdraw, because

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, PHILIP MARCELO, ERIC TUCKER and JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an

By JULIE WATSON, CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER, CAROLYN THOMPSON and STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police have arrested more than 2,100 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and occupied buildings. One officer

PHOENIX (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner said she thought about killing herself during her first few weeks in a Russian jail after her 2022 arrest on drug-related charges. Griner spoke for the first time about her monthslong detention in Russia during an hourlong interview that aired Wednesday night on ABC. Her memoir, “Coming Home,”

By CARLOS MUREITHI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — African climate-tech startups are increasingly raising money from private sources, but while those funds for climate solutions are growing, a huge gap remains in meeting the actual financial needs for climate action in Africa. Africa requires an estimated $277 billion annually to implement its climate goals.

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Nickelodeon producer and writer Dan Schneider sued the makers of “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” on Wednesday, alleging the makers of the documentary series wrongly implied that he sexually abused the child actors he worked with. Schneider filed the defamation

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Solomon Islands lawmakers have elected former Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele as prime minister in a development that suggests the South Pacific island nation will maintain close ties with China. Manele used his first speech as leader to promise to govern with integrity and to put his

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has rejected a bid to release from jail a former FBI informant who is charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family. Alexander Smirnov’s lawyers had urged the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday rejected a long-running lawsuit brought by young Oregon-based climate activists who argued that the U.S. government’s role in climate change violated their constitutional rights. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously ordered the case dismissed in 2020, saying that

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press Student journalists on the Columbia University campus knew what was coming long before police with riots shields arrived to begin arresting the pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied a building. They had watched the situation spiral as the protesters stood their ground, refusing to abandon Hamilton Hall. Several began sleeping on

By JACK DURA Associated Press Supporters of a South Dakota abortion rights initiative submitted far more signatures than required Wednesday to make the ballot this fall. But its outcome is unclear in the conservative state, where Republican lawmakers strongly oppose the measure and a major abortion rights advocate doesn’t support it. The effort echoes similar

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia has circulated a U.N. resolution calling on all countries to take urgent action to prevent putting weapons in outer space “for all time” a week after it vetoed a U.S.-Japan resolution to stop an arms race in space. The Russian draft resolution goes further

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Voting rights advocates say they will go to the Supreme Court in hopes of preserving a new majority Black congressional district in Louisiana for the fall elections. Wednesday’s declaration was the latest step in a complicated legal fight that could determine the fate of political careers

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The judge presiding over the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to detainees’ mistreatment at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq two decades ago is speculating that the jury may not be able to reach a verdict. Federal judge Leonie Brinkema spoke to lawyers

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Before police officers poured into Columbia University on Tuesday night, arresting more than 100 people as they cleared an occupied school building and tent encampment, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he received a piece of intelligence that shifted his thinking about the campus demonstrations

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Consumer groups are pushing Congress to uphold automatic refunds for airline passengers whose flights are canceled or delayed for several hours. That would put lawmakers in line with the Biden administration. The Senate on Wednesday began considering a massive bill authorizing Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next five

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine and other national security secrets, will face a military justice proceeding later this month. Air Force officials say he faces two charges in

By SUMMER BALLENTINE Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters have gotten a step closer to getting to decide whether to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. The group behind the effort, Missouri Jobs with Justice, said Wednesday that it turned in nearly double the required number of signatures. Republican