Month: May 2024

By JOSEPH WILSON, MELANIE LIDMAN and JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Norway, Ireland and Spain said Wednesday they would recognize a Palestinian state, a historic but largely symbolic move that further deepens Israel’s isolation more than seven months into its grinding war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel denounced the decisions and

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mixed Thursday, as investor sentiment in Tokyo was boosted by news of soaring Nvidia earnings. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.1% to 39,054.81. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 sank 0.5% to 7,807.10. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2% to 2,728.43. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the U.K. fell sharply to its lowest level in nearly three years in April on the back of big declines in domestic bills. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index, fell to 2.3% in the year

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Sherpa mountain guide Kami Rita has scaled Mount Everest for a record 30th time. He finished his climb to the top of the world Wednesday morning. It was his second climb this month after guiding foreign clients to the top on May 12. His expedition organizer

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The owner of Nepal’s largest news organization has been arrested for allegedly violating the country’s citizenship laws over an issue with his citizenship card. Kailash Sirohiya will be presented before a judge in a district court in south Nepal on Wednesday where a case has been filed against him. He was

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s African National Congress rose above politics for years. It was a movement dedicated to freeing Black people from the oppression of white minority rule and to the principle of democracy, equality and a better life for all South Africans. It was widely

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader and representatives of militia groups he backs in the Middle East prayed Wednesday over the coffins of the country’s late president, foreign minister and other officials killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week. Hundreds of thousands of people later followed

By TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press As Texas wildfires burned toward the nation’s primary nuclear weapons facility, workers hurried to ensure nothing flammable was around buildings and storage areas. When the fires showed no sign of slowing, Pantex Plant officials urgently called on local contractors, who arrived within minutes with bulldozers to dig trenches and enlarge

By JOE REEDY AP Sports Writer Tom Brady is coming into the booth of Fox Sports top NFL team with seven Super Bowl rings. Greg Olsen is leaving it with another Sports Emmy award. After being named Outstanding Emerging On-Air Talent last year, Olsen was named the top Event Analyst during the three-hour ceremony at

By HANNAH FINGERHUT and MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press GREENFIELD, Iowa (AP) — Five people died and at least 35 were hurt as powerful tornadoes ripped through Iowa, with one carving a path of destruction through the small city of Greenfield, officials said Wednesday. The Iowa Department of Public Safety said Tuesday’s tornadoes killed four

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist, has been released from a Chinese prison after serving four years for charges related to reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. Zhang was charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and served her full term. But on the day of

By NAPAT KONGSAWAD Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Singapore Airlines says most of the passengers who were on one of its jetliners that was battered by severe turbulence have been flown to Singapore from Bangkok.  The airline says 143 passengers arrived in the city state shortly after 5 a.m. Wednesday. Airline CEO Goh Choon Phong

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — While President Joe Biden and his guest of honor at a White House state dinner chew over foreign policy, a female chef duo takes care of the culinary diplomacy. Cris Comerford is the White House executive chief and Susie Morrison is the executive pastry chef. Both are

By STEFANIE DAZIO and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hunter Biden is scheduled to stand trial on federal tax charges in September after a judge granted his request to delay the trial that had been approaching next month. President Joe Biden’s son is still scheduled to stand trial beginning June 3

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s attorney general says a court has ordered the manufacturers and distributors of the blood thinner Plavix to pay the state a combined $916 million after finding the companies failed to disclose the efficacy and safety of the medication. The state court judgement was issued against Bristol

By TERRY SPENCER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A lawyer for Donald Trump’s personal valet took aim at the conduct of prosecutors in the classified documents case in a heated hearing Wednesday, the first since a judge indefinitely postponed the trial. Stanley Woodward, a lawyer for Walt Nauta, said prosecutors

By ALI SWENSON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty plans to spend more than $3 million on a multi-state advertising blitz to increase its membership and engage voters before November, following through on a pledge it made last year to become more politically active across the country

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in recent weeks have forced leaders of the war-ravaged country to institute nationwide rolling blackouts. Without adequate air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs, though, the shortages could still worsen as need spikes in late summer and

By TERRY TANG Associated Press The number of people of both Latino and Asian American or Pacific Islander heritage has more than doubled in the last 20 years yet it remains an often ignored demographic, researchers at UCLA said Wednesday. The UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute analyzed Census Bureau data within the last two

Since being elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee in March, Lara Trump has worked to reshape the party in Donald Trump’s image. The RNC has fired dozens of longtime staffers, merged operations with the Trump campaign and sought alliances with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and alt-right advocates the party had previously kept at arm’s

By EMMA BURROWS Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Perched on the open ramp at the rear of a British Chinook helicopter, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas flew home from the annual Spring Storm military exercises, pleased to see NATO allies cooperating. But she later said that other types of warfare were on her mind.

By TIA GOLDENBERG and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — An AP examination of the handling of two debunked stories alleging that Hamas militants committed sexual assault during their Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel shows how information can be clouded and distorted in the chaos of the conflict. Some allege the accounts of

By MARTHA MENDOZA and JULIET LINDERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The direction of the Republican National Committee is clear from the last name of its new second-in-command: Trump. “My No. 1 goal is making sure that Donald Trump is the 47th president,” said Lara Trump, the RNC co-chair, in an Associated Press interview. It’s

By TIA GOLDENBERG and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Chaim Otmazgin had tended to dozens of shot, burned or mutilated bodies before he reached the home that would put him at the center of a global clash. Working in a kibbutz that was ravaged by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Otmazgin — a volunteer

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Barbie dolls will honor tennis champion Venus Williams and eight other athletes as part of a project announced by Mattel. The others who are being depicted as dolls are gymnasts Rebeca Andrade and Alexa Moreno, soccer players Mary Fowler and Christine Sinclair, boxer Estelle Mossely, swimmer Federica Pellegrini, paratriathlete Susana