Month: May 2024

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken has removed Cuba from the State Department’s short list of countries deemed as not cooperating as much as they could in counterterrorism efforts. In a statement, the State Department said Blinken made his ruling Wednesday. The State Department said that Cuban and

By DAVID KLEPPER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. security officials say America’s foreign adversaries will again seek to influence the upcoming U.S. elections. Countries like Russia, China and Iran are likely to use the latest artificial intelligence programs to create and spread disinformation aimed at polarizing voters and undermining faith

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill making climate change a lesser priority under state law and banning offshore wind turbines near the state’s long coastline. The former Republican presidential hopeful DeSantis has cast the bill he signed Wednesday as a common-sense approach to energy policy. But critics said it

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer Rory McIlroy has all the momentum he could want heading into the PGA Championship as he tries to end a drought in the majors that has lasted a decade. He also has a major distraction. McIlroy is hopeful of ending a decade without a major in his return to

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — The iconic Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip will shut its doors this summer after more than 30 years, the end of an era for a property credited with helping transform Sin City into an ultra-luxury resort destination. The July 17 closure will clear the

By MARK SHERMAN and KEVIN McGILL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Louisiana to hold congressional elections in 2024 using a House map with a second mostly Black district, despite a lower-court ruling that called the map an illegal racial gerrymander. The order allows the use of a map that

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A Texas man accused of fatally shooting two New Mexico women and taking one of their children and seriously injuring another is now facing a federal kidnapping charge. Alek Isaiah Collins, 26, appeared Tuesday before a federal judge in Abilene, Texas. He will remain in federal custody pending extradition to New

By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI Associated Press Authorities say a police pursuit that went through two states and involved two separate shootouts with law enforcement officers and several crashes ended with the death of the woman being sought. The pursuit began shortly before noon Tuesday in Delaware, when Wilmington police went to a residence to arrest 23-year-old

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Actor Angie Harmon has filed a lawsuit against Instacart and a former Instacart shopper who fatally shot her dog in March while delivering groceries at her North Carolina home. The lawsuit was filed last week in Mecklenburg County. It seeks to hold the shopper and Instacart liable for accusations of trespassing,

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of reported sexual assaults across the military decreased last year, and a confidential survey found a 19% drop in the number of service members who said they had experienced some type of unwanted sexual contact, according to new figures obtained by The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico fell more than 6% in April to the fourth lowest month of the Biden administration, authorities said Wednesday, bucking the usual spring increase. U.S. officials have largely attributed the decline to more enforcement in Mexico, including in yards where migrants are known to

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Visa has announced major changes to how its credit and debit cards will operate in the U.S. Features in the works will lead to Americans to carry fewer physical cards in their wallets and make the 16-digit credit or debit card number printed on every

HOUSTON (AP) — Astros pitcher Ronel Blanco received a 10-game suspension Wednesday for violating Major League Baseball rules prohibiting foreign substances. Blanco was ejected from Tuesday night’s start against the Oakland Athletics. His penalty, which also included an undisclosed fine, was announced by MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill. Houston general manager

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Port of New Orleans’ president and chief executive officer has resigned to pursue an opportunity in the private sector. The port announced Tuesday that Brandy Christian will step down in mid-June. She has served in the leadership role since 2017 but the port didn’t say what her next steps would

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Musher and dog trainer Rick Mackey has died. He won the grueling Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska in 1983. His daughter Brenda Mackey tells The Associated Press he died Monday after battling lung cancer. Mackey participated in 22 Iditarods between 1975 and 2004, notching

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Congress has passed a bill that is designed to add more safety inspectors at aircraft factories and to give air travelers automatic refunds for canceled or long-delayed flights. The House gave final approval on Wednesday to a $105 billion measure to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration programs and sent it

By ED WHITE Associated Press Pro-Palestinian protesters wearing masks pitched tents and placed fake bloody corpses outside the home of a University of Michigan official. Sarah Hubbard is chair of the university’s governing board. She says the 6 a.m. demonstration in Okemos involved 30 people Wednesday with a bullhorn and a drum. The protesters left

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco Bay Area voters will weigh in on the recall of another politically progressive prosecutor in November. Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price ran on a platform of offender rehabilitation and police accountability. She won office in November 2022. Her critics say she is undermining public safety. Her supporters say

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Open men’s final will shift to ABC from ESPN this year but the women’s title match will remain on the cable outlet a year after Coco Gauff won the Grand Slam tennis tournament. This will be the first time ABC airs the men’s final, ESPN said Wednesday. The match

By NOREEN NASIR Associated Press Dawud Assad still has nightmares of the day Jewish militias attacked his village of Deir Yassin outside Jerusalem 76 years ago, killing more than 100 people. That massacre, along with similar attacks on Palestinian villages, and the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation spurred what is called the Nakba, the Arabic

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press OCEAN GROVE, N.J. (AP) — In this seaside community that calls itself “God’s Square Mile at the Jersey Shore,” all the land is owned by a religious group that has for generations enforced an 11th Commandment: Thou shalt stay off the beach on Sunday morning. But there are signs that

By PETER SMITH and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker may have stirred controversy in some quarters for his proclamations of conservative politics and Catholicism on Saturday, but he received a standing ovation from graduates and other attendees of the May 11 commencement ceremony at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. The

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — A second teen pleaded guilty on Wednesday in the death of a 20-year-old driver who was hit in the head by a rock that crashed through her windshield in suburban Denver last year. Under a plea deal with prosecutors, Nicholas Karol-Chik, 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Giants are appearing on a new version of “Hard Knocks.” The Giants, HBO, NFL Films, Skydance Sports announced Wednesday the team will be the focus of a five-part series that follows general manager Joe Schoen and members of the team’s front office through the offseason. It will cover

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fresh from a day of delivering optimistic prognoses about how Ukraine would fare in the war with Russia despite gloomy news from the front lines, U.S. Secretary of State and amateur musician Antony Blinken may have thought he had the perfect upbeat song to perform

By AHMED AL-HAJ and FATMA KHALED Associated Press SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni authorities have deployed security forces and armored vehicles across the port city of Aden, in preparation for the latest in a series of protests over hours-long electricity outages caused by a shortage of fuel for power stations. For several days, hundreds of

By JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to participate in two general election debates: One in June and one in September. The first will held June 27 at CNN’s studios in Atlanta. Georgia is a critical battleground state. The second will take place

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM and ROB GILLIES Associated Press The threat of a wildfire near Canada’s oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, appeared to be easing Wednesday, a day after thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes in the city of 68,000. Favorable winds were expected to push the fire away. Many residents