Month: May 2024

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base, calling its proximity to the base a “national security risk.” The order forces the divestment of property operated as a crypto

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico is standing in for California in a new film as Jamie Lee Curtis’ production company and others tell the story of a bus driver and a school teacher who rescued students during the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history. The 2018

By ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — One of Europe’s most notorious human smugglers has been arrested in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, security officials said. The regional government’s security agency said it had arrested Barzan Majeed, known as “the Scorpion,” in the area of Sulaymaniyah, upon a request from Interpol and

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and JOHN RABY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Three men charged in the 2018 prison killing of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger have reached plea deals with prosecutors. The plea deals for Fotios “Freddy” Geas, Paul J. DeCologero and Sean McKinnon were disclosed Monday in court filings nearly six years

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal energy regulators have approved a rule to expand the amount of renewable energy such as wind and solar power that is transmitted to the electric grid. Transmission of clean energy is a key part of President Joe Biden’s goal to eliminate carbon emissions economy-wide by 2050.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — European Union candidate North Macedonia is seeking to calm disputes with EU neighbors Greece and Bulgaria that flared following the landslide election victory of a conservative-backed coalition and president. North Macedonia changed its name from Macedonia after a 2018 landmark agreement with Greece that ended a yearslong quarrel over the

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Taylor Swift isn’t the only singer fans are flocking to Paris to hear. Lise Davidsen has become classical music’s biggest draw, attracting crowds to the Paris Opéra for her first performances in the title role of Strauss’ “Salome” during the same week Swift filled La Défense Arena

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press A Missouri man who crashed a rental truck into White House barriers and showed a Nazi flag before his arrest last year has pleaded guilty to damaging government property. Court records show that 20-year-old Sai Varshith Kandula faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A Belfast judge says that the United Kingdom’s law to deport asylum-seekers shouldn’t apply in Northern Ireland because parts of it violate human rights protections. A High Court judge on Monday said the Illegal Migration Act is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and undermines

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors’ troubled Cruise autonomous vehicle unit said Monday it will start testing robotaxis in Arizona this week with human safety drivers on board. Cruise said that during the testing, it will check the vehicles’ performance against the company’s “rigorous” safety and autonomous vehicle performance requirements. Testing will start in Phoenix and

NEW YORK (AP) — “Judge Judy” Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents. The story was first published on InTouch

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press A truck driver accused of intentionally killing a police officer during a traffic stop on a Utah highway had been holding a woman against her will inside the cab of his truck. Michael Aaron Jayne is accused of driving his rig into Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser on May 5

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations over the past 20 years. “This is not a decision I came

By ISABEL DE BRE Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The International Monetary Fund, Argentina’s biggest creditor, has agreed to release the next tranche of loans due under a bailout program. The move is an endorsement of Argentine President Javier Milei’s severe austerity measures that even surpass the terms of the IMF’s $43 billion

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry says Pakistani and U.S. officials have held their latest talks in Washington on how to expand cooperation in tackling the threat posed to regional security by an affiliate of the Islamic State group and the Pakistani Taliban. The talks occurred amid a surge in militants attacks by the Pakistani

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JILL COLVIN, LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Once Donald Trump’s loyal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen pointed the finger at his former boss Monday in pivotal testimony about hush money payments at the center of the first criminal trial of a former American president.

By LUJAIN JO Associated Press DOHA, Qatar (AP) — They stroll Doha’s waterfront promenade and sing softly about children who are now “birds in heaven,” flying free of the pain of the war in Gaza. For the Palestinian group Sol Band, it seems surreal that weeks ago they were hiding from Israeli shelling. “I just

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has used a profanity while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break down barriers. The vice president made the comment Monday while participating in a conversation moderated by actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang. Yang had asked Harris what it

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A group of Atlantic City casino workers has asked a judge to ban smoking in the gambling halls, citing the toxic effects of working there. New Jersey officials said that ending smoking could jeopardize a half-billion-dollar pot of money for senior citizens and the disabled. Superior

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Reports that soldiers of Myanmar’s military government last week carried out a massacre of more than 30 civilians in a village in central Myanmar have been supported in interviews with a local administrator and a man who says he survived the killings. The bloodshed on Saturday morning

By MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — As North Carolina’s public university system considers a vote on changing its diversity policy, the system’s flagship university board voted Monday to cut funding for diversity programs in next year’s budget. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees approved a change that

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airlines are suing to block the Biden administration from requiring greater transparency over fees that the carriers charge their passengers, saying that a new rule would confuse consumers by giving them too much information during the ticket-buying process. The U.S. Transportation Department said Monday it will vigorously defend the rule against

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — Crews set off a chain of carefully placed explosives Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, and with a boom and a splash, the mangled steel trusses came crashing down into the river below. The explosives flashed

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press With Donald Trump barred from publicly attacking the key witness in his hush money trial, his campaign brought to court a phalanx of Republican elected officials to speak for him. “The thing that the president is prevented from saying, which is a disgrace, is that every single person involved in