Year: 2024

AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators accused social media company Meta Platforms on Monday of breaching the bloc’s new digital competition rulebook by forcing Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them. Meta began giving European users the option in November of paying for ad-free versions

Associated Press PARIS (AP) — France’s fiercely anti-immigration National Rally and opponents of the far-right party are scrambling to capitalize on a first round of voting in high-stakes surprise legislative elections. Monday’s official results showed that round one of the election the previous day produced two likely scenarios in what promises to be a torrid

Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain’s upcoming general election is widely expected to lead to a change of government for the first time in 14 years. The last time the Labour Party came to power was in 1997, when the youthful Tony Blair led his party to a landslide victory after it had been in

Associated Press NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani won reelection after positioning the country as a strategic ally of the West in a region swept by coups and violence, provisional results from all polling stations showed on Sunday. Ghazouani, who campaigned on a pledge of providing security and economic growth, obtained 56.1%

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has tapped the largest group in parliament, the center-right GERB-UDF coalition, to form the country’s new government. Accepting the mandate, Prime Minister-designate Rosen Zhelyazkov on Monday presented a proposal for a Cabinet and asked the president to send it to parliament for approval. The 56-year-old lawyer and

AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Surveys of Chinese factory managers show a mixed outlook for the world’s No. 2 economy, with growth steady but not picking up much steam. The official purchasing managers index compiled by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing remained at 49.5 in June on a scale up to 100,

Associated Press YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 17-year-old Chinese badminton player has died after collapsing on court during an Asian tournament in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta province. Indonesia’s Badminton Association issued a statement Monday saying Zhang Zhijie collapsed and had seizures during a match against Kazuma Kawano of Japan at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships on Sunday.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s second largest airline, WestJet, has reached a deal with its mechanics to end a strike that had disrupted the travel plans of tens of passengers over the Canada Day long weekend. WestJet said says there will still be flight disruptions in the week ahead as its planes are brought back into

Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli army ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians from much of Khan Younis on Monday, a sign that troops are likely to launch a new ground assault into the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city. The order suggests Khan Younis will be the latest target of Israel’s raids

Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Renowned Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare has died after being rushed to a hospital in the country’s capital, Tirana. He was 88. His Onufri Publishing House editor Bujar Hudhri said Kadare died on Monday morning. A nurse at the hospital said the author had been taken to the emergency room

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algerian authorities arrested two journalists for publishing a video showing businesswomen protesting how they were treated at a government-sponsored event. Journalists in Algeria have faced since President Abdelmadjid Tebboune came to power four years ago, with possible long jail time on flimsy charges, experts say. Many news outlets have also shuttered

Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Rajavarothiyam Sampanthan, an ethnic Tamil leader and lawmaker who became the face of the minority group’s campaign for autonomy in Sri Lanka after the end of a brutal quarter-century civil war, has died. He was 91. A lawyer by profession, Sampanthan entered Parliament for the first time in

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say eighteen inmates, including some on death row, have escaped from a prison in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir after overpowering a guard. A local police chief Riaz Mughal said on Monday that one of the prisoners was shot and killed in the breakout from Rawalakot prison the

Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — For the first time, North Korean officials have been seen wearing lapel pins with the image of leader Kim Jong Un. That’s another sign the North is boosting his personality cult to the level bestowed on his late father and grandfather. North Koreans are required to wear pins

AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Japan has revised earlier estimates to show that its economy contracted at a 2.9% annual pace in the first quarter of the year, as meanwhile a survey by the central bank showed conditions remain sluggish. Analysts had expected the downward revision in the GDP data for January-March and said

Associated Press LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Signs reading “I’m buying dollars” line the doors of Víctor Vargas’ shoe shop in the heart of Bolivia’s biggest city, a desperate attempt to keep his family business alive. Just a few years ago, the 45-year-old Vargas would unlock the doors at 8 a.m. to a crush of

Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday after stocks advanced on Wall Street and yields jumped in the U.S. bond market as election-related issues swayed markets worldwide. U.S. futures fell and oil prices rose. The Japanese yen fell to near a fresh 38-year low, reaching 161.66 yen to the dollar early

Associated Press DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) — At a rural penal colony in southeast Ukraine, several convicts stand assembled under barbed wire to hear an army recruiter offer them a shot at parole. In return, they must join the grueling fight against Russia. “You can put an end to this and start a new life,”

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Boeing announced plans to acquire key supplier Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion, a move that it says will improve plane quality and safety amid increasing scrutiny by Congress, airlines and the Department of Justice. Boeing previously owned Spirit, and the purchase would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work

Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Top California Democrats have announced their backing for a ballot measure targeting retail theft. The plan is an effort to compete with a tough-on-crime initiative backed by law enforcement and retailers. State leaders say their plan would increase penalties for shoplifting while avoid putting more people behind bars. The

Associated Press DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon was taken into custody Monday after surrendering at a federal prison to begin a four-month sentence on contempt charges for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack. Bannon arrived at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, around noon

Associated Press HARTLEPOOL, England (AP) — A lot of politicians have promised change to voters in Hartlepool, a wind-whipped port town in northeast England. For decades, Labour Party representatives said they would fight for working people, even as well-paid industrial jobs disappeared. Later the Conservatives vowed to bring new money and opportunities on the back

Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance sharply criticized Donald Trump during the 2016 election cycle, before changing course and embracing the former president. Vance rode a Trump endorsement to a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2022. He’s now one of Trump’s fiercest allies and defenders — and among those

Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Alfred Handley leaned back in his wheelchair alongside a major Phoenix freeway as a street medicine team helped him get rehydrated with an intravenous saline solution dripping from a bag hanging on a pole. Cars whooshed by under the blazing 96-degree morning sun as the 59-year-old homeless man with a

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s hard to refer to someone as “Hitler” and end up in their good graces, let alone potentially become the person they choose to help lead the country. But Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s shifting position on Donald Trump over the years from onetime critic of the former president to staunch