Year: 2021

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The deputy leader of Britain’s main opposition party is refusing to apologize for calling the governing Conservatives “scum.” Labour Party lawmaker Angela Rayner called members of the government a “bunch of scum — homophobic, racist, misogynistic” during a reception Saturday at the party’s annual conference. The comment

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press The Taliban want a seat at the United Nations and international recognition of their rule over Afghanistan. The group has asked to speak this Monday at the U.N. General Assembly as Afghanistan’s representatives. The U.N. can withhold or bestow formal acknowledgement of the Taliban, and use this crucial leverage to

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — As political muscle goes, big doesn’t automatically translate to power. That’s the case every four years when the some of the country’ biggest cities, including New York and Chicago, become mostly irrelevant on the Electoral College map. But the surge in the nation’s urban population

By ALBERTO ARCE and RODRIGO ABD Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — This is the Port-au-Prince that awaits Haitian deportees: An archipelago of gang-controlled islands in a sea of despair. Abandoned neighborhoods. Others barricaded behind fires and piles of garbage, occupied by armed men.  Most of the population has no access to basic public services,

HELSINKI (AP) — Police in Norway have reported dozens of disturbances and violent clashes including mass brawls in the Nordic country’s big cities after streets, bars, restaurants and nightclubs were filled with people celebrating the end of COVID-19 restrictions. The Norwegian government abruptly announced Friday that most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions would be scrapped

By CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Many of the law enforcement changes enacted by states after George Floyd’s death have centered on policing tactics, not on racial disparities in the criminal justice system. On a national level, bipartisan congressional talks on overhauling policing practices have ended without an agreement. Now, advocacy groups are

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — What will it cost to enact President Joe Biden’s massive expansion of social programs? Congress has authorized spending up to $3.5 trillion over a decade. But Biden is prodding Democrats to fully cover the cost of the legislation. That means raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy,

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian opposition activists and pro-government media say warplanes have attacked Turkey-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria, killing and wounding more than a dozen militants. Sunday’s airstrike on a position in an area near the town of Afrin came amid increasing tensions between government forces and insurgent groups. Insurgents still have a stronghold

LA PALMA, Canary Islands (AP) — A massive ash cloud from an erupting volcano has prevented flights in and out of the Spanish island of La Palma. Emergency workers cleared ash from the airport runway, but no flights arrived or departed Sunday as the volcano continued to fling molten rock high into the air. There’s

By EGILL BJARNASON Associated Press REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland briefly celebrated electing a female-majority parliament Sunday — before a recount showed the result fell just short of that landmark for gender parity in the North Atlantic island nation. A first count had female candidates winning 33 seats in Iceland’s 63-seat parliament, the Althing. Hours