Month: January 2024

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A bipartisan delegation from the United States Congress is reaffirming support for Taiwan following its election of a new president. The delegation’s visit is the first by U.S. lawmakers to the island since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won a third-straight term in the election. China

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat is accusing the United States, South Korea and Japan of preparing for war with North Korea. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a U.N. news conference Wednesday that this new military bloc brought together by the United States is building up military activity

TOKYO (AP) — Weather officials in Japan predicted more heavy snow Thursday, a day after nearly 800 vehicles were trapped for fours on an expressway in central Japan. The 4-mile traffic jam happened after two trailers got stuck in the snow. Soldiers were called in Wednesday to clear the snow. Japan’s Meteorological Agency said as

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press AL-MAZRA’A ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank (AP) — The fatal shooting of an American-Palestinian teen driving a pickup truck in the occupied West Bank was unprovoked, the sole passenger told The Associated Press, describing apparent Israeli fire hitting the back of the vehicle before it overturned several times on a dirt road.

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — China’s central bank has announced new rules meant to expand access to commercial bank loans for property developers. Real estate companies will be allowed to use bank loans pledged against commercial properties such as offices and shopping malls to repay their other loans and bonds. The

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has executed a man with nitrogen gas, putting him to death with a first-of-its-kind method that once again put the U.S. at the forefront of the debate over capital punishment. Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. Thursday at an Alabama

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, JENNIFER PELTZ, and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — He testified for under three minutes. But former President Donald Trump still broke a judge’s rules on what he could tell a jury about writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault and defamation allegations, and he left the courtroom Thursday bristling to

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Another Trump White House official convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack has been sentenced to four months behind bars. Peter Navarro was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Two monuments symbolizing Australia’s colonial past have been damaged by protesters ahead of an increasingly polarizing national holiday that marks the anniversary of British settlement. A statue in Melbourne of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney’s coast, was sawn off at the ankles early Thursday, while a

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Law enforcement officers say Maine’s yellow flag law that allows guns to be confiscated from someone in a mental health crisis is cumbersome and time consuming. They addressed their concerns Thursday to an independent commission that is investigating a mass shooting in which an Army reservist

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Long-suffering California Republicans will see something on the March ballot that might shock them: a U.S. Senate candidate whose name they recognize. The state’s Republican Party has been in a decades-long tailspin in heavily Democratic California. This year, the candidacy of former Los Angeles

By GABE STERN Associated Press/Report for America RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s Republican delegates are essentially locked in for Donald Trump weeks before voters make their choice. That’s because a thinned-out primary field and a group of Nevada Republicans loyal to Trump have cleared the way for him by creating a caucus system separate from

By LISA MASCARO and JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Long before Donald Trump announced his campaign to retake the White House, he launched a quieter campaign to rack up Republican endorsements. In early 2021, after Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden and inspired a mob of supporters to attack the Capitol trying to