AP National News

Associated Press/Report for America TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Following Florida Democrats’ losses on Election Day, a second state lawmaker has announced she’s switching her party affiliation and joining the Republican caucus. In a post on social media, Rep. Hillary Cassel said Florida Democrats are out of touch with voters and that she has a better

Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California will start requiring property insurers to increase coverage in wildfire-prone areas after homeowners across the state increasingly struggle to find policies. The state’s new rule announced Monday requires insurers to start increasing their coverage by 5% every two years until they hit the equivalent of 85% of their

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider, the agency said Monday. The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers may have obtained, but it said in

South Korea’s worst aviation disaster in decades also was the year’s deadliest plane crash worldwide, and time is running out on 2024. A Boeing 737-800 plane operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air slammed into a concrete fence at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing 179 people. Two crew members survived. The

Anna Netrebko has withdrawn from her planned role debut in Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” at the Vienna State Opera and been replaced by Lise Davidsen in a switch of star sopranos. Netrebko says ill health had compromised preparation time ahead of rehearsals. Davidsen made her Ariadne role debut at England’s Glyndebourne Festival in 2017. She

Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece says it will enhance parental oversight of mobile devices in 2025 by building a government-operated app, that will help get digital age verification and browsing controls. The country’s minister of digital governance said the Kids Wallet app will launch in March and is aimed at safeguarding children under

Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. official says arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico in December are little changed from a month earlier. They are hovering near the lowest levels since July 2020, indicating that an anticipated surge ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president hasn’t happened. There were about 44,000

PARIS (AP) — French Prime Minister François Bayrou arrived Monday in the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte to unveil a recovery plan three weeks after Cyclone Chido brought devastation. He also updated the death toll to 39 but urged caution, saying the final number could range from “a few dozen to a few hundred.” Bayrou’s

AP Basketball Writer Tennessee remains No. 1 after a quiet holiday week in the AP Top 25. The Volunteers received 41 first-place votes from a 61-person media panel in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll released Monday. No. 2 Auburn had 20 first-place votes, with Iowa State, Duke and Alabama rounding out the top

Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy Carter already had drawn months of media scrutiny as a devout Southern Baptist running for president. Then the 1976 Democratic nominee brought up sex and sin as he explained his religious faith to Playboy magazine. Carter was not misquoted. But he was certainly misunderstood, as his thoughts in

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that released hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two

Associated Press STANTON, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota judge has sentenced the adult son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer to serve 28 years in prison in connection with a wild chase in which he fled from a hospital and drove into a deputy’s vehicle, killing the deputy. A judge sentenced 43-year-old Ian Cramer on

AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — If you think your Spotify playlist is getting a little too long, consider the one shared by the members of Khruangbin. It’s got 51 hours of songs. “I’m trying to listen to as many different things as possible before they all start to sound kind of the same,”

AP Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) — There’s a chance solar storms may bring northern lights to several northern U.S states just in time for the new year. The sun expelled two bursts of plasma that are hurtling toward Earth and are expected to arrive early this week, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and

Associated Press JARWENG, South Sudan (AP) — Nobel Prize-winning peacemaker Jimmy Carter spent nearly four decades waging war to eliminate an ancient parasite plaguing the world’s poorest people. Rarely fatal but searingly painful and debilitating, Guinea worm disease infects people who drink water tainted with larvae that grow inside the body into worms as much

AP Medical Writer LONDON (AP) — If you’re making New Year resolutions, experts say keep them small and focused on specific goals. Psychologists recommend starting small so new changes aren’t overwhelming. By breaking a larger goal into smaller steps, the more ambitious goal may seem achievable. Experts also say enlisting family and friends may help