Top General News

Top UN court orders Israel to halt military offensive in Rafah, though Israel is unlikely to comply

May. 24, 2024 15:11 PM EDT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations' top court ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Although Israel is unlikely to comply with the order, it will ratchet up...

Egypt agrees to send aid trucks through Israeli crossing to Gaza but impact is unclear

May. 24, 2024 15:47 PM EDT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Egypt said Friday it has agreed to send U.N. humanitarian aid trucks through Israel’s main crossing into Gaza, but it remained unclear if they will be able to enter the territory as fighting raged in the southern city of Rafah amid Israel’s escalating offensive there....

Trump swaps bluster for silence, and possibly sleep, in his hush money trial

May. 24, 2024 00:13 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump isn’t known for letting slights pass. Yet for weeks, the famously combative presumptive Republican nominee has sat silently — to the point of sometimes seeming asleep — in a sterile Manhattan courtroom amid a barrage of accusations and insults. ...

As the election nears, Biden pushes a slew of rules on the environment and other priorities

May. 24, 2024 12:24 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As he tries to secure his legacy, President Joe Biden has unleashed a flurry of election year rules on the environment and other topics, including a landmark regulation that would force coal-fired power plants to capture smokestack emissions or shut down. The...

Hunter Biden's impending gun trial could last up to 2 weeks amid sharp disagreements over evidence

May. 24, 2024 17:08 PM EDT

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The judge overseeing Hunter Biden ’s federal firearms charges trial agreed Friday to block prosecutors from telling jurors about some other unflattering episodes from his personal life, but left the door open to allowing them in if the president’s son testifies. ...

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to undergo procedure at Walter Reed, will transfer power to deputy

May. 24, 2024 16:19 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will undergo a medical procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday evening and will transfer power temporarily to his deputy, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. Austin is...

Young missionary couple from US among 3 killed by gunmen in Haiti's capital, family says

May. 24, 2024 17:55 PM EDT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A U.S. missionary couple and a Haitian man who led a religious group were shot and killed by criminal gang members in Haiti’s capital after they were abducted while leaving a youth group activity held at a local church, a family member said Friday. ...

Over 100 feared dead in landslide in remote part of Papua New Guinea, with rescue efforts underway

May. 24, 2024 10:52 AM EDT

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — More than 100 people are believed to have been killed in a landslide Friday that buried a village in a remote, mountainous part of Papua New Guinea, and an emergency response is underway, officials in the South Pacific island nation said. The landslide...

More severe weather moves through Midwest as Iowa residents clean up tornado damage

May. 24, 2024 18:06 PM EDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Several tornadoes were reported in Iowa and Illinois as storms downed power lines and trees on Friday, just days after a deadly twister devastated one small town. The large storm system began overnight in Nebraska before traveling across central Iowa and...

Caleb Carr, military historian and author of bestselling novel 'The Alienist,' dies at 68

May. 24, 2024 16:38 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Caleb Carr, the scarred and gifted son of founding Beat Lucien Carr who endured a traumatizing childhood and became a bestselling novelist, accomplished military historian and late-life memoirist of his devoted cat, Masha, has died at 68. Carr died of cancer...

Latest General News

Ex-CIA officer accused of spying for China pleads guilty in a Honolulu courtroom

May. 24, 2024 19:13 PM EDT

HONOLULU (AP) — A former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI accused of spying for China for at least a decade pleaded guilty Friday in a federal courtroom in Honolulu. Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 72, has been in custody since his arrest in August 2020. The U.S. Justice...

Florida priest accused of biting woman who grabbed Holy Communion wafers during Mass

May. 24, 2024 19:10 PM EDT

ST. CLOUD, Fla. (AP) — The Diocese of Orlando is defending a Catholic priest accused of biting a woman who tried to grab Holy Communion wafers during Mass at a central Florida church. The confrontation occurred Sunday afternoon at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Cloud....

French court sentences 3 Syrian officials to life in prison in absentia for war crimes

May. 24, 2024 19:07 PM EDT

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officials in absentia to life in prison Friday for complicity in war crimes in a landmark case against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the first such case in Europe. The trial focused on the officials’...

UAW files objection to Mercedes vote, accuses company of intimidating workers

May. 24, 2024 19:03 PM EDT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The United Auto Workers on Friday accused Mercedes of interfering in a union election at two Alabama factories by intimidating and coercing workers into voting no. A week after Mercedes workers voted against joining the union, the labor group filed an...

Judge rejects Alec Baldwin's request to dismiss criminal charge in ‘Rust’ fatal shooting

May. 24, 2024 18:33 PM EDT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge has rejected a request by Alec Baldwin to dismiss the sole criminal charge against him in a fatal shooting on the set of the movie “Rust,” keeping the case on track for a trial this summer. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer on Friday upheld an...

Kennedy blasts Biden, Trump over pandemic measures in pitch at Libertarian convention

May. 24, 2024 18:59 PM EDT

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accused Joe Biden and Donald Trump Friday of trampling on personal liberties in response to the pandemic that spanned their presidencies. Kennedy, who has long claimed to be a victim of government and media censorship of his...

Colombia's ex-President Uribe charged with witness tampering in polarizing legal battle

May. 24, 2024 18:55 PM EDT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was charged Friday in a long-running witness tampering investigation. Uribe was formally charged with witness tampering and bribery for his efforts to discredit a political opponent who was digging into Uribe’s...

Louisiana governor signs bill making two abortion drugs controlled dangerous substances

May. 24, 2024 18:51 PM EDT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — First-of-its-kind legislation that classifies two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances was signed into law Friday by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry. The Republican governor announced his signing of the bill in Baton Rouge a day after it...

Travelers cope with crowds and high prices on the busiest day of Memorial Day weekend

May. 24, 2024 18:40 PM EDT

Travelers contended with big crowds and flight delays Friday, which was expected to be the busiest day of the Memorial Day weekend. More than 6,000 U.S. flights were delayed by early evening on the East Coast, continuing a trend that has tested the patience of travelers all week....

Efforts to draft a pandemic treaty falter as countries disagree on how to respond to next emergency

May. 24, 2024 18:38 PM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — A global treaty to fight pandemics like COVID is going to have to wait: After more than two years of negotiations, rich and poor countries have failed — for now — to come up with a plan for how the world might respond to the next pandemic. After COVID-19...