Top General News

Jury selection in Trump hush money trial faces pivotal stretch as former president returns to court

Apr. 18, 2024 00:11 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jury selection in the hush money trial of Donald Trump enters a pivotal and potentially final stretch Thursday as lawyers look to round out the panel of New Yorkers that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former president. Seven jurors have been...

The Latest | Netanyahu says Israel will decide how to respond as Iran warns against retaliation

Apr. 17, 2024 23:05 PM EDT

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s major air assault earlier this week, brushing off calls for restraint from close allies. Israel has vowed to respond to Iran’s unprecedented attack, leaving the region bracing for...

Israelis grapple with how to celebrate Passover, a holiday about freedom, while many remain captive

Apr. 18, 2024 00:29 AM EDT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Every year, Alon Gat’s mother led the family's Passover celebration of the liberation of the ancient Israelites from Egypt thousands of years ago. But this year, Gat is struggling with how to reconcile a holiday commemorating freedom after his mother was slain and other family...

Once a fringe Indian ideology, Hindu nationalism is now mainstream, thanks to Modi's decade in power

Apr. 18, 2024 00:24 AM EDT

AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology in India, is now mainstream. Nobody has done more to advance this cause than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one of India’s most beloved and polarizing political leaders. And no entity has had more influence on his...

Climate change concerns grow, but few think Biden's climate law will help, AP-NORC poll finds

Apr. 18, 2024 00:04 AM EDT

Like many Americans, Ron Theusch is getting more worried about climate change. A resident of Alden, Minnesota, Theusch has noticed increasingly dry and mild winters punctuated by short periods of severe cold — symptoms of a warming planet. As he thinks about that,...

United Arab Emirates struggles to recover after heaviest recorded rainfall ever hits desert nation

Apr. 18, 2024 02:13 AM EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates struggled Thursday to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation, as its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads. ...

Lawyers for Nassar assault survivors have reached $100M deal with Justice Department, AP source says

Apr. 17, 2024 19:02 PM EDT

The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to pay approximately $100 million to settle claims with about 100 people who say they were sexually assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The deal has...

Democrats clear path to bring proposed repeal of Arizona’s near-total abortion ban to a vote

Apr. 17, 2024 19:53 PM EDT

PHOENIX (AP) — Democrats in the Arizona Senate cleared a path to bring a proposed repeal of the state’s near-total ban on abortions to a vote after the state’s highest court concluded the law can be enforced and the state House blocked efforts to undo the long-dormant statute. ...

25 years after Columbine, trauma shadows survivors of the school shooting

Apr. 17, 2024 22:56 PM EDT

DENVER (AP) — Hours after she escaped the Columbine High School shooting, 14-year-old Missy Mendo slept between her parents in bed, still wearing the shoes she had on when she fled her math class. She wanted to be ready to run. Twenty-five years later, and with Mendo now a mother...

Tsunami alert after a volcano in Indonesia has several big eruptions and thousands are told to leave

Apr. 17, 2024 22:44 PM EDT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami alert Wednesday after eruptions at Ruang mountain sent ash thousands of feet high. Officials ordered more than 11,000 people to leave the area. The volcano on the northern side of Sulawesi island had at least five...

Latest General News

Germany arrests 2 for allegedly spying for Russia, planning sabotage to undermine Ukraine aid

Apr. 18, 2024 03:15 AM EDT

BERLIN (AP) — Two German-Russian men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of espionage, one of them accused of agreeing to carry out attacks on potential targets including U.S. military facilities in hopes of sabotaging aid for Ukraine, prosecutors said Thursday. The two,...

China-born Zhou Guanyu will be a star regardless of who wins the Chinese Formula 1 race in Shanghai

Apr. 18, 2024 02:06 AM EDT

Formula 1 returns to China this weekend after a five-year absence. And no matter who wins on Sunday, the star locally will be China-born driver Zhou Guanyu. Despite his so-so results, Zhou is a being promoted as a celebrity in China. He’s the subject of a new film as the first...

United Arab Emirates struggles to recover after heaviest recorded rainfall ever hits desert nation

Apr. 18, 2024 02:13 AM EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates struggled Thursday to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation, as its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads. ...

Poland's president becomes the latest leader to visit Donald Trump as allies eye a possible return

Apr. 18, 2024 02:00 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump met Wednesday in New York with Polish President Andrzej Duda, the latest in a series of meetings with foreign leaders as Europe braces for the possibility of a second Trump term. The presumptive Republican nominee hosted Duda at Trump...

Sydney shopping mall reopens after stabbings. Police make first arrest in riot after church attack

Apr. 18, 2024 01:32 AM EDT

SYDNEY (AP) — A Sydney shopping mall opened to the public on Thursday for the first time since a mass stabbing i n which six people died, while the Australian prime minister raised giving citizenship to an immigrant security guard who was wounded while confronting the knife-wielding attacker. ...

US envoy to the UN vows support for families of Japanese who were abducted and taken to North Korea

Apr. 18, 2024 01:25 AM EDT

TOKYO (AP) — America stands with Japan until all the Japanese abducted by North Korea decades ago return home to end their painful separation, United States ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday in Tokyo. Japan says North Korea abducted at least 17...

China and Indonesia call for cease-fire in Gaza

Apr. 18, 2024 01:20 AM EDT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The Chinese and Indonesian foreign ministers called for an immediate and lasting cease-fire in Gaza after a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday, condemning the humanitarian costs of the ongoing war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. ...

Takeaways from this week's reports on the deadly 2023 Maui fire that destroyed Lahaina

Apr. 18, 2024 01:17 AM EDT

HONOLULU (AP) — More than half a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a historic Maui town, officials are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and how to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. But two reports released this week are filling...

How South Africa's former leader Zuma turned on his allies and became a surprise election foe

Apr. 18, 2024 01:09 AM EDT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa faces an unusual national election this year, its seventh vote since transitioning from white minority rule to a democracy 30 years ago. Polls and analysts warn that for the first time, the ruling African National Congress party that has comfortably held power...

Sydney boy accused of stabbing 2 clerics showed no signs of radicalization, Muslim leader says

Apr. 18, 2024 01:02 AM EDT

SYDNEY (AP) — A boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics during a Sydney church service might have “anger management and behavioral issues” and a “short fuse” but had shown no signs of being radicalized, a community leader said on Thursday, after authorities declared the stabbing a...