Top General News
Government funding bill clears Congress and heads to President Biden, averting a shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through final passage early Saturday of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, dropping President-elect Donald Trump's demands for a debt limit increase into the new year. ...
Senate passes Social Security benefits boost for many public service retirees
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed legislation early Saturday to boost Social Security payments for millions of people, pushing a longtime priority for former public employees through Congress in one of its last acts for the year. The bipartisan bill, which next heads to President...
Musk helped kill a congressional spending bill. But much of what he spread was misinformation
President-elect Donald Trump's billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in killing a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against the plan in a torrent of more than 100 X posts that included multiple false claims. The X...
Death toll in attack on Christmas market in Germany rises to 5 and more than 200 injured
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others. ...
Sectarian violence in Syria has been less intense than feared since Assad's ouster
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The toppling of Bashar Assad has raised tentative hopes that Syrians might live peacefully and as equals after a half century of authoritarian rule. While there have been bursts of deadly sectarian violence in the days since Assad was ousted, it’s nothing...
What will Syria's future look like? The answer could lie in other Arab countries' recent pasts
CAIRO (AP) — Even with hopes running high, so much can go wrong when a country ousts a longtime dictator and tries to start anew. The Middle Eastern and North African nations that attempted to transition to democracy in recent years can attest to that. Now it's Syria's turn to try...
France's Mayotte struggles to recover as cyclone overwhelms hospitals
MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — A week after its worst cyclone in nearly a century, France’s impoverished Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte is still grappling to count the dead, restore essential services and aid a beleaguered population. Already stretched thin, hospitals are overwhelmed with...
Amazon and Starbucks workers are on strike. Trump might have something to do with it
Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in a handful of U.S. cities as they seek to exert pressure on the two major companies to recognize them as unionized employees or to meet demands for an inaugural labor contract. The strikes that started Thursday and...
Indonesians mark 2 decades since the tragic tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Two decades after a catastrophic tsunami destroyed her village, Tria Asnani still cries when she recalls how she lost her mother while trying to escape the giant waves. Asnani, now a school teacher, was only 17 at the time. Her father, who was a...
NORAD's Santa tracker was a Cold War morale boost. Now it attracts millions of kids
The Christmas tradition has become nearly global in scope: Children from around the world track Santa Claus as he sweeps across the earth, delivering presents and defying time. Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about...
Latest General News
Senate review of Supreme Court ethics finds more luxury trips and urges enforceable code of conduct
WASHINGTON (AP) — A nearly two-year investigation by Democratic senators of Supreme Court ethics details more luxury travel by Justice Clarence Thomas and urges Congress to establish a way to enforce a new code of conduct. Any movement on the issue appears unlikely as Republicans...
Death toll in attack on Christmas market in Germany rises to 5 and more than 200 injured
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others. ...
Ukrainian drones strike deep into Russian territory, hundreds of miles from the front line
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine brought the war into the heart of Russia Saturday morning with drone attacks that local authorities said damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan in the Tatarstan region, over 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the front line. The press...
AP PHOTOS: Holiday lights illuminate the world
Holiday lights are everywhere – and everywhere they look a little different. In recent weeks, Associated Press photographers have captured glistening scenes around the globe. In Jemez Springs, New Mexico, traditional luminarias, also known as farolitos, flickered through the Jemez...
A rocket from Yemen strikes Tel Aviv, injuring 16, and Palestinians mourn a dozen children in Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. ...
Syrian soldiers distance themselves from Assad in return for promised amnesty
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Hundreds of former Syrian soldiers on Saturday reported to the country's new rulers for the first time since Bashar Assad was ousted to answer questions about whether they may have been involved in crimes against civilians in exchange for a promised amnesty and return to...
Farmers are still reeling months after Hurricane Helene ravaged crops across the South
LYONS, Ga. (AP) — Twisted equipment and snapped tree limbs still litter Chris Hopkins’ Georgia farm more than two months after Hurricane Helene made its deadly march across the South. An irrigation sprinkler system about 300 feet (92 meters) long lay overturned in a field, its...
22 people die in a crash between a passenger bus and a truck in Brazil
SAO PAULO (AP) — A crash between a passenger bus and a truck early Saturday killed 22 people on a highway in Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil, officials said. The Minas Gerais fire department, which responded to the scene, said 13 others were taken to hospitals near the...
German Christmas market ramming is the latest attack to use vehicles as deadly weapons
LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons. There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups...
22 people die in a crash between a passenger bus and a truck in Brazil
SAO PAULO (AP) — 22 people die in a crash between a passenger bus and a truck in Brazil.