Dubai International Airport, busiest for world travel, sees record 92.3 million passengers in 2024

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, saw a record 92.3 million passengers pass through its terminals in 2024, officials announced Thursday. The result cements Dubai's bounce-back from the coronavirus...

Independently funded jet's sound barrier mark revives talk of commercial supersonic travel

An aircraft developed by Boom Supersonic became the first independently funded jet to break the sound barrier this week. The XB-1 aircraft accelerated to Mach 1.05 at about 35,000 feet during a test flight Tuesday in the same Mojave Desert airspace in California where Charles “Chuck” Yeager was...

UK environmental activists appeal against prison sentences they say are unduly harsh

LONDON (AP) — Sixteen environmental activists who were jailed for actions including stopping traffic, blocking an oil facility and splashing a van Gogh painting with soup went to a London court Wednesday to challenge their sentences. The Just Stop Oil protesters say they received...

General purpose AI could lead to array of new risks, experts say in report ahead of AI summit

LONDON (AP) — Advanced artificial intelligence systems have the potential to create extreme new risks, such as fueling widespread job losses, enabling terrorism or running amok, experts said in a first-of-its-kind international report Wednesday cataloging the range of dangers posed by the...

UK government backs contentious third runway at London's Heathrow Airport

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government is backing the construction of a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport, Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said Wednesday in a speech designed to signal to the business world that the new Labour government is serious about turning around the economy. ...

Britain's Princess Beatrice gives birth to second daughter

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Princes Beatrice gave birth to her second child last week, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday. The palace said 36-year-old Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi welcomed new arrival Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi on Jan. 22. She weighed 4...

UK Treasury chief backs construction of a contentious plan for a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport

At Auschwitz memorial, survivors see echoes of the past in rising antisemitism

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — Auschwitz survivors warned Monday of the rising antisemitism and hatred they are witnessing in the modern world as they gathered with world leaders and European royalty on the 80th anniversary of the death camp's liberation. In all, 56 survivors gathered...

French residents rescued from flooded homes by boat as Storm Herminia hits Normandy and Brittany

RENNES, France (AP) — Residents in western France used boats to escape their flooded homes on Monday as rivers and waterways broke their banks after successive storms battered Normandy and Brittany. The national weather service had issued flood and wind warnings as Storm Herminia...

Today in History: February 6, Queen Elizabeth II accedes to throne

Today is Thursday, Feb. 6, the 37th day of 2025. There are 328 days left in the year. Today in history: On Feb. 6, 1952, Britain’s King George VI, 56, died at Sandringham House in Norfolk, England; he was succeeded as monarch by his 25-year-old eldest daughter, who...