Top General News

Hegseth confirmed as Trump's defense secretary in tie-breaking vote despite turmoil over his conduct

Jan. 24, 2025 23:00 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation's defense secretary late Friday in a dramatic tie-breaking vote, swatting back questions about his qualifications to lead the Pentagon amid allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women. Rarely...

Trump proposes 'getting rid of FEMA' while touring disaster areas

Jan. 24, 2025 23:17 PM EST

LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Donald Trump surveyed disaster zones in California and North Carolina on Friday and said he was considering “getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offering the latest sign of how he is weighing sweeping changes to the nation's central...

Trump ends Fauci's security detail and says he'd feel no responsibility if harm befell him

Jan. 24, 2025 13:08 PM EST

FLETCHER, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has ended the federal security detail for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who advised him on the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. Fauci is the latest in a string of former Trump...

5 economic forces that could shape the first year of Trump's presidency

Jan. 24, 2025 13:43 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like most presidents, Donald Trump faces an economy that seldom bends to political ambitions. The Republican has promised strong growth, high tariffs, income tax cuts and booming oilfields. But despite the solid job market and low 4.1% unemployment rate, he has to...

Oath Keepers founder Rhodes is barred from entering Washington or Capitol without court's permission

Jan. 24, 2025 15:49 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from entering Washington without the court's approval after President Donald Trump commuted the extremist group leader's 18-year prison sentence in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. ...

Israel and Hamas are set to swap more hostages for prisoners in another test of the Gaza ceasefire

Jan. 24, 2025 22:43 PM EST

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel and Hamas were expected to swap more hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, the second such exchange since a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip last weekend and another test for the deal. The truce is aimed at winding down the...

Federal agencies begin removing DEI guidance from websites in Trump crackdown

Jan. 24, 2025 17:48 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agencies have begun removing resources for underrepresented Americans from their webpages following President Donald Trump's executive order cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Agencies also have been cancelling staff trainings...

What Americans think about Trump and Musk's plans for the federal government: AP-NORC poll

Jan. 24, 2025 10:04 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans see the federal government as rife with corruption, inefficiency and red tape — but they're less sure about whether Elon Musk is the right person to fix it. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that only...

Supreme Court will weigh approval for US’ 1st publicly funded religious charter school, in Oklahoma

Jan. 24, 2025 17:38 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take on a new culture war dispute: whether the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school should be allowed to open in Oklahoma. The justices said they would review an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that...

Colombia president decrees emergency powers to restore order in coca region wracked by rebel combat

Jan. 24, 2025 14:54 PM EST

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s president issued a decree Friday giving him emergency powers to restore order in a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela that has been wracked in recent days by a deadly turf war among dissident rebel groups. President Gustavo Petro's decree,...

Latest General News

Ukrainian winemaker, US vets team up on a mission: showing the best of Ukraine, one glass at a time

Jan. 25, 2025 00:25 AM EST

MONTCLAIR, Va. (AP) — In a wine shop an hour outside of Washington, owner Arthur Lampros sampled a wine from a part of the world that was totally new to him, racking his brain to pin down the tastes on his tongue. Was there a body of water near the vineyards, he wondered, that...

Trump's border emergency declaration comes amid relative calm after years of major turmoil

Jan. 25, 2025 00:25 AM EST

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Long stretches of silence on a Border Patrol scanner are punctuated with updates on tracking a single migrant for hours. The radio traffic sounds like a throwback to earlier times, before the United States became the largest destination for asylum-seekers in 2017. ...

Manfred Goldberg wants you to know how the Nazis took his brother’s life. And how an angel saved his

Jan. 25, 2025 00:24 AM EST

LONDON (AP) — Manfred Goldberg was just 13 years old when — stripped to his skin and shuffling toward an SS guard at a Nazi labor camp in Latvia — a man leaned over his shoulder and whispered the secret that saved the young Jew’s life. “If he happens to ask you your age,...

Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago. The spotlight is on survivors as their numbers dwindle

Jan. 25, 2025 00:14 AM EST

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The world's focus will be on the remaining survivors of Nazi Germany's atrocities on Monday as world leaders and royalty join them for commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The main observances take place at the site in...

Australian Open women's final: Aryna Sabalenka eyes a third straight title against Madison Keys

Jan. 25, 2025 00:14 AM EST

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka hopes to do something no woman has in more than a quarter of a century: win a third consecutive Australian Open championship. Madison Keys hopes to do something she never has: win a Grand Slam trophy. Sabalenka, a...

Senate heads toward confirming Kristi Noem as Trump's homeland security secretary

Jan. 25, 2025 00:13 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is heading towards a vote on confirming South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, placing her at the head of a sprawling agency that will be essential to both national security and President Donald Trump's plans to squash illegal immigration. ...

South Koreans turn funeral wreaths and K-pop light sticks into political protest tools

Jan. 25, 2025 00:06 AM EST

SEOUL (AP) — South Koreans are repurposing flower wreaths and K-pop light sticks as political protest tools amid the nation’s deepest political crisis in decades, sparked by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law declaration in December. Hundreds of wreaths,...

Conservatives of color have lofty expectations for Trump's second term

Jan. 25, 2025 00:06 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Delivering his first address as a reinaugurated president, Donald Trump spoke directly to communities that had historically shunned his party. “To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you...

Democratic states weigh more support for immigrants as Trump administration cracks down

Jan. 25, 2025 00:06 AM EST

As President Donald Trump tightens the nation's immigration policies, lawmakers in Democratic-led states are proposing new measures that could erect legal obstacles for federal immigration officials and help immigrants lacking legal status avoid deportation. The resistance efforts in...

With the ceasefire in Gaza comes a gruesome challenge: Counting and collecting the dead

Jan. 25, 2025 00:06 AM EST

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The corpses keep coming every day, sometimes dozens at a time, brought to morgues in the Gaza Strip after being pried from under 15 months of rubble and pulled from battle zones long too dangerous for search-and-rescue teams to reach. These bodies,...