Biden picks Chopra, Gensler for financial oversight roles

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Rohit Chopra to be the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, tapping a progressive ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren to helm the agency whose creation she championed. Chopra, now a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, helped launch...

Harris prepares for central role in Biden's White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris will make history on Wednesday when she becomes the nation’s first female vice president — and the first Black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to hold that office. But that’s only where her boundary-breaking role begins. With the...

Canada urges Biden not to cancel oil pipeline on first day

TORONTO (AP) — Top officials in Canada want a chance to make the case for a long disputed oil pipeline to be built amid reports President-elect Joe Biden will cancel Keystone XL. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Monday he will seek legal damages if reports are true that Biden plans to scrap the pipeline...

Pakistan PM angry over reports TV anchor knew about strike

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s prime minister reacted angrily Monday to media reports of a text exchange between an Indian TV anchor and a former media industry executive that suggests a 2019 Indian airstrike inside Pakistan was designed to boost Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chances for...

Uganda police surround Bobi Wine's opposition party offices

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The opposition party of Ugandan presidential challenger Bobi Wine said on Monday that police have prevented top officials from going to their headquarters in the capital, Kampala, as they prepare to launch a legal challenge to free Wine from house arrest. Police swooped in at dawn...

Court in Central African Republic upholds election results

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Central African Republic's constitutional court on Monday upheld President Faustin Archange Touadera’s re-election, raising the specter of more violence days after rebels attempted to overtake the capital. Touadera, meanwhile, told reporters that he was open...

UN chief says 9 African nations, Iran in arrears on UN dues

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. chief says nine African nations and Iran are in arrears on paying their dues to the United Nations’ operating budget and should lose their voting rights as required under the U.N. Charter. In a letter to General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir circulated Monday,...

Correction: Capitol Breach-Civil War story

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — In a story January 16, 2021, about Republican leaders invoking war rhetoric, The Associated Press incorrectly referred to an incoming chairwoman of the Michigan GOP. Instead, she is the incoming party co-chair. A corrected version of the story is below.

What Biden can and can't get from an evenly divided Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — So what does a 50-50 Senate get President-elect Joe Biden? Washington has barely had time to process the implications of Democratic control after two Georgia runoff elections that are delivering the Senate to Democrats. Hours after the races were decided, a mob of zealots ransacked the...

SKorean court gives Samsung scion prison term over bribery

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong was sent back to prison on Monday after a South Korean court handed him a two and a half-year sentence for his involvement in a 2016 corruption scandal that spurred massive protests and ousted South Korea’s then-president. In a...