Month: June 2023

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Skyscrapers, bridges and other landmarks in South Korea’s capital will be lit up in purple as the country begins celebrating the 10th anniversary of K-pop band BTS. The lights will provide the backdrop for various social media-driven events marking the 2013 debut of the seven-member group, which is now taking

By GEIR MOULSON and COURTNEY BONNELL Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — UBS says it has completed its takeover of embattled rival Credit Suisse. The announcement comes nearly three months after the Swiss government hastily arranged a rescue deal to combine the country’s two largest banks in a bid to safeguard Switzerland’s reputation as a global

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A major Japanese talent agency has begun an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against its founder. The lawyer heading the probe, Makoto Hayashi, told reporters Monday it won’t address monetary or criminality questions but rather aims to prevent such abuse from happening again. Hayashi said the effort

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s government has welcomed the arrival of the first shipment of discounted crude from Russia under a key Islamabad-Moscow deal. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif hailed it as a “fulfillment of promises” to the nation. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted that it marked a “true service” for the

BERLIN (AP) — An air deployment exercise billed as the biggest in NATO’s history and hosted by Germany is getting underway. The exercise was long-planned but serves to showcase the alliance’s capabilities amid high tensions with Russia. The Air Defender 23 exercise is set to run from Monday through June 23, with 10,000 participants and

By The Associated Press Ukrainian troops are probing Russian defenses as spring gives way to a second summer of fighting, and Kyiv’s forces are facing an enemy that has made mistakes and suffered setbacks in the 15-month-old war. But analysts say Moscow also has learned from those blunders and improved its weapons and skills. Russia

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The intimate, funny-sad musical “Kimberly Akimbo” nudged aside splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its creative muscle amid the Hollywood writers’ strike and made history with laurels for nonbinary actors J. Harrison

By AARON KESSLER, RICHARD LARDNER and JENNIFER MCDERMOTT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has disbursed in COVID-relief aid. Fraudsters

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press/Report for America PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Funding for schools, literacy programs and special education teachers in Oregon are in possible jeopardy after a nearly six-week Republican walkout has stalled hundreds of bills. The GOP standoff over a bill that would expand access to abortion and gender-affirming health care could scuttle

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s parliament has belatedly approved a record $152 billion budget for 2023, after months of wrangling over the sharing of oil revenue between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region in the north. The process was also hampered by infighting

By SAM METZ Associated Press PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then wrote a children’s book about grieving has been scheduled for a bail hearing. A judge on Monday will determine whether 33-year-old Kouri Richins remains detained or has an opportunity to post bail.

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The head of New Zealand’s public radio station has apologized for publishing “pro-Kremlin garbage” on its website after more than a dozen wire stories on the Ukraine war were found to have been altered. Most of the stories, which date back more than a year,

By ALI SWENSON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — To its members, it’s a grassroots army of “joyful warriors” who “don’t co-parent with the government.” To anti-hate researchers, it’s a well-connected extremist group that attacks inclusion in schools. And to Republicans vying for the presidency, it has become a potential key partner in the fight