AP-National

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says he plans to take “appropriate steps” over his governing party’s widening slush funds scandal as speculation is rife that he may purge implicated Cabinet members in a major shuffle this week. The scandal mostly involves the Liberal Democratic Party’s largest and

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN Associated Press SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India’s top court on Monday upheld a 2019 decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to strip disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as a semi-autonomous region with a separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs. The five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal court jury has decided that Google’s Android app store has been protected by anticompetitive barriers that have damaged smartphone consumers and software developers, dealing a blow to a major pillar of a technology empire. The unanimous verdict reached Monday came after just three

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, WAFAA SHURAFA and JACK JEFFERY Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s defense minister on Monday pushed back against international calls to wrap up the country’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas militant group will “take time.” Yoav Gallant, a member

NEW YORK (AP) — Your Google search history for 2023 has arrived. Well, actually, the world’s. On Monday, the California-based tech giant released its “Year in Search,” a roundup of 2023’s top global queries, ranging from unforgettable pop culture moments (hello, Barbenheimer), to the loss of beloved figures and tragic news carrying worldwide repercussions. The

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and JIWON SONG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Singers RM and V of the K-pop band BTS began their mandatory military duties under South Korean law, their management agency announced Monday. This came a day before two of their bandmates, Jimin and Jung Kook, were also expected to report for

By DAVID KEYTON Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As countries at the COP28 climate talks are wrangling over deadlines for lowering their carbon dioxide emissions, a Danish-led group of countries has decided to set the ultimate goal: to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than they emit. The Group of Negative Emitters

By UZMI ATHAR, Press Trust of India DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Indigenous women at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai are coming together to share some of their innovative ideas on how communities on the front lines of climate change can contend with it. Those include things like cultivating eucalyptus plants in

BEIJING (AP) — Overnight snowfall across much of northern China prompted road closures and the suspension of classes and train service on Monday. A red alert for a blizzard was in effect until mid-morning in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, and schools were closed there and in two other cities in Henan, state broadcaster

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — “All I Want for Christmas is You,” Mariah Carey’s hit from 1994, has grown over the last three decades into the Christmas colossus. It’s arguably the most successful holiday song ever from an economic standpoint. Just try to avoid it if you go out in

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — If anything about Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” annoys you, best to avoid shopping malls now. Or the radio. Maybe music altogether, for that matter. Her 1994 carol dominates holiday music like nothing else. The Christmas colossus has reached No. 1

By JON GAMBRELL, JAMEY KEATEN, SIBI ARASU and SETH BORENSTEIN Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Negotiators from around the world haggled deep into the night to try to strike a deal to halt global warming at United Nations climate talks, with Western powers and vulnerable developing countries worried that a proposed text

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press At a small rural Missouri high school, two English teachers shared a secret: Both were posting adult content on OnlyFans, the subscription-based website known for sexually explicit content. The site and others like it provide an opportunity for those willing to dabble in pornography to earn extra money — sometimes

By MATTHEW BROWN and JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press DENVER, Colo. (AP) — Wildlife officials plan to release gray wolves in Colorado in coming weeks, at the behest of urban voters and to the dismay of rural residents who don’t want the predators but have waning influence in the Democratic-led state. The most ambitious wolf reintroduction

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has hosted a Hanukkah reception at the White House. He is vowing to continue to stand with Israel in its war with Hamas, and says that a “surge of antisemitism” around the globe “is sickening.” Nearly 800 guests filled the East Room to almost

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Three decommissioned fire companies in Philadelphia have been reopened with the help of federal funding. That includes a ladder truck that would have been the closest responder to a deadly rowhouse blaze last year, which started when a Christmas tree caught fire. President Joe

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” dominated the Golden Globe Awards nominations with nine nods for the blockbuster film, including best picture musical or comedy as well as acting nominations for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and three of its original songs. It was closely followed by its release date and meme

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Holocaust survivors from around the globe will mark the start of the fifth day of Hanukkah together with a virtual ceremony as Jews worldwide worry about the Israel-Hamas war and a spike of antisemitism in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. Survivors can join an online ceremony

By JOANNA KOZLOWSKA Associated Press Sometime in the early 2010s, Yekaterina Duntsova’s eldest daughter drew a picture of her debating Russian President Vladimir Putin live on prime-time TV. A decade on, the little-known journalist and mom-of-three from a small town in western Russia recalls the drawing as a joke about her civic activism — but

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for two Georgia election workers played audio recordings in a Washington courtroom Monday of graphic and racist threats the two women received after Rudy Giuliani falsely accused them of fraud while pushing Donald Trump’s baseless claims after the 2020 election. The recordings