AP-National

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces the prospect of his ruling party’s worst election result ever. Yet he’s still likely be reelected as leader of Africa’s most advanced country after Wednesday’s national vote. Several polls have support for his African National Congress at below

By LEKAN OYEKANMI and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail pummeled Texas on Tuesday, leaving one person dead and about 1 million businesses and homes without power as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 24 people during the

By ADRIANA MORGA Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Many people start no-buy challenges at the beginning of the year and commit to keep going until the end of it. But making a list of the non-essential items you won’t spend money on for a set period of time and sticking to it is easier

Associated Press OpenAI says it’s setting up a safety and security committee and has begun training a new AI model to supplant the GPT-4 system that underpins its ChatGPT chatbot. The San Francisco startup said in a blog post Tuesday that the committee will advise the full board on “critical safety and security decisions” for

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese town that erected a huge black screen last week in an attempt to stop tourists from snapping photos of Mount Fuji and overcrowding the area has discovered holes in the screen and is working to repair them, officials said Tuesday. Fujikawaguchiko, a popular spot to

By ADRIANA MORGA Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The self-imposed rules of a no-buy challenge are simple: participants pledge to stop buying non-essential items, be they unneeded shoes, additional beauty products or other impulse buys for a set amount of time, usually 12 months. What started several years ago as a blogged-about experiment in

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and THALIA BEATY AP Business Writers Melinda French Gates says she will be donating $1 billion over the next two years to individuals and organizations working on behalf of women and families globally, including on reproductive rights in the United States. It’s the second billion-dollar commitment French Gates has personally made in

BERLIN (AP) — Official data show another big increase in the number of people gaining German citizenship last year. According to figures released Tuesday, large numbers of people from Syria helped push naturalizations up to their highest level since at least 2000. The Federal Statistical Office says about 200,100 people were granted German citizenship in

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s top diplomat says that Congo has released a Polish man who was sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Tuesday on X that Mariusz Majewski is back in Europe. Sikorski posted a brief video of himself apparently talking to Majewski over the phone to

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Missile attacks twice damaged a Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned ship Tuesday in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, with a private security firm saying radio traffic suggested the vessel took on water after being struck. No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Toyota introduced plans to cast a futuristic spin on the traditional internal combustion engine. During a three-hour presentation at a Tokyo hall Tuesday, the car manufacturer giant announced it would offer lean compact engines that also run on so-called green fuels like hydrogen and

By ALBERT AJI Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — For the first time in over a decade, 270 Syrians have traveled on a direct flight from Damascus to Saudi Arabia for the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage, according to the Syrian Transportation Ministry. Tuesday’s development marks an ongoing thaw in relations between Damascus and Riyadh, which

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police on Tuesday arrested six people, including a former organizer of the city’s decades-long annual vigil that commemorated China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown, for allegedly publishing seditious social media posts. They were the first publicly known arrests under the city’s new national security law. Secretary

NEW YORK (AP) — Closing arguments in Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial have begun, giving prosecutors and defense lawyers one final opportunity to convince the jury of their respective cases before deliberations begin. Arguments are expected to last all day Tuesday, even stretching into the evening hours, with jury deliberations starting as early as

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature has passed changes that are seen as favoring China and diminishing the power of the island’s president. The changes pushed by the opposition Nationalist Party and its allies on Tuesday would give the body greater power to control budgets, including defense spending that the party has blocked in

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A typhoon has finally moved away from the Philippines, leaving at least seven people dead, mostly due to floods or toppled trees. Typhoon Ewiniar also forced the closures of several seaports, stranding thousands of passengers, officials said Tuesday. The typhoon crept by the country’s eastern coast late Friday night and lingered

By KEVIN SCHEMBRI ORLAND Associated Press VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Malta’s former prime minister and other former top officials have pleaded not guilty to charges in a hospital corruption scandal that is roiling the Mediterranean island nation as it prepares for European Parliament elections. The case involves a deal, originally struck in 2015, in which

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — A report by the United Nations says that as economies in Asia and the Pacific slow and grow older, countries need to do more to ensure that workers get the education, training and social safety nets needed to raise incomes and ensure social equity. The report

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man accused of running naked down the aisle of an Australian domestic flight, knocking down a flight attendant and forcing the plane to turn back, has been arrested by police at the airport. Officials said the incident happened early in what was scheduled to be