AP-National

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Country star Cindy Walker was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Walker, who wrote countless hits across her six-decade career, was celebrated for her immediate, unpretentious songwriting style. The hall announced the honor Thursday. Walker wrote songs performed by some of the biggest

By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein will remain locked up in New York as a court works out whether he should stay in a city jail while he awaits a retrial in a rape case or be sent back to California to continue serving a prison sentence. The fallen movie

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Allow Brian Kelley to reintroduce himself. Best known as one-half of the country super-duo Florida Georgia Line, Kelley will release a solo album, “Tennessee Truth,” on Friday. It is a collection of 12 anthemic country songs ripe for a road trip and tailgate in equal

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police have cleared out a homeless encampment in a city neighborhood where drug use has been pervasive for years. But homeless advocates and others have raised concerns about how it was done. The so-called encampment resolution began around 7 a.m. Wednesday in the Kensington neighborhood and was completed by 10 a.m.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Puerto Rico has declared a state of emergency following heavy rains, widespread flooding and landslides in the U.S. territory. One person is reported missing. Gov. Pedro Pierluisi also activated the National Guard on Wednesday to help 22 of the island’s 78 municipalities that were hardest hit. More than 10 inches or

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Andy Serkis is going back to Middle-earth to play Gollum in two new Lord of the Rings films. Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group’s Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said Thursday that Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the Oscar-winning team behind the “Lord of the Rings” and

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As Cary Fowler and Geoffrey Hawtin began thinking about ways to prevent starvation and protect the world’s food supply, they came up with what Fowler called “the craziest idea anybody ever had” — a global seed vault built into the side of an Arctic mountain.

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India says Canada has shared no evidence to back its allegation that the Indian government was involved in the slaying of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada last year, despite the recent arrests of three Indian men in the crime. India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir

By ALMA SOLÍS Associated Press Ramón Fonseca, a partner in the Mossack Fonseca law firm at the center of the “Panama Papers” scandal, has died. Lawyer Guillermina McDonald confirmed to The Associated Press in a phone message that Fonseca died late Wednesday. She said he had been hospitalized since two days before last month’s start

By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte Hornets have named Charles Lee as their next head coach. The 39-year-old Lee joins the Hornets after serving as the Boston Celtics top assistant coach. Lee will complete the Celtics’ playoff run before joining the Hornets on a full-time basis. Lee spent five

By LYNN BERRY, DIDI TANG, JILL COLVIN and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Making future military aid to Ukraine contingent on the country participating in peace talks with Russia. Banning Chinese nationals from buying property within a 50-mile radius of U.S. government buildings. Filling the national security sector with acolytes of Donald Trump.

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped to its highest level in more than eight months last week in another sign that the labor market may be softening. The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims for the week ending May 4 rose by 22,000 to 231,000.

By JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — One major land crossing into Gaza was shut down after a Hamas rocket attack, another by an Israeli incursion. And only a trickle of aid is entering through a third crossing that just opened in recent weeks. The latest developments threaten to worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in

By STEPHEN SMITH and MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff released body camera video Thursday showing a deputy outside an apartment door and firing immediately when it was opened by a Black man carrying a handgun pointed downward, a killing the family denounced as “unjustifiable.” Okaloosa County Sheriff

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press The award-winning Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison and lashings ahead of his planned trip to the Cannes film festival, his lawyer tells The Associated Press. Rasoulof is known for his film “There Is No Evil.” He has become the latest artist targeted in

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s defense minister says it is strengthening the metal barrier along its border with Belarus to deter illegal migration and plans to also reinforce its border with Russia. He says the increased presence of Polish and allied military forces in regions close to the border is also helping to tighten the

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer TikTok says it’s going to start automatically labeling content that’s made by artificial intelligence when it’s uploaded from certain platforms. TikTok says its efforts are an attempt to combat misinformation from being spread on its social media platform. TikTok’s policy in the past has been to encourage users to

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish investigative magistrate on Thursday provisionally shelved the latest probe into an alleged case of tax fraud by pop star Shakira following recommendations by prosecutors. The Colombian singer had been under investigation for the alleged evasion of 6.7 million euros ($7.2 million) in taxes on her 2018 income via an offshore

BANGKOK (AP) — At least one person has been killed and four others were injured after a huge fire broke out at chemical storage tanks in an industrial area in eastern Thailand on Thursday. The fire in Mab Ta Phut Industrial Estate was first reported in the morning. It was contained more than six hours

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES Associated Press SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — The head of a center-right 22-party coalition that emerged victorious in North Macedonia’s parliamentary election has fallen just short of gaining a parliamentary majority, leaving it reliant on entering a partnership with another party to form a government. The “Your Macedonia” coalition led by Hristijan