AP-National

By DAVID CRARY Associated Press Purim is widely depicted as the most thoroughly joyful of Jewish holidays — highlighted by celebrations that include costumes, skits, noisemakers and varying degrees of rowdiness. It celebrates the biblical story of how a plot to exterminate Jews in Persia was thwarted, and thus is embraced as an affirmation of

By BABACAR DIONE and JESSICA DONATI Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal’s only female presidential candidate may have little chance of winning in Sunday’s election, but activists say her presence is helping to advance a decadeslong campaign to achieve equality in the West African nation. Business leader Anta Babacar Ngom is a voice for

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG and EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two former Mississippi deputies wept in court Wednesday as a federal judge sentenced them to years in prison and condemned their cruelty for breaking into a home with four other white officers and torturing two Black men. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee

By JEFF MARTIN Associated Press JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man convicted of killing his former girlfriend three decades ago has been put to death in the state’s first execution in more than four years. Authorities say 59-year-old Willie James Pye was pronounced dead at 11:03 p.m. Wednesday evening following an injection of the

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republican attorneys general in two dozen states are pushing back against a proposed Biden administration rule that seeks to expand diversity in apprenticeship programs. The proposed rule change would set new standards for registered apprenticeships that provide paid on-the-job training and education for skilled

By KEVIN McGILL and STEPHEN SMITH Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Olin Pickens sat in his wheelchair facing a life-sized image of himself on a screen, asking it questions about being taken prisoner by German soldiers during World War II. After a pause, his video-recorded twin recalled being given “sauerkraut soup” by his captors

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Dubai sovereign wealth fund that’s the single-largest shareholder in the Nasdaq stock index plans to sell a third of its shares in the exchange. It’s a deal potentially worth some $1.6 billion that saw the value of the firm fall in aftermarket trading

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand said Wednesday it will ban disposable e-cigarettes, or vapes, and raise financial penalties for those who sell such products to minors. The move comes less than a month after the government repealed a unique law enacted by the previous left-leaning government to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing

By MATTHEW BROWN and AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A Washington state man accused of helping kill thousands of birds has pleaded guilty to shooting eagles on an American Indian reservation in Montana and selling their feathers and body parts on the black market. Travis John Branson of Cusick, Washington, on

By JEFF McMILLAN Associated Press Legislators in at least two U.S. states are citing a recent decision by England’s public health service to restrict puberty blockers for transgender youths as support for their own related proposals. They weren’t the first to turn to Europe for policy and research to support their call for such restrictions.

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Election misinformation will pose a formidable challenge this year as billions of people in dozens of countries head to the polls. Social media companies have announced plans to combat misleading content around the world, but they’ve faced criticism that too many of their efforts are focused on

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden talks to his supporters, he can make the presidential election sound like a high school prom. “You guys brought me to the dance in 2020,” he told Irish Americans on a campaign call Friday, suggesting these are the voters who got him where

By BECKY BOHRER and GENE JOHNSON Associated Press OSO, Wash. (AP) — Landslides occur around the world and have helped shape the Earth as we know it. They tend to garner little notice when they strike in remote, unpopulated areas, but they also have the potential to cause immense catastrophes. The landslide that destroyed a

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press CYWINY WOJSKIE, Poland (AP) — Polish farmer Piotr Korycki says his business has been badly destabilized by Russia’s war against Ukraine and that the European Union is only adding to his problems. He’s among the large number of farmers who have protested across Europe for months, and he organized one

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — The House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is all but winding down, lacking the political appetite from within the Republican ranks to go forward with an actual impeachment, but facing political pressure to deliver after months of work. The chairman of the House Oversight and

By ELÉONORE HUGHES and MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — As Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s term wound down in the final days of December 2022, he had decided to skip the ritual of handing over the presidential sash to his successor, and instead made plans to travel abroad. But there was a

By LISA RATHKE Associated Press LYNDON, Vt. (AP) — One of Vermont’s historic covered bridges has fallen under threat from modern technology. Box truck drivers relying on GPS continually crash through Lyndon’s 140-year-old Miller’s Run bridge despite signs, including a flashing one, to deter vehicles that are too tall or too heavy from crossing. Drivers

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials signaled Wednesday that they still expect to cut their key interest rate three times in 2024, fueling a rally on Wall Street, despite signs that inflation remained elevated at the start of the year. For now, the officials kept their benchmark rate unchanged

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police said they’ve found no explosives at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome after searching the site Wednesday following a reported bomb threat against Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. About 150 police officers used sniffer dogs, X-ray detectors and other equipment to search through

By KEIRAN SMITH Associated Press SYDNEY (AP) — Australia has received its most senior Chinese leadership visit in nearly seven years with stability a key theme of the discussions between the countries’ foreign ministers. China’s Wang Yi met with his counterpart Penny Wong on Wednesday on his tour of Australia and New Zealand. The meeting