AP-National

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A cable car recently dedicated to the late Tony Bennett rolls past the landmark Fairmont hotel where the singer in 1961 first performed the song that would forever tie him to San Francisco. San Francisco officials on Valentine’s Day dedicated one of the city’s iconic cable

By The Associated Press This week’s new streaming entertainment releases include Shakira’s first album in seven years, Jake Gyllenhaal starring in an update of the pulpy cult classic “Road House” and “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf dips into the true crime world with a new docuseries on Netflix. In a new special, James Beard-winning

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Eclipse-themed beer. Jewelry and ornaments. And doughnuts that capture the sun’s disappearing act with the help of buttercream frosting. With April 8’s total solar eclipse right around the corner, businesses are ready for the celestial event that will dim skies along a generous path across

ASHLAND, Ky. (AP) — Seven inmates at an eastern Kentucky prison have filed a federal lawsuit saying officers at the facility forced them to either drink their own urine or be tased after failing a drug test. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Ashland says four officers at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex told the inmates who

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer A powerful real estate trade group has agreed to do away with policies that for decades helped set agent commissions, moving to resolve lawsuits that claim the rules have forced people to pay artificially inflated costs to sell their homes. Under the terms of the agreement announced Friday, the

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expressing support for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the senator called for new elections in Israel. It’s the latest sign that the U.S. relationship with its closest Middle East ally is careening toward fracture over the war in Gaza. Schumer said earlier

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. marriages have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels with nearly 2.1 million in 2022. That’s a 4% increase from the year before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new data. The COVID-19 pandemic threw many people’s wedding plans into disarray. In 2020, there

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm has proposed weakening even more climate and environmental measures in the bloc’s latest set of concessions to farmers apparently bent on continuing disruptive tractor protests until the June EU elections. The move Friday has angered environmentalists across the 27 nations. The Commission

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A legal settlement in Florida, legislative action in Arkansas and a lawsuit in Georgia this week made waves in an ongoing national battle over the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans. Over the past three years or so, many Republican officials have been trying to limit those rights, imposing rules on which

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian prosecutors say that 10 people are facing charges for stealing as many as 43,000 state decorations of honor from a government building. A statement on Friday said that the suspects colluded to carry out a “grave theft of state property” from the awards office that is located in an administration

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s Republican-supermajority legislature is taking steps to criminalize disruptive protests inside the Capitol, raising concerns among advocates that their right to challenge authority will be chilled. Before big votes on polarizing issues, throngs of protesters have waved signs and shouted out synchronized chants at the foot

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Catholic activist in Belarus has been handed a three-year prison sentence on charges that Western diplomats have denounced as politically driven, the latest move in the authorities’ sweeping crackdown on the country’s civil society. Thirty-three-year-old Uladzislau Beladzed taught the catechism at the city’s Cathedral of

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that thousands of low-level drug dealers are ineligible for shortened prison terms under a Trump-era bipartisan criminal justice overhaul. The justices took the case of Mark Pulsifer, an Iowa man who was convicted of distributing at least 50 grams of methamphetamine, to

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Friday that public officials can sometimes be sued for blocking their critics on social media, an issue that first arose for the high court in a case involving then-President Donald Trump. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the court, said that officials

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch government says that French defense industry heavyweight Naval Group has been chosen to build four new diesel-electric submarines for the Dutch navy. The government did not immediately announce the price tag for the new submarines. In a letter to lawmakers, the Ministry of

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and allies warned Iran on Friday that major Western economies will pile new sanctions on Tehran if it moves forward with an advancing plan to provide ballistic missiles to Russia for its war with Ukraine. The Biden administration has raised alarms for months that

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — France’s lower house of Parliament has unanimously approved a pioneering bill to curb the environmental impact of fast fashion, marking a significant step towards sustainability in the global fashion industry. The first-of-its-kind legislation, now headed for the Senate, targets low-cost, mass-produced garments, particularly from China. It

BERLIN (AP) — A German court says former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn will go on trial in September on charges of fraud and market manipulation linked to the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal. The state court in Braunschweig said the trial in what were originally two separate cases will start on Sept. 3. It added in

By ANDREEA ALEXANDRU Associated Press BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Andreea Alexandru, a photographer with The Associated Press based in Bucharest, Romania, still faces comments from family members that her job is not one for a woman. “I try to take it as a pep talk,” she says. Alexandru has covered riots, elections, sporting events and

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers became slightly less optimistic about the economy this month, though they continue to expect inflation to cool further, a potential sign that price increases will keep slowing. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index slipped to 76.5 in March, barely below February’s figure of 76.9.