AP-National

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. Don’t worry: There’s no chance of it hitting us since it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon. NASA’s Center for Near Earth

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday he never told his staff to keep his cancer surgery and hospitalization secret from the White House, but acknowledged he should have handled it differently and he apologized for keeping President Joe Biden and others in the

By SRDJAN NEDELJKOVIC and COSTAS KANTOURIS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Police and student protesters have clashed in the Greek capital after a demonstration against government plans to allow private universities. Demonstrators on Thursday attacked police cordons, set fire to trash dumpsters and threw stones at riot police near parliament and later during clashes

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Annette Bening, a two-time Golden Globe winner who recently received her fifth Oscar nomination, was named Thursday as the 2024 Woman of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. The Pudding is the oldest theatrical organization in the nation and one of the oldest in the world. Since 1951, it

By GARY GERARD HAMILTON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Legendary Southern rapper Juvenile says he had been unaware of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series when a social media post suggested that he do a performance, setting off a frenzy. Two months later, Juvenile’s performance became one of the most notable of last year. with

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — At the 2024 Grammys, boygenius — the major label rock band built of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus — is up for six awards, tying the likes of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Those include two major categories: record of the year (for

By COLLEEN LONG, ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round

By ED WHITE Associated Press PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The mother of the Michigan school shooter took the stand at her trial for involuntary manslaughter. Jennifer Crumbley said she had no role in buying or storing the handgun used to kill four students in 2021. She says she wouldn’t have done anything differently but wishes

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court has ordered a detained Russian-American journalist to be held in jail for two more months pending her trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct. 18

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — TikTok may look (or sound) a little different when you scroll through the app going forward. Earlier this week, Universal Music Group — which represents big-name artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Drake — said that it would no longer allow its music on

LONDON (AP) — A Conservative lawmaker says he will step down when an election is called later this year because of abuse and death threats. Mike Freer has linked the abuse to his support for Israel. Freer represents a London constituency which has a large Jewish population. He says he has received death threats from

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — France’s two major farmers unions announced they would lift country-wide blockades Thursday, shortly after the prime minister introduced new measures aimed at protecting their livelihoods that they described as “tangible progress.” However, farmer activists who have snarled traffic along major highways around Paris said they would stay

By MELISSA RAYWORTH Associated Press Political polarization. Economic struggles. Inequity. Climate change. War. In a world like ours, you can hardly blame people for trying to cushion themselves. From weighted blankets to “cozy” murder mystery novels to restaurants based on childhood comfort foods, the appetite for comfortable things just keeps growing. Now some are seeking

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 200 reporters, photographers and other staffers with the Chicago Tribune and six other newsrooms around the nation are on a 24-hour strike to protest years of “slow-walked” contract negotiations and to demand fair wages. Chicago Tribune Guild member Caroline Kubzansky says Thursday’s strike includes 76 members of the Chicago Tribune

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s top security minister says that President Joko Widodo has accepted his resignation from the Cabinet amid heated political discourse before this month’s election. Mohammad Mahfud M.D. announced on Wednesday that he was resigning to focus on his vice presidential bid on Feb. 14. Mahfud is

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A military veteran who helped subdue a man who attacked Connecticut’s first Muslim state representative is seeking to have a misdemeanor assault charge erased. Jason Spencer applied for the state’s accelerated rehabilitation program during a court appearance in Hartford on Wednesday. The program would result in the charge being dismissed after

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian prosecutors have appealed a court decision that a man who kept his daughter captive for 24 years and raped her thousands of times, fathering seven children with her, can be moved from psychiatric detention to a regular prison. The state court in Krems on Thursday confirmed a report that prosecutors have

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny is urging Russians to show their protest of President Vladimir Putin during next month’s presidential balloting by voting at a specific time on election day. In a social media statement relayed from the Arctic penal colony where he is being held, Navalny argued that by

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose last week to the highest level in 11 weeks, though layoffs remain at historically low levels. Applications for unemployment benefits climbed to 224,000 for the week ending Jan. 27, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is claiming it used sea drones to sink a Russian warship in the Black Sea during a nighttime attack. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency published a video it says shows naval drones assaulting the Russian missile-armed corvette Ivanovets on Wednesday night, apparently sinking it. Meanwhile, Russian