AP National News

LONDON (AP) — Microsoft’s stalled $68.7 billion deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard has hit a fresh hurdle in the United Kingdom. Britain’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that the deal will stifle competition and hurt gamers. The watchdog’s investigation found that the deal could strengthen Microsoft’s position in the growing cloud gaming market.

By FRANCESCO SPORTELLI Associated Press FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Visitors to one of Florence’s most iconic monuments — the Baptistry of San Giovanni, opposite the city’s Duomo — are getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see its ceiling mosaics up close thanks to an innovative approach to a planned restoration effort. Rather than limit the public’s

By RONALD MONTOYA Edmunds Shopping for a new or used car over the last few years has become a frustrating and expensive undertaking. For those who haven’t been in the market recently, car shoppers have had to deal with vehicle shortages, high prices, dwindling incentives and rising interest rates. Will 2023 bring any relief? Yes

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer CVS Health is plunging deeper into providing primary care with an approximately $10.6 billion deal to acquire Oak Street Health. The drugstore chain and health insurer said Wednesday it would pay $39 per share in cash for each share of Oak Street Health in a deal expected to close

PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of farmers have driven their tractors to Paris to amplify their demand to be allowed to use banned pesticides on sugar beets to help ensure “food sovereignty” for France. Entering the French capital through a southern gateway, the farmers’ convoy rolled on Wednesday to the gold-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleon’s

By ALFIAN KARTONO and NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian security forces searched Wednesday for a pilot from New Zealand who was taken hostage by separatist rebels in restive Papua province. The joint team of soldiers and police searching for the pilot, Philip Mark Mehrtens, also managed Wednesday to rescue 15 construction

By MEHMET GUZEL, GHAITH ALSAYED, SUZAN FRASER and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY Associated Press GAZIANTEP, Turkey (AP) — With hope of finding survivors fading, stretched rescue teams in Turkey and Syria searched Wednesday for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by the world’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade. The confirmed

By BRITTANY PETERSON and SETH BORENSTEIN Associated Press Days after crews released and burned toxic chemicals transported by a wrecked train in Ohio, residents remain concerned about the toxic substances that could be lingering in their evacuated neighborhoods. About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday in East Palestine,

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a rare trip out of his country Wednesday, daring to visit Britain in a bid for more advanced weapons as Kyiv braces for an expected Russian offensive and hatches its own plans to retake land held by Moscow’s forces. Zelenskyy arrived on

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s domestic security agency says the threat of attacks in the Scandinavian country has increased since a far-right activist burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. The agency said Tuesday that “the assessment is that the security situation has deteriorated.” However, the SAPO security service didn’t increase Sweden’s terror threat

BEIJING (AP) — China says it was smeared in U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address that repeatedly mentioned competition between the two countries. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson says China does not fear competing with the U.S. but is “opposed to defining the entire China-U.S. relationship in terms of competition.” She says a

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are expected to question former Twitter executives about the platform’s handling of reporting on Hunter Biden, the president’s son. A congressional hearing Wednesday will fulfill a GOP promise to investigate what they have long asserted is anti-conservative bias at social media companies. The three former

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan authorities say they will not renew the mandate of the United Nations human rights office in the East African country, effectively blocking the group’s operations at a time of heightened concerns over rights abuses. In a Feb. 3 notice to the Office of the U.N.

By COLLEEN BARRY AP Fashion Writer MILAN (AP) — The only Black designer belonging to Italy’s fashion chamber withdrew Wednesday from this month’s Milan Fashion Week, alleging a lack of support for diversity and inclusion after the chamber “abandoned” a project to promote young designers of color working in Italy. Stella Jean interrupted a press

By MEHMET GUZEL, GHAITH ALSAYED and SUZAN FRASER Associated Press GAZIANTEP, Turkey (AP) — Thinly stretched rescue teams worked through the night in Turkey and Syria, pulling more bodies from the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by a catastrophic earthquake. The death toll rose Wednesday to more than 9,500, making the quake the deadliest

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s opposition-controlled parliament has voted to impeach the country’s interior and safety minister, Lee Sang-min, holding him responsible for government failures in disaster planning and the response that likely worsened a crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people in October. The impeachment Wednesday suspends

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Britain on Wednesday, his first trip to the U.K. since Russia’s invasion began nearly a year ago and only his second confirmed journey outside Ukraine during the war. The British government says Zelenskyy will hold talks with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak,

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press SUBIC BAY, Philippines (AP) — The United States has been rebuilding its military might in the Philippines more than 30 years after it closed its bases there. Washington has been reinforcing an arc of military alliances in Asia in a starkly different post-Cold War era in which the perceived new

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Ratib Matar’s family was growing. They needed more space. Before his granddaughters, now 4 and 5, were born, he built three apartments on an eastern slope overlooking Jerusalem’s ancient landscape. The 50-year-old construction contractor moved in with his brother, son, divorced daughter and their young kids —