AP National News

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — A tiny Nevada toad at the center of a legal battle over a geothermal power project has officially been declared an endangered species, after U.S. wildlife officials temporarily listed it on a rarely used emergency basis last spring. “This ruling makes final the listing of the

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man who burned a cross in his front yard to intimidate his Black neighbors pleaded guilty to a hate crime in federal court, the Justice Department announced Friday. Axel Cox, 24, of Gulfport, was charged with violating the Fair Housing Act over

By STAN CHOE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Worries about inflation weighed on Wall Street Friday, leaving major indexes mixed after a report showed wages for U.S. workers are accelerating, which is good news for them but could feed into even higher inflation for the nation. The S&P 500 ended 0.1% lower after having

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — Cuba enacted a new penal code this week that activists and human rights organizations worry could further limit free expression and snuff out protests at a time of deepening discontent on the island. Among some of the changes are increases in the minimum penalties and prison sentences

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government plans to end in January the public health emergency it declared earlier this year after an outbreak of mpox infected more than 29,000 people across the U.S. Mpox cases have plummeted in recent weeks, with just a handful of new infections being reported every

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces have stopped joint military patrols in northern Syria to counter Islamic State extremists, as Turkish threats of a ground invasion stymie those missions with Kurdish forces. Other security patrols, particularly around prisons, will begin again on Saturday. U.S. Central Command on Friday said American

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors have resumed their closing argument in the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial, promising to share previously unrevealed details about Donald Trump’s knowledge of a tax dodge scheme hatched by one of his top executives. Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Joshua Steinglass continued his summary

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — He spent nearly 20 hours alone, treading water in the Gulf of Mexico after falling off a cruise ship and being saved on Thanksgiving. On Friday, James Michael Grimes said the experience has taught him to not take life for granted. Grimes told ABC News’ Good Morning America that his worst

By LEKAN OYEKANMI and JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — Police in Texas have announced an arrest in last month’s shooting death of the performer Takeoff. Houston police said Friday that 33-year-old Patrick Xavier Clark was charged with murder and has been arrested in connection with the rapper’s death. Born Kirsnick Khari Ball, Takeoff

By JEFF AMY Associated Press MORROW, Ga. (AP) — It might go without saying that Democrats generally vote against Republicans. But in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff, it can hardly be overstated how much Democratic voters — and others — are driven by not wanting Republican challenger Herschel Walker to be their U.S. senator. Ask Raphael

BOSTON (AP) — An American service member who survived the notorious Bataan Death March during World War II but later died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp has finally been accounted for. Military officials announced Friday that the remains of Army Air Forces Pvt. Joseph E. Lescaut, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, were identified in August

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Prosecutors in Mexico say police found 6600 pounds (300 kilograms) of fentanyl pills packed into coconuts. The coconuts were found in a truck travelling on a highway in the northern border state of Sonora. Prosecutors said the truck was detected Thursday on a road that runs along the Gulf of California,

BERLIN (AP) — A German auction house says the recent sale of a watercolor by Wassily Kandinsky has been put on hold in response to the Polish government’s claim that the painting was stolen from an exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw in 1984. The Grisebach auction house, which sold the 1928 painting “Untitled”

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer The New York Film Critics Circle has named “ Tár ” as its best picture of the year, with Todd Field’s contemporary drama about a renowned conductor and composer also nabbing best actress for Cate Blanchett’s leading performance. The group met Friday in New York to vote on and

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press Nonprofit organizations in Georgia are digging deep to ramp up their operations again after Election Day to inform voters about the closely watched runoff race for one of the state’s Senate seats. Kendra Cotton, CEO of New Georgia Project, says many of the voters they are targeting don’t know there

By The Associated Press Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week. MOVIES — Will Smith’s comeback campaign is in full swing thanks to the new Antoine Fuqua movie “Emancipation,” which begins streaming on Apple TV+ on Friday.

By JOSH BOAK and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden assured Americans on Friday that the U.S. economy is chugging along in the holiday season, but the very strength of a new jobs report showed that high inflation remains a recession threat. At the White House, the president signed an emergency

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Downey Jr. set out to make an objective portrait, a tribute to his father, the underground filmmaking maverick Robert Downey Sr. His dad had other plans. “The key point in this is when he goes, ‘OK, I think we should split into two camps:

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A prosecutor says the former medical director of a Virginia hospital that serves vulnerable children has been charged with four felony sex crimes in connection with abuse at the facility years ago. Court records indicate a grand jury indicted Dr. Daniel Davidow last month. Davidow was

BERLIN (AP) — An Austrian court has convicted three Afghan men for the rape and death of a 13-year-old girl whose body was found dumped next to a tree in Vienna last year in a case that shocked the Alpine nation. The Austria Press Agency reported Friday that the main defendant, a 24-year-old man, was