AP National News

REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Heavy snow, blizzard conditions and stuck vehicles have prompted authorities to impose a shutdown of a portion of the West Coast’s major interstate that links California with Oregon. California officials Wednesday afternoon closed Interstate 5 north of the city of Redding as the latest of back-to-back storms slammed the region. The

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has given final approval to a bill barring all imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove they were produced without forced labor. In doing so they overcame initial hesitation from the White House and what supporters say was opposition from

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says it is responding to reports of a shooting attack at a West Bank settlement. It said the shooting on Thursday night took place near the settlement of Homesh, in the northern West Bank, but gave no further details.

PARIS (AP) — The United Nations cultural agency has placed a traditional Haitian soup widely seen as a symbol of the nation’s independence on its prized intangible cultural heritage list. UNESCO’S director-general says joumou soup “tells the story of the heroes and heroines of Haitian independence, their struggle for human rights and their hard-won freedom.”

By MARK KENNEDY and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Many stages on both Broadway and the West End have been forced to go dark once more as the live theater community grapples with new backstage outbreaks of the coronavirus and its variants. The new shutdowns have temporarily closed everything from London’s revival

By The Associated Press In Germany, a train passes a railroad crossing surrounded by floodwaters. In Greece, a man stands off a beach and watches a wildfire burn across the water. In Colombia, a landscape of cracked mud to the horizon evokes a sci-fi world even as it tells the story of a drying lagoon

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Labor unions led by the Greek Communist Party are demanding a return of wage and pension levels that were axed during three successive international bailouts. Some 2,000 protesters gathered in front of the parliament building in central Athens as lawmakers debated the 2022 budget on Thursday. The budget includes a proposed

By The Associated Press Afghanistan, the country that can’t catch a break, had another difficult year in 2021. It was punctuated by the chaos of a U.S. withdrawal and the quick next chapter. The Taliban, who were unseated as Afghanistan’s rulers by a U.S.-led coalition after the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago, returned. AP photographers

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A former office worker for financier Jeffrey Epstein has testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex abuse trial that she didn’t witness misconduct by Maxwell during the six years she worked with her. The testimony by the first defense witness on Thursday came after a

Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Even though there have been no cases of clinical infection, the new omicron variant is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the Florida county that is home to the nation’s largest theme park resorts. That’s based on wastewater samples. Officials said Wednesday that the omicron variant has quickly

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Survivors of a tornado that leveled a Kentucky candle factory have filed a lawsuit against their employer. They claim Mayfield Consumer Products demonstrated “flagrant indifference” by refusing to allow employees to go home early. The suit was filed in state court. It seeks unspecified compensatory and

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has returned a lawsuit over Texas’ six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court that has twice allowed the law to stay in effect, rather than to a district judge who sought to block it. Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday signed the court’s order

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks wobbled in afternoon trading on Wall Street Thursday as investors study moves by central banks to fight rising inflation. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% and is sitting just below the record high it reached last Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 1.9% while the Dow

By AMY FORLITI and STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A use-of-force expert says the police officers who stopped Daunte Wright were legally bound to arrest him because of a warrant for an outstanding weapons violation. Stephen Ijames was testifying for the defense at former Minnesota officer Kim Potter’s manslaughter trial. Prosecutors rested their

By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A group of Afghan artists evacuated after the Taliban seized power in their homeland have painted a mural in Albania’s capital to thank their host country, and are urging the world not to forget their brethren back home. The mural was painted Thursday by members of

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian senators have for the third time in five years rejected a bill that sought to promote gender equality, citing “socio-cultural and Islamic concerns.” The proposed law was dropped after some lawmakers in the country’s upper legislative chamber argued that the bill went against their interpretation

By PAN PYLAS and DAVID McHUGH Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom’s central bank has become the first in a major advanced economy to raise interest rates since the coronavirus pandemic began. Banks controlling monetary policy around the globe are shifting their focus from stimulating the economy to combating soaring consumer prices that

By JAY REEVES and SUDHIN THANAWALA Associated Press Details about the fathers and mothers, friends, siblings and children who died during a tornado outbreak that ripped through the Midwest and South are still coming into focus nearly a week after the onslaught. Lannis Joe Ward was a father and boyfriend who worked at a candle

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats’ vast social and environment package is stuck in the Senate. And party leaders’ hopes of resolving holdout Sen. Joe Manchin’s demands and considering the bill in this year’s waning days seem all but dead. For weeks, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants to

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams named a Las Vegas jail official and former New York police officer as his incoming head of the city’s jail system on Thursday. Louis Molina, who oversees the Las Vegas city jail in his role as the head of the Department of Public Safety, will