Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The European Union’s top diplomat is urging Lebanon and Israel to work on deescalating tensions along their border. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Thursday that since his last trip to the region in January “the drums of war have not stopped pounding.” His comments came as members of the
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland says he won’t allow the Justice Department “to be used as a political weapon.” And he’s denouncing what he calls “conspiracy theories and “dangerous falsehoods” that are targeting federal law enforcement. Garland spoke to U.S. attorneys and other department employees who gathered at the department’s headquarters
Continue ReadingAP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A $10,000 literary award named for the late author and editor Gabe Hudson has been established by the publisher McSweeney’s, where Hudson once worked. The inaugural winner of Ayana Mathis’ “The Unsettled” was announced Thursday on what would have been Hudson’s 53rd birthday. He died last year from
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It’s pretty simple — leave no trace. But at least one person didn’t get the message and left behind a bag of Cheetos at Carlsbad Caverns National Park during a visit earlier this summer. Seems trivial? Hardly. Rangers describe it as a “world changing” event for the tiny microbes
Continue ReadingMOSCOW (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia will be his second since the Kremlin
Continue ReadingAssociated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — President Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal promised severe sanctions against people smugglers during his visit on Wednesday to the town of Mbour, the departure point of a boat that capsized on Sunday, killing at least 37 people. Mbour, a coastal city in Senegal nearly 50 miles south of the
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MADRID (AP) — Venezuela’s opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González has met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, just days after fleeing to the European country in a negotiated deal with Nicolás Maduro’s government. González’s flight to exile — after weeks of seeking refuge in the embassies of the Netherlands and Spain in Caracas
Continue ReadingAssociated Press JENIN, West Bank (AP) — As the world’s attention focuses on the deadly war in Gaza, less than 80 miles away scores of Palestinian teens have been killed, shot and arrested in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has waged a monthslong crackdown. More than 150 teens and children 17 or younger
Continue ReadingPARIS (AP) — Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is getting its bells back, just in time for the medieval landmark’s reopening following a devastating 2019 fire. A convoy of trucks bearing the restored bells pulled into the huge worksite surrounding the monument Thursday on an island in the Seine River. They are being blessed in
Continue ReadingAssociated Press JENIN, West Bank (AP) — In the web of battered, sunbaked streets winding up the hillside, bloodshed is as unrelenting as the heat. So it is not hard to see why, when raid sirens and gunfire erupted yet again on a morning in late May, 15-year-old Mahmoud Hamadneh turned his bike down an
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s state House speaker says lawmakers in 2025 will consider new policies to foster student mental health, detect guns and encourage people to safely store guns after a school shooting killed four at a high school northeast of Atlanta. But Republican Jon Burns of Newington is stopping short of Democratic
Continue ReadingAssociated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s opposition leader says if he wins the presidential race he will renegotiate the International Monetary Fund economic reforms package to ensure that rich residents pay more taxes and poor ones see their conditions improve. The reforms were introduced after Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt,
Continue ReadingAssociated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has launched “counteroffensive actions” in its Kursk region to dislodge Ukrainian forces who stormed across the border five weeks ago and put Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since World War II. Zelenskyy’s comments in Kyiv on Thursday came shortly
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Young women are more liberal than they have been in decades, according to a Gallup analysis of more than 20 years of polling data. Over the past few years, about 4 in 10 young women between the ages of 18 and 29 have described their political views as liberal, compared
Continue ReadingAP Technology Writer Fentanyl overdoses have become a leading cause of death for minors in the last 5 years or so — and social media, where tainted, fake prescription drugs can be obtained with just a few clicks, is part of the problem. Experts say companies like Snap, Telegram and Meta, which owns Instagram, are
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MARGRATEN, Netherlands (AP) — People ‘adopting’ fallen soldiers buried at an American war cemetery in the Netherlands are helping to keep alive memories of their sacrifice as the country marks the 80th anniversary of the start of its liberation from World War II Nazi occupation. It’s an act of gratitude and remembrance that
Continue ReadingVIENNA (AP) — Austrian security forces carried out raids against 72 alleged Islamic extremists this week ahead of the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Officials cited the potential for copycat violence on the date of the plane hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people. The raids occurred across the European country on
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary is exploring legal avenues for forcing the European Union’s executive commission to reimburse it for funds it has spent on border protection. The move potentially deepens a conflict with the EU over Hungary’s restrictive immigration and asylum policies. Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, government minister Gergely
Continue ReadingAssociated Press TOKYO (AP) — A record nine Japanese lawmakers have formally entered the race to replace outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as head of the governing party and leader of the nation, hoping to regain public support for the party following corruption scandals. Voting in the Sept. 27 Liberal Democratic Party leadership contest is
Continue ReadingPESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Police say a pair of gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire and killed a policeman guarding a group of polio workers going door-to-door in a vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan. Thursday’s attack took place in Bannu, a district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The policeman who was gunned down was
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