AP National News

BEIJING (AP) — The White House says Beijing and Washington will plan for a phone call in the coming weeks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden. The announcement comes after National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing. Sullivan’s first trip to China as national security

Associated Press Barb Boustead remembers learning about corn sweat when she moved to Nebraska about 20 years ago to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and found herself plunked down in an ocean of corn. The term for the late-summer spike in humidity from corn plants cooling themselves was “something that locals very

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s budget proposal for 2025 includes record defense spending of 187 billion zlotys or $48.7 billion. Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented the main points of next year’s budget on Wednesday. Poland borders war-torn Ukraine and security concerns are high. Tusk described the budget proposal as “generous” and supporting further economic growth.

AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Percival Everett’s “James,” a reworking of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the enslaved Jim’s perspective, is among the fiction finalists for the 11th annual Kirkus Prize. Kirkus Reviews is a leading book review publication and announced finalists Wednesday in fiction, nonfiction and young reader’s literature.

Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean singer Taeil has left K-pop band NCT after being accused of an unspecified sexual crime, his label announced Wednesday. His agency, SM Entertainment, released a statement on X, saying the NCT member will depart from the boy band after learning he has been “accused in a

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s three-party centrist government says it will create three new ministries, including a government office in charge of emergency preparedness. The government wants a minister in charge of European Union affairs ahead of Denmark’s rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2025. The third new minister will be in charge

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s foreign ministry says that seven Polish citizens — six students and a lecturer — who were detained in Nigeria during protests there have been released and are in good health. The ministry’s spokesman says they will be returning home this week. He says the seven have had their passports, laptops

AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Tania Tetlow has earned a reputation as a trailblazer. She became the first woman and first layperson to serve as president of two Jesuit schools — first at Loyola University New Orleans and now at Fordham University in New York City. Fordham had previously been led by Catholic

Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — The leaders of Germany and the United Kingdom plan to draw up a treaty meant to deepen the two nations’ trade, defense and other relations. The announcement Wednesday came as U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer moves ahead with plans for a “reset” of relations with the European Union. German Chancellor

Edmunds Car-buying mistakes are easy to make, especially if you’re in a hurry or have fallen in love with a particular vehicle. But taking the time to find the best deal — even if it means spending a little more along the way — usually pays off. In this article, Edmunds’ experts reveal the four

Associated Press THE HAGUE (AP) — A network outage at the Ministry of Defense has caused major IT failures across the Netherlands. Flights are grounded, civil servants locked out of their computers and police officers resort to texting one another. A spokesperson for the Dutch defense ministry confirmed an outage in one of its networks

Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has lifted a ban on the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party that was imposed by the former prime minister who was ousted in nationwide protests against her rule. Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on Aug. 5, had banned the party as

Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile slammed into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home city on Wednesday, local authorities said, just as Kryvyi Rih was observing an official day of mourning for an attack the previous day that killed four civilians at a hotel. The latest attack on the city struck civilian infrastructure,

AP Sports Writer PARIS (AP) — Just weeks after hosting the Olympics the summer of sports in Paris has begun its final chapter with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Against the backdrop of a setting sun thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysées avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.

Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French authorities handed preliminary charges to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Wednesday for allowing alleged criminal activity on his messaging app and barred him from leaving France pending further investigation. Both free-speech advocates and authoritarian governments have spoken in Durov’s defense since his weekend arrest. The case has also called

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Authorities in northern Yemen say rescue workers have recovered the bodies of 13 people who went missing after a flash flood inundated a village. Meanwhile, officials say 99 people have been killed since the start of heavy seasonal rains. Yemen’s current monsoon season has been particularly deadly, and some experts say

AP Business Writer Freight railroad BNSF is generally striving to improve safety on a consistent basis but that message doesn’t always reach front-line workers who often don’t feel comfortable reporting safety concerns for fear of being disciplined. That’s according to an assessment released early Wednesday by the Federal Railroad Administration. The review of BNSF’s safety

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Traders in Pakistan are observing a daylong strike by shutting down their businesses in all major cities and urban areas to protest a rise in electricity costs and new taxes imposed on shop owners. Most of the public markets in the country remained shuttered on Wednesday, though pharmacies and grocery stores selling

AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Three times in the past four months, William Stein, a technology analyst at Truist Securities, has taken Elon Musk up on his invitation to try the latest versions of Tesla’s vaunted “Full Self-Driving” system. A Tesla equipped with the technology, the company says, can travel from point to point