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By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Taylor Swift, best supporting actor Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, “Elvis” star Austin Butler, “Nope’s” Keke Palmer and The Weeknd have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The organization behind the Oscars said Wednesday that it extended invitations to 398 individuals to join

By SOPHENG CHEANG and GRANT PECK Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a devoted and very active user of Facebook, says he will no longer upload to the platform and will instead depend on the Telegram app to get his message across. Until now, he has used Facebook for

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a young Michigan man who is accused of making threats over social media and having plans to target a synagogue near Lansing. Seann Pietila, of Pickford in the Upper Peninsula, has been in custody since June 16. Now an indictment charging him with making threats,

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Taylor Swift, best supporting Oscar actor winner Ke Huy Quan, “Elvis” star Austin Butler and “Nope’s” Keke Palmer and The Weeknd have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The organization behind the Oscars said Wednesday that it extended invitations to 398 individuals to

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is insisting that right-wing populism won’t gain the upper hand in his country, days after a far-right party won control of a county administration for the first time since the Nazi era. Alternative for Germany, which has come under scrutiny from security services over its ties to extremists,

By KEVIN McGILL and KEN MILLER Associated Press Scorching heat blamed for at least 13 deaths in Texas and another in Louisiana blanketed more of the Southeast on Wednesday, stretching government warnings of dangerous, triple-digit temperatures eastward into Mississippi and Tennessee. California, meanwhile, was facing its first major heat wave of the year. The National

By RIAZAT BUTT Associated Press MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims on Wednesday braved intense heat to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. With morning temperatures rising past 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Farenheit), huge crowds of pilgrims walked or took buses

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian authorities have declared a news outlet critical of the Kremlin an “undesirable” organization, effectively banning it from operating in Russia as part of a continued crackdown on dissent. Novaya Gazeta Europe is an offshoot of the prominent independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that was stripped of its media license last

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey political consultant who hired two career criminals to kill a friend and one-time colleague engineered the 2014 slaying because the victim was seeking to extort money from him. That’s according to prosecutors’ sentencing documents made available Wednesday. Former Democratic campaign consultant Sean Caddle

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee State University announced it will become the first historically Black college and university to introduce ice hockey. The school plans to have a men’s team playing at the club level in 2024, with a goal of having Division I men’s and women’s teams eventually. The program has been created in

By OLEG CETINIC and ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press NANTERRE, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting death of a 17-year-old delivery driver by police “inexcusable” and pleaded for calm while justice takes its course. The government heightened the police presence in Paris and other big cities Wednesday after the killing triggered a

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man convicted of driving into a fundraiser crowd in Pennsylvania last summer, killing one and injuring 19 others, then going home and bludgeoning his mother to death has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. President Judge Gary Norton told Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, 25, in Columbia

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Crews have successfully dug a containment line around a brush fire in northern Scottsdale that has burned 3.9 square miles and threatened about 100 homes. But fire officials say 1,145 people will remain evacuated from their homes until it’s determined that the containment line will hold up in expected windy conditions.

By JOSH BOAK, EMILY SWANSON and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — President Joe Biden has a tough sell Wednesday, trying to convince voters that the U.S. economy is flourishing. The president is set to showcase “Bidenomics” in a speech in Chicago. But a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Adrian has become the first hurricane of the eastern Pacific hurricane season off Mexico’s western Pacific coast. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday Adrian had sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). The storm was expected to keep heading out to sea. On Wednesday morning, the storm’s center was located