News

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Sean Penn has strongly backed the current Hollywood screenwriters strike while speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, saying the dispute over artificial intelligence is “a human obscenity.” Penn addressed the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike in a press conference for his new

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina made it official Friday: He’s running for president. Scott, the Senate’s only Black Republican, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring his intention to seek his party’s nomination in 2024. His candidacy will test whether a more optimistic vision

By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — A court in Slovakia has acquitted for a second time a businessman accused of masterminding the 2018 slaying of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. The Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, near the capital, Bratislava, which handles Slovakia’s most serious cases, ruled on Friday that Marian Kocner

By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press MONTREAL (AP) — In the agonies of the virus that upended most of the world, millions of people from Bogota to Berlin saw what life could be like on two wheels instead of four. Even as commuting to the office and going to school plunged at the height of COVID

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Some 700 people have been evacuated from four small towns in western Spain owing to a wildfire fanned by strong winds. More than 400 firefighters, including 50 from the army’s Military Emergency Unit, are battling to bring the fire under control in Las Hurdes, a hilly area

By KEN MAGUIRE AP Sports Writer DUBLIN (AP) — Katie Taylor’s success has been paving the way for young Irish fighters as women’s boxing gains popularity around the world. Taylor now sells out stadiums as the main attraction. Kaci Rock remembers being an elementary school student when she slipped on the gloves at Bray Boxing

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is ticking higher Friday as it heads toward its best week since March, despite a long list of worries hanging over it. The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading and on pace for a 2% gain for the week. That would

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press/Report for America RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham’s recent switch from the Democratic Party to the GOP opened the door for Republicans to enact new abortion restrictions over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s opposition. A veto override had seemed just out of reach for Republicans just six

By JIM SALTER Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday will announce his pick to serve out the remainder of Kim Gardner’s term as the chief prosecutor in St. Louis, following her sudden departure earlier this week. Gardner had been the subject of an ouster effort by Republican Missouri

MORAINE, Ohio (AP) — Police in Ohio say a gunman shot two people at a General Motors engine factory, killing one and wounding another before wounding himself. Moraine Police Sgt. Andrew Parish says officers and firefighters responded to a report of an active shooter at the DMAX plant just after 9 p.m. Thursday. Parish says

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities say 11 people were killed when a vehicle overturned along the China-Vietnam border, including nine Vietnamese citizens. The incident highlights human trafficking in the mountainous region, where there has long been a trade in agricultural goods and workers coming from Vietnam to the relatively poor Chinese province of Guangxi. One

By MARÍA VERZA Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano rumbled to life again this week, belching out towering clouds of ash that forced 11 villages to cancel school sessions. The residents weren’t the only ones keeping a close eye on the towering peak. Every time there is a sigh, tic or heave

By TOM BRECKENRIDGE of The Land Chronicle of Philanthropy CLEVELAND (AP) — Manufacturers in Cleveland and other cities, including Buffalo, Chicago, and Milwaukee, are dealing with a retiring workforce that’s left thousands of jobs unfilled. Nationally, the industry’s job gap is projected to hit 2 million by 2030, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.