AP National News

Associated Press BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Pro-Western parties have won the most votes in Romania’s parliamentary election and will look to form a coalition government as the European Union country faces a surge of support for far-right nationalists who made huge gains in the country’s legislature. Data on Monday showed that the leftist Social Democratic

Associated Press Tired of thinking about what gifts to get everyone this year? Artificial intelligence chatbots might help, but don’t expect them to always give you the right answers. Scouring the internet for Cyber Monday deals may yield an encounter with more chattier iterations of the chatbots that some retailers built to provide customer service.

AP Business Writers Consumers in the United States are scouring the internet for online deals as they look to take advantage of the post-Thanksgiving shopping marathon with Cyber Monday. Even though e-commerce is now part and parcel of many people’s regular routines and the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday — a term coined in 2005

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen workers have launched rolling two-hour strikes at nine plants across Germany to underscore their resistance to pay cuts and factory closures. The company says cuts are necessary to cope with a slack European auto market. The strikes are taking place as part of negotiations for a new labor agreement after

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the final holiday stretch at the White House for President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, and the theme is “A Season of Peace and Light.” The first lady welcomed National Guard families to the White House on Monday to be among the first members of the public to

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has fired into a disputed border zone held by Israel. The group said the volley, its first during the truce, was a warning shot in response to what it called repeated Israeli ceasefire violations. Israeli leaders threatened to retaliate and within hours, Israel’s military carried out its biggest wave of

Associated Press Some storm-weary residents of the Great Lakes region have seen continued snowfall and are facing the prospect of even more accumulations this week. Lake-effect snow continues to fall on parts of western New York that were already blanketed with a foot or more over the past four days. Lake-effect snow warnings are in

Associated Press TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Police in the Georgian capital have again moved to disperse thousands of demonstrators after over 200 people were detained during four previous nights of protests against the government’s decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union. Police on Monday used water cannons and tear gas to drive protesters

LONDON (AP) — Elton John says he struggled to watch his new musical because he has lost his eyesight after contracting an infection. The singer-songwriter attended the opening night of “The Devil Wears Prada” in London on Sunday and told the audience that “I haven’t been able to come to many of the previews because,

Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister says the recent rapid advance by opposition fighters in Syria shows that Syrian President Bashar Assad must reconcile with his own people and hold talks with the opposition. Speaking Monday at a joint news conference in Ankara with his Iranian counterpart, Hakan Fidan said Turkey and

Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — An impeachment complaint has been filed against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing a legal storm over a death threat she made against the president and her alleged role in extra-judicial killings of drug suspects, corruption and failure to stand up to Chinese aggression in the disputed

Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of giant panda sculptures will greet residents and tourists starting Saturday in Hong Kong, where enthusiasm for the bears has grown since two cubs were born in a local theme park. The 2,500 exhibits were showcased in a launch ceremony of PANDA GO! FEST HK, the city’s largest

GENEVA (AP) — For the first time in Switzerland, a multinational company faces a criminal trial on charges of bribing a foreign public official, with alleged payments totaling about $5 million, to win lucrative oil industry contracts in Angola. Commodities trader Trafigura Group said it intended to defend itself against allegations that its former parent

Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It is the world’s rarest whale, with only seven of its kind ever spotted. Almost nothing is known about the enigmatic species. But on Monday a small group of scientists and cultural experts in New Zealand clustered around a near-perfectly preserved spade-toothed whale hoping to decode decades of

Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California lawmaker introduced a bill Monday to allow admission priority to the descendants of slaves at the University of California and California State University, two of the largest public university systems in the nation. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat who represents parts of Los Angeles and authored the

Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top United Nations court has taken up the largest case in its history, hearing the plight of several small island nations helpless in combating the devastating impact of climate change. They demand that major polluting nations be held to account. After years of lobbying by island nations

Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine for the first time in more than two years Monday and vowed to keep supporting Kyiv in the war, just weeks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rebuked him for having a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The conflict is approaching a

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani officials say authorities with help from community leaders brokered a second ceasefire between warring minority Shiites and Sunni Muslims in a troubled northwestern region bordering Afghanistan following a deadly sectarian violence that left dozens of people dead. The violence in Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, erupted after gunmen