Associated Press The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that competing measures that would expand or limit abortion rights can appear on the November ballot. The high court’s ruling Friday came days after it heard arguments in three lawsuits that sought to keep one or both of the state’s competing abortion initiatives off the November ballot.
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is cracking down on cheap products sold out of China, expanding a push to reduce U.S. dependence on Beijing and bolster homegrown industry, but that could trigger higher prices for U.S. consumers who flock to popular shopping sites like Temu and Shein. President Joe Biden’s proposed rule
Continue ReadingAssociated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia has decried newly imposed U.S. sanctions on one of its tycoons who has been implicated in forced labor, human trafficking and lucrative online scams. Cambodia’s foreign ministry expressed “deep regret over the unjust decision” to sanction Ly Yong Phat and suggested that the action could hurt bilateral
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District will choose a successor on Wednesday to the late Democratic U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr. In the race, Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver, Republican small business owner Carmen Bucco and two minor-party candidates are running to serve out the remaining 15
Continue ReadingAfter Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, several nationally prominent Black religious leaders arrived, thinking they could help lead the protest movement that had surfaced. But the religion-focused ideas they were proposing didn’t mesh with the energy and the pent-up frustrations of the mostly youthful protesters. To
Continue ReadingAssociated Press As twilight descended on Ferguson, Missouri, for a third consecutive night after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. by a police officer, Gwendolyn DeLoach Packnett could no longer hold her peace. Each day since the killing on April 9, 2014, she had watched her daughter, Brittany, leave the safety of home to protest
Continue ReadingCOPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Police in Denmark say a 29-year-old man faces a whopping 86 preliminary charges for reckless driving. Officers said Friday that the man had mounted a camera on his motorcycle helmet which provided investigators with several hours of footage of how he drove. The incriminating videos include driving on the rear wheel
Continue ReadingAssociated Press PRAGUE (AP) — The nations of Central Europe are bracing for severe flooding forecast to hit the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary over the weekend. Czech authorities were erecting metal barriers or protective walls from sandbags, while water was released from dams to make space in reservoirs. Residents have been
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Jill Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have gone to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to highlight programs that the administration is rolling out to improve service members’ quality of life as well as early childhood education in the military. Biden and Austin on Friday visited a
Continue ReadingISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban say gunmen have killed 14 people in a Shiite-majority area in central Afghanistan. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the country this year. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the assault, which took place on Thursday and targeted people as they traveled between the Shiite-majority provinces of
Continue ReadingAssociated Press TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Officials of Tunisia’s largest opposition party say that dozens of the party’s members have been arrested this week, ahead of this weekend’s start of the campaign season for the country’s presidential election. The Islamist Party Ennahda says that tallies collected by its local branches suggest at least 80 men
Continue ReadingWARSAW, Poland (AP) — Prosecutors in southern Poland have charged a former European Parliament lawmaker and his wife with corruption and influence peddling as part of a larger probe into irregularities in the operations of a private university in Warsaw. Ryszard Czarnecki is a prominent member of Law and Justice, Poland’s former ruling conservative party.
Continue ReadingISLAMABAD (AP) — Gunmen have killed 14 people in a Shiite-majority area in central Afghanistan, the Taliban said Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country this year. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility before the Taliban acknowledged the shootings, which took place Thursday and targeted people as they traveled between the Shiite-majority
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Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization says it has granted its first authorization for use of a vaccine against mpox in adults, calling it an important step toward fighting against the disease in Africa. The approval of the vaccine by Bavarian Nordic A/S means that donors like vaccines alliance Gavi and UNICEF
Continue ReadingMOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by a full percentage point to 19% to combat high inflation as government spending on the military strains the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and drives up workers’ wages. The central bank said in a statement Friday that “growth in domestic
Continue ReadingBERLIN (AP) — Wolfgang Gerhardt, a politician who led Germany’s pro-business Free Democrats from 1995 to 2001, has died. He was 80. Gerhardt’s death on Friday was announced by Christian Lindner, the current head of the party. The Free Democrats have been a coalition partner in several German governments, including the current three-party coalition led
Continue ReadingAssociated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A police swoop on 20 child welfare homes in Malaysia where hundreds of children were allegedly sexually abused has exposed weaknesses in child protection in the country and cast a spotlight on the Islamic business group that ran the homes. Malaysian authorities rescued 402 children from 20 homes
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — has been received by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial on Saturday. Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the
Continue ReadingMILAN (AP) — A 56-year-old Canadian woman died after being caught in a sudden snowstorm in Italy’s Dolomite mountains and her companion is being treated for severe hypothermia. Italy’s Alpine Rescue Corps. on Friday said the two climbers called for help after being hit by the snowstorm more than a mile from a mountain refuge.
Continue ReadingAssociated Press HONG KONG (AP) — A leading Hong Kong media professional group says dozens of journalists, some of their family members and other associates have been harassed in recent months. It’s the latest sign of the city’s worsening media environment. In a news conference Friday, Hong Kong Journalists Association chair Selina Cheng said her
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