AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — No one was expecting it. In late 2023, André 3000 released his debut solo album, “New Blue Sun.” It was 18 years after his legendary rap group Outkast’s last studio album, “Idlewild.” “New Blue Sun” is a six-track instrumental album of ambient alt-jazz. There are “no bars,” he
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — In Nigeria, roughly 85 million people do not have access to electricity. Yet large solar projects that could improve this situation have faltered. Developers struggle to get financing for new projects and connect them with a woefully inadequate electrical grid. Sales of solar lights and chargers have grown quickly
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed a defense bill that authorizes significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members and boosts overall military spending to $895 billion. It also strips coverage of transgender medical treatments for children of military members. The annual defense authorization bill usually gains strong bipartisan support and hasn’t
Continue ReadingBy Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — A widespread anticorruption campaign within the senior levels of the Chinese military and government is impeding its push to build up its military by 2027, the Pentagon says in a new report released on Wednesday. “In the second half of 2023 alone, at least 15 high ranking military officials
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday granted two requests from California to enforce strict standards for vehicle emissions, including a rule aimed at banning sales of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035. The incoming Trump administration is likely to try to reverse the action. The California rule is
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pentagon report says China is expanding its nuclear force, has increased military pressure against Taiwan and has strengthened its ties with Russia over the past year. Those actions are accelerating key areas of conflict with the United States. The report also notes that the recent rash of corruption allegations
Continue ReadingBy Katie Lobosco and Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Senate approved a slimmed-down, temporary government spending plan early Saturday morning, averting a shutdown of the federal government. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law later Saturday morning. The passage of the package came after President-elect Donald Trump torpedoed a bipartisan agreement struck earlier
Continue ReadingAssociated Press LONDON (AP) — A teen charged with killing three girls and wounding 10 other people in a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England this summer has had not guilty pleas entered for him in court. Axel Rudakubana, 18, who has refused to speak in court was read the charges Wednesday
Continue ReadingBy Alayna Treene, Manu Raju and Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — The House Ethics Committee secretly voted earlier this month to release its report into the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz before the end of this Congress, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. The report is now expected to be made
Continue ReadingAP Science Writer The last meteor shower of the year — the Ursids — peaks Sunday, a few days before Christmas. While usually not as bright as the Geminids, the Ursid meteor shower can yield surprises. “The Ursids are generally a sparse meteor shower,” producing about 5 to 10 visible meteors per hour under ideal
Continue ReadingThe killing of a senior Russian general in a bombing outside his apartment building in Moscow was the boldest assassination yet of a top military officer and again brought the war in Ukraine to the streets of the capital. Some things to know about the attack and who is suspected of being behind it: What
Continue ReadingAssociated Press KIRYAT GAT, Israel (AP) — Ilana Gritzewsky is fighting a battle against time to save her boyfriend from Hamas captivity. While there appears to be progress toward a deal to free the remaining captives in phases, Matan Zangauker would likely not be released in the first stage since he is a young man.
Continue ReadingNEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian navy speedboat has crashed into a ferry carrying over 100 people to a popular tourist destination off Mumbai, killing at least 13 people. A navy statement says 99 ferry passengers were rescued. They were on their way to Elephanta Island when the speedboat circled and collided with the ferry
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The Palm Springs International Airport is prepared for the busy holiday season. Between December 21-26 they expect to see more than 40,000 passengers. The busiest days are anticipated to be Sunday the 22nd, Monday the 23rd, Thursday the 26th, which each day brining in more than 7,300 passengers. To avoid any stress during holiday travel,
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — They clustered around water taps, rare sources of electricity and each other. Four days after the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the French island territory of Mayotte off the coast of Africa, survivors recalled the horror of the storm that caught many by surprise. Associated Press
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has transferred two Malaysian detainees at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison to their home country. That’s after they pleaded guilty to charges stemming from deadly 2002 bombings in Bali and agreed to testify against the alleged ringleader of that and other attacks. The move leaves just 27
Continue ReadingAssociated Press Writers ST. LOUIS (AP) — Capybaras are having a big moment. The world’s largest rodent is the latest in a long line of “it” animals to get star treatment during the holiday season. Shoppers can find plush capybaras, capybara slippers, capybara bath bombs and capybara phone cases. Tiny versions of the semi-aquatic South
Continue ReadingAssociated Press PARIS (AP) — France’s highest court has upheld an appeal court decision which had found former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling while he was the country’s head of state. Sarkozy, 69, faces a year in prison, but is expected to ask to be detained at home with an electronic
Continue ReadingAssociated Press The past year has been both a glass half empty and half full for the world’s democracies. From Asia to Africa to the Americas, it produced examples of democracy working and citizens standing up against attempted coups or authoritarians. At the same time, some of the new regimes ushered in by all those
Continue ReadingAP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A new novel from Kiran Desai, her first fiction since the Booker Prize-winning “The Inheritance of Loss” came out nearly 20 years ago, will be published next fall. Desai’s “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” is scheduled for release in September by Hogarth, an imprint of the Random
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