Selena Gomez is having quite a year, and it’s being capped with an engagement to music producer and songwriter Benny Blanco. The Grammy- and Emmy-nominated performer announced she was off the market in an Instagram post Wednesday of her ring and an embrace with her fiancé, with the caption “Forever begins now.” Celebrity fans sent
Continue ReadingSAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has undergone a second procedure to stop a brain bleed. The 79-year-old Lula had surgery at the hospital on Tuesday for a kind of slow bleeding that resulted from a fall at home in October. Thursday’s procedure was to plug an artery that continued
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MILAN (AP) — A humanitarian rescue group says its sailboat plucked from the central Mediterranean an 11-year-old girl believed to be the only survivor of a shipwreck in stormy seas. The Compass Collective said the crew aboard their German-flagged sailboat heard a voice over the motors off the Italian island of Lampedusa early
Continue ReadingAssociated Press When the African Methodist Episcopal Church, arguably the world’s largest independent Black Protestant denomination, held its quadrennial General Conference in Ohio in August, among the agenda items was an issue that the Rev. Jennifer S. Leath had labored over for two decades: same-sex marriage. Leath, 43, self-identifies as “quare” — terminology designed to
Continue ReadingAP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale costs in the United States picked up sharply last month, signaling that price pressures are still evident in the economy even though inflation has tumbled from the peak levels it hit more than two years ago. The producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers
Continue ReadingBy Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN Rome (CNN) — An 11-year-old girl has been found clinging to tire tubes off the Italian coast after the migrant boat she was on sank three days earlier. The girl is from Sierra Leone and has been named as “Yasmine” in Italian media. She was found with a life jacket
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The town of Asheville, North Carolina, is known for its artists and restaurants. In September, it was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene. Even businesses not physically harmed suffered weeks without power and water. And Asheville was essentially closed to tourists during its busiest season. So local artists and
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Civic engagement nonprofits believe democracy is an exercise in need of constant support — not just extra money around major major campaigns. A relatively small network of philanthropists are pledging to reverse boom-and-bust cycles where money floods politically engaged nonprofits late into election years only to dry up afterward.
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Some European Union countries are doubling down on their decision to rapidly halt asylum procedures for Syrian migrants in Europe. But they said Thursday that it’s too early to consider sending any of the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled since 2011 back home. Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece,
Continue ReadingAP Business Writer DoorDash will require its drivers to verify their identities more often as part of a larger effort to crack down on unauthorized account sharing. DoorDash has been under pressure to ensure its drivers are operating legally. Over the summer, for example, it pledged to do a better job identifying and removing dangerous
Continue ReadingAP Business Writer DoorDash will require its drivers to verify their identities more often as part of a larger effort to crack down on unauthorized account sharing. DoorDash has been under pressure to ensure its drivers are operating legally. Over the summer, for example, it pledged to do a better job identifying and removing dangerous
Continue ReadingISLAMABAD (AP) — A court in Pakistan has indicted imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife in one of several graft cases they face. Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi pleaded not guilty on Thursday when a judge in the garrison city of Rawalpindi read the charges. The couple is accused of keeping
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BANGKOK (AP) — U.N. experts say there has been a slight drop in the production of opium in Myanmar, the world’s biggest source of the illicit drug from which heroin is derived, but warn there are still strong prospects for future expansion of the deadly trade. The Myanmar Opium Survey 2024 issued by
Continue ReadingAssociated Press TOKYO (AP) — Meat from fin whales caught for the first time in nearly 50 years off Japan’s northern coast has fetched up to more than $1,300 per kilogram at auction, as officials try to keep the struggling industry alive. Japan’s Fisheries Agency this year added fin whales to its list of three
Continue ReadingAP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leaders have wrapped up a two-day planning meeting in Beijing with pledges to take a more proactive approach in pepping up the economy, but gave no details on stimulus measures. A state television report on the annual strategy meeting mainly reiterated a strategy outlined earlier in the week
Continue ReadingMAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Rights and civil society groups say more than 100 people including children have been killed by security forces in post-election protests in Mozambique that have lasted nearly two months. The main opposition leader called Thursday for more demonstrations against what he has says was a rigged vote by the governing party.
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — She’s an Iraq War combat veteran and sexual assault survivor who has advocated for years to improve how the military handles claims of sexual misconduct. But when Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, appeared initially cool to the nomination of President-elect Donald Trump ’s choice of Pete Hegseth to serve as defense
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Deputies discovered $100 million worth of illegal marijuana at a stash house in San Bernardino County. The discovery was made when authorities served a search warrant Marijuana Stash House was located at 5000 Block of Honeyhill Road in Oak Hills. According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, deputies seized 51 truckloads of 90,000 pounds
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its person of the year. The honors for the businessman-turned-politician are a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback from an ostracized former president who refused
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As several of President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for high-level positions in his administration face scrutiny on Capitol Hill, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans have their own doubts. Relatively few Americans overall approve of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice to lead the Department
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