BERLIN (AP) — The German parliament has approved legislation introducing payment cards for asylum-seekers. The system is meant to limit benefits paid in cash and make the country less attractive for migrants. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s 16 state governors agreed in principle to introduce the system in early November. The resulting bill was approved
Continue ReadingBy FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer As their rivalry intensifies, U.S. and Chinese military planners are gearing up for a new kind of warfare in which squadrons of air and sea drones equipped with artificial intelligence work together like a swarm of bees to overwhelm an enemy. The planners envision a scenario in which hundreds,
Continue ReadingBy JESSICA DONATI Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Russian military trainers have arrived in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses as the western African nation pulls away from close cooperation with the U.S. in counterterrorism efforts, turning instead to Russia for help as it fights Islamic insurgents in the Sahel region. State television
Continue ReadingROME (AP) — Divers in northern Italy have recovered the last two bodies of workers killed by the explosion that collapsed and flooded several levels of an underground hydroelectric plant, bringing the death toll to seven. Officials said Friday that four other workers who were wounded in the massive blast are still hospitalized and two
Continue ReadingBy Katie Lobosco, CNN Washington (CNN) — The Biden administration said Friday that it is using existing student loan forgiveness programs to cancel another round of student debt, totaling $7.4 billion for 277,000 borrowers. Under President Joe Biden, the Department of Education has made it easier for some specific groups of borrowers, like public sector
Continue ReadingBy Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Justin Gibbs had finally gotten his high blood pressure under control with a combination of three medications. But after he had his Medicaid coverage terminated in December amid a nationwide eligibility review, he had to go without one medication for a week and a second for several days, sparking
Continue ReadingBy COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is canceling student loans for another 206,000 borrowers as part of a new repayment plan that offers a faster route to forgiveness. The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellations Friday in an update on the progress of its SAVE Plan. More
Continue ReadingBy DEVNA BOSE AP Health Writer A new survey shows that almost a quarter of people who have been dropped from Medicaid during post-pandemic eligibility reviews are still uninsured. High costs also are preventing many from getting on another plan. That’s according to a survey of 1,227 adults by KFF. The health policy nonprofit also
Continue ReadingBy SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer OXFORD, England (AP) — Former Ireland President Mary Robinson says having a safe climate is becoming more of a human right globally with this week’s European court decision, something warming-hit residents of the Global South long knew. In an AP interview, Robinson, who was the United Nations High Commissioner
Continue ReadingBERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors say three teenagers suspected of planning an Islamic extremist attack have been arrested in western Germany. They said the two girls aged 15 and 16 and a 15-year-old boy come from various parts of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany’s most populous. They were arrested after a court issued warrants over the Easter
Continue ReadingBy ZEN SOO AP Business Writer HONG KONG (AP) — Official customs data show China’s exports contracted in March after growing in the first two months of the year. The decline underscores the uneven nature of China’s recovery from the pandemic. Exports in March declined 7.5% from a year earlier, while imports slipped 1.9%. Both
Continue ReadingBy CIARÁN GILES and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press MADRID (AP) — British and Spanish foreign ministers will meet in Brussels for another round of talks over the status of the disputed territory of Gibraltar following Britain’s exit from the European Union. Spanish minister José Manuel Albares says that while the meeting Friday with Britain’s David
Continue ReadingBEIJING (AP) — A former chairman of the China Everbright Group and ex-central bank executive has been indicted on bribery charges, part of a wider wave of prosecutions of senior officials accused of financial crimes. A statement from the top prosecutors office said Tang Shuangning, who also had held senior posts at the People’s Bank
Continue ReadingBy GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers are expected to vote Friday on a government plan to make it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official documents. The “self-determination law,” one of several social reforms that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s liberal-leaning coalition government pledged when
Continue ReadingBy SAM MEDNICK and JEAN FERNAND KOENA Associated Press BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Sexual assaults and other cases of gender-based violence are rising in Central African Republic. The alleged attackers include everyone from Wagner mercenaries to bandits to United Nations peacekeepers. Reasons include ongoing conflict in one of the world’s most volatile countries,
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Music festival season is underway with campers arriving for Coachella Weekend 1. They started checking in at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. Our crews have seen a steady flow as car and tent campers check in, but that may change come Friday. The festival grounds at the Empire Polo Club
Continue ReadingBy Helen Regan, CNN (CNN) — Once considered among the most promising economies in Southeast Asia with a growing middle class, Myanmar is now suffering from soaring levels of poverty as a devastating civil war drives tens of millions further into destitution, according to a new United Nations report. Almost half of Myanmar’s population of
Continue ReadingBy PATRICIA SIMON and RICARDO GARCIA VILANOVA Associated Press METCHE CAMP, Chad (AP) — The war in Sudan began a year ago. Here in a camp for tens of thousands of people who have fled into neighboring Chad, the anniversary is marked by near starvation. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan’s vast western
Continue ReadingBy ERIKA KINETZ Associated Press ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) — If the choice was death or a bullet to the leg, Yevgeny would take the bullet. A decorated hero of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Yevgeny told his friend and fellow soldier to please aim carefully and avoid bone. The tourniquets were ready. The pain that followed
Continue ReadingBy ERIKA KINETZ Associated Press ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) — If the choice was death or a bullet to the leg, Yevgeny would take the bullet. A decorated hero of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Yevgeny told his friend and fellow soldier to please aim carefully and avoid bone. The tourniquets were ready. The pain that followed
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