News

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s lawmakers unanimously passed a new national security law that grants the government more power to quash dissent in the southern Chinese city. The legislation, passed Tuesday, is widely seen as the latest step in a sweeping political crackdown that followed pro-democracy protests in 2019

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s ruling African National Congress is taking the independent electoral body and a rival political party fronted by the country’s former leader to court. It’s underscoring a fractious buildup to what could be the country’s most pivotal election in 30 years. The ANC

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press NOORDWIJKERHOUT, Netherlands (AP) — Theo works weekdays, weekends and nights and never complains about a sore spine despite performing hour upon hour of what, for a regular farm hand, would be backbreaking labor checking Dutch tulip fields for sick flowers. The boxy robot — named after a retired employee at

By JAMEY KEATEN and SETH BORENSTEIN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. weather agency is sounding a “red alert” about global warming, citing record-smashing increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and melting of glaciers and sea ice. It warned that the world’s efforts to reverse the trend have been inadequate.

By ELAINE KURTENBACH and MATT OTT AP Business Writers Wall Street drifted modestly lower early Tuesday in what’s turning out to be a big week for central banks around the world. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.2% lower before the bell, one day ahead

By TERRY TANG and DEEPA BHARATH Associated Press ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) — In 1939, after attending the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, Alfred Chan and his friends were headed back home to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. “They got really hungry and decided to stop halfway in Antioch for a meal,” his son Ron

By DEEPA BHARATH and TERRY TANG Associated Press ANTIOCH, California (AP) — For one afternoon, on Antioch’s main street and tranquil riverbank, the fragrance of burning incense was paired with the sound of Buddhist and Tao chants. Their cumulative calming energy was meant to be a balm of sorts to soothe the racial and religious

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian designer Dries Van Noten, who for almost four decades dazzled the fashion world with his luscious use of colors and fabrics, said Tuesday he will step down as creative director of his namesake brand at the end of June. Van Noten, 65, a master of blending