By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer Home Depot will buy SRS Distribution, a materials provider for professionals, in a deal valued at approximately $18.25 billion. It is Home Depot’s largest acquisition in its history and with it, it steps more aggressively into the fast growing professional builder and contactor business. SRS provides materials for professionals
Continue ReadingBy NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is urging his priests to avoid “clerical hypocrisy” and treat their flocks with mercy. He delivered a lengthy set of marching orders in a Holy Thursday Mass to Rome-based priests at the start of a busy few days leading to Easter. Francis has been hobbled
Continue ReadingBy SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation has pledged continued support for Taiwan, days after Congress approved $300 million in military aid for the self-governed island that’s claimed by China. The Chinese government regards Taiwan as a breakaway province to be brought under its control, by force if
Continue ReadingBy Lucas Lilieholm, Sania Farooqui and Aishwarya S. Iyer and Rhea Mogul, CNN New Delhi (CNN) — India’s Ministry of External Affairs summoned a US State Department official after the department called for a fair legal process for opposition leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal following his arrest last week. “We take strong objection to
Continue ReadingWARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal is in Poland for talks with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk to address Polish and western European farmers’ demands that regulations be applied to the cheap Ukraine grain and food imports that they say are undercutting their livelihoods. Farmers in many countries have been staging vehement
Continue ReadingBERLIN (AP) — Germany’s main national postal carrier has stopped using domestic flights to transport letters after nearly 63 years. The move reflects the declining significance of letter mail and allows it to improve its climate footprint. Deutsche Post said Thursday the last planes carrying letters between northern and southern Germany, operated by Lufthansa unit
Continue ReadingBy REESE DUNKLIN Associated Press Every day, police in the U.S. rely on common use-of-force tactics that, unlike guns, are meant to stop people without killing them. But when misused, these tactics can still end in death. Over a decade, more than 1,000 people died after police subdued them through physical holds, stun guns, body
Continue ReadingBy ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities say Russia has fired salvoes of drones and missiles overnight at southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, injuring more than a dozen people as the Kremlin’s forces persevered with attritional attacks designed to wear down Ukrainian defenses. Ukraine’s air force said air defense systems intercepted
Continue ReadingBy Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN (CNN) — As a first-generation college student, Andrea Morquecho was looking forward to walking in the Latinx graduation ceremony at the University of Texas at Austin this spring. Morquecho said she has family members traveling from Mexico who would have appreciated the ceremony because it’s delivered in both Spanish and English. She was also excited to
Continue ReadingBy REESE DUNKLIN, RYAN J. FOLEY, JEFF MARTIN, JENNIFER McDERMOTT, HOLBROOK MOHR and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press Carl Grant, a Vietnam veteran with dementia, wandered out of a hospital room to charge a cellphone he imagined he had. When he wouldn’t sit still, the police officer escorting Grant body-slammed him, ricocheting the patient’s head off
Continue ReadingBy REESE DUNKLIN, RYAN J. FOLEY, JEFF MARTIN, JENNIFER McDERMOTT, HOLBROOK MOHR and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press Carl Grant, a Vietnam veteran with dementia, wandered out of a hospital room to charge a cellphone he imagined he had. When he wouldn’t sit still, the police officer escorting Grant body-slammed him, ricocheting the patient’s head off
Continue ReadingBy Donie O’Sullivan, CNN (CNN) — Even before most Americans woke up Tuesday morning to news of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, wild conspiracy theories about what supposedly had “really” happened were running rampant online. The claims ranged from a cyber-attack or a ship captain impaired by side effects from Covid-19
Continue ReadingLONDON (AP) — The coach of Oxford’s crew taking part in the Boat Race has described the pollution in London’s River Thames as a “national disgrace.” His team has also expressed concerns about maintaining the post-event tradition of throwing the winning cox into the water. Testing by a campaign group has found high levels of
Continue ReadingBy ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — European shares opened higher after a mixed trading session in Asia on Thursday following another record close for the S&P 500. Germany’s DAX added 0.1% to 18,500.63. In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.4% to 8,240.07. In London, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,957.26.
Continue ReadingBy MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer U.S. federal agencies must show that their artificial intelligence tools aren’t harming the public, or stop using them, under new rules unveiled by the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris says government agencies that use AI tools will be required to verify that those tools do not endanger the
Continue ReadingBy Nell Lewis and John Lewis, CNN (CNN) — The largest apex predator in the tropical seas, tiger sharks are notoriously fierce. They can grow to more than six meters (20 feet), have sharp serrated teeth and are second only to great whites in number of reported attacks on people. But in The Bahamas, tiger
Continue ReadingBy Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Biden administration is curtailing short-term health insurance plans, which it calls “junk insurance” that can leave patients contending with big medical bills. The rule, which was proposed last summer as part of a series of actions aimed at lowering health care costs, limits the duration of new sales
Continue ReadingBy DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press Some 40,000 people are expected to participate in Monday’s “EGG-ucation”-themed White House Easter Egg Roll, about 10,000 more than last year. Jill Biden, a teacher for more than 30 years, is transforming an annual tradition first held in 1878 into an “EGG-ucational” experience. Various stations on the South Lawn and
Continue ReadingBy DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press President Joe Biden is announcing new steps to protect consumers who buy short-term health insurance plans that critics say amount to junk. A new rule finalized by the Democratic president’s administration will limit short-term health insurance to just three months. And the plans can only be renewed for a maximum
Continue ReadingBy CHRIS MEGERIAN and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million — setting a new record for the most-ever haul for a single political event, his campaign said. The
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