By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Let the negotiating begin! The Biden administration is sending its initial offers to the drugmakers participating in the historic first round of Medicare drug price negotiations on Thursday. The move kicks off six months of discussions between the manufacturers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It comes
Continue ReadingBy LORNE COOK and SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders lashed out at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday, accusing him of blackmail and playing political games that undermine support for Ukraine as his nationalist government holds up EU financial aid for the country’s war-ravaged economy. Almost two years after
Continue ReadingBy JOSH BOAK and EMILY SWANSON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Stocks are near record highs. Growth was surprisingly strong last year. And once-hot inflation has begun to cool. But so far, U.S. adults are feeling only slightly better about the economy. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds
Continue ReadingBy ABDUL SATTAR Associated Press QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say Pakistani security forces killed 22 insurgents in an operation this week against Baloch separatists after coming under attacks. Baloch separatists began the attacks before dawn Monday in retaliation for strikes by Pakistan on insurgent hideouts in Iran in January. Four security forces and two
Continue ReadingBy BERNIE WILSON AP Sports Writer SAN DIEGO (AP) — New Zealand is playing a home test abroad for the first time when it faces South Pacific rival Fiji at San Diego State’s Snapdragon Stadium on July 19. It will be the first time the All Blacks and the Flying Fijians meet at a neutral
Continue ReadingSYDNEY (AP) — New Zealand’s government says it will contemplate sharing advanced military technologies with the United States and Britain as part of closer defense ties with Australia. The defense and foreign ministers of Australia and New Zealand met in Melbourne on Thursday. Talks centered on deepening security ties between the neighboring nations amid worries
Continue ReadingBy FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer A new report says Israeli-made Pegasus spyware was used in Jordan to hack the cellphones of nearly three dozen people including journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. The digital rights group Access Now said the hacking with spyware made by the NSO Group occurred from early 2020 until November.
Continue ReadingBERLIN (AP) — German beer sales dropped 4.5% last year, resuming a long-term downward trend, official figures showed Thursday. German-based breweries and distributors sold about 8.4 billion liters (2.2 billion gallons) of beer last year, the Federal Statistical Office said. That figure doesn’t include non-alcoholic beer and beer imported from outside the European Union. In
Continue ReadingBy ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s finance minister has unveiled a short-term budget to meet government expenditures until national elections are held by May, saying it will boost spending on infrastructure projects, build homes for poor villagers and cut the fiscal deficit by reducing subsidies. Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to raise
Continue ReadingCOPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Residents of central Norway have awoken to scenes of havoc and homes without power following the country’s most powerful storm in more than three decades. Hurricane-force winds hit parts of the Scandinavian country, with gusts of up 180 kilometers per hour (112 miles per hour). In a small, picturesque town northeast
Continue ReadingBy PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is expected to keep its main interest rate at near 16-year highs and indicate that lower borrowing costs aren’t imminent because inflation is stuck too high for comfort. Like the U.S. Federal Reserve, the U.K. central bank on Thursday is not expected to
Continue ReadingBy RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors arrived at European Union headquarters, bent on getting their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard and fixed by EU leaders at a summit Thursday. After warming their limbs at burning piles of pallets overnight, the farmers
Continue ReadingBy MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A dissident Russian rock band angered by Moscow’s war in Ukraine has arrived in Israel after being deported from Thailand under suspected pressure from the Kremlin. Speaking Thursday in the arrival hall of Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, guitarist and singer Aleksandr
Continue ReadingBy LORNE COOK and SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are gathering on Thursday to shore up financial support for Ukraine. The overwhelming majority of them — from 26 countries — agree that Europe’s security is at stake, and that time is of the essence. Only one, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Continue ReadingBy Chris Lau, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — Heavy snow and rain is forecast to hit central and eastern China in the coming days, threatening travel plans for hundreds of millions of Chinese workers heading home for the Lunar New Year. Also known as the Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year holiday traditionally sees the
Continue ReadingBy Fredreka Schouten, David Wright, Steve Contorno and Alex Leeds Matthews, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden entered the election year with an early financial edge over Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, new filings show – a bright spot for an incumbent with low approval ratings who is girding for a bruising general election rematch with his
Continue ReadingBy CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A member of Taiwan’s pro-unification Nationalists has been elected speaker of the island’s legislature. The election of Han Kuo-Yu on Thursday is sort of consolation prize for China after the candidate of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13. The Nationalists,
Continue ReadingBy SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Automakers including Tesla, General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota are failing to ensure they are not using forced labor as part of their China supply chains, a report released Thursday by Human Rights Watch says. The U.S.-based nonprofit linked some of the world’s largest car manufacturers to
Continue ReadingBy JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first of two back-to-back atmospheric rivers drenched Northern California on Thursday, flooding roads while triggering statewide storm preparations and calls for people to get ready for powerful downpours, heavy snow and damaging winds. Heavy rain and gusty winds that began hitting the San Francisco Bay
Continue ReadingBy JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first of two back-to-back atmospheric rivers drenched Northern California on Thursday, flooding roads while triggering statewide storm preparations and calls for people to get ready for powerful downpours, heavy snow and damaging winds. Heavy rain and gusty winds that began hitting the San Francisco Bay
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