By JIM SALTER Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Raja the elephant has been one of the biggest attractions — literally and figuratively — at the St. Louis Zoo for decades. Now, he’s moving away. The zoo announced Thursday that the male Asian elephant born at the zoo nearly 31 years ago will be relocated
Continue ReadingBy Dakin Andone and LJ Spaet, CNN (CNN) — The mayor of Oakland, California, is demanding a hate crime investigation after a large public menorah was vandalized and destroyed – with pieces of it thrown into Lake Merritt as Jewish communities around the world celebrate Hanukkah. Images and video from the Jewish Community Relations Council
Continue ReadingBy HARRIET MORRIS Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Emboldened by battlefield gains and flagging Western support for Ukraine, a relaxed and confident President Vladimir Putin said Thursday there would be no peace until Russia achieves its goals, which he says remain unchanged after nearly two years of fighting. It was Putin’s first formal news conference
Continue ReadingBy VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Top Polish leaders have joined members of the Jewish community for a Hanukkah celebration in parliament. The ceremony on Thursday comes two days after a far-right lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put out burning candles on a menorah in the halls of parliament. The attendance
Continue ReadingBy LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An attorney for two former Georgia election workers suing Rudy Giuliani for defamation says the former New York City mayor has continued to embrace the false conspiracy theory that the women meddled in the 2020 presidential election. Closing arguments began Thursday in the
Continue ReadingBy ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate dropped below 7% to its lowest level since early August, another boost for prospective homebuyers who have largely been held back by sharply higher borrowing costs and heightened competition for relatively few homes for sale. The average rate on
Continue ReadingBy ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Americans picked up their spending from October to November as the unofficial holiday season kicked off, underscoring that shoppers still have power to keep buying. Retail sales rose 0.3%, in November from October, when sales were down a revised 0.2%. That’s according to the Commerce
Continue ReadingANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A top official says a Turkish opposition lawmaker has died days after he suffered a heart attack and collapsed just after delivering a speech critical of Israel and of the ruling party’s relationship with the country. Turkey’s health minister said 53-year-old Hasan Bitmez died in a hospital on Thursday. The member
Continue ReadingCNN By John King, CNN Kellerton, Iowa (CNN) — Shanen Ebersole calls the rolling hills of southwest Iowa her happy place, where time with the grazing cows is her way to relax and reset. “I’ll just sit here with my cows and take a breath, and everything goes back to the way it should be.”
Continue ReadingBy MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. agents recently seized more than 1.4 million illegal e-cigarettes from the Chinese manufacturer behind Elf Bar, a line of fruity disposable vapes that has become the top brand among American teens, officials said Thursday. Officials pegged the value of the e-cigarettes seized at Los Angeles
Continue ReadingNEW YORK (AP) — General Motors’ troubled Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is cutting over 900 jobs, about a quarter of its workforce, as it moves to reduce costs and remake itself after a series of safety problems in San Francisco. The subsidiary announced the cuts Thursday in a letter to Cruise’s 3,800 workers from President
Continue ReadingBy John King, CNN Kellerton, Iowa (CNN) — Shanen Ebersole calls the rolling hills of southwest Iowa her happy place, where time with the grazing cows is her way to relax and reset. “I’ll just sit here with my cows and take a breath, and everything goes back to the way it should be.” Cattle
Continue ReadingNEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A loose bull on the tracks at a New Jersey train station has snarled rail traffic. New Jersey Transit released a photo of the horned bovine apparently standing on the tracks at Newark Penn Station. It’s unclear how the creature got there or if it’s yet been captured. Newark police said
Continue ReadingBy PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The painful economic steps that Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, announced this week sound draconian: Slashing the currency’s value in half. Reducing aid to provincial governments. Suspending public works. Cutting subsidies for gas and electricity. Raising some taxes. Yet the South American country’s economy is such
Continue ReadingBy DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Two leading international human rights groups are accusing Greek authorities of failing to properly investigate the circumstances around a migrant boat sinking six months ago that killed hundreds. In a joint report, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said Thursday that “little meaningful progress” has been
Continue ReadingMILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo exchanged heated words with members of the Indiana staff and raced toward the Pacers’ locker room Wednesday night as the teams squared off in a hallway in a dispute over the game ball following the Milwaukee star’s franchise-record 64-point performance. After the Bucks’ 140-126 victory, Antetokounmpo had an animated discussion
Continue ReadingBy MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government’s controversial effort to look for people falsely listed as missing has turned up 16,681 who had returned to their homes but not notified the authorities. The massive effort was widely viewed as a government attempt to pare down the country’s horrifying total of
Continue ReadingBy Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell, CNN New York (CNN) — A New York appellate court rejected Donald Trump’s challenge of the gag order in his civil fraud trial Thursday. Trump’s attorneys petitioned the court over the gag order that bars him and the attorneys from speaking publicly about Judge Arthur Engoron’s court staff. In rejecting the challenge
Continue ReadingBy ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case in Washington once appeared likely to be the first of the former president’s criminal trials to begin, with the judge having scheduled a March 4 start date. But appeals of issues central to the case are threatening
Continue ReadingBy ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — M-I-C-K-E-Y will soon belong to you and me. With several asterisks, qualification and caveats, Mickey Mouse in his earliest form will be the leader of the band of characters, films and books that will become public domain as the year turns to 2024. In a
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