By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Here’s a Hollywood ending that President Joe Biden wants to bring to life: an incumbent facing tough polling numbers and questions about his advanced age overcomes a brash opponent to win a second term at the White House. With strikes by writers and actors now over, Biden
Continue ReadingBy WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Here’s a Hollywood ending that President Joe Biden wants to bring to life: an incumbent facing tough polling numbers and questions about his advanced age overcomes a brash opponent to win a second term at the White House. With strikes by writers and actors now over, Biden
Continue ReadingBy JIM HEINTZ Associated Press Vladimir Putin on Friday moved to prolong his repressive and unyielding grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election next March that he is all but certain to win. Putin still commands wide support after nearly a quarter-century in power, despite starting
Continue ReadingBy Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Ancient plant fossils that puzzled scientists have turned out not to be plants after all, new research has revealed. Instead, the small round shapes bearing a leaflike pattern were once the shells of baby turtles that lived during the time of dinosaurs. Scientists have nicknamed the turtle species “Turtwig,”
Continue ReadingBy ED WHITE Associated Press PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A court hearing is underway in suburban Detroit as a judge hears from families and surviving victims of the Oxford school shooting. Ethan Crumbley could be sentenced to life in prison Friday. He also could receive a shorter term with an opportunity for parole. The 17-year-old
Continue ReadingBy HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s defense minister has threatened massive retaliatory missile strikes on “the heart and head” of North Korea in the event of provocation, as the rivals escalate their rhetoric over their respective spy satellite launches in recent days. The South Korean warning on Friday came
Continue ReadingBy STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting Friday as Wall Street weighs how to read a report showing the U.S. job market isn’t slowing as much as expected. The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in early trading and potentially on track for its first losing week in the last
Continue ReadingBy HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The publishing world made plenty of news in 2023, but not only because of the books themselves. Bannings continued to soar in the U.S., the Middle East war impacted everything from authors events to the National Book Awards and numerous authors took legal action in
Continue ReadingSIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa helicopter pilot is back in the air, two weeks after a waterfowl smashed through the windshield of his chopper and knocked him for a loop. Pilot Troy McCormick told KCAU-TV that he’s lucky he wasn’t hurt worse on Nov. 23 when what he believed was a duck came
Continue ReadingBy JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the next president. Kevin Guskiewicz was voted in Friday morning. He’s been the chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the past four years. He will take over a university that is now
Continue ReadingALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A man arrested for firing gunshots outside a Jewish temple in upstate New York been federally charged. An FBI spokesperson says Mufid Fawaz Alkhader has been charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Officials say Alkhader fired two shots outside a synagogue in Albany on Thursday. The episode
Continue ReadingBy GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — The International Olympic Committee says some Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The decision Friday removes the option of a blanket ban over the invasion of Ukraine. It confirms moves the IOC started one year ago to reintegrate Russia and
Continue ReadingBERLIN (AP) — Travelers in Germany are facing delays and disruptions as a union representing Germany’s train drivers conducts a 24-hour strike. The strike began at 10 p.m. local time Thursday at 10 p.m. for passenger services and at 6 p.m. for freight trains. National railway operator Deutsche Bahn said approximately 20% of its long-distance
Continue ReadingBy Ray Sanchez, Nicki Brown and Aditi Sangal, CNN (CNN) — Teenager Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for gunning down four classmates and wounding six others and a teacher at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021. Dismissing last-minute defense pleas that Crumbley’s life is salvageable, Oakland County Circuit Court
Continue ReadingBy Jalen Beckford, CNN (CNN) — A former California police chief who brought a hatchet to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and gave prior speeches calling for the execution of his perceived political enemies, was sentenced to 11 years in prison Thursday. Alan Hostetter, 59, was sentenced to 135 months – a little over
Continue ReadingBy MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Taylor Swift’s incomparable year has reached another milestone — the concert trade publication Pollstar says Swift’s Eras Tour has earned more than $1 billion. Not only was Swift’s landmark Eras the No. 1 tour both worldwide and in North America, but Pollstar says it also
Continue ReadingBy CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s employers added a solid 199,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell, fresh signs that the economy could achieve an elusive “soft landing,” in which inflation would return to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target without causing a steep recession. Friday’s report from the
Continue ReadingBy MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers are demanding information on federal efforts to stop the influx of kid-appealing electronic cigarettes from China. A letter sent Thursday by a congressional committee calls attention to “the extreme proliferation of illicit vaping products.” The letter cites Associated Press reporting on how thousands of
Continue ReadingBy Betsy Klein, CNN Washington (CNN) — The White House strongly condemned recent comments from the leader of a top American-Islamic group who said he was “happy to see” Gazans invading Israel on October 7. The comments came from Council on American-Islamic Relations Director Nihad Awad at a conference two weeks ago, when – according
Continue ReadingBy MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s caretaker interior minister says nearly half a million Afghans who were living in Pakistan without documents have returned home in the past more than two months as part of an ongoing crackdown on foreigners living illegally in the country. The expulsions are part of a nationwide
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