Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 86
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday prohibited President Donald Trump from tapping $2.5 billion in military funding to build high-priority segments of his prized border wall in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. in Oakland acted in two lawsuits filed by California and by activists who contended that the money transfer was unlawful and that building the wall would pose environmental threats. "All President Trump has succeeded in building is a constitutional crisis, threatening immediate harm to our s...
LONDON (AP) — Major league baseball's first game in Europe received a royal launch. Prince Harry and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, took part in the ceremonial first pitch before the New York Yankees played the Boston Red Sox. The couple left month-old son Archie home as Meghan made one of her few public appearances since giving birth. They strolled to the mound at London Stadium along with 10 participants in the Invictus Games, an international project started by Harry to give wounded military men and women a chance to compete. Harry d...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — For President Donald Trump, a four-day visit to Asia is shaping up to be more about relationships than results. In Japan for the Group of 20 summit, Trump notched few identifiable accomplishments on a range of pressing challenges as he savored the show of diplomatic backslapping. He went into his meetings with friends and foes alike against the backdrop of global crises, from Iranian aggression to Russian election meddling. Eager to avoid a repeat of his past tumultuous international summit visits, Trump traded h...
MIAMI (AP) — For months, the names of white men have sat at the top of early Democratic presidential primary polls. On the debate stage this week, the half-dozen women in the field offered up an alternative: themselves. They did so with different tactics and styles but a shared goal: shaking up assumptions about who is electable in a race for a job that has only been held by men. While it's too early in the Democratic nominating process to know if they succeeded on that front, some of the women emerged as dominant forces on the debate stage, d...
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A fresh round of talks between the U.S. and the Taliban began in Qatar on Saturday, just days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington is hoping for an Afghan peace agreement before Sept. 1. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to The Associated Press that negotiations had begun. Originally scheduled to begin in the morning, the two sides sat down mid-afternoon for the seventh time in a series of direct talks that began last year following the appointment of U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. As in p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A few months ago, President Donald Trump affirmed that he thought special counsel Robert Mueller acted honorably in the Russia investigation. Now Trump is back in "witch hunt" territory, this time falsely accusing Mueller of committing a crime. The provocative remark came as the president persisted in misrepresenting trade in multiple dimensions and claimed a record on poverty he didn't achieve. Democratic presidential candidates, meantime, stepped forward for their first debates and tripped at times on issues dear to them: c...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The number of working oil rigs in Oklahoma is down more than a quarter from this time last year, amid a nationwide decrease. Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes reported 102 rigs operating in the state Friday. The Journal Record reports this is down 27% from a year ago following a sharp drop in January and gradual decreases through June. The lower count comes as energy companies across the country have prioritized cash flow over increased production amid low oil prices. Houston-based Baker Hughes reports 967 oil and gas r...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two Kansas lawmakers are encouraging teachers to incorporate culturally relevant studies into their lesson plans. Democratic Reps. John Alcala and Valdenia Winn have spearheaded the Kansas Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Summer Intensive program, which is in its second year, the Topeka-Capital Journal reported. Alcala helped create the initiative after noticing a lack of representation of various ethnic groups in history text books. The four-week-long program teaches Kansas educators about culturally relevant pedagogy, i...
TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — Fouke Public School District recently introduced its new canine officer, named Major, at the school. Major is a narcotics detection canine. "This is primarily a deterrent for our students who are into drugs and substance abuse," Dr. Jim Buie, Fouke superintendent, told the Texarkana Gazette. "I think we have a substance abuse problem here. This dog is intended to make sure we're not turning a blind eye to it." Major, a black German shepherd, will do a passive alert when he smells an illegal substance. "That means he'll s...
LONDON (AP) — Britain treasures tradition, and the New York Yankees wrapped up Major League Baseball's first trip to Europe with one of their sport's classic customs: a late-inning pinstriped comeback. Gary Sánchez hit a go-ahead, two-run single in a nine-run seventh, and the Yankees overcome a four-run deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox 12-8 Sunday for a two-game sweep of the groundbreaking, high-scoring trek across the pond. "It was a pretty cool experience," Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge said. DJ LeMahieu doubled off Marcus Walden (6...
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A federal control board overseeing Puerto Rico's finances filed a lawsuit on Sunday to recover what it called massive fraudulent payments made by the island's power company to fuel suppliers for more than a decade. The lawsuit was filed against fuel companies Trafigura and Vitol for allegedly supplying low-grade oil as well as three laboratories accused of receiving money for falsifying tests on oil bought by Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority. The board said billions of dollars of alleged overpayments from 2...
DENVER (AP) — A state appeals court has dismissed a libel suit filed by a Texas energy firm against a Colorado environmental activist, finding that the lawsuit sought to stifle the activist's freedom of speech. The ruling in favor of Delta County activist Pete Kolbenschlag came in a case that helped lead to the enactment of a new Colorado law to protect citizens and news outlets from lawsuits that seek to curb their First Amendment rights. Colorado is one of nearly 30 states that have adopted measures to curb what are called strategic l...
MOSCOW (AP) — A brawl between Kazakh workers and their Arab colleagues in one of Kazakhstan's largest oil fields has left 30 people wounded and led to an outcry in Lebanon and Jordan, a news agency said Sunday. Videos of the attacks on Arab engineers and workers were widely circulated on social media in Arab countries. The scenes showed them being kicked and punched by large numbers of local workers. Some of those attacked were covered in blood and badly bruised. Interfax-Kazakhstan said Saturday's brawl erupted after a Lebanese contractor r...
HARMAN, W.Va. (AP) — Still Hollow Distillery isn't close to any interstate exit. It's in Randolph County, West Virginia, not far from the Pendleton County line, and it's nestled in the high Allegheny mountains. You can only get there by driving curvy two-lane roads. And like many former timber towns, Job, the community where Still Hollow is located, was once notorious in the area for its moonshine. "It was a really good way for the local farmers to turn their corn into a cash crop by making whiskey," said Athey Lutz, one of the distillery's o...
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The first authorized marijuana farmers in Missouri will have to commit a crime to begin growing, and regulators are expected to turn a blind eye. In November, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana and marijuana-infused products for patients who suffer from serious illnesses. But it doesn't indicate how growers should get their first seeds, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. It is a felony to acquire new marijuana plants or seeds already in Missouri, or to get them from one of...
BOSTON (AP) — Facebook says it will make advertisements for U.S. jobs and for loans, financing and credit card offers searchable for all users under a legal settlement designed to eliminate discrimination blamed on its highly customized ad-targeting. The plan disclosed in an internal report Sunday voluntarily expands on a commitment the social medial giant made in March when it agreed to make its U.S. housing ads searchable by location and advertiser. Ads were only delivered selectively to Facebook users based on such data as what they earn, t...
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A government report this month highlighted the frequency of computer outages at airlines, which can stop passengers from checking in for flights, and even prevent planes from taking off. American Airlines canceled about 3,000 flights last June when a hardware breakdown prevented one of its regional affiliates, PSA Airlines, from using crew-scheduling software. Maya Leibman, senior vice president and chief information officer, is responsible for the information technology systems at American, the world's biggest airline....
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow insisted Sunday that President Donald Trump won't back off national security concerns after agreeing to allow U.S. companies to sell some components to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Kudlow told "Fox News Sunday" and CBS' "Face the Nation" that Huawei will remain on an American blacklist as a potential security threat. He stressed that additional U.S. licensing "will be for what we call general merchandise, not national security sensitive," such as chips and software g...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Sea ice along northern Alaska disappeared far earlier than normal this spring, alarming coastal residents who rely on wildlife and fish. Ice melted as a result of exceptionally warm ocean temperatures, the Anchorage Daily News reported . The early melting has been "crazy," said Janet Mitchell of Kivalina. Hunters from her family in early June traveled more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) by boat to find bearded seals on sea ice. Bearded seals in the past could be hunted just outside the village but sea ice had receded f...
JERUSALEM (AP) — American officials looked on Sunday as Israel opened a newfound Roman-era street at a divisive archaeological site in east Jerusalem, a move that deepened Palestinian animosity toward the White House's mediation efforts. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attended the event along with three other visiting American ambassadors as well as President Donald Trump's Mideast negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. The City of David Foundation unveiled what it called "the pilgrimage road," a 2...
SAN DIEGO (AP) — It was called the "The Sewing Circle," an unlikely name for a secret subsect of Navy SEALs. Its purpose was even more improbable: A chat forum to discuss alleged war crimes they said their chief, a decorated sniper and medic, committed on a recent tour of duty in Iraq. The WhatsApp group would eventually lead to formal allegations that Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher fatally stabbed a wounded Islamic State captive in his care and shot civilians in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher, 40, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A...
LA HACHADURA, El Salvador (AP) — The bodies of the father and daughter who drowned together last week while trying to cross the Rio Grande to the U.S. returned to El Salvador on Sunday for burial. Photographs of Valeria, face down with her little arm wrapped around the neck of her father, Oscar Alberto Martínez, broke hearts around the world and underscored the dangers that migrants undertake in trying to reach the U.S. The father and daughter were swept away by the current in the river between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas. Th...
PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — "Ok, let's do it." With those words, a deliberate step and a pat on the arm of Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea on Sunday as the two made history at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. The made-for-television moment was unthinkable just two years ago, when the men were trading base insults and grim threats. Trump's three-hour stop at the DMZ — of which about 80 minutes were spent with Kim — was a display of handshake-diplomacy for the histo...
PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation's nuclear program. Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining deal, became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea. What was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring n...
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban said Sunday that the latest round of peace talks with the United States is "critical" as the two sides "rewrite" a draft agreement in which American forces would withdraw from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees from the insurgents that they would fight terrorism. "We are working to rewrite the draft agreement and incorporate in it clauses that have been agreed upon," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press on the second day of talks with U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar, where the mi...