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Defense witness who angered judge in Trump's hush money trial will return to the standNEW YORK (AP) — A defense witness in Donald Trump's hush money case whom the judge threatened to remove from the trial over his behavior will return to the stand Tuesday as the trial nears its end. Trump's lawyers are hoping Robert Costello's testimony will help undermine the credibility of a key prosecution witness, Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen...
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WikiLeaks founder Assange wins right to appeal against an extradition order to the USLONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal an extradition order to the United States on espionage charges, a London court ruled Monday — a decision likely to further drag out an already long legal saga. High Court judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson ruled for Assange after his lawyers argued that the U.S. government provided “blatantly inadequate” assurances that he would have the same free speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain...
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Pentagon vows to keep weapons moving to Ukraine as Kyiv faces a renewed assault by RussiaWASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin committed Monday to keeping U.S. weapons moving to Ukraine as Kyiv faces one of its toughest moments against a renewed assault by Russia. Austin and as many as 50 defense leaders from Europe and around the world met Monday to coordinate more military aid to Ukraine as it tries to hold off a Russian offensive in the northeast while launching its own massive assault on the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula...
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US says cyberattacks against water supplies are rising, and utilities need to do more to stop themWASHINGTON (AP) — Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation's drinking water...
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Iran's president and foreign minister die in helicopter crash at moment of high tensions in MideastDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East...
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War crimes prosecutor seeks arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders, including NetanyahuJERUSALEM (AP) — The chief prosecutor of the world's top war crimes court sought arrest warrants Monday for leaders of Israel and Hamas, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over actions taken during their seven-month war. While Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, do not face imminent arrest, the announcement by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor was a symbolic blow that deepened Israel’s isolation over the war in Gaza...
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Judge blocks Biden administration from enforcing new gun sales background check rule in TexasAUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a new rule in Texas that would require firearms dealers to run background checks on buyers at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores. The decision by U.S. ...
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Election deniers moving closer to GOP mainstream, report shows, as Trump allies fill CongressWASHINGTON (AP) — In the hours after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Ohio’s then-Republican senator, Rob Portman, voted to accept President Joe Biden’s win over the defeated former president, Donald Trump, despite Trump’s false allegations that Biden only won because of fraud...
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Tuesday's primaries include presidential races and the prosecutor in Trump's Georgia election caseThe presidential primaries that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have already clinched will move closer to their end Tuesday. Voters in two states, Kentucky and Oregon, will get their chance to weigh in, symbolic decisions that provide a few more delegates to the national conventions and a gut check on where the Democratic and Republican bases stand toward their standard-bearers...
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Biden tells Morehouse graduates scenes in Gaza from Israel-Hamas war break his heart, too (5/20/24)ATLANTA -- President Joe Biden on Sunday offered his most direct recognition of U.S. students' anguish over the Israel-Hamas war, telling graduates of historically Black Morehouse College that he heard their voices of protest and that scenes from the conflict in Gaza break his heart, too...
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Power restored to most affected by deadly Houston storm, with rest by Wednesday (5/20/24)HOUSTON -- Houston area residents affected by deadly storms last week received some good news as officials said power had been restored Sunday to a majority of the hundreds of thousands who had been left in the dark and without air conditioning amid hot and humid weather...
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Helicopter carrying Iran's hard-line president apparently crashes in foggy, mountainous region (5/20/24)DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray...
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Airstrike kills 27 in central Gaza, fighting rages as Israel's leaders increasingly divided (5/20/24)DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli airstrike killed 27 people in central Gaza, mostly women and children, and fighting with Hamas raged across the north on Sunday as Israel's leaders aired divisions over who should govern Gaza after the war, now in its eighth month...
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US national security adviser, Saudi Arabia's crown prince meet to discuss 'semi-final' security deal (5/20/24)DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- President Joe Biden's national security adviser met early Sunday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss what the kingdom described as the "semi-final" version of a wide-ranging security agreement between the countries...
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Bike shops boomed early in pandemic. It’s been bumpy ride for most ever since (5/20/24)For the nation’s bicycle shops, the past few years have probably felt like the business version of the Tour de France, with numerous twists and turns testing their endurance. Early in the pandemic, a surge of interest in cycling pushed sales up 64% to $5.4 billion in 2020, according to the retail tracking service Circana. It wasn’t unheard of for some shops to sell 100 bikes or more in a couple of days. ...
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Former OpenAI leader says safety has ‘taken a backseat to shiny products’ at AI company (5/20/24)A former OpenAI leader who resigned from the company last week said Friday that safety has “taken a backseat to shiny products” at the influential artificial intelligence company. Jan Leike, who ran OpenAI’s “Superalignment” team alongside a company co-founder who also resigned last week, wrote in a series of posts on the social media platform X that he joined the San Francisco-based company because he thought it would be the best place to do AI research. ...
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NerdWallet: What to do about debt in retirement (5/20/24)A growing number of older adults are in debt in retirement, according to the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances from the Federal Reserve. Among people ages 65 to 74, the share with debt rose to 65% in 2022, up from 50% in 1989 (the first time this question was asked). ...
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House to vote on requiring delivery of bombs to Israel in GOP-led rebuke of Biden policies (5/16/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — The House was set Thursday to deliver a rebuke to President Joe Biden for pausing a shipment of bombs to Israel, voting on legislation that would seek to force the weapons transfer as Republicans worked to highlight Democratic divisions over the Israel-Hamas war...
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On the eve of his visit to China, Putin says Russia is prepared to negotiate over Ukraine (5/15/24)BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says his regime is prepared to negotiate over the conflict in Ukraine in an interview with Chinese media on the eve of visit to partner Beijing that has backed Moscow in its full-scale invasion of its neighbor...
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Slovakia's prime minister injured in shooting (5/15/24)BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Media reports say Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was injured in a shooting and taken to hospital. The incident took place in the town of Handlova, some 150 kilometers northeast of the capital, according to the news television station TA3. A suspect has been detained, it said...
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Biden proposes 2 Trump debates but won’t participate in nonpartisan commission's debates (5/15/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday on social media that he won’t participate in the campaign debates sponsored by a nonpartisan commission, instead challenging Republican Donald Trump to a pair of debates. “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020,” Biden posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal.”...
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US inflation eased last month in the first slowdown of 2024 (5/15/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer inflation in the United States cooled slightly last month after three elevated readings, likely offering a tentative sigh of relief for officials at the Federal Reserve as well as President Joe Biden’s re-election team. Prices rose 0.3% from March to April, the Labor Department said Wednesday, down slightly from 0.4% the previous month. ...
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Senators urge $32 billion in emergency spending on AI after finishing yearlong review (5/15/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of four senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is recommending that Congress spend at least $32 billion over the next three years to develop artificial intelligence and place safeguards around it, writing in a new report released Wednesday that the U.S. needs to “harness the opportunities and address the risks” of the quickly developing technology...
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Check stubs, fake receipts and blind loyalty: Cohen offers insider knowledge in hush money trial (5/14/24)NEW YORK (AP) — It wasn't until after a decade in the fold, after his family pleaded with him, after the FBI raided his office, apartment and hotel room, Michael Cohen testified Tuesday, that he finally decided to turn on Donald Trump. That decision led to a 2018 guilty plea to federal charges involving a payment to the porn actor Stormy Daniels to bury her story of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump and to other, unrelated crimes. ...
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Blinken in Kyiv says US arms will make a difference as Ukraine reels from a new Russian offensive (5/14/24)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought Tuesday to rally the spirits of glum Ukrainians facing a fierce new Russian offensive, assuring them that they are not alone and that billions of dollars in American military aid on its way to the country would make a “real difference” on the battlefield...
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Russian assault opens new front, diverting Ukraine forces as Western aid trickles in (5/13/24)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops were locked in intense battles with Ukrainian soldiers around the embattled town of Vovchansk in northeast Ukraine on Monday, pushing ahead with a ground offensive that opened a new front and put more pressure on overstretched Ukrainian forces...
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Misery deepens in Gaza's Rafah as Israeli troops press operation (5/13/24)RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Aid workers struggled Monday to distribute dwindling food and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by what Israel says is a limited military operation in Rafah, as the two main crossings near the southern Gaza city remained closed...
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'Make sure it doesn't get released'; star witness Michael Cohen implicates Trump in hush money case (5/13/24)NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe, Michael Cohen, directly implicated the former president in a hush money scheme Monday, telling jurors that his celebrity client approved hefty payouts to stifle stories about sex that he feared could be harmful to his 2016 White House campaign...
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Report: Trump may face a $100 million-plus tax bill if he loses IRS audit fight over Chicago tower (5/13/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump may face an IRS bill in excess of $100 million after a government audit indicates he double-dipped on tax losses tied to a Chicago skyscraper, according to a report by The New York Times and ProPublica that drew on a yearslong audit and public filings...
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Solar storm hits Earth, producing colorful light shows across Northern Hemisphere (5/12/24)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An unusually strong solar storm hitting Earth produced stunning displays of color in the skies across the Northern Hemisphere, with no immediate reports of disruptions to power and communications. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning when a solar outburst reached Earth on Friday afternoon, hours sooner than anticipated. ...
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Russia says it has captured 5 villages in northeast Ukraine as more than 1,700 civilians flee (5/12/24)VOVCHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian Defense Ministry says Moscow's forces have captured five villages in a renewed ground assault in northeastern Ukraine. Associated Press journalists in the city of Vovchansk described multiple buildings destroyed after Russian airstrikes and barrages of Grad rockets. ...
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Israel moves deeper into Rafah and fights Hamas militants regrouping in northern Gaza (5/12/24)RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces are battling Palestinian militants across Gaza, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it cleared months ago. Neighboring Egypt has issued its strongest objection yet to Israel's growing offensive on the southern city of Rafah, saying it intends to formally join South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. ...
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US aims to stay ahead of China in using AI to fly fighter jets, navigate without GPS and more (5/12/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — When two U.S. fighter jets recently faced off in a dogfight in California, only one was piloted by a human. The other was flown by AI, in a display of how far the U.S. military has come in its use of artificial intelligence. But it's only a hint of the technology on the horizon. ...
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America's debt tops $34 trillion, but a commission to address it appears dead in Congress (5/12/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — A promising start has given way to challenging political realities for supporters of a bipartisan commission to tackle the federal government's growing debt challenges. House Speaker Mike Johnson lauded the idea of establishing such a commission on his first day in office. ...
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Trump tells Jersey Shore crowd he's being forced to endure 'Biden show trial' in hush money case (5/12/24)WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — Donald Trump is blaming President Joe Biden for the criminal charges he's facing as the presumptive nominees prepare to face off in the November election and called his New York hush money case "a Biden show trial." Blasting the Democratic president as "a total moron" and "a fool," Trump told a crowd of tens of thousands on the Jersey Shore that the cases against him were politically motivated and timed to harm his ability to campaign. ...
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UN assembly approves resolution granting Palestine new rights and reviving its UN membership bid (5/10/24)UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine's request to become the 194th member of the United Nations...
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Judge directs Michael Cohen to keep quiet about Trump ahead of his hush money trial testimony (5/10/24)NEW YORK (AP) — With Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen expected to take the witness stand Monday, the judge in the former president’s hush money case issued prosecutors a stern warning: Get Cohen to stop his taunting posts and jabs at Trump...
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US says Israel’s use of US arms likely violated international law, but evidence is incomplete (5/10/24)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Friday that Israel's use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but wartime conditions prevented U.S. officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes...
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US says Rafah offensive would jeopardize cease-fire talks as Biden threatens to halt more Israel aid (5/10/24)WASHINGTON -- The United States warned on Thursday that Israel will be dealing a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out plans for an all-out assault on Rafah, the militants' last major stronghold in Gaza. The warning was backed by a new threat from President Joe Biden: He says he will pause more offensive military assistance to Israel if it goes through with the operation in a city where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering...
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Netanyahu on US threat to withhold arms: Israel will fight with its 'fingernails' if needed (5/10/24)JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a U.S. threat to withhold some arms would not prevent Israel from continuing its offensive in Gaza, indicating it might proceed with an invasion of the packed city of Rafah against the wishes of its closest ally...
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Stormy Daniels delivers shocking testimony about Trump, but trial hinges on business records (5/10/24)NEW YORK -- Donald Trump's defense attorney on Thursday accused Stormy Daniels of slowly altering the details of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, trying to convince jurors that a key prosecution witness in the former president's hush money criminal trial cannot be believed...
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The Biden-Netanyahu relationship is strained like never before. Can the two leaders move forward? (5/10/24)WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have long managed a complicated relationship, but they're running out of space to maneuver as their views on the Gaza war diverge and their political futures hang in the balance...
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Failure to oust Speaker 'MAGA Mike' Johnson shows strength and weakness of his alliance with Trump (5/10/24)WASHINGTON -- It was Donald Trump who bestowed the "MAGA Mike Johnson" nickname on the House speaker the day he won the gavel. It is the Republican speaker himself who is proving whether it sticks. Johnson survived an ouster vote this week by one of Trump's biggest supporters in Congress, far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, his job secured only after House Democrats turned out in force to put an end to the GOP chaos, for now...
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Biden administration will seek partial end to special court oversight of child migrants (5/10/24)SAN DIEGO -- The Biden administration will seek to partially end the 27-year-old court supervision of how the federal government cares for child migrants traveling alone, shortly after producing its own list of safeguards against mistreatment, an attorney involved in the case says...
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Senate passes bill improving air safety and service for travelers, a day before FAA law expires (5/10/24)WASHINGTON -- The Senate has passed a $105 billion bill designed to improve safety and customer service for air travelers, a day before the law governing the Federal Aviation Administration expires. The bipartisan bill, which comes after a series of close calls between planes at the nation's airports, aims to boost the number of air traffic controllers amid a shortage, improve safety standards and make it easier for customers to get refunds after flights are delayed or canceled, among other measures.. ...
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Body camera video shows fatal shooting of Black airman by Florida deputy in apartment doorway (5/10/24)FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida sheriff released body camera video Thursday showing a deputy outside an apartment door and firing immediately when it was opened by a Black man carrying a handgun pointed downward, a killing the family denounced as "unjustifiable."...
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Russia celebrates victory in World War II as Putin accuses the West of fueling global conflicts (5/10/24)MOSCOW -- Russia on Thursday wrapped itself in patriotic pageantry for Victory Day, as President Vladimir Putin celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II by hailing his forces fighting in Ukraine and blasting the West for fueling conflicts around the world...
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TikTok to start labeling AI-generated content as technology becomes more universal (5/10/24)TikTok will begin labeling content created using artificial intelligence when it's been uploaded from outside its own platform in an attempt to combat misinformation. "AI enables incredible creative opportunities, but can confuse or mislead viewers if they don't know content was AI-generated," the company said in a prepared statement Thursday. ...
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Storm-battered South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life (5/10/24)COLUMBIA, Tenn. -- Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street...
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2 skiers killed after being caught in Utah avalanche following late spring snowstorms, sheriff says (5/10/24)SANDY, Utah -- Two backcountry skiers were killed and one was rescued after they were swept up and buried in an avalanche Thursday in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City that occurred after several days of spring snowstorms, authorities said. A rescue team went to the area mid-morning after the avalanche was reported near Lone Peak in the Wasatch Range southeast of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said. ...