Associated Press

Judge issues gag order barring Donald Trump from commenting on witnesses, others in hush money case

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge Tuesday issued a gag order barring Donald Trump from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial, citing the former president’s history of “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” remarks about people involved in his legal cases. Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision, echoing […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

US imposes more Iran sanctions and hits Syrian regime with penalties for drug trafficking

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a money exchanger and a group of firms across six countries involved in commodity shipments and business transactions that benefit Iran’s military and the Houthi militant group in Yemen and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

How the criminal case against Texas AG Ken Paxton abruptly ended after nearly a decade of delays

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The criminal case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on securities fraud charges has ended after nine years — a span during which the Republican was reelected twice, impeached and acquitted, and emerged more politically powerful than ever. He will stay in office and must pay nearly $300,000 in restitution under […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

With its soldiers mired in Gaza, Israel fights a battle at home over drafting the ultra-Orthodox

JERUSALEM (AP) — As Israel battles a prolonged war in Gaza, broad exemptions from mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox men have reopened a deep divide in the country and rattled the government coalition, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fellow War Cabinet members staunchly opposed to his proposed new conscription law. By the end of the […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

The Latest | Authorities identify the two bodies recovered at site of bridge collapse

The Latest on the ship crash that collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore (all times local): Authorities have released the identities of the two people recovered from the water Wednesday morning at the site of the Baltimore bridge collapse. Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Roland L. Butler said 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes and […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

US and Cyprus will sign a deal to fight money laundering and evasion of Russian sanctions

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The United States and Cyprus said Tuesday they’re formalizing their collaboration in fighting money laundering, sanctions evasion and other financial crimes with an agreement offering Cypriot law enforcement authorities U.S. expertise. The FBI and Cypriot police will sign an agreement in the coming days that includes the U.S. Department of Justice […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

Russia persists in blaming Ukraine for concert attack despite its denial and Islamic State’s claim

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials persisted Tuesday in saying Ukraine and the West had a role in last week’s deadly Moscow concert hall attack despite vehement denials of involvement by Kyiv and a claim of responsibility by an affiliate of the Islamic State group. Without offering any evidence, Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

China to challenge Biden’s electric vehicle plans at the WTO

BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday that it has filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization over US subsidies for electric vehicles. The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Tuesday it has resorted to the WTO dispute settlement process to protest American requirements that vehicles use parts from specific regions to qualify for subsidies. A statement […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

Russia extends arrest of US reporter Evan Gershkovich. He has already spent nearly a year in jail

MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to remain in jail on espionage charges until at least late June, court officials said. The 32-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent nearly a year behind bars. His arrest […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

Biden and Harris argue that Democrats will preserve health care and Republicans would take it away

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday promoted their health care agenda in the battleground state of North Carolina, arguing that Democrats like themselves would preserve access to care while Republicans would reverse gains made over the past decade and a half. Fourteen years after President Barack Obama […]
23 days ago
Associated Press

Supreme Court seems likely to preserve access to the abortion medication mifepristone

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed likely to preserve access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion case since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. In nearly 90 minutes of arguments, a consensus appeared […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Maryland panel OKs nomination of elections board member

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland Senate panel voted Monday night to support a Republican nominee to the state elections board to replace a previous board member who resigned this year when he was charged with participating in the January 2021 rioting at the U.S. Capitol. The vote by the Senate Executive Nominations Committee sends […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

High school teacher and students sue over Arkansas’ ban on critical race theory

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A high school teacher and two students sued Arkansas on Monday over the state’s ban on critical race theory and “indoctrination” in public schools, asking a federal judge to strike down the restrictions as unconstitutional. The lawsuit by the teacher and students from Little Rock Central High School, site of […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Feds search Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ properties as part of sex trafficking probe, AP sources say

NEW YORK (AP) — Two properties belonging to music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs in Los Angeles and Miami were searched Monday by federal Homeland Security Investigations agents and other law enforcement as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. It’s not […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Editorial Roundup: United States

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: March 23 The Washington Post on SCOTUS and abortion The Supreme Court declared nearly two years ago, when it overruled Roe v. Wade, that the rules on abortion were now up to the states — but as the justices hear a critical case this week […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Colorado university hires 2 former U.S. attorneys to review shooting, recommend any changes

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado university where a student is charged with killing his suitemate and another person in a dorm room last month has hired two former U.S. attorneys to review what led to the shooting and recommend whether any campus policies and procedures should be changed. John Suthers, who most recently served as […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Aluminum company says preferred site for new smelter is a region of Kentucky hit hard by job losses

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — An aluminum company has singled out northeastern Kentucky as its preferred site for a new aluminum smelter that would bring about 1,000 permanent jobs to an Appalachian region hard hit by the loss of coal and steel production, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. Plans by Century Aluminum Co. to build a […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Indonesia’s military arrests 13 elite soldiers who are accused of involvement in a torture video

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s military said Monday it has arrested 13 elite troops accused of involvement in a video showing the torture of an indigenous Papua man believed to be a member of a separatist group. The video that emerged in recent days on social media shows men who appear to be soldiers kicking, […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Florida’s DeSantis signs one of the country’s most restrictive social media bans for minors

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will have one of the country’s most restrictive social media bans for minors — if it withstands expected legal challenges — under a bill signed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday. The bill will ban social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for 15- […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Putin says the gunmen who carried out deadly concert attack were Islamic extremists

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the gunmen who carried out the concert hall attack that killed over 130 people in a Moscow suburb last week were “radical Islamists.” Speaking in a meeting with government officials, Putin said the killings were carried out by extremists “whose ideology the Islamic world has been fighting for […]
24 days ago
Associated Press

Trump’s New York hush money case is set for trial April 15

NEW YORK (AP) — The first of Donald Trump’s four criminal trials will begin April 15, a Manhattan judge ruled Monday after tearing into the former president’s lawyers for what he said were unfounded claims that the hush-money case had been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct. Judge Juan M. Merchan scoffed at the defense’s calls to […]
25 days ago
Associated Press

North Korea says Japan’s prime minister proposed summit with leader Kim Jong Un

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has proposed a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, made the comments in a state media dispatch Monday. Kim Yo Jong said that Kishida used an unspecified channel to convey his position […]
25 days ago
Associated Press

Linda Bean, an entrepreneur, GOP activist and granddaughter of outdoor retailer LL Bean, has died

Linda L. Bean, a granddaughter of famed outdoor retailer L.L. Bean who became an entrepreneur, philanthropist and conservative activist, has died at age 82. Bean died Saturday, her business manager, Veronika Carlson, confirmed in a written statement Sunday. No cause was given. “Linda was known for her amazing work ethic, entrepreneurial spirit as well as […]
25 days ago
Associated Press

Former GOP Virginia lawmaker, Matt Fariss arrested again; faces felony gun and drug charges

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A former Virginia lawmaker was arrested over the weekend on felony gun and drug charges and a misdemeanor charge of violating a protective order, according to a sheriff’s office official and jail records. Matt Fariss, who had served in the House of Delegates as a Republican since 2012 before running unsuccessfully […]
25 days ago