Associated Press

Associated Press

Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump administration restrictions on transgender Americans. The sweeping proposals — the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of […]
9 months ago

Judge says he’ll rule in May on Luigi Mangione’s fight to exclude evidence from NY murder trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione’s pretrial hearing wrapped up Thursday with a judge saying he plans to rule in May on what evidence prosecutors will be able to use in his New York trial for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Prosecutors rested their case after calling nearly 20 witnesses over three weeks, […]
9 months ago

Rural schools hit by Trump’s grant cuts have few options for making up for the lost money

SHELBYVILLE, Ky. (AP) — When the funding for Shannon Johnson’s job as a school mental health counselor came to an abrupt end, two years into a five-year grant, she thought about the work left to be done. Johnson taught elementary and middle-school students in rural Kentucky how to navigate conflict, build resilience and manage stress […]
9 months ago

US consumer prices decelerated unexpectedly in November, rising 2.7% from a year earlier

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation decelerated unexpectedly last month, the government said in a report that was delayed by the government shutdown. The Labor Department reported Thursday that its consumer price index was up 2.7% in November from a year earlier. The report was delayed eight days by the federal government’s 43-day shutdown, which also […]
9 months ago

Bit by bit, small US groups chip away at historic levels of social isolation

Across the country, small groups are working to rebuild social connection amid rising loneliness in their own modest ways. It sounds simple — building relationships. But they’re up against powerful cultural forces. By many measures, Americans are socially disconnected at historic levels. They’re joining civic groups, clubs and unions at lower rates than in generations. […]
9 months ago

Israel launches intense airstrikes in Lebanon as deadline looms to disarm Hezbollah

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on southern and northeastern Lebanon on Thursday as a deadline looms to disarm the militant Hezbollah group along the countries’ tense frontier. The strikes came a day before a meeting of the committee monitoring the enforcement of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest war […]
9 months ago

Asian shares follow Wall Street lower as AI worries drag tech stocks lower

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares slipped further on Thursday after declines for AI stocks dragged the U.S. market to its worst day in nearly a month. Traders are waiting for an update on U.S. inflation, and on a decision Friday by Japan’s central bank on interest rates. The Bank of Japan is expected to raise […]
9 months ago

Turning Point youth conference begins in Phoenix without founder Charlie Kirk

PHOENIX (AP) — Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization that Charlie Kirk turned into a political juggernaut, will convene its flagship conference on Thursday for the first time since the assassination of its charismatic founder, testing the durability of a fractious movement that helped return President Donald Trump to the White House. Kirk served […]
9 months ago

Key findings of an AP analysis examining federal prosecutions of protesters

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has launched a months-long effort to prosecute people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployments. Attorney General Pam Bondi has vowed such offenders will face “severe consequences.” In a review of scores of criminal prosecutions brought by federal prosecutors, […]
9 months ago

Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan on trial for helping immigrant does not testify

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Wisconsin judge accused of helping a Mexican immigrant evade federal authorities did not take the stand Thursday after her attorneys presented less than an hour’s worth of witnesses in her defense as she faces obstruction and concealment charges. The case against Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was expected to head […]
9 months ago

DOJ vowed to punish those who disrupt Trump’s immigration crackdown. Dozens of cases have crumbled

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal agent described her wounds as “boo-boos.” Nevertheless, the Justice Department aggressively pursued the alleged perpetrator. They jailed Sidney Lori Reid on a charge of felony assault, accusing her of injuring the agent during a July protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Washington, D.C. When grand jurors thrice declined […]
9 months ago

Florida man set to be executed for killing 2 during a home invasion

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting a man and woman during home invasion robbery and later confessing to three other killings is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening. Frank Athen Walls, 58, is set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Walls was […]
9 months ago

Brian Walshe to be sentenced after being convicted of killing of his wife

BOSTON (AP) — Brian Walshe is expected to be sentenced Thursday in the grisly killing of his wife, whom he was found guilty of murdering. Ana Walshe, a real estate agent who immigrated from Serbia, was last seen early Jan. 1, 2023, after a New Year’s Eve dinner at the couple’s home. Two days after […]
9 months ago

Belgium demands ironclad guarantees of protection as EU leaders weigh a massive loan for Ukraine

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium insisted on Thursday that its European Union partners must provide ironclad guarantees that it will be protected from Russian retaliation before it would back a massive loan for Ukraine. At a high-stakes EU summit in Brussels, the 27-nation bloc’s leaders are set to decide on whether to use tens of billions […]
9 months ago

FACT FOCUS: Trump’s glowing account of progress is at odds with his government’s own stats

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s glowing account of progress under his watch Wednesday was out of tune with the experience of price-squeezed Americans and the story told by some of his government’s own statistics. In a speech from the White House, Trump assailed the record of his Democratic predecessor and boasted expansively about his […]
9 months ago

US announces massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion, including medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, a move that is sure to infuriate China. The State Department announced the sales late Wednesday during a nationally televised address by President Donald Trump, who made […]
9 months ago

Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Peter Arnett, who reported from Vietnam and Gulf War, has died

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war from the rice paddies of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, has died at 91. Arnett, who won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage […]
9 months ago

Neighborhood cameras capture potential shooter’s route around Brown University

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The shooting at Brown University on Saturday happened inside an engineering building at the eastern edge of campus, where the Ivy League school blends into a residential neighborhood. Hours before the attack, security camera footage captured a person of interest police say may have been “casing” a quiet and affluent corner […]
9 months ago

Senator pauses Coast Guard nomination over policy on swastikas, nooses and other hate symbols

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. senator said Wednesday that she is pausing the nomination for the top Coast Guard job because leaders appeared to have “backtracked” on a commitment to ensure that swastikas and nooses are considered hate symbols and prohibited from being displayed. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said Adm. Kevin Lunday’s nomination for Coast […]
9 months ago

US government admits negligence in helicopter-plane collision that killed 67 in Washington

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government admitted Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army played a role in causing the collision last January between an airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation’s capital, killing 67 people. The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ families said that […]
9 months ago

Court blocks Michigan ban on conversion therapy on free speech grounds

DETROIT (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked Michigan’s ban on conversion therapy for minors who are LGBTQ+, declaring it violates the First Amendment rights of therapists and counselors. In a 2-1 opinion, the court said the law illegally restricts speech that reflects the moral beliefs of therapists. It set aside a lower […]
9 months ago

FAA investigating after small plane crashes into New Hampshire condominiums

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A pilot was taken to the hospital with injuries Wednesday after a small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in southern New Hampshire, authorities said. Emergency crews found the aircraft upside down in a snow bank in the parking lot of a wooded condominium complex in Nashua Wednesday afternoon. Police said […]
9 months ago

Trump demands Venezuela pay for seized US oil assets after calling for ‘blockade’

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a “blockade” against oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country that face American sanctions. Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his […]
9 months ago

China sues after Missouri seeks to collect on $25 billion court judgement, prosecutor says

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s top prosecutor said China is suing after the state pressed federal officials for help collecting on a roughly $25 billion court judgment related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said Tuesday in a news release that China is demanding a public apology from the state in a […]
9 months ago