CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey vowed Wednesday that his administration will improve transparency and policies within the state’s embattled foster care system. Morrisey, a Republican, announced the changes after eight listening sessions statewide to identify areas of improvement and a review of critical cases. Morrisey said he heard attendees at one […]

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian army whistleblower David McBride, who leaked allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan to the media, lost a court bid to have his prison sentence reduced on Wednesday. The three Australian Capital Territory Court of Appeal judges unanimously rejected the 61-year-old former army lawyer’s appeal against the severity of a […]

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A man says he was tortured for weeks in a New York townhouse. Another in Paris was held for ransom and his finger cut off. A couple in Connecticut were carjacked, beaten and thrown into a van. All, authorities allege, were victims tied to cryptocurrency-related crimes that have spilled out from […]

LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators said Tuesday they’re investigating four major porn websites over suspicions that they’ve breached the bloc’s online content rules that include provisions for protecting children from pornographic material. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said it has opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos under the 27-nation […]

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The only time the Palestinian man wasn’t bound or blindfolded, he said, was when he was used by Israeli soldiers as their human shield. Dressed in army fatigues with a camera fixed to his forehead, Ayman Abu Hamadan was forced into houses in the Gaza Strip to make sure they […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts agreed Friday to temporarily pause orders that would require Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency to publicly disclose information about its operations. The order came after the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed against DOGE by a government watchdog group. Citizens for […]

Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture […]

The Republican-controlled Federal Trade Commission voted Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit against PepsiCo that the previous commission filed in the waning days of the Biden administration. The lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that PepsiCo was giving unfair price advantages to Walmart at the expense of other vendors and consumers. The lawsuit had relied on the […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to the chaotic African nation of South Sudan, a federal judge said Wednesday, hours after the Trump administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes but refused to reveal where they would end […]

The U.S. government is collecting data on health-care workers providing gender-affirming care in Canada. In mid-April the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a “snitch line” website where anyone could report health-care workers in Canada or the United States performing “chemical and surgical mutilations of children,” which is how the current administration describes […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s firing of two Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The ruling Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ends the lawsuit brought by two of the three fired board members in February. The five-member board is an independent watchdog […]

LONDON (AP) — British retailer Marks & Spencer estimated Wednesday that a cyberattack that stopped it from processing online orders and left store shelves empty will cost it about 300 million pounds ($400 million). The company said in a business update that disruption from the “highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack,” which was first reported […]