WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday offered a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice to lead the Defense Department, whose confirmation by the Senate is in doubt as he faces questions over allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat. Hegseth, a former Fox […]

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Democrats are pushing this month to pass legislation they say will improve reproductive health care, in particular the safety of digital health data, ahead of Republicans taking over the state House in 2025. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is backing a bill designed to protect reproductive health data including data logged […]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A United Nations watchdog has been selected to lead an external probe into allegations of sexual misconduct against the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, The Associated Press learned Tuesday. The move will likely generate conflict of interest concerns owing to the prosecutor’s wife’s past work for the oversight […]

It is an ambitious social experiment of our moment in history — one that experts say could accomplish something that parents, schools and other governments have attempted with varying degrees of success: keeping kids off social media until they turn 16. Australia’s new law, approved by its Parliament last week, is an attempt to swim […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities on Tuesday urged telecommunication companies to boost network security following a sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. The guidance issued by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is intended to help […]

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials on Tuesday sued the Biden administration for access to information on the citizenship status of more than 2,000 registered voters they had questioned in the weeks leading up to the 2024 election. The complaint details a back and forth with the federal government after state election officials checked […]

MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was reelected as secretary-general of his Socialist Party over the weekend despite corruption probes besetting his inner circle. One of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, Sánchez has displayed adroit negotiating skills to stay in power since 2018, when he led Spain’s only successful no-confidence motion against his conservative predecessor. […]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Republicans filed a lawsuit Monday to try to force a rerun of a state House race where the incumbent Democrat won by 14 votes — but in which investigators concluded that election workers probably destroyed 20 valid absentee ballots after failing to count them. It’s a race that could determine the […]

Antitrust enforcers with the Federal Trade Commission have opened a wide-ranging investigation into Microsoft’s business practices, starting a big legal project that an incoming Trump administration must take up or abandon. The FTC is investigating Microsoft’s cloud computing business and related product lines such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, according to a person who was […]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The outgoing head of Ohio’s troubled teachers retirement system said that she is leaving the fund in strong fiscal condition, despite the turmoil at the top that her successor will inherit. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Acting Executive Director and CFO Lynn Hoover said that the $94 billion […]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Senate has voted to eliminate seven independent regulatory and oversight agencies, a move that critics warn will cement the ruling party’s power and avoid outside scrutiny. President Claudia Sheinbaum calls it a money-saving measure, arguing that the government can more efficiently handle functions like freedom of information requests, anti-monopoly enforcement […]

President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting […]