International

International


Russia expels British diplomat after accusing him of spying

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Tuesday ordered a British diplomat to leave the country on allegations of spying that the U.K. dismissed as “baseless” as tensions soar over the conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s Federal Security Service, the top domestic security and counterintelligence agency, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that the […]

Read More


Police report reveals assault allegations against Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public late Wednesday. Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and […]

Read More


Texas Supreme Court overturns ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in lawsuit

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in a whistleblower lawsuit at the heart of impeachment charges brought against him in 2023. The court on Friday said Paxton’s office does not dispute any issue in the lawsuit by four former Paxton employees and agreed […]

Read More


Australia rejects Elon Musk’s claim that it plans to control access to the internet

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian Cabinet minister on Friday rejected X Corp. owner Elon Musk’s allegation that the government intended to control all Australians’ access to the internet through legislation that would ban young children from social media. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Musk’s criticism was “unsurprising” after the government introduced to Parliament on Thursday […]

Read More


Supreme Court allows multibillion-dollar class action to proceed against Meta

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. The justices heard arguments in November in Meta’s bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to […]

Read More


Mexico’s president says government is investigating reported ransomware hack of legal affairs office

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Wednesday that the government is investigating an alleged ransomware hack of her administration’s legal affairs office after what appeared to be samples of personal information from a database of government employees were posted online. The website Cybernews said a group called Ransomhub had posted a sample of apparently […]

Read More


EU lawmakers seal a deal to rubber-stamp one of the bloc’s most right-leaning executives

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Wednesday ended a week of bickering to rubber-stamp a new team of policy commissioners that will head one of the most rightward-leaning executive branches ever chosen in the bloc for the next five years. The main centrist pro-European political groups in the European Parliament set aside their political […]

Read More


Tech companies settle lawsuit alleging they overcharged the US Army

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two companies agreed to pay the U.S. government $2 million each to settle a lawsuit that alleged the businesses fraudulently inflated the price of computers and other hardware sold to the U.S. Army, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday. Both Iron Bow — a company that resells technology products to the […]

Read More


Judge tosses Huckabee lawsuit against Meta over ads suggesting he endorsed marijuana gummies

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A federal judge in Delaware on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee against social media giant Meta over advertisements using his name and image to sell CBD products. Huckabee, a Baptist minister and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, claimed Meta allowed […]

Read More


Ohio offers a new way to use public money for Christian schools. Opponents say it’s unconstitutional

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Around the country, advocates for Christian education have been finding legal ways to tap taxpayer money used more typically for public schools. One new approach in Ohio is benefiting schools tied to a burgeoning conservative political group and facing objections from defenders of the separation of church and state. In President-elect […]

Read More


Whistleblower sounds alarm about destruction of tribal sites in North Carolina

Spear points, hammer stones and picks lost to history under layers of leaves, roots and rocks — it was the evidence Scott Ashcraft was looking for. The ancient tools were inadvertently unearthed in 2021 by a bulldozer fighting a wildfire along a steep slope in western North Carolina. Ashcraft, a career U.S. Forest Service archaeologist, […]

Read More


AI could help scale humanitarian responses. But it could also have big downsides

NEW YORK (AP) — As the International Rescue Committee copes with dramatic increases in displaced people in recent years, the refugee aid organization has looked for efficiencies wherever it can — including using artificial intelligence. Since 2015, the IRC has invested in Signpost — a portfolio of mobile apps and social media channels that answer […]

Read More