Associated Press stories, Page 2118
Baseless Wayfair child-trafficking theory spreads online
CHICAGO — The baseless conspiracy theory took off after an anonymous user posed a bizarre question in an internet chatroom: What if retail giant Wayfair is using pricey storage cabinets to traffic children? Self-proclaimed internet sleuths quickly responded by matching up the names of Wayfair products to those of missing...
EU court cancels U.S. data-sharing pact over snooping concerns
The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies — from tech giants to small financial firms — to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people’s data. The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will likely...
U.S. counts 342 child inflammatory syndrome cases
ATLANTA — An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the most recent count shows 342 U.S. children and teens have developed a serious inflammatory condition linked to covid-19 infections. Dr. Ermias Belay presented the data Thursday during a CDC online call for physicians. Belay says that...
NCAA: Test all athletes for covid-19 within 72 hours of game
The NCAA says college football players should be tested for covid-19 at least 72 hours before a game, players with high-risk exposures to the coronavirus should be quarantined for 14 days and everybody on the sideline should wear a mask. The nation’s largest governing body for college sports on Thursday...
Columbus statue to remain on Ohio Statehouse grounds for at least 5 more years
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A statue of Christopher Columbus will not be removed from in front of the Ohio Statehouse until at least 2025, officials said Thursday. The 9-foot-tall, copper statue of Columbus will remain erected in front of the Statehouse in the largest city that bears the explorer’s name until...
U.K., U.S., Canada accuse Russia of hacking coronavirus vaccine trialsVideo
LONDON — Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russian hackers on Thursday of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a coronavirus vaccine, warning scientists and pharmaceutical companies to be alert for suspicious activity. Intelligence agencies in the three nations alleged that the hacking group APT29, also known as...
Experts say Twitter breach troubling, undermines trust
HONG KONG — A breach in Twitter’s security that allowed hackers to break into the accounts of leaders and technology moguls is one of the worst attacks in recent years and may shake trust in a platform politicians and CEOs use to communicate with the public, experts said Thursday. The...
USA Today: Peter Navarro’s anti-Fauci column didn’t meet standards
NEW YORK — USA Today says that a column that the newspaper solicited and published from presidential trade adviser Peter Navarro criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci was misleading and did not meet fact-checking standards. The newspaper explained the decision in a note by Bill Sternberg, editorial page editor, attached to the...
Trump’s grand GOP convention plans shrink as virus surgesVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s plans for a grand convention keep shrinking. The Republican National Committee announced Thursday that it is sharply restricting attendance on three of the four nights of its convention in Jacksonville, Fla., next month. As the GOP looks for ways to move forward while coronavirus cases...
College hoops coaches move to eliminate standardized testing
DES MOINES, Iowa — Men’s and women’s college basketball coaches are proposing the NCAA eliminate standardized testing requirements from initial-eligibility standards, calling exams such as the SAT and ACT “longstanding forces of institutional racism.” The proposal Thursday came out of the new committee on racial reconciliation formed by the National...
AAC lays out covid-19 test plan ahead of NCAA announcementVideo
The American Athletic Conference will require all its schools to test football players for covid-19 at least 72 hours before competition. The announcement Thursday by the American comes ahead of the expected release of recommendations from the NCAA and the Power Five conferences for testing before games and other protocols...
Brazil nears 2 million coronavirus cases, with 75,000 dead
SAO PAULO — A thousand deaths a day. Since late May, three months after Brazil’s first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward. The country hit at least 75,000 confirmed deaths Wednesday...
Mosquitoes flying free as health departments focus on coronavirus
Bug spray, swollen welts, citronella. It’s mosquito season. And in a normal year, the health department serving Ohio’s Delaware County would be setting out more than 90 mosquito traps a week — black tubs of stagnant water with nets designed to ensnare the little buggers. But this year, because of...
Iowa drug kingpin who killed 5 people in 1993 to be executed
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A ruthless Iowa meth kingpin who killed five people, including two young girls, in 1993 to thwart his prosecution for drug trafficking is set to become the third federal inmate to be executed this week. Dustin Honken, 52, would become the first Iowa defendant to be...
NCAA approves bowl eligibility adjustment for FCS victories
Major college football teams will be permitted to count two victories against second-tier Division I teams toward bowl eligibility this season. The NCAA Division I Council’s blanket waiver loosens current rules that allow Football Bowl Subdivision teams to count only one victory against Football Championship Subdivision schools toward bowl eligibility....
Liked ‘Hamilton’? New documentary shows where it came fromVideo
You’ve probably seen or heard the highly scripted side of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Now get to know the unscripted one. The playwright, actor and songwriter this month follows up the streaming live capture of his triumphant Broadway musical “Hamilton” with a documentary on Hulu showing his impressive hip-hop improv skills in...
Mary Trump book already nearing 1 million sales
Mary L. Trump’s scathing memoir about her uncle, President Donald Trump, is nearly a million seller on preorders alone. Simon & Schuster said Thursday that Mary Trump’s “Too Much and Never Enough” had sold a company record 950,000 copies in combined print, digital and audio editions as of its date...
No servers, no tables: Israeli cafe is pandemic-friendly
TEL AVIV, Israel — As restaurants worldwide struggle to stay open in the coronavirus era, a new Tel Aviv noodle chain offers a pandemic-friendly approach: meals on the go with no human contact. Fast food cafeterias where customers ordered from vending machines, known as automats, once flourished in New York...
Diversity of LGBTQ characters in film declines, study finds
Last year saw record representation of LGBTQ characters in the 118 films released by major studios, according to a new study by GLAAD. But for the third straight year, the racial diversity of LGBTQ characters has waned and transgender characters again went unseen. GLAAD called the decrease in non-white LGBTQ...
Stocks open lower on Wall Street; Twitter sinks after hack
NEW YORK — Stocks opened broadly lower on Wall Street on Thursday, extending weakness in overseas markets. The S&P 500 index gave up 0.6% in the early going, led by losses in technology companies. Twitter sank after a breach in its security allowed hackers to break into the accounts of...
Clashes resume on volatile Armenian-Azerbaijani border
YEREVAN, Armenia — Clashes resumed between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on the South Caucasus nations’ shared border Thursday morning, with both sides blaming each other for attacks that continue the worst outbreak of hostilities in years. Armenia’s Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijani forces of trying to infiltrate the country. Ministry spokeswoman...
U.S. retail sales jump 7.5% in June, but economy still ails
BALTIMORE — U.S. retail sales climbed a solid 7.5% in June, a sign that the economy was healing right before infections from the coronavirus spiked again and dragged down hopes for a steady recovery. The Census Bureau reported Thursday that retail sales are 1.1% higher than their levels from a...
U.S. executes 2nd man in a week; lawyers said he had dementia
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed. Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre...
Nick Cannon apologizes to Jewish community for hurtful words
Nick Cannon apologized to the Jewish community late Wednesday for his “hurtful and divisive” words, a day after ViacomCBS severed ties with him for the remarks made on a podcast. The Anti-Defamation league and some Jewish leaders had condemned what they called anti-Semitic theories expressed by Cannon and demanded the...
Chase Elliott joins his father as winner of NASCAR’s All-Star race
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Cue the siren at the Dawsonville Pool Room — another Elliott is an All-Star winner. Chase Elliott joined his father, Hall of Famer “Awesome” Bill Elliott, as winner of NASCAR’s annual All-Star race, earning the $1 million prize Wednesday in front of limited spectators at Bristol Motor...
