Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 32, mostly women and children
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 people, including over a dozen women and children, local health officials said Sunday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to the United States to meet with President Donald Trump about the war. Israel last...
Former German president warns of far right at 80th anniversary of Buchenwald liberation
VIENNA — Germany marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp on Sunday with warnings against “radicalization and a worldwide shift to the right” The governor of the state of Thuringia, Mario Voigt, and former German President Christian Wulff spoke at a ceremony in the...
After nearly 2,000 hours in office, Trump’s W.Pa. supporters all-in for tariffs, tough talk
President Donald Trump revels in the populism and nationalist rhetoric that riles up his base. This was evident on Wednesday. “This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in America’s history. It’s our declaration of economic independence. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said as...
Phone footage appears to contradict Israel’s account in troops’ killing of 15 Palestinian medics
UNITED NATIONS — Phone video from one of 15 Palestinian medics killed by Israeli forces last month appears to contradict Israeli claims that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in southern Gaza. The footage shows the Red Crescent and Civil Defense...
Death toll in Russian missile strike in central Ukraine reaches 18
KYIV, Ukraine — The death toll from a Russian missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has risen to 18, including nine children, regional Governor Serhii Lysak said Saturday. A further 72 people were injured in Friday’s attack, the youngest a 3-month-old. About half of them remained...
Trump goes all in with bet that the heavy price of tariffs will pay off for Americans
WASHINGTON — Not even 24 hours after his party lost a key Wisconsin race and underperformed in Florida, President Donald Trump followed the playbook that has defined his political career: He doubled down. Trump’s move on Wednesday to place stiff new tariffs on imports from nearly all U.S. trading partners...
New study finds microplastics in chewing gum
Chewing gum fiends might want to think twice before popping in another piece of gum. A pilot study found that chewing gum can shed microplastics into saliva. Specifically, gum can release hundreds to thousands of microplastics per piece, which can potentially be ingested, according to the American Chemical Society. Microplastics...
IRS plans to cut up to 25% of staff, starting with closing its civil rights office, AP sources say
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The IRS plans to cut as many as 20,000 staffers — up to 25% of the workforce — as part of layoffs that began Friday, two people familiar with the situation told the Associated Press. The job cuts will begin with the IRS Office of...
Interior secretary orders national parks to be open and accessible as workforce is cut
Under criticism for staff cuts across the country, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is directing national parks to “remain open and accessible” and says officials will ensure proper staffing to do so. The order, issued late Thursday, also calls for a detailed review of each park’s operating hours, trail closures and...
‘Kind’ father, 2 sons fatally struck by Amtrak train in Bucks County
PHILADELPHIA — It was quiet at the Bristol SEPTA station the day after three family members were killed after being struck by an Amtrak train Thursday evening, with passengers calmly boarding cars heading toward Philadelphia and the Bucks County community mourning the deaths. There were no obvious signs of the...
Judge moves legal case of international student at Tufts University to Vermont
BOSTON — A federal judge in Boston on Friday moved the case of a detained Tufts University doctoral student to Vermont, where the Turkish national was briefly held before being moved to an immigration detention facility in Louisiana. Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was taken by immigration officials as she walked along...
Officials say Russian strike in central Ukraine kills 14 people, including 6 children
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian ballistic missile strike Friday on a central Ukrainian city killed at least 14 people, including six children, Ukrainian officials said, as U.S. and European leaders pressed Russia to accept a ceasefire in the conflict. At least 50 people were wounded in the strike on Kryvyi...
U.S. must return Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador prison, judge says
GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to arrange for the return of a Maryland man to the United States after he was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expelled Kilmar Abrego Garcia last month despite an immigration...
Nearly half of National Weather Service offices have 20% vacancy rates, and experts say it’s a risk
WASHINGTON — After Trump administration job cuts, nearly half of National Weather Service forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates — twice that of just a decade ago — as severe weather chugs across the nation’s heartland, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. Detailed vacancy data for all 122...
Markets plunge with S&P 500 down 6%, Dow down 2,200 as their worst crisis since covid deepens
NEW YORK — Wall Street’s worst crisis since covid slammed into a higher, scarier gear Friday. The S&P 500 lost 6% after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced earlier this week. The move increased the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession...
How tiny Lesotho ended up with the highest U.S. tariffs in the world
JOHANNESBURG — If you have ever bought a pair of jeans from an American brand like Levi’s or Wrangler, chances are they were manufactured at a factory in the small southern African nation of Lesotho. Textile manufacturing is one of Lesotho’s key industries, exporting some 75% of its output to...
Federal Reserve chief says Trump tariffs likely to raise inflation and slow U.S. economic growth
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Trump administration’s expansive new tariffs will likely lead to higher inflation and slower growth, and the Federal Reserve will focus on keeping price increases temporary, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday. Powell said that the tariffs, and their impacts on the economy and inflation, are “significantly...
Israeli strikes kill at least 17 in Gaza as ground troops enter Palestinian territory’s north
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza — Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in the Gaza Strip early Friday, as Israel sent more ground troops into the Palestinian territory to ramp up its offensive against Hamas. At least 17 people, some from the same family, were killed after an airstrike...
U.S. added a surprising 228K jobs in March as economy shows resilience in Trump trade wars
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a surprising 228,000 jobs last month, as the American labor market continues to show resilience as President Donald Trump wages trade wars, purges federal workers and deports immigrants working in the United States illegally. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%. The hiring numbers were...
South Koreans are still puzzling over why their leader declared martial law
SEOUL — Dancing and consoling hugs. Wild whoops and anguished screams. Tears, both of joy and rage. Reaction to the court verdict ousting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol from office Friday was a vivid window into the nation’s deep political divisions, as tens of thousands of Yoon opponents and...
A church in England opens its doors to pro wrestling in a bid to attract converts
SHIPLEY, England — Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears...
Danish leader tells U.S. ‘you cannot annex another country’ as she visits Greenland
NUUK, Greenland — Denmark’s prime minister has told the U.S. during a visit to Greenland that “you cannot annex another country,” even with the argument that international security is at stake. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said on Friday that Copenhagen “should focus on the fact that the...
Yoon Suk Yeol removed as South Korea’s president over short-lived martial law
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously removed Yoon Suk Yeol from office Friday, ending his tumultuous presidency and setting up a new election, four months after he threw the nation into turmoil with an ill-fated declaration of martial law. The verdict capped a dramatic fall for Yoon,...
Trump’s tariff push is a race against time, and potential voter backlash
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s expansive new tariffs reverse a decades-long global trend of lower trade barriers and are likely, economists say, to raise prices for Americans by thousands of dollars each year while sharply slowing the U.S. economy. The White House is gambling that other countries will also suffer...
Trump says things are ‘going very well’ after worst stock market drop in years over tariffs
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump offered a rosy assessment after the stock market dropped sharply Thursday over his tariffs, saying, “I think it’s going very well.” “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom,” he said when asked about the...