HAVANA (AP) — In barely a week, 25-year-old engineer Marcos Marzo went from riding his small electric motorcycle past the low buildings of Havana’s Vedado district to traveling the mega-highways of Florida, amazed by the towering high-rises and giant supermarkets.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland officials are preparing for as many as 80,000 residents who could no longer qualify for Medicaid coverage this spring, as the federal government reinstates a requirement that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic for states to verify the eligibility of recipients.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe imposed a ban Sunday on Russian diesel fuel and other refined oil products, slashing energy dependency on Moscow and seeking to further crimp the Kremlin's fossil fuel earnings as punishment for invading Ukraine.
CUSCO, Peru (AP) — Marco Gonzales ventured to the Andean city of Cusco from his home in the Peruvian Amazon in 2007 with little more than $20, a smidgeon of English and a change of clothes poorly suited for the icy mountain air.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kawhi Leonard scored 35 points, Paul George added 30 and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the New York Knicks 134-128 in overtime Saturday night.
After the Clippers lost a 17-point fourth quarter lead, Nicolas Batum’s 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer tied it at 115.
Results from 6-year-old Anastasia Weaver’s autopsy may take weeks. But online anti-vaccine activists needed only hours after her funeral this week to baselessly blame the COVID-19 vaccine.
A prolific Twitter account posted Anastasia’s name and smiling dance portrait in a tweet with a syringe emoji.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Children in California won't have to get the coronavirus vaccine to attend schools, state public health officials confirmed Friday, ending one of the last major restrictions of the pandemic in the nation's most populous state.
NEW YORK (AP) — Unable to get a new contract, Kyrie Irving is looking for a new address.
The All-Star guard has asked the Brooklyn Nets for a trade, a person with knowledge of the details said Friday.
On most weekends, Tyre Nichols would head to the city park, train his camera on the sky and wait for the sun to set.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 50 businesses and nonprofits — including rideshare companies Uber and Lyft, industrial giant 3M and automaker Honda — are pledging millions of dollars in initiatives to stem a crisis in road fatalities under a new federal effort announced Friday.
BINCHE, Belgium (AP) — On a sunny winter morning heralding a radiant Mardi Gras, Beatrice and Karl Kersten don’t have a minute to spare.
In their warm workshop decorated with ancestral photos, the couple bend over their sewing machines.
HONG KONG (AP) — Travel between Hong Kong and China will no longer require COVID-19 PCR tests nor be held to a daily limit, authorities announced Friday, as both places seek to drive economic growth.
HONG KONG (AP) — A grinding crackdown that wiped billions of dollars of value off Chinese technology companies is easing, but the once-freewheeling industry is bracing for much slower growth ahead.
Starbucks reported lower-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter, with COVID store shutdowns in China overshadowing stronger results elsewhere.
Global same-store sales — or sales at stores open at least a year — were up 5% in the October-December period, but that was partly due to higher prices.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Thursday slammed a group of Western countries that temporarily closed down their consulates in Istanbul over security concerns, accusing them of waging “psychological warfare” and attempting to wreck Turkey’s tourism industry.
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — The governments of Spain and Morocco signed deals Thursday on managing migration and boosting Spanish investment in Morocco, among 20 agreements reached at wide-ranging meetings aimed at turning the page on diplomatic tensions linked to the disputed Western Sahara.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Brian Deese, is leaving his post.
Biden said Thursday in a statement that Deese would step down as director of the White House National Economic Council.
Hong Kong (AP) — Hong Kong will give away air tickets and vouchers to woo tourists back to the international financial hub, racing to catch up with other popular travel destinations in a fierce regional competition.
ATLANTA (AP) — Some Georgia senators want to permanently block schools and most state and local government agencies from requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
In 2022, lawmakers put a one-year ban into law, part of a broad conservative nationwide backlash against mandates meant to prevent the spread of the respiratory illness.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Wednesday began their promised aggressive oversight of the Biden administration, focusing on what watchdogs described as “indications of widespread fraud” in federal coronavirus aid programs initiated under President Donald Trump.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana governor’s proposal for a broad expansion of county-level public health programs won its first endorsement from state legislators on Wednesday.
BERLIN (AP) — German beer sales rose in 2022 after COVID-19 restrictions weighed on brewers in the previous two years, but the long-term trend remains downward and the World Cup soccer tournament in Qatar didn't get the taps flowing, according to official figures released Wednesday.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The year 2022 was good for gambling and tourism in Nevada, where winnings at casinos statewide set calendar year records and Las Vegas visitor tallies nearly reached levels before the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The declaration of a COVID-19 public health emergency three years ago changed the lives of millions of Americans by offering increased health care coverage, beefed-up food assistance and universal access to coronavirus vaccines and tests.
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil posted record annual profits in 2022 as consumers globally struggled with high prices for gasoline, home heating and consumer goods.
The energy giant brought in $55.7 billion in annual profits, exceeding its previous record of $45.22 billion in 2008, when a barrel of oil soared close to $150.
Pfizer surprised Wall Street by predicting a bigger-than-expected sales drop this year for two key products: its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.
The drugmaker also released on Tuesday an earnings forecast that starts off below analyst expectations as Pfizer begins what company leaders call a transition year for sales tied to the ongoing pandemic.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators in Kansas are focusing on helping conservative parents remove their children from public schools over what's taught about gender and sexuality rather than pursuing a version of what critics call Florida's “Don't Say Gay” law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The parents of Tyre Nichols, the Black man who was severely beaten by a group of Memphis, Tennessee, police officers and died days later, will attend President Joe Biden's State of the Union address next week at the U.S.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he's selected a team of lawmakers to lead the country that will focus on the everyday concerns of New Zealanders such as the rising cost of living.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese factory activity rebounded in January from three months of contraction, adding to signs the world’s second-largest economy might be recovering from a painful slump, an official survey showed Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Greeted by the cheerful blare of a train horn, President Joe Biden stood Monday before a decrepit rail tunnel that he estimated he's been through 1,000 times — fearing for decades it might collapse.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia lawmakers have shelved a pair of bills that would have given unemployment claimants half as much time to file an appeal with a state agency still struggling with pandemic-related cases.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Clinton Global Initiative University on Monday released details about its annual meeting at Vanderbilt University from March 3-5.
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton announced that they will be joined in Nashville by aspiring leaders and global experts in business, public service and social impact.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Trevor Noah feels more comfortable hosting the Grammy Awards for a third-straight year, but the former “The Daily Show” host still has some nervousness about leading the ceremony with big-time acts like Beyoncé, Adele and Harry Styles looking on.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russia’s embassy in North Korea says the country has eased stringent epidemic controls in capital Pyongyang that were placed during the past five days to slow the spread of respiratory illnesses.
BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) — Captain Temba Bavuma's century set South Africa on the way to a record run chase at Bloemfontein to win the second one-day international against England and clinch the series on Sunday.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired the chairman of the governing Conservative Party on Sunday for a “serious breach” of ethics rules in failing to come clean about a tax dispute.
TOKYO (AP) — China announced it was resuming issuing visas for Japanese travelers beginning Sunday, ending its nearly three-week suspension in an apparent protest of Tokyo's tougher COVID-19 entry requirements for tourists from China.
MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration quietly ousted its former top official in Mexico last year over improper contact with lawyers for narcotraffickers, an embarrassing end to a brief tenure marked by deteriorating cooperation between the countries and a record flow of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl across the border.