Gangs in Haiti have attacked a community for 4 days and residents fear the violence could spread (apnews.com)
Missouri abortion-rights campaign backs proposal to enshrine access but allow late-term restrictions (apnews.com)
A Missouri abortion-rights campaign announced Thursday that it’s throwing support behind an amendment that would enshrine access to the procedure in the state constitution while allowing restrictions in later stages of pregnancy....
US, South Korea and Japan conduct naval drills as tensions deepen with North Korea (apnews.com)
The United States, South Korea and Japan conducted combined naval exercises involving an American aircraft carrier in their latest show of strength against nuclear-armed North Korea, South Korea’s military said Wednesday, as the three countries’ senior diplomats were to meet in Seoul to discuss the deepening standoff with...
Italy's regulations on charities keep migrant rescue ships from the Mediterranean (apnews.com)
Qatar and France send medicine for hostages in Gaza as war rages on and regional tensions spike (apnews.com)
Palestinians fight in hard-hit areas of Gaza while deal emerges to deliver medicine to hostages (apnews.com)
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian militants battled Israeli forces in devastated northern Gaza and launched a barrage of rockets from farther south on Tuesday in a show of force more than 100 days into Israel’s massive air and ground campaign against the tiny coastal enclave.
Iran says it has launched attacks on what it calls militant bases in Pakistan (apnews.com)
Africa’s biggest oil refinery begins production in Nigeria with the aim of reducing need for imports (apnews.com)
The $19 billion facility, which has a capacity to produce 650,000 barrels per day, has started to produce diesel and aviation fuel, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery company reported Saturday. As Nigeria’s first privately owned oil refinery, the project “is a game-changer for our country,” it added.
Arakan Army resistance force says it has taken control of a strategic township in western Myanmar (apnews.com)
Former chairman of state-owned bank China Everbright Group arrested over suspected corruption (apnews.com)
HONG KONG (AP) — The former chairman of state-owned Chinese bank China Everbright Group has been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and bribery, prosecutors said in a statement Monday, amid an intensified campaign against corruption.
Ancient human DNA hints at why a modern disease affects so many northern Europeans today (apnews.com)
Ancient DNA helps explain why northern Europeans have a higher risk of multiple sclerosis than other ancestries: It’s a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago....
Biden's education chief to talk with Dartmouth students about Islamophobia, antisemitism (apnews.com)
President Joe Biden’s education chief planned to meet Wednesday with students at Dartmouth College to discuss antisemitism and Islamophobia on college campuses amid the the Israel-Hamas war....
Spain makes face masks mandatory in hospitals and clinics after a spike in respiratory illnesses (apnews.com)
Face masks will be mandatory in hospitals and healthcare centers in Spain starting Wednesday due to a surge in respiratory illnesses, the Health Ministry said....
Microsoft's OpenAI investment could trigger EU merger review (apnews.com)
Congressional leaders announce agreement on topline spending levels, a key step to averting shutdown (apnews.com)
Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year that could help avoid a partial government shutdown later this month....
Judge blocks Trump lawyers from arguing about columnist's rape claim at upcoming defamation trial (apnews.com)
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the determination in an order in advance of a Jan. 16 trial to determine defamation damages against Trump after a jury concluded Trump sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll but did not find evidence was sufficient to conclude that he raped her....
A drug cartel has attacked a remote Mexican community with drones and gunmen, rights group says (apnews.com)
Live updates | 6 killed overnight in an apparent Israeli airstrike on a home in southern Gaza (apnews.com)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says several thousand Hamas fighters remain in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been blasted into rubble. Heavy fighting is also underway in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli officials say Hamas’ military structure is still largely intact....
With more records, world sees how Jeffrey Epstein leveraged powerful to abuse vulnerable girls (apnews.com)
A new batch of unsealed documents pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls was released Thursday, adding several hundred pages to a trove of information detailing how the financier leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes....
Several Midwestern cities are going to be counted again like it's 2020 (apnews.com)
Four years after the last census, almost a dozen small communities in the Midwest are going to be counted again in hopes of getting a new grocery store or more state funding to build roads, fire stations and parks....
More hospitals are requiring masks as flu and COVID-19 cases surge (apnews.com)
More U.S. hospitals are requiring masks and limiting visitors as health officials face an expected but still nasty post-holiday spike in flu, COVID-19 and other illnesses....
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is indicted for allegedly insulting election officials (apnews.com)
Court records related to Jeffrey Epstein are set to be released, but they aren't a client list (apnews.com)
There is no such list and the truth is less scandalous....
Plagiarism charges downed Harvard’s president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage (apnews.com)
Ex-gang leader makes his bid in Las Vegas court for house arrest before trial in Tupac Shakur case (apnews.com)
A former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with killing hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 in Las Vegas plans to ask a judge on Tuesday to release him to house arrest ahead of the trial in June....
