Associated Press stories, Page 68

ROME — Pope Francis showed slight improvement in laboratory tests Monday and resumed some work activities, including calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war there began, the Vatican said. The Vatican’s evening bulletin was more upbeat than in recent days. It...

LONDON — It was not your typical smash-and-grab burglary and the booty was precious: a toilet worth more than its weight in gold. The one-of-a-kind 18-carat gold toilet was swiped in under five minutes from Blenheim Palace, the sprawling English country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born,...

Barely a week after mass firings at the Food and Drug Administration, some probationary staffers received unexpected news over the weekend: The government wants them back. Beginning Friday night, FDA employees overseeing medical devices and other key areas received calls and emails notifying them that their recent terminations had been...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of Manhattan criminal defense attorneys was so concerned about prosecutor Emil Bove’s professionalism that they banded together to send an email to his bosses. One lawyer complained in the 2018 email that Bove was “completely reckless and out of control” in how he handled his...

UNITED NATIONS — In a win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, the United States on Monday failed to get the U.N. General Assembly to approve its resolution urging an end to the war without mentioning Moscow’s aggression. And the assembly approved a dueling European-backed Ukrainian resolution...

Starbucks plans to lay off 1,100 corporate employees globally as new Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol streamlines operations. In a letter to employees released Monday, Niccol said the company will inform employees who are being laid off by midday Tuesday. Niccol said Starbucks is also eliminating several hundred open and...

NEW YORK — Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning singer and pianist whose intimate vocal and musical style on “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and other hits made her one of the top recordings artists of the 1970s and an influential performer long...

LOS ANGELES — Here’s an updating list of winners at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards, held Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. In addition to the winners below, Jane Fonda received the SAG Life Achievement Award. Film Ensemble “Conclave” Female actor in a leading role Demi Moore,...

A man who took hostages in a York County hospital during a shooting that killed a police officer and wounded five other people highlights the rising violence against U.S. healthcare workers and the challenge of protecting them. Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, carried a pistol and zip ties into the intensive care...

NEW YORK — HIRING: Park ranger. SEEKING: Nuclear submarine engineer. WANTED: Sled dog musher. If they seem unlikely postings, they probably are. But a laid-off federal worker can dream. Axed from jobs not easily found outside government, thousands of federal workers caught in President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting efforts now face...

CHICAGO — To those concerned about billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s access to sensitive government data, his tear-it-down band of young techies doing that work is an unregulated threat to privacy. The view on the right is much different. Voices influential in conservative politics describe the crew of engineers, most...

WASHINGTON — Key U.S. agencies, including the FBI, State Department and Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with cost-­cutting chief Elon Musk’s latest demand that federal workers explain what they accomplished last week — or risk losing their job. The pushback from appointees of President Donald Trump marked...

WASHINGTON — Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent who has penned best-selling books, ran unsuccessfully for office and gained fame as a conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast, has been chosen to serve as FBI deputy director. President Donald Trump announced the appointment Sunday night...

VALLARTA, Mexico — Brian Campbell cashed in on a huge break Sunday when his tee shot in a playoff bounced out of the trees and back into play, leading to a birdie on the second extra hole to win the Mexico Open over Aldrich Potgieter. Campbell, who closed with a...

BERLIN — Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz won a lackluster victory in a national election Sunday, while Alternative for Germany doubled its support in the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II, projections showed. Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded defeat for his center-left Social Democrats after what...

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Arizona State’s leading scorer BJ Freeman is no longer with the program because of conduct detrimental to the team, a team spokesman confirmed on Sunday. The dismissal follows a turbulent stretch for Freeman, who was ejected in games against Colorado and Arizona during conference play. He was...

HAMPTON, Ga. — Christopher Bell edged Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson in overtime Sunday in another close NASCAR Cup Series finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Bell led only the final lap in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and had a slight edge on the outside when the caution light came...

KYIV, Ukraine — A contentious Trump administration proposal to give the U.S. $500 billion worth of profits from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv has been taken off the table, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday, indicating a more equitable deal is in the works....

The papal thriller “Conclave” won best ensemble and Timothée Chalamet took best actor at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, a pair of twists that added a few final wrinkles to an unusually unpredictable awards season. In winning the guild’s top award, Edward Berger’s Vatican-set drama triumphed just...

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insists President Donald Trump ‘s abrupt firing of the nation’s senior military officer amid a wave of dismissals at the Pentagon wasn’t unusual, brushing aside outcry that the new administration is openly seeking to inject politics into the military. He also suggested more firings...