Detroit records 252 homicides in 2023, lowest since 1966
Detroit recorded 252 homicides last year — its lowest total since 1966 — while nonfatal shootings declined for the fourth straight year, according to preliminary statistics released Monday by Detroit police. Overall, violent crime in Detroit fell 1.6% from 2022-23, with carjackings dropping 33.5% to a level unseen since the...
Iran says prospect for talks over nuclear deal ‘still exists’
Iran said it is open to fresh talks around its nuclear program with world powers that had been overshadowed by the deadly war in Gaza. “The diplomatic environment to hold a new round of talks still exists,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a press conference...
Access to busy NYC airport’s international terminal restricted due to pro-Palestinian protest
NEW YORK — Access to a busy terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was restricted Monday as pro-Palestinian protesters converged on the airport for the second time in a week. Videos posted online show heavy traffic and a slow-moving line of cars, some flying Palestinian flags and...
Pennsylvania ‘porch pirating’ measure, New Jersey ‘Seinfeld Bill’ among laws taking effect in 2024
NEW YORK — The new year begins with a series of new laws going into effect Monday throughout the Eastern U.S. Perhaps most notable is New Jersey’s bipartisan “Seinfeld Bill” requiring Garden State telemarketers to provide the name, mailing address and telephone number of the company for which they’re working...
Israel’s Supreme Court overturns a key component of Netanyahu’s polarizing judicial overhaul
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul, delivering a landmark decision that threatens to reopen the fissures in Israeli society that preceded the country’s ongoing war against Hamas. The planned overhaul sparked months of mass protests, threatened...
Powerball jackpot hits $810 million for tonight’s drawing
Lottery money is rolling into 2024. A Powerball jackpot went without a big winner Saturday, with the next drawing scheduled for New Year’s Day with an estimated $810 million jackpot. It is expected to be the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot ever and the 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot, according to a Powerball...
Russia launches record number of drones across Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv continue aerial attacks
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine during the early hours of the new year, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, while Russia also reported Ukrainian attacks. A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people wounded after falling debris from one of 87 downed drones...
Israel pulling thousands of troops from Gaza as combat focuses on enclave’s main southern city
TEL AVIV, Israel — Thousands of Israeli soldiers are being shifted out of the Gaza Strip, the military said Monday, in the first significant drawdown of troops since the war began as forces continued to bear down on the main city in the southern half of the enclave. The troop...
Japan lowers tsunami warning but still tells people not to go home after series of earthquakes
TOKYO — Japan dropped its highest-level tsunami alert, issued following a series of major earthquakes on Monday but told residents of coastal areas not to return to their homes as deadly waves could still come. The quakes, the largest of which had a magnitude of 7.6, started a fire and...
Colorado mother suspected of killing her 2 children and wounding 3rd arrested in United Kingdom
A Colorado mother suspected of killing two of her young children and injuring a third was arrested Saturday in the United Kingdom, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department. Kimberlee Singler’s 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were found dead on Dec. 19 when police responded to a report of a...
Chief Justice John Roberts says AI will transform how the courts work
Artificial intelligence will change how U.S. courts do business, though human judges will be around “for a while” yet, Chief Justice John Roberts said. AI tools will change how judges do their jobs and how they understand “the role that AI plays in the cases that come before them,” Roberts...
Maine state official who removed Trump from ballot was targeted in swatting call at her home
A fake emergency call to police resulted in officers responding Friday night to the home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows just a day after she removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause. She becomes the latest elected politician to...
Sen. John Fetterman says he thought news about his depression treatment would end his political careerVideo
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman acknowledges having “dark conversations” about harming himself before he hit “the emergency brake” and sought treatment for depression. He remembers thinking about his three school-age kids. “I can’t be a blueprint for my children. I can’t let them be left alone or not to understand...
American democracy has overcome big stress tests since the 2020 election. More challenges are ahead
Over the past three years, the world’s oldest democracy has been tested in ways not seen in decades. A sitting president tried to overturn an election and his supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the winner from taking power. Supporters of that attack launched a campaign against local election offices,...
Israeli strikes in central Gaza kill at least 35 as Netanyahu says war will continue for months
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 35 people Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting raged across the tiny enclave a day after Israel’s prime minister said the war will continue for “many more months,” resisting international calls for a cease-fire. The military said...
New Year’s Eve sweeps across Mideast and Europe, but wars cast a shadow on 2024
Revelers counted down to midnight on New Year’s Eve across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, where fireworks and festive lights offered a hopeful start to 2024 for some, even as the globe’s ongoing conflicts have subdued celebrations and raised security concerns. In Australia, more than 1 million people watched...
U.S. shoots down 2 anti-ship missiles launched by Houthi targeting Maersk vessel
The U.S. shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles launched by Houthi rebels, responding to a call by a merchant vessel in the Southern Red Sea. The Singapore-flagged, Denmark-owned container ship, Maersk Hangzhou, had reported being struck by a missile at 8:30 p.m. Sanaa time, the U.S. Central Command said in...
North Korea’s Kim says he’ll launch 3 more spy satellites, build more nuclear weapons in 2024
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will launch three additional military spy satellites, build more nuclear weapons and introduce modern unmanned combat equipment in 2024, as he called for “overwhelming” war readiness to cope with U.S.-led confrontational moves, state media reported Sunday. Kim’s...
Family of 4 found dead in apparent murder-suicide by New York police sergeant
NEW YORK — A husband and wife and their two sons, ages 10 and 12, were found dead in a suburban New York home Saturday in what authorities described as a murder-suicide by a police sergeant. Police officials said Watson Morgan, a sergeant with the Bronxville Police Department, fatally shot...
‘Devastating’ discovery in Massachusetts: 3 dead inside $6.8M mansion
BOSTON — Authorities investigating the deaths of a husband and wife and their teenage daughter at a Dover home found a firearm close to the husband’s body in what the Norfolk District Attorney says appears to be a “deadly incident of domestic violence.” DA Michael Morrissey has identified the deceased...
Retirements could tip control of the House majority. It’s Republicans who have the early edge
WASHINGTON — A chaotic year for the House is coming to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in next year’s elections. About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won’t seek reelection, with half running for another elected...
Air raids over eastern Syria near Iraqi border kill 6 Iran-backed militants
BAGHDAD — Three overnight airstrikes on eastern Syria near a strategic border crossing with Iraq killed six Iran-backed militants Saturday, two members of Iraqi militia groups told The Associated Press. The strikes on the border region of Boukamal came hours after an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militants known as...
Revelers set to pack into Times Square for annual New Year’s Eve ball drop
NEW YORK — The confetti has been tested for airiness. The giant numerals — 2 0 2 4 — are in place. And the luminous ball, bedazzled in 2,688 crystal triangles, is fixed to the pole from which it make its 60-second descent at 11:59 p.m. With throngs of revelers...
Airstrikes hit camps in central Gaza as Biden administration approves new weapons sales to Israel
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes struck two urban refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday, as the Biden administration approved a new emergency weapons sale to Israel despite persistent international cease-fire calls over mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the enclave. Even a brief halt in...
Dozens of schools facing federal probe of alleged civil rights violations
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The U.S. Department of Education is investigating if nearly 90 elementary, secondary and higher education campuses across the nation — including at UC Davis and other University of California campuses — violated a federal civil rights law after an “alarming” rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim and...
