Author: rpnadmin

LONDON — A series of arson and vandalism attacks on Jewish sites in Britain were the work of a proxy group backed by Iran, U.K. government officials said Monday. The government said it is banning the group behind the attacks, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, or IMCR, also known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. It also banned Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which it said is a threat to national security. The move makes it illegal to support the groups. Committing sabotage on their behalf will be punishable by up to life imprisonment. Parliament must approve…

Idaho voters will decide whether to roll back the state’s abortion ban, the secretary of state told the group behind the initiative in a letter Monday, joining three other states where abortion will be directly on the ballot on Nov. 3. Voters in Virginia and Nevada – both states where abortion is already legal through at least 24 weeks of pregnancy – are considering state constitutional amendments to create a right to abortion. And in Missouri, which in 2024 became the first state to use a constitutional amendment to undo an abortion ban, voters are being asked to override that…

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson, who was arrested on June 9 on suspicion of felony domestic violence, has the opportunity to avoid criminal charges. Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office spokesman Ivor Pine confirmed in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday that Jackson’s case has been assigned for a pre-filing diversion available to eligible individuals. The City Attorney Hearing is an alternative to misdemeanor criminal prosecution. Though charges will not be filed against Jackson at this time, the case remains open and can be re-evaluated if there are more developments. At the time of…

MONTREAL — Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard pleaded guilty Monday to sexual assault and forcible confinement in Quebec, the latest conviction in the downfall of the founder of the once-global Nygard International clothing company. Nygard also faces U.S. racketeering and sex trafficking charges. The 84-year-old appeared by video from an Ontario prison, where he is serving an 11-year sentence after a Toronto jury convicted him in 2023 of sexually assaulting four women. He also faces extradition to the United States on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Quebec Crown prosecutor Jérôme Laflamme said Nygard’s plea came unexpectedly ahead of what…

HAVANA — Four Democratic members of U.S. Congress who traveled to Cuba this weekend described the energy embargo imposed on the island by U.S. President Donald Trump as turning the island into a “silent Gaza.” The U.S. implemented the energy embargo in January after the capture of Venezuela’s then-President Nicolás Maduro and threatened tariffs on other countries that sell fuel to the island. The measures have exacerbated a five-year crisis caused by previous sanctions and failed domestic policies, such as monetary unification. Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Teresa Leger-Fernández of New Mexico, Maxine Dexter of Oregon and Delia Catalina Ramírez…

NEW YORK — The space between stars just got a little sweeter. Astronomers have detected a type of sugar in space that’s also found in raspberries and self-tanners. The sugar, called erythrulose, lurks in what’s called the interstellar medium: thin clouds of gas and dust littered between stars. Sugar does more than sweeten tea and powder doughnuts. Different varieties fuel our cells and even make up DNA. Scientists are itching to know how sugars form because they’re a key ingredient for life as we know it. Using two dish-shaped radio telescopes in Spain, researchers collected data from a large gas…

President Donald Trump on Monday sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, undoing protections established by former presidents on public lands that are sacred among many Native Americans. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah have ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and scenic canyons, as well as coal and uranium deposits that state officials want made available for development. Trump, a Republican, issued proclamations under the Antiquities Act to reduce their size by about 90% each. He took similar actions during his first term, but those were reversed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. The…

About one-fourth of the nation’s private, nonprofit campus are expected to close in the next 10 years, driven by artificial intelligence that is automating repetitive office roles that long have been reserved for liberal arts graduates. Huron Consulting Group estimates, as reported by the Hechinger Report, that 442, or 26%, of the nation’s 1,700 private, nonprofit campuses will close or merge over the coming decade. That would affect 670,000 students The nonprofit trade publication has noted that AI automation is accelerating the downsizing by reducing the perceived market value of many four-year degrees, hurting enrollment at tuition-dependent campuses. “Most people think…

NEW YORK — Twelve states challenged Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, filing a lawsuit that argues the $81 billion mega merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and threaten jobs across the industry. The office of California’s attorney general, who is leading the case, said the states are asking Warner and Paramount to not close their merger “until after the judicial process concludes” — and if the companies do not agree, the coalition will then file a temporary restraining order. “The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content…

CONCORD, N.H. — A Vermont man who was 17 when he and a friend killed a pair of married Dartmouth College professors 25 years ago will have a chance at parole in about 20 years, when he reaches the age of one of his victims, a judge ruled Monday. Lawyers for Robert Tulloch, 43, and the prosecution reached an agreement on the terms, avoiding a three-day planned re-sentencing hearing. Tulloch was automatically sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the 2001 stabbing deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in…