CACONDE, Brazil — Silvio Almeida’s coffee plantation sits at an ideal altitude on a Brazilian hillside, whose clay-rich soil does well at retaining moisture from rainfall and a nearby reservoir. Lately, though, water is scarce on Almeida’s modest farm in Caconde, a town in one of Sao Paulo state’s key growing regions. He can’t get … Read more
PORTLAND, Maine — Fall is back, and bringing with it jack-o’-lanterns, football, pumpkin spice everything and — in some parts of the country — especially vibrant foliage. Leaves around the northern U.S. are starting to turn orange, yellow and red, inspiring legions of leaf lovers to hop in their cars and travel to the countryside … Read more
WASHINGTON — With the 2024 election looming, the first since the mass popularization of generative artificial intelligence, experts feared the worst: social media flooded with AI-generated deepfakes that were so realistic, baffled voters wouldn’t know what to believe. So far, that hasn’t happened. Instead, what voters are seeing is far more absurd: A video of … Read more
WASHINGTON — The GOP-controlled House approved a resolution Friday that would overturn a new Biden administration rule on automobile emissions that Republicans say would force Americans to buy unaffordable electric vehicles they don’t want. The rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in March would impose the most ambitious standards ever in the United States … Read more
Last year, five people hoping to view the Titanic wreckage died when their submersible imploded in the Atlantic Ocean. This week, a Coast Guard panel that’s investigating the Titan disaster listened to four days of testimony that has raised serious questions about whether warning signs were ignored. The panel plans to listen to another five … Read more
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy. The announcement by Constellation Energy comes five years after its … Read more
NEW ORLEANS — A constitutional challenge to the Biden administration program enabling Medicare to negotiate lower prices for widely used prescription drugs was revived by a federal appeals court in New Orleans in a 2-1 decision Friday. Congress created the program as part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022. The first 10 drugs … Read more
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankans began voting Saturday in a presidential election that will determine the course of the country’s recovery from its worst economic crisis and resulting political upheaval. The election, contested by 38 candidates, is largely a three-way race among incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Marxist-leaning lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and opposition … Read more
FORT WORTH, Texas — FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines and labor unions representing mechanics, baggage handlers and other ground workers said Friday they reached agreement on a two-year contract extension that includes double-digit pay increases. The agreement covers 34,000 employees who are represented by the Transport Workers Union and the International Association of … Read more
A labor strike at Boeing showed no signs of ending Friday, as the walkout by 33,000 union machinists entered its eighth day and the company started rolling furloughs of nonunion employees to conserve cash. Federal mediators joined talks between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers this week, but company and union … Read more