World

WASHINGTON— The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell to the lowest level in more than three months last week, reflecting a still-robust job market despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool the economy and bring down decades-high inflation. Applications for unemployment aid for the week ending Dec. 31 fell by 19,000 to 204,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. …

BOSTON— The mastermind of the nationwide college admissions bribery scandal is set to be sentenced on Wednesday after helping authorities secure the convictions of a slew of wealthy parents involved in his scheme to rig the selection process at top-tier schools. Federal prosecutors are asking for six years behind bars for Rick Singer, who for more than a decade helped deep-pocketed parents get …

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said House Republicans’ inability to unify behind a speaker candidate, which has prevented the chamber from beginning its legislative business, was “embarrassing” and “not a good look” for the country. Speaking at the White House on Wednesday before traveling to Kentucky for an event to highlight last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Biden …

World football bid him farewell The casket bearing the body of the late Brazil football legend, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele, was draped in the Brazilian flag, as the body was moved round major streets before his burial yesterday in Sao Paulo. The casket left Santos’ stadium on a fire engine for the procession with thousands of mourners lining the …

WASHINGTON— House Republicans opened the second day of the new Congress on Wednesday with no apparent off-ramp from the political chaos as GOP leader Kevin McCarthy vowed to become House speaker despite losing in multiple rounds of voting that threw the new majority into tumult. The House gaveled in at noon, and a McCarthy ally quickly re-nominated him for the job with …

Former Pope Benedict XVI has died at his Vatican residence, aged 95, almost a decade after he stood down because of ill health. He led the Catholic Church for less than eight years until, in 2013, he became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. Benedict spent his final years at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery within the …

BUFFALO, N.Y. (A — The deep freeze from a deadly winter storm that walloped much of the United States will continue into the week as people in western New York deal with massive snow drifts that snarled emergency vehicles and travelers across the country see cancelled flights and dangerous roads. The massive storm has killed at least 34 people across …

The Government of Gambia has arrested five soldiers over an alleged coup plot, the government said. The arrests made between Wednesday and Thursday followed intelligence reports received by the government that some soldiers of the Gambian army were plotting to overthrow the democratically elected government of President Adama Barrow. A statement from the president’s office gave the names of the …

MISSION, Kan.— Temperatures plunged far and fast Thursday as a winter storm began forming ahead of Christmas weekend, promising heavy snow, ice, flooding and powerful winds across a broad swath of the country and complicating holiday travel. The National Weather Service reported that temperatures across the central High Plains plummeted 50 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few hours. In much of …

WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was making his way to Washington on Wednesday for a summit with President Joe Biden and to address Congress in his first known trip outside the country since Russia’s invasion began in February. Zelenskyy said on his Twitter account that the visit was “to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities” of Ukraine and discuss cooperation between his …