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SAN JOSE, California (AP) — Facebook parent Meta is sparring with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in federal court over its pending acquisition of a virtual reality fitness company Within Unlimited CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify as a witness at the trial in San Jose, California. At issue is whether Meta’s acquisition of the small company that makes a VR fitness app called Supernatural will hurt competition in […]

Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists who cover the social media platform, the latest battle over what can and cannot be said on the site since billionaire Elon Musk took control of it. Accounts of reporters with The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications, went dark Thursday. The company hasn’t explained to the journalists why it took down the accounts and made their […]

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — To some, it’s little more than a meaningless exhibition match. To others, it’s a chance to become “immortal.” The third-place playoff at the World Cup can be a confusing concept. “You are so disappointed, you’ve just lost a semifinal and then two days later you have to go back out there,” Morocco coach Walid Regragui said Friday. Regragui’s history-making team — the first African nation to […]

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has decided to send back to Greece the three fragments of Parthenon Sculptures that the Vatican Museums have held for centuries, the Vatican announced Friday. The Vatican termed the gesture a “donation” from the pope to His Beatitude Ieronymos II, the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, “as a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Paris 2024 Olympics will be “climate positive,” organizers claim. The men’s World Cup in 2026 — to be held in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada — will be the “lowest-carbon FIFA World Cup of the modern era,” if promises pan out. Qatar’s World Cup is ending on Sunday, but climate pledges like its promise of a “carbon-neutral” event — central to the gas-rich Gulf nation’s hosting […]

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s foreign minister is seeking the United Nations’ help securing long-term aid for survivors of deadly, record-breaking floods before recovery funds run out next month, Pakistani officials said Friday. That grim threshold could come as soon as Jan. 15, according to Chris Kaye, the country director for the World Food Program. Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Friday that he’s seeking the U.N.’s support for raising […]

Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three-day strike starting Friday as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain’s stores. More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign. This is the second major strike in a month by Starbucks’ U.S. workers. […]

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is about to jet off to Qatar for the second time in a week, despite broad concerns about the emirate’s human rights and environmental record. Why? Because France is in the World Cup final, and Macron really is a big soccer fan — as well as a prominent advocate of the longstanding partnership between the two countries. A video broadcast after France’s victory […]

BEIJING (AP) — A squadron of Chinese Navy ships sailed through straits near Japan into the Western Pacific this week, while Beijing on Friday blasted Tokyo’s adoption of a new national security strategy putting itself on a more offensive footing — largely as a result of the perceived threat from China. The destroyers Lhasa and Kaifeng, and a replenishment ship, sailed through the Osumi Strait in southern Japan, while a […]