BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai court on Wednesday convicted a prominent political activist of defaming the country’s monarchy and sentenced her to a two-year suspended jail term under a controversial law that criminalizes any perceived criticism of the royal institution.

Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon, better known by her nickname “Mind,” had pleaded not guilty to an offense under Article 112 of the criminal code, relating to a speech she gave at a rally in the capital in March 2021.

A judge at the Bangkok

SINGAPORE (AP) — A survey of factory managers in China released Wednesday shows manufacturing contracted in January for a fourth straight month, reflecting weak demand and a faltering recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

The official purchasing managers index, or PMI, rose slightly to 49.2 in January from 49.0 the month before. The PMI is on a scale up to 100 where 50 marks the cutoff between expansion and contraction.

The manufacturing PMI has fallen in nine of the

KUTZTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The spotlight will be on Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania early Friday morning, when handlers of a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil will announce whether he saw his own shadow and predicts six more weeks of winter or an early spring.

Thousands are expected to attend that exploded in popularity after the 1993 Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day.”

It’s part of a tradition rooted in European agricultural life, marking the midpoint between the shortest day of the year on

BEREHOVE, Ukraine (AP) — Under the watchful eye of their teacher, a group of students in western Ukraine used a scalpel and forceps to dissect a pig’s heart during a weekend biology class. The lesson was taking place in Hungarian: the students, members of a sizable ethnic Hungarian minority, have become a focal point of souring relations between Hungary and Ukraine that threaten to derail key financial support for Kyiv as it fights to defeat Russia’s invasion.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long alleged

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A grainy sonar image recorded by a private pilot has reinvigorated interest in one of the past century’s most alluring mysteries: What happened to when her plane vanished during her flight around the world in 1937?

have turned up nothing, only confirming that swaths of ocean floor held no trace of her twin-tailed monoplane. Tony Romeo now believes his new South Carolina-based sea exploration company captured an outline of the iconic American’s Lockheed 10

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 66th annual are on Sunday, airing live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on CBS and Paramount+. So, what can viewers expect?

Some new, some old. Executive producers Raj Kapoor, Ben Winston, and Jesse Collins are returning for their fourth year — evolving the show from their first, which required completely reimagining . In 2021, they had the idea to turn musicians into each other’s audiences when there couldn’t be one

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President met with leaders of in Washington Wednesday as he tried to chip away at President Joe Biden’s organized labor support heading into a likely general election rematch.

Trump participated in a roundtable with the union’s executive board, its president and members as he works to win over the blue-collar workers who helped fuel his 2016 victory and who are expected to play a major role in November, particularly in critical Midwestern swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan.

Speaking to reporters

Meta, TikTok and other social media CEOs testify in heated Senate hearing on child exploitation

Sexual predators. Addictive features. Suicide and eating disorders. Unrealistic beauty standards. Bullying. These are just some of the issues young people are dealing with on social media — and children’s advocates and lawmakers say companies are not doing enough to protect them.

On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify at a time when lawmakers and parents are growing increasingly

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Before launching his , Florida Gov. was a star. Again and again, Republican voters — a potential vice president who, after serving four years alongside , could become the party’s standard-bearer and run for two terms.

But after a scorched-earth primary in which Trump pounded DeSantis viciously for the better part of a year, interviews with voters across early-voting states suggest the Florida governor may have an uphill battle if he chooses to run for president