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Trump signs order designating English as the official language of the US

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

President Donald Trump stands before British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

By MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press

President Donald Trump signed on Saturday an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States.

The order allows government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer documents and services in language other than English.

It rescinds a mandate from former President Bill Clinton that required the government and organizations that received federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers. Continue reading

Key Oscar moments, from Zoe Saldaña’s emotional win and ‘Oz’ opening to Kieran Culkin’s baby wish

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande perform “Defying Gravity” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer

There were a lot of smiling faces at the Oscars but one had to stand out — Sean Baker saw his film “Anora” go home with the top film prize and he took four for himself. Its star Mikey Madison was crowned best actress.

Twenty-two years after winning best actor for “The Pianist,” Adrien Brody won the same Oscar again for his performance as another Holocaust survivor in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.” He somehow kept the playoff music at bay.

On Sunday, firefighters who battled recent wildfires got applauded, Mick Jagger handed out the best original song Oscar and John Lithgow was tasked with looking “slightly disappointed” when speeches ran long. One highlight was Timothée Chalamet — literally. His yellow suit got more than one comment. Continue reading

British musicians release a silent album to protest plans to let AI use their work

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

Inductees Dave Stewart, left, and Annie Lennox of Eurythmics pose in the press room during the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on, Nov. 5, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A new album called “Is This What We Want?” features a stellar list of more than 1,000 musicians — and the sound of silence.

With contributions from artists including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens and Damon Albarn, the album was released Tuesday to protest proposed British changes to artificial intelligence laws that artists fear will erode their creative control.

The U.K. government is consulting on whether to let tech firms use copyrighted material to help train AI models unless the creators explicitly opt out. Continue reading

Scientists are racing to discover the depth of ocean damage sparked by the LA wildfires

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – An aerial view shows the devastation from the Palisades Fire on beachfront homes Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 in Malibu, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

By DORANY PINEDA Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — On a recent Sunday, Tracy Quinn drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to assess damage wrought upon the coastline by the Palisades Fire.

The water line was darkened by ash. Burnt remnants of washing machines and dryers and metal appliances were strewn about the shoreline. Sludge carpeted the water’s edge. Waves during high tide lapped onto charred homes, pulling debris and potentially toxic ash into the ocean as they receded.

“It was just heartbreaking,” said Quinn, president and CEO of the environmental group Heal the Bay, whose team has reported ash and debris some 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Palisades burn area west of Los Angeles. Continue reading

How Presidents Day has evolved from reverence to retail

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – Phil Bustos of Trinidad, Colo., displays the television set he bought for $29 at a Washington’s Birthday sale in Washington, D.C., Feb. 22, 1954. Other bargain hunters waited to get into the packed store during the annual holiday sale. (AP Photo, File)

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Like the other Founding Fathers, George Washington was uneasy about the idea of publicly celebrating his life. He was the first leader of a new republic, not a king.

And yet the United States will once again commemorate its first president on Monday, 293 years after he was born.

The meaning of Presidents Day has changed dramatically, from being mostly unremarkable and filled with work for Washington in the 1700s to the bonanza of consumerism it has become today. For some historians, the holiday has lost all discernible meaning.

Historian Alexis Coe, author of “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington,” has said she thinks about Presidents Day in much the same way as the towering monument in D.C. bearing his name. Continue reading

European leaders want a say in talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The US is brushing them off

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Republican Guards stand outside the Elysee Palace during an informal meeting of leaders from key European Union nations and the United Kingdom in Paris, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

By SYLVIE CORBET and RAF CASERT Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — European leaders insisted Monday they must have a say in international talks to end the war in Ukraine despite the clear message from both Washington and Moscow that there was no role for them as yet in negotiations that could shape the future of the continent.

Three hours of emergency talks at the Elysee Palace in Paris left leaders of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, NATO and the European Union without a common view on possible peacekeeping troops after a U.S. diplomatic blitz on Ukraine last week threw a once-solid trans-Atlantic alliance into turmoil. Continue reading

Roses are red, violets are blue, 940 million flowers are traveling (through Miami) to you

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

Valentine’s Day roses are unwrapped after being inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialist Elaine Mendez at Miami International Airport, and Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

By DAVID FISCHER Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — If any husbands or boyfriends mess up Valentine’s Day this week, it’s not because of a shortage of flowers.

In the run up to Feb. 14, agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport have processed about 940 million stems of cut flowers, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Around 90% of the fresh cut flowers being sold for Valentine’s Day in the United States come through Miami, while the other 10% pass through Los Angeles.

Roses, carnations, pompons, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and gypsophila arrive on hundreds of flights, mostly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami on their journey to florists and supermarkets across the U.S. and Canada. Continue reading

Trump’s AI ambition and China’s DeepSeek overshadow an AI summit in Paris

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Police patrol outside of the entrance to the Grand Palais, which will be the venue for an upcoming AI Action Summit, in Paris, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

By SYLVIE CORBET and KELVIN CHAN Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — The geopolitics of artificial intelligence will be in focus at a major summit in France where world leaders, executives and experts will hammer out pledges on guiding the development of the rapidly advancing technology.

It’s the latest in a series of global dialogues around AI governance, but one that comes at a fresh inflection point as China’s buzzy and budget-friendly DeepSeek chatbot shakes up the industry.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance — making his first trip abroad since taking office — will attend the Paris AI Action Summit starting Feb. 10, while China’s President Xi Jinping will be sending his special envoy, signaling high stakes for the meeting. Continue reading

What can the ‘black box’ tell us about plane crashes

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Read time : 5 mins

Level : Intermediate

In this image provided by the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB investigators examine cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, recovered from the American Airlines passenger jet that crashed with an Army helicopter Wednesday night near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. (NTSB via AP)

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press

It’s one of the most important pieces of forensic evidence following a plane crash: The so-called “black box.”

There are actually two of these remarkably sturdy devices: the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. And they’re typically orange, not black.

Federal investigators on Friday recovered the black boxes from the passenger jet that crashed in the Potomac River just outside Washington on Wednesday, while authorities were still searching for similar devices in the military helicopter that also went down. Continue reading

With home prices and mortgage rates high, many families find the American dream out of reach

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Julieta Lopez’s condo is seen from the street in Boston, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, some two years after she bought her first home, capping a 30-year pursuit of homeownership. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

By R.J. RICO Associated Press

The Petersen family’s two-bedroom apartment in northern California is starting to feel small.

Four-year-old Jerrik’s toy monster trucks are everywhere in the 1,100-square-foot unit in Campbell, just outside of San Jose. And it’s only a matter of time before 9-month-old Carolynn starts amassing more toys, adding to the disarray, says her mother, Jenn Petersen.

The 42-year-old chiropractor had hoped she and her husband, Steve, a 39-year-old dental hygienist, would have bought a house by now. But when they can afford a bigger place, it will have to be another rental. Petersen has done the math: With mortgage rates and home prices stubbornly high, there’s no way the couple, who make about $270,000 a year and pay about $2,500 in monthly rent, can afford a home anywhere in their area.

According to October data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, a San Jose family with a median income of $156,700 would need to spend 80% of their income on housing — including an $8,600 monthly mortgage payment — to own a median-priced $1.54 million home. That’s far higher than the general rule of thumb that people should pay no more than 30% of their income on a mortgage or rent. Continue reading