AP

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Denis Villeneuve is going from “Dune” to Bond. Amazon MGM Studios announced Wednesday that Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond movie. The untitled film will be the first since the studio took creative reins of the storied film franchise after decades of control by

By GONZALO SOLANO and GABRIELA MOLINA Associated Press QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A fugitive drug trafficker wanted by authorities in Ecuador and the United States was recaptured more than a year after he escaped from prison in the Andean nation, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced Wednesday. José Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito,” who led a gang

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — A former Venezuelan spymaster who was close to the country’s late President Hugo Chávez pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a Manhattan federal court. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal was extradited from Spain in 2023 after

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of job cuts, leadership turnover and other turmoil at the Social Security Administration, the agency’s newly minted commissioner faced pointed questions from lawmakers about the future of the agency and its ability to pay Americans their benefits and protect their privacy. Frank Bisignano, who was

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer President Donald Trump is repeatedly condemning CNN and The New York Times for reports that call into question the damage caused by last weekend’s U.S. strikes of Iran — and downplaying his own intelligence analysts in the process. Trump on Wednesday called on CNN to throw out “like a

By LORNE COOK Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — NATO’s summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday has been described as “transformational” and “historic.” “We’re witnessing the birth of a new NATO,” Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said. The 32 members of the world’s biggest security organization endorsed a plan to massively ramp up defense spending,

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer The Trump administration’s choice to oversee government-run news outlets like Voice of America told a congressional committee on Wednesday that “it’s best to just scrap the whole thing and start over.” Kari Lake, the former Arizona newscaster turned Republican politician, testified that the U.S. Agency for Global Media is

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump will control the so-called “golden share” that’s part of the national security agreement under which he allowed Japan-based Nippon Steel to buy out iconic American steelmaker U.S. Steel, according to disclosures with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The provision gives the president

By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Now comes a new chapter in U.S.-Iran relations, whether for the better or the even worse. For nearly a half century, the world has witnessed an enmity for the ages — the threats, the plotting, the poisonous rhetoric between the “Great Satan” of Iranian lore and the

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — For many Iranians it was a lightning sequence of events: A 12-day war with Israel and a sudden, U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Now, as they return to their neighborhoods deeply shaken by Israeli air assaults, fears mount over what the country’s theocracy may do next. Human

By JON GAMBRELL and LEE KEATH Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The bombing has quieted in Iran’s 12-day conflict with Israel. Now its battered theocracy and 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must regroup and rebuild in a changed landscape. Israeli airstrikes decimated the upper ranks of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and