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An unexpected group, not known for activism, emerged in 2020 as an unlikely financier of social change: corporations. The philanthropy research organization Candid says corporations pledged about $8.2 billion out of the $12 billion in contributions. Experts say its the first time direct corporate giving to racial equity causes has reached this magnitude. But tracking those funds can pose a challenge since many of the initial pledges lack details on where the money is going. Candid's figures don’t even count other types of investment pledges by companies, which a report by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company December found reached $66 billion in October. 

Paige Bueckers is the third freshman to ever make The Associated Press women's All-America team. The UConn star has already delivered record-breaking performances for the top-ranked Huskies. Bueckers received 28 first place votes from the national panel of 30 media members that vote each week in the AP Top 25 poll. She was joined by Dana Evans of Louisville, Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, Rhyne Howard of Kentucky and NaLyssa Smith of Baylor.

For years, West Virginia has had the nation's highest rate of drug overdose deaths. Now the state is wrestling with another, not entirely unrelated health emergency: a spike in HIV cases related to intravenous drug use. The surge is being attributed at least in part to the cancellation of a needle exchange program in the county where the capital of Charleston is located. Needle exchanges offer clean syringes to injection drug users who have not been able to quit the habit altogether. Critics of the programs say they don't do enough to prevent or stop drug abuse. 

A former Olympian and longtime track coach has pleaded not guilty to sexually molesting boys while working at a sports camp in western Massachusetts in the 1970s. Sixty-nine-year-old Conrad Mainwaring of Los Angeles was ordered held on $200,000 bail at his arraignment Tuesday. Massachusetts authorities started investigating after a 2019 ESPN report in which more than 50 men alleged Mainwaring abused them. Mainwaring was a hurdler who represented Antigua and Barbuda in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. His attorney says that they are old allegations and that his client is entitled to a fair trial. Mainwaring declined to comment after the hearing.

A new report finds that minority students are significantly underrepresented when it comes to  getting nominations from members of Congress to study at military service academies in the United States. The analysis released Wednesday by they the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center and the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School found congressional members have awarded 6% of their total nominations to Black students and 8% to Hispanic students. White students received 74% of the nominations. About 15% of students in public schools nationwide are Black and 27% are Hispanic. 

President Joe Biden defended his decision to waive any punishment for Saudi Arabia's crown prince in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist, claiming that acting against the Saudi royal would have been diplomatically unprecedented for the United States. Biden, in…

BRUSSELS (AP) — A Belgian bishop has lashed out at the Vatican over its decree that the Catholic Church won’t bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.” Antwerp Bishop Johan Bonny wrote in an opinion piece Wednesday that he…

As high-profile police brutality cases have shaken the nation over this past year, many social workers remain divided over one important question: What should their relationship with law enforcement look like? Increased collaboration with police has support among the National Association of Social Workers and other social workers who say their work could reduce racism in policing and improve the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color. But many social workers across the county disagree, saying more cooperation between social work and police risks further harming communities of color and ignoring the systemic racism that exists within the field itself.

The U.S. has sanctioned an additional 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials over Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on political freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, just ahead of the Biden administration’s first face-to-face talks with China. The sanctions follow planned changes to Hong Kong’s electoral law that will give a pro-Beijing committee power to appoint more of Hong Kong’s lawmakers, effectively shutting opposition figures out of the process. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan are scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the foreign affairs chief of the Chinese Communist Party in Alaska. China has rejected criticism of its policies toward Hong Kong, accusing foreign governments of interfering.

President Joe Biden is marking St. Patrick’s Day as he meets virtually with Ireland's prime minister and recommits U.S. support for the Good Friday Agreement. That agreement was signed in 1998 and helped end sectarian violence that had raged for decades over the issue of Northern Ireland unifying with Ireland or remaining part of the United Kingdom. The agreement has come under increasing stress following the U.K.'s exit from the European Union. Biden is expected to attend Mass near his Delaware home Wednesday before returning to the White House to partake in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations toned down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

French former President Nicolas Sarkozy is going on trial again. Two weeks after being found guilty of corruption in a separate case, Sarkozy faces new allegations related to the illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign. That campaign was unsuccessful and he lost to Socialist Francois Holland. The trial scheduled to start Wednesday is likely to be quickly suspended and postponed to a later date as as one of the defense lawyers has been hospitalized with COVID-19. The 66-year-old Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012. He faces allegations his failed 2012 campaign spent almost twice the maximum amount allowed by law.

Three times a week, Aliye Tuerkyilmaz hits the markets and busy shopping streets of Neukoelln, the German capital’s crowded immigrant neighborhood that’s studded with minarets, kebab stores and hookah lounges. The 48-year-old Turkish immigrant hands out flyers informing about the coronavirus pandemic and tries to connect with other immigrants in one of the four languages she speaks. Tuerkyilmaz belongs to an multilingual team, a group of five street workers trying to explain the dangers of COVID-19 to those who are often not reached through other efforts by the authorities. The team was created in September in coordination with district officials to counter the infection numbers in Neukoelln which have been among the highest in the city throughout the pandemic.

Team New Zealand has retained the America’s Cup by beating Italian challenger Luna Rossa 7-3 in the 36th match for sailing’s oldest trophy. The defender came into the sixth day of racing Wednesday at match point with a 6-3 lead in the best-of-13 race series. Team New Zealand won the 10th race by 46 seconds in a shifty north-easterly breeze to complete a defense of the famous Auld Mug.

LeBron James has become a partner in Fenway Sports Group. That makes the Lakers star a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox. The Boston Globe first reported the deal. Fenway Sports Group is the parent company of the Red Sox as well as the Liverpool Football Club of the English Premier League and the Roush Fenway Racing NASCAR team. James has had a relationship with FSG since 2011, when he signed a marketing deal in exchange for an ownership stake in Liverpool.

The NCAA Tournament always seems to put a premium on guard play, and that may be even more important during this most bizarre of tournaments. So here’s a look at other backcourt wizards looking to make their mark on March, highlighted by UConn star James Bouknight and Iowa floor leader Jordan Bohannon.

Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey understands his Eagles made the NCAA Tournament the hard way. The team was among a dozen schools who'd punched tickets to the 2020 NCAAs before COVID-19 ended the event last March. The Eagles are back this year, along with Gonzaga, Liberty and Utah State. The Zags are the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and there was little chance they'd be absent this season. Not so for the rest who as part of mid-major conferences must rely on winning their league tournament or hoping to impress NCAA selectors.