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Colombia to launch military operation against armed groups on border
Under plans for total peace, Petro also hopes to end fighting with two dissident FARC factions who reject that peace deal, while drug traffickers and criminal gangs involved in cocaine production and trafficking could receive reduced prison sentences if they submit to justice, share details about trafficking routes, and turn over their fortunes. "We have established contact with the countries on the border, because we noticed activity on the border that we are going to combat with our forces, but also with the international collaboration of Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela and Panama," Prada told journalists.
Colombia will launch a military offensive against illegal armed groups operating in border areas, and it is seeking collaboration from neighbors, Interior Minister Alfonso Prada said on Monday. The South American country has been rocked by almost six decades of internal conflict, leaving at least 450,000 dead.
President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist to lead the country, who took power in August, recently restarted peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group, with negotiations in Venezuela, while also looking to implement a 2016 peace deal with now-demobilized FARC guerrillas. Under plans for total peace, Petro also hopes to end fighting with two dissident FARC factions who reject that peace deal, while drug traffickers and criminal gangs involved in cocaine production and trafficking could receive reduced prison sentences if they submit to justice, share details about trafficking routes, and turn over their fortunes.
"We have established contact with the countries on the border, because we noticed activity on the border that we are going to combat with our forces, but also with the international collaboration of Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela and Panama," Prada told journalists. The aim is to confront criminal groups operating internationally with focuses in various illegal industries, which requires collaboration with other countries, Prada said.
Six platoons of 400 personnel each will be deployed to the south of the country, Prada added. Recent fighting in the region between two factions of FARC dissidents over control of drug trafficking left at least 18 people dead. Security sources said extensive crops of coca - the main ingredient in cocaine - have been detected along Colombia's borders, as have laboratories for producing the drug. They also reported that illegal armed groups involved in drug trafficking and with ties to Mexican cartels are operating in the region.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Chemicals & petrochemicals industry must adopt safety measures: Govt | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2268096-colombia-to-launch-military-operation-against-armed-groups-on-border | 2022-11-28T20:14:19 | en | 0.954956 |
PARIS (AP) — A court in the Indian Ocean island of Comoros sentenced former President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi on Monday to life in prison for illegally selling the country’s passports, according to local media reports.
The Court for State Security in the capital Moroni also ordered the confiscation of Sambi’s assets. It handed down sentences of up to 20 years in prison for other officials convicted in the scheme.
According to video of the verdict on local news website Habariza Comores, the presiding judge said Sambi “abused his presidential prerogatives to allow the installation of a mafia-like system for the illegal sale of Comoros passports.”
Sambi was president of the archipelago of less than 1 million people from 2006-2011.
Local media said the passports were sold to stateless people in Gulf countries.
According to Radio France Internationale, prosecutors accused Sambi of embezzling 1.8 billion euros ($1.87 billion) as part of the scheme — more than the country’s annual GDP.
RFI quoted defense lawyer Mahamadou Ahamada as saying there was no proof of embezzlement, saying the trial was politically driven.
Sambi is a political rival of President Azali Assoumani.
___
Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-ex-president-of-comoros-convicted-of-selling-passports/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:20 | en | 0.956961 |
Dr. Oleh Duda was in the middle of a particularly complicated surgery at a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, when he heard explosions nearby. Moments later, the lights went out.
Duda had no choice but to keep working with only a headlamp for light. The lights came back when a generator kicked in three minutes later, but it felt like an eternity.
“These fateful minutes could have cost the patient his life,” the cancer surgeon told The Associated Press.
The operation on the patient’s major artery took place Nov. 15, when the city in western Ukraine suffered blackouts as Russia unleashed yet another missile barrage on the power grid, damaging nearly 50% of the country’s energy facilities.
The devastating strikes, which continued last week and plunged the country into darkness once again, strained and disrupted the health care system, already battered by years of corruption, mismanagement, the COVID-19 pandemic and nine months of war.
Scheduled operations are being postponed; patient records are unavailable because of internet outages; and paramedics have had to use flashlights to examine patients in darkened apartments.
The World Health Organization said last week that Ukraine’s health system is facing “its darkest days in the war so far,” amid the growing energy crisis, the onset of cold winter weather and other challenges.
“This winter will be life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine,” the WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, said in a statement.
He predicted that 2 million to 3 million more people could leave their homes in search of warmth and safety, and “will face unique health challenges, including respiratory infections such as COVID-19, pneumonia and influenza.”
Last week, Kyiv’s Heart Institute posted on its Facebook page a video of surgeons operating on a child’s heart with the only light coming from headlamps and a battery-powered flashlight.
“Rejoice, Russians, a child is on the table and during an operation the lights have gone completely off,” Dr. Boris Todurov, director of the institute in the capital, said in the video. “We will now turn on the generator — unfortunately, it will take a few minutes.”
Attacks have hit hospitals and outpatient clinics in southeastern Ukraine, too. The WHO said in a statement last week that they have verified at least 703 attacks between Feb. 24, when Russian troops rolled into Ukraine, and Nov. 23.
The Kremlin has rejected accusations that it targets civilian facilities. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov once again insisted last week that Russia is targeting only sites “directly or indirectly related to military power.”
But just last week, a strike on a maternity ward in a hospital in eastern Ukraine killed a newborn and heavily wounded two doctors. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, two people were killed after the Russian forces shelled an outpatient clinic.
In Lviv, Duda said the explosions were so close to the hospital that “the walls were shaking,” and doctors and patients had to go down to the shelter in the basement — something that happens every time an air raid siren sounds.
The hospital, which specializes in treating cancer, performed only 10 out of 40 operations scheduled for that day.
In the recently retaken southern city of Kherson, without power after the Russian retreat, paralyzed elevators are a real challenge for paramedics.
They have to carry immobile patients all the way down the stairs of apartment buildings, and then bring them up again to operating rooms.
Across Kherson, where it starts to get dark after 4 p.m. in late November, doctors are using headlamps, phone lights and flashlights. In some hospitals, key equipment no longer works.
Last Tuesday, Russian strikes on the southern city wounded 13-year-old Artur Voblikov, and doctors had to amputate his arm. Medical workers carried the teenager through the dark stairwells of a children’s hospital to an operating room on the sixth floor.
“The breathing machines don’t work, the X-ray machines don’t work. … There is only one portable ultrasound machine and we carry it around constantly,” said Dr. Volodymyr Malishchuk, head of surgery at a children’s hospital in Kherson.
The generator the children’s hospital uses broke down last week, leaving the facility without any form of power for several hours. Doctors are wrapping newborns in blankets because there’s no heat, said Dr. Olga Pilyarska, deputy head of intensive care.
The lack of heat makes operating on patients difficult, said Dr. Maya Mendel, at the same hospital. “No one will put a patient on an operating table when temperatures are below zero,” she said.
Health Minister Viktor Liashko said on Friday that there are no plans to shut down any of country’s hospitals, no matter how bad the situation gets, but the authorities will “optimize the use of space and accumulate everything that’s necessary in smaller areas” to make heating easier.
Liashko said that diesel or gas generators have been provided to all Ukrainian hospitals, and in the coming weeks an additional 1,100 generators sent by the country’s Western allies will be delivered to the hospitals as well. Currently, hospitals have enough fuel to last seven days, the minister said.
Additional reserve generators are still badly needed, the minister added. “The generators are designed to work for a short period of time — three to four hours,” but power outages can last up to three days, Liashko said.
In the recently recaptured territories, the medical system is reeling from months of Russian occupation.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the Russian forces of shutting down medical facilities in the Kherson region and looting medical equipment — even the ambulances, “literally everything.”
Dr. Olha Kobevko, who has recently returned from the retaken areas of Kherson after delivering humanitarian aid there, echoed the president’s remarks in an interview.
“The Russians stole even towels, blankets and bandages from medical facilities,” Kobevko said.
In Kyiv, the majority of the hospitals are functioning as usual, while relying on generators part of the time.
Smaller private practices and dentist clinics, in the meantime, are having a hard time keeping their doors open for patients.
Dr. Viktor Turakevich, a dentist in Kyiv, said he has to reschedule even urgent appointments, because power outages in his clinic last for at least four hours a day, and a generator he ordered will take weeks to arrive.
“Every doctor has to answer a question about who they will take in first,” Turakevich said.
Power outages have also made it difficult to access online patients’ records, and the Health Ministry’s system that stores all the data has been unavailable, said Kobevko, who works in the western city of Chernivtsy.
Duda, the cancer surgeon from Lviv, said that three doctors and several nurses from his hospital left to treat Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines.
“The war has affected every doctor in Ukraine, be it in the west or in the east, and the level of pain we’re facing every day is hard to measure,” Duda said.
___
Mednick reported from Kherson, Ukraine. Karmanau and Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.
___
Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.news10.com/health/ap-health/ap-surgeons-work-by-flashlight-as-ukraine-power-grid-battered/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:20 | en | 0.957833 |
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In an filthy alley behind a Los Angeles donut shop, Ryan Smith convulsed in the grips of a fentanyl high — lurching from moments of slumber to bouts of violent shivering on a warm summer day.
When Brandice Josey, another homeless addict, bent down and blew a puff of fentanyl smoke his way in an act of charity, Smith sat up and slowly opened his lip to inhale the vapor as if it was the cure to his problems.
Smith, wearing a grimy yellow T-shirt that said “Good Vibes Only,” reclined on his backpack and dozed the rest of the afternoon on the asphalt, unperturbed by the stench of rotting food and human waste that permeated the air.
For too many people strung out on the drug, the sleep that follows a fentanyl hit is permanent. The highly addictive and potentially lethal drug has become a scourge across America and is taking a toll on the growing number of people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
Nearly 2,000 homeless people died in the city from April 2020 to March 2021, a 56% increase from the previous year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Overdose was the leading cause of death, killing more than 700.
Use of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is cheap to produce and is often sold as is or laced in other drugs, has exploded. Because it’s 50 times more potent than heroin, even a small dose can be fatal.
It has quickly become the deadliest drug in the nation, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Two-thirds of the 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021 were attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The drug’s toll spreads far beyond the streets.
Jennifer Catano, 27, has the names of two children tattooed on her wrists, but she hasn’t seen them for several years. They live with her mother.
“My mom doesn’t think it’s a good idea because she thinks it’s gonna hurt the kids because I’m not ready to get rehabilitated,” Catano said.
She has overdosed three times and been through rehab seven or eight times.
“It’s scary to get off of it,” she said. “The withdrawals are really bad.”
Catano wandered around a subway station near MacArthur Park desperate to sell a bottle of Downey fabric softener and a Coleman camping chair she stole from a nearby store.
Drug abuse can be a cause or symptom of homelessness. Both can also intersect with mental illness.
A 2019 report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found about a quarter of all homeless adults in Los Angeles County had mental illnesses and 14% had a substance use disorder. That analysis only counted people who had a permanent or long-term severe condition. Taking a broader interpretation of the same data, the Los Angeles Times found about 51% had mental illnesses and 46% had substance use disorders.
Billions of dollars are being spent to alleviate homelessness in California but treatment is not always funded.
A controversial bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom could improve that by forcing people suffering from severe mental illness into treatment. But they need to be diagnosed with a certain disorder such as schizophrenia and addiction alone doesn’t qualify.
Help is available but it is outpaced by the magnitude of misery on the streets.
Rita Richardson, a field supervisor with LA Door, a city addiction-prevention program that works with people convicted of misdemeanors, hands out socks, water, condoms, snacks, clean needles and flyers at the same hotspots Monday through Friday. She hopes the consistency of her visits will encourage people to get help.
“Then hopefully the light bulb comes on. It might not happen this year. It might not happen next year. It might take several years,” said Richardson, a former homeless addict. ”My goal is to take them from the dark to the light.”
Parts of Los Angeles have become scenes of desperation with men and women sprawled on sidewalks, curled up on benches and collapsed in squalid alleys. Some huddle up smoking the drug, others inject it.
Armando Rivera, 33, blew out white puffs to attract addicts in the alley where Smith was sleeping. He needed to sell some dope to buy more. Those without enough money to support their habit, hovered around him, hoping for a free hit. Rivera showed no mercy.
Catano couldn’t sell the chair, but eventually she sold the fabric softener to a street vendor for $5.
It was enough money for another high. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-fentanyls-scourge-plainly-visible-on-streets-of-los-angeles/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:27 | en | 0.969794 |
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization has renamed monkeypox as mpox, citing concerns the original name of the decades-old animal disease could be construed as discriminatory and racist.
The U.N. health agency said in a statement Monday that mpox was its new preferred name for monkeypox, saying that both monkeypox and mpox would be used for the next year while the old name is phased out.
WHO said it was concerned by the “racist and stigmatizing language” that arose after monkeypox spread to more than 100 countries. It said numerous individuals and countries asked the organization “to propose a way forward to change the name.”
In August, WHO began consulting experts about renaming the disease, shortly after the U.N. agency declared monkeypox’s spread to be a global emergency.
To date, there have been more than 80,000 cases identified in dozens of countries that had not previously reported the smallpox-related disease. Until May, monkeypox, a disease that is thought to originate in animals, was not known to trigger large outbreaks beyond central and west Africa.
Outside of Africa, nearly all cases have been in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. Scientists believe monkeypox triggered outbreaks in Western countries after spreading via sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain. Vaccination efforts in rich countries, along with targeted control interventions, have mostly brought the disease under control after it peaked in the summer.
In Africa, the disease mainly affects people in contact with infected animals such as rodents and squirrels. The majority of monkeypox-related deaths have been in Africa, where there have been almost no vaccines available.
U.S. health officials have warned it may be impossible to eliminate the disease there, warning it could be a continuing threat mainly for gay and bisexual men for years to come.
Mpox was first named monkeypox in 1958 when research monkeys in Denmark were observed to have a “pox-like” disease, although they are not thought to be the disease’s animal reservoir.
Although WHO has named numerous new diseases shortly after they emerged, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS and COVID-19, this appears to be the first time the agency has attempted to rechristen a disease decades after it was first named.
Numerous other diseases, including Japanese encephalitis, German measles, Marburg virus and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome have been named after geographic regions, which could now be considered prejudicial. WHO has not suggested changing any of those names. | https://www.news10.com/health/ap-health/ap-who-renames-monkeypox-as-mpox-citing-racism-concerns/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:27 | en | 0.974021 |
Leon Black accused in lawsuit of raping woman in Jeffrey Epstein's mansion
We intend to defeat these baseless claims." Pierson's lawsuit in a New York state court in Manhattan seeks unspecified damages from Black for sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and from Epstein's estate for negligence. Her law firm Wigdor LLP also represents Guzel Ganieva, a former Russian model who in June 2021 sued Black for defamation, saying he falsely claimed she tried to extort him after accusing him of rape.
Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc , was sued on Monday by a woman who said he raped her two decades ago in the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion.
Cheri Pierson said she had been a cash-strapped single mother who had already given Epstein five massages for $300 each, when the financier arranged in the spring of 2002 for her to massage Black for $300. She said Black, who was eight inches taller and weighed more than twice as much, without her consent physically overwhelmed her and caused "excruciating pain" in their encounter on the third floor of Epstein's home.
Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Black, called Pierson's lawsuit "categorically false and part of a scheme to extort money from Mr. Black by threatening to destroy his reputation.... We intend to defeat these baseless claims." Pierson's lawsuit in a New York state court in Manhattan seeks unspecified damages from Black for sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and from Epstein's estate for negligence.
Her law firm Wigdor LLP also represents Guzel Ganieva, a former Russian model who in June 2021 sued Black for defamation, saying he falsely claimed she tried to extort him after accusing him of rape. In a Nov. 19 letter to the Wigdor firm, Estrich said: "Mr. Black never sexually assaulted anyone anywhere at any time." She also said Black may bring defamation claims or seek sanctions if Pierson sued.
Lawyers for Epstein's estate did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Black is worth $9 billion according to Forbes magazine.
Pierson sued under New York's Adult Survivors Act, a new law giving sexual assault victims a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers, even if the misconduct occurred long ago and statutes of limitations have expired. Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
His former associate Ghislaine Maxwell is appealing her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for enabling Epstein's abuse of underage girls. Pierson said Epstein had introduced her to Black, describing him as someone who could "help" her, implying financial help.
She said that after the alleged rape, Black began calling her, saying he "wanted to talk" and felt "bad." Pierson said they met at a bar in the St. Regis Hotel where Black gave her $5,000, ostensibly to reduce her credit card debt.
She said he called later and said "I want to see you," and she refused.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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UN aid chief upbeat on Black Sea grains deal after Istanbul meeting | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2268102-leon-black-accused-in-lawsuit-of-raping-woman-in-jeffrey-epsteins-mansion | 2022-11-28T20:14:27 | en | 0.970825 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/41675556 | 2022-11-28T20:14:30 | en | 0.738227 |
Vice President Harris and French President Emmanuel Macron will visit NASA headquarters together on Wednesday, a White House official said Monday.
Macron will be in Washington for an official visit with President Biden and Harris, and the trip to NASA is intended to showcase the United States and France’s “deepening collaboration on space in support of Earth, climate, and space science and space exploration,” according to the official.
The visit will involve celebrating existing cooperation in space science, space exploration and using data collected from space to fight climate change, and it comes on the heels of the U.S.-France Comprehensive Space Dialogue, which was held in Paris in October.
When Harris was in Paris last year, she and Macron committed to a whole-of-government space dialogue.
The trip to NASA will be Macron’s first stop in Washington after arriving on Tuesday evening, according to the French Embassy. Later on Wednesday, Macron is set to attend a working lunch at NASA on climate and biodiversity issues with members of Congress and key stakeholders on climate.
A French official told reporters on Monday that space is one of the priority “strategic domains” of the bilateral relationship between France and the U.S., citing Harris’s 2021 visit to Paris as a significant symbol of the importance of laying the groundwork for cooperation between France and the U.S. on space policy.
“The U.S. has chosen France, after Japan, as a second partner to have horizontal, global, space dialogue covering all aspects of space policies, in particular the observation of earth and the observation of the atmosphere, directly linked to the fight against climate change,” the official said.
Macron on Thursday will participate in a bilateral meeting with Biden, which will be followed by a joint press conference. He will then join the president for a state dinner alongside first lady Jill Biden, French first lady Brigitte Macron, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Laura Kelly contributed to this report. | https://www.news10.com/hill-politics/harris-french-president-to-meet-at-nasa-headquarters/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:35 | en | 0.937926 |
PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers on Monday condemned Iran’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrators and called on European governments to put more pressure on Iran to investigate the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody in Tehran.
Legislators in France’s National Assembly unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution supporting the protesters, by a vote of 149-0. Activists also planned a demonstration Monday outside the Assembly, the lower but most powerful house of parliament in France.
The resolution calls on European governments to step up pressure on Iran to uphold its international promises and to investigate what happened to Amini, who was arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Protests over her death have morphed into the most serious challenge to Iran’s establishment in decades.
The measure strongly condemns what French lawmakers call “the brutal and generalized repression by the security forces … toward non-violent demonstrators, which constitutes a blatant and unacceptable violation of the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression.”
Rights monitors say hundreds have been killed and more than 18,000 people detained since the anti-government protests started in September.
The French resolution also denounces laws and rules restricting the rights of women and minorities in Iran. It calls for the release of seven French citizens detained in Iran, too. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-french-lawmakers-vote-to-condemn-iranian-protest-crackdown/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:34 | en | 0.945077 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/41677201 | 2022-11-28T20:14:36 | en | 0.738227 |
White House expects EV credits to come up in Biden-Macron talks
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President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are likely to discuss the issue of electric vehicles in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act when they meet on Thursday, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday.
Biden and Macron are to meet at the White House on Thursday as part of Macron's state visit to Washington.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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French, German central bank chiefs urge faster pace on EU capital markets union | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2268107-white-house-expects-ev-credits-to-come-up-in-biden-macron-talks | 2022-11-28T20:14:36 | en | 0.90517 |
Former Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway met Monday with investigators from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to multiple reports.
Conway was seen entering the O’Neill House Office Building, where the panel conducts its depositions and interviews.
Conway was not publicly subpoenaed by the committee and, according to NBC News, told reporters that “I’m here voluntarily” when leaving the room during a break.
She was not in the Trump administration on Jan. 6, but, according to reporting from The Washington Post, Conway called an aide to the former president and urged him to call off his supporters who were storming the Capitol and noted that she had received a call from the Washington, D.C., mayor’s office seeking help in securing assistance from the National Guard.
Conway’s attorney and the Jan. 6 committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The interview was conducted as the panel races to complete its final report in December before the committee sunsets at the end of this Congress.
Conway, often one of Trump’s staunchest defenders, wrote that he lost his 2020 reelection bid in her recent memoir.
“Despite the mountains of money Trump had raised, his team simply failed to get the job done. A job that was doable and had a clear path, if followed,” she wrote in the book released in May.
“Rather than accepting responsibility for the loss, they played along and lent full-throated encouragement (privately, not on TV) when Trump kept insisting he won,” she wrote. | https://www.news10.com/hill-politics/kellyanne-conway-meets-with-jan-6-panel-reports/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:41 | en | 0.985986 |
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HONOLULU (AP) — The world’s largest active volcano was erupting Monday and wasn’t immediately threatening communities on Hawaii’s Big Island, but officials warned residents to be ready for worse.
Many current residents weren’t living there when Mauna Loa last erupted 38 years ago. The U.S. Geological Survey warned the roughly 200,000 people on the Big Island that an eruption “can be very dynamic, and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly.”
The eruption began late Sunday night following a series of fairly large earthquakes, said Ken Hon, the scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
There’s been a surge of development on the Big Island in recent decades — its population has more than doubled, from 92,000 in 1980.
Most of the people on the island live in the city of Kailua-Kona to the west of the volcano, which has about 23,000 people, and Hilo to the east, with about 45,000. Officials were most worried about several subdivisions about 30 miles to the south of the volcano, which are home to about 5,000 people.
A time-lapse video of the eruption from overnight showed lava lighting up one area, moving across it like waves on the ocean.
The U.S. Geological Survey said that the eruption had migrated to a rift zone — a place where the mountain rock is cracked and relatively weak — making it easier for magma to emerge.
An eruption from the zone could send lava toward the county seat of Hilo or other towns in East Hawaii but it could take the lava weeks or months to reach populated areas.
“We don’t want to try and second-guess the volcano,” Hon said. “We have to let it actually show us what it’s going to do and then we inform people of what is happening ASAP.”
Hawaii County Civil Defense announced that it had opened shelters because it had reports of people evacuating from along the coast on their own initiative.
The average Mauna Loa eruption is not typically prolonged, lasting a couple of weeks, Hon said.
“Typically, Mauna Loa eruptions start off with the heaviest volume first,” Hon said. “After a few days, it starts to calm down a little bit.”
The USGS warned residents at risk from Mauna Loa lava flows to review their eruption preparations. Scientists had been on alert because of a recent spike in earthquakes at the summit of the volcano, which last erupted in 1984.
Portions of the Big Island were under an ashfall advisory issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu, which said up to a quarter-inch (0.6 centimeters) of ash could accumulate in some areas.
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that together make up the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Mauna Loa, rising 13,679 feet (4,169 meters) above sea level, is the much larger neighbor of Kilauea, which erupted in a residential neighborhood and destroyed 700 homes in 2018. Some of its slopes are much steeper than Kilauea’s, so lava can flow much faster when it erupts.
During a 1950 eruption, the mountain’s lava traveled 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the ocean in fewer than three hours.
Tourism is Hawaii’s economic engine but Roth predicted few problems for those on vacation during the eruption.
“It will be spectacular where it is, but the chances of it really interrupting the visitor industry — very, very slim,” he said.
For some, the eruption might cut down on some travel time, even if there is more volcanic smog caused by higher sulfur-dioxide emissions.
“But the good thing is you don’t have to drive from Kona over to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to see an eruption anymore,” Roth said. “You can just look out your window at night and you’ll be able to see Mauna Loa erupting.”
Julia Neal, owner of Pahala Plantation Cottages, said the eruption brings some relief after many preparedness meetings, and much wondering about what the volcano will do.
“It’s exciting,” she said. “It’s kind of a relief that it’s happening and we’re not waiting for it to happen.”
A few future guests from the U.S. mainland called Neal “asking me to make a prediction, which I can’t,” she said. “So I said, just stand by.”
___
Associated Press writers Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-hawaiis-mauna-loa-starts-to-erupt-sending-ash-nearby/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:41 | en | 0.963129 |
German government defends plan to ease citizenship rules
German language requirements for citizenship would also be eased for members of the so-called "Gastarbeiter" generation, many of them Turkish, who came to Germany in the 1950s and 1960s as migrant workers. Scholz further said that Germany, echoing a policy in other countries, would introduce a "transparent, unbureaucratic" immigration points system to allow foreigners who have the right qualifications to apply for work.
Germany's government on Monday defended a plan to make it easier for people to apply for citizenship, countering complaints from within the ruling coalition and the opposition that it might encourage illegal immigration.
The government has said it wants to boost immigration and training to tackle a skills shortage weighing on Europe's largest economy at a time of weakening growth, and when an aging population is piling pressure on the public pension system. A position paper obtained by Reuters - and earlier reported on by the German news site t-online - shows the government wants to do that in part by sigificantly reducing the income threshhold for migration and introducing a points system.
"Anyone who lives and works here on a permanent basis should also be able to vote and be elected, they should be part of our country with all the rights and duties that go with it," Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a televised immigration forum. "And this should be completely independent of origin, skin colour or religious affiliation," he added.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, from Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD), has outlined plans to cut the maximum number of years a person must wait before becoming a citizen from eight to five, and lift restrictions on dual nationality. German language requirements for citizenship would also be eased for members of the so-called "Gastarbeiter" generation, many of them Turkish, who came to Germany in the 1950s and 1960s as migrant workers.
Scholz further said that Germany, echoing a policy in other countries, would introduce a "transparent, unbureaucratic" immigration points system to allow foreigners who have the right qualifications to apply for work. It would also be made easier to study or obtain qualifications in Germany, he said.
Scholz defended allowing immigrants to hold dual citizenship, arguing that "belonging and identity are not a zero-sum game." The draft legislation will be discussed by cabinet on Wednesday, Scholz said, after which it must be put to lawmakers in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.
The secretary-general of the FDP, the junior partner in coalition with the SPD and environmentalist Greens, has spoken out against the plan. In an interview with the Rheinische Post, Bijan Djir-Sarai questioned its timing while decrying a lack of progress on deportations and combating illegal migration. Faeser played down differences in the coalition and said that all parties had signed up to the plan in their coalition agreement. The legal changes could take effect in the summer of 2023, she added.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Soccer-Ghana name uncapped pair who have impressed in Europe | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/politics/2268082-german-government-defends-plan-to-ease-citizenship-rules | 2022-11-28T20:14:45 | en | 0.962986 |
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BUCHAREST (AP) — NATO returns on Tuesday to the scene of one of its most controversial decisions, intent on repeating its vow that Ukraine — now suffering through the 10th month of a war against Russia — will join the world’s biggest military alliance one day.
NATO foreign ministers will gather for two days at the Palace of the Parliament in the Romanian capital Bucharest. It was there in April 2008 that U.S. President George W. Bush persuaded his allies to open NATO’s door to Ukraine and Georgia, over vehement Russian objections.
“NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO,” the leaders said in a statement. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was at the summit, described this as “a direct threat” to Russia’s security.
About four months later, Russian forces invaded Georgia.
Some experts describe the decision in Bucharest as a massive error that left Russia feeling cornered by a seemingly ever-expanding NATO. NATO counters that it doesn’t pressgang countries into joining, and that some requested membership to seek protection from Russia — as Finland and Sweden are doing now.
More than 14 years on, NATO will pledge this week to support Ukraine long-term as it defends itself against Russian aerial, missile and ground attacks — many of which have struck power grids and other civilian infrastructure, depriving millions of people of electricity and heating.
In a press conference Monday in Bucharest after a meeting with Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg highlighted the importance of investing in defense “as we face our greatest security crisis in a generation.”
“We cannot let Putin win,” he said. “This would show authoritarian leaders around the world that they can achieve their goals by using military force — and make the world a more dangerous place for all of us. It is in our own security interests to support Ukraine.”
Stoltenberg noted Russia’s recent bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, saying Putin “is trying to use winter as a weapon of war against Ukraine” and that “we need to be prepared for more attacks.”
North Macedonia and Montenegro have joined the U.S.-led alliance in recent years. With this, Stoltenberg said last week before travelling to Bucharest, “we have demonstrated that NATO’s door is open and that it is for NATO allies and aspirant countries to decide on membership. This is also the message to Ukraine.”
This gathering in Bucharest is likely to see NATO make fresh pledges of non-lethal support to Ukraine: fuel, electricity generators, medical supplies, winter equipment and drone jamming devices.
Individual allies are also likely to announce fresh supplies of military equipment for Ukraine — chiefly the air defense systems that Kyiv so desperately seeks to protect its skies. NATO as an organization will not offer such supplies, to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia.
But the ministers, along with their Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, will also look further afield.
“Over the longer term we will help Ukraine transition from Soviet-era equipment to modern NATO standards, doctrine and training,” Stoltenberg said last week. This will not only improve Ukraine’s armed forces and help them to better integrate, it will also meet some of the conditions for membership.
That said, Ukraine will not join NATO anytime soon. With the Crimean Peninsula annexed, and Russian troops and pro-Moscow separatists holding parts of the south and east, it’s not clear what Ukraine’s borders would even look like.
Many of the 30 allies believe the focus now must be uniquely on defeating Russia.
“What we have seen in the last months is that President Putin made a big strategic mistake,” Stoltenberg said. “He underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian armed forces, and the Ukrainian political leadership.”
But even as economic pressure — high electricity and gas prices, plus inflation, all exacerbated by the war — mounts on many allies, Stoltenberg would not press Ukraine to enter into peace talks, and indeed NATO and European diplomats say that Putin does not appear willing to come to the table.
“The war will end at some stage at the negotiating table,” Stoltenberg said Monday. “But the outcome of those negotiations are totally dependent on the situation on the battlefield,” adding “it would be a tragedy for (the) Ukrainian people if President Putin wins.”
The foreign ministers of Bosnia, Georgia and Moldova — three partners that NATO says are under increasing Russian pressure — will also be in Bucharest. Stoltenberg said NATO would “take further steps to help them protect their independence, and strengthen their ability to defend themselves.
___
Cook reported from Brussels. | https://www.news10.com/news/ap-14-years-on-nato-to-renew-a-vow-to-ukraine/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:47 | en | 0.957312 |
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SAN ANTONIO — Whataburger debuted its first restaurant in the Atlanta area Monday, creating a foothold for the San Antonio burger chain’s rapid expansion into the nation’s eighth-largest metro.
The company plans to add 10 more restaurants in the area in the coming year and more than 50 over the next seven years with franchisee Made to Order Holdings. That includes locations in Woodstock, Cumming, Buford, Monroe, Covington, Snellville, Dawsonville and Athens, home of the the University of Georgia’s main campus.
Its first store is in Kennesaw, a city about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, which opened Monday with drive-thru service. Dining room access, digital ordering and curbside and delivery services will be offered in the coming weeks, Whataburger said in an announcement.
Made to Order Holdings is managed by Travis Goff of Goff Capital, the family office of Fort Worth billionaire John Goff, state corporate filings indicate.
John Goff is chairman of Crescent Real Estate, an investment, operation and development firm with hotels, apartments, offices and senior living facilities in its portfolio, according to its website.
On ExpressNews.com: Expanding the footprint: Whataburger’s new owner works on recipe for expansion
Previously, Whataburger’s only restaurant in Georgia was a Thomasville location near the Florida border.
Whataburger is quickly expanding in the Southeast and Midwest.
That was the aim when Chicago-based BDT Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Whataburger in 2019 and the company began franchising again after a 20-year pause.
Franchising is a faster and less expensive route to expansion than opening company-owned stores, but it also means corporations have less control over the brand.
Whataburger and KMO Burger, an investor-led franchise group that includes Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, plan to develop 30 restaurants in Kansas and Missouri.
Six locations - including the first in Kansas City - have opened so far. Another nine are slated to open this year and next year, according to Whataburger’s website.
The company and franchisees have also opened more restaurants in Tennessee, including its first in the Nashville area, and Colorado. A location at San Antonio International Airport opened in September.
Whataburger has over 800 restaurants across 14 states and generates over $3 billion in sales annually.
madison.iszler@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/San-Antonio-based-Whataburger-opens-first-17615739.php | 2022-11-28T20:14:49 | en | 0.938423 |
NEW YORK (AP) — There was talk of impeachment Monday at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial — not former President Donald Trump’s, which happened twice — but whether lawyers for his company were angling to impeach their own witness, longtime Trump accountant Donald Bender.
Defense lawyer Susan Necheles said Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years overseeing tax returns for Trump’s hundreds of entities, “surprised” her when he testified that he didn’t actually do much work on the company’s tax returns.
Bender indicated he delegated some work to other firm employees.
“That answer surprised me because it’s just not true,” Necheles said during a court conference held after Bender and the jury left the courtroom for a lunch break.
Necheles was seeking permission to confront Bender with records showing he spent more time working on tax returns for the Trump Corporation, the company’s main subsidiary, than he led on. But the defense lawyer stopped short of saying she wanted to undermine his credibility in front of jurors.
“I don’t want to impeach the witness. I don’t want to call him a liar,” Necheles said. “That’s impeaching the witness.”
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, already annoyed with the defense because it filed a court motion late Sunday night, appeared reluctant to grant Necheles’ request, instructing her to refine her argument over lunch.
“I believe I’ve bent over backward to allow both defendants to prepare a defense,” Merchan said, referring to the Trump Corporation and the other charged subsidiary, Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. As a gatekeeper, Merchan said, “I don’t believe that means I have to let you to throw everything at the jury and see what sticks.”
The Trump Organization, the holding company for Trump’s buildings, golf courses and other assets, is charged with helping some top executives avoid income taxes on compensation they got in addition to their salaries, including rent-free apartments and luxury cars. If convicted, the company could be fined more than $1 million.
Trump has blamed Bender for not catching the scheme, writing on his Truth Social platform: “The highly paid accounting firm should have routinely picked these things up — we relied on them. VERY UNFAIR!”
Bender also prepared personal income tax returns for Trump and his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, his children and some company executives.
The Trump Organization’s former finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, testified earlier in the trial that he came up with the scheme on his own, without Trump or the Trump family knowing. Weisselberg, who testified in a plea deal in exchange for a five-month jail sentence, said the company benefited because it didn’t have to pay him as much in salary.
Mazars USA LLP has since dropped Trump as a client. In February, the firm said annual financial statements it prepared for him “should no longer be relied upon” after New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said the statements regularly misstated the value of assets.
James is suing Trump and his company over those allegations. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-impeachment-talk-at-trump-org-trial-did-witness-misspeak/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:49 | en | 0.971356 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/articles/41676457 | 2022-11-28T20:14:54 | en | 0.738227 |
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Another quarter of record profits. Another quarter of rising stock prices. Another quarter of happy investors.
The oil and gas industry, riding the highest prices in nearly a decade, has its swagger back — once again the indispensable player in a world desperate for energy. After years on the defensive as a fading industry that could no longer deliver for shareholders, the oil and gas sector is capitalizing on its advantage, showering investors with returns, pressing its policy agenda in Washington and rebuffing the entreaties of President Joe Biden to significantly increase production to ease high prices.
But, analysts say, oil companies should enjoy the moment. As executives bask in the glow of short-term profits — much of them driven by Russia’s war against Ukraine — the industry faces the same long-term challenges that have been threatening its future in recent years. Despite generating some $1.4 trillion in free cash this year, companies have invested precious little of it to position themselves for the ongoing transition in which fossil fuels play a smaller role in the world’s energy mix.
On ExpressNews.com: Valero profit soars as demand for refined products tops 2019 levels and supply remains tight
Oil companies may have little choice but to favor the short term as they try to win over and hold skeptical investors with generous payouts. But the strategy has long-term implications for Texas, where the future may depend on whether the critical energy industry can make the transition to a low-carbon environment. Despite eye-popping profits, analysts said, U.S. oil and gas companies have done little to develop or invest in a sustainable, long-term business strategy.
“They didn’t have one before Ukraine,” said Tom Sanzillo, director of the Cleveland-based nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which advocates for a sustainable energy industry. “And unless we expect these kinds of geopolitical manipulations to continue — whether it’s a war or something else after it that makes for artificially high prices — I don’t know that they have anything but a short-term gain here.”
Short term gains, indeed. For the third quarter, San Antonio refiner Valero Energy Corp. said its profits jumped 400 percent from a year ago, to $2.8 billion. Houston independent oil company ConocoPhillips reported that profits surged 90 percent from a year earlier, to $4.5 billion. Exxon Mobil had its best quarter ever — earning nearly $20 billion in three months — and said it distributed $8.2 billion to shareholders while spending $5.7 billion on long-term investments. Bloomberg data shows that this year, Exxon, Chevron, Shell and French energy major TotalEnergies will distribute about $100 billion in profits to shareholders while reinvesting only $80 billion into their core businesses.
But as companies race to pay shareholders, analysts said, the businesses are left with little flexibility to steer investments elsewhere.
“They have committed to this new financial model,” said Bill Gilmer, director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston. “And this new financial model says, ‘We (companies) are going to have to maintain pristine balance sheets. And we’re going to have to, from this point forward, reward investors by diverting 30 to 40 percent of all of our free cash flows to dividends.’”
Past and future
It wasn’t always this way, Gilmer said. In the past, investors were attracted to oil companies because of the prospect of long-term growth. While the companies provided shareholder returns, they also were expected to reinvest profits to grow the business.
On ExpressNews.com: NuStar Energy posts $60 million profit as record volumes of crude flow through Permian pipelines
The shale boom changed that model. As investors pumped billions of dollars into new drilling projects requiring more technology and equipment, companies focused on growth and quickly ramping up production. But the bonanza that investors and companies expected didn’t materialize.
The high costs of shale drilling — producers need oil at $65 a barrel to break even, according to Gilmer — limited profits. And when a global oil glut sent prices crashing from more than $100 a barrel in 2014 to less than $30 in early 2016, losses mounted. From 2015 through 2021, more than 600 energy companies, carrying more than $320 billion in debt, filed for bankruptcy, according to the Dallas-based law firm Haynes and Boone.
Growth lost its luster.
As prices stayed low through the rest of the decade, fewer investors were willing to send money to the oil patch. In 2014, the energy sector was valued at just over 10 percent of the S&P 500. By 2020, when the pandemic drove the second major oil bust in five years, energy accounted for less than 3 percent of the S&P’s value.
This recent history has all but forced oil companies to focus on short-term profits and deliver them to shareholders as crude prices this year reached their highest levels in more than a decade. The strategy, however, is shaped by the future as well as the past.
Climate change and policies to address it have created uncertainty about the industry’s future and more hurdles for investors. With some projections estimating that oil demand could peak as soon as the end of the decade, investors have grown skeptical of the prospects for fossil fuels. Even with the recent surge in profits and stock values, energy still accounts for only 4.5 percent of the value of the S&P 500, less than half of the industry’s share in 2014 and a far cry from the 28 percent in the 1980s.
That leaves oil companies with little choice but to keep investors happy in the short term.
What this focus on short-term profits means for Houston is less growth, Gilmer said. Despite high oil prices, local employment in the upstream oil and gas industry has fallen by more than one-third since 2014, to 157,000 from 240,000.
On ExpressNews.com: High oil prices continue to benefit oil field services sector despite fears of an economic slowdown
The jobs aren’t returning because high oil prices no longer mean the industry drills more oil, Gilmer said. It’s not financing, environmental activists or government regulations stopping oil companies — it’s investor pressure. Investors would rather companies stick to production schedules and rake in the cash instead of increasing output, which could lower consumer costs and add jobs but also eats into investor payouts.
Drag on economy
As the industry follows this path, Gilmer said, it will become a drag on the local economy, which usually grows about 2 percent a year. Gilmer expects that over the next few years, growth will slow to about 1.6 percent because of changes in the energy sector.
At the same time, fossil fuel alternatives are becoming more affordable and attractive to investors, and the transition to cleaner energy may come faster than previously expected. In 2021, global investment in low-carbon technologies reached $755 billion, a nearly 27 percent increase from $595 billion in 2020 and nearly triple the $264 billion spent in 2011, according to Bloomberg data.
The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental energy research organization, estimates that 13 percent of all new cars sold this year will be electric, up from 9 percent in 2021. The IEA reported that the share of renewables in global electricity generation reached 28.7 percent in 2021, up from 19.8 percent in 2010. Government policies such as the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which includes billions of dollars in incentives for clean energy, are helping speed the transition.
Todd Staples, president of the industry group Texas Oil & Gas Association, rejected analyst claims that the industry is focused on short-term gains at the expense of a sustainable long-term strategy. He called such assessments “misguided” and blamed political rhetoric about climate change and phasing out fossil fuels as hurtful to investment and growth in the industry.
On ExpressNews.com: Texas collects more than $10 billion in taxes from oil and gas production, comptroller said
Most publicly traded oil and gas companies have committed to lowering emissions and developing technology to aid the energy transition. Nearly every company, however, expects to increase oil and gas production in coming years. Last year, the industry invested around $10 billion in clean energy, according to the IEA, representing less than 4 percent of capital investments. IEA expects this to grow to 5 percent this year.
Hugh Daigle, associate professor in the petroleum and geosystems engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin, said some oil companies will try to branch into new forms of energy, and some will go all in on producing the oil and gas the world is expected to use even as economies shift to clean energy.
For example, European companies such as BP are moving into renewable technologies. U.S. public companies mostly prefer sticking with fossil fuels while investing in technologies such as carbon capture, which removes carbon dioxide from industrial emissions or the atmosphere. Private companies mostly remain focused on oil and gas production.
“It’s not a zero sum game, I don’t think one path is going to win out over the other,” Daigle said. “The industry is at an interesting point where there’s multiple paths forward — and the reason for that is because of the energy transition and the diversification of energy sources.”
Sanzillo of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis is not as sanguine. He said the industry’s focus on short-term profits to the neglect of long-term investment reflects a sector that recognizes that its prospects are declining.
“Russia and the other countries and the oil companies know their days are numbered,” he said. “And the way you get money now is to squeeze every last nickel you can get out of the barrel of oil. That’s what’s going on here.”
kyra.buckley@chron.com | https://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/With-record-profits-and-rising-stock-prices-the-17615681.php | 2022-11-28T20:14:55 | en | 0.956669 |
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Five Connecticut police officers were charged with misdemeanors Monday over their treatment of a Black man after he was paralyzed from the chest down in the back of a police van.
Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard, apparently to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into the wall of the van, police said.
As Cox pleaded for help, saying he couldn’t move, some of the officers mocked him and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries. Then, the officers dragged him by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital.
The five New Haven police officers were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons. All have been on administrative leave since last summer.
New Haven’s police chief, speaking to reporters Monday along with the city’s mayor, said it was important for the department to be transparent and accountable.
“You can make mistakes, but you can’t treat people poorly, period. You cannot treat people the way Mr. Cox was treated,” said Police Chief Karl Jacobson.
The officers turned themselves in at a state police barracks Monday. Each was processed, posted a $25,000 bond and are due back in court Dec. 8, according to a news release from state police. Messages seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the officers.
The case has drawn outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Gray, who was also Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van.
The attorney for Cox’s family, Ben Crump, said Monday that the New Haven officers need to be held accountable.
“It is important — when you see that video of how they treated Randy Cox and the actions and inactions that led to him being paralyzed from his chest down — that those police officers should be held to the full extent of the law,” Crump said.
Cox was arrested June 19 after police said they found him in possession of a handgun at a block party. The charges against him were later dropped.
Cox’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven and the five officers in September. The lawsuit alleges negligence, exceeding the speed limit and failure to have proper restraints in the police van.
Four of the officers filed motions last week claiming qualified immunity from the lawsuit, arguing that their actions in the case did not violate any “clearly established” legal standard.
New Haven officials announced a series of police reforms this summer stemming from the case, including eliminating the use of police vans for most prisoner transports and using marked police vehicles instead. They also require officers to immediately call for an ambulance to respond to their location if the prisoner requests or appears to need medical aid. | https://www.news10.com/news/ap-5-officers-charged-after-black-man-paralyzed-in-police-van/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:54 | en | 0.983766 |
Cuba municipal elections see lowest turnout in 40 years
The sharp drop in participation on Sunday versus the 2017 elections follows calls from Cuba's political opposition to abstain from voting in protest of the administration of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Cuba saw its lowest level of voter turnout in municipal elections since at least 1981, according to preliminary government figures on Monday.
Municipal elections, held every five years, are one of few opportunities ordinary citizens on the island have to directly participate in the electoral process. Election officials said nearly 69% of registered Cuban voters had participated in Sunday's vote. While that turnout still compares favorably with many regional neighbors, it marks a significant drop from the 89% who voted in 2017 in the first such elections since the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Cuba has long prided itself on high levels of voter turnout, billing participation in elections as a demonstration of the grass-roots nature of its electoral system. The sharp drop in participation on Sunday versus the 2017 elections follows calls from Cuba's political opposition to abstain from voting in protest of the administration of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. The municipal elections were the first since Diaz-Canel became president in 2018.
There are no opinion or exit polls in Cuba, so it is not clear why a growing percentage of Cuban voters choose to abstain on Sunday. Cuba is suffering from a nearly unprecedented economic crisis that has led to hours-long lines for food, medicine and fuel, as well as regular, rolling blackouts.
Cuba's on-island opposition has largely evaporated since widespread anti-government protests in July of 2021 led to hundreds being tried and jailed. Others have chosen to migrate or allege they were forced into exile. Manuel Cuesta Morua, a leader of Cuba's Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, told Reuters prior to the elections that he was aware of just one opposition candidate - a 30-year old breadmaker named Jose Antonio Cabrera of Palma Soriano, a small city in eastern Cuba - out of more than 26,000 that had been nominated.
Cuesta Morua said he had been unable to obtain results of the race in question as of Monday. Reuters was unable to contact Cabrera on Monday. Cuban law says that any Cubans of any political stripe or affiliation may be nominated for municipal elections. In practice, however, only a few government opponents have ever competed in the elections.
The 11,502 delegates elected to municipal assemblies on Sunday are the front-line representatives in Cuban communities across the island. They receive complaints from neighbors, help establish municipal budget priorities and some go on to populate half of the National Assembly, for which elections will be held in 2023.
Official data showed that, in addition to the lower voter participation on Sunday, nearly 6% of votes cast were annulled, and 5% were left blank.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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H.E. Emmanuel Lenain Ambassador of France to India conferred Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Meriteon Payal S. Kanwar Director General, Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/politics/2268084-cuba-municipal-elections-see-lowest-turnout-in-40-years | 2022-11-28T20:14:53 | en | 0.969665 |
JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a coalition deal with a small ultranationalist faction leader known for homophobic rhetoric and disparaging remarks about non-Orthodox Jews, a sign of the prospective government’s hardline makeup.
Netanyahu’s Likud party announced Sunday that the agreement names Noam faction leader Avi Maoz as a deputy minister whose portfolio includes an office bolstering Jewish identity among Israelis.
The incremental step is part of Netanyahu’s effort to hammer out a power-sharing agreement with his potential ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist allies following the Nov. 1 parliamentary election. Netanyahu stands poised to form one of the most hardline religious and nationalist governments in Israel’s history.
Maoz is a Jewish fundamentalist and West Bank settler who is an outspoken opponent to LGBTQ rights and women serving in the military, and has voiced opposition to Arabs teaching Jewish students in Israeli schools. He has denied the legitimacy of non-Orthodox Judaism, including the Reform and Conservative movements, which are marginal in Israel but dominant in the U.S. and have long provided the country with financial and diplomatic support.
Maoz said in a statement that the deal with Likud was the “first step in returning the soul to the country.”
Maoz’s Noam faction ran in the last elections on a joint ticket with Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which won 14 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament, the Knesset, making it the third-largest faction.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has yet to finalize its coalition agreement with all its prospective allies and form a government. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-israels-likud-signs-coalition-deal-with-anti-lgbtq-radical/ | 2022-11-28T20:14:57 | en | 0.945743 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/articles/41676469 | 2022-11-28T20:15:00 | en | 0.738227 |
San Marcos pet owners, pay attention: The city could overhaul its animal ordinance in January, bringing significant changes to sterilization and microchipping, the holding of strays at the shelter, pet shop rules regarding puppy mills, and what to do with feral cats.
The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter’s push to keep more animals off the euthanasia list prompted the proposed revisions.
Some of the more significant changes include:
- A pet won’t be required to be registered, but all pets will be required to be microchipped and have the microchip appropriately registered.
- All healthy adult cats brought into the shelter will be spayed or neutered, and if they’re feral, they’ll be returned to the area where they were found.
- The third time a dog or cat gets lost and goes to the shelter, its owner must spay or neuter it in order to get it back.
- Pet stores must post the name, address and contact information of the source from which a pet for sale was obtained. The goal is to reduce the number of dogs coming from puppy mills.
- An animal impounded at the shelter will be on hold as a stray for three days instead of five.
The city council began discussing the changes at its Nov. 1 and Nov. 15 meetings.
One of the more controversial items on the revised ordinance is returning feral cats to the community instead of keeping them in the shelter until they are either adopted or euthanized. The “trap, neuter, return” approach has long been considered best practice by animal welfare advocates, who say it keeps community cats healthy and in their preferred environment while also reducing the number of cats in shelters.
Under the proposed ordinance, any adult cat without clear identification — like a collar or microchip — that is brought into the shelter will be made a “community cat.” That means it’ll be spayed or neutered, given veterinary care, have the tip of its ear clipped to indicate that it is a community cat, and returned to the area where it was found.
“It’s not super humane to keep cats, take them out of their environment; they stress a lot in the shelter environment,” said DerryAnn Krupinsky, the assistant director of neighborhood enhancement for the city of San Marcos, at the Nov. 1 council meeting. “We wouldn’t want them to pick up an illness in the shelter, and that’s part of the reason for getting them in and out as quickly as possible.”
The city also is reinvigorating its discussion on pet shops after community backlash against a pet store that opened last year at the San Marcos outlet malls. The new ordinance takes aim at puppy mills, which often supply such stores, by requiring the stores to post information about where the puppy came from visibly in its facility.
But Councilman Mark Gleason was hesitant to overhaul the pet store part of the ordinance, saying it might do little to actually keep pet stores from inhumanely sourcing their animals.
“The notion that this is a way to get pet stores to help out with” adopting pets from the county shelter — “that’s not the case,” he said Nov. 1. “That’s not reality.”
But community members who spoke at the Nov. 15 council meeting made it clear they want more regulations for these pet stores.
Shannon Graham, an animal advocate who is against pet stores, said that “passing this ordinance will not limit consumer choice, nor will it create a black market for puppies.” The ordinance changes do not ban local breeders who want to sell American Kennel Club-registered dogs.
Pet store puppies come from parent dogs who are “treated as livestock, yet their offspring are marketed as companion pets,” Graham said at the Nov. 15 meeting.
Ultimately, the nearly 50-page revised ordinance will be taken up in January at the council’s next meeting.
Annie Blanks writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. annie.blanks@express-news.net. | https://www.expressnews.com/hill-country/article/San-Marcos-eyes-animal-rule-overhaul-aims-to-put-17616095.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:01 | en | 0.954336 |
AL WAKRAH, Qatar (AP) — Substitute Vincent Aboubakar scored one goal and created another as Cameroon rallied from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Serbia at the World Cup on Monday.
He lobbed goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in the 64th minute and then set up striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting two minutes later.
The thrilling draw was the first game at the World Cup in Qatar in which both teams gave up a lead.
But the result suited neither side.
They have one point and either Brazil or Switzerland can qualify with a win when they meet later Monday.
Cameroon led through central defender Jean-Charles Castelletto’s 29th minute tap-in but also conceded twice in quick succession.
Strahinja Pavlovic headed home in the first minute of first-half stoppage time and, two minutes later, midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic struck from 20 meters.
Striker Aleksandar Mitrovic made it 3-1 in the 53rd at Al Janoub Stadium.
Cameroon coach Rigobert Song dropped goalkeeper Andre Onana for the match. It was not immediately clear why Onana was left out amid reports it was for disciplinary reasons.
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.news10.com/news/ap-aboubakar-saves-cameroon-in-3-3-tie-with-serbia-at-world-cup/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:01 | en | 0.948565 |
TOKYO (AP) — The number of babies born in Japan this year is below last year’s record low in what the the top government spokesman described as a “critical situation.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno promised comprehensive measures to encourage more marriages and births.
The total of 599,636 Japanese born in January-September was 4.9% below last year’s figure, suggesting the number of births in all of 2022 might fall below last year’s record low of 811,000 babies, he said.
Japan is the world’s third biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged on making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities.
So far, the government’s efforts to encourage people to have more babies have had limited impact despite payments of subsidies for pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
“The pace is even slower than last year … I understand that it is a critical situation,” Matsuno said.
Many younger Japanese have balked at marrying or having families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, onerous commutes and corporate cultures incompatible with having both parents work.
The number of births has been falling since 1973, when it peaked at about 2.1 million. It’s projected to fall to 740,000 in 2040.
Japan’s population of more than 125 million has been declining for 14 years and is projected to fall to 86.7 million by 2060. A shrinking and aging population has huge implications for the economy and for national security as the country fortifies its military to counter China’s increasingly assertive territorial ambitions.
A government-commissioned panel submitted a report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week citing the low birth rate and falling population as factors that might erode Japan’s national strength. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-japan-births-at-new-low-as-population-shrinks-and-ages/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:04 | en | 0.96073 |
U.S. Supreme Court leans toward limiting public corruption prosecutions
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- United States
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared poised to make it tougher to prosecute political corruption cases as they signaled sympathy toward appeals by an ex-aide to Democratic former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and a businessman of bribery and fraud convictions. The justices heard arguments in appeals by Cuomo's former executive deputy secretary Joseph Percoco and onetime construction company executive Louis Ciminelli, who were charged in a corruption crackdown by federal prosecutors in Manhattan centered on the halls of the state capital of Albany.
The Supreme Court in recent years has reined in the types of conduct that can warrant prosecution as corrupt. Conservative and liberal justices asked questions on Monday indicating they still see the Justice Department's view of the class of people who can be targeted under U.S. corruption laws as too broad by implicating private lobbyists in addition to public officials. "There's a concern about interpreting this statute to sweep in lobbying," conservative Justice Samuel Alito said.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan expressed doubt that the government, under its view of the law, could avoid prosecuting someone who is "just a really, really good lobbyist." The Supreme Court's eventual rulings, expected by the end of June, also will affect three co-defendants charged in corruption and fraud cases during Cuomo's tenure as governor involving state contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The charges against Percoco and Ciminelli were brought in 2016 by former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who also brought corruption charges against top state lawmakers including former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Cuomo was not charged but resigned in 2021 in an unrelated sexual harassment scandal. Percoco was convicted in 2018 on bribery-related charges for seeking $315,000 in bribes in exchange for helping two corporate clients of Albany lobbyist Todd Howe seeking state benefits and business. Percoco was sentenced to six years in prison.
Howe pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators. Real estate developer Steven Aiello, who prosecutors said orchestrated bribes to Percoco, was also convicted. At the time of the actions at issue, Percoco was no longer serving in government as Cuomo's aide but instead managing the governor's 2014 re-election campaign, a fact his lawyers said meant he could not be convicted of bribery.
Yaakov Roth, Percoco's lawyer, argued that his status as a private citizen meant that his acceptance of money to convince the government to do something indicated he was not a criminal but a lobbyist who was free to be paid for his influence. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 upheld his conviction, finding Percoco had a guaranteed job in Cuomo's administration post-election and in the interim exercised enough influence over government decision-making to owe a duty to the public.
While the justices expressed concerns about the prosecution, they suggested that the limited scope proposed by Percoco's lawyer of who could be targeted might be too narrow, with Kagan saying it would allow an official to quit the government, take a bribe, then immediately rejoin the government. "There has to be something wrong with that," Kagan said. "But your theory would suggest that you can't prosecute the public official under this statute."
Ciminelli's case focused on Howe's role as a consultant hired to help administer Cuomo's $1 billion revitalization initiative for the Buffalo, New York area. Prosecutors said executives at two companies including Ciminelli conspired with Howe and Alain Kaloyeros, who oversaw the project's grant application process, to rig bids to ensure contracts went to their firms. Ciminelli was convicted alongside Kaloyeros, the former president of State University of New York's Polytechnic Institute, and developers Joseph Gerardi and Aiello. They also have asked the Supreme Court to reverse their convictions.
Ciminelli was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. Michael Dreeben, Ciminelli's lawyer, argued that prosecutors relied on an invalid legal theory of wire fraud that involved depriving a victim not of tangible property but of economically valuable information - a view that even Justice Department lawyer Eric Feigin called "awkward." Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch said there was broad agreement that the legal theory was wrong. But Feigin said Ciminelli's conviction could still be sustained under a "more straight-forward and traditional" interpretation of wire fraud covering property frauds.
The Supreme Court in recent years has limited prosecutors in political corruption cases. In 2020, it overturned the convictions of two aides to Republican former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the "Bridgegate" political scandal. In 2016, it threw out Republican former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell's bribery conviction.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Congress, BJP to raise Archana Nag blackmailing issue in Assembly | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/politics/2268085-us-supreme-court-leans-toward-limiting-public-corruption-prosecutions | 2022-11-28T20:15:04 | en | 0.975501 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/articles/41676717 | 2022-11-28T20:15:06 | en | 0.738227 |
San Antonio police on Sunday arrested a 24-year-old man who had been sought by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in connection with a Thanksgiving Day shooting that resulted in a woman’s death three days later.
Paris Shaw was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary of a building, evading arrest and criminal trespass. More charges are forthcoming due to the death of the woman who was shot, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies responded to a report of shooting in progress just before midnight on Thanksgiving at a home in the 10600 block of Barbwire Pass in West Bexar County. When deputies arrived, they found the front door open and could hear someone having difficulty breathing, sheriff’s office officials said.
On ExpressNews.com: Fatal shooting of 70-year-old in apparent road-rage incident in San Antonio leads to murder charge
Inside, deputies found 22-year-old Joanna Baker with a gunshot wound to her head. She was taken to University Hospital in critical condition, where she died Sunday.
Investigators linked Shaw to the shooting and sought a warrant for his arrest. The sheriff’s office did not provide details regarding Shaw’s relationship to Baker.
On Sunday, San Antonio police arrested Shaw in the 6000 block of De Zavala Road after a 911 caller reported seeing a man looking into vehicles. When officers arrived, Shaw attempted to flee on foot but was detained shortly after, according to the sheriff’s office.
While Shaw was in custody, San Antonio police learned that he had warrants out for his arrest and was wanted by the sheriff’s office in connection with the shooting of Baker.
taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Man-arrested-in-fatal-Thanksgiving-Day-shooting-17615892.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:08 | en | 0.973592 |
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) — The city of Chesapeake, Virginia, has scheduled a candlelight vigil for Monday evening that will honor and remember the victims of last week’s mass shooting at a Walmart store.
Six employees were killed and six people were wounded by a store supervisor late Tuesday night in the city of about 250,000 people near Virginia’s Atlantic coastline, police said.
The rampage marked the nation’s second high-profile mass shooting in four days after a person opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and wounding 17.
Police said the shooter at the Walmart was a supervisor who left behind a note that claimed he was harassed and pushed to the brink by a perception his phone was hacked. He died at the scene of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Walmart store associates who died ranged in age from 16 to 70 and were in various stages of life.
Fernando “Jesus” Chavez-Barron, 16, had just started driving and gotten his first part-time job at Walmart to help out his family. Kellie Pyle, 52, recently moved back to the region after reconnecting with her high school sweetheart. They planned to marry next year.
Randy Blevins, 70, had worked at the Walmart for more than 30 years after owning his own five-and-dime store. Brian Pendleton, 38, had recently celebrated his 10-year anniversary at the store and was a “happy-go-lucky” guy who loved to tell jokes.
Lorenzo Gamble, 43, worked there for 15 years. He was the quiet one in his family and enjoyed going to his 19-year-old’s football games. Tyneka Johnson, 22, was young and wanted to make her own money. She also had a sense of style and love for music and dancing.
The vigil starts at 6 p.m. and will be held at Chesapeake City Park. | https://www.news10.com/news/ap-city-to-hold-vigil-honoring-those-killed-in-walmart-shooting/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:08 | en | 0.991798 |
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A judge accepted a plea deal Monday for a man who randomly killed a Florida couple in their garage six years ago and then chewed on one victim’s face that will send him to a mental hospital for treatment.
Austin Harrouff, 25, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of first-degree murder and other charges for the 2016 slayings of John Stevens, 59, and his wife, Michelle Mishcon Stevens, 53. He also seriously injured a neighbor who tried to help them.
Harrouff, who attended Florida State University before the attack, will be committed to a secure mental health facility until doctors and a judge agree that he is no longer dangerous. If the trial had gone forward, Harrouff could have faced life in prison.
A number of family members of the slain couple expressed anger at the decision and made victim impact statements directed at Harrouff, his family, the defense team and prosecutors.
Cindy Mishcon, the sister of Michelle Mishcon and an attorney, laid out a methodical case of why she does not believe that Harrouff was insane when the killings occurred.
“You can’t even look at me?” she asked Harrouff, who was sitting at the defense table, wearing a red and white striped prison uniform and glasses. She said that she had begun writing her victim impact statement when she was “naive enough” to think there would be justice.
Cindy Mishcon said that reality set in for her as she listened to tapes of Harrouff’s jailhouse phone calls with family members and the reading of pages of text messages in the year prior to the killings, which were part of the court record. The text messages with his friends outlined the life of a student who was smoking marijuana, taking other drugs and abusing alcohol during the year before killing the couple.
She said she realized “you don’t care about anyone but yourself” and that “the only victim you and your family see is you, and the Harrouff name.”
“Is it really so hard for you to understand that you are a cold blooded murderer and not a victim,” she asked.
Other family members echoed her sentiments.
The agreement worked out between the defense and prosecution avoided a trial that had been scheduled to start Monday before Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer and had been expected to last three weeks.
The judge said Harrouff will remain in the Martin County Jail until he is taken to a secure mental health facility monitored by the Florida Department of Children and Families. Bauer said he will not be allowed to leave the facility without a court order.
Two mental health experts, one hired by the defense and another by prosecutors, examined Harrouff and found he suffered an acute psychotic episode during the attack, and couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong.
The trial had been delayed by the pandemic, legal wrangling and Harrouff’s recovery from critical injuries suffered while drinking a chemical during the attack.
Defendants are presumed sane under Florida law, meaning that Harrouff must show he had a severe mental breakdown that prevented him from understanding actions or that they were even wrong by “clear and convincing” evidence.
He has claimed he was fleeing a demon when the attack happened.
Craig Trocino, a University of Miami law professor, said that finding Harrouff not guilty by reason of insanity would effectively be a life sentence because “it’s highly unlikely” that they would risk releasing a killer as notorious as Harrouff.
Harrouff’s parents and others said he had acted strangely for weeks. His parents had set up an appointment for him to be evaluated, but the attack occurred first. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-judge-accepts-insanity-plea-deal-for-man-in-face-biting-case/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:11 | en | 0.983225 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/articles/41676760 | 2022-11-28T20:15:12 | en | 0.738227 |
A San Antonio man was sentenced to 30 years in prison last week for video recording himself sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl, the Department of Justice said.
Pedro Damian Martinez, 29, pleaded guilty in September to production of child pornography, and he was sentenced last week.
In August 2021, San Antonio police were called to a home on Village Trail after a caller reported finding graphic videos on Martinez’s iPhone, a federal criminal complaint said. Investigators found several videos of Martinez sexually assaulting the child on multiple occasions.
On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man sentenced for possessing and editing child pornography
When questioned, the 7-year-old girl told police that Martinez gave her “liquid from a brown bottle” and confirmed the assault.
As investigators looked through the phone, they found about 100 additional videos from the internet of child sexual abuse involving children under the age of 10, the complaint said.
“The lengthy sentence imposed in this case is fitting in light of the unthinkable damage this individual inflicted on a child,” U.S. Attorney Ashley Hoff said.
In addition to his sentence, Martinez was ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution to the abused girl.
taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Man-sentenced-to-30-years-for-video-recording-17615943.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:14 | en | 0.966473 |
Sudan's military leader freezes unions to curb Islamists' influence
Sudan's military leader issued decrees on Monday to freeze the activities of trade unions, control their finances and take over their leadership, according to a statement by the ruling sovereign council he heads. The move would sideline former ruling Islamists after their resurgence in the civil service, in the aftermath of the 2021 military takeover, and the re-establishment of unions they had dominated.
Sudan's military leader issued decrees on Monday to freeze the activities of trade unions, control their finances and take over their leadership, according to a statement by the ruling sovereign council he heads.
The move would sideline former ruling Islamists after their resurgence in the civil service, in the aftermath of the 2021 military takeover, and the re-establishment of unions they had dominated. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ordered the formation of a committee to review and take control of the finances of the unions inside Sudan and abroad.
The committee would also form steering committees for the unions until their general assemblies were held. The military takeover halted Sudan's transition to democracy following the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in 2019, and plunged an economy already in crisis further into turmoil.
In the years since Bashir was toppled several professions, such as journalists and lawyers, have begun the process of rebuilding their unions. Since the coup, Islamists have also moved to reconstitute unions they had controlled that were dissolved under the transitional government. Burhan's orders on Monday seems to be an attempt to curb the Islamists' influence, making sure they do not attempt a return to power. The military says it will give up power when a government is in place.
Burhan issued this month a stern warning to Islamists and other political factions against any interference in the military, amid talks with civilian parties to form a non-partisan government. Military leaders and the parties they shared power with before the coup say talks are ongoing towards a new political settlement to end the deadlock that has gripped the country since October 2021.
In a speech on Sunday, Burhan’s deputy General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo leader of the powerful Rapid Support Forces expressed his full support for an agreement.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/politics/2268090-sudans-military-leader-freezes-unions-to-curb-islamists-influence | 2022-11-28T20:15:13 | en | 0.979263 |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded guilty Monday to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, guaranteeing he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea Monday in a courthouse roughly two miles from the grocery store where he used a semiautomatic rifle and body armor to carry out a racist assault he hoped would help preserve white power in the U.S.
Gendron, who was handcuffed and wore an orange jumpsuit, occasionally licked and clenched his lips as he pleaded guilty to all of the most serious charges in the grand jury indictment, including murder, murder as a hate crime and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, which carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.
He answered “yes” and “guilty” as Judge Susan Eagan referred to each victim by name and asked whether he killed them because of their race. Gendron also pleaded guilty to wounding three people who survived the May attack.
Many of the relatives of those victims sat and watched, some dabbing their eyes and sniffling. Speaking to reporters later, several said the plea left them cold. It didn’t address the bigger problem, which they said is racism in America.
“His voice made me feel sick, but it showed me I was right,” said Zeneta Everhart, whose 20-year-old son was shot in the neck but survived. “This country has a problem. This country is inherently violent. It is racist. And his voice showed that to me.”
After the roughly 45-minute proceeding ended, Gendron’s lawyers suggested that he now regrets his crimes, but they didn’t elaborate or take questions.
“This critical step represents a condemnation of the racist ideology that fueled his horrific actions on May 14,” said Gendron’s lawyer, Brian Parker. “It is our hope that a final resolution of the state charges will help in some small way to keep the focus on the needs of the victims and the community.”
Gendron has pleaded not guilty to separate federal hate crime charges that could result in a death sentence if he is convicted. The U.S. Justice Department has not said whether it will seek capital punishment. Acknowledgement of guilt and a claim of repentance could potentially help Gendron in a penalty phase of a death penalty trial.
The plea comes at a time when many Americans have become nearly desensitized to mass shootings. In recent weeks, there have been deadly attacks at a Walmart in Virginia, at a gay club in Colorado and at the University of Virginia.
Just days after Gendron’s rampage in Buffalo, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas.
Gendron wore body armor and used a legally purchased AR-15 style rifle in his attack on the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Those killed ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included an armed security guard died trying to protect customers, a church deacon and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner. Gendron surrendered when police confronted him as he emerged from the store.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who was in the courtroom for Gendron’s guilty plea, told reporters afterwards that “It was important to hear why these precious lives were snatched from us for no other reason than the color of their skin.”
The mayor, a Democrat, called for a ban on assault weapons, as did Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. Relatives of the victims reiterated their calls for Congress and the FBI to address white supremacy and gun violence. “We are literally begging for those in power to do something about it,” said Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was killed.”
White supremacy was Gendron’s motive. He said in documents posted online just before the attack that he’d picked the store, about a three hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York, because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood. He said he was motivated by a belief in a massive conspiracy to dilute the power of white people by “replacing” them in the U.S. with people of color.
“Swift justice,” is how Erie County District Attorney John Flynn described Monday’s result, noting that it’s the first time anyone in the state of New York has been convicted of the hate-motivated terrorism charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 15.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents several of the victims’ families, said they remain baffled that the gunman survived. They want harsh punishment, he said: “We want him to be treated as the heinous, cold blooded vicious murderer that he was for killing all these innocent Black people. It is emotional and we are angry.”
Mark Talley, the son of Geraldine Talley, who was killed, called on authorities to incarcerate him in Erie County, in the same community where he caused so much pain, so that he might face the same horror experienced by his victims. “I want that pain to eat at him every second of every day for the rest of his life,” Talley said.
Talley and Everhart said they were offended by Gendron’s tone and cleaned-up appearance in court. They said a Black defendant would have been treated differently. Gendron is a “thug,” they said.
“We show them in a way that doesn’t make them threatening, and it’s disgusting,” Everhart said.
“Am I happy he’s gong to jail for life?” Tally said. “What would make me happy is if America acknowledged its history of racism.”
___
For more AP coverage of the mass shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/buffalo-supermarket-shooting | https://www.news10.com/news/ap-lawyers-buffalo-supermarket-gunman-plans-to-plead-guilty/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:16 | en | 0.981714 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/articles/41676923 | 2022-11-28T20:15:18 | en | 0.738227 |
MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s leader met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, a week after winning a new seven-year term by a landslide in a snap election.
Kazakhstan is a significant Russian ally, sharing a 7,600-kilometer (4,750-mile) border. But President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has kept his distance from Moscow amid the conflict in Ukraine, notably declining this summer to recognize the Kremlin’s declaration of separatist Ukraine regions as sovereign states.
Tokayev also has sought to reduce the influence of his Russia-friendly authoritarian predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled for three decades. Nazarbayev resigned in 2019, but had retained significant clout as head of the national security council until Tokayev removed him from the post this year.
In comments at the start of the leaders’ meeting, Tokayev said his first visit abroad since he won a new term with more than 80% of the vote has “deep political significance. Of course, there is definitely a certain symbolism in this visit.”
Putin said the countries have a “joint desire to develop our relations precisely in the capacity in which they have developed and will, of course, develop in the future.” | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-kazakh-leader-meets-putin-in-first-post-election-trip-abroad/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:17 | en | 0.974576 |
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SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio’s Jewish and Muslim communities are working together to provide underwear for Afghan refugee children served by the Center for Refugee Services.
A mitzvah is a good deed in the Jewish community, said Marcia Waldgeir, who co-chairs the National Council of Jewish Women-San Antonio’s community outreach team with Ruthie Wurzburg. They partnered with Congregation Agudas Achim on the “worthwhile project.”
“Participating in Undies for Everyone was a mitzvah,” Waldgeir said. “It is heartbreaking to learn that in this country, children go to school without underwear. We are grateful we could help alleviate the problem in our community and hope this will be a yearly endeavor.”
Nearly 40 volunteers gathered at 10 tables in the social hall at the Agudas Achim Synagogue on Huebner Road to work on the initiative created by Rabbi Amy Weiss, honored this year as a CNN Hero. In 2012, she began the nonprofit Undies for Everyone, which has provided more than 2 million pairs of underwear to kids across the nation.
Weiss drove from Houston to help the volunteers as they sorted and rolled 2,700 pairs of new underwear. Agudas Achim Sisterhood provided refreshments for the volunteers who packaged 360 bags of underwear within an hour-and-a-half. Each bag contained seven pair, one for each day of the week. They packed the colorful briefs, many dotted with cartoon characters and superheroes, into 10 boxes.
“This is an opportunity for communities to do a fun and easy volunteer project to help local kids who experience underwear insecurity,” Weiss said.
The Agudas Achim Social Action Committee, led by social action chair Mike Ozer, started the local project. They partnered with the National Council of Jewish Women-San Antonio, which has focused on public service and Tikkun Olam or repair of the world.
Ozer said the congregation, under the leadership of Rabbi Steven Bayar, and the council raised $1,500 to buy the underwear. He said the event was successful and meaningful because they mustered so many volunteers’ help.
“All of the people had a fun time,” Ozer said. “They were conversing with each other, getting the job done and feeling good about their contribution, so the kids could have underwear for the holidays and improve their dignity.”
In addition to the council, volunteers included members of Temple Beth-El and the Muslim Children’s Education and Civic Center.
“As a synagogue, we’re interested in reaching out to the Muslim community,” Ozer said.
Center staff member and volunteer Gety Siddiqui, 77, said it was good to know they were helping people in need.
“It’s a very good feeling,” Siddiqui said. “That’s how it should be. We respect each other’s religion and each other’s culture. We work together.”
Jill Rips oversees women and children’s services at the Center for Refugee Services and drove a truck over to pick up the boxes. The center offers families job assistance, a food pantry, English as a second language classes, health and wellness support and youth activities.
“They’ll be so thrilled to get this colorful, fun underwear,” Rips said. “We really rely on the community for donations. We went from serving 1,000 active clients to 4,500 active clients. We’ve taken on new expenses since August 15 and the arrival of clients from Afghanistan.”
The packages will be distributed at a holiday toy event at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7420 Huebner Road, from Dec. 19 to Dec. 24. The center plans to invite 2,000 children. Rips said volunteers and toy donations are still needed. For more information, call Jean Sherrill at 210-445-6468 or email jeanasherrill80@gmail.com.
She said the center is grateful for the undergarments and donations from the group, including baby layettes, blankets, diapers and winter clothing.
“It was delightful that the Muslim and Jewish communities are coming together to address the need,” Rips said. “This is how our beautiful mosaic of San Antonio should be working together.”
vtdavis@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Undies-for-Everyone-San-Antonio-s-Jewish-17616022.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:20 | en | 0.959566 |
‘Critical opportunity’ to protect against biological warfare, countries hear
The international community should push ahead with stalled plans to prevent biological weapons from being developed in the wake of COVID-19, the UN’s top disarmament official insisted on Monday.
The international community should push ahead with stalled plans to prevent biological weapons from being developed in the wake of COVID-19, the UN’s top disarmament official insisted on Monday.
In a speech to the Biological Weapons Convention, Izumi Nakamitsu explained that the issue of verifying whether biological toxins are being made has been deadlocked for 20 years.
Tweet URL"No topic should be off the table in the quest to strengthen the Convention" - in her opening remarks for the #BWCRevCon @UN_Disarmament HR @Inakamitsu called the States Parties to 1 -operationalize 2- institutionalize 3 - fund the BWC & 4 - explore options for verification https://t.co/CY2TsboZkD
BWC Implementation Support Unit BWCISU November 28, 2022
“While bringing biosafety and biosecurity to a much higher prominence, the pandemic also demonstrated the disruption that could be caused if biological agents were to be used in a deliberate manner as weapons of war or terror,” Ms. Nakamitsu said.
Biosafety first
Novel ideas need to be found to leverage “the tools of modern science to develop a politically acceptable verification protocol”, the UN disarmament official maintained, as countries gathered for three weeks of meetings – a once in every five-year review of the Biological Weapons Convention, that was delayed by a further year, because of COVID-19.
“No topic should be off the table in the quest to strengthen the Convention,” she continued, urging support for peaceful scientific cooperation, enhanced transparency in research and the promotion of emerging technologies for good.
“This Review Conference therefore presents a critical opportunity for States to come together to strengthen this vital Convention,” Ms. Nakamitsu insisted.
Consensus-building
Although it is deemed unlikely that consensus will be achieved on restarting negotiations on legally binding protocols in the coming weeks in Geneva, the designated President of this Ninth Review Conference, Italy’s Leonardo Bencini, said that that there might well be agreement on “the way forward to restart discussions on the issue of verification and compliance”.
Experimental risk
Ambassador Bencini further explained that unlike nuclear weapons development “in theory you have hundreds of thousands of facilities, establishments, that could be weaponized”.
To help to prevent this, some Member States are pushing for an “open and transparent” code of conduct for scientists working within the remit of the Convention, the Ambassador said.
This would “make it more difficult for anybody to develop programmes without other colleagues knowing this”, he added.
“We need to have something which is not just concerns the ethical commitment of scientists, to behave in a certain way and to share information among the scientific community but within the scientific community, but also something that could be implemented at the national level.”
Coronavirus factor
Ambassador Bencini noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had also highlighted the need for the Biological Weapons Convention to be updated, to take into account the danger of a global pandemic-like threat to humans, animals and plant life.
The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention is the primary international framework for tackling the threat of biological warfare. It prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxic weapons. There are currently 184 States Parties to the international treaty.
“Rising tensions around the globe are instigating a geopolitical crisis, which is putting multilateral disarmament under great stress,” Ms. Nakamitsu said. “Multilateral processes have been stalled or curtailed. The international community should remain vigilant as we have seen norms against other previously prohibited weapons eroding in recent years.”
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You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/articles/41677208 | 2022-11-28T20:15:24 | en | 0.738227 |
HOUSTON (AP) — More than 2 million people in the Houston area were under a boil order notice Monday after a power outage at a purification plant caused water pressure to drop, and the mayor of the nation’s fourth-largest city ordered a full review of the system.
The notice tells customers to boil water before it’s used for cooking, bathing or drinking. Multiple Houston area public and private schools, as well as some local colleges, were closed Monday as a result of the notice, while others made adjustments to provide affected campuses with bottled water and sanitizer.
The notice was issued Sunday, hours after two transformers failed, causing power outages at the water plant, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a press conference Monday. There was no indication the water system had been contaminated.
Water quality testing was underway, Turner said. He said he expects the notice to be lifted by early Tuesday at the latest, once the state’s environmental agency gives an all-clear after analyzing test results.
According to Turner, the city issued a notice, which affects all of Houston and multiple adjacent areas, in an “abundance of caution” after the two transformers— a main one and its backup— “uniquely and coincidentally” failed. The problem affected the plant’s ability to treat water and pump water into the transmission system, resulting in low water pressure.
The power system at the water plant undergoes regular maintenance, Turner said, but he did not give a timeline for how often. The mayor said he has ordered a diagnostic review of the system to understand how this was possible and how it can be prevented. He said because the issue was within the plant’s system, backup power generators would not have made a difference.
Sixteen sensors marked dips under the minimum pressure levels required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — 14 of them for only 2 minutes and two of them for nearly 30 minutes, Turner said.
Untreated groundwater can enter a water system through cracked pipes when water pressure drops. Customers are told to boil water to kill bacteria that could be harmful.
“We are optimistic the results will come back clean,” Turner said.
Turner defended the decision to warn residents about the water quality several hours after the issue first occurred and apologized for the disruptions to businesses, schools and elective surgeries. He said the dip in pressure did not automatically trigger a water boil notice, but a decision was made to issue one based on the data once the city consulted with and was instructed to do so by TCEQ.
Water infrastructure and quality has been a prominent issue in cities large and small throughout the U.S., including Baltimore; Honolulu; Jackson, Mississippi; and Flint, Michigan.
___
Follow AP’s full coverage of water treatment: https://apnews.com/hub/water-treatment | https://www.news10.com/news/ap-water-boil-order-issued-for-more-than-2-million-in-houston/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:23 | en | 0.974564 |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded guilty Monday to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, guaranteeing he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea Monday in a courthouse roughly two miles from the grocery store where he used a semiautomatic rifle and body armor to carry out a racist assault he hoped would help preserve white power in the U.S.
Gendron, who was handcuffed and wore an orange jumpsuit, occasionally licked and clenched his lips as he pleaded guilty to all of the most serious charges in the grand jury indictment, including murder, murder as a hate crime and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, which carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.
He answered “yes” and “guilty” as Judge Susan Eagan referred to each victim by name and asked whether he killed them because of their race. Gendron also pleaded guilty to wounding three people who survived the May attack.
Many of the relatives of those victims sat and watched, some dabbing their eyes and sniffling. Speaking to reporters later, several said the plea left them cold. It didn’t address the bigger problem, which they said is racism in America.
“His voice made me feel sick, but it showed me I was right,” said Zeneta Everhart, whose 20-year-old son was shot in the neck but survived. “This country has a problem. This country is inherently violent. It is racist. And his voice showed that to me.”
After the roughly 45-minute proceeding ended, Gendron’s lawyers suggested that he now regrets his crimes, but they didn’t elaborate or take questions.
“This critical step represents a condemnation of the racist ideology that fueled his horrific actions on May 14,” said Gendron’s lawyer, Brian Parker. “It is our hope that a final resolution of the state charges will help in some small way to keep the focus on the needs of the victims and the community.”
Gendron has pleaded not guilty to separate federal hate crime charges that could result in a death sentence if he is convicted. The U.S. Justice Department has not said whether it will seek capital punishment. Acknowledgement of guilt and a claim of repentance could potentially help Gendron in a penalty phase of a death penalty trial.
The plea comes at a time when many Americans have become nearly desensitized to mass shootings. In recent weeks, there have been deadly attacks at a Walmart in Virginia, at a gay club in Colorado and at the University of Virginia.
Just days after Gendron’s rampage in Buffalo, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas.
Gendron wore body armor and used a legally purchased AR-15 style rifle in his attack on the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Those killed ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included an armed security guard died trying to protect customers, a church deacon and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner. Gendron surrendered when police confronted him as he emerged from the store.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who was in the courtroom for Gendron’s guilty plea, told reporters afterwards that “It was important to hear why these precious lives were snatched from us for no other reason than the color of their skin.”
The mayor, a Democrat, called for a ban on assault weapons, as did Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. Relatives of the victims reiterated their calls for Congress and the FBI to address white supremacy and gun violence. “We are literally begging for those in power to do something about it,” said Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was killed.”
White supremacy was Gendron’s motive. He said in documents posted online just before the attack that he’d picked the store, about a three hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York, because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood. He said he was motivated by a belief in a massive conspiracy to dilute the power of white people by “replacing” them in the U.S. with people of color.
“Swift justice,” is how Erie County District Attorney John Flynn described Monday’s result, noting that it’s the first time anyone in the state of New York has been convicted of the hate-motivated terrorism charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 15.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents several of the victims’ families, said they remain baffled that the gunman survived. They want harsh punishment, he said: “We want him to be treated as the heinous, cold blooded vicious murderer that he was for killing all these innocent Black people. It is emotional and we are angry.”
Mark Talley, the son of Geraldine Talley, who was killed, called on authorities to incarcerate him in Erie County, in the same community where he caused so much pain, so that he might face the same horror experienced by his victims. “I want that pain to eat at him every second of every day for the rest of his life,” Talley said.
Talley and Everhart said they were offended by Gendron’s tone and cleaned-up appearance in court. They said a Black defendant would have been treated differently. Gendron is a “thug,” they said.
“We show them in a way that doesn’t make them threatening, and it’s disgusting,” Everhart said.
“Am I happy he’s gong to jail for life?” Tally said. “What would make me happy is if America acknowledged its history of racism.”
___
For more AP coverage of the mass shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/buffalo-supermarket-shooting | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-lawyers-buffalo-supermarket-gunman-plans-to-plead-guilty/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:25 | en | 0.981714 |
In one of the most shocking developments of this century, a new study has determined that San Antonio has some of the worst traffic in Texas.
We know this is not really a revelation. No Alamo City driver is surprised to learn we’re in the top percentile for driving misery.
Texas A&M’s Transportation Institute recently released its latest study of the 100 most congested roadways in Texas, with 10 area roads having some of the worst bottlenecks in the state.
This year's ranking includes two more congested local roads than the previous year. And while San Antonio saw some of its roadways rank higher on the list, Alamo City drivers can at least take comfort in knowing our traffic isn’t as awful as Austin, the city that thinks it has better breakfast tacos.
You might also like: ‘Like it’s a speedway’: The deadliest road in San Antonio has claimed more than 40 lives in the last decade
The top four cities for congestion are the usual suspects, with Texas’ four largest metro areas leading the pack: Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.
For the study, Texas A&M compared Texas Department of Transportation traffic counts and measured congestion by the number of extra hours of delays experienced by motorists on 1,800 road sections.
San Antonio’s Culebra Road is the worst area road. It ranks No. 21 statewide, with the most horrific segment being on the far West Side between Galm Road and Loop 1604, according to the study. The road was previously ranked No. 511.
Culebra also happens to be the deadliest road in San Antonio, according to an Express-News analysis of data from the Texas Department of Transportation. More fatal vehicle crashes have occurred on Culebra than on any other road in San Antonio, excluding freeways.
Since 2012, 48 of the 700 fatal crashes in San Antonio recorded by state officials were on Culebra.
The study also found that San Antonio’s most horrific driving conditions can be found on Loop 1604, Loop 410 and Interstate 35.
Below are the rest of San Antonio’s worst areas for bottlenecks:
No. 27: Loop 1604 between U.S. 281 and Interstate 10.
No. 31: Interstate 35 between the Loop 410 cutoff and Loop 1604 North.
No. 43: I-35 between Northeast Loop 410 and E 410.
No. 49: Loop 410 between U.S. 281 and I-10.
No. 50: I-35 between Natural Bridge Caverns Road and Loop 1604.
No. 60: Loop 1604 between I-10 and Braun Road.
No. 83: I-35/I-10 between I-37 and U.S. 87
No. 84: Loop 410 between U.S. 281 and I-35
No. 96: Bandera Road from FM 1560 and Loop 410.
For those keeping track, Loop 1604 between U.S. 281 and Interstate 281 jumped eight spots from last year’s ranking. Loop 1604 between I-10 and Braun Road fell 19 spots. New this year are the Culebra and Bandera roads' rankings.
The most awful roads in Texas are Houston's Interstate 610 West between I-10 and Interstate 69; Dallas’ 366 between U.S. 75 and N. Beckley Avenue; and I-35 between U.S. 290 and U.S. 290 E; and Austin’s I-35 between U.S. 290/Ben White Boulevard and U.S. 290 E.
The authors of the study are Ibrahima Tembely of TxDOT and David Schrank, a senior research scientist for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
Tembely and Schrank write that traffic is almost back to pre-pandemic levels in 45 of the top road sections. Delays per mile were nearly the same as in 2019.
Also on ExpressNews.com: How Ken Paxton cast a social worker registering disabled voters as Texas’ worst election criminal
While vehicle delays were up 72 percent from 2020, the first year of the pandemic, they were still 28 percent below than what they were in 2019.
Before you blame all of the Californians moving to Texas, the data in the study does not show what is causing the congestion on a given roadway. It also does not identify solutions.
“It is clear with the growth that Texas has experienced and is projected to experience in the coming decades that many different solutions will be needed to address the future of transportation in Texas,” Tembley and Schrank write.
The study suggests San Antonio drivers spent an average of 31.2 million hours stuck in traffic in 2021.
timothy.fanning@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/most-congested-roads-san-antonio-17615818.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:26 | en | 0.957338 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/articles/41677298 | 2022-11-28T20:15:30 | en | 0.738227 |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two deliberating jurors at the rape trial of former “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson were dismissed Monday because they have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo replaced the jurors with two alternates and told the panel to start over with deliberations.
The jurors were returning Monday from a week off after telling Olmedo on Nov. 18 that they were deadlocked and could not reach a verdict on any of the three rape counts against Masterson after nearly three days of deliberations.
The judge told them it was too soon to declare a mistrial and to keep deliberating when they returned from the holiday break.
Masterson, 46, is charged with the rape of three women, including a former girlfriend, in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003.
He has pleaded not guilty, and the defense said the acts were consensual. | https://www.news10.com/news/entertainment/ap-2-sick-jurors-lost-from-deliberations-at-masterson-trial/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:31 | en | 0.985904 |
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Former Pennsylvania Senator Milton Street died Monday morning at the age of 81.
His family released a statement calling the former legislator first a foremost an activist for the people.
Street was the brother of former Philadelphia Mayor John Street and uncle of Pa. Senator Sharif Street.
Action News has learned Street was surrounded by his family when he passed. | https://6abc.com/milton-street-death-former-senator-dies-pa-state/12503831/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:32 | en | 0.988311 |
BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Germany said Monday they have issued a new arrest warrant in separate cases for a German man who is also suspected in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal 15 years ago.
The suspect, identified by media as Christian Brueckner, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he also committed in Portugal in 2005. His prison term is scheduled to end in September 2025.
Concerned that he might be released before standing trial again, prosecutors in the northern city of Braunschweig announced last month that they had charged the 45-year-old in five separate cases involving sexual offenses allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
The Braunschweig state court said it has approved an arrest warrant on the grounds that there is “urgent reason” to believe he was behind three cases of serious rape and two cases of child sexual abuse. The arrest warrant must still be approved by authorities in Italy, where he was arrest in 2018 before being extradited to Germany.
The Braunschweig court has said a decision on whether to send the case to trial — a necessary step in the German legal process — is still pending. Due to its calendar of other cases, the opening of any trial cannot be expected before next year, it said.
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he remains under investigation on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-new-arrest-warrant-issued-for-mccann-suspect-in-other-cases/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:32 | en | 0.979512 |
ANALYSIS-Soccer-Tite finds in Vinicius Jr the perfect replacement for Neymar
Brazil earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Switzerland on Monday to progress to the knockout stage of the World Cup - and appear to have found a new talisman in Vinicius Jr in their quest for a sixth champions title. The 22-year-old Real Madrid prodigy was the best player on the pitch.
Brazil earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Switzerland on Monday to progress to the knockout stage of the World Cup - and appear to have found a new talisman in Vinicius Jr in their quest for a sixth champions title.
The 22-year-old Real Madrid prodigy was the best player on the pitch. He created most of Brazil's chances and drew the attention of three Swiss defenders in the build-up to the winner, leaving Casemiro wide open in the box to score. It was a tough and compelling match against a strong and organised Switzerland team who did not make it easy for Brazil and frustrated them in a goalless first half.
Coach Tite had struggled to find the best way to replace his star player Neymar, who has been ruled out of the group stage by an ankle injury suffered in Brazil's opening 2-0 win over Serbia. After daring to abandon his traditionally defensive approach to unleash so much attacking talent in the first match against Serbia, he took a step back on Monday and went for power over finesse, choosing to pair Fred with his Manchester United team mate Casemiro to strengthen the midfield.
He tried to push Paqueta forward into a playmaking role but the desired result failed to materialise, with a team that was clueless on how to deliver the ball to their wingers' feet. Tite quickly realised that replacing a talented and jet-heeled player like Neymar with two slow midfielders was not the way and brought in flamboyant Real Madrid forward Rodrygo from the bench after the break. Brazil finally looked like the aggressive side who captivated the world against Serbia.
With his mate Rodrygo close up-front, it was time for Vinicius Jr to show why he is one of world's top rising stars, beating pairs of defenders like they were nothing and putting all the stadium on their feet every time he touched the ball. The 22-year-old scored Real Madrid's winner in the Champions League final against Liverpool, and finished eighth in the Ballon D'Or ballot last month, elevating him to world-class level in his fifth season with the Spanish giants.
He shares many similarities with the young Neymar. He plays in the same position his idol occupied at Santos and Barcelona, and drives the attention of his rivals like only those with that inexplicable gift, the it-factor, can do. Vini can sometimes be a little chaotic and over the top, and make silly mistakes due to a lack of attention and rushing decisions. But he is always dangerous, a difference-maker that every team dreams of having.
Tite should rely on Vinicius going forward and keep the aggressive mentality when making his team selection. He has an outstanding new generation of talent up-front and after two games it is clear that is Brazil biggest strength in their quest for the record-extending sixth title.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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EXCLUSIVE-Soccer-Brazil's Vinicius wants to use football for greater good
EXCLUSIVE-Soccer-Brazil's Vinicius wants to use football for greater good
Soccer-World Cup poorer without Mane says ex-Liverpool teammate Van Dijk | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268079-analysis-soccer-tite-finds-in-vinicius-jr-the-perfect-replacement-for-neymar | 2022-11-28T20:15:31 | en | 0.971406 |
Player of the Week
Demar Burton, Brandeis: senior, forward/center — Burton scored a combined 60 points in victories against Buda Johnson and O’Connor.
Burton had 31 points and eight 3-pointers in a 65-61 victory against Johnson. He also had 29 points and six 3-pointers in a 64-61 win against O’Connor.
Game balls
• Bandera’s Kayden Brown had 17 points, 15 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in a 53-47 win against Blanco. He also had 14 points, six rebounds and three assists in a 48-35 win against Kennedy. Brown combined for eight 3-pointers in both games.
• Warren’s Jaylen Crocker-Johnson had 27 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks and four assists in a 62-39 win against Clark.
• Marshall’s Nathaniel Dumes had 10 points, 16 rebounds, four blocks and three steals in a 63-44 win against MacArthur.
David Hinojosa
Coaches may nominate athletes at dhinojosa@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/high-school/article/Boys-Basketball-Brandeis-Demar-Burton-named-17616107.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:32 | en | 0.969077 |
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NEW YORK (AP) — “Gaslighting” — behavior that’s mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year.
Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year.
The gaslighting was pervasive.
“It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s unveiling.
“It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year,” he said.
There were deepfakes and the dark web. There were deep states and fake news. And there was a whole lot of trolling.
Merriam-Webster’s top definition for gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that “causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”
More broadly, the dictionary defines the word thusly: “The act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.”
Gaslighting is a heinous tool frequently used by abusers in relationships — and by politicians and other newsmakers. It can happen between romantic partners, within a broader family unit and among friends. It can be a corporate tactic, or a way to mislead the public. There’s also “medical gaslighting,” when a health care professional dismisses a patient’s symptoms or illness as “all in your head.”
Despite its relatively recent prominence — including “Gaslighter,” The Chicks’ 2020 album featuring the rousingly angry titular single — the word was brought to life more than 80 years ago with “Gas Light,” a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton.
It birthed two film adaptations in the 1940s. One, George Cukor’s “Gaslight” in 1944, starred Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist and Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton. The two marry after a whirlwind romance and Gregory turns out to be a champion gaslighter. Among other instances, he insists her complaints over the constant dimming of their London townhouse’s gaslights is a figment of her troubled mind. It wasn’t.
The death of Angela Lansbury in October drove some interest in lookups of the word, Sokolowski said. She played Nancy Oliver, a young maid hired by Gregory and told not to bother his “high-strung” wife.
The term gaslighting was later used by mental health practitioners to clinically describe a form of prolonged coercive control in abusive relationships.
“There is this implication of an intentional deception,” Sokolowski said. “And once one is aware of that deception, it’s not just a straightforward lie, as in, you know, I didn’t eat the cookies in the cookie jar. It’s something that has a little bit more devious quality to it. It has possibly an idea of strategy or a long-term plan.”
Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based solely on data. Sokolowski and his team weed out evergreen words most commonly looked up to gauge which word received a significant bump over the year before.
They don’t slice and dice why people look up words, which can be anything from quick spelling and definition checks to some sort of attempt at inspiration or motivation. Some of the droves who looked up “gaslighting” this year might have wanted to know, simply, if it’s one or two words, or whether it’s hyphenated.
“Gaslighting,” Sokolowski said, spent all of 2022 in the top 50 words looked up on merriam-webster.com to earn top dog word of the year status. Last year’s pick was “vaccine.” Rounding out this year’s Top 10 are:
— “Oligarch,” driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
— “Omicron,” the persistent COVID-19 variant and the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
— “Codify,” as in turning abortion rights into federal law.
— “Queen consort,” what King Charles’ wife, Camilla is newly known as.
— “Raid,” as in the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
— “Sentient,” with lookups brought on by Google canning the engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient.
— “Cancel culture,” enough said.
— “LGBTQIA,” for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual, aromantic or agender.
— “Loamy,” which many Wordle users tried back in August, though the right word that day was “clown.”
___
Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie | https://www.news10.com/news/entertainment/ap-what-headline-gaslighting-merriam-websters-word-of-2022/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:37 | en | 0.959256 |
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Offensive Player of the Week
Ashton Dubose, Brennan: senior, quarterback — Dubose tallied five touchdowns — four rushing and one passing — in the Bears’ 34-17 victory against Austin Lake Travis in a Class 6A Division I regional semifinal.
Dubose scored from 7, 7, 1 and 31 yards on the ground. He also completed a 24-yard pass to his brother, Aaron Dubose, that helped seal the victory.
The Bears next face three-time reigning state champion Austin Westlake in a state quarterfinal at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Alamodome.
Defensive Player of the Week
David De Hoyos, Smithson Valley: senior, defensive back — De Hoyos recorded 22 tackles with five solo and one sack in the Rangers’ 31-13 victory against Fulshear in a Class 5A Division I regional semifinal.
Smithson Valley faces College Station in the state quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Saturday in Pflugerville.
It is the Rangers’ first state quarterfinal appearance since 2015.
Game balls
• Boerne’s Jaxon Baize passed for 249 yards and three touchdowns in the Greyhounds’ 51-0 victory against Port Lavaca Calhoun in a Class 4A Division II regional semifinals.
Boerne improved to 13-0 for the first time in school history.
The Greyhounds next face Corpus Christi Calallen in a state quarterfinal at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Alamo Stadium.
• Poth’s Matthew Bunn rushed for 228 yards and five touchdowns on 14 carries in the Pirates’ 55-13 victory against Taft in the Class 3A Division II regional semifinals.
The Pirates next face Tidenhaven in a state quarterfinal at 7 p.m. at Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos.
• Holy Cross’ Joe-Angel Perez rushed for 134 yards and three touchdowns in a 36-32 loss against Cypress Christian in a TAPPS Division III state semifinal.
David Hinojosa | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/high-school/article/Football-Brennan-s-Dubose-Smithson-Valley-s-17616105.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:39 | en | 0.91529 |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian general on Monday acknowledged that more than 300 people have been killed in the unrest surrounding nationwide protests, giving the first official word on casualties in two months.
That estimate is considerably lower than the toll reported by Human Rights Activists in Iran, a U.S.-based group that has been closely tracking the protests since they erupted after the Sept. 16 death of a young woman being held by the country’s morality police.
The activist group says 451 protesters and 60 security forces have been killed since the start of the unrest and that more than 18,000 people have been detained.
The protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. They quickly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy and pose one of the most serious challenges to the ruling clerics since the 1979 revolution that brought them to power.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the aerospace division of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, was quoted by a website close to the Guard as saying that more than 300 people have been killed, including “martyrs,” an apparent reference to security forces. He also suggested that many of those killed were ordinary Iranians not involved in the protests.
He did not provide an exact figure or say where his estimate came from.
Authorities have heavily restricted media coverage of the protests. State-linked media have not reported an overall toll and have largely focused on attacks on security forces, which officials blame on shadowy militant and separatist groups.
Hajizadeh reiterated the official claim that the protests have been fomented by Iran’s enemies, including Western countries and Saudi Arabia, without providing evidence. The protesters say they are fed up after decades of social and political repression, and deny having any foreign agenda.
The protests have spread across the country and drawn support from artists, athletes and other public figures. The unrest has even cast a shadow over the World Cup, with some Iranians actively rooting against their own national team because they see it as being linked to the government.
The niece of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently called on people to pressure their governments to cut ties with Tehran over its violent suppression of the demonstrations.
In a video posted online by her France-based brother, Farideh Moradkhani urged “conscientious people of the world” to support Iranian protesters. The video was shared online this week after Moradkhani’s reported arrest on Nov. 23, according to the activist group.
Moradkhani is a long-time activist whose late father was an opposition figure married to Khamenei’s sister and is the closest member of the supreme leader’s family to be arrested. The branch of the family has opposed Khamenei for decades and Moradkhani has been imprisoned on previous occasions for her activism.
“I ask the conscientious people of the world to stand by us and ask their governments not to react with empty words and slogans but with real action and stop any dealings with this regime,” she said in her video statement.
The protests, now in their third month, have continued despite a brutal crackdown by Iranian security forces using live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas.
Iran refuses to cooperate with a fact-finding mission that the U.N. Human Rights Council recently voted to establish.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not engage in any cooperation, whatsoever, with the political committee,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday.
In a separate development, Iran released a 76-year-old dual Iranian-Austrian citizen from prison for health reasons, the Austria Press Agency reported.
APA quoted the Austrian Foreign Ministry confirming that Massud Mossaheb was given indefinite medical leave. The ministry said “intensive diplomatic efforts” had led to his release, which was first reported by Austrian daily Die Presse. There was no immediate comment from Iran.
Mossaheb was arrested on suspicion of espionage in early 2019 during a visit to the capital, Tehran, and later sentenced to 10 years in prison. He must remain in Iran and report to authorities every other week, APA reported.
Iran has detained several dual nationals in recent years on charges of threatening national security. Analysts and rights groups accuse hard-liners in Iran’s security agencies of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips in negotiations or prisoner swaps with the West, which Tehran denies. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-niece-of-supreme-leader-asks-world-to-cut-ties-with-iran/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:38 | en | 0.975721 |
Soccer-Casemiro magic sends Brazil through as Vini shines
Doha's Stadium 974 thrummed to the samba beat on Monday night as Brazilian fans brought Latin American swagger to this patch of Qatar and Casemiro fired Brazil into the knockout stages of the 2022 World Cup finals with a 1-0 victory over Switzerland.
Doha's Stadium 974 thrummed to the samba beat on Monday night as Brazilian fans brought Latin American swagger to this patch of Qatar and Casemiro fired Brazil into the knockout stages of the 2022 World Cup finals with a 1-0 victory over Switzerland. The midfielder's spectacular 83rd minute goal sent Brazil through with a game to spare and lit a touch paper to a contest that up to then had struggled to smoulder.
"Thank God we scored that goal," Casemiro said. "We were patient...it was an annoying game." But the sea of Brazilian fans will not care about any of that as 80 or so minutes of sloppy passing and directionless play was forgotten in the hysteria of the final minutes.
Tens of thousands of yellow shirts had painted the inside of this quirky stadium bright yellow, broken up only by small pockets of local fans in traditional white robes and a smattering of red Swiss shirts. It was hard to believe this was a match being played on the Arabian Peninsula, for it had every setting of a home game for the Brazilians – from the thunderous roars accompanying every fancy move to the rhythmic beat drummed out throughout.
But if the supporters had planned for a party, the student of soccer might well have suspected otherwise. The two previous World Cup meetings between these two sides had ended in draws - 2-2 in 1950, and 1-1 in 2018. The Brazilians had only won three of their nine match-ups with Switzerland in total, with four drawn and two losses.
This Monday night clash looked to be heading for another stalemate before Casemiro’s moment of pure magic - one which saw him named man-of-the-match. With Brazil increasingly desperate, half-time substitute Rodrygo played a first time ball to Casemiro who struck it with the outside of his foot and it glided – in time-honoured Brazilian fashion – past Yann Sommer in goal.
The Swiss keeper could only watch in horror as the ball bulged the side of the inside of his goal. Cue cacophony. But while Rodrygo provided the assist, Casemiro and Brazil owe the bigger debt of gratitude to Vinicius Jr for the goal – Brazil’s newest superstar had drawn three increasingly desperate defenders onto him in a smart move which created rare space for the goal.
As important as Monday's victory was for Brazil, perhaps of more importance was the performance of Vinicius Jr – Vini to his team mates. The 22-year-old underlined his credentials as the perfect replacement for Neymar, a player who seems to physically break down every time Brazil need him the most.
The PSG superstar missed Monday’s match and is unable to play the final dead group game as he recovers from yet another ankle injury suffered in Brazil’s debut against Serbia. But with a plug-and-play genius like Vinicius Jr ready to take on the mantle of chief playmaker, Tite and the whole of Brazil can rest easy.
Winded by a cruel moment of Brazilian brilliance, the Swiss slumped and the match could well have ended two or 3-0, but that would have been unduly harsh on the Europeans who, for the most part, blunted their opponents. The Swiss, though, can take heart from their performance and a win against Serbia in their final group match will send them through along with Brazil, and a draw could even be enough.
"I cant really blame the team, they did a good job today," said Swiss coach Murat Yakin. "We have a lot of good takeaways for the next game – one we have control over."
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Confident that this group can lift World Cup: Matthew Hayden to Pakistan team | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268081-soccer-casemiro-magic-sends-brazil-through-as-vini-shines | 2022-11-28T20:15:39 | en | 0.974846 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/articles/41676558 | 2022-11-28T20:15:42 | en | 0.738227 |
Player of the Week
Madison Guzman, Jefferson: senior, guard - Guzman recorded a triple-double (12 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds) in the Mustangs’ 68-48 victory against La Vernia. She also had six steals.
Game balls
• Brennan’s Zanyra Adams had 17 points, five rebounds, two steals in the Bears’ 68-45 victory against Judson.
• Lytle’s Cadee Martinez combined for 70 points, 15 rebounds and nine steals in victories against Jourdanton and Pleasanton.
• Wagner’s Sahvani Sancho had 17 points, five 3-pointers, five rebounds and three assists in the Thunderbirds’ 71-48 victory against Brandeis.
David Hinojosa
Coaches may nominate athletes at dhinojosa@express-news.net | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/high-school/article/Girls-Basketball-Jefferson-s-Madison-Guzman-17616110.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:45 | en | 0.93486 |
SHANGHAI (AP) — Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero COVID” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year.
Demonstrators poured into the streets over the weekend in cities including Shanghai and Beijing, criticizing the policy, confronting police — and even calling for Xi to step down. On Monday, demonstrators gathered in the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy movement was all but snuffed out by a harsh crackdown following monthslong demonstrations that began in 2019.
Students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong chanted “oppose dictatorship” and “Freedom! Freedom!” Floral tributes were laid in the Central district that had been the epicenter of previous protests.
The widespread demonstrations are unprecedented since the army crushed the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Most protesters focused their anger on restrictions that can confine families to their homes for months and have been criticized as neither scientific nor effective. Some complained the system is failing to respond to their needs.
The cries for the resignation of Xi and the end of the Communist Party that has ruled China for 73 years could be deemed sedition, which is punishable by prison.
In response, police in Shanghai used pepper spray to drive away demonstrators, and dozens were detained in police sweeps and taken away in police vans and buses. China’s vast internal security apparatus is also famed for identifying people it considers troublemakers and picking them up later when few are watching.
The possibility of more protests is unclear. Government censors scrubbed the internet of videos and messages supporting them. And analysts say unless divisions emerge, the Communist Party should be able to contain the dissent.
China’s stringent measures were originally accepted for minimizing deaths while other countries suffered devastating waves of infections, but that consensus has begun to fray in recent weeks.
While the ruling party says anti-coronavirus measures should be “targeted and precise” and cause the least possible disruption to people’s lives, local officials are threatened with losing their jobs or other punishments if outbreaks occur. They have responded by imposing quarantines and other restrictions that protesters say exceed what the central government allows.
Xi’s unelected government doesn’t seem too concerned with the hardships brought by the policy. This spring, millions of Shanghai residents were placed under a strict lockdown that resulted in food shortages, restricted access to medical care and economic pain. Nevertheless, in October, the city’s party secretary, a Xi loyalist, was appointed to the Communist Party’s No. 2 position.
The party has long imposed surveillance and travel restrictions on minorities including Tibetans and Muslim groups such as Uyghurs, more than 1 million of whom have been detained in camps where they are forced to renounce their traditional culture and religion and swear fealty to Xi.
But this weekend’s protests included many members of the educated urban middle class from the ethnic Han majority. The ruling party relies on that group to abide by an unwritten post-Tiananmen agreement to accept autocratic rule in exchange for a better quality of life.
Now, it appears that old arrangement has ended as the party enforces control at the expense of the economy, said Hung Ho-fung of Johns Hopkins University.
“The party and the people are trying to seek a new equilibrium,” he said. “There will be some instability in the process.”
To develop into something on the scale of the 1989 protests would require clear divisions within the leadership that could be leveraged for change, Hung said.
Xi all but eliminated such threats at an October party congress. He broke with tradition and awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader and packed the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists. Two potential rivals were sent into retirement.
“Without the clear signal of party leader divisions … I would expect this kind of protest might not last very long,” Hung said.
It’s “unimaginable” that Xi would back down, and the party is experienced in handling protests, Hung said.
China is now the only major country still trying to stop transmission of the virus that was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The normally supportive head of the World Health Organization has called “zero COVID” unsustainable. Beijing dismissed his remarks as irresponsible, but public acceptance of the restrictions has worn thin.
People who are quarantined at home in some areas say they lack food and medicine. And the ruling party faced anger over the deaths of two children whose parents said anti-virus controls hampered efforts to get emergency medical care.
Protests then erupted after a fire on Thursday killed at least 10 people in an apartment building in the city of Urumqi in the northwest, where some residents have been locked in their homes for four months. That prompted an outpouring of angry questions online about whether firefighters or people trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other pandemic restrictions.
Yet Xi, an ardent nationalist, has politicized the issue to the point that exiting the “zero COVID” policy could be seen as a loss to his reputation and authority.
“Zero COVID” was “supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the ‘Chinese model,’ but ended up demonstrating the risk that when authoritarian regimes make mistakes, those mistakes can be colossal,” said Andrew Nathan, a Chinese politics specialist at Columbia University. He edited The Tiananmen Papers, an insider account of the government’s response to the 1989 protests.
“But I think the regime has backed itself into a corner and has no way to yield. It has lots of force, and if necessary, it will use it,” Nathan said. “If it could hold onto power in the face of the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989, it can do so again now.”
___
Associated Press reporters Kanis Leung and Zen Soo and researcher Alice Fung in Hong Kong contributed to this report. | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-chinas-xi-faces-public-anger-over-draconian-zero-covid/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:44 | en | 0.972209 |
James Gray's new film was inspired by his childhood in Queens in the 1980s. Though his grandparents had fled antisemitism in Ukraine, his family didn't recognize their own biases against Black people.
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air
James Gray's new film was inspired by his childhood in Queens in the 1980s. Though his grandparents had fled antisemitism in Ukraine, his family didn't recognize their own biases against Black people.
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air | https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-11-28/armageddon-time-director-explores-how-the-world-is-ruined-by-well-meaning-people | 2022-11-28T20:15:46 | en | 0.997427 |
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani authorities launched a new nationwide anti-polio drive on Monday amid a spike in new cases among children, health officials said. It is the sixth such campaign this year and will last for five days, aiming to inoculate children under the age of 5 in high-risk areas.
The newest drive was aimed at Islamabad and in the high-risk districts in eastern Punjab and southwestern Baluchistan province. A similar campaign will be launched in the northwest in the first week of December.
Pakistan regularly launches polio campaigns despite attacks on workers and police assigned to inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. Since April, Pakistan has registered 20 new polio cases and the outbreak has been seen as a blow to the efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
Pakistan came close to eradicating polio last year, when only one case was reported.
Since then, the new cases have been reported in the northwest, forcing the government to launch anti-polio drives at small intervals in high-risk areas across the country. The last such campaign was launched earlier this month.
Pakistan’s anti-polio campaigns are also supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which last month pledged $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide. The money will be used for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The initiative is aimed at ending the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries, the foundation said last month. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-pakistan-launches-new-anti-polio-drive-amid-spike-in-cases/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:45 | en | 0.957179 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/articles/41676561 | 2022-11-28T20:15:49 | en | 0.738227 |
Soccer-Swiss coach already turning attention to decisive Serbia clash
Swiss coach Murat Yakin bemoaned a lack of attacking courage in his team's 1-0 defeat by Brazil on Monday but said he could not be disappointed by a battling performance that gave him confidence for their decisive game against Serbia.
Swiss coach Murat Yakin bemoaned a lack of attacking courage in his team's 1-0 defeat by Brazil on Monday but said he could not be disappointed by a battling performance that gave him confidence for their decisive game against Serbia. The Swiss had largely kept their illustrious opponents at arm's length for most of a tightly-contested match but were undone by an 83rd-minute goal by Casemiro that sent Brazil through.
Switzerland, on three points, still look well-placed to join them. A win in their game against Serbia would guarantee progress while a draw would also be enough unless Cameroon pull off a shock win over Brazil, which would then mean goal difference would come into play. "The game plan seemed to be working for a long time and we had control of the game," Yakin told reporters. "It's a disappointing outcome as we let it slip through our fingers.
"We lacked courage in attack to a certain extent. Congratulations to Brazil, but with a little more luck we could have done more. I can't really blame the team, they did a good job today, and had good control over a very good Brazil team for some time." Yakin said the performance, coming after their opening win over Cameroon, left the side in a good place ahead of their showdown with Serbia, who will need to win to have any chance of progress. "We are getting more experience in these type of tournaments and we are competitive against the bigger teams," he said. "It was a good performance in many ways and I feel this is the right path for Serbia, which will be completely different.
"I think we can be the dominant team and think we've proven that in the past." Yakin said, however, that they would not take the risk of playing for a draw. "You can't send a team out saying a draw is enough," he said. "We need to try to win this game and we have the skills and quality to do so."
Yakin added that Xherdan Shaqiri had been left out of the match as a precaution after feeling a slight muscle strain but he expected him to be back to face Serbia.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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FACTBOX-Soccer-Switzerland v Cameroon World Cup 2022: kickoff time, venue, stats and odds | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268087-soccer-swiss-coach-already-turning-attention-to-decisive-serbia-clash | 2022-11-28T20:15:48 | en | 0.986805 |
AUSTIN – For the first time since the 2010-11 season, Associated Press voters have ranked Texas as one of the two best teams in the nations.
The Longhorns (5-0) rose two spots to secure the No. 2 slot in this week’s Top 25 rankings, released Monday afternoon. Houston (6-0) took over the top spot for the first time since the 1982-83 season, with Virginia, Arizona and Purdue rounding out the top five. The Cougars landed 45 of 63 first-place votes, with Texas (eight), No. 5 Purdue (eight) and No. 3 Virginia (two) splitting the remaining 18.
Texas has won each of its games by at least 15 points, including a 19-point drubbing of then-No. 2 Gonzaga on Nov. 16. The Longhorns rank fourth nationally in average scoring margin (plus-29.5), third in defensive efficiency and 13th in offensive efficiency, per KenPom.com.
After crushing Northern Arizona and UTRGV by a combined 62 points in last week in the Leon Black Classic, Texas will get another chance to topple a top-10 team this week.
No. 7 Creighton (6-1), which rose three spots this week, comes to the Moody Center Thursday. The Blue Jays last week downed No. 21 Texas Tech and No. 9 Arkansas before falling to No. 14 Arizona 81-79 in the Maui Invitational title game.
Big 12 in the Top 25
No. 2 TEXAS (5-0)
No. 6 Baylor (5-1)
No. 9 Kansas (6-1)
No. 23 Iowa State (5-1)
Others receiving votes: TCU (45), West Virginia (14), Texas Tech (11), Oklahoma (2), Kansas State (1)
Twitter: @NRmoyle | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/longhorns/article/Texas-earns-highest-AP-Top-25-ranking-since-17616067.php | 2022-11-28T20:15:51 | en | 0.933784 |
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A 31-year-old Nigerian man who was seriously injured during a gunfight last year with Danish troops on an anti-piracy mission off West Africa was Monday found guilty of endangering others by a Danish court.
However, the court ruled that the man, had his leg amputated, should be not be jailed because his role during the confrontation at sea was unclear.
On Nov. 25, 2021, the Danish frigate HDMS Esbern Snare was involved in a gun battle with nine suspected pirates whose boat sank. Four of the suspected pirates were killed and one presumably drowned. Four were captured.
A Danish Navy Seahawk helicopter took off from the frigate in response to information that a vessel with pirates was approaching several commercial ships in the Gulf of Guinea, off oil-rich Nigeria.
It reported seeing men with “equipment connected to piracy, including ladders” on the pirates’ vessel. No Danish soldiers, who said they were acting in self-defense, were injured.
After the gunfire exchange, those still alive and the corpses were taken onboard Esbern Snare. Because the ship is Danish territory, a Copenhagen court ordered the four held in custody on the frigate, while authorities investigated the case.
Three were later released because the government in Copenhagen decided not to bring them to the Scandinavian country to face charges. They were placed on a dinghy off West Africa in international waters with enough food, fuel and water to reach land.
The Danes took care of the injured man who was first admitted to a Ghana hospital in December and his leg was amputated. For health and safety reasons it was impossible to leave him there or in the area, so he was transported on Jan. 6 to Denmark where he was charged with endangering others lives for the sake of profit.
On Monday, the Copenhagen District Court rejected his explanation that he didn’t know he was taking part in an act of piracy. However, the court said that there were too many mitigating circumstances in relation to his role that it could not follow the prosecution’s request for prison sentence of up to 15 months.
The prosecution immediately appealed the ruling.
The Gulf of Guinea is one of the world’s most dangerous waterways with regular kidnappings. In 2019, the region accounted for more than 90 percent of global crew member abductions. | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-denmark-nigerian-pirate-found-guilty-but-not-imprisoned/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:52 | en | 0.990547 |
BRUSSELS — Law enforcement authorities in six different countries have joined forces to take down a "super cartel" of drugs traffickers controlling about one third of the cocaine trade in Europe, the European Union crime agency said on Monday.
Europol said 49 suspects have been arrested during the investigation, with the latest series of raids across Europe and the United Arab Emirates taking place between Nov. 8-19.
The agency said police forces involved in "Operation Desert Light" targeted both the "command-and-control center and the logistical drugs trafficking infrastructure in Europe."
Over 30 metric tons (33 tons) of drugs were seized during the investigations run in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UAE with the support of Europol. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also played a role in bringing down the organization, which was also involved in money laundering, Europol said.
"The scale of cocaine importation into Europe under the suspects' control and command was massive," Europol said, adding that the suspects used encrypted communications to organize drugs shipments.
The Netherlands was the country where most of the arrests were made, with 14 suspects arrested in 2021. Europol said six "high-value targets" were arrested in Dubai.
Dutch authorities said one of the suspects arrested in Dubai allegedly imported thousands of kilos of cocaine into the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021. The 37-year-old man with both Dutch and Moroccan nationality is also being prosecuted for laundering large amounts of money and possession of firearms. Police started investigating him after investigators cracked the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC, which is popular with criminals.
A 40-year-old Dutch-Bosnian citizen was also arrested in Dubai following an investigation based on intercepted Sky messages, according to Dutch police. He is suspected of importing into Europe cocaine and raw materials for the production of amphetamines.
Record amounts of cocaine are being seized in Europe. Its availability on the continent has never been higher, with extremely high purity and low prices.
More than 214 tons of cocaine were seized in the region in 2020, a 6% increase from the previous year, and experts from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction believe that amount could reach 300 metric tons (330 tons) in 2022.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/2022-11-28/a-cartel-allegedly-responsible-for-a-third-of-europes-cocaine-has-been-busted | 2022-11-28T20:15:52 | en | 0.973069 |
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — When John Fetterman goes to Washington in January as one of the Senate’s new members, he’ll bring along an irreverent style from Pennsylvania that extends from his own personal dress code — super casual — to hanging marijuana flags outside his current office in the state Capitol.
Pennsylvania’s unique lieutenant governor, who just flipped the state’s open Senate seat to Democrats, may be the only senator ever to be declared an “American taste god” — as GQ magazine once did.
The 6-foot-8 Fetterman will tower over the currently tallest senator, Republican Tom Cotton of Arkansas by 3 inches. And he might be the most tattooed senator (if not the only tattooed senator).
He may break some things: He can be aggressively progressive, campaigning hard on a pledge to rid the Senate of the filibuster rule. He also might become the Senate’s biggest media attraction: He’s plainspoken and, especially on social media, has a wicked wit.
He has a fan in Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom Fetterman endorsed for president in 2016 when Sanders was the insurgent Democrat challenging the establishment favorite in the primary, Hillary Clinton.
Sanders called Fetterman’s race the nation’s marquee contest — a victory for a progressive candidate who focused on economic issues, middle-class struggle and the increasing enrichment of the rich.
“And I think if there’s any candidate who was running more than anybody else, who identified with the working class, who made clear it that he was going to Washington to represent working people, it was John Fetterman,” Sanders told The Associated Press.
Fetterman has played down his own progressivism. Instead, he said the Democratic Party has come around to his long-held positions — such as legalizing marijuana — and has held himself out as a Democrat who votes like a Democrat.
On the campaign trail, Fetterman said he would like to emulate his fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, third-term Sen. Bob Casey, an institution in the state’s politics who campaigned for Fetterman and is lending his chief of staff to help oversee Fetterman’s transition.
Casey doesn’t expect Fetterman’s progressive politics will sideline him, saying Democrats already have a broad coalition that can get things done, such as President Joe Biden’s infrastructure legislation and massive health care and climate change bill.
“I think you see a kind of a broad coalition that’s going to hold together to, you know, to move the country forward. So I think John will fit well into that,” Casey said. “And there’ll be times when he’s got an issue that he wants to pursue that not everyone will want, but we can work through those.”
Fetterman, 53, is fresh off winning the midterm election’s most expensive — and, probably, most unusual — race for Senate.
In the middle of the campaign, Fetterman survived, then recovered from a stroke that he says almost killed him. He went on to beat Dr. Mehmet Oz, the heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity who spent $27 million of his own money after moving from New Jersey to run.
Fetterman still suffers from auditory processing disorder — a stroke’s common aftereffect — that could require him to use closed-captioning in hearings, meetings and debates. It also could possibly limit his ability to engage in the common practice of giving interviews to reporters in Senate corridors.
Fetterman’s fashion sensibility — he sports hoodies and shorts, even in winter — came up on the campaign trail, when Republicans plastered him as someone who dresses like a teenager living in his parents’ basement. At one campaign event for Oz, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., jokingly told the crowd that Oz at least “wears pants.”
In the Senate, Fetterman will be joining the clubbiest of clubs, 100 of the nation’s ultimate insiders: millionaires, scions and king — or queen — makers. His supporters very much see him taking to the Senate differently: as an outsider.
Fetterman became something of a progressive hero without the party’s help, attracting a following as the mayor of a Pittsburgh satellite community. In that role, he performed same-sex marriages before they were legal and got arrested in a demonstration after Pittsburgh’s regional health care giant closed a hospital in Braddock, his poverty-wracked town.
“He’s for us — not for the big movie stars or the big people who have all the money. He’s for the little Pennsylvania guys,” said one supporter, Lydia Thomas.
In a possible preview to his Senate tenure, Fetterman’s campaign struck a balance between insiderism and outsiderism.
He has forged bonds with Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf and got high-profile campaign trail help from Biden and former President Barack Obama. But as lieutenant governor, he forged a reputation as someone who didn’t schmooze with state lawmakers and, as a candidate, who didn’t kiss party insiders’ rings.
When it came time for the state Democratic Party to endorse in the four-way Senate primary, Fetterman dismissed it as transactional; his campaign slagged it off as an “inside game.”
On the campaign trail, Fetterman regularly used Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia as a foil, suggesting Manchin doesn’t vote like a Democrat should and won’t get rid of the filibuster.
At one packed county Democratic party breakfast, he asked voters if there were any “Joe Manchin Democrats” in the room. Nobody spoke up. Then Fetterman told them that a Democrat who doesn’t support eliminating the filibuster “must believe that there are 10 or 12 Republican senators of conscience.” Manchin’s office wouldn’t comment.
It’s not clear that Fetterman views himself as an outsider, or that he intended to run that way. He has dismissed questions about his style or how he would fit into the Senate, saying it should be the least of anyone’s concerns given the stakes.
“Here’s what I promise to never to do: I promise to never incite a riot on Capitol Hill. I promise to never stand up on the floor of the Senate after I’ve been driven from it by a bunch of rioters and lie about our election in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said in an interview last year.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Fetterman was in high demand from TV networks and carried Biden’s shield. As a senator, he may again be in high demand on the Sunday talk shows. And his social media feeds will bear watching: His campaign trolled Oz relentlessly, and he sometimes spits out cuss words when describing things he doesn’t like.
Then there’s his wardrobe. Fetterman has said that he will wear a suit in the Senate chamber and, sure enough, when he showed up for orientation earlier this month, he wore one. He isn’t entirely a stranger to dressing up; he has worn a suit while presiding as lieutenant governor in the state Senate.
Senate aides aren’t sure if the Senate dress code is written down anywhere. And while men are expected to wear jackets and ties, Casey suggests that the dress code isn’t always enforced.
“Lately I’ve seen certain Republican members whose names I will not reveal — but if you watch closely on the video, you can see — have showed up without ties, or sometimes without a jacket,” Casey said.
Fetterman has not always shown reverence for job expectations or requirements he may not like. For instance, as mayor of Braddock, he skipped roughly one-third of the borough council meetings during his 13 years in office, records show.
He skipped dozens of voting sessions in the state Senate during his four years as lieutenant governor, including eight of nine days this fall while he was on the campaign trail. When he did show up to preside, Republican senators complained that he showed a lack of interest in learning the rules of order.
Twice, Republican senators went through extraordinary procedural maneuvers to remove him as the presiding officer in the middle of a voting session, contending he had willfully defied rules of order to help fellow Democrats in partisan showdowns.
Not only that, but he ruffled feathers by hanging flags — such as the pro-marijuana legalization and LGBTQ and transgender-rights flags — from the door of the lieutenant governor’s office and its second-floor outdoor balcony that overlooks the state Capitol’s sweeping front steps.
Republicans, complaining he was turning his Capitol office into a dorm room, slipped a provision into lame-duck budget legislation to stop it — prompting Fetterman to lampoon them as marshaling the “gay pride police.”
The U.S. Senate will have its own partisanship and its own transactional dealings between members. Casey says Fetterman is prepared for it, having been a mayor and lieutenant governor. What may be the biggest change for Fetterman, Casey said, is the demand on his time that will keep him in Washington and away from his wife and three school-age children.
“Your life becomes — because of the schedule of votes and hearings — the time in Washington and that’s different,” Casey said. “Most people don’t have that kind of schedule where … sometimes you’re in Washington more than the state that you represent.”
___
Associated Press national political writer Steve Peoples and video journalist Jessie Wardarski contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/timelywriter | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-pennsylvania-campaign-wildcard-fetterman-turns-to-governing/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:52 | en | 0.970221 |
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PARIS (AP) — A court in the Indian Ocean island of Comoros sentenced former President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi on Monday to life in prison for illegally selling the country’s passports, according to local media reports.
The Court for State Security in the capital Moroni also ordered the confiscation of Sambi’s assets. It handed down sentences of up to 20 years in prison for other officials convicted in the scheme.
According to video of the verdict on local news website Habariza Comores, the presiding judge said Sambi “abused his presidential prerogatives to allow the installation of a mafia-like system for the illegal sale of Comoros passports.”
Sambi was president of the archipelago of less than 1 million people from 2006-2011.
Local media said the passports were sold to stateless people in Gulf countries.
According to Radio France Internationale, prosecutors accused Sambi of embezzling 1.8 billion euros ($1.87 billion) as part of the scheme — more than the country’s annual GDP.
RFI quoted defense lawyer Mahamadou Ahamada as saying there was no proof of embezzlement, saying the trial was politically driven.
Sambi is a political rival of President Azali Assoumani.
___
Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-ex-president-of-comoros-convicted-of-selling-passports/ | 2022-11-28T20:15:58 | en | 0.956961 |
Soccer-Spain's good run at the World Cup down to Xavi's influence, says Laporta
Spain's winning form at the World Cup has a lot to do with the work Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez has done with the players who are on duty with the national team, club president Joan Laporta said on Monday.
Spain's winning form at the World Cup has a lot to do with the work Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez has done with the players who are on duty with the national team, club president Joan Laporta said on Monday. Spain lead Group E -- dubbed the 'group of death' -- with four points after two games. They opened their campaign with a 7-0 thrashing of Costa Rica before being held to a 1-1 draw by Germany on Sunday.
Barcelona's midfielder Gavi became the country's youngest World Cup player in the match against Costa Rica, and the youngest to score since Brazil great Pele in 1958. Laporta said Spain are among the front-runners for the title in Qatar as coach Luis Enrique has been making good use of the players Xavi has trained at Barcelona, who top the LaLiga standings.
"I think (Spain's performance) it's fantastic. It's a source of pride for Barca to see how our players and the national team are playing ... They are one of the favourites to win the World Cup, along with Brazil and France," Laporta told reporters on Monday. "Xavi is doing very well, we are first in LaLiga. What is happening in the Spanish national team is a consequence of Xavi's good work. Luis Enrique has been very successful by creating a block of players, mostly from our club, which facilitates the game.
"The merit of this national team is Xavi's, because he gives them minutes in the Barca first team", he added. Spain take on Japan on Thursday in their final group stage match.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Anything is possible, India also have a chance: Spain hockey stalwart Juan Escarre on FIH Men's Hockey WC 2023 | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268093-soccer-spains-good-run-at-the-world-cup-down-to-xavis-influence-says-laporta | 2022-11-28T20:15:57 | en | 0.979895 |
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Protesters gathered Monday at the home of Poland’s ruling party leader to vent anger at what they regard as an erosion of women’s rights under his conservative government and a recent remark about women using alcohol.
The protesters who gathered outside Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s house spoke out against a near total ban on abortion pushed by his Law and Justice party that took effect last year, as well as policies that discourage in-vitro fertilization procedures.
Women’s Strike, a prominent women’s rights movement, called people to the streets only after Kaczynski earlier this month blamed Poland’s low birthrate partly on young women drinking too much alcohol.
Other demonstrations were taking place in a handful of Polish cities.
While the alcohol comment angered many at the time, the outrage appeared to have subsided as the protest was much smaller than some of the Women’s Strike-led demonstrations of the past year, some of which were huge.
Some people accuse Kaczynski, a 73-year-old bachelor, of being out of touch and not understanding all the reasons that make it difficult today for women to decide to have children.
Women’s Strike says there are many reasons for the country’s low birth rate, including Poland’s de facto prohibition of abortion, a lack of general access to sexual education and in vitro procedures, high inflation, a housing shortage and a lack of access to day care centers.
The protest was being held on a symbolic day: the 104th anniversary of women winning voting rights in Poland, among the world’s earliest.
Kaczynski said at a news conference ahead of the protest that he didn’t understand why the protesters chose to demonstrate in front of his home “since I have always been a supporter of full equality for women.” | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-poles-vent-anger-at-leader-over-his-policies-ideas-on-women/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:00 | en | 0.977487 |
KYIV, Ukraine — As bells rang out at a centuries-old monastery, Ukrainians stepped out into a cold, misty night to light candles in memory of the devastating famine of 1932-33.
This annual commemoration was especially poignant this year, marking 90 years since the famine gripped Ukraine. Many here say Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was trying to destroy Ukraine then, and the current Kremlin leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin, is trying to do the same thing now.
They call it the Holodomor, which means "death by hunger."
At the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide, one visitor, Roman Vashchenko, 44, spoke in somber tones of suffering old and new. First, he recalled stories his grandmother told him.
"She was one of 10 children. They were not allowed to leave their village. So they didn't know what was happening elsewhere," he said. "But they had a cow, and that's why they survived, because they had milk."
Then he spoke of pain that's much more recent.
"In March, the Russians shot and killed my sister and her husband," he said softly. Their sons, ages 12 and 6, survived.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union when Stalin seized private farms and turned them into state-run operations. It was an absolute disaster in this fertile farming region known as the "breadbasket of the Soviet Union."
Other farming regions also suffered famine, including Kazakhstan. But no place was hit as hard as Ukraine.
An estimated 4 million Ukrainians died within two years, though there's no precise figure and some historians say the toll may have been significantly higher.
Ukraine calls it a genocide, and nearly 20 other countries now agree — though not Russia.
Drawing parallels between Stalin and Putin
One country that shares Ukraine's position is Poland, and its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, visited Kyiv this weekend.
"If we allow Putin to continue, he will become the Stalin of the 21st century," Morawiecki said.
Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskyy also made the link between then and now.
"We see what is happening today in the world, what is happening in Ukraine. They want to destroy us with bombs, bullets, cold and hunger again," Zelenskyy said.
There are no official figures, but most estimates point to tens of thousands of Ukrainian deaths among soldiers and civilians since Russia invaded in February.
Nearly 8 million Ukrainians fled the country. While some have returned, it remains the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
Millions more Ukrainians have fled their homes in the east and the south of the country, the scene of the heaviest fighting, and taken refuge in other parts of the country.
Zelenskyy marked the anniversary of the famine by hosting an international conference Saturday on food security, called "Grain from Ukraine."
Many European leaders attended, either in person or virtually. A total of 20 countries pledged $150 million to to help deliver Ukraine's farm exports by ship.
Russia blocked Ukraine from using its main export channel via the Black Sea in the early months of the war. Ukrainian wheat and other products are now flowing, though at lower than normal levels. Prices for basic foods remain expensive on the international market, straining the budgets of developing countries in Africa and Asia in particular.
"We do not just send Ukrainian foodstuffs to those countries that suffer the most from the food crisis. We affirm that never again should hunger be used as a weapon," Zelenskyy said.
Documenting the famine
At the Holodomor museum, there are books as thick as encyclopedias, some more than 1,000 pages. They're filled with the names of those who died in the famine. Visitors page through them, often looking for relatives they never knew.
Many say they heard firsthand accounts of the famine from grandparents or great-grandparents who survived.
"People were trying to live by eating grass and roots. My great-grandfather was a miner, and they got 100 grams of bread every day. Because of this bread, they survived," said Iryna Kopalova, a 37-year-old engineer.
This past spring, Kopalova said that as the fighting neared their village outside Kyiv, her 6-year-old daughter understood that the Russians were the enemy.
"When she heard the first explosions, she asked me, 'Mother, should I speak Russian now?' But we just fled our home, we didn't wait for the Russians to arrive," Kopalova said.
That famine, and today's war, speak to a country that's endured so much hardship.
It explains why the national anthem begins with the words, "Ukraine has not yet perished."
As NPR was about to leave the museum, Roman Vashchenko, the man who lost his sister and brother-in-law this spring, came over to say more about the couple's two orphaned children.
The 12-year-old, Tymofiy, has kept a journal during the war. When his parents were killed, he didn't believe it at first, hoping they might still be alive. Eventually he accepted the loss, writing, "Dreams don't come true."
Greg Myre is an NPR national security correspondent currently on assignment in Ukraine. Follow him @gregmyre1.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/2022-11-28/ukraine-remembers-a-famine-under-stalin-and-points-to-parallels-with-putin | 2022-11-28T20:16:04 | en | 0.980894 |
PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers on Monday condemned Iran’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrators and called on European governments to put more pressure on Iran to investigate the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody in Tehran.
Legislators in France’s National Assembly unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution supporting the protesters, by a vote of 149-0. Activists also planned a demonstration Monday outside the Assembly, the lower but most powerful house of parliament in France.
The resolution calls on European governments to step up pressure on Iran to uphold its international promises and to investigate what happened to Amini, who was arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Protests over her death have morphed into the most serious challenge to Iran’s establishment in decades.
The measure strongly condemns what French lawmakers call “the brutal and generalized repression by the security forces … toward non-violent demonstrators, which constitutes a blatant and unacceptable violation of the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression.”
Rights monitors say hundreds have been killed and more than 18,000 people detained since the anti-government protests started in September.
The French resolution also denounces laws and rules restricting the rights of women and minorities in Iran. It calls for the release of seven French citizens detained in Iran, too. | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-french-lawmakers-vote-to-condemn-iranian-protest-crackdown/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:04 | en | 0.945077 |
Soccer-Portugal dominate, Uruguay miss golden chance in goalless first half
Portugal dominated with close to 70% possession against Uruguay in the first half of their World Cup Group H match on Monday but it was the South Americans who came closest to scoring in the encounter that remained goalless at halftime.
Rodridgo Bentancur charged through but saw his 32nd minute shot blocked by keeper Diogo Costa. Portugal, who will become the third team after France and Brazil to qualify for the last 16 with a win, lacked the final pass despite the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Felix and Bruno Fernandes.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Britain, France sign deal to boost cooperation on illegal migration | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268099--soccer-portugal-dominate-uruguay-miss-golden-chance-in-goalless-first-half | 2022-11-28T20:16:05 | en | 0.919333 |
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BRUSSELS (AP) — Law enforcement authorities in six different countries have joined forces to take down a “super cartel” of drugs traffickers controlling about one third of the cocaine trade in Europe, the European Union crime agency said on Monday.
Europol said 49 suspects have been arrested during the investigation, with the latest series of raids across Europe and the United Arab Emirates taking place between Nov. 8-19.
The agency said police forces involved in “Operation Desert Light” targeted both the “command-and-control center and the logistical drugs trafficking infrastructure in Europe.”
Over 30 metric tons (33 tons) of drugs were seized during the investigations run in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UAE with the support of Europol. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also played a role in bringing down the organization, which was also involved in money laundering, Europol said.
“The scale of cocaine importation into Europe under the suspects’ control and command was massive,” Europol said, adding that the suspects used encrypted communications to organize drugs shipments.
The Netherlands was the country where most of the arrests were made, with 14 suspects arrested in 2021. Europol said six “high-value targets” were arrested in Dubai.
Dutch authorities said one of the suspects arrested in Dubai allegedly imported thousands of kilos of cocaine into the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021. The 37-year-old man with both Dutch and Moroccan nationality is also being prosecuted for laundering large amounts of money and possession of firearms. Police started investigating him after investigators cracked the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC, which is popular with criminals.
A 40-year-old Dutch-Bosnian citizen was also arrested in Dubai following an investigation based on intercepted Sky messages, according to Dutch police. He is suspected of importing into Europe cocaine and raw materials for the production of amphetamines.
Record amounts of cocaine are being seized in Europe. Its availability on the continent has never been higher, with extremely high purity and low prices.
More than 214 tons of cocaine were seized in the region in 2020, a 6% increase from the previous year, and experts from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction believe that amount could reach 300 metric tons (330 tons) in 2022. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-police-bring-down-european-cocaine-super-cartel/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:07 | en | 0.973656 |
JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a coalition deal with a small ultranationalist faction leader known for homophobic rhetoric and disparaging remarks about non-Orthodox Jews, a sign of the prospective government’s hardline makeup.
Netanyahu’s Likud party announced Sunday that the agreement names Noam faction leader Avi Maoz as a deputy minister whose portfolio includes an office bolstering Jewish identity among Israelis.
The incremental step is part of Netanyahu’s effort to hammer out a power-sharing agreement with his potential ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist allies following the Nov. 1 parliamentary election. Netanyahu stands poised to form one of the most hardline religious and nationalist governments in Israel’s history.
Maoz is a Jewish fundamentalist and West Bank settler who is an outspoken opponent to LGBTQ rights and women serving in the military, and has voiced opposition to Arabs teaching Jewish students in Israeli schools. He has denied the legitimacy of non-Orthodox Judaism, including the Reform and Conservative movements, which are marginal in Israel but dominant in the U.S. and have long provided the country with financial and diplomatic support.
Maoz said in a statement that the deal with Likud was the “first step in returning the soul to the country.”
Maoz’s Noam faction ran in the last elections on a joint ticket with Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which won 14 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament, the Knesset, making it the third-largest faction.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has yet to finalize its coalition agreement with all its prospective allies and form a government. | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-israels-likud-signs-coalition-deal-with-anti-lgbtq-radical/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:11 | en | 0.945743 |
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Soccer-Portugal dominate, Uruguay miss golden chance in goalless first half
Portugal dominated with close to 70% possession against Uruguay in the first half of their World Cup Group H match on Monday but it was the South Americans who came closest to scoring in the encounter that remained goalless at halftime.
Rodrigo Bentancur charged through but saw his 32nd minute shot blocked by keeper Diogo Costa. Portugal, who will become the third team after France and Brazil to qualify for the last 16 with a win, lacked the final pass despite the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Felix and Bruno Fernandes.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Advertisement | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268100--soccer-portugal-dominate-uruguay-miss-golden-chance-in-goalless-first-half | 2022-11-28T20:16:14 | en | 0.960919 |
BERLIN (AP) — Iran has released a 76-year-old dual Iranian-Austrian citizen from prison for health reasons, the Austria Press Agency reported Monday.
APA quoted the Austrian foreign ministry confirming that Massud Mossaheb was given indefinite medical leave.
The ministry said “intensive diplomatic efforts” had led to his release, which was first reported by Austrian daily Die Presse.
APA reported that Mossaheb must remain in Iran and report to authorities every other week.
Mossaheb was arrested on suspicion of espionage in early 2019 during a visit to Tehran.
He was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Two other Austrians remain imprisoned in Iran, APA reported. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-report-austrian-iranian-gets-medical-leave-from-iran-prison/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:15 | en | 0.987315 |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville Police say a 29-year-old woman with a medical condition has been found.
The Golden Alert for Deanna Wagner was canceled at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 28, a day after she went missing in the 6600 block of Eagle Wood Drive near Valley Station.
According to an email from LMPD, "Ms. Wagner was located and is safe as of 130pm on 11-28-22. She will be reunited with loved ones."
Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All rights reserved. | https://www.wdrb.com/news/found-louisville-police-locate-29-year-old-missing-woman/article_d16dcad4-6f1d-11ed-9db4-6b81b4c30c74.html | 2022-11-28T20:16:19 | en | 0.979911 |
TOKYO (AP) — The number of babies born in Japan this year is below last year’s record low in what the the top government spokesman described as a “critical situation.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno promised comprehensive measures to encourage more marriages and births.
The total of 599,636 Japanese born in January-September was 4.9% below last year’s figure, suggesting the number of births in all of 2022 might fall below last year’s record low of 811,000 babies, he said.
Japan is the world’s third biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged on making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities.
So far, the government’s efforts to encourage people to have more babies have had limited impact despite payments of subsidies for pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
“The pace is even slower than last year … I understand that it is a critical situation,” Matsuno said.
Many younger Japanese have balked at marrying or having families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, onerous commutes and corporate cultures incompatible with having both parents work.
The number of births has been falling since 1973, when it peaked at about 2.1 million. It’s projected to fall to 740,000 in 2040.
Japan’s population of more than 125 million has been declining for 14 years and is projected to fall to 86.7 million by 2060. A shrinking and aging population has huge implications for the economy and for national security as the country fortifies its military to counter China’s increasingly assertive territorial ambitions.
A government-commissioned panel submitted a report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week citing the low birth rate and falling population as factors that might erode Japan’s national strength. | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-japan-births-at-new-low-as-population-shrinks-and-ages/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:18 | en | 0.96073 |
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Soccer-Fire-fighter Casemiro provides spark to put Brazil through to last 16
"Regardless of the goal scored, I think it's very important to have helped the team, when we win, we all win together, when we lose, we all lose together," he said. Just before the new conference, injured team-mate Neymar tweeted: "Casemiro has been the best midfielder in the world for a long time".
Brazil defensive midfielder Casemiro took a break from putting out fires to score a scorching goal that sent his side into the last 16 of the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Switzerland in their Group G clash at the 974 Stadium on Monday.
Casemiro's late goal won him the man of the match award and spared Brazil's blushes after a scrappy performance that saw them hit plenty of loose passes before he struck his brilliant finish seven minutes from the end of normal time. "It is very clear that my very first objective is to support the team...to put out fires wherever they may be. But nevertheless, if there is an opportunity to take a little shot on goal, I think that's very important," the 30-year-old told a news conference.
Casemiro smiled as he spoke about the win and the goal but he was in no hurry to take all the credit for himself, despite scoring the match-winner. "Regardless of the goal scored, I think it's very important to have helped the team, when we win, we all win together, when we lose, we all lose together," he said.
Just before the new conference, injured team-mate Neymar tweeted: "Casemiro has been the best midfielder in the world for a long time". Coach Tite made an exception when asked if he agreed with that sentiment. "I always respect other opinions and I usually don't comment on them, but I'll allow myself to do so today - I agree," the coach, who played as a midfielder himself, told reporters.
Brazil top the group on six points, three ahead of the Swiss and five ahead of Cameroon and Serbia, who they face in their final group game. "We have to reassess the physical condition (of the players) with physicians and medical staff and then yes, we'll think about what will happen, but today we must enjoy the win," Tite said.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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States debt cost falls 12 bps on receding appetite | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268101-soccer-fire-fighter-casemiro-provides-spark-to-put-brazil-through-to-last-16 | 2022-11-28T20:16:23 | en | 0.98035 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t look for plastic partitions or faraway benches when visiting Santa Claus this year. The jolly old elf is back, pre-pandemic style, and he’s got some pressing issues on his mind.
Santa booker HireSanta.com has logged a 30% increase in demand this Christmas season over last year, after losing about 15% of its performers to retirement or death during the pandemic, said founder and head elf Mitch Allen.
He has a Santa database of several thousand with gigs at the Bloomingdale’s flagship store in New York, various Marriott properties and other venues around the U.S. Most of Allen’s clients have moved back to kids on laps and aren’t considering COVID-19 in a major way, he said, but Santa can choose to mask up.
Another large Santa agency, Cherry Hill Programs, is back up to pre-pandemic booking numbers for their 1,400 or so Santas working at more than 600 malls and other spots this year, said spokesperson Chris Landtroop.
“I can’t even explain how excited we are to see everyone’s smiles at all locations this season without anything covering up those beautiful faces,” she said.
Cherry Hill Santas are also free to wear masks, Landtroop said.
Among standout Santas still keeping their distance? There will be no lap visits at the Macy’s flagship store in New York’s Herald Square. Santa is seated behind his desk.
Some Santas who stayed home the last two years out of concern for their health have returned to the ho ho ho game, but Allen is desperately trying to refill his pipeline with new performers.
Inflation has also taken a bite out of Santa. Many are older, on fixed incomes and travel long distances to don the red suit. They spend hundreds on their costumes and other accoutrements.
“We’re charging the clients slightly more and we’re also paying our Santas slightly more,” Allen said.
Bookings for many Santas were made months in advance, and some work year-round. Allen’s Santas will earn from $5,000 to $12,000 for the season.
A few Santas told The Associated Press they’re unbothered by the cost, however. They’re not in the Santa profession to make a buck but do it out of sheer joy.
Allen and other agencies are juggling more requests for inclusive Santas, such as Black, deaf and Spanish-speaking performers. Allen also has a female Santa on speed dial.
“I haven’t been busted yet by the kids and, with one exception, by the parents, either,” said 48-year-old Melissa Rickard, who stepped into the role in her early 20s when the Santa hired by her father’s lodge fell ill.
“To have a child not be able to tell I’m a woman in one sense is the ultimate compliment because it means I’m doing Santa justice. It cracks my husband up,” added Rickard, who lives outside Little Rock, Arkansas. “I know there are more of us out there.”
By mid-November, Rickard had more than 100 gigs lined up, through Hire Santa and other means.
“A lot of it is word of mouth,” she said. “It’s `Hey, have you seen the female Santa?’”
Rickard charges roughly $175 an hour as Santa, depending on the job, and donates all but her fuel money to charity. And her beard? Yak hair.
Eric Elliott’s carefully tended white beard is the real deal. He and his Mrs. Claus, wife Moeisha Elliott, went pro this year after first taking on the roles as volunteers in 2007. Both are retired military.
They spent weeks in formal Claus training. Among the skills they picked up was American Sign Language and other ways to accommodate people with disabilities. Their work has included trips into disaster zones with the Texas-based nonprofit Lone Star Santas to lend a little cheer.
The Elliotts, who are Black, say breaking into the top tier of Santas as first-time pros and Clauses of color hasn’t been easy. For some people, Eric said, “We understand that we’re not the Santa for you.”
The Santa Experience at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, is staffing up with six Saint Nicks, including two who are Black and its first Asian Santa. Visits in Spanish and Cantonese are provided.
Working smaller jobs, including house visits, the Elliotts have seen how rising prices have hit some people hard. They’ve lowered their rates at times when they sense that people are struggling.
“People are having issues just eating, but they don’t want to miss out on the experience,” Eric said. Sometimes, he said, “You’ll meet them and be like, `You go ahead and hold on to that. I know you worked hard for that.’”
For other clients, the Elliotts charge anywhere from $150 to $300 an hour.
Charles Graves, a rare, professional deaf Santa in New Braunfels, Texas, said through an interpreter that he was inspired to grow his beard and put on the suit in part by awkward encounters with hearing Santas as a child.
“As a child, I was very excited to receive a gift, but then you just kind of go away and you’re like, there’s no connection there. Children look at me now and they’re like, wow, you know, there’s a connection there with the deaf culture. And I can always connect with the hearing kids as well,” said Graves, a spry Santa at 52.
Graves, who has a day job at a school for deaf children, also received training to be Santa. He works as Santa with interpreters. Breaking in has been difficult and expensive, he says, but “this is something really, really important to me.”
By mid-November, he had more than a dozen gigs, including a parade in Santa Paula, California, a mall in Austin, Texas, and at Morgan’s Wonderland, a nonprofit accessible theme park in San Antonio. He’s also doing some Zoom visits.
Among Santa’s rising costs this year are his duds. The price of suits, from custom to ready-to-wear, is up about 25%, said 72-year-old Stephen Arnold, a longtime Santa who heads the more than 2,000-strong International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas.
“Most of the performers I know are raising their rates, mostly due to the costs of transportation, accommodation and materials,” he said. “Personally, I’m raising my rates a bit for new clients but I’m holding prices this year for my repeat gigs.”
Arnold, who’s in Memphis, Tennessee, charges $250 to $350 an hour. Others in his organization, depending on location and experience, charge anywhere from $100 to $500 an hour, the latter in big cities like Los Angeles. Some, he said, don’t know their worth and lowball it at $50 or $75 an hour.
As for the pandemic, Arnold hasn’t heard a word about it from his clients, compared to last year and 2020, when he worked inside a snow globe. The Santas he knows seem unflustered.
“I’m surprised how few people are concerned about it,” Arnold said. “I visit my wife twice a day in a nursing facility. I’m diabetic. I mean, most of us are old fat men.”
___
Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
—-
For more AP Lifetyles stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/lifestyle. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-santas-back-in-town-with-inflation-inclusion-on-his-mind/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:23 | en | 0.972368 |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- When winter weather blankets the rooftops, every Louisville neighborhood becomes very similar, no matter how long it's been around. It snows a little, cars are stuck, tow trucks do their thing, and those news people have their cameras and microphones out.
We're talking about neighborhood in Chip Polston's basement.
"Probably 15 years," said Chip Polston, when asked how long he has been assembling his Christmas village. "I love Christmas."
When it comes to Christmas villages, he's "sleighing it."
"Some people are comfortable with having four or five little houses on their mantle," Polston said. "I decided to do this. In about 12 hours, I can get this set up and ready to go."
The amazingly detailed village has three levels, 85 buildings, a 20-car train, skaters, haters and a robed man outside an RV dealing with a plumbing problem.
"Cousin Eddie is doing what Cousin Eddie does," Polston said with a smile.
Take one look around Polston's basement, and it's pretty clear the KET host is a bit of a collector. There are Legos, statues and framed stills from popular cartoons.
"I'm kind of cursed by the inability to halfway do anything," he said. "When I'm in on something, I'm all in."
Polston started doing the village every year for his kids.
"It was important to me to try to create things for them that they would remember," Polston said. "They grew up and moved on from it, and I really didn't."
His neighbors are all right with that. Every year, they bring their kids over to see what it looks like.
"Look!" one kid said.
"That's real snow right?” asked another.
The holiday magic we read about in all those Christmas books is captured in Polston's little Louisville neighborhood.
Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.wdrb.com/news/viewing-holiday-village-in-louisville-collectors-basement-becomes-tradition-for-christmas-lovers/article_460bffd4-6f44-11ed-bbfb-3f78d7e51952.html | 2022-11-28T20:16:25 | en | 0.98666 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/articles/41676150 | 2022-11-28T20:16:26 | en | 0.738227 |
MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s leader met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, a week after winning a new seven-year term by a landslide in a snap election.
Kazakhstan is a significant Russian ally, sharing a 7,600-kilometer (4,750-mile) border. But President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has kept his distance from Moscow amid the conflict in Ukraine, notably declining this summer to recognize the Kremlin’s declaration of separatist Ukraine regions as sovereign states.
Tokayev also has sought to reduce the influence of his Russia-friendly authoritarian predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled for three decades. Nazarbayev resigned in 2019, but had retained significant clout as head of the national security council until Tokayev removed him from the post this year.
In comments at the start of the leaders’ meeting, Tokayev said his first visit abroad since he won a new term with more than 80% of the vote has “deep political significance. Of course, there is definitely a certain symbolism in this visit.”
Putin said the countries have a “joint desire to develop our relations precisely in the capacity in which they have developed and will, of course, develop in the future.” | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-kazakh-leader-meets-putin-in-first-post-election-trip-abroad/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:26 | en | 0.974576 |
BERLIN (AP) — Senior members of the smallest party in Germany’s coalition government are seeking to hit the brakes on plans to ease rules for obtaining German citizenship, arguing Monday that the government must first do more to ensure that people in the country illegally are deported.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a member of his center-left party, have signaled in recent days that they’re keen to move ahead quickly with liberalizing the rules — one of a series of modernizing reforms that Scholz’s three-party coalition agreed to tackle when it took office nearly a year ago.
But senior lawmakers with the pro-business Free Democrats, who tended to ally with the center-right before joining Scholz’s coalition last year and are now struggling in the polls, have pushed back on that plan. They point to a pledge in the coalition agreement to “effectively reduce irregular migration” and argue that too little has happened on that front.
The Free Democrats’ general secretary, Bijan Djir-Sarai, told Monday’s edition of the daily Rheinische Post daily that “now is not the moment to simplify citizenship law. There is no progress so far on repatriation and on combating illegal migration.” He added that the coalition must not “take the second step before the first.”
The head of the German parliament’s defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the Free Democrats, said it’s right for people who have long lived and worked in Germany to be integrated faster. “But before Ms. Faeser makes that her top priority, she should first ensure that those who are here illegally, those who may also have attracted the attention of law enforcement, are repatriated properly,” she told n-tv television.
Faeser’s plans call for people to be eligible for German citizenship after five years of legal residence, or three in case of “special integration accomplishments,” rather than the eight or six years at present. The coalition also pledged last year to drop restrictions on holding dual citizenship.
Germany’s center-right opposition objects both to shortening the waiting period and to allowing dual citizenship as a rule. At present, most people from countries other than European Union members and Switzerland in principle have to give up their previous nationality when they gain German citizenship, but there are several exemptions.
“Already today, about 60% of people who are naturalized keep their previous citizenship,” Scholz said in a speech Monday. “And for the other 40% it’s often hard to understand … why that doesn’t go for them in their individual case.” | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-smallest-german-governing-party-stalls-on-citizenship-reform/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:31 | en | 0.965103 |
A dreary and cool Monday will start to change pretty quickly as we head into our Tuesday.
Our winds will start to shift further out of the South tonight, and that will start our warming trend heading into Tuesday afternoon. Temperatures climb up into the low to mid 60s and the wind begins to pick up as well by mid to late afternoon tomorrow.
As we head into the evening and nighttime hours, that's when our chance for storms, some of which could pack a punch, will be moving through. Storms start to move in well after sunset, and some of these will have some heavier rain with them as well.
Winds continue to pick up along the front as it moves closer to our area and eventually through our area by the morning commute on Wednesday.
Severe Threat?
In terms of severe weather, the chance with this set-up isn't zero, but it is fairly low, let's call it conditional. We know that we need a few things in order to see organized severe weather, a couple of those being instability (or CAPE), and strong winds aloft near the 850mb level (around 1 mile above our heads) to help separate updrafts and downdrafts to help keep storms rolling.
In this case, we will be lacking a lot on that instability (CAPE) value. With cloud cover hanging around most of the day, we won't have a ton of sunshine to help warm up the atmosphere and allow it to become more unstable. Additionally, as of now, the timing for these storms moving through is at night when we've already lost most of our daytime heating and instability anyway.
What we do have in place is a lot of wind energy, or shear. The map below shows projected wind speeds at that 850mb level in the atmosphere we talked about (around 1 mile up). Typically, we look for wind speeds 40mph+ to help increase our strong wind threat. We are obviously well above that threshold as this system will have a lot of wind energy with it.
So...what can we expect? The SPC has the "Slight" (2/5) risk for severe storms just to the Southwest of our viewing area. Our greatest impact would definitely be strong, gusty winds 40-50mph+ are possible embedded in any storms that roll on through. | https://www.wdrb.com/weather/wdrb-weather-blog/storms-roll-through-tuesday-night-some-strong/article_23e79676-6f43-11ed-a35e-cb34cb1a3375.html | 2022-11-28T20:16:31 | en | 0.972584 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/articles/41676159 | 2022-11-28T20:16:32 | en | 0.738227 |
Soccer-Man City to host Chelsea in big FA Cup third round clash
In other all-Premier League draws holders Liverpool will play Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield while Manchester United are at home to Everton. Leicester City, winners in 2021, will travel to either National League (fifth tier) Dagenham & Redbridge or league Two (fourth tier) Gillingham.
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Premier League champions Manchester City will host rivals Chelsea in the big clash of the third round of the FA Cup after Monday's draw. In other all-Premier League draws holders Liverpool will play Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield while Manchester United are at home to Everton.
Leicester City, winners in 2021, will travel to either National League (fifth tier) Dagenham & Redbridge or league Two (fourth tier) Gillingham. The matches will be played across January 6-9.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Soccer-Ronaldo accuses Manchester United of betrayal | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/2268105-soccer-man-city-to-host-chelsea-in-big-fa-cup-third-round-clash | 2022-11-28T20:16:31 | en | 0.836109 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/articles/41676576 | 2022-11-28T20:16:34 | en | 0.738227 |
BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Germany said Monday they have issued a new arrest warrant in separate cases for a German man who is also suspected in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal 15 years ago.
The suspect, identified by media as Christian Brueckner, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he also committed in Portugal in 2005. His prison term is scheduled to end in September 2025.
Concerned that he might be released before standing trial again, prosecutors in the northern city of Braunschweig announced last month that they had charged the 45-year-old in five separate cases involving sexual offenses allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
The Braunschweig state court said it has approved an arrest warrant on the grounds that there is “urgent reason” to believe he was behind three cases of serious rape and two cases of child sexual abuse. The arrest warrant must still be approved by authorities in Italy, where he was arrest in 2018 before being extradited to Germany.
The Braunschweig court has said a decision on whether to send the case to trial — a necessary step in the German legal process — is still pending. Due to its calendar of other cases, the opening of any trial cannot be expected before next year, it said.
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he remains under investigation on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance. | https://www.news10.com/news/international/ap-new-arrest-warrant-issued-for-mccann-suspect-in-other-cases/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:33 | en | 0.979512 |
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somali forces on Monday stormed a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, where Islamic extremists had been holed up for more than 18 hours after killing eight civilians and trapping dozens in the building, officials said.
Police spokesperson Sadik Dodishe said all six extremists died during the operation at the Villa Rosa hotel, and one member of the security forces was also killed.
Dodishe said about 60 people who had been trapped in the hotel were freed and none of them were injured. It was not immediately clear whether others were missing.
According to Dodishe, five of the attackers were killed by security forces, and one blew himself up.
Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mogadishu resident Mohamed Suleyman told the AP that two of his relatives, both civilians, died in the attack. “It’s a great sadness to learn that two of my relatives were among those killed in yesterday night’s attack,” he said. “We were informed by their colleagues who managed to escape the attack after jumping (over the perimeter) wall of the hotel.”
Ali Moalim, another Mogadishu resident, said he saw “two bodies of the security forces carried by their fellow soldiers.”
Al-Shabab said in a broadcast on its own radio frequency Sunday that its fighters attacked the hotel, which has a restaurant popular with government and security officials. The attack is believed to have started with an explosion before gunmen penetrated the hotel’s gates.
The hotel is not far from the presidential palace, Villa Somalia, in one of the most protected parts of central Mogadishu. A successful attack near the seat of the federal government is likely to instill deep fear among residents of the seaside capital that has long been prone to attacks by militants.
Such militant attacks are common in Mogadishu and other parts of the Horn of Africa nation.
The latest attack comes amid a new, high-profile offensive by the Somali government against al-Shabab, which still controls large parts of central and southern Somalia.
Extremist fighters loyal to the group have responded by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to dissuade support for the government offensive, and attacks on public places frequented by government officials and others persist.
Hotels and restaurants are frequently targeted, as are military bases for government troops and foreign peacekeepers.
Last month at least 120 people were killed in two car bombings at a busy junction in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab carried out that attack, the deadliest since a similar attack at the same spot killed more than 500 people five years ago.
Al-Shabab opposes Somalia’s federal government, which is backed by African Union peacekeepers, and seeks to take power and enforce a strict version of Sharia law.
The United States has described al-Shabab as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations and targeted it with scores of airstrikes in recent years. Hundreds of U.S. military personnel have returned to the country after former president Donald Trump withdrew them. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-somali-forces-still-battling-with-al-shabab-in-hotel-attack/ | 2022-11-28T20:16:37 | en | 0.984047 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/articles/41676617 | 2022-11-28T20:16:40 | en | 0.738227 |
Musk says Apple mostly stopped advertising on Twitter
Elon Musk said on Monday that Apple Inc has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter, the most high-profile company to pull ads from the social media platform over concerns about content moderation policies under its new owner. The move aligns the iPhone maker with a rising list of firms from General Mills Inc to luxury automaker Audi of America that have stopped or paused advertising on Twitter since the billionaire's $44 billion buyout last month.
Elon Musk said on Monday that Apple Inc has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter, the most high-profile company to pull ads from the social media platform over concerns about content moderation policies under its new owner.
The move aligns the iPhone maker with a rising list of firms from General Mills Inc to luxury automaker Audi of America that have stopped or paused advertising on Twitter since the billionaire's $44 billion buyout last month. "Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?," Musk said in a tweet. He later tagged Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook's Twitter account in another tweet, asking "what's going on here?"
Musk said "yes" in response to a user question on whether Apple was threatening Twitter's presence in the App Store or making moderation demands. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The world's most valuable firm spent an estimated $131,600 on Twitter ads between Nov. 10 and Nov. 16, down from $220,800 between Oct. 16 and Oct. 22, the week before Musk closed the Twitter deal, according to ad measurement firm Pathmatics. Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, had said earlier this month that Twitter had seen a "massive" drop in revenue and blamed activist groups for pressuring advertisers. Ad sales account for about 90% of Twitter's revenue.
The platform has in the past few days reinstated the account of former U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as comedian Kathy Griffin and U.S. House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Trump reinstatement prompted a coalition of civil rights activists to say last week that they were urging Twitter's advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the platform.
At a presentation for advertisers in May, some ad agencies and brands were already skeptical on concerns that Musk would scale back content moderation and security protection on the platform.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/technology/2268074-musk-says-apple-mostly-stopped-advertising-on-twitter | 2022-11-28T20:16:39 | en | 0.965564 |
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