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As Slovakia’s trust in democracy fades, its election frontrunner campaigns against aid to Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

MICHALOVCE, Slovakia (AP) — A populist former prime minister whose party is favored to win Slovakia’s early parliamentary election plans to reverse the country’s military and political support for neighboring Ukraine, in a direct challenge to the European Union and NATO, if he returns to power. Robert Fico, who led Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018, is the frontrunner to occupy the prime minister’s office after the Sept. 30 election. He and his left-wing Direction, or Smer, party have campaigned on a clear pro-Russian and anti-American message. His candidacy is part of a wider trend across Europe. Only Hungary has an openly pro-Russian government, but in other countries, including Germany, France, and Spain, populist parties skeptical of intervention in Ukraine command significant support. Many of these countries have national or regional elections coming up that could tip the balance of popular opinion away from Kyiv and towards Moscow.“If Smer is part of...

The Taliban have banned girls from school for 2 years. It’s a worsening crisis for all Afghans

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Two years after the Taliban banned girls from school beyond sixth grade, Afghanistan is the only country in the world with restrictions on female education. Now, the rights of Afghan women and children are on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly Monday in New York. The U.N. children’s agency says more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban, although it estimates 5 million were out of school before the Taliban takeover due to a lack of facilities and other reasons.The ban triggered global condemnation and remains the Taliban’s biggest obstacle to gaining recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. But the Taliban defied the backlash and went further, excluding women and girls from higher education, public spaces like parks, and most jobs.Here’s a look at the ban on girls’ education:WHY DID THE TALIBAN EXCLUDE GIRLS FROM HIGH SCHOOL?The Taliban stopped girls’ education beyond sixth grade because they said it didn’t comply with their i...

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi heads to Moscow after meeting US national security adviser

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s top foreign policy official is heading to Russia for security talks after two days of meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser over the weekend in Malta.Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who simultaneously holds the ruling Communist Party’s top foreign policy post, will be in Russia from Monday to Thursday for a round of China-Russia strategic security consultations, the Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement.The U.S. and China are at odds over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China has refrained from taking sides in the war, saying that while a country’s territory must be respected, the West needs to consider Russia’s security concerns about NATO expansion. It has accused the U.S. of prolonging the fighting by providing arms to Ukraine, weaponry that the U.S. says is needed to defend against Russian aggression.China and Russia have grown closer in recent years as relations with the West have deteriorated ...

Magnitude 4.8 earthquake rattles part of Italy northeast of Florence, but no damage reported so far

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

ROME (AP) — A 4.8-magnitude earthquake rattled parts of Tuscany early Monday, geologists and firefighters said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.The quake’s epicenter was near Marradi, northeast of Florence, and it struck at 5:10 a.m., after some smaller temblors, according to Italy’s institute of geophysics and vulcanology. The agency noted that the area is considered at high risk for quakes, citing in particular one in 1919 that struck Mugello, which was one of the strongest to strike Italy in the 20th century.Italy’s fire rescue team said they received some calls from worried residents but that to date there were no damages or injuries reported.The Associated Press

A Black student was suspended for his hairstyle. The school says it wasn’t discrimination

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

The same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles, a Black high school student in Texas was suspended because school officials said his locs violated the district’s dress code.Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, received an in-school suspension after he was told his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes. George, 17, wears his hair in thick twisted dreadlocks, tied on top of his head, said his mother, Darresha George. George served the suspension last week. His mother said he plans to return to the Houston-area school Monday, wearing his dreadlocks in a ponytail, even if he is required to attend an alternative school as a result.The incident recalls debates over hair discrimination in schools and the workplace and is already testing the state’s newly enacted CROWN Act, which took effect Sept. 1. The law, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is intended to prohibit race-based ha...

As leaders convene, the UN pushes toward its crucial global goals. But progress is lagging

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The commitments were far-reaching and ambitious. Among them: End extreme poverty and hunger. Ensure every child on Earth gets a quality secondary education. Achieve gender equality. Make significant inroads in tackling climate change. Create “universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” And achieve all of this by 2030.Halfway to that goal, progress is lagging badly — and in some cases going backward.At a two-day summit that begins Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be trying to kick-start action to achieve the 17 goals adopted by world leaders in 2015, which developing countries in particular consider crucial to closing the widening inequality gap between the world’s rich and poor countries.The goals, Guterres said, are “about righting historic wrongs, healing divisions and putting our world on a path to lasting peace.”A 10-page political declaration to be adopted by leaders at the start of the summit...

Everything you need to know about this year’s meeting of leaders at the UN General Assembly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — For two years, it was the coronavirus pandemic. Then, it was Russia’s war in Ukraine. Throughout it all, the perils of climate change, poverty and inequality have steadily, increasingly thrummed through each convening of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.As the 78th session opens, there’s no single clear crisis set to dominate the General Debate, as none of the aforementioned ones have been resolved. The high-level meeting will be set against the backdrop of an ongoing war, new political crises in West Africa and Latin America, a lingering coronavirus, economic instability, widening inequality and fresh natural disasters in the forms of devastating earthquakes,floods and fires.In the face of this tumult, the theme for this year’s General Debate will be “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability f...

Heavy rains Sunday; temps to climb to the 80s this week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

CONTINUE READINGFROM THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Nigel is moving toward the north-northwest near 12 mph and this general motion is expected to continue for the next couple of days. Nigel is then forecast to turn northward late Tuesday, and then accelerate northeastward through the rest of the week. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 70 mph with higher gusts. Rapid strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours. Nigel is forecast to become a major hurricane on Tuesday.When it comes to hurricanes, New England can’t compete with Florida or the Caribbean.But scientists said Friday that the arrival of storms like Hurricane Lee this weekend could become more common in the region as the planet warms, including in places such as the Gulf of Maine. CONTINUE READINGCCCCCBlack holes at the center of galaxies usually eat stars that stray too close to them, annihilating them with their gravitational pull!VISIT NASA Website

State of the EU: Ukraine, Green Deal, Economy, China, Artificial Intelligence 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

In the annual State of the European Union debate, MEPs quizzed President von der Leyen on the Commission’s work in the past and its plans until the June 2024 elections.Opening the debate, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said: “The European Union today is stronger, and more united than ever before. The world is changing and Europe must adapt and change with it too. We must keep striving to make our Europe a place of equality of opportunity, of access, of prosperity - where everyone can reach their potential. We must keep reforming. We should always keep people’s concerns at the centre of all our actions.“Commission President von der Leyen said that the EU has undergone a substantial transformation since she first presented her programme in 2019, adding: ”We have delivered over 90% of the political guidelines I presented” back then.On the Green Deal, the decarbonisation of Europe’s industry while maintaining its competitiveness, she announced an anti-subsidy investigatio...

$250K reward to be offered in ambush shooting death of L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:18 GMT

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, along with county leaders and Palmdale’s mayor, on Sunday announced a reward of up to $250,000 for the identification, arrest and prosecution of the suspect or suspects involved in the fatal shooting ambush of Deputy Ryan “Clink” Clinkunbroomer in the Antelope Valley Saturday night.  “Sheriff’s department personnel have worked around the clock in an attempt to find these suspects - it could be one, it could be two - in Ryan’s murder,” Luna said at the press conference.  Clinkunbroomer, 30, an eight-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was found unconscious in his police cruiser and suffering from gunshot wounds by a citizen around 6 p.m. near the intersection of Sierra Highway and Avenue Q in Palmdale. He was rushed to the Antelope Valley Medical Center where he later died as a result of his injuries. The shooting was an ambush involving a suspect or suspects in a vehicle driving past Deputy Clinkunbroomer when they fired a...