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Russia expels 2 US diplomats, accusing them of ‘illegal activity’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday declared two U.S. diplomats “persona non grata” and ordered them to leave the country within seven days as they were allegedly involved in “illegal activity.” The ministry charged in a statement that the first secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Russia, Jeffrey Sillin, and the second secretary, David Bernstein, “kept in touch” with a former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok who was arrested earlier this year. The ex-employee was accused of collecting information for U.S. diplomats about Russia’s military action in Ukraine and related issues.According to the statement, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy was summoned to the ministry on Thursday and informed that Sillin and Berstein were being expelled. “It was also emphasized that illegal activities of the U.S. diplomatic mission, including interference in the internal affairs of the host country, are unacceptable and will be resolutely suppressed. The Russian...

Trump won’t be tried with Powell and Chesebro next month in Georgia election case, judge rules

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge ruled Thursday that former President Donald Trump and 16 others will be tried separately from two defendants who are set to go to trial next month in the case accusing them of participating in an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro had filed demands for a speedy trial, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had set their trial to begin Oct. 23. Trump and other defendants had asked to be tried separately from Powell and Chesebro, with some saying they could not be ready by the late October trial date.Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last month obtained an indictment against Trump and the 18 others, charging them under the state’s anti-racketeering law in their efforts to deny Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over the Republican incumbent.Willis had been pushing to try all 19 defendants together, arguing that it would be more efficient and more fair. McAfee...

Hurricane watches issued for southwestern Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

HALIFAX — Residents of western Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick are being warned to prepare for power outages and localized flooding as hurricane Lee is expected to become a powerful post-tropical storm on Saturday when it makes landfall in the region.The Canadian Hurricane Centre in Halifax issued a tropical cyclone statement this morning saying Lee’s track could take the storm through an area anywhere between New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island and Nova Scotia’s Shelburne County on Saturday night.The centre has repeatedly stressed that even though Lee is expected to transition from a Category 1 hurricane to a post-tropical storm, it will remain a threat, because the storm will expand and maintain much of its strength.Environment Canada has issued hurricane watches for the southwestern Nova Scotia counties of Digby, Queens, Shelburne and Yarmouth, where hurricane-strength winds could gust as high as 120 kilometres per hour.As well, a hurricane watch remains i...

Survivors of a deadly migrant shipwreck off Greece file lawsuit over botched rescue claim

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Survivors of a deadly migrant shipwreck in southern Greece three months ago are suing authorities for failing to intervene to rescue passengers before their vessel capsized in international waters, their lawyers said Thursday. Hundreds of migrants are believed to have been trapped and killed when a modified fishing trawler sank south of Greece in mid-June.The Greek coast guard had been shadowing the vessel along a section of its journey from Libya to Italy. Only 104 people were pulled from the sea alive — all men and boys — while 82 bodies, only one of them a woman, were recovered. The rest, including women and children, sank in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean. With depths of around 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) in that area, a recovery of the vessel and its victims is all but impossible.Many of the survivors dispute the official account that repeated offers of assistance by the coast guard were rejected and claim that a botched effort was made to to...

Cyprus holds military drill with France, Italy and Greece to bolster security in east Mediterranean

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The Cypriot president said Thursday that joint military maneuvers with three other European Union member states underway in the Eastern Mediterranean underscore the bloc’s readiness to ensure security and stability in the region. President Nikos Christodoulides said the drill with France, Italy and Greece is of “particular geostrategic significance” for the 27-member bloc and others, including the United States.Christodoulides said his government is putting a “special emphasis” on upgrading the island’s military installations in order to take full advantage of its geographical location at the southeasternmost corner of Europe and close to the Middle East and Africa.He spoke ahead of a visit to the French frigate Chevalier Paul, which is taking part in the drill, and stressed that the show of strength is not turned against any other country — a veiled allusion to Turkey, with which Cyprus shares a violent past, including a 1974 Turkish invasion brought on...

Deepa Mehta’s documentary ‘I Am Sirat’ allows subject Sirat Taneja to be seen

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

TORONTO — Star wattage may be amped down at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, but it doesn’t feel that way for Sirat Taneja. The subject and co-creator of Deepa Mehta’s new documentary “I Am Sirat” landed in the city on Tuesday night, having travelled from her home in New Delhi, and got something of a celebrity treatment. She was greeted with a flood of social media messages from people who attended advance screenings of the film held for LGBTQ+ community members. “They’ve all become such good friends of hers in Toronto,” Mehta said in an interview the day before the film’s world premiere Thursday, translating for Taneja, who was sitting to her left. “They’re Instagramming her and telling her, ‘when you come, you can borrow our jewelry.’ They’re all coming to the screening and they all wanted to come to the airport yesterday. She has never met them and they’ve become so close.”...

German prosecutor files murder charges against Syrian citizen accused of ‘Islamist-motivated’ attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office said Thursday it had brought charges of murder, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm against a Syrian citizen in connection with two “Islamist-motivated” knife attacks. The suspect is accused of stabbing a man to death in the city of Duisburg in April, and of a second attack a few days later in which five people at a gym suffered knife wounds. The man, identified only as Maan D. in line with German privacy rules, is a follower of the Islamic State group, the prosecutor’s statement alleged. He was charged on Aug. 30, the statement said.He is accused of first stabbing to death a man he met by chance in the early hours of April 9 this year in Duisburg’s old city.He allegedly stabbed the victim at least 28 times in the abdomen, head and neck area with a knife. The victim died on the same day.On April 18, he allegedly went to a gym in Duisburg to kill as many of the people he considered “infidels” as possible. Pro...

Fox names Lawrence Jones as fourth host of its morning ‘Fox & Friends’ franchise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The curvy couch is making room for one more: Lawrence Jones will join the daily “Fox & Friends” morning show as a fourth host beginning on Monday.Fox News said Thursday that Jones will join Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade on the morning news and talk show, which airs from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern. He’s familiar to the show’s viewers as an enterprise reporter there.Jones is losing the Saturday evening show he has hosted, making room for a new show with talk host Mark Levin.Jones, 30, has been with Fox News since 2018 and said “Fox & Friends” is where he made his first national television appearance.“It is truly a privilege to inform our audience every day and I can’t wait to do so each morning,” he said.The Associated Press

‘From sensationalism to science’: NASA says new techniques needed to better understand UFOs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived.The space agency released the findings after a yearlong study into UFOs.In its 33-page report, an independent team commissioned by NASA cautioned that the negative perception surrounding UFOs poses an obstacle to collecting data. But officials said NASA’s involvement should help reduce the stigma around what it calls UAPs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena.NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the agency wants to shift the conversation about UAPs “from sensationalism to science.” Nelson added the panel found no evidence that UAPs had extraterrestrial origin.The 16-member panel noted that artificial intelligence and machine learning are essential for identifying rare occurrences, including UFOs.“NASA will do this transparently,” Nelson said.RELATEDWhistleblower tells Congress the U.S. is concealing ‘multi-d...

Chorus of disapproval: National anthems sung by schoolkids at Rugby World Cup out of tune with teams

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:54 GMT

The project was commendable: Get choirs selected from a group of 7,000 French schoolkids from diverse backgrounds to sing each country’s national anthem before games at the Rugby World Cup.Less than a week into the tournament, however, the plan has been scrapped.Following a backlash by fans and commentators and the awkward sight of players being completely out of sync with the choirs, organizers bowed to pressure Thursday by saying the children’s voices from the “Melee des Choeurs” will be boosted by “instrumental elements” when anthems ring out around stadiums in the second week of the World Cup.France, which plays Uruguay on Thursday, is among the nations to have already agreed to the modified version of its anthem. Organizers hope “final confirmation from all teams (can) be achieved in the next 48 hours.”A passionate rendition of a national anthem can be seen as a final rallying cry by rugby teams before matches, with players seen shaking and even crying while singing them over t...