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Migrants bussed from Texas to Los Angeles in move mayor calls 'despicable stunt'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A group of migrants who arrived by bus in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday were sent from Texas in a move the city's mayor called a “despicable stunt” by a Republican governor. Forty-two people, including some children, were dropped off at Union Station around 4 p.m. and were being cared for by city agencies and charitable organizations, Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León’s office said. “They left yesterday and it was 23 hours on the bus and they did not have a chance to eat or to have water,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, who spoke to several migrants.“They are being fed; they're taking shelters; they’re talking to attorneys,” he said. “These are migrants that have been allowed by the U.S. to enter because they have credible fears. They have not yet received asylum."Many were from Latin American countries, including Honduras and Venezuela, and one person had an immigration appointment in New York, he said.Mayor ...

Canada suspends work with Chinese-founded development bank while it investigates complaints

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Canada’s finance minister says it is suspending activity with a Chinese-founded development bank while it investigates complaints by a Canadian who resigned from the lender that it is dominated by “Communist Party hacks” and his country shouldn’t be a member.The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank confirmed Wednesday in an email that Bob Pickard resigned as its director general of global communications and rejected his criticism as unfounded.The AIIB, seen by some as a Chinese rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, was founded in 2016 to finance railways and other infrastructure. It has 106 member governments including most Asian countries and Australia, Canada, Russia, France and Britain. Japan and the United States aren’t members.“The government of Canada will immediately halt all government-led activity at the bank,” Chrystia Freeland, who also is deputy prime minister, told reporters in Ottawa. “I have instructed the Department of F...

Let it bee: The women on a mission to save Mexico City’s bees

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — “Knife,” Adriana Velíz says with the concentration of a brain surgeon.Shrouded in a white bee suit, she lies stretched out on the ground in one of Mexico City’s most buzzing districts. Taking the knife, she pries open the side of a light post and flashes a glowing red lantern on a humming bee hive.Velíz is on a mission to save the approximately 20,000 bees inside.She heads a group of mostly women who are working hive by hive to relocate bees that would be exterminated if they remained in Mexico’s crowded capital city.The group, Abeja Negra SOS, was born in 2018 when Velíz — a veterinarian working for the city government at the time — noticed that when authorities received calls about beehives, the automatic response was to exterminate the bees.She and other colleagues began looking for an alternative.“We do these rescues because it’s a species that’s in danger of extinction,” said Velíz, who works for Abeja Negra SOS. “We’re an alternative so that the emerge...

After long waits, new pilgrims prepare for Hajj’s return, the first major one since COVID-19

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

This year’s Hajj is a landmark: the first full pilgrimage after three years when the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced the scale of one of Islam’s holiest rites.Millions of Muslims from around the world will start converging next week on Mecca in Saudi Arabia to begin several days of rituals. For pilgrims, it is the ultimate spiritual moment of their lives, a chance to seek God’s forgiveness for their sins and walk in the footsteps of revered prophets like Muhammad.It’s a mass, communal experience, with Muslims of every race and class performing it together as one. It is also deeply personal; each pilgrim brings his or her own yearnings and experiences. The Associated Press spoke to several pilgrims from across the world as they prepared for their journey.GAZAIt’s been hard, raising 10 children on her own in the Gaza Strip, blockaded on all sides and torn by multiple wars. But Huda Zaqqout says her life feels like a miracle because she is surrounded by her family, including 30 grand...

War disrupts education of Ukrainian kids, even those who’ve found safety abroad

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Nine-year-old Milana Minenko doesn’t play piano anymore. During the day, she attends public school in Poland, where she and her mother fled from the war in March 2022. In the evenings, her mother helps her follow Ukraine’s curriculum to keep up with lessons back home. There’s simply no time — and no money — for anything else.Russian forces occupied Milana’s hometown in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, destroyed her house with a missile on the second day of the war, and uprooted her family. Milana and her family lost nearly everything they loved. For Milana, that means school. The place that greeted her with balloons on her first day. Friends she can now only send text messages. The teacher who brought joy to learning. It also means her music school, where she studied piano and singing after her other lessons. That building now lies in ruins. Milana’s not sure what became of her primary school. She wonders whether it, too, was bo...

Florida set to execute man convicted of 1984 murders, rapes while children slept nearby

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — One of the longest-held inmates on Florida’s death row is set to be executed Thursday for two separate killings in 1984, the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old babysitter as two children in her care were sleeping and the other a hammer attack on a mother of two.Duane Owen is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. EDT at Florida State Prison in Starke. He drew death sentences for the March 24, 1984, rape and stabbing attack on Karen Slattery, 14, and for the rape and killling of Georgianna Worden, 38, in May 1984, both in Palm Beach County.Owen attacked two other women in Palm Beach County who survived. All four attacks occurred just before and after Owen’s 23rd birthday. Now 62, Owen is one of 293 people on Florida’s death row and one of the longest residing there. Besides his death sentences, he also received six life sentences.If the lethal injection is carried out, it would be Florida’s fourth execution this year after none since 2019. Repub...

Huge search seeks survivors of migrant boat sinking off Greece; hundreds feared missing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

KALAMATA, Greece (AP) — With its human cargo of migrants filling every available space, the battered blue trawler was about halfway from Libya to Italy when its engine cut out in the night.The vessel wobbled sharply, flooded and capsized. Less than 15 minutes later, it sank into one of the Mediterranean’s deepest points, off the coast of Greece. Hundreds of people are thought to have been on board when the boat went down Wednesday, although authorities have no precise figure.Rescuers saved 104 passengers — including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians — and recovered 79 bodies. And the search went on early Thursday for more, with aircraft dropping flares to help search teams.“It’s one of the biggest (such) operations ever in the Mediterranean,” Greek coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV. “We won’t stop looking.”The sinking could be one of the worst ever recorded on the feared central Mediterranean migration route, which is the ...

After long waits, new pilgrims prepare for return of Hajj, the first major one since COVID-19

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

This year’s Hajj is a landmark: the first full pilgrimage after a daunting three-year period when the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced the scale of one of Islam’s holiest and most beloved rites. Millions of Muslims from around the world will start converging next week on Mecca in Saudi Arabia to begin the several days of rituals at holy sites in and around the city. For pilgrims, it is the ultimate spiritual moment of their lives, a chance to seek God’s forgiveness for their sins and walk in the footsteps of revered prophets like Muhammad and Abraham.It’s a mass, communal experience, with Muslims of many races and classes performing it together as one. But it is also deeply personal; every pilgrim brings their own yearnings and experiences. The Associated Press spoke to several pilgrims from far-flung places as they prepared for their journey.GAZA:It’s been hard, raising 10 children on her own and living in the Gaza Strip, blockaded on all sides and torn by multiple wars. But Huda ...

‘Stand with Trump’ becomes rallying cry as Republicans amplify attacks on US justice system

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Moments after Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hoarded classified documents and then conspired to obstruct an investigation about it, the Republicans in Congress had his back.Speaker Kevin McCarthy dashed off a fundraising email decrying the “witch hunt” against the former president and urging donors to sign up and “stand with Trump.”The Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell steered clear of criticizing the former president or assuring the nation justice will be impartial, refusing to engage in questions about the unprecedented indictment.And at a public meeting in the Capitol basement, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene compared the case against Trump to the federal prosecution of people at the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, suggesting in both instances it was the Justice Department, not the defendants, under scrutiny.The mounting legal jeopardy Trump finds himself in has quickly become a political rallying cry for the Republicans, many of ...

Germany to give $1.4 billion to Holocaust survivors globally in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:34 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis said Thursday that Germany has agreed to extend another $1.4 billion (1.29 billion euros) overall for Holocaust survivors around the globe for the coming year.The compensation was negotiated with Germany’s finance ministry and includes $888.9 million to provide home care and supportive services for frail and vulnerable Holocaust survivors.Additionally, increases of $175 million to symbolic payments of the Hardship Fund Supplemental program have been achieved, impacting more than 128,000 Holocaust survivors globally, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference.“Every year these negotiations become more and more critical as this last generation of Holocaust survivors age and their needs increase,” said Greg Schneider, the Claims Conference’s executive vice president.“Being able to ensure ...