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Russia threatens to annex Georgia’s breakaway regions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

Moscow could annex Georgia’s Russian-backed breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, warned Kremlin security council Deputy Chair Dmitry Medvedev.The former Russian president and prime minister accused NATO of escalating tensions by discussing Georgia’s potential membership to the alliance, something Georgia has shown interest in.“In Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the idea of joining Russia is still popular. And it may well be implemented, if there are good reasons for it,” Medvedev said in a scattergun opinion piece published Wednesday morning on Russian news site Argumenty i Fakty in which he attacked NATO and the West at length.The two Moscow-backed regions were at the center of a brief war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008. Following the conflict, during which Russian forces occupied nearly 20 percent of Georgia’s territory, Russia unilaterally recognized the independence of the two regions.On the 15th anniversary of the conflict, Medvedev, who was presiden...

Philippine supply boats breach a Chinese coast guard blockade in the hotly contested South China Sea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

ABOARD BRP CABRA (AP) — As a United States Navy plane circled overhead, two Philippine boats breached a Chinese coast guard blockade in a dangerous confrontation Tuesday in the disputed South China Sea to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino forces guarding a contested shoal.Two Philippine coast guard vessels escorting the supply boats, however, were blocked by at least four Chinese coast guard ships for about five hours in the tense standoff near Second Thomas Shoal.The dangerous encounter is the latest flare-up from the long-seething territorial disputes in the busy sea that involve China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. It’s regarded as an Asian flashpoint and has become a delicate fault line in the U.S.-China rivalry.The Philippine coast guard invited a small group of journalists, including two from The Associated Press, to join its ships that secured the supply boats as part of a new strategy aimed at exposing China’s increasingly aggressive action...

Stock market today: Global shares are mixed ahead of Fed Chair Powell’s speech and Nvidia earnings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global markets were trading mixed Wednesday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech later in the week. France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.3% in early trading to 7,261.76. Germany’s DAX added 0.3% to 15,753.86. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5% to 7,309.13. U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.3% at 34,444.00. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% to 4,418.00. “With the Jackson Hole event just around the corner, markets are understandably lacking some conviction given the interest rate implications which could stem from this eagerly awaited get-together of central bankers,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.5% to finish at 32,010.26. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 7,148.40. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.4% to 2,505.50. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.3% to 17,845.92, while the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.3% to 3,078.40. P...

A Hong Kong court refused to ban a protest song. Now the government has been allowed to appeal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — The Hong Kong government was given the green light on Wednesday to appeal a court’s refusal to ban a protest song, after government lawyers cited national security concerns.“Glory to Hong Kong” was often sung by demonstrators during months of anti-government protests in 2019. It was later mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at international sporting events.The court’s decision in July not to ban the song was a setback for Hong Kong leaders seeking to crack down on dissent.Government lawyers sought an appeal, arguing that if the executive authority considered a measure necessary, the court allow it, unless it considered it will have no effect.The lawyers’ arguments raised concerns over Hong Kong’s judicial independence, which was promised to be keep intact after the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Judge Anthony Chan on Wednesday granted the government permission to appeal against his previous ruling, but insisted the grant...

In the news today: Wildfires in B.C. and NWT, Yellowknife still under threat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Rain, lightning expected in B.C. wildfire regionsFirefighters in British Columbia’s southern Interior continue to battle a number of significant wildfires even as cooler, wetter weather is anticipated in the region.The BC Wildfire Service says 120 wildland firefighters and 105 structural firefighters are deployed at the Bush Creek East blaze in the Shuswap region, while heavy smoke in the area continues to prevent the use of fixed-wing water bombers to combat the fire.The Columbia Shuswap Regional District confirmed Tuesday that the fire has forced the evacuation of 11,000 people and destroyed buildings such as the firehall at Scotch Creek.Yellowknife mayor says it’s too unsafe to returnThe mayor of Yellowknife says it’s not safe for residents to go home to the territorial capital, but she notes city officials are working on a return plan.A fi...

Iran sentences 8 to prison over paramilitary’s death during last year’s nationwide protests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sentenced seven men and a woman to prison after their convictions over allegedly aiding two men who were earlier executed for killing a paramilitary volunteer during the nationwide protests last year that followed Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody, state media reported Wednesday. The sentences come just ahead of the one-year anniversary of Amini’s Sept. 16 death, as authorities have been rounding up activists and others in an apparent attempt to tamp down on any dissent ahead of it. The report by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency offered the first official confirmation of the sentences apparently handed down earlier by a Revolutionary Court in the city of Karaj, where the November slaying happened. The report said the country’s Supreme Court upheld the sentences handed down following an appeal by the lawyers for those convicted. The defendants were found guilty of committing “warfare” and of “corruption ...

Russia launches 3-hour drone attack on Odesa as Ukrainian drones target Moscow again

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine traded drone attacks early Wednesday, officials said, with Kyiv apparently targeting Moscow again and the Kremlin’s forces launching another bombardment of Ukrainian grain storage depots in what have recently become signature tactics in the almost 18-month war.A three-hour nighttime Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight Tuesday caused a blaze at grain facilities, Odesa Regional Military Administration Head Oleh Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app.Ukrainian air defense systems downed nine Shahed drones, Kiper said.“Unfortunately, there are hits on production and transshipment complexes,” he said, adding that no casualties had been reported.Russia zeroed in on Odesa last month, crippling significant parts of the port city’s grain facilities, days after President Vladimir Putin broke off Russia’s participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative. That wartime deal enabled Ukraine’s exports to reac...

Canadians split on whether to blame provinces or feds for housing crisis: poll

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

OTTAWA — Despite what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said recently, a new poll suggests 40 per cent of Canadians think his government is to blame for the country’s housing crisis. Leger surveyed 1,537 people between Aug. 18 and 20, asking a series of questions about the rising cost of housing and what should be done about it. When asked which level of government deserves the most blame for the crisis, 40 per cent of respondents pointed the finger at the federal government and 32 per cent at their provincial government. Just six per cent of those polled felt their municipal government was to blame and another 22 per cent said they were not sure. Renters were more likely to blame the province, while those who own their homes were inclined to blame the feds.Trudeau was criticized by opposition parties and experts after he told reporters earlier this month that “housing isn’t a primary federal responsibility,” suggesting that the provinces and municipalities s...

Without Trump, debate gives Republican hopefuls rare chance to build some momentum

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

WASHINGTON — It doesn’t happen often, but it’s happening tonight: Donald Trump is spurning the chance to appear on prime-time television. That makes the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee a rare and perhaps critical opportunity for the bulk of Trump’s rivals to make their case to a national audience — many of them for the first time. Make no mistake, however, the former president’s presence will be felt.“As I like to say, he’s in the room whether or not he’s in the room,” said Steven D. Cohen, a communications professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in Baltimore, Md. “Each candidate is trying to have a breakout moment. And whether they get that through an image, an attack or a memorable statement, they have to break out. Because right now Trump is far and away the front-runner.”The rest of them, of course, are decidedly not. Not even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the man many observers and supporters had ...

Wildfire smoke can damage the brain long after flames are extinguished, research says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:45 GMT

A growing body of international research suggests pollution from wildfire smoke can produce cognitive deficits, post-traumatic stress and may even increase the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.Until recently, the effects of wildfires have been studied on patients’ lungs, hearts and blood. But several researchers have started looking into how fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke can enter the body and travel to the brain.Kent Pinkerton, pediatrics professor at the University of California, Davis, said the nose is typically a good filter and keeps a number of inhaled particles out of the lungs. But there is concern that during wildfires, tiny particles of soot and other chemicals in smoke have the ability to enter the cells and nerves of the nose, both of which scientists have shown have a direct connection to the brain.Cells and nerves connecting the nose-brain passage, Pinkerton said, can get inflamed and damaged by wildfire smoke.“...