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Nervous NATO nations are beefing up security due to Wagner fighters across their borders in Belarus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — NATO allies located along the alliance’s eastern front are growing increasingly worried about the presence of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries in Belarus, where some have been deployed since a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June.Poland, Lithuania and Latvia — members of NATO and the European Union which border Belarus — had already been on alert since large numbers of migrants and refugees began arriving at their borders from Belarus two years ago. They have accused Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Russia, of opening the migration route in an act of “hybrid warfare” aimed at creating instability in the West.Now concerns have grown further since the Wagner troops began arriving in Belarus after their short-lived mutiny in Russia.Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on the weekend that some 100 Wagner fighters in Belarus had approached the border with Poland, specifically a strategically sensitive area known as the Suwalki...

Russian drone strikes hit Ukrainian port on Romania’s border that is key to grain exports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones on Wednesday hit a Ukrainian port city along the border with Romania, causing significant damage and a huge fire at facilities that are key to Ukrainian grain exports. The attacks followed the end of a deal with Russia that had allowed Ukrainian shipments to world markets from the Black Sea port of Odesa. Since scrapping the deal, Russia has hammered the country’s ports with strikes, compounding the blow to the key industry. In the past two weeks, dozens of drones and missile attacks have targeted the port of Odesa and the region’s river ports, which are being used as alternative routes.The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, said the city of Izmail was hit in the strikes. Izmail is on the Danube River that forms part of the Ukraine-Romania border.Video obtained by The Associated Press showed explosions and a large fire in the distance on the Danube, captured by fishermen in Romania, a NATO member, on the oth...

Prepare to flick off your incandescent bulbs for good under new US rules that kicked in this week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Get ready to say goodbye to the once ubiquitous incandescent light bulb, pioneered by Thomas Edison more than a century ago. You can thank — or blame — new federal energy efficiency regulations that went into full effect Tuesday. Quite possibly without you even noticing. The Energy Department rules, which date back to the Obama administration, have been whipsawed in the political process for years. Some conservatives and Republican lawmakers long denounced them for interfering with consumer choice and placing undue burdens on business. Under former President Donald Trump, the Energy Department scrapped them in 2019; the Biden administration subsequently revived them.Yet by the time Aug. 1 rolled around, the critics had gone quiet, possibly because companies and consumers have already started voting for better lighting efficiency with their wallets. Here’s what you need to know.WHAT CHANGES UNDER THE NEW RULES?The rules establish strict new efficiency stand...

Russia launches Baltic naval drills, ratcheting up tensions with European neighbors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it began begun live-fire naval exercises in the Baltic Se a on Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions with nearby European nations that are already high over NATO and Ukraine.Russia last carried out mass military exercises in the Baltic Sea in June, two months after Finland became NATO’s newest member. The drills took place at the same time NATO was holding its own Baltic Sea exercises.The Russian exercises announced Wednesday will involve more personnel and aircraft than the last round and will feature the use of live weapons. The Russian defense ministry said the navy’s commander-in-chief, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, will oversee the drills, which were designed to test “the navy’s readiness to protect the national interests of the Russian Federation in an operationally important area.”The Ocean Shield-2023 exercises will involve forces practicing how to “protect sea lanes, transport troops and military cargo, as well as defend the coastline,” ...

European militaries evacuate foreign nationals from Niger as regional tensions rise after coup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Foreign nationals lined up outside an airport in Niger’s capital on Wednesday morning to wait for a French military evacuation flight, while a regional bloc continued talks about its response to the military coup that took place last week.France, Italy and Spain all announced evacuations for their citizens and other Europeans in the capital, Niamey, following concerns that they could become trapped after soldiers detained President Mohamed Bazoum and seized power. The Biden administration has yet to announce any decision on evacuation for American forces, diplomats, aid workers and other U.S. citizens in Niger, an important counter-terror base for the United States in the Sahel. Some Americans, however, have left with the help of the Europeans.France’s first two flights evacuated more than 350 French nationals, as well as people from Niger and at least 10 other countries, the French Foreign Ministry said. The Paris airport authority said two more evacuatio...

Stock market today: Wall Street falls, and its big rally loses some more momentum

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

TOKYO — Stocks are falling, as Wall Street loses some more momentum following its torrid run so far this year. The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower Wednesday, on track for a second straight losing day after hitting a 16-month high. The Dow was down 125 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% lower shortly after the open of trading. Yields were mixed in the bond market after Fitch Ratings cut the credit rating of the U.S. government. The downgrade strikes at the core of the global financial system, but the market’s reaction has so far been more muted than after a similar downgrade in 2011.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street was poised to open lower Wednesday after the United States government’s credit rating was cut for just the second time in history.Futures for the Dow Jones industrials slipped 0.3% before the bell and futures for the S&P 500 tumbled 0.5%.Investor optimism was hurt by Fitch Ratings downgrading the U.S. government’s ...

Motorcyclist dead following two-vehicle crash in Pickering

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

A 30-year-old man is dead after his motorcycle and another vehicle collided in Pickering.Durham Regional Police officers were called to the intersection of Taunton Road and Sapphire Drive around 9 p.m. on Tuesday.Police say the motorcyclist was riding east on Taunton when a the driver of a Nissan travelling west tried to make a left turn and headed southbound into the path of the motorcycle.The motorcyclist, from Whitby, was pronounced dead at the scene.The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene.

Turkish broadcasting watchdog investigates ‘cancellation’ of Ataturk TV series

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog has launched an investigation into claims that streaming service Disney + pulled a series on the country’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the group’s chairman said.Local media reports said Armenian Americans had lobbied for the show to be canceled on the grounds that Ataturk, as an officer in the Ottoman army, was tied to the mass killing of Armenians in 1915.The Radio and Television Supreme Board decided to initiate an investigation “based on the public information” that Disney+ decided not to broadcast the series, board chairman Ebubekir Sahin said on social media late Tuesday.Ataturk, who led the Turkish independence struggle in the years following World War I and went on to become the country’s first president, is a much-venerated figure in Turkey, where insulting his memory is a criminal offense.Disney+ announced last month that the Ataturk series would be aired “on the 100th anniversary” of the Turkish Republic, ...

Jury resumes deliberations over death penalty or life in prison for Pittsburgh synagogue shooter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A jury resumed deliberations Wednesday over the sentence for a gunman who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, weighing the death penalty or life in prison without parole.Jurors got the case Tuesday and deliberated about seven hours before being sent home. Deliberations resumed around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.Robert Bowers perpetrated the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history when he stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 and opened fire, killing members of three congregations who had gathered for Sabbath worship and study. The 50-year-old truck driver was convicted in June of 63 federal counts, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death. Prosecutors have called for Bowers to be put to death, saying the attack was motivated by his hatred of Jews. Bowers spread antisemitic content online before the attack and told police at the scene that “all these Jews must die.” He has since expre...

SS Badger, ferry that carries traffic across Lake Michigan, out for season after ramp system damaged

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:48 GMT

LUDINGTON, Mich. (AP) — A historic ferry that carries traffic across Lake Michigan between Michigan and Wisconsin is out of service for the rest of the season after its ramp system was damaged in July, the vessel’s operators said.The S.S. Badger’s daily crossings between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, were suspended indefinitely by operator Lake Michigan Carferry after the ramp system failed July 21. On Tuesday, parent company Interlake Maritime Services announced that the ferry would not resume operation this sailing season because damage to the ramp’s counterweight system requires months of repairs.“This is a very complicated process and one that will not be complete in time to resume service this season,” Sara Spore, general manager of Lake Michigan Carferry, said in a news release.The release said a counterweight structure on the port side of the ferry’s ramp system failed on July 21. Divers, marine construction contractors and an engineering fi...