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Israel-Hamas war could threaten already fragile economies in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Economic crises are rippling through the countries bordering Israel, raising the possibility of a chain reaction from the war with Hamas that further worsens the financial health and political stability of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon and creates problems well beyond.Each of the three countries is up against differing economic pressures that led the International Monetary Fund to warn in a September report that they could lose their “sociopolitical stability.” That warning came shortly before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering a war that could easily cause economic chaos that President Joe Biden and the European Union would likely need to address.The possible fallout is now starting to be recognized by world leaders and policy analysts. For a Biden administration committed to stopping the Israel-Hamas war from widening, the conflict could amplify the economic strains and possibly cause governments to collapse. If the chaos went unchecked, it could...

Democrats’ divisions on Israel-Hamas war boil over in Michigan as Detroit-area Muslims feel betrayed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

DEARBORN, Michigan (AP) — Many of Michigan’s top Democrats, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, took part in a huge pro-Israel rally at a suburban Detroit synagogue days after Hamas’ deadly attack on the country earlier this month, with some of them dancing and joining in chants of “Am Yisrael Chai” — Hebrew for “The people of Israel live.”None of them attended a rally in nearby Dearborn the next day to show support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who were being killed or forced from their homes by the Israeli military’s response.The war between Israel and Hamas has inflamed tensions between Jews and Muslims around the world, including the Detroit area, which is home to several heavily Jewish suburbs and Dearborn, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. The strong show of support for Israel by Michigan’s leading Democrats, though, has offended many of their Muslim supporters and could affect how this key bloc votes next fall in t...

In political battleground of Georgia, a trial is set to determine legitimacy of voting challenge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — On the eve of a critical 2021 election for U.S. Senate in Georgia, a conservative voting organization announced it was challenging the eligibility of more than 360,000 state voters.Texas-based True the Vote said it had good reason to believe the voters had moved out of their districts and were ineligible to cast a ballot there. But a group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams argued in a 2020 lawsuit that the mass challenge violated federal law because it intimidated voters.Nearly three years later, the two sides are headed to trial in Georgia over those claims. Starting Thursday, U.S. Judge Steve Jones in Gainesville will hear arguments and testimony to determine whether True the Vote’s actions violated a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation. A ruling against True the Vote could deter similar mass challenges in Georgia and other states, attorneys for plaintiff Fair Fight say. They are specifically asking Jones to bar True the Vot...

Business owners in a Ukrainian front-line city adapt even as ‘a missile can come at any moment’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — In a city where damaged buildings are everywhere, a destroyed pizzeria stands out as a painful reminder of lives and livelihoods dashed in an instant.A Russian ballistic missile struck the popular eatery in eastern Ukraine in June, killing 13 people including an award-winning Ukrainian writer and several teenagers. Seven of the victims were staff.Today, fresh flowers and notes have been placed where the entrance once was. A T-shirt, part of the waitstaff’s uniform, hangs near the makeshift memorial with the inscription “We will never forget.”“As an entrepreneur, of course, I regret the loss of property, but there’s something that cannot be returned: human lives,” said Dmytro Ihnatenko, the owner of RIA Pizza.The bombed-out building in Kramatorsk underscores the massive risks for businesses in this front-line city in the Donetsk region. But that has not deterred many other business owners who have reopened their doors to customers in the past year.The city ...

Mike Johnson is the new House speaker, but the ally of Donald Trump faces same GOP challenges ahead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Mike Johnson is the new speaker of the House, but the ally of Donald Trump inherits many of the same political problems that have tormented past GOP leaders, tested their grasp of the gavel and eventually chased them out of office.When the House convenes Thursday it will be a bustle of activity, making up for lost time during the weeks of chaos since the ouster of Kevin McCarthy. But the goodwill toward Johnson blurs the political fault lines challenging the Louisianan’s ability to lead the GOP majority as it faces daunting issues ahead. By Nov. 17, the Congress must fund the government again or risk a federal shutdown. President Joe Biden wants an additional $105 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine. And Republicans are eager to resume their impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son’s business dealings.“This has been a grueling process,” Johnson said Wednesday after he took the gavel. “The challenge before ...

NY natural history museum changing how it looks after thousands of human remains in collection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — There are stories in the human bones at the American Museum of Natural History. They tell of lives lived — some mere decades ago, others in past centuries — in cultures around the world.But the vast collection of thousands of skeletal parts at one of the world’s most visited museums also tells a darker story – of opened graves, disrupted burial sites and collecting practices that treated some cultures and people as objects to be gawked at.The New York museum announced this month that it is pulling all human remains from public display and will change how it maintains its collection of body parts with the aim of eventually repatriating as much as it can and respectfully holding what it can’t.The museum now holds around 12,000 sets of remains, including the bones of Indigenous people and enslaved Black people, often amassed in the 19th and 20th centuries by researchers looking to prove theories about racial superiority and inferiority through physical attributes....

Former coal-fired power plant being razed to make way for offshore wind electricity connection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

UPPER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — For decades, tourists heading to the New Jersey beach resorts of Ocean City and Cape May saw the towering smokestack of the B.L. England Generating Station as they zipped past it on the Garden State Parkway.The 463-foot-tall (141.1-meter) stack was a local landmark and even a weather forecaster for some residents who glanced outside to see which way emissions from its top were blowing, and how fast, as they decided what to wear for the day.But the power plant, which burned coal and oil over the decades, closed in May 2019, a casualty of the global move away from burning fossil fuels.And the smokestack, the last major remaining piece of the plant, will be imploded at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday, brought down by explosives strategically placed by a demolition company known in the area for razing the former Trump Plaza casino in nearby Atlantic City in 2021.The demolition will clear the way for the waterfront site on Great Egg Harbor Bay to enter its next role in p...

New US House speaker tried to help overturn the 2020 election, raising concerns about the next one

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

The new leader of one of the chambers of Congress that will certify the winner of next year’s presidential election helped spearhead the attempt to overturn the last one, raising alarms that Republicans could try to subvert the will of the voters if they remain in power despite safeguards enacted after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.Mike Johnson, the Louisiana congressman who was elected speaker of the House of Representatives on Wednesday after a three-week standoff among Republicans, took the lead in filing a brief in a lawsuit that sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 win. That claim, widely panned by legal scholars of all ideologies, was quickly thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court.After the 2020 election, Johnson also echoed some of the wilder conspiracy theories pushed by former President Donald Trump to explain away his loss. Then Johnson voted against certifying Biden’s win even after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.Johnson’s role three...

At least 16 dead in Maine shooting as police hunt for 'person of interest' and residents shelter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — A man opened fire at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people, wounding dozens of others and throwing the state's second-largest city into chaos as hundreds of police searched for a person of interest and residents were ordered to shelter in place.A police intelligence bulletin identified Robert Card, who was trained as a firearms instructor at a U.S. Army Reserve training facility in Maine, as the person of interest. The document, reviewed by The Associated Press and circulated to law enforcement officials, says Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. It did not provide specific details about his treatment or condition.The document also said Card had reported hearing voices and had threatened to carry out a shooting at the military training base in Saco, Maine. A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service.Lewiston Police said in an earlier...

Canyon in Malibu closed after mountain lion tries to attack dog, injures hiker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:32 GMT

Officials with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in Malibu announced the temporary closure of Solstice Canyon after a young mountain lion attempted to attack a small, leashed dog walking with its owner.  The encounter, according to officials, happened Wednesday morning. While intervening to protect his dog, the hiker suffered a puncture wound and a scratch on his hand. The dog was uninjured. "A scratch basically, just minor injuries," Seth Riley, the wildlife branch chief for the US National Park Service, told LAist. "He was able to grab the dog and keep the lion from capturing it." National Park Service rangers provided the hiker with first aid on the scene.  Out of an abundance of caution and because a second young mountain lion was spotted in the immediate area, officials closed the park until 8 a.m. Thursday while wildlife biologists examined the area and assessed the situation.  Solstice Canyon in Malibu. (National Park Service)“Mountain lions a...