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Poland, Baltic states warn they could seal borders with Belarus if military, migrant tensions grow

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — NATO members Poland and the Baltic states will seal off their borders with Russia’s ally Belarus in the event of any military incidents or a massive migrant push by Minsk, the interior ministers warned Monday.The ministers said they were seeing growing tensions on NATO’s and the European Union’s borders with Belarus, which has taken in thousands of Russia’s military mercenaries and is pushing Middle East and African migrants into Europe, despite various forms of barriers having been put up.They warned of swift and concerted response in the case of a military incident or large migrant push.The ministers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia addressed the media following their talks in Warsaw. In a joint statement they demanded that the government of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko immediately remove from its territory the Wagner Group mercenaries. They also demanded the removal of migrants from border areas and their return to their h...

Revelers pack London streets as Notting Hill Carnival celebrates Caribbean culture

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of revelers packed the streets of west London on Monday for the climax of the Notting Hill Carnival, one of the world’s biggest celebrations of Caribbean music and culture.Organizers say up to 2 million people are expected to take in the music, parades, dancing and food over the two days of Europe’s largest street party, which began Sunday with a children’s parade.The carnival traces its history back to 1958, when Trinidadian human rights activist Claudia Jones began organizing a gathering to unify the community after a series of racist attacks on Black people in the Notting Hill neighborhood.Launched in 1964 with a few Trinidadian steel bands, it has grown into a huge annual street party involving colorful floats, thousands of calypso dancers in spectacular feathered costumes, almost 20 steel bands and more than two dozen sound systems.The carnival returned to the neighborhood’s narrow streets last year after two years when it had to be held onli...

Military leader Burhan visits east Sudan in first tour outside of capital since conflict erupted.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — The head of Sudan’s army made a rare public speech Monday in his first tour outside of the capital since the conflict with a rival general erupted in mid-April.Sudan was plunged into chaos after monthslong tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting on April 15. In the eastern coastal city of Port Sudan, Burhan said a military operation that included naval and air forces enabled him to leave the capital’s army headquarters safely. Two people were killed in the operation, he said.The conflict has reduced the capital to an urban battlefield, with the RSF controlling vast swaths of the city. The military command, where Burhan has purportedly been stationed since April, has been one of the epicenters of the conflict, besieged by RSF forces.Burhan said no agreement had been reached “with the traitors or with any party outside of the Sudanese people” t...

AP Was There: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 draws hundreds of thousands

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — EDITOR’S NOTE — On Aug. 28, 1963, AP reporter Raymond J. Crowley went to the National Mall and chronicled the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which went on to become one of the most famous political rallies in U.S. history. Writing in the language and style used by journalists of his era, Crowley duly noted a wide range of details about the event, from the size of the crowd and the songs the marchers sang to President John F. Kennedy’s reaction, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, and the three arrests made by police. Sixty years after its original publication, the AP is running the story in its original form.___WASHINGTON (AP) — In a great, dramatic demonstration, more than 200,000 Negroes and white sympathizers massed before the Abraham Lincoln Memorial today and demanded across-the-board abolition of race discrimination.Then, after the “march for jobs and freedom,” President Kennedy asserted that “the cause of 20 million Negroes ...

A fire-rescue helicopter has crashed in Florida; officials say 2 are injured

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A medical rescue helicopter crashed Monday near Fort Lauderdale, injuring two people, authorities said. The Broward Sheriff’s Office said one of its fire-rescue helicopters crashed near the Pompano Beach Airpark shortly before 9 a.m. In a statement, the office said two people were hurt. It did not give their conditions or names. Further details were not immediately released. A photo posted online shows flames coming from the midsection of the helicopter as it is trailed by a long plume of smoke. The Associated Press

Book Review: ‘Holler, Child’ is a profound short story collection about Black lives in America

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

“Holler, Child” by LaToya Watkins (Tiny Reparations Books)LaToya Watkins has surpassed the high bar set by her beautifully crushing debut novel, “Perish,” with a collection of short stories titled “Holler, Child.” Heavily rooted in west Texas where the author grew up, the 11 fictional pieces focus on Black lives — and the huge range of people and relationships within — to form a profound collection.In the namesake short story, which includes some of the most brutal scenes in the book, the bloodied face of the narrator’s son reminds her of the day she was raped and beaten — “Holler, Child” being what she commanded her 17-year-old self to do way back then, but couldn’t. Now, confronted with the possibility that her son may have raped someone, she has a chance to handle things differently.Its ending is completely unexpected — a battlefield of conflicting logic and emotion that’s hard to fathom, but also strangely sensical.While many of the pages are about mothers and wives, some are fr...

American Airlines fined $4.1 million for dozens of long tarmac delays that trapped passengers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

The federal government is fining American Airlines $4.1 million for dozens of instances in which passengers were kept on board planes without a chance to exit during long ground delays.The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday it is the largest such fine against an airline since rules covering long ground delays took effect about a decade ago.The department said its investigation revealed that from 2018 through 2021, American kept 43 domestic flights stuck on the ground for at least three hours without giving passengers the chance to deplane. There are exceptions in which airlines are allowed to bend the rules, including for safety and security reasons, but the department said none of those were factors in the flights it identified.“This is the latest action in our continued drive to enforce the rights of airline passengers,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who vowed to hold airlines accountable under consumer-protection laws. Associated Press, The Associated P...

A Hong Kong language group shuts down after police allege one of its essays breached security laws

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — A group that promotes the Cantonese language shut down Monday after Hong Kong authorities said a fictional essay depicting a decline in liberties in the city on the group’s website violated the national security law, in the latest example of the city’s erosion of freedom of expression.Andrew Chan, chairperson of the Societas Linguistica Hongkongensis, said in a Facebook post that national security officers visited a home where some of his family members live without a search warrant last week when he was out of town. The officers asked him to remove the essay from his group’s website immediately, he said.Chan said he decided to halt the operation of his association due to the legal risks and a lack of resources.“I am so shocked and I still cannot believe it’s happened,” he said in an email to The Associated Press. He also said he was sad to see that even though he was running something “only related to arts and literature,” he was still “targeted by the ...

Biden is widely seen as too old for office, an AP-NORC poll finds. Trump has problems of his own

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans actually agree on something in this time of raw discord: Joe Biden is too old to be an effective president in a second term. Only a few years his junior, Donald Trump raises strikingly less concern about his age.But they have plenty of other problems with Trump, who at least for now far outdistances his rivals for the Republican nomination despite his multiple criminal indictments. Never mind his advanced years — if anything, some say, the 77-year-old ought to grow up.A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds much of the public oddly united in sizing up the one trait Biden cannot change.The president has taken to raising the age issue himself, with wisecracks, as if trying to relax his audiences about his 80 trips around the sun.Age discrimination may be banned in the workplace but the president’s employers — the people — aren’t shy about their bias. In the poll, fully 77% said Biden is too old to be ef...

Stock market today: Wall Street gains ground after a rare winning week

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose broadly in morning trading on Wall Street Monday as markets shift their attention from the Federal Reserve to more corporate and economic reports.The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to keep upward momentum from its first winning week since July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 244 points, or 0.7% to 34,589 as of 10:06 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq rose 0.6%.Wall Street is wrapping up its latest round of earnings reports. Best Buy and Costco will report their results this week.3M jumped 5.5% following reports that the company had agreed to a $5.5 billion settlement over faulty earplugs, a lower figure than expected. Boston Scientific rose 6.1% after giving investors an encouraging update on a study for a heart device.Shares of Hawaiian Electric jumped 41% as the utility pushed back against accusations it is responsible for causing the wildfire that devastated the community of Lahaina. The company said power to the lines in the area of the fire had been cut off hour...