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Hong Kong’s top court rules in favor of recognizing same-sex partnerships in a landmark case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court ruled on Tuesday that the government should provide a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships in a landmark decision for the city’s LGBTQ+ community.The ruling did not grant full marriage rights to same-sex couples but was a partial victory for prominent pro-democracy Jimmy Sham, who had fought a five-year legal battle over the recognition of same-sex marriage registered overseas. Sham married his husband in New York in 2013, and argued that Hong Kong’s laws, which don’t recognize foreign same-sex marriage, violate the constitutional right to equality. Equality advocates said the judgment was a step forward and will have strong implications for the lives of the LGBTQ+ community and the financial hub’s reputation as an inclusive place to stay and work.Judges at the top court, by a majority, declared in a written ruling that the government is in violation of its positive obligation to establish an alternative framework for legal recogniti...

Kim Jong Un and Putin may meet. What do North Korea and Russia need from each other?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may travel to Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, a U.S. official said, in a trip that would underscore deepening cooperation as the two isolated leaders are locked in separate confrontations with the U.S.U.S. officials also said that Russia is seeking to buy ammunition from North Korea to refill reserves drained by its war in Ukraine. In return, experts said, North Korea will likely want food and energy shipments and transfers of sophisticated weapons technologies.A meeting with Putin would be Kim’s first summit with a foreign leader since North Korea closed its borders in January 2020. They met for the first time in April 2019, two months after Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with then-U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traveled to Pyongyang in July and asked Kim to send more ammunition to Russia, according to U.S. officials. Shoigu said Moscow and Py...

TikTok’s Irish data center up and running as European privacy project gets under way

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

LONDON (AP) — TikTok said Tuesday that operations are underway at the first of its three European data centers, part of the popular Chinese owned app’s effort to ease Western fears about privacy risks. The video sharing app said it began transferring European user information to a data center in Dublin. Two more data centers, another in Ireland and one in Norway, are under construction, TikTok said in an update on its plan to localize European user data, dubbed Project Clover. TikTok has been under scrutiny by European and American regulators over concerns that sensitive user data may end up in China. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. TikTok unveiled its plan earlier this year to store data in Europe, where there are stringent privacy laws, after a slew of Western governments banned the app from official devices. NCC Group, a British cybersecurity company, is overseeing the project, TikTok’s vice president o...

Syria’s US-backed Kurdish forces hope to end weeklong clashes with militia in the ‘next 24 hours’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

DEIR EL-ZOUR, Syria (AP) — Syria’s U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces on Tuesday pushed deeper into the last stronghold of Arab tribesmen who have taken up arms against them in eastern Syria. A spokesperson said they hoped to end the dayslong clashes there in the “next 24 hours.”The fighting, which broke out eight days ago in the oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour along the Euphrates River, has so far killed at least 50 people, including several civilians, and wounded dozens. Hundreds of U.S. troops have been based in eastern Syria since 2015 to help battle the Islamic State group.The violence has pitted the Syrian Democratic Forces against the tribesmen and former allies of the the Arab-led militia known as the Deir el-Zour Military Council. It was sparked by the arrest last month of the militia’s leader, Ahmad Khbeil, better known as Abu Khawla, accused by SDF of “multiple crimes and violations,” including drug trafficking. SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami told The Associa...

Meredith Shaw joins Breakfast Television as new co-host

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

Citytv announced that Canadian television and radio personality Meredith Shaw has joined Breakfast Television as its new co-host.Shaw will co-host alongside Sid Seixeiro and the BT family, including Devo Brown, Tammie Sutherland, Stephanie Henry, and Frank Ferragine, beginning Sep.11.The 38-year-old joins the BT morning show with years of experience in the industry, including regular appearances on The Marilyn Denis Show, The Social, CTV’s Your Morning, and etalk.Shaw is well-regarded not only as a reputable Canadian broadcaster but also as a style expert and advocate for inclusion and empowerment.“Well, this is going to be fun! I have so much respect for this award-winning team and great admiration for the BT audience,” said Shaw.“It is my pleasure to step into this new role, a real dream come true. From the moment I met Sid, I knew we could talk about anything, laugh about anything, and, most of all, be honest with each other and the audience. I’m so ...

America’s small towns are disbanding police forces, citing hiring woes. It’s not all bad

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

GOODHUE, Minnesota (AP) — As Goodhue Police Chief Josh Smith struggled this summer to fill vacancies in his small department, he warned the town’s City Council that unless pay and benefits improved, finding new officers would never happen.When nothing changed, Smith quit. So did his few remaining officers, leading the Minnesota town of 1,300 residents to shutter its police force in late August.America is in the midst of a police officer shortage that many in law enforcement blame on the two-fold morale hit of 2020 — the coronavirus pandemic and criticism of police that boiled over with the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. From Minnesota to Maine, Ohio to Texas, small towns unable to fill jobs are eliminating their police departments and turning over police work to their county sheriff, a neighboring town or state police.The trend isn’t altogether new.At least 521 U.S. towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 200,000 disbanded policing between 1972 and 201...

Tuesday Forecast: Temps in low 90s with humid conditions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

CHICAGO — Temperatures in the low 90s Tuesday with hot and humid conditions, 20 percent chance of a storm. Winds: S 10-15 G25. High: 92. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Mostly cloudy tonight with early morning storm chance. Winds: S 10-15 G25. Low: 73.Wednesday Forecast: Mostly cloudy, humid, rain & storm chance. Winds: SSW 0-15 G25. High: 87.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog

Great Wall of China section damaged 'beyond repair': report

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

(NewsNation) — Two people accused of using an excavator on a section of the Great Wall of China and causing damage "beyond repair" have been arrested, China Daily reported. CNN reported that the Shanxi Cultural Relics Bureau shared in a social media post that the suspects are a 38-year-old man with the last name Zheng and a 55-year-old woman with the last name Wang.They are accused of using machinery to "widen a gap on a section of the No 32 Great Wall in Youyu county in late August." They have been charged with destroying a cultural relic, China Daily reported. Is China spying on Americans via interactive toys? After they were contracted to do construction near the wall, they allegedly admitted to using the excavator to make it easier to pass through, China Daily reported.The wall was built during China’s imperial Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644)."The Great Wall was continuously built from the 3rd century BC to the 17th century AD on the northern border of the country as the great mil...

COVID-19 raises anxiety at start of new school year

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

COVID-19 cases are on the rise and raising anxiety around the possibility that schools could implement mask mandates or close down again. Surges of COVID-19 cases in Texas and Kentucky have caused three school districts to briefly suspend in-person classes.But few schools have taken those steps so far, and superintendents contend that without national guidance it is highly unlikely we’ll see a return of mass closures or mask mandates. In the post-emergency era of COVID-19, schools no longer have the comprehensive surveillance data that was readily available during the pandemic, though some local data remains available to inform their decision-making.And without specific guidance, decisions on COVID mitigation measures are largely up to school district leaders, in cooperation with local health authorities and in consultation with the community.“Superintendents will not make these calls in isolation,”  said George Roberts, a Maryland superintendent. “What they did do du...

Tropical wave has 90% chance of formation, could become a hurricane later this week

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:10:54 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The National Hurricane Center is keeping an eye on a disturbance that has a 90% chance of formation and will likely become Tropical Storm Lee.The NHC said showers and thunderstorms associated with an area of low pressure are located over the central tropical Atlantic about 900 miles west-southwest of Cape Verde. 2 bitten by shark at same Florida beach, officials say Forecasters believe a tropical depression or tropical storm could form in the next day or so as the system moves toward the west-northwest at 15 to 20 mph.The NHC said the system will likely become Tropical Storm Lee. It could strengthen into a hurricane later this week as it nears the northern Leeward Islands.The NHC is also tracking a strong tropical wave that is forecast to move off the coast of West Africa on Tuesday.Once the wave moves offshore, the NHC said a tropical depression could form over the far eastern tropical Atlantic during the middle to the latter part of the week.The system is ex...