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Europe’s border agency seeks answers from Greece on alleged illegal deportations of migrants

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The European Union’s border agency is seeking “clarifications and information” from Greece’s coast guard on two alleged cases of migrants who crossed by boat being illegally deported back to Turkey, a European official said Friday.The official said Frontex’s executive director Hans Leijtens wrote to a senior police official representing Greece on the Frontex management board, requesting a reply by July 10. The agency helps patrol EU member Greece’s eastern borders.Greece’s center-right government has in recent years stepped up patrols in the eastern Aegean Sea, radically reducing the numbers of migrants from the Middle East and Africa crossing in small boats from neighboring Turkey. But Athens has been repeatedly accused of dumping migrants who enter Greek waters back inside Turkey’s maritime jurisdiction without allowing them to apply for asylum — an illegal practice known as “pushbacks.” There have been similar claims on Greece&#...

Brazil court votes to bar Bolsonaro from elections until 2030

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — A panel of judges voted Friday to render far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ineligible to run for office again after concluding that he abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.The decision, once voting of all judges concludes, will forbid Bolsonaro from running until 2030, upending the 68-year-old’s political future and likely erasing any chance for him to regain power.Four of the seven judges on the nation’s highest electoral court agreed that Bolsonaro abused his authority by using government communication channels to promote his campaign and sowing doubts about the vote.“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of being president again, and he knows it,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “After this, he will try to stay out of jail, elect some of his allies to keep his political capital, but it is very unlikely he will ever return to the pr...

Iowa governor’s request for federal aid in partial building collapse denied

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — The federal government denied Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ request for assistance after a six-story apartment building partially collapsed roughly one month ago, leaving three dead, many injured and dozens displaced.A federal agency “determined that the severity of the situation does not warrant an emergency declaration that provides supplemental federal emergency assistance,” according to a June 28 letter that Reynolds posted on social media.Reynolds issued an emergency proclamation the day after the Davenport, Iowa, building’s partial collapse to deploy state resources to the response. She sent a formal request for a federal emergency declaration the following week, estimating the response to be at least $5 million and asserting it was “beyond the capability of the State and the affected local governments.”Reynolds said a second request is still pending.More than three weeks after the west wall of the building crumbled, most of the remaining str...

Indiana Supreme Court upholds abortion ban, says state constitution gives only limited protections

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state’s abortion ban doesn’t violate the state constitution, removing a major hurdle to enforcing the ban Republicans approved last summer.The court’s decision overturns a county judge’s ruling that the ban likely violates the state constitution’s privacy protections, which she said are stronger than those found in the U.S. Constitution. That judge’s order has allowed abortions to continue in Indiana since September, despite the ban.An opinion from three of the court’s five justices said that while Indiana’s constitution provides some protection of abortion rights, the “General Assembly otherwise retains broad legislative discretion for determining whether and the extent to which to prohibit abortions.”All five Indiana Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican governors.Although the court’s decision strikes down the injunction blocking the ban, it wasn’t immediately clear how ...

French president urges parents to keep teens at home as government orders buses to stop at 9 p.m.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron urged parents Friday to keep teenagers at home and proposed restrictions on social media to quell rioting spreading across France over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver that has resulted so far in the arrests of 875 people. While Macron held off on the option of declaring a state of emergency, his interior minister ordered a complete shutdown of all public bus and tram services across the country to take effect before sunset Friday. The Paris region had already announced such a shutdown to protect transportation workers and passengers.Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin’s instructions came after a second government crisis meeting, during which Macron maintained that social media platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok played a “considerable role” in fueling copycat acts of violence during this week’s unrest. Macron said his government would work with technology companies to establish procedures for “the removal of...

A temple elephant in Sri Lanka will be airlifted back to Thailand after allegations of neglect

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Veterinarians are preparing to airlift an Asian elephant from Sri Lanka back to its home country of Thailand this weekend after it spent more than two decades at a Buddhist temple where activists alleged it was abused.The Thai royal family gave the elephant as a gift in 2001 to Sri Lanka’s government, which in turn gifted it to the temple where it was named Muthu Raja and given honored roles in religious processions.However, the activist group Rally for Animal Rights and Environment, or RARE, raised allegations it was being mistreated, including that it had a stiff leg from a long-neglected injury. It lobbied last year for the intervention of Thai officials, who asked Kande Viharaya temple officials to allow the animal’s return to Thailand for medical treatment.“This is not the end, but the beginning of a new life for Muthu Raja,” RARE group founder Panchali Panapitiya said.The temple agreed to transfer the elephant last November to Sri Lanka’s National Zoo...

CPD horse named after fallen officer Ella French

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Police Department has a new member of the CPD Mounted Unit, a horse named after office Ella French who was shot and killed in 2021. The new horse 'French' is a six-year-old thoroughbred. Officer Ella French was killed in the line of duty on August 7 2021. 'French' will join the other Chicago Police horses, who are all named after fallen officers.

Supreme Court blocks student loan forgiveness: What should borrowers do now?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

The Supreme Court has made its final ruling on student debt relief, ending the almost yearlong uncertainty borrowers have had on the future of their loans. In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s plan that would have given up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness for more than 40 million borrowers. “The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.Earlier this month, borrowers also got a concrete answer on the timeline of student loan repayments restarting; the Biden administration declared interest will begin accruing Sept. 1 and payments will resume in October. Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan Now that borrowers know the fate of both student debt situations, here’s what they should do next:Access your student loan accountIt has been three years since borrowers have had to ...

New pro women’s hockey league to launch in January after deal with Dodgers co-owner

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

By JOHN WAWROW and STEPHEN WHYNO (AP Hockey Writers)A new women’s pro hockey league will begin competing in North America in January after a deal was brokered between rival factions in the sport.Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra, team president Stan Kasten and tennis legend Billie Jean King will help run the league after Walter’s firm purchased unspecified “assets” of the Professional Hockey Federation (PHF).The agreement announced Friday ends a yearslong feud between the PHF and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, a group made up of most of the U.S. and Canadian national team players who were unwilling to join the league formerly known as the NWHL. It also could bring the NHL to the table, after Commissioner Gary Bettman has said he and owners did not want to get involved in a dispute between multiple leagues and would throw weight behind one, once it was formed.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s P...

Supreme Court rejects Biden plan to wipe away $400 billion in student loan debt

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:56 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Friday effectively killed President Joe Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans.The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, said the Biden administration overstepped its authority with the plan, and it leaves borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume in the fall.Biden was to announce a new set of actions to protect student loan borrowers later Friday, said a White House official. The official was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of Biden’s expected statement on the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.The court held that the administration needed Congress’ endorsement before undertaking so costly a program. The majority rejected arguments that a bipartisan 2003 law dealing with national emergencies, known as the HEROES Act, gave Biden the power he claimed.“Six States sued, arguing that the...