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Moldova to EU: Let us in ASAP 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

The EU should let Moldova into the bloc “as soon as possible” to better protect the country against rising Russian threats, Moldova’s President Maia Sandu said Thursday.The country of 2.6 million people has for months accused Moscow of trying to destabilize it over Chișinău’s staunch support of Ukraine and pro-Western path, warning the Kremlin has deployed hybrid warfare and sent “saboteurs” to stoke unrest. Russia also put pressure on Moldova by slashing its gas supplies.“Nothing compares to what is happening in Ukraine, but we see the risks and we do believe that we can save our democracy only as part of the EU,” Sandu said in an interview with AFP, adding that Russia would “continue to be a big source of instability for the years to come.”Last month, the EU sent a civilian mission to Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, to help combat the growing threats from abroad.Russia has also tried to fan tensions between t...

Chinese menace threatens to shatter G7 unity

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

HIROSHIMA, Japan — As the leaders of the Group of Seven gather for their annual summit in Japan this week, three world-changing conflicts — past, present and potential — will converge. The atomic bomb that ended World War II destroyed much of the city of Hiroshima, where the leaders will meet. Today, Russia’s war in Ukraine is costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars as it drags on. And then there’s the risk of another horrifying catastrophe to come, as China threatens Taiwan. And it’s over China where the alliance may come unstuck. For hawks like the U.S. and Japan, the summit beginning Friday offers a timely opportunity to make the case to Europe’s leaders directly that it’s time to get off the fence when it comes to confronting China. “This G7 Summit will be an appropriate venue to also discuss security issues and our security cooperation not only in Europe, but also in the Indo-Pacific region,” Noriyuki Shikata, cabinet secretary at the Japanese pri...

Do men shun household chores? Spain is launching an app to find out

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

(CNN) — Spain’s equality ministry says it will launch an app designed to monitor the sharing of chores between members of a household, as part of a drive to improve gender equality.Angela Rodríguez, second-in-command in Spain’s ministry of equality, announced the plans at a meeting of the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Geneva on Tuesday.“What surveys tell us is that women spend a lot more time on household chores than men do,” said Rodríguez, who added that the app will allow each member of the household to input the time they spend on chores.“It’s a very simple thing,” she said, explaining that the app will work in a similar way to apps like Splitwise, which allow groups to share the cost of meals or other spending.According to a survey from Spain’s national statistics institute, published in December, 45.9% of female respondents said they carried out the majority of household chores, compared to just 14.9% of men...

New Hampshire House voting on what parents should be told about transgender students

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

By HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press)CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The national discussion around transgender students and what parents should be told about them returns to the New Hampshire Statehouse on Thursday.The House is set to vote on a bill similar to those already enacted by Republican-led legislatures in multiple states. It passed the GOP-dominated Senate in March along party lines but faces an uncertain future in the 400-member House, where Republicans have a razor-thin majority.Much of the debate has focused on whether to require school officials — when asked by parents — to disclose that their child is using a different name or being referred to as being a different gender.“Parents who ask such questions likely already suspect that their children are having problematic issues in this area, so this bill is not an effort to ‘out’ such students,” Republican Rep. Arlene Quartatiello wrote in remarks printed in the House calendar ahead of the vot...

Biden 2024 campaign eyes Florida, North Carolina along with blue states in new strategy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Biden‘s re-election campaign is vowing to hold the states that won him the White House in 2020 but also compete in places it lost like North Carolina and increasingly Republican-dominated Florida, providing what it says are “a number of viable pathways to the 270 electoral votes” needed to clinch four more years.Offering her first extensive comments on strategy since she was named manager of Biden’s campaign last month, Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo to “interested parties” that the 2024 race presents “significant opportunities to grow Democratic support.” It was released while Biden was traveling in Japan, but he is skipping previously planned, subsequent stops in Australia and Papua New Guinea to focus on debt limit talks in Washington.Rodriguez said the reelection campaign is planning early investments to try to retain battleground states Biden won in 2020 including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire, and to hold Georgi...

Man accused of killing two sisters on Mother's Day, pleads guilty before a San Diego judge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The man accused of killing two sisters in a hit-and-run crash in the Bay Terraces neighborhood on Mother's Day made a video appearance before a judge Wednesday afternoon. It left raw emotion both in and outside of a San Diego courtroom as family and friends of the victims gathered for the arraignment of the man in question, 53-year-old Tony Garcia. "I know she’s in a better place right now, she’s watching over us. And what I want to say is that no matter how much time passes, she was my first love," shared Andrew Guttierez, boyfriend to 23-year-old victim Jazmin Higuera Cano. She and her 25-year-old sister Elizabeth Cano, a wife and mother, both died in the hit-and-run crash early Mother's Day morning. Two killed, two hospitalized in crash; one driver fled the scene Garcia of San Diego was driving the F150 that killed the two sisters and injured two others. After running away, he turned himself into police 14 hours later. Authorities say the Honda, which was driven b...

San Francisco is naming the nation’s first drag laureate

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Anti-trans legislation is roiling the nation. Bills prohibiting drag performances are cropping up in statehouses. Violence and vitriol are turning children’s drag story hour events into headline-news protests.San Francisco is fighting back Thursday by naming the nation’s first drag laureate, an ambassador-style position designed to represent the city’s famous LGBTQ+ community at a time when rights are under attack.In a city known for its support of LGBTQ+ rights, San Francisco Mayor London Breed says it was a natural step to create a position that not only embraces drag culture but puts government resources toward it. D’Arcy Drollinger, a well-known drag performer and nightclub owner, will receive a $55,000 stipend in her 18-month role as the city’s inaugural drag laureate.“My goals are to make San Francisco sparkle. I think drag performers bring a lot of sparkle and humor and glamor and silliness to the world. I think that is part of why drag is so ...

Stock market today: Wall Street stalls a day after big rally

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are stalling on Wall Street as hopes dim that the Federal Reserve could finally take a pause on its aggressive hikes to interest rates. The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in early trading Thursday. The Dow slipped 96 points and the Nasdaq rose slightly. Treasury yields rose as traders reduced bets that the Fed could stand pat on rates at its next meeting in June, which would be the first time that’s happened in more than a year. Economic reports also came in mixed. Walmart rose after its results for the latest quarter beat Wall Street’s expectations. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street pointed modestly higher before the opening bell Thursday on hopes U.S. political leaders can reach an agreement to avoid a potentially disastrous default on government debt.Futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1%.Wall Street rallied Wednesday after President Joe Biden expr...

Top Lebanese official in IMF talks calls for central bank head to resign amid corruption allegations

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese official heading talks with the International Monetary Fund to bailout Lebanon’s tanking economy called Thursday for the country’s embattled central bank chief to resign, amid allegations of corruption and an international arrest warrant issued against him.Once seen as the guardian of Lebanon’s financial stability, Central Bank Gov. Riad Salameh is now widely blamed for an economic meltdown that began in 2019. The Lebanese pound has since plunged in value and partly wiped out the savings of ordinary Lebanese, plunging an estimated three-quarters of the population into poverty.Lebanon’s caretaker deputy prime minister, Saade Chami, told The Associated Press in an interview that the allegations against the central bank chief put the government’s credibility at risk and “could threaten the country’s financial relations with the rest of the world,” including with the IMF and other global financial institutions. Chami is the highest-ranking Lebanese...

Husband of 2-time Olympic champion Justyna Kowalczyk killed in avalanche

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:08:46 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The husband of two-time Olympic champion Justyna Kowalczyk was killed Thursday in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps, the Polish Mountaineering Support Foundation said.Sports climber Kacper Tekieli, who was 38, last posted on Facebook on Tuesday from Konkordia Hut in Fiescherthal, Switzerland.Tekieli was a climbing instructor who climbed in the Himalayas on the Makalu, the fifth highest mountain in the world, and on Broad Peak, as well as in the Alps. He married Kowalczyk in 2020. The couple have a 20-month-old son.Kowalczyk, a cross-country skier who won gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2014 Sochi Games, has retired from competition.___AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsThe Associated Press