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With one eye on China, Japan backs Sri Lanka as a partner in the Indo-Pacific

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Saturday that Sri Lanka is a key partner in a Tokyo-led initiative aimed at building security and economic cooperation around the Indo-Pacific but also at countering an increasingly assertive China. Sri Lanka, strategically located in the Indian Ocean, is integral to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, Hayashi said. He was speaking after a meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ali Sabry, in the capital, Colombo. The initiative, announced by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in March includes Japan’s assistance to emerging economies, support for maritime security, a provision of coast guard patrol boats and equipment and other infrastructure cooperation.Last year Sri Lanka, which owed $51 billion in foreign debt, became the first Asia-Pacific country since the late 1990s to default, sparking an economic crisis. While Japan is Sri Lanka’s largest creditor, about 10% of its debt is held by ...

Another unwanted record on the way

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- 21. Camp Mabry has reached a high of 100° and higher 21 times since June 8. That ties for second place with 2001 and 2002. The record for consecutive days of highs in triple digits is 27 set in 2011. Those of you who were here then well remember that Camp Mabry reached 100°+ an astounding 90 times.Second place ... for now.During this stretch of 21 days the average high temperature is 105.2 degrees. July 2022's average temperature was 90.6°. As of yesterday's high of 102° the average temperature for this July, highs and lows, is 90.7°. Even though there will be fewer highs of 100° and higher in 2023 vs. 2022 (25 by this month's end vs. 29 last year) the daily forecasts will be enough to make this July the hottest ever.Humidity percentages will lower nicely through the afternoon dropping to mostly the lower to middle 20s. That makes the heat index at or a little below the air temperature.Lower dew points equals lower humidity in the afternoonYou will notice a hazy sky...

Texas A&M regents could offer a settlement to the journalism professor at center of hiring controversy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

AUSTIN (Texas Tribune) — The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents will meet Sunday to authorize the university to negotiate a potential settlement with Kathleen McElroy, a Black University of Texas at Austin journalism professor, who turned down a position at A&M after the university changed her job offer under pressure from conservative groups.McElroy’s botched hiring led to the resignation of multiple administrators, including the university president last week. It’s not clear whether McElroy, who said she felt judged because of her race and gender, has filed claims against A&M, but if the board gives its approval the university could enter a settlement discussion with the UT professor, who has since hired legal counsel.The Board of Regents also plans to appoint an interim president for A&M, according to an agenda for the July 30 special meeting, which is open to the public.On July 20, M. Katherine Banks resigned as president of the university following the...

Scuba in the middle of East Texas? Deep dive into family fun at Athens Scuba Park

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

ATHENS, Texas (KETK) — If you enjoy a little adventure under the sea, including exploring underwater wreckage or taking a relaxing ride on a kayak, you may love taking a dive at Athens Scuba Park.“A lot of people don’t expect this kind of a place to be in the middle of East Texas. There’s not a lot of places like this,” said one of the owners and instructors, Alex Wilcher.History of the parkBuilt in 1986 on the land of a former clay brick factory, the lake holds a lot of history.“Back about 1950, the plant shut down because they hit a spring, and basically it just became just a pit with water in it, but it was crystal clear,” Alex said.Founder Calvin Wilcher knew this would be the best spot to start his unique business.“I was very enthusiastic about diving. Love to dive, I still do, and I’ve been diving for almost 60 years,” Calvin said.Place for learning and funWhat makes the scuba park so special for learning how to dive is its own private classroom, training pool and lake fo...

2,300 unprocessed sexual assault examination kits from 2015 have now been tested, Minnesota BCA says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says it has finished testing thousands of unprocessed sexual assault examination kits submitted by local law enforcement agencies.In 2015, amid a national controversy over the issue, the BCA asked local law enforcement agencies for any untested kits. More than 2,300 were submitted for testing. The agencies cited various reasons for the unsubmitted kits, such as insufficient evidence, conflicting statements to investigators and dismissed charges.Of the processed kits, 357 DNA profiles extracted from the kits matched someone who was listed in the state’s convicted sex offender database. About 130 of those were people not previously identified in sexual assault cases.The BCA is working to improve turnaround time for kit testing. As a result, the agency anticipates a 90-day turnaround time on testing sexual assault kits by this fall.“The BCA continues to look for ways to provide improved processes for victim survivors, local law enforc...

Heat, humidity, and thunderstorms: a dynamic weather mix for today

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- We've had a few clusters of non-severe thunderstorms early this morning. Still a cluster moving across our southern counties. Clouds will decrease this morning, and we'll have enough sunshine, heat, and humidity to warrant that heat warning. Highs in the mid to upper 90s and dewpoints in the low to mid 70s will bring heat index values to 105–110 again today. This afternoon we will see some thunderstorm activity, but the extent of coverage and placement of the storms are still uncertain. Right now, there's a strong complex of storms in Nebraska. This could impact the region later today and be the focus of our severe threat, but it is unclear how well it'll hold together when it arrives this afternoon. Otherwise, there are more uncertainties with storm chances moving forward into Sunday. The cold front looks to stall across our southern counties and even attempt to lift back to the north. There is the possibility that another complex of storms will move through sometime t...

Higher home prices, low poverty rates correlate with greater housing instability, study finds

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

Mike Johnston, Denver’s new mayor, declared a homelessness emergency on his first day in office and set a goal of housing 1,000 people living without shelter in the city by the end of the year.“We know it’s a crisis that has an impact on our economic recovery, it has an impact on public safety,” Johnston said Thursday, calling the issue a moral crisis during the “State of the City” luncheon held by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.Mayors of Aurora, Boulder and Colorado Springs joined him on stage in calling homelessness a top priority of their administrations, although they haven’t moved as forcefully as Johnston.“We must solve these problems. Housing is the biggest issue,” said newly elected Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade, who is studying ways to bring more efficient home construction into the city and looking into what steps Johnston and other mayors in the state are taking.Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said his city has outrea...

Air taxis, hyped for years, may finally arrive by 2028

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

For years, flying taxis have represented an exciting but distant dream, fueled in part by industry hype. Now they have a rollout plan and a target arrival date: 2028.In a document published on Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration outlined the steps that it and others need to take to usher in a competitive air taxi market in at least one location by 2028 with limited operations starting as early as 2025. The vehicles look like small airplanes or helicopters and can take off and land vertically, allowing them to operate from the middle of cities, whisking people to airports or vacation destinations like the Hamptons in New York or Cape Cod in Massachusetts.The FAA’s plan is notable because it reflects confidence that the technology is only a few years away, and because it comes from the agency that will oversee certification of the aircraft as well as the rules that pilots and companies must follow.“These things will be coming on the scene, and our job is to try and be ahead o...

Encountering the infuriating, overwhelming and unwanted smart tech in my hotel room

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

At my boutique hotel high in the Swiss Alps, I returned from dinner, jet lagged and a tad tipsy, to discover that a television set inside a bathroom mirror had been turned on during turndown service. I pressed all of the buttons on the wall panel and then tried the switches on a control box next to the bed. Nothing.Since I could not locate anything resembling a telephone in the room (remember, I was tipsy), I hoofed it to the lobby and returned with a receptionist to power down my “smart mirror.” Twenty minutes later, already in my pajamas, I encountered a new challenge: No switch I turned, no knob I twisted would kill the bathroom lights. I closed the door, affixed a face mask over my eyes and made do.These days, it’s all about making do when I’m greeted by the glut of smart technology in hotel rooms. Voice-activated lights. Chatbot concierges. QR codes on television sets. Mobile browser or app check-ins. Texting the valet for my car. Don’t even get me started with motorized drapes...

Borenstein: Oakland crime surges way beyond San Jose and SF levels

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:38:46 GMT

Crime rates are surging in Oakland this year, police are badly understaffed, and response times to critical calls are pathetically slow, making the city an increasingly dangerous place to live.From Jan. 1 to July 23 this year, violent crime in the city is up 15% over the same period last year, and property crime has increased 28%. Don’t count on a cop to show up in a timely fashion in an emergency. If it’s not an immediate crisis, the wait can be hours or an entire day.Even before this year’s crime surge, of the three most-populated cities in the Bay Area, Oakland crime on a per-capita basis far exceeded that of San Jose and San Francisco. Now, the difference is getting worse.Population-adjusted data so far for 2023 shows that people are 2½ times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime in Oakland than in San Francisco and three times more likely than in San Jose.Property crimes are similarly disproportionate in Oakland — 1.7 times more likely to victimize someone there t...